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" There was a moment during our brief experience with the new Oculus Rift &amp;#039;Crystal Cove&amp;#039; prototype that our brain genuinely started to believe we were inside the game. So accurate is the motion tracking and so believable is the 3D that you genuinely start to feel like the real world has fallen away, only to be replaced by that of the virtual. Oculus Rift is pegged as the next big thing in gaming. A wearable virtual reality headset like no other, it combines an ultra-wide field of vision with highly accurate 3D and unnervingly accurate motion tracking. Crystal Cove is the latest prototype in the Oculus Rift line up. Unlike those before it, this is a much closer to retail device, with proper fit and finish and none of the exposed wires and cabling seen on previous instalments. The biggest change however is the unit&amp;#039;s ability to track not only left and right head movements, but also when you lean. Also new is proper 1080p crosstalk-free 3D, which brings the image that the Rift puts out on par with your standard living room television. Previous development versions boasted 720p displays.  It might seem like a small improvement, but the new more accurate motion tracking with Crystal Cove actually makes a huge difference. Virtual Reality is all about believability, so even the smallest change can make a big difference in tricking your brain into believing the virtual is real. With Crystal Cove, a camera mounted in front of the head unit tracks its position and then relays that into movements in the game. This used to be just the direction you moved your head, but now the direction you lean your body is also relayed into the game. Of the two Oculus Rift demos on show, this new function made the biggest change with the Unreal Engine 4 demo. The demo places you in a big lava filled room with Dungeon Keeper-style minions wandering about below. It&amp;#039;s impressive to be able to turn your head around and see the complete 360 degree virtual reality. But what&amp;#039;s even more amazing, and new to Crystal Cove, is being able to lean forward and see everything below. The end result is a virtual reality experience that feels just that bit more complete.   Further adding to the usability is how comfortable the new unit is. It isn&amp;#039;t hugely heavy and is compact enough that you could keep it sat on your head for a lengthy play session. We also played with Crystal Cove while wearing glasses, which didn&amp;#039;t cause many issues. Oculus had two demos on show, the Unreal Engine 4 setup we already mentioned and a more complex and properly playable Eve Valkyrie demo. This involved using an Xbox 360 controller paired up with Oculus Rift. You could aim missiles by simply looking at enemies in the game, but they were fired using the LB button on the Xbox 360 controller. It&amp;#039;s a nice way of combining two different control methods and a hint at what possibilities could be in store for Oculus Rift later. The rate at which Oculus Rift is growing is certainly impressive, and to see a unit so refined after just a year of the company unveiling its intentions at CES, even more so. It clearly isn&amp;#039;t long before Rift makes its way onto the high street and we just can&amp;#039;t wait. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a543250/ces-2014-oculus-rift-crystal-cove-hands-on-the-next-big-thing/>