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?
If you don’t wanna deal with Facebook and all that, I have the Pico 4 headset and it’s similar to the quest and I’ve liked it a lot. Never used the quest 3 though
It depends on what you’re doing with it.
I use it solely for Ace XR, which is a dry-fire simulator/tracker. Ace XR is available solely for Meta Quest (2 & 3), so I didn’t really have many options. Unfortunately, I’m currently rehabbing a serious injury, and I am unable to practice.
For gaming? Not really. I like the PSVR2 headset more for that; it’s a better headset overall. I’m still working on getting it set up to work with my PC though. As other people have said, getting corrective lenses for a headset really makes them more enjoyable if you need glasses; it’s a pain in the ass to have to put in contacts when I want to use VR. For the Meta Quest specifically, and upgraded head band and spare battery (that also acts like a counterweight) is very nice to have.
I went through similar thoughts on whether or not to pick up a Quest 3 and after having one for 8 months I’ve not regretted it. The Quest 3 is a great all-rounder if you’re looking for something accessible but also capable of PCVR.
The one thing I will say is accessories are often overlooked. You’ll want to replace the headstrap with a better one. A battery pack if you want longer sessions. Wear glasses? Prescription lenses. A Wi-Fi 6/e router or better if you want to wirelessly tether to a PC for PCVR (plus the costs that come with a gaming computer).
While accessories may appear optional. If you’re spending a load of cash on the headset, then sticking with a subpar experience seems silly. So research what you intend to use it for ahead of time and budget for what you feel is necessary.
No. It’s a meta product so it should be avoided.
I’m really trying to avoid all Meta products, but Quest 3 seems to have the best reviews and there are some good refurbished and used deals.
I’m not sure what to pick instead, while being cheap and having a PC about 7 years old.
There’s the Pico 4 if you can get one in your country. Instead of Meta, it’s ByteDance.
If you have a solid gaming PC, yes. There is no immersion quite like VR. No amount of monitors will get you there.
It’s a bit of a faff each time you want to get it going (having to start the link each time), at least compared to a dedicated headset like the original Rift. The Quest 3 is a bit pricy, the 3S and 2 not so much. There’s a few decent exclusives for the 3 that aren’t even available on PC, so of the two I’d get the 3S.
Low framerate will make you dizzy. The resolution not so much. You will need a decent GPU.
Most VR games are fairly small and low budget affairs. The big exception is Half Life Alyx which is amazing. The game I come back to the most is VRChat, just for the massive number of worlds that people have made. It will help you get your VR legs over time.
If you haven’t tried No Man’s Sky in VR, you’re really missing out. I have about 800 hours in it (90% in VR) and still go back to it day 1 if a new Expedition.
Walkabout Mini golf is a must-have.
Myst and Riven are fantastic in VR.
Star Wars Squadrons, Project Wingman, MS Flight Simulator… Pretty much any flying game with a HOTAS setup is great in VR.
Same can be said for racing games with a wheel setup.
Alyx is truly fabulous, but there are plenty of other great VR experiences to be had.
And that’s not even including what’s available with the VR injection mods. Cyberpunk in VR is pretty awesome, even with the jank that comes with playing a pancake game in VR.
I don’t even think you need the PC to go with it, really. There’s not much now that is both worth playing and isn’t also just natively on the Quest besides Alyx. And even Alyx is mostly just a “once through and done” game that is fairly short. Worth getting if you already have a PC; not worth building a PC for.
I built my PC for PCVR and the Q2. But with my Q3 there is literally only 1 VR thing I still do on the PC and that’s Heat. I also play non-VR games in it for a larger screen. Not to mention that VRChat now looks better in the standalone VR app than my now aging PC does (I’m still rocking a 1660 Super).
If you just wanna dip your toes into VR and see if it’s worth it, the Quest 3 is perfect for it because you don’t need to also buy or build an expensive PC unless you really want some PCVR exclusives.
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.
Much as I trust Sony more than Meta, part of the issue is that 80% of the cool stuff from VR comes from indie teams running an ItchIO page or Patreon, not established publishers.
Supposedly, PSVR2 can work with PC now but I don’t know how refined that integration is.
I agree that there’s a ton of good stuff coming from the indie scene and also some amazing modding of existing games out there (check the Flat2VR discord - they just modded full VR support with motion controls into Silent Hill 2 Remake), but despite all the complaints about the PSVR2 library, there is more than enough gold in there to keep a lot of people entertained for a very long time, and some of it is truly AAA stuff. The headset itself is extremely well designed and easy to pick up and play, and the amount of tech you get is pretty nuts.
I’ve heard it’s pretty minimally supported on the PC because they’re kind of trying to get away with building half of a bridge (spoiler: it won’t work) but even without features like haptics and eye tracking, it’s a reasonable baseline headset. There may be some Bluetooth inconsistencies for some though, if I remember correctly.
