VR Gaming Is Trying to Win Us Over With Musical Cheeseburgers

  I’ve said it so many times, I’ve worn my typing finger down to a sad, bloody stump. But hell, I’m a stubborn old bastard, I stick to my guns, and I whine on and on like the gamer I am. It’s just what we do. So here it is again: I’m not entirely convinced by this VR gaming business.  

We’ve all seen technology for the sake of it. As good ol’ Doctor Malcolm said in Jurassic Park, ‘your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.’ You don’t need to have hungry raptors chewing on your scrote to see what he was getting at: We don’t need lame-ass gimmickry or shoehorned-in VR just because developers want to jump on the bandwagon.

Oculus Rift’s launch was pretty darn important for getting us all on board with the whole idea, and it was screwed up pretty darn bad. I was close to dismissing the entire concept of VR gaming, until I saw the headline ‘Watch Us Play A VR Game About Musical Cheeseburgers.’ That’s a curiosity piquer if ever I’ve seen one right there.

Now, if you could see my ass sagging over my chair here, you’d know what a big cheeseburger fan I am. So that’s a point in its favour. But then you look a little closer at HTC Vive’s freshly-released Playthings:

‘Playthings is a tropical island “music playground” for the HTC Vive. In it, players’ instruments are a feast of cheeseburgers, cupcakes, gummy bears and hot dogs, floating around a rainbow candyland. When hit with Vive’s mallets, they emit relaxing xylophone sounds. The mallets can also transform into tongs, with which players can play with their food.’

Yup, it’s another of those shallow, tech demo-type experiences. But did I mention the musical cheeseburgers?