Speaking of Kickstarter, 2014 was the year that one of the most successful gaming campaigns from the site finally came good. Sort of. The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset has inspired countless hilarious YouTube videos of people falling over whilst thinking they're really on rollercoasters, but the company has yet to actually produce commercially available versions of their hardware. And it's going to be a few years still, apparently, since they've been snapped up by Facebook and the future of the company seems uncertain. The hype that surrounded the Oculus during its funding period and long after has inspired other gaming companies, with Sony developing their Morpheus headset since March and Microsoft recently announcing their own similar project. The thing is, virtual reality is a gimmick that's been around since the eighties. It's become something of a cliché of cheesy, bad sci-fi stories where naïve young players get trapped in the digital realm. The reason it's never taken off, despite the basic technology having existed for a couple of decades, is because it's always been a bit naff. So expect 2015 to be the year that we're all convinced virtual reality is actually an innovative, exciting new way to play games...or else for it to fall flat on its face and all of these things to get quietly swept under the rug.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
