Games

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

yes.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

No. It's a meta product so it should be avoided.

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.