Back to the VR

Ok, so I'm back in the VR mindstate - mostly due to the purchase of an Oculus Quest for my Dad for Christmas. I gifted my parents an Oculus GO many months ago, and he absolutely took it over and uses it almost every night. He loves it (this is a very technically challenged man btw.)

My Wife, Mom and me decided to pool together to get him the Quest, which I imagine he'll love, so in preparation I've been checking out all the games and apps that I think he'll use, which in turn has got me back into VR. It doesn't hurt that the recently announced (although not out until March) Half Life: Alyx is looking like it will be THE GAME to get, and may in fact inspire a huge surge in VR adoption in general, it certainly hyped me up a bit.

This feels like a great time for VR... it was slowly building up since 2016 with the original Rift and Vive, and has had some peaks and valleys since, but with the release of Rift-S, Quest and the Valve Index, and now Valve making the move of releasing a VR-Only Half-Life, it feels like a new breath of fresh air for the platform. I also think, as I keep saying and predicting, that the Quest sales this Christmas will take it to a new level as well. Very exciting times!

That's the majority of what I wanted to write, so now I'm just going to talk about some of the games I intend to get/try soon and some that I am looking forward to.

Here's some of the games that have been out, and recommended to me, that I want to try sooner than later:

Horseshoes, Hand Gernades & Hot Dogs: I'm not entirely sure of the exact premise, but it seems to be a shooter or target practice/range type of game with quirky and funny twists.

I Expect you to Die: Sort of a puzzle/room escape type of game. I've seen some online vids of people playing and it looks rather fun, it gets recommended a lot.

Pavlov: I don't think this was as highly favored when it first came out, but again, lots of people rave about it now, so maybe they had some crucial updates or something. Seems like a classic FPS of some kind.

Blade & Sorcery: The most I've seen played  of this was from Pewdiepie, and he had tons of fun with it (knees!!.) Looks pretty decent, not sure if there's much story there, I might have to research that a bit more.

Subnautica: People talk about how amazing this game is... you do have to play it with a controller I believe, which takes away from it somewhat, but I keep hearing people talk about it, so maybe I want to try it, maybe.

Stormlands: To be honest, not much of a clue what this game is about, I believe you fly around or zip line around or something with hot-air balloons, but I could be wrong.

The Under Presents: This is some sort of social/performance piece, kind of game, with a live aspect to it and time travel or something. It is made by the same people who did Virtual Virtual Reality, so I anticipate it will be a bit mind-bending and entertaining.

Vacation Simulator: Job Simulator was fun and I hear this one is very similar. Not as highly favored, but seems like the kind of game I will enjoy.

As well as all of these listed, there are a couple games that I am looking forward to... although it's mostly just, Half Life: Alyx. I've been a fan of Half Life since Half-Life 2, shortly after it was released... I've gone back and played through a majority of Half-Life 1, but it never really captured my attention. Also have played through a lot of Half Life: Episode 2. I absolutely love and beat multiple times both Portal games, and Valve in general just does things right. The fact they are dedicating the next Half Life saga to VR specifically, and judging from the trailer it looks absolutely amazing and engrossing, but also, makes me worry that my computer will even be able to run it. I maxed out my PC when I built it, but that was over 3 years ago, and the only upgrade since was to my graphic card about a year ago (980 ti.) so I think I can run it OK, but now I'm thinking about upping my CPU and getting a 2080 ti (just to be safe.) I'm foolish, I know, but it's stuff like this that excites me, so might as well splurge occasionally. We'll see.

In conclusion... VR is breaking ground, it's a great time to jump in because we're at a good spot and it's only going to get better.