 Virtual reality has been in a weird spot. From the fact that it's difficult to convince people it's awesome without real hands-on time, along with the cost of high-end VR headsets, to the fact that while there are cool experiences, the basic versions most people have tried, like the Gear VR, frankly aren't that great. And even at the high-end, where the experience is much better, there aren't exactly a ton of killer apps. Enter the PlayStation VR, Sony's solution that sits squarely in between putting your phone into a folded piece of cardboard and dropping over $1,500 on a VR PC gaming solution. Massdrop has teamed up with Sennheiser to bring you their all-new HD 6XX headphones. Check them out in the link below. The PSVR at $500 for the whole kit, or $400 if you already have the camera and move controllers, is cheaper than both the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift. But the big kicker here, maybe not for you and for me, but for the gaming consumer base as a whole, is that it works with the PlayStation 4, which has sold over 40 million units in the last three years, making it the most popular current generation console, and therefore inherently more likely a Christmas present for holiday shoppers this year. Let's start with the headset itself. It is the heaviest of the current major VR headsets, but it makes up for it with some awesome mounting implementation. It feels more like you're just naturally putting on a helmet or a hat due to the automatically retracting plastic strap that is fixed around your head. To tighten things up, you can use the dial on the back, and there's a release button as well for, uh, emergencies. The tether has inline controls for volume, mic mute, and most importantly, power, along with a headphone jack on the side. These little tweaks improve ease of use more than you might expect, though it's not the first time the PC solution has felt more designed by engineers for engineers compared to the console one. The only downside here is that these little features add a little bit more weight to the cable, increasing the anchor effect that it creates. Not a huge deal, but noticeable after a while of being immersed in VR. As far as the screen goes, it's a lower resolution than the Rift and Vive with a single 1080p panel. Not one screen for each eye like the others, but it must be noted that this is an OLED panel, meaning that while you'll definitely notice jaggies or aliasing, the screen door effect, the black lines between pixels, is noticeable, but not nearly as prominent as you might think given the difference in panel resolution. I would say the screen is really solid overall. Moving on. You don't need the PlayStation Move controllers. You can just use the PlayStation Gamepad, and for most things that's gonna be fine. They can even track in VR thanks to the light that's on the back of it, and it can be used for some basic in-game hand presence. That being said, there are experiences that really do need them, and having individual hand tracking definitely boosts your immersion. It's a shame, however, that they haven't made any improvements since the Move's original release in 2010 as an accessory for the PlayStation 3. They're just so far behind the hand controllers for the Vive and Rift, not only in ergonomic design, the shape and button placement, but in terms of tracking. The tracking of all these items, including the headset, isn't great. In my testing, I did encounter some jittering and a few tracking issues, but it wasn't that bad overall. But that being said, Nick Light and Colton Potter had motion sickness that left them queasy after about 40 minutes of using it. This is a Your Mileage May Vary type of thing, however, so it may be not as bad for you, or it could be worse. All of that being said, you can help the tracking along. You simply need to dim the lights, or even better yet, turn them off altogether. This will help the PlayStation camera track the LEDs on your gear. The brighter the room, the worse the tracking will be. These things are very dependent. If you want the best tracking experience, play in a very dark room. And then we have the Ever Misunderstood Breakout Box. I want to set the record straight here. The box is not responsible for asynchronous time warp or reprojection or anything like that. The PS4 handles reprojection itself. What the Breakout Box does is grab sensor data, manage 3D audio, and split the image. All of which is good and useful. There just seemed to be a lot of people who thought it was doing something else. Finally, we get to the experiences and how it all comes together. Stuff like Batman Arkham VR is great, but it only lasts for about an hour. Sony's ownership of IP like this gives them a ton of options for the future, but right now I really don't feel like they're using it to its full potential. Go further with it. Make an awesome Batman game that makes people really want to come to the platform. Make it go a lot deeper than just pointing at things and holding a button. And I know looking at yourself in the mirror as Batman and going, I'm Batman over and over again is amazing. But when that's all the depth to the game, I want more. Overall, the system could be described as good enough. At least for what they're trying to do. If you already own a PlayStation 4, the cost might not be an insurmountable obstacle, especially if your little sister already talked you into buying a PlayStation camera and Move controllers. That would be helpful. The experience is not as mind-blowing as the Vive or the Rift, but the cost is proportionately lower. But thanks to its ability to project the TV natively, automatically from the box right away, others in the room can have fun along with you, which is great. You can also accept any HDMI input and its potential for more immersive experiences with superior head tracking, given appropriate lighting compared to like a Gear VR or something like that. It's pretty cool. If you already own a PlayStation 4 and you're looking for something new to try, I don't think the price is unreasonable. So maybe it's something to consider. The ChefSteps Joule is a sous vide tool that helps you cook perfect food every time without the stress. By cooking at a precise temperature, you cannot over or under cook your food, which makes cooking things like fish, chicken and even steaks a breeze. To use it, place your meat or fish in a normal Ziploc freezer bag and seal it with all the seasonings that you'd like inside. Fill the pot with water and then place the Joule in the pot. Open up the Joule app on your phone and select what you're cooking and how you want it cooked. My favorite feature that the Joule has is visual doneness, which makes this that you can see exactly what the meat will look like when cut open at all of the various temperatures, which is really helpful even if you are a very skilled cook. The Joule is available now for holiday gifting. Check it out in the link below. Alright guys, thanks for watching this video. Like it if you liked it, dislike if you disliked it, get subscribed, all that kind of fun stuff. I know it's a VR headset for a console and most of you guys are PC guys and I am too, but it is cool to see the whole spectrum of devices as they come along and it is exciting because it's actually not that bad. And having actually not that bad be a thing in VR and hopefully more people buy it, that could bring more development costs to like PC. I don't know, it could work out in the end. If you want to discuss all the things I said and debate consoles versus PCs, hopefully non-aggressively, you can go to the forum link in the video description down below. While you're there, check out the link for the shirts and stuff that are here. If you want to buy a PSVR or something like that, there's also an Amazon link for you as well. If you'd like to see another video on the HTC Vive or the HTC Vive versus Oculus Rift video or the Oculus Rift video itself or whatever Taron decides to put here, you can click on that and yeah, I'll see you next time.