I have been really tempted to jump into VR for a little while now, I tried it when the quest first came out, the very first one but it was too blurry and made me dizzy. I’ve considered getting back into it again, but the thing that has made me really hesitant is I’ve heard that VR is not in the greatest place and that it’s really tough to find good VR games to play. For example, there’s Fallout and Skyrim VR but they’re not really in good shape, and it takes a lot of modding and tweaking to get them to actually work properly. But I’m curious what other people think. Do you think VR is in a good enough place to be able to play it and enjoy it long-term? Or is it some sort of short-term hype thing?
No. It’s a meta product so it should be avoided.
Fallout and Skyrim VR
takes a lot of modding
To be fair, so do the 2D versions. VR Skyrim, at least, is super fun once you get the modding done.
As for general value: it depends.
I mostly play various “exercise” games like Beat Saber, Synth Riders, Pistol Whip and Thrill of the Fight. The Quest is fantastic for those, because you can untether and go stand outside in a nice open surface and whilst you look like an absolute idiot, it can be a hell of a workout if you put in the effort.
As for like, traditional games, it’s less rosy: there’s very little market, thus very little software support, thus very little market, which means there’s very little software, which means…
There’s a ton of gems all over the place if you’re after slightly more social activities, but I’d say for single-player game experiences you’re going to be limited for good options that run exclusively on the headset.
That said, there’s a LOT of options in PC-tethered VR that are fantastic, assuming you can/want to tether to a PC. If you don’t, that’s fair, but all the really really in-depth experiences require a pretty beefy gaming pc. Stuff like HL: Alyx, because it’s (still) probably the best VR-native game that’s been released so far.
There’s also the VR-versions-of-PC-games like Flight Simulator and various racing and space games that are worth checking out if you’re interested in them, and VR adds a lot to those experiences, if you can run the VR versions with sufficient performance which eh, is a whole different ball of problem.
It’s a medium-term hype thing. But worth is a subjective decision that only you can make, depending on how much you’re willing to spend and how much you want to do VR things.
I would never recommend the Facebook-owned ones though.
Almost every content creator I watch say their VR headsets are collecting dust. Part of that is because there aren’t many good VR games, but also I think there are very few types of games that are fun in VR. They’re just not made for long-term play, you’ll quickly get exhausted in half an hour and want to rest your eyes (or if you’re playing something movement heavy like Beat Saber, rest your body as well).
I tried Skyrim VR, albeit the vanilla version. It sucked. Once you get over the initial hype of “wow, it’s like I’m really there!” you quickly start to realize that VR adds nothing to the experience. It’s the same game, except way clunkier with broken combat and makes you dizzy after some time. Most VR games feel similarly shallow. Even when it comes to racing games which I thought would be killer in a headset, I came away realizing I’d prefer just playing it on a flat screen.
I don’t know where you live, but here there are a couple of places where you can try a headset. I would recommend finding a way to try it first before buying.
makes you dizzy
Fun story about VR and being dizzy.
I had huge problems with VR dizziness and blurriness and it turned out I had strabismus which was not normally noticeable as it was mitigated by my glasses and by being only a modest amount of cross-eyed-ness, but would absolutely make itself known after about 20 minutes of playing VR, to the point I was absolutely certain I was just getting motion sick.
Might be worth talking to your optometrist the next time you’re there, since boy, it’s shocking how much better my eyes got after dealing with it.
I will echo some of the other sentiments.
Meta sells a lot of their tech at a loss. You are not buying a VR headset with just your dollars. You are taking a huge kit of cameras and sensors hooked up to the world’s most advanced internet-connected telemetry and strapping it to your face. The data it gleans is how you’re covering a large portion, if not the majority, of the cost.
In my opinion, a PS5 and PSVR2 is the best way into VR for most people right now. I have that and a Valve Index and while the Index is awesome, it’s pretty dated and fiddly and while my computer runs it pretty well, catching up to more modern tech will cost me $2000 in upgrades and the fuss associated with building/upgrading/buying/migrating a PC.
I’m hoping Valve releases their rumored standalone headset sometime before the end of the world.
It is very much worth it! It is a great value for what you get. I highly recommend you connect it to a strong pc and purchase your games on steam so that you get the best quality visuals and when you switch headsets in the future your games will be available no matter what headset you choose.
