EVE Valkyrie Will Be Bundled With Oculus Rift Pre-Orders

Pip played EVE Valkyrie [official site] earlier this week, getting to grips with the virtual reality space shooter in its near-to-final form. You can read what she thought right now. But alongside the impressions is news that a copy of Valkyrie is being included with every pre-order of the Oculus Rift.

"EVE: Valkyrie is one of the most anticipated virtual reality games," said Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus, for the purposes of adding weight to this announcement. "It perfectly captures the promise of immersive gaming, shooting you into a sci-fi adventure as you pilot a spaceship in search of combat. Battling your friends (and enemies) in multiplayer space dogfights is the ultimate VR thrill, and we’re excited to partner with CCP to bring this experience to Rift owners everywhere."

For a less partial opinion of the game, here's part of what Pip says in her impressions piece:

Prevarication is something I want to be careful about because I don't want it to be read as a lack of enthusiasm for the game. Valkyrie looks fantastic but I wasn't excited when I played that day. I've been thinking about why that might be. The feeling I was having was one I know from other team-based games. Getting killed over and over is simply not much fun. Our side of the fight was the losing side and I could feel that frustration I associate with MOBAs where your team is getting trampled or has fallen behind or where you yourself feel like you're playing terribly. Getting a kill or a killstreak feels amazing in games like this. Being on the receiving end of someone else's killstreak, not so much.

I've played around with the Oculus Rift a lot, and a little with the Vive, and I'm fairly convinced of the potential for virtual reality to bolster certain kinds of games. I'm yet to be convinced by many of the specific games in development for either platform, however. There are a lot of fancy, awe-inspiring demos which take five minutes to impress you and then end, but only two games have thus far felt to me like they'd survive larger experiences. EVE Valkyrie is one, so it makes sense to me that Oculus - who are also publishing the game - would want to include it in the box.

More VR-focused games will of course come with time, but for now it feels like there aren't enough announced to make the difference between 'I believe in VR tech' and 'I am buying a piece of VR tech.'