Oooh congrats, there’s so many phenomenal VR games. I have to recommend Pistol Whip, it’s essentially a John Wick music simulator. Shoot to the beat (or not) going down a hallway where enemies shoot at where you are. Move a bit, the bullet flies right by you. There are 38 official tracks after 4 years of completely free updates. They also have released a modding toolkit which has some pretty sick maps people have made - any song you want you can make!
I prefer it to Beat Saber quite a bit, but it’s really a preference thing. Synth Riders and Audio Surfers are also fun, there’s also Audio Shield and Electronauts - all basically variations on the same premise. Music and actions coordinated to rhythm. As I said, my favorite of them all is Pistol Whip, it always keeps me coming back.
I have so, soooo many more recommendations so I’ll just list a couple by genre.
Creative hobby: there’s a number of VR-space hobbies that work really well. First is Open Brush, which is an open sourced free version of the depreciated Tilt Brush by Google. It’s quite literally VR painting and there’s scenes you can enter made by other people. For regular painting in VR, there’s Vermillion which is super awesome all around. There’s SculptrVR for all your clay working desires. There’s also art-like experiences, Chroma Lab, DMT, Ayahuasca. They’re ok but worth looking at and deciding for yourself, Chroma Lab is my fav of those 3.
Music wise there’s SynthVR, which can be a full VR synth-rack that you build - much cheaper than buying them! There’s Paradiddle for VR drumming which has a lot of great features and pretty much full hardware support all around. Seriously great software. And finally, Vinyl Reality which is VR DJIng! It uses all your music files you have, I recommend using a software to get BPM data. I just used a plugin from my audio player Foobar2000 and it took about 30-40 minutes on 20k tracks so not bad.
I love the creative hobby programs because sometimes painting or sculpting can just be too much setup/cleanup and these make it so simple. No, they’re not real life but man do they come close enough. Since they’re much more relaxed, I also recommend VR tools - XS Overlay (or OVR Toolkit). They are overlay programs to bring panels from your computer into VR. Basically, you can have a floating panel for you desktop open, or a floating panel for Firefox or your media player. XS Overlay uses a newer standard, OVR Toolkit is good too but with more tools. There is also OVR Advanced Settings for adjusting some VR space - if your playspace is too tall or too short or too far back/Forward/left/right or rotated incorrectly then this program lets you adjust and fix that. Very necessary when you need it. Both of these programs can run in the background during your VR session with minimal performance loss. Anyway, I recommend XS Overlay (or OVR Toolkit) because if you have an android you can use SCRCPY (not on Steam) to bring your phone in VR. It works exceedingly well, it’s insane. SCRCPY mirrors your phone as a window, and you can set specific bitrates and FPS values to match the refresh rate of your VR headset. Once the window is open - XS Overlay to bring your phone screen in VR… It’s freaking awesome.
Okay, so all of that is just basically VR simulating real life but getting around some of the inconveniences of real life. Cleaning, not having access to your phone when gaming in VR or being able to have a video playing floating next to you. But how about actual games?
Simulators are popular and definitely check out the ones people have recommended already. In addition to those - Elite Dangerous and Star Wars Squadrons (on sale) if you have a HOTAS. There’s also the car simulators, although tbh I tried these and most of them were more effort to set up than most and the experience with a race wheel in VR didn’t seem as worthwhile as the HOTAS does. Personally I’ve been happy with flat-screen race wheel games. Other than these, I feel like seated sims are hit or miss.
VR FPS: Arizona Sunshine, The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, ARK-ADE, Naked Sun, Pavlov VR are all very well done. Into the radius is pretty good too. I also recommend Duck Season, it’s VR Duck Hunt…! And of course, Half Life Alyx.
VR Action: Boneworks and then Bonelab, made by the same people who did Duck Season. Blade & Sorcery, GORN, Budget Cuts, Phasmophobia, and SuperhotVR are all worth looking into as well. There’s also Deadly Hunter which is worth a look.
VR Game: I dunno how else to categorize these other than legit game/mini game games? Hyper Psychic Gauntlets, Catlateral Damage, Chupa Chupa VR, King Kaiju, REZ, Moose Life, VR Noid, Holoball, Vertical Shift, Panoptic & Keep taking and nobody explodes. Finally, Accounting and The Cubicle which are free experiences.
I really recommend that last batch, they are very fun.
Get the mods for Half Life 2 + episodes as well. It’s almost as advanced as Alyx but with more challenge, which you may want after you get a handle on Alyx (and you get back the crowbar).
If you’re a gun enthusiast or just would like to mess around with some of the most detailed weapons VR has to offer, I strongly recommend trying out H3VR (Hotdogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades is the full name I believe). Yes, it has never been on sale since it came out, but it’s 100% worth the 20 bucks they’re asking for. There’s also an awesome multi-player mod for it called H3MP, as well as heaps of other content mods.
I just got a 2nd hand Oculus Rift S for cheap, so I’m gonne take a look at the VR offers, as this is my first VR experience.
Oooh congrats, there’s so many phenomenal VR games. I have to recommend Pistol Whip, it’s essentially a John Wick music simulator. Shoot to the beat (or not) going down a hallway where enemies shoot at where you are. Move a bit, the bullet flies right by you. There are 38 official tracks after 4 years of completely free updates. They also have released a modding toolkit which has some pretty sick maps people have made - any song you want you can make!
I prefer it to Beat Saber quite a bit, but it’s really a preference thing. Synth Riders and Audio Surfers are also fun, there’s also Audio Shield and Electronauts - all basically variations on the same premise. Music and actions coordinated to rhythm. As I said, my favorite of them all is Pistol Whip, it always keeps me coming back.
I have so, soooo many more recommendations so I’ll just list a couple by genre.
Creative hobby: there’s a number of VR-space hobbies that work really well. First is Open Brush, which is an open sourced free version of the depreciated Tilt Brush by Google. It’s quite literally VR painting and there’s scenes you can enter made by other people. For regular painting in VR, there’s Vermillion which is super awesome all around. There’s SculptrVR for all your clay working desires. There’s also art-like experiences, Chroma Lab, DMT, Ayahuasca. They’re ok but worth looking at and deciding for yourself, Chroma Lab is my fav of those 3.
Music wise there’s SynthVR, which can be a full VR synth-rack that you build - much cheaper than buying them! There’s Paradiddle for VR drumming which has a lot of great features and pretty much full hardware support all around. Seriously great software. And finally, Vinyl Reality which is VR DJIng! It uses all your music files you have, I recommend using a software to get BPM data. I just used a plugin from my audio player Foobar2000 and it took about 30-40 minutes on 20k tracks so not bad.
I love the creative hobby programs because sometimes painting or sculpting can just be too much setup/cleanup and these make it so simple. No, they’re not real life but man do they come close enough. Since they’re much more relaxed, I also recommend VR tools - XS Overlay (or OVR Toolkit). They are overlay programs to bring panels from your computer into VR. Basically, you can have a floating panel for you desktop open, or a floating panel for Firefox or your media player. XS Overlay uses a newer standard, OVR Toolkit is good too but with more tools. There is also OVR Advanced Settings for adjusting some VR space - if your playspace is too tall or too short or too far back/Forward/left/right or rotated incorrectly then this program lets you adjust and fix that. Very necessary when you need it. Both of these programs can run in the background during your VR session with minimal performance loss. Anyway, I recommend XS Overlay (or OVR Toolkit) because if you have an android you can use SCRCPY (not on Steam) to bring your phone in VR. It works exceedingly well, it’s insane. SCRCPY mirrors your phone as a window, and you can set specific bitrates and FPS values to match the refresh rate of your VR headset. Once the window is open - XS Overlay to bring your phone screen in VR… It’s freaking awesome.
Okay, so all of that is just basically VR simulating real life but getting around some of the inconveniences of real life. Cleaning, not having access to your phone when gaming in VR or being able to have a video playing floating next to you. But how about actual games?
Simulators are popular and definitely check out the ones people have recommended already. In addition to those - Elite Dangerous and Star Wars Squadrons (on sale) if you have a HOTAS. There’s also the car simulators, although tbh I tried these and most of them were more effort to set up than most and the experience with a race wheel in VR didn’t seem as worthwhile as the HOTAS does. Personally I’ve been happy with flat-screen race wheel games. Other than these, I feel like seated sims are hit or miss.
VR FPS: Arizona Sunshine, The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, ARK-ADE, Naked Sun, Pavlov VR are all very well done. Into the radius is pretty good too. I also recommend Duck Season, it’s VR Duck Hunt…! And of course, Half Life Alyx.
VR Action: Boneworks and then Bonelab, made by the same people who did Duck Season. Blade & Sorcery, GORN, Budget Cuts, Phasmophobia, and SuperhotVR are all worth looking into as well. There’s also Deadly Hunter which is worth a look.
VR Game: I dunno how else to categorize these other than legit game/mini game games? Hyper Psychic Gauntlets, Catlateral Damage, Chupa Chupa VR, King Kaiju, REZ, Moose Life, VR Noid, Holoball, Vertical Shift, Panoptic & Keep taking and nobody explodes. Finally, Accounting and The Cubicle which are free experiences.
I really recommend that last batch, they are very fun.
Enjoy!
This is very thorough, thanks! Though I’m missing one of the reasons I got this thing: the 7th Guest VR. It’s a VR remake of the old DOS FMV game!
Ooh if you like older games there’s Dolphin VR that has Metroid Prime, Super Mario Sunshine, and a couple others.
There’s also 3DNESVR For a few NES games in a VR-ized way. It’s nice :)
Cool! Thanks!
Half life Alyx is sitting at $20 right now just a friendly heads up
Thanks! I already bought that one. Jeez it’s immersive!
Get the mods for Half Life 2 + episodes as well. It’s almost as advanced as Alyx but with more challenge, which you may want after you get a handle on Alyx (and you get back the crowbar).
Beat Saber & VTOL VR are my recommendations for VR games that can be more then a 30min ExpErIEncE.
You didn’t ask, I know… :-)
It’s appreciated anyway! Put beat saber on my wishlist!
If you’re a gun enthusiast or just would like to mess around with some of the most detailed weapons VR has to offer, I strongly recommend trying out H3VR (Hotdogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades is the full name I believe). Yes, it has never been on sale since it came out, but it’s 100% worth the 20 bucks they’re asking for. There’s also an awesome multi-player mod for it called H3MP, as well as heaps of other content mods.
I wholeheartedly recommend Synth Riders if you’re into rhythm games!
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