Microsoft’s Project X-Ray VR Gaming on HoloLens Is the Video Game Future We Were Always Promised

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Microsoft’s HoloLens headset has looked impressive—if only one impressive entry in a current flood of VR headsets—since it was announced, but this new game demo from their October 2015 announcement-fest is the video game experience we’ve been promised since the days of Pong. You know, the one that’s been just around the corner since the mid ’80s and somehow never seems to materialize?

Microsoft isn’t even the only company working on such a game, but we’ve been skeptical of past “demonstrations” that appeared to just be mockups of a potential product. That was the case with Magic Leap, which was strikingly similar to what we’re seeing from HoloLens in this demo, but the difference is that the tech Microsoft shows here is actually functioning in real time. No more empty promises—right there, on the screen, is a person actually playing a virtual reality game that adapts to its surroundings.

The game’s tech identifies surfaces like walls and furniture to allow an angry alien horde to burst into whatever very real location you’re in, and it’s up to you to mow them down. According to the demo, they’ll take the layout of the room into account and strategize, so you’ll really get the feeling you’re fighting them out of your own home, office, blanket fort, or wherever.

Oh, and the headset plays the game completely untethered with no wires necessary, so you can move around freely and blast aliens completely unfettered—the way God intended. Getting the game into your home is still a ways off, with the HoloLens Developer Edition shipping out developers in the beginning of 2016, but this time the future really is lurking just around the corner, and that future apparently looks like a giant robot spider.

(via Gizmodo)

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Dan Van Winkle
Dan Van Winkle (he) is an editor and manager who has been working in digital media since 2013, first at now-defunct Geekosystem (RIP), and then at The Mary Sue starting in 2014, specializing in gaming, science, and technology. Outside of his professional experience, he has been active in video game modding and development as a hobby for many years. He lives in North Carolina with Lisa Brown (his wife) and Liz Lemon (their dog), both of whom are the best, and you will regret challenging him at Smash Bros.