To give you a real unbiased answer as someone who’s actually used the headset, the Quest 3 is the best VR headset you’ll get for the money. Pancake lenses are amazing, performance is really good, software has gotten ages better since launch. Meta throttles the chipset a lot, with QGO (an app) you can meet or be just under PC quality on most games, but the base headset is fine by itself.
As for games, there’s never been a better time to hope in. But I’ll be honest my Q3 is practically a beat saber machine at this point. I haven’t found another game to be as enticing. Pistol whip was meh, I couldn’t get into B&S or Asgards wrath, Metro Awaking isn’t my type of game. It’s really up to you to decide how valuable VR is.
You might be able to get a used Quest 2 pretty cheap. That was my entryway to VR, and a cheaper way to find out if it’s something you want to invest more in.
Started with a Rift way back and recently got a Quest 3. As you’re already aware, it comes down to the games you want to play. I’ve invested a bit in a setup for flight simming, because I love helicopters. Because helis are so sensitive, VR actually gives you much better control (it also increases your immersion, obviously). I replayed Half Life Alyx recently, and it’s still great. And then I spend a bit of time in Beat Sabre several days a week. Oh, and there’s a puzzle game where you just use your hands to match a set of blocks to a 3d shape. It’s great not always using controllers. In terms of the quality of VR - it might not have improved enough to ‘cure’ your nausea yet. The quest 3 was a big step up in clarity compared to the Rift, but your peripheral vision is cut off, and it’s still a ways off from normal vision.
The only reason I’m not playing more VR is that it’s more involved than playing without. You have to make space to play. If you’re playing from PC (which I would recommend) you have to set that and the games up. And then it’s usually more fun to play standing for which I don’t always have the energy.
My Quest 1 is not logged in to Meta so I only play free games from Sidequest or whatever free games I used to get from Meta. Plenty to play with that and PCVR.
“Smaller” games like Moon Rider are usually more fun. At least in the long run. Full games like Alyx are few and far between. But ports of older games work well. I dare say that VR is the best way to play Doom 3.
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.
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.
Very accurate. We have the Quest 1 and 2, both just collecting dust now, I’m not even sure if they would work anymore. We set up a VR gaming night with a few friends who also had headsets, played Beat Saber and Synth Riders a bunch, then got bored and decided to explore a new game where you walk about and chop wood and whatnot. Five minutes of that and I was so dizzy I almost threw up. It made me realize that the type of game you can play on these is very very limited. I did get a lot of mileage from Synth Riders, so I’m not saying it’s all worthless tech, but we probably could have got a better ROI just buying a regular console with the money.
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.
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.
It’s not going to replace flat screen gaming. It’s hard to be in VR for hours, especially when you have to manage battery life, but I’ve had a headset for a year or two now, and it’s still amazing where it’s good. I’m better with smooth moving, but I still prefer teleporting, for headache/dizziness.
Tried Skyrim, couldn’t make it stick - VR just isn’t right for massive open worlds. Halflife Alyx is amazing - it’s the right scale for VR, the attention to manipulatable objects is amazing, and some of the puzzles just couldn’t be done in 2D. Blade & Sorcery is good, too.
Games I keep going back to are Beat Saber, because I’m old and need something to make me stand up and move, and Mini-golf, which is mostly a focus for hanging out with remote friends.
A note about battery life, Bobovr makes a great strap that has modular batteries. I don’t think they’ve made a full kit for the q3 that has multiple batteries and a separate charging dock for the batteries like they did for the q2, though… Happy to be corrected on this! Either way, they greatly extend playing time.
The strap itself is really comfortable and the battery helps counterbalance the weight of the quest itself. I know one of the q3 versions has a fan built in and the design lets you lie on your back and just watch movies.
Edit: seems they sell the s3 batteries separately and the charging dock now, nice. Wish it came in a whole kit.
Interesting take regarding Skyrim. In my opinion, open world games are THE thing that VR is perfect for and sadly has way too few options.
I want to be in a virtual world. Seeing the sunset or just sitting down in a tavern in Skyrim and watching the people belong to some of my unforgettable gaming moments.
It is those closed, specialised games that are not fun to me. Give me more Skyrim worlds and less fruit ninja or beat sabre.
I can see that. If you just want to hang out in a space, then VR Skyrim definitely has some cool places to hang, but how long are you really going to spend in that Skyrim tavern?
When OP asks whether VR is a long-term option, that’s what I think. My favorite 2D games I have 500+ hours, probably a half dozen of them; I can still go back to those, some 10+ year old, and sink another 50+ hours. The only VR game I have more than 50 hours is the mini-golf game that’s glorified chat.
For me, VR as an experience has been really amazing. It’s a level of immersion that’s just indescribably better than anything 2D, but each of those experiences has had limited staying power, which I think is because the physical demands of VR constrain my playtime and focus. I can left-mouse-button all day, but my back gets sore if I stand for three hours. So I can handle beat saber because I treat it like a gym session, but the idea of VR walking 7000 steps to Skyrim’s Throat of the World…just no.
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.
