Borderlands 2 VR is off to a rough start on PC
Early adopters report major issues with common headsets.
Borderlands 3 might be the talk of the town in looter-shooter circles, but Gearbox are taking Borderlands 2 out for one last victory lap on PC with Borderlands 2 VR, released today. Originally a PlayStation VR game, it has made its way back to PC as a full-priced re-release (comparable to Fallout 4 and Skyrim's VR ports) letting you play through the entirety of the RPG shooter in virtual reality, minus multiplayer support.
At least, that's what it should do, but if you don't have an Oculus Rift S or similar you might have a rough time, as owners of other headsets are reporting issues with the game at the moment.
Initial Steam user reviews for the game are pretty rough, clocking it at a mere 45% positive at the moment. This seems mostly due to image scaling and controller position problems with a variety of VR setups. VR enthusiast YouTubers Cas & Chary tried the game out with five different headsets and reported that on most (even Valve's own Index headset) the world felt wildly out-of-scale and weapons didn't seem to be correctly positioned relative to the controllers. The latter issue can be corrected using the in-game configuration panels, but the former will need patching.
I shudder to think what would happen if I used my jury-rigged setup (wirelessly streaming from my PC to an Oculus Quest headset, which won't officially support PC connections until November), so I think I'll be keeping my distance from this one for now. A pity, as I've been on a bit of a VR kick in recent weeks, and Borderlands' cel-shaded aesthetic seems a good fit for virtual reality.
Borderlands 2 VR is out now on PC, and costs a hefty £39.99/€49.99/$49.99 on Steam, with no discount for owners of the original version. At least they're including all the DLC (minus the newly released bit that bridges into Borderlands 3) in that price.
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The product of a wasted youth, wasted prime and getting into wasted middle age, Dominic Tarason is a freelance writer, occasional indie PR guy and professional techno-hermit seen in many strange corners of the internet and seldom in reality. Based deep in the Welsh hinterlands where no food delivery dares to go, videogames provide a gritty, realistic escape from the idyllic views and fresh country air. If you're looking for something new and potentially very weird to play, feel free to poke him on Twitter. He's almost sociable, most of the time.
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