"It Was Absolutely Magical," Gears of War Creator Says About Valve's VR

Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinksi is a big fan of Vive, the recently announced virtual reality headset from Half-Life developer Valve and technology giant HTC.

Speaking today at PAX East in Boston as part of a panel for his new game, Project Bluestreak, Bleszinski was asked for his thoughts about virtual reality.

Bleszinski, who was an early investor in Oculus VR and made a "very sizable chunk of money" when the company was acquired by Facebook, said he likes that competition in the virtual reality space is heating up. Oculus VR is no longer the only major player in the market, and this level of competition is good for virtual reality overall, Bleszinski said.

He was particularly enthusiastic about Vive, telling the audience today at PAX that he was blown away by the technology. "I felt like the first time I went to Disneyland. It was absolutely magical," he said about his experience with the headset.

Bleszinski, like others before him, however, also said he believes virtual reality won't become a dominant, ubiquitous platform overnight.

In addition to Oculus Rift and Vive, Sony is working on its own virtual reality headset called Project Morpheus for the PlayStation 4.

GameSpot tried the Vive headset at GDC this week. Editor Peter Brown praised the device, saying it has become the headset to beat in the VR market.

"It's a great VR headset, but so are the Oculus Rift and Sony Morpheus, which have seen great improvements over the last year," he wrote. "Yet, after my demo during GDC this week, I can say one thing with certainty: Valve has taken the lead in the VR arms race."

Bleszinski is currently working on Project Bluestreak, an all-new IP taking the form of a free-to-play PC shooter to be published by Nexon. Earlier today, Bleszinski defended the game's free-to-play business model and confirmed it will run on Unreal Engine 4.