VIDEO: Digital thrills at the VR-cade

Friday 13 October 2017

If you’ve ever dreamed of flying a fighter jet, racing down formula one tracks or even battling a crowd of creepy zombies, then your dreams could be set to come true next month.

Virtuality Jersey – a dedicated virtual reality gaming centre based at La Colomberie – is due to open this November, offering islanders immersive experiences in previously untouchable worlds.

The first of its kind to hit the Channel Islands, it aims to be a modern update to the classic arcade with more choice and more immersion spread across six custom-built suites for both fully-fledged gamers and tentative first-time VR users alike.

Two of the rooms will be driver-focused with a formula one and rally car experience, while another two will let islanders take to the virtual skies either as a passenger jet pilot or a Top Gun-style fighter jet flyer.

Video: Ever dreamed of being part of the Top Gun team? Now's your chance...

Carl Gallie, one of the team’s VR instructors, told Express: “We’re going to have simulators set up with seats, motion platforms. There’ll be actual cockpits ready for them, as well as pedals and wheels for some of the cars, and joysticks and rudders and thrust throttles for the planes. We’re going for a realistic approach into them to give [customers] a realistic experience. The VR can only do one thing, which is take away your sense of sight, but if we can give the sense of touch as well, it makes it an even bigger experience.”

The remaining pair of rooms – both dedicated VR libraries – will hold dozens of games for islanders to pick and choose from to be used in conjunction with the HTC Vive or Playstation VR headsets.

They span pool games to motor racing, and even exploring faraway lands from landmarks like the Eiffel Tower to a host sweeping natural landscapes.

All of the games have been hand-selected by a bunch of keen gamers who are thoroughly clued up in the ways of VR and what’s hot and not on the gaming scene. They’ll be on hand to make recommendations and help people with the equipment as they make their first steps into VR.

Video: Virtuality will allow islanders to put themselves in the driver's seat of a formula one car.

“We do a lot of research, and have the biggest game library in Jersey. Don’t be surprised – we do know at least a little bit about every game. We spend days in our own time and work time to find out and learn about the games,” Carl added.

Virtuality is the brainchild of the team behind Jersey’s Game Changer store, and has been a long time in the making. Two years have gone into building up the expertise, sourcing the right games and setting up the rooms in the former Trek Plus store to host their digital thrills. There have been a few knockbacks – “there was an issue with some of the plumbing and there was a bit of a flood which delayed us” – but the team are now keener than ever to get going. They say it’s the right time for Jersey to be embracing VR, and they’re ready to help the island ride that curve.

“Setting up the rooms, watching it all start smoothly working together – it’s been really quite an experience.

“VR is such a great thing and it’s got a lot of hype, but people aren’t really investing as much as they should because I think I don’t know why, it’s maybe because they think there isn’t that many games or they’re worried that it’s not going to work properly. Once we get it set up and running, we’re hoping to really do it right because Jersey really needs something like this… Hopefully it will bring up that hype and make people start to realise that VR is the way forward. It will change people’s lives very slowly – you can already see it.”
 

Pictured: VR has so much potential, Carl says, and the Virtuality team want to help Jersey embrace that.

They hope that hype will extend beyond just the gaming crowd into the world of events and stag and hen parties, and even members of the corporate sphere looking to “infuse business with pleasure.”

“You could use that place to have a bit of fun and talk about business too. We’ll have caterers as well to give refreshments. For parties too, there’s the option to rent the whole area and having that private lounge gives you the ability to see what people’s lap times are on games, or if you want to do your in-house tournament or competition you could,” Carl added.

So what VR games would he recommend?

Horror fans should embrace the VR iteration of the Resident Evil series – a zombie killing classic, which has been going since the days of Playstation 1. The plot kicks off with a wife telling her husband (the player), “Don’t come find me” after being away for years. “Obviously he does go down to try and find her, and gets himself into more than he bargained for – it’s really quite creepy.”

Video: It's not all about gaming - you can step inside an unusual music video, where the world around you reacts to music in 'Surge'.

But the thrills of that game come from the first-person perspective and the high levels of detail, Carl says. “They were the first ones to make a VR game, which is completely story-based. A lot of games before that were very short demo kind of experiences… It looks stunning – you can even see the moisture.”

If zombies are your flavour, then another top choice is the Brookhaven Experiment – a survival game. 

But the team are also keen to embrace the indie scene. Players can put themselves in the centre of an unusual music video in ‘Surge’. “It uses music to tell a story. Every time it makes a noise, a big block will appear, and it starts bouncing around and it will make a tune. And then the next thing you see this massive legs appearing above you – almost like Pink Floyd ‘Another Brick in the Wall’.”

But, as will all virtual reality, “it’s really something you have to try yourself and see.”