I’ve talked at length about how I haven’t been impressed when VR is shoehorned into traditional games with traditional mechanics, but rather how I’m impressed when VR exists in interactive, experiential bites. Hell, even at this year’s CES, I fell for the Samsung/Marvel VR demo , and that was little more than puttering around Stark Tower and feeling like you were truly a part of the space.

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Well, just a few days after Marvel I had another VR-epiphany in the form of the Oculus Rift Crescent Bay. One of Oculus’ latest prototype, it surpasses the DK2 that we’ve written about many times by offering positional surround sound, 360 degree head tracking, and some of the clearest visuals I’ve ever seen on a VR headset. This demo isn’t new -- we covered the same thing back in September . But despite that, I felt/feel/will continue to feel the need to talk about my six and a half minutes inside of Crescent Bay. I don’t want to sound hyperbolic, but those 390 seconds may have made me a believer in VR.The demo, which consisted of 10 short vignettes, began in what felt like the engine room of a banged-up, but reliable spaceship. The VR rig I had allowed me to physically walk around a small, roughly 3ft by 3ft space, which would in turn translate into movements inside the world. I could look up, down, under, over, duck down, and jump up, all of which came in handy when various sights and sounds began to envelope me. Gaskets heaved under pressure, pipes were bursting, and machines began whirring. It felt like something bad was about to happen, and thanks to the fantastic 3D sound of the headphones I was wearing, I actually began to get a little nervous.Thankfully, each vignette was short, so before I could get full-on panicked, I found myself whisked away to the next performance. Unfortunately, this one was just as intense. Straight in front of me was a really well-modeled T-Rex. Its body heaved up and down with each massive breath, and its lean muscles bulged out, showing off its raw power. I inched towards it and was pleasantly surprised to see that the dinosaur seemed to get more detailed the closer I got. I had no mode of interactions with the inhabitants of these short experiences, but being able to study each one from every angle for a short period of time proved to be more than enough.With that, I was escorted to the next section, which was one of my favorites of the bunch. Juxtaposed to the realism of the first two exhibits, this one dropped me in the middle of a pastel, voxel-esque forest. A babbling brook to my left, swaying trees to my right, and a crackling fire right in front of me. Warming themselves around the flames were an adorable assortment of foxes, rabbits, and moose (meese? moosi? mooses?). It felt like a more populated version of Proteus, and for the first time in Crescent Bay, I didn’t want to leave. But of course, I wasn’t in control of that, and after 35 seconds, I was ushered away.The next scene was not for those with a fear of heights. I found myself perched on the edge of a skyscraper in some sort of a gothic/steampunk take on Gotham City. Two things were immediately evident in this section. First, I felt tiny amidst the massive buildings that surrounded me. Second, if I peered slightly over the edge in front of me, I was completely convinced that I was moments away from falling to my death. Yes, most of my brain still knew that I was in a small conference room surrounded by my coworkers, but damn if I wasn’t hesitant in taking one more step towards to the edge.The urge to jump faded as the most whimsical chapter of the decalogue took form in front of me. Heavily inspired by Alice in Wonderland, I was in a room that felt fit for the Mad Hatter. Strange chairs, ambient light, and colorful pillows adorned the smoky space. But the highlight here was a large mirror directly in front of me. My body was missing in the reflection, but my head was still there…at least, a version of my head. My head in the mirror would swap between a variety of different objects, the most entertaining of which was a safe peppered with a handful of padlocks. The reflection would move exactly how I moved my own head in real life, and shaking it back and forth caused the locks to rattle around naturally on the box. Above all others, this demo showed the precision of the motion tracking in this version of the Oculus Rift.From this rabbit hole, I was quickly escorted to the surface of a moon-like planet. Millions of stars hung in the sky, and a grounded ship in the distance seemed eager to take off. But the highlight here was a small, humanoid alien standing directly in front of me. It seemed just as confused by my presence as I was. As I ducked down and leaned in closer, the