The second option is to go wireless. That’s actually the sensible option for first-timers. There’s two main players in the wireless VR game – Meta (aka Facebook) and Bytedance (aka Tiktok). One has the Meta Quest series and the other one has the PICO series. They all cost around the same ballpark of 200-300$ depending on the storage and shipping. Essentially, they are really beefed up phones that plug into your headset and have a few hours of battery life, which is fine. Also, all of them have beefed up cameras and telemetry, so they don’t need trackers. The issue is that both have their own app store and want to lock you in their weird ecosystem. Luckily you can plug them into your PC and use them that way, which bypasses that.
Let’s imagine you settle on your brand of hypnogoggles and they arrive at your doorstep. You have your first hurdle – where to play the damn thing. Ideally you need a 2x2 space that where you won’t risk of punching walls or stepping on your cat. If you live in a cramped apartment you will either need to rearrange furniture or you are shit out of luck. You find your little grotto and put on a headset and immediately are hit with a sense of nausea. Apparently 15% of the population have some kind of VR allergy where their inner ear starts freaking out. That’s true for both commercial VR and military simulations. And, sadly, there’s no known cure or treatment. It’s essentially a gamble if you will be even able to use the damn thing.
Alright, you managed to jump through every obstacle and are now ready to game in VR. What do you play? Steam, unfortunately, is filled with a lot of pornography and minigames. So are the appstores of the headsets themselves. Youtube has a lot of VR channels, but most are aimed at either children or are super enthusiastic and positive about everything. I ended up curating a small list of games and apps that I personally tried in VR and found to be of decent quality.
Ancient Dungeon VR – Competent roguelike with minecraft-esque voxel graphics. I’m pretty sure it would have been a bigger hit if it worked on flatscreen setups, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s just a good dungeon crawler. The dev keeps adding new stuff. Personally, I really like the spellbook weapon they recently added.
Blade and Sorcery – Man, this game ruined melee in any videogame for me. In short, it’s a sword and sorcery sandbox where you can try out different weapons, spells, enemies. It’s hard to put it into words, but there’s a massive difference between swinging a weapon by pressing a button and actually doing it with your hand. Not to mention the game simulates weight and momentum, so you probably are going to need to look up some actual HEMA tutorials. Personally, the best part of the game is the climbing system. You can climb basically any surface. I kind of wish there was more than a series of procedurally generated dungeons there, but it’s still impressive to see what the developers have accomplished with such a small team. Mind you, the game is visually impressive, but even at the lowest settings you will need a beefy machine to play this.
Garry’s Mod VR – For clarification, this doesn’t run natively and you will need to install a few mods to have it function. I’m putting this here since Garry’s mod has a lot of maps that are great for first-person exploration. Reconstructions of ancient cities, surreal landscapes, impossible geometry, the whole lot.
Gesture VR - Live drawing software. It is what it is. Has a dozen poses, a few rooms and a lot of drawing settings. It’s fine, but I wish there was more or some modding support for importing full-body scans of models.
Half-Life 2 VR – You probably already own a copy of Half-Life 2 or can get one for very cheap. If you do so, the mod is free. In all honesty, it’s probably the best VR game I’ve played. The motion control functionality works well with the physics engine and the fact that this is a 20+ year old game makes it run buttery smooth.
House of the Dying Sun – Not strictly a VR game, but one that works really well in VR. It’s an arcade-style dogfighting simulator in space with RTS elements. It’s really short, but it’s amazing. Also it being something you play seated with a controller in hand is a nice change of pace if you’re tired of rearranging furniture.
Quake VR – Exactly what it says on the tin. Quake is as cheap as a sandwich and runs even on smart fridges. It works fine, but it’s a bit too fast paced if you’re just starting out.
Ragnarock – Rhythm game. It’s good cardio and it’s just so happens that the entire playlist matches my music taste. I love it, even if I’m quite horrible at it.
Superhot VR – It’s exactly what it says on the tin. A puzzle-action game where time moves when you do. It’s actually a great gymnastics exercise and runs well enough on most devices.
Thrill of the Fight – Boxing simulator. Nothing more, nothing less. Putting it on a list because it’s actually pretty good cardio and you will be drenched in sweat in about 20 minutes. My arms still hurt as I’m typing this.
VRChat – Really cautious recommendation. It’s basically virtual chatroom with a dozen of user created worlds and limitless avatar customisation. It used to be fairly upscale back when headsets were harder to come by, but nowadays it’s available to pretty much anyone that can cough up 200$. The moderation there has been struggling with the influx of new people, especially children. It’s not my cup of tea and the lax moderation doesn’t help. That being said, I recommend trying it out just to see some of the maps people made for it. My favourite one is the reconstruction of the Tokyo Capsule Hotel that you can walk through.
Warhammer 40000: Battle Sister – Basic VR shooter is simple graphics. Despite that, it still chugs. That being said, if you like Warhammer 40k, it’s pretty high up there in terms of being able to see the nitty-gritty of the Imperium of Man. Surprisingly well acted out story. The only complaint I saw is that some men were a bit weirded out by the player model. The game has a pretty decent full-body simulation, but not everyone gets used to looking down and seeing a pair of knockers.
