PlayStation VR gets a ‘demo disc’ with nine games on it

PlayStation VR now has a “demo disc” offering previews of nine virtual reality games — some of them pretty good! — available through the PlayStation Store. It doesn’t get you 500 free hours of AOL, but it does give you some time with Superhot VR and Astro Bot Rescue Mission.

The free 12 GB download includes those two games, plus Battlezone, Headmaster, Job Simulator, Moss, Kitchen, The Persistence and Thumper. A PlayStation VR rig (with the PlayStation Camera) is needed; PlayStation Move controllers are optional.

We recommended Astro Bot Rescue Mission when it launched in October, calling it PSVR’s killer app while lamenting the reality that it was well overshadowed by bigger launches in the fall release window. We’ve been sweet on Superhot, VR or standard, since its concept emerged from a 2013 game jam.

Headmaster is a soccer minigame where the player launches headers at targets arrayed in and around a goal. Battlezone, from Rebellion Developments, is a remaster of the 1998 game, with VR support. Both were included on an actual physical demo disc packed with PlayStation VR when the headset launched in 2016.

Virtual reality, overall, had a sedate 2018, so if your PSVR unit has been collecting dust without new games for a while, this demo disc could be a nice chaser for all of the mega-experiences that have launched over the past four months.