Mama's VR Essentials! Sept. 9, 2021

There quite a few great VR titles. Some are great for people playing for the first time- some are essential titles to play later on when you're used to it because motion sickness isn't fun.
Also, don't say there's barely any VR games if 1. you don't even look, or 2. you only play one game and you don't want to leave that comfort zone. (Looking at a few people here :creep:)
Here's my list:


Beat Saber - A great and very addictive VR music game! It'll cost you $30, but in my opinion this game just isn't worth that much WITHOUT all the available mods. With mods, the experience gets infinitely better.
Great for a first-timer.
Oculus, Steam, PSVR

Pistol Whip - Another amazing music game. I much prefer this game's vanilla soundtrack compared to Beat Saber. You shoot people to the beat!
Good for experienced players
Oculus, Steam

VRchat - Best social VR game. This is pretty much our version of the Oasis. You can be anything you want, and go anywhere you want with friends! Or you can go out in VR public and meet new people. There's limitless possibilities to what you can do.
Great for first-timers
Oculus, Steam

Rec Room - A social VR sports and activities game! Many call this game the "Wii Sports of VR" for the activities you can do. Meet and play with people all around the world, or just hang out with friends. You can play paint ball or laser tag, go on a quest, race people on a parkour course, explore thousands of player created rooms or make your own, and more!
Good for people with a bit of VR experience.
Oculus, Steam, PSVR, IOS, Xbox, Android

Richie's Plank Experience - This is the very first game I'd recommend. What is it? You'll have to see for yourself ;p
Good for first time, small chance that the first-timer may be traumatized after though... meh.
Oculus, Steam, PSVR

Job Simulator - Silly cartoony VR fun! If you haven't played Job Simulator, you haven't experienced one of the biggest VR classics ever. You don't want that in your reputation do ya?
Great for first-timers. If you get sick playing this, you might not wanna get into VR.
Oculus, Steam, PSVR

The Climb 1 & 2- Mountain climbing in VR! Scale building, mountains, and more in this realistic surreal VR experience. Heavy recommendation.
Great for first-timers
Oculus

Lone Echo - Hands down one of the best VR games there is. An amazing story about you and your crew out in space. I can't stress enough how necessary this is.
Great for first timers, this game uses a unique movement system that both increases immersion, and makes the game near impossible to get motion sick in.
Oculus

Moss - Beautiful, relaxing puzzle game. Join Quill, and help her in her journey through the world of Moss! This game is a masterpiece, and you will not regret buying it.
Good for beginners, but I'd suggest trying one or two other games first.
Oculus, Steam, PSVR

Superhot VR - Time moves as fast as you move! This VR fighting game is a must-have, and you will not regret it.
Great for first-timers
Oculus, Steam, PSVR

Robo Recall - Basically the most fun way to beat up/shoot/trash robots
Great for first-timers
Oculus

I Expect You To Die 1 & 2- Some of the best puzzle VR games there is. They're an escape room-style series, in which you play as a spy in the 1900s.
Great for beginners
Steam, Oculus, PSVR

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR - Need I say more? Even if you've already played Skyrim, it's worth it to replay the game because it is amazing in VR. (Requires a few mods for it to be good because the devs were kinda lazy but still)
Not good for inexperienced players.
Steam (Works with Oculus headsets)

The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinner - A zombie survival game that's worth playing? Unheard of nowadays, but this somehow is one! One of the best VR horror and survival games, with a captivating story.
Steam, Oculus, PSVR

Boneworks - An absolute essential above all others. If you like Half Life... or even if you don't, you're very likely to fall in love with it! (Avoid all spoilers)
WARNING: This is one of the most intense VR games there is, with absolutely no anti-motion sickness measures, to have the best possible immersion.
Oculus, Steam

And finally:
Half Life: Alyx - This game... is a MASTERPIECE. The environments, the story, everything! This game is worth every cent.
Not really the best idea for first-timers.
Steam

Honorable mentions:
Baby Hands
Blade and Sorcery
Pavlov VR
No Man's Sky VR
Vacation Simulator
Deisim
Duck Season


And that is my list as of 9/21/2021. I tried to list only one or two games per genre, otherwise this would have been a bit longer. About the short descriptions, it was just to save space. If any of these interest you, they're very easy to find on google. Or the storefronts they're listed on.

Don't pirate Quest 2 games, it's extremely risky. For Oculus users, SteamVR does have better performance and latency.

Aaand that's all for today :3
  • Like
Reactions: 5 people

Comments

Why is pirating Quest 2 games risky? I know somebody had hacked it, but not much more beyond that, I have been toying with buying a Quest 2, the increase storage on base package is a big sell point
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
@bazamuffin

It's more up to the individual to decide
But Oculus is selling the Quest 2 so cheap that they actually lose money with every sale, meaning they entirely rely on software sales. The Quest 2 can easily detect if you own the game you're running. They don't do anything yet, but Oculus has access to a full backlog of every game you run on the Q2, and it flags pirated ones. It's a heavy future risk, but you can decide if you want to or not.
 
Honestly, I hope that one day I can get a really good PC and a whole-ass Valve Index for VR. All I have now is that VR Cardboard nintendo made.

Also isn't there a mod for Boneworks on the workshop that puts Protogens into the game?
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
eventually i'll get around to at least playing the climb, one of these days.

until you fall is a really good game, and it's still getting content afaik!

i've never had luck...uh, yarr'ing games on my cv1...they always crash. and sales aren't very common, that i've seen, haha.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
If you ever need assistance… I can… not show you some good places to yarr your heart out with no crashes cough discord cough ;p

The Climb 2 came out recently- haven’t tried it, but I loved the climb 1… after it took me MONTHS to realize that you unlock more levels by going back to the tutorial section because they didn’t specify that you’d get a more advanced one every time you came back that opened new stuff ;O;

Until you fall- I now own it because of humble bundle, but… it controlled quite strange for me. In the Brief time I tried it, I got the impression that it was basically Hades in VR.
 
I found The Climb so boring. I don't get the appeal at all.

But I must say Synth Riders > Beat Saber. It's so much more fun and a much better workout. Also importing custom songs is incredibly easy and doesn't require hacks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
budget cuts and budget cuts 2 are 2 great VR games, but yeah I do think these kinds of lists can help people find games they might've missed, I still haven't even tried the climb I just find the premise unappealing, climb wall, cool now what? climb more wall......unless I'm missing anything every review/description of the game I have seen have basically just described it as wall climbing simulator
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
@shaunj66 i personally gotta say Synth Riders is nowhere near as good. And soon the Q2’s version of beat saber will be getting a huge update for mod support- so you might want to look at that when it comes around.

Budget Cuts was good- part 2 had awful reviews for some reason

The climb- well I guess that depends on how much one likes climbing. I know that even in real life I’d would never consider doing the stuff I do in the climb. I think it’s more for the sightseeing.
(Full disclosure: I got it back when they gave away 6 free games with each headset)
 
OH I forgot to mention, the Quest 2 has App Lab. App Lab is a place for independent developers to more easily publish their games.
The problem is… App Lab games don’t naturally appear on the oculus store. You either have to search the exact title, or go to a link for it from somewhere else

Here’s a place to find a lot

(Going to an App Lab game link will take you to a hidden Oculus store page, you don’t need a different account)
https://applab.games/
 
I didn't love Job Simulator or Vacation Simulator, I just found them rather basic and they didn't really do anything interesting enough to make me want to keep playing. Accounting+ on the other hand was excellent, the humor reminds me a lot of Rick and Morty's best. Definitely give that a try - it's cheap. Or grab the old Accounting which is free and see if you want to pay for the full version after trying that, Accounting+ is essentially an extended version of that with more content.
Richie's Plank Experience seemed to require some setup and it seems to expect you to have an actual plank on hand to make the experience work, which I don't have. Still need to figure out how to set it up so I can have my brother try it /shrug

I recommend people try SpaceEngine and Paper Beast. They are/were the top 2 results if you look in the VR category on Steam and sort by ratings (and 2 of the only "Overwhelmingly Positive" VR games/experiences on Steam)

SpaceEngine is a universe simulator, you can speed through the universe at hyper speed, zoom in and out to different scales to look at galaxies, solar systems, planets, it's fun to play around with but it's not really a game, it's nonetheless very impressive. Think of it as Google Earth for the entire universe - although most of it is procedurally generated, since we don't have sufficient data for the entire universe.

Paper Beast is a very atmospheric puzzle exploration game. VR is quite lacking in atmospheric exploration games like this, but they work extremely well with the high level of immersion you get from VR, and I can't wait to see more of them. It's a simple concept with simple yet beautiful looking graphics and an excellent soundtrack that goes along with what is happening. One of my favorite VR games so far, it made me feel a sense of awe I have not felt since I first tried the Oculus Rift DK1 many years back as my first VR experience ever. It's presented like an interactive piece of art, it's very surreal and interesting looking.

I would also recommend Pixel Ripped 1995, I got it based on a previous GBAtemp Recommends: https://gbatemp.net/threads/gbatemp-recommends-pixel-ripped-1995.582527/
That thread explains it better than I could, so I'll just say that I thoroughly loved it. It sounds like a pretty simple concept, simulating playing games in your childhood, but there's far more to the game than just that, shit gets crazy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
I can’t believe I forgot to add Accounting+, that’s a great game.

Paper Beasts- I own it now, but before about two days ago I had somehow never heard of it the entire time I was in the VR scene. To be honest… I still don’t know what it’s about after looking at the steam page, so it’s time to try that blind.

I enjoyed Job Simulator… but there’s not really anything to do after you do all the jobs.
I own Vacation Simulator- I have since it came out-
I still haven’t tried it… and its still installed… why am I like this :cry:
 
Essentially Paper Beast is about solving puzzles using the various animals you befriend. And it's also about the journey. You're given no directions, you just start playing around with the environment and seeing what you can do.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
ive always wanted a vr headset, but it was never an urgent need, i wanted to upgrade everything else first.

now i have upgraded everything, and

welp its vr time i guess
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
@Scott_pilgrim Get a HP Reverb G2 or a DecaGear because fuck Facebook.
Unless you have the money for a Index or a Vive Pro 2 or somehing that is.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
I’d say don’t even consider getting a headset right now. Wait until the end of the year at least.
Oculus is most likely going to announce a new headset on October 28th during their event, and Valve is more than likely going to announce their new standalone headset by the end of the year.

Decide on