detail on the creature was staggering. From skin texture, to the way its fingers flexed, and even to the reflection in its big, black eyes. Serendipitously, when I got right up in its face, a part of the demo kicked in where the alien took a step back in surprise. I definitely didn’t do this – the demo wasn’t interactive in that sense – but the timing was impeccable.After my trip to space, I was brought high up in the clouds looking down upon a colorful city plopped onto a nice island. A modern Sim City vibe was definitely flowing through this portion of the demo. While standing up, I could see a number of planes flying around me, as well as clouds slowly moving through me. But when I left my god-like view and ducked down closer to the city, it was as if the camera zoomed in dramatically. Suddenly I was parallel with the buildings, and as I tilted my head around and shuffled in a circle around my mat, I was surveying the city as one surveys an ornate model train setup. This vignette definitely piqued my interest – the thought of having something like this for any number of real or fictional places is one of directions I truly hope VR heads off in.The eighth chapter had the closest thing to a narrative of the entire set. In front of me were two sentient, robotic arm-crane-things on wheels. In what felt a lot like a Pixar short, they started off by playing with a rubber ducky, but the competitive spirit eventually got the best of them, and things escalated. Both arms pulled out wands, and suddenly I found myself in the middle of a wizard duel. The battle circled me, and I began whipping my head back and forth in order to keep track of the action. It was at this point where I suddenly discovered what I’d been mentally reaching for throughout the entire demo – the Oculus Rift Crescent Bay presentation is the VR equivalent of Disney’s Fantastia. Both are a series of gorgeous tone-pieces, both pull the audience across the entire spectrum of emotions, and both showcase the impressive artistry of the time, while also planting one foot firmly in the direction of the future.The penultimate slice of the demo placed me in the middle a long hallway in a rundown museum of sorts. The lights were dim, debris was everywhere, and there was this slight sense of dread right from the start. I looked to my right and saw a torn-down sign with the word “Hammond” on the remaining half, and at that very moment, began to hear a deep banging coming from the far end of the hall. Yup, I had I think I knew what was coming.Rounding the corner was my dinosaur pal from the start of the demo. He slowly made his way down the hall towards me, but despite every video game instinct I had telling me to turn tail and run, that’s not what this demo was all about. When the T-Rex got close, it stopped and began to survey me. It leaned right in and sniffed me, and again, the level of detail on these models, even at extreme close proximity, was really impressive. Lucky for me, my new-found friend seemed bored by me, and simply moved on right over me. Looking up as it stomped above me, its tail swinging violently behind it, was intense to say the least.The demo capped off with the Unreal Engine 4 Showdown demo , which ran at a stupidly-impressive 90fps. The demo consisted of what felt like a firefight from Gears of War. A line of human soldiers were all engaging on a single enemy at the end of the street. I was slowly moving forward at a constant speed, and with everything slowed down quite a bit, I had plenty of time to soak in the details. The thick smoke that trailed behind rockets, the recoil of every shot fired from a rifle, and the slow fall of a soldier who got hit all displayed in incredible detail.About halfway down the road, a car exploded into the air, and as it sailed above me, I looked up and saw its occupants bracing themselves through the window. Of course, the street ended with me face-to-face with the giant spider mech that had been causing this entire ruckus. At this point, it actually acknowledged my presence, powered up its core, and stomped me out of the demo. Without fail, the four of us at IGN who tried out Crescent Bay all instinctively flinched at this moment.At only six and a half minutes, these 10 short vignettes did more on selling me on the concept and future of VR than anything that came before it. This is the kind of thing that I want to have in my house and show anyone and everyone I can. Obviously we’re still not close to the point where VR is as ubiquitous as a console, PC, or smartphone, but the Oculus Rift Crescent Bay demo proved that the future isn’t as far away as I previously thought.

Marty Sliva is an Editor at IGN. He gets sick the moment he lands in Las Vegas, without fail. Follow him on Twitter @McBiggitty