Sell me on the Rift...if it's worth it

I know...there's lot's to google. And I'm pretty read up on the Rift/Vive. However, I'd appreciate a little user feedback. Best Buy has a Rift bundle for $400 and I'm wondering how much content is actually available on the rift, and if it's worth it.

I'm interested in games, obviously (and my pc can handle it) but other experiences would be cool too. I'm not sure what all is available to the rift other than just games. Can you guys fill me in on if this'd be worth the purchase? I wouldn't be considering but $400 isn't too much for some really cool tech. However, if I'll use it for a couple games and then it'll sit and collect dust...I may wait for more content.

So what do you guys think?

Also...I have a big set of cans (Beyerdynamic). Is that compatible with the Rift?

For my own curiosity, why not the Vive?

I've been thinking of VR myself as well.

Don't get imho, not enough content yet. The content that is there is divided between PlayStation VR and Rift and Vive.

It's probabily not worth it yet, not enough content

If you're not interested in trying to be helpful, you needn't feel compelled to post. This is a discussion forum and people are encouraged to ask questions.

I've got the Oculus with Touch, Vive, PS VR, and the Gear VR. I really, really love my VR setups, but there are pros and cons to it and I wouldn't necessarily say it's for everyone. There are over 2,000 VR titles on Steam and just like the 34,000+ total titles on Steam there is a lot of shovelware. I would think of it as something akin to a nice flightstick or force feedback steering wheel. Great for the games that are specifically designed for it from the ground up. Probably best not to think of it as an accessory for your existing games, though. Playing the same games but with VR doesn't necessarily make them better. What VR does is pretty "new" and when I'm in the mood to play a VR game it's not necessarily the same mood as when I just want to chill on the couch and play a video game.

The best games for VR are the ones that are standing scale or room scale. The Vive had a big edge over the Oculus in this department for a long time but now that the Touch is out and included in the $400 price it's a pretty good deal. The Vive has better 360 degree tracking (the Oculus and Touch can lose tracking briefly if you turn completely around but most Oculus specific games are designed around this) but this is something that you should be able to fix with a third sensor if you really want to (it comes with two).

Check out videos of games like Arizona Sunshine, Vanishing Realms, Audioshield, Robo Recall (Oculus exclusive), and Eve Valkyrie (soon to not be VR exclusive) as examples. The "experiences" are also pretty cool but most of them are short AF (think like maybe 5 minutes) but those are typically free. Titles like Job Simulator (or the Rick and Morty version) are also pretty fun and while they are objective based but some might complain that they are more sandbox/tech demos versus actual games, although I thought the Rick and Morty one was a blast and pretty funny.

-Byshop

Hey thanks man. I appreciate you took the time for that feedback. I ended up pulling the trigger, and I have to say that, outside of the low resolution (It's much blurrier than I'd hoped) It's such a trip! I played Robo Recall for a half hour or so before bed, and I swear I was tripping when I tried to go to bed. Maybe it was the acid coming back out or something...but anyways...it's been really cool. I'd like to try out that program Vorpx...where you can play nonvr games, some better than others, with it. Do you have any experience with that?

This has to be the worst informed post in Gamespot history. I own the HTC Vive. On Steam alone, there are over 2'000 entries for the Vive, most of them games. And that's just Steam, there is a Vive store with exclusive content, there are tons of 360° videos etc. You could literally play 24/7 nonstop new content for over a year.

@demi0227_basic: Grats on your decission. Did you get the Rift or Vive?

I'll tell you what a i told a friend who asked me the same question: from a price/money standpoint it's not worth it, it's a very cool toy you will absolutely not get your money's worth out of due to the lack of dedicated software and the fact you can't or shouldn't use it for long stretches of time anyway. There is also the issue of resolution, which is not very good in any of the visors I had the chance to try, which in my opinion completely defeats the purpose. I'd say wait for second generation headsets (if they ever happen), which should be cheaper and better.

That being said, if you can find it for say half the price, or if you have enough disposable income that 6-700 bucks are no skin of your back, it's a fun toy to mess around with for a while and then put in a drawer and forget about.

Thanks. I went with the Rift cause it was dirt cheap ($400). I probably won't get the Vive now since I have the Rift. I'll wait until a next "gen" of headsets come out. I've been working too much to enjoy it a lot, but I've demoed a pretty healthy list of stuff. There certainly isn't any lack of content! I have Robo Recall, and Valkrie...everything else I have is a demo or free program. I'd LOVE to try the Climb...but $50 seems steep for that. I'll wait for a sale. ;)

Nothing wrong with going with the Rift. My main motivation to get the Vive was the modularity of it and how it is made for room scale VR. I'm pretty sure upgrading a Vive will cost more than upgrading a Rift in the future with all the forward thinking HTC did.

There is a lot of great free stuff out there. The Lab is a must. If you want to see how videos work in VR, you must check out Allumette. I had so many wow moments with this short movies since they present a movie in a way never seen before. You hear somebody cry and start looking for him just to find him under a bridge. You see people pointing at stuff and realise the problem. You wonder what's going on in the air ship that's flying by? Put your head into it :D

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll have to look into Allumette...sounds interesting. I tried a short demo on the Oculus store (I was a woman tied up and a robot cut my head off...interesting looking at cleavage from that position! lol) and was pretty impressed. I downloaded the lab and am super excited to try it! I haven't had time yet, but I have some free time today so Imma give it a shot after the gym in a little bit. I'd love to go room scale, but my living room doesn't have much space. I think my play area is maybe...mmm...4x6 feet or so. Not much room to maneuver. Maybe when my kids are out of the house I can setup a whole room...that'd be cool.

@ArchoNils2: by not enough content I don't think it's worth until most games are released in vr as well as standard.

The Lab is fun, but it's more of a cool sandbox than a game. Nothing wrong with that, but once you've done all the "things" The Lab has to offer it probably doesn't have a ton of replay. It has an archery game, and a lot of those like Holopoint are pretty fun. Not sure if they updated The Lab to work specifically with Oculus Touch but I'm aware of several solutions to get it to work if not.

Dreadhalls is also a blast if you like scary, and I haven't tried the Paranormal Activity game yet but the IGN videos I saw of it looked awesome. There are also a lot of interesting "story driven" narrative games that are really good. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter isn't a VR exclusive title but it's VR support is great and I actually played the entire game through the first time in VR on my DK2 and I LOVED it.

Glad you got it and are liking it. The thing about VR is that it's just an experience like nothing else and explaining that to people with words is very difficult. People rag on motion controls a lot, and not without good reason, but the thing is motion controls are fine provided they aren't shitty motion controls. Kinect and first generation Wii motion controls were terrible because they didn't really track your movement accurately, but Touch and Vive are spot on with incredible accuracy. Someone who hasn't tried VR might look at a game like Arizona Sunshine as think "that looks like a crappy FPS" and outside of VR they'd be right, but in VR when it's -you- moving around trying not to get eaten and you actually manually reloading your guns and -you- taking aim and firing, but you did it too quickly and and your wrist was turned slightly so instead of a headshot your round hits five feet to the left of your target just like it would have if you were firing a real gun, then it's a totally different story. Or how many times in the claustrophobic Dreadhalls I turned around and there was something even as simple as a wall or door too close to my face and my head instinctively jerked away so I wouldn't bonk my eye on the piece of geometry that wasn't really there because the effect is so utterly convincing to your brain. Or even when my stomach starts to spin just a little as I'm making dramatic maneuvers in Eve Valkyrie trying to avoid incoming missiles. These things are very hard to explain to someone who hasn't tried it.

I've been following VR since the fairly early days and the different approaches they've tried with presentation and drivers. I haven't used VorpX since it worked with "Extended Mode" where the Oculus was treated as another monitor on your desktop (be glad you never had to mess with that shit because it was annoying AF). In my experience, the best games for VR are those that are designed for it, and obviously VorpX is intended for pretty much the opposite but it works OK. The Z render is used to calculate depth and 3D effect and it works decently. The issue with a lot of games in it tend to be items like controls or readability of menus or HUDs. Head movement is interpreted as mouse movement which isn't ideal, and HUD elements that are clear in the corner of a monitor become hard to read in VR and you can't "look" at them because they move along with your head. Still, for some games it could be better than nothing but in most cases if there's no native support I'll just play it without.

Yeah, the resolution could be better and I would love to see a second generation of headsets that are lighter and look comparable to a nice gaming monitor but I'm still very happy with what's out now, and with the recent price drops on both the Oculus and the Vive they are becoming increasingly good values.

-Byshop

I couldn't agree more about the idea of you having to experience it to really understand it. I've followed it for years as well, and I understand the technology as well as the next layman, I'm sure. But yeah...going "into" it is a freaking trip! That first bit of Robo Recall where the robots turn towards you and charge in...holy crap. I flinched harder than I'd like to admit! I put my wife/2 kids through it too, and it was funny to watch them go through that. Even though your rational brain knows there won't be contact, the effect hits that lizard level brain where rational capacity doesn't matter. Your body WILL duck if a virtual object flies at your head. I appreciate your views on Vorpx...I'll probably skip that then. I'd like to test something that stresses my motion sickness at some point though, just because I'm curious what I could handle. Valkyrie I've played for a half hour or so, and I didn't get a hint of sickness.

I'm really itching to check out that paranormal game, as well as Dreadhalls. I'll have to look into those. I've kinda avoided vr reviews due to the higher cost of the headsets, but now that I have one, there's already a great deal of content. Have you played the Climb? And if so, how'd you like it? Anyways...thanks for your thoughtful posts man. Appreciated!

The Climb is interesting and is probably one of the biggest budget VR games outside of Robo Recall. The VR effect is cool and the climbing mechanics but I wasn't terribly good at the game and I got annoyed that you not only had to successfully complete a climb but also hit a certain minimum score to be able to unlock the next levels. It's a well made game, I just personally didn't find it as interesting as other VR titles.

Just don't play it standing...

-Byshop

LOL....that was SO funny! I saw another video a long time ago on Gamespot where a guy bent to pick something up, tried to rest his virtual hand on a bench or something (in game) and ate shit. Hilarious! My only real, actual gripe about the headset is sweat. I live in the desert and run my ac to 80 in the house. After an intense game and 10 minutes, I'm starting to get soaked and the lenses fog up. This seems to be a real hassle. I ordered some aftermarket, washable pads from Amazon but they won't be here til next week, so I hope that helps out.

@thehig1: You obviously have no idea what you are talking about. Again, over 2000 on Steam, plus all 360 and 180 videos, exclusive contents from Rift/Vive store, tons of mods and there even is a Program out there that can change every game made in Unity into a VR game. And that's just some random stuff I found, I'm sure there is tons of stuff I haven't even seen. I'm pretty sure every semi-popular first person game has a way to be played in VR by now.

@ArchoNils2: your not talking about theater mode? If so then technically your right every game is vr.

I mean games I would buy anyway, not games just to try vr like.

Rust, GTA 5, Dark Souls 3, Fifa, PES, The Witcher 3, Dues Ex.

I think you no were I'm going, when it's common games are always in full vr then I'd say it's worth it

No I am not talking about theater mode. It's pretty much a tool that auto-mods Unity games to work in VR. Only works with games made in unity though.

About your games ...

I'll wait for your next uneducated statement ...

@ArchoNils2: fair enough, I better get saving for a vive and upgrade to run the games in vr

None of these games were designed specifically for, nor marketed as VR games. All they are is playing those games with your face next to the screen on a crappy VR screen. No thanks.

To be honest I haven't checked the videos long enough. It's true that the Rust and Witcher examples I linked are BAD examples, sorry for that. I could go and find a better version of VR for those games if you want to.

However, did you actually see GTA 5 or Souls 3 with full first person VR and motion controll?

What does it matter if the game was designed and marketed as VR titles? They still play MUCH more immersive in VR with motion controls than on some boring 2D screen with a Gamepad. Did you ever actually experience VR? Did you ever move in a room, avoiding enemy shots while shooting them? Even simple games like Space Pirate feel and play awesome.

It's just another way of asking the same question. It's not a reason to get bent out of shape.

-Byshop

Yeah, Hydra. Calm down. "sell me," "convince me," "persuade me," etc. It's all persuasion. I ended up getting it anyway and I'm having a blast. Next time...just save yourself the time and don't reply.

So I've been taking Robo Recall and a few other Oculus games on the road with me because I have a VR capable laptop and it's actually pretty easy to travel with the Oculus (two sensors, two Touch controllers, and one lightweight headset take up less than half my suitcase) but this thread has encouraged me to revisit some of my Steam library on my already roomspace setup I have for the Vive. I've mostly been revisiting Arizona Sunshine on Horde mode in Canyon. Man, that is crazy fun. It starts off slow, with you taking careful headshots on slow zombies so as not to waste ammo but by the mid teams you're going full Grammaton Cleric/Equilibrium trying to stay alive. It's a blast.

Also, I noticed that the Paranormal Activity game is out of Early Access. Even better.

-Byshop

We're just text on a screen to you. There is nothing that be can say that should have that type of affect on you.

I just do not care about those 3D goggles and wish that effort get put onto something that has to do with VR.

That's pretty hardcore man. I can just picture setting that up in a hotel room. I'm still at the beginning of Arizona Sunshine, so I haven't even tried horde mode yet (LONG ASS week for me...kicked off with a bonzai trip to an amusement park...ugh) I'll have to try it for sure! I also got a few minutes into that Paranormal activity...then stopped cause I just wasn't ready to get scared yet. I like to let scary movies/games sink in...and not fight it. So I have to be in that mood. It was creepy from the get go. I'm really looking forward to getting through it. Maybe I'll have time this week. I'm still waiting on my "sweat" pads for it too. Seems I have 20 minutes on standing games before my lenses fog up and I've soaked the foam, lol.

Well...you might be text on a screen. Generally, I've been talking to people on this forum for 15 years and coming to these forums for 20...so...I see fellow enthusiasts that I can chat with about one of our shared hobbies. I learned a lot about pc's from the pc forum when I was first starting off...so I'd disagree that these discussions have no effect...sometimes I can learn things, or gather impressions that help me make decisions.

Perhaps you should try this post again, but in English next time.

-Byshop

Text is some limited. If there a different in the words you use and/or style then someone will troll you with not writing in English. You can not show tech through the screen.

Please put a little more effort into making your posts readable:

https://www.gamespot.com/forums/ask-the-mods-909361134/gamespot-community-code-of-conduct-31702042/#0

Blatant Poor Language/Grammar: We expect people to communicate with something approximating the English language. We understand that no one is perfect and we're not asking you to be. We simply expect your post to be legible.

-Byshop

Yeah, I'd second Byshop. I'd retort but I'm not sure what it is that you are trying to say.

@Byshop: So those sweat pads I got finally arrived. What a difference! I can spend a lot more time in there now. I also got the Climb. Thanks for your tip about sitting down. It really helps you not fall over. I did all the "easy" climbs and a few of the medium ones. I have to say that's my favorite experience so far. Amazing. Without those sweat pads, I couldn't really play more than 20/30 minutes in session. Now I feel I can go a lot longer. It was funny, cause I trained arms yesterday, and playing the Climb afterwards was straight up murder. My arms are mega pumped even as I typed this. I read another post online where a guy has wrist weights just to make it harder...I think that game could be a fairly decent cardio workout. Anyways...I'm enjoying the hell out of all this. Just wanted to drop a line and say thanks for your feedback before.

If I can use it playing Diablo 3 doing greater Rifts.. then I'll buy it..