Looking at getting VR goggles for myself. Wife asked what I want for Christmas… Are the games any good? Are they worth the cost? Keep getting ads for the all in one oculus. But I like my pc… Any feedback would help
I tried out Facebook Reality glasses at a conference. Facebook picked up the guy who made Occulus. It was heavy on the head mount, and there is no air flow so you sweat underneath them. The game they had was one with light sabers and blocks that came at you which you would swipe. Overall it was fun but not something I would spend a lot of time doing, since everything steams up and your head hurts from the weight.
If you ask me, we are still clunky phase of VR. There is a lot of money going into the field now, and a lot of very difficult optical problems that need to be solved. I think the Augmented Reality (AR) glasses will be the big winner. In those you will have images projected onto what look like reading glasses, and they will have an ability to serve as variable focal length prescription glasses, correcting focus for whatever you are looking at. There is a potential for this technology to get really intrusive in terms of new levels of data mining, such as tracking what you are looking at.
I’ve got an oculus rift, and while it’s fun to use, it spends more time collecting dust right now. There are some functional hurdles the industry needs to clear before VR moves from a novelty to a consistently usable interface.
I wouldn’t recommend getting into VR devices right now, unless you’re willing to spend a lot of time tinkering with it, and you don’t get motion sick easily.
I have a 2 year old HTC Vive and replaced it a few months ago with the newer Valve Index. My general takeaway is that it all comes down to the VR experience being what you make of it. I don’t really spend enough time in VR games to justify the expense, but I’ve really had a blast when I do decide to spend time in VR.
There aren’t any real triple A type games made for VR from the ground up at this point. Though that may change with the upcoming Half Life Alyx, since that isn’t out yet no one can really do more than speculate. There are some triple A games available on VR, but these are generally cases of VR support being tacked on to the existing game later in development, or even after release.
I also have a 2 year old VIVE setup, but I updated it over time, and it is now wireless. That made the VR a lot more immersive, not having to worry about tripping over a cord or pulling it out somehow. There are only a few “killer” games out for VR and they are mostly older. Skyrim VR was a lot of fun and so was Fallout 4 VR, there are some other nice VR games, but nothing very long.