The future of fitness might be a VR-friendly exercise bike

To the casual observer, my morning with VR startup VirZoom was spent peddling like a madman with an Oculus Rift strapped to my face. My experience was a little different; far as I was concerned, I was atop a majestic Pegasus snagging coins out of trees in a verdant valley. The folks at VirZoom believe virtual reality doesn’t have to be experienced on foot or on a couch, so they’ve made a $249 stationary bike (now up for pre-order) to help make exercising less tedious and more awesome.Slideshow-349083

The Massachusetts-based team has been at this for a while; they showed off a prototype at this year’s E3 that put users on an actual road bike. The plan at the time was to build a sort of modular, bring-your-own-bike system, leaving users to steer around virtual worlds by turning the handlebars. Eventually, though, the team ditched all of that and built a custom stationary bike laden with sensors and buttons and thumbsticks on the handlebars. That modularity angle still sort of exists, though: VirZoom’s software plays nice with the Rift, along with Sony’s as-yet-unreleased PlayStation VR headset (which sadly wasn’t working when I went to play with it). They even claim compatibility for HTC’s Vive and its room-scale approach to VR, though we’re not getting our hands on that anytime soon.

So, how does all of this actually work? Once you’re strapped into a headset and seated on the bike, you’ll spend most of your time leaning from side-to-side to navigate menus and peddling to jump into games. Speaking of, the software line-up is pretty limited so far — the launch bundle comes with five games, and you’ll have to pay $9.99 a month to access your fitness data, multiplayer modes and updates for those existing games. The first month of that Plus subscription services comes free and you’ll almost certainly need it, too. The pack-in games, while surprisingly immersive, feel more like quick, arcade-y hits than anything else.

Consider Pegaso, the game I spent the most time with. Leaning my body left and right steered my winged steed and pumping the bikes pedals enough made it leap and soar through the air. Cruising at high altitudes over a valley felt amazing (even though I was damned sweaty at that point), and slowing down to drop into the treetops and snag a coin quickly became second nature. That’s it as far as gameplay, though — it’s pure time attack, leaving you to collect coins and apples to prolong your flight time until you get tired of it. Another pack-in game has you astride an earthbound horse, racing down the dusty roads of a frontier town lassoing bandits.

This one’s a little more complex and makes use of the handlebar buttons to snag varmints who keep getting faster and faster. Make no mistake: at higher levels (or with the bike’s tension turned up), you’ll be drenched. Slightly bored after a while, but drenched. Co-founder CEO Eric Janszen was quick to point out that games can be created widely used Unity engine, and that there are already a few other titles in the works.

While generally pretty neat, VirZoom’s method of motion tracking isn’t ideal for every situation. One of the launch titles puts you in the driver’s seat of a high-performance car on a loopy track; leaning side-to-side steers the car while a button on the handlebars switches gears. If that sounds like no car you’ve ever driven, well, you’re in good company. The fun of lead-footed starts off the line soon gave way to physical confusion — my big clumsy head and the camera tracking its motion didn’t come close to replicating the precision of a steering wheel, or even a traditional handheld controller.

So yes, the VirZoom setup is far from perfect. It is, however, a surprisingly effective way to make exercise feel like anything but. I’ll report back once final units start shipping to the masses, but those of you mulling a purchase might want to take the plunge soon — the first 300 bikes are going for $199 instead.

Paid ‘Destiny’ level boosts promote progression over experience

When developers Bungie and Activision released their biggest-ever paid Destiny expansion, The Taken King, it signalled a return to everything that made the game great. It appeared that both companies had addressed nearly all of the suggestions the Destiny player base had put forward, which included the re-introduction of the all-important six-player raid.

Since the expansion’s debut in September, however, Bungie has also slowly introduced additional, paid mechanics. So far, they’ve been designed to augment players’ characters but not detrimentally affect gameplay for those who choose not to buy them. But as Christmas approaches, new upgrades have hit stores, and the Destiny community is up in arms about them.

The items in question are Level 25 Upgrade Packs: $30 (£25) digital add-ons that can be applied to any Destiny character class (Hunter/Titan/Warlock) to instantly level them to Level 25. The Taken King lets players to rank their characters up to Level 40 and continue building them up by increasing Light levels via armor and weapon upgrades.

Bungie included one of these level boosts for free, called a Spark of Light, if you bought The Taken King: Legendary Edition. It was basically there for people who had completed the previous Destiny expansions with one character and wanted to rank another of their alternative classes quickly in order to better tackle end-game content.

With The Dark Below, House of Wolves and The Taken King expansions now awaiting new players, it’s likely that Destiny will see a healthy boost in sales ahead of Christmas. Bungie believes that some will want to forgo the grind and pay more money to bypass some of the early content. If you bear in mind that The Taken King, which includes all of the previous expansions, currently costs $30 at some retailers, new players will effectively be buying the game twice to activate a one-time level-up.

There is a reason for the cost, though. If the upgrade is priced too low, lots of people will buy it and the players who properly leveled their characters would feel shortchanged. With a high price, it will likely be reserved for day-one Destiny players who no longer have the time or inclination to play through the earlier content again, or newbies who no idea what they’re doing.

If new Destiny players decide they want to pay to level, they’re not only losing out on the fun, but Bungie is basically saying that it’s cool not to go back and play through earlier parts of the story. Granted, the first year of Destiny lacked direction and an overall narrative, but if you wanted the best directional jump, maximum agility and shorter recharges for your super ability, playing the early-game content was how you opened them up. Instantly ranking to Level 25 gives you subclass infusions and telemetries, so there’s no need to play the whole thing through.

Bungie recently reduced the amount of XP that players earn from Weekly Nightfalls and bounties. That makes levelling characters slower, which in turn leads gamers to question developer intentions. When a paid upgrade for quick progression suddenly appears after the speed of progression is slowed down, you can understand why.

With no major expansions on the horizon, Bungie and Activision need a way to keep Destiny gamers active while they work on future updates. Sparrow racing and free timed events are likely to replace paid upgrades, so they’ll need to recoup money elsewhere. Microtransactions help, but so do costly level boosts that incentivize players who value progression over experience.

Via: US Gamer

Source: Xbox.com, PlayStation Store