I rode World of Warcraft VR at Gamescom and it was wild

Wandering around the vast expanse of Microsoft’s hilariously named “booth” at this year’s Gamescom, there was a lot to see. A large Space Marine towers over the crowd of journalists, next to a huge, flag-strewn cast-stone hut where half-hourly demonstrations of Obsidian’s upcoming role-playing game are held. Confessors. There is the theater-sized temple where we saw Indy punching Nazis in the nose in Indian Jones and the Great Circleand spooky neon-colored Xbox-themed counters. But in the middle of it all, I saw something very strange: a large area with just a few people sitting on what looked like giant motorcycles. They were wearing VR helmets and were laughing or wide-eyed with fear.

As it turned out, Blizzard was advertising World of Warcraftnew extension of, The war withinwhich will be released on August 27. The game, which will surely be widely known as WoWWWwas not shown on monitors so that people could experience a part of it, but was offered as a fleet of VR experiences. I was secure There was no VR version of Wowso what on earth was it? Of course I went in. There wasn’t even a line.

It was fucking fantastic. It was called Escape From Dalaran and it was also by far the most extravagant waste of money promoting a game everyone already knows that I have seen in an unfortunate trip to Poland for Call of Duty II. I can’t imagine how much it must have cost to offer visitors to a games conference in Cologne something that doesn’t represent the game at all. But I digress.

To begin with, I climbed onto the huge machine – one of maybe twenty in the cordoned off area of ​​Hall 7 – and nervously wondered where to put my hands. In front of me was a huge pile of smooth, padded padding with metal bars on either side. It felt silly to be holding onto something so low, like I was preparing to stick my head down and plow through a wall. I put the VR hat on and the extremely nice and slightly confused employee surreptitiously put headphones on me without me even noticing. After a strangely long loading screen, I sat on the back of one of the Wow‘s dragon-like mounts.

The next few minutes were filled with non-stop euphoria as I plunged, climbed, weaved and tumbled through an epic battle in Azeroth while buildings collapsed around me, until my companion and I, in desperation, jumped through a portal and found ourselves in The war within‘s Nerubian Empire. And things only got more hectic.

At this point, the world’s inhabitants were not at all pleased with our arrival and a completely improbable number of enemies rose to attack. We were doomed and my steed was suddenly snatched from me, leaving me alone. However, a very angry lady with floating magic balls over her shoulders trapped me in a bubble and spoke very sternly about how disappointed she was. And then it was over.

Additionally, it filmed me from the outside and then created a mixed media video of the event so the world can enjoy my wobbly belly flapping through my t-shirt in the strong breeze.

What that description doesn’t convey is how violently I was thrown around by the whole thing. At one point I tipped so far to the side that I had to hold on with my hands and thighs. And those falls – good God, I know it was 90 percent a trick of the mind, the slight incline of the ride amplified by the all-sensory nature of virtual reality, but it was spectacular. And I say all of this as a VR skeptic who rarely gets on board with the face-melting format.

But… what was it for? This thing not only threw me around like a bucking wild horse, but also blew air into my face and around me, perfectly timed to the dives and glides to underline the feeling of charging forward, a Experience that must have been like seeing Twisters in 4DX. But this whole sequence was certainly built just for this one experience, and there isn’t even a Blizzcon this year! It’s not like it was made for that, and we got a preview! Heck, the game comes out on August 27th, less than a week before all that, which makes it almost immediately obsolete.

I had a great time. I’m pleased that someone decided to spend must Millions just so that I and the visitors to Gamescom could go on such a silly, exorbitant and completely pointless ride just to remind us all that the most famous game in the world still exists. “That must have cost a fortune!” I said to the salesman as I got out. “Crazy!” he replied.

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