'Arizona Sunshine' Launches On PSVR With Support For Aim, DualShock 4 Controllers

Starting today, more than a million more VR gamers can try to survive the zombie apocalypse in the sweltering Arizona desert. Vertigo Games and Jaywalker Entertainment launched the PlayStation VR edition of Arizona Sunshine.

Vertigo Games and Jaywalker Entertainment released Arizona Sunshine in December 2016, and it quickly became one of the fastest-selling VR games. In January, the developers revealed that Arizona Sunshine raked in over $1.4 million in sales in its first month, and to this day, the title remains at the top of Steam's “Top Sellers” list. Now the game has the chance to become even more popular thanks to its expansion to PSVR.

Arizona Sunshine offers some of the most elaborate locomotion customizations of any VR game, and the PSVR version goes even further than the PC versions. Vertigo Games said it discovered that “there is no golden rule in the way VR games should be played—everyone is different.” For that reason, the developer includes a variety of customizable configurations. Arizona Sunshine supports teleportation locomotion to prevent vestibular mismatch, but if you’re not susceptible to motion sickness, you can choose smooth locomotion instead. Vertigo Games also included options for the turning method. The default setup features snap turning at 60-degrees per snap. You can change the degree at which your view snaps, or you can opt for smooth rotation.

Aim Support

The Rift and Vive versions of Arizona Sunshine require motion controllers, which means you can’t play the game with a gamepad on PC. You can, however, play the game with a gamepad on the PlayStation VR. Vertigo Games created a new version of the campaign that supports the DualShock 4 instead of Move controllers. The rebuilt campaign is called two-handed mode, and as its name implies, it features weapons made for two hands. Two-handed mode also supports Sony’s new PlayStation Aim Controller, which adds another level of tactile immersion to the game.  

We had a chance to try Arizona Sunshine with the Aim Controller, and we must say it adds a new spice to the game. In some ways, using the Aim Controller is an improvement. It’s easier to aim for long distance shots, and you’ll find more effective weaponry early in the game. In other ways, two-handed mode makes the game tougher, though. For example, it's much harder to get yourself out of trouble when a zombie gets up in your face. You’re also limited to three two-handed firearms, whereas you can carry four when you use motion controllers. We also noted that there are fewer hidden weapons laying around. The places where you would find an old revolver when you play with motion controllers, for example, don’t have guns in two-handed mode.

PS4 Pro Enhancements

In the days leading up to the launch of Arizona Sunshine, Vertigo Games was subject to community backlash over hardware exclusivity. The developer cut a deal with Intel to reward owners of Intel Core i7 processors with improved physics and a special game mode that wouldn’t work on lesser CPUs. Vertigo Games faced immediate criticism and quickly made the upgraded physics settings and extra game mode available to anyone, though it continues to recommend a Skylake i7 for the advanced settings.

For the PlayStation 4 version, Vertigo Games didn’t cut a deal on the side. The developer chose to support the PS4 Pro’s extra performance, though. If you have a PS4 Pro console, the game should look slightly better than it would on a standard PS4. The PS4 Pro offers improved anti-aliasing, higher density fog, further draw distance, and increased render resolution.

Arizona Sunshine for PSVR is available now from the PlayStation Store.