This is the Call of Duty PlayStation VR experience that lets you feel what its like to pilot a personal fighter jet in space. Coming to PS4 later this year.
Activision’s much anticipated Call of Duty XP event has returned Friday at the Forum stadium in Los Angeles. The second “non-annual” fan conference is expected to bring in huge crowds, all looking to get hands-on with new content from Modern Warfare Remastered, Black Ops III and Infinite Warfare.
But there is one demo that many in the CoD community might not be expecting to also take for a spin. The publisher is bringing an exclusive PlayStation VR experience built just for the Call of Duty XP event. The VR demos are setup in three large shipping containers, filled with rows of immersive “cockpit” stations that anyone can try their hand at piloting an advanced space combat ready jet-fighter, better known as the Jackal.
The virtual reality tie-in was developed to promote the next game in the series, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, which for the first time has air and space combat as a key aspect of the game’s campaign.
The Jackal VR experience was developed in partnership with Infinity Ward and VR developer Paper Crane Games, with both teams working together to take assets straight from the main game and bring them to life in this immersive demo.
“The jackal is a massive part of the game, so it made perfect sense to be a part of our VR experience,” Marcus Iremonger, Senior Executive Producer at Activision, told us during a press event on Thursday.
And in many ways, this Jackal VR experience is more intuitive than the 2D version of the space combat gameplay. The first advantage of flight simulator experiences in VR is that you’re able to achieve a real HUD that is floating in 3D space, something that couldn’t normally be achieved on a flat screen. The second big benefit of VR comes from the unique ability to track your head, making the entire experience significantly more intuitive as you actually look to target missile lock instead of moving around a joystick.
The whole idea behind Call of Duty XP was to bring the franchise to life and make it immersive for fans. From the physical recreation of Nuketown into a full-fledged paintball arena, zombie laser tag, or even zip-lining high over the parking lot of the stadium, it only made sense that this year, virtual reality would be the ideal way to bring to life Jackal combat missions.
Update: For those you not attending the sold out Call of Duty XP event in Los Angeles this weekend but hoping to get your hands on this PSVR Jackal game demo — you may be in luck. Activision told VRScout that Jackal Assault, the first-ever Call of Duty PlayStation VR experience, will be offered later this year to Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare players on PS4 as a free, added bonus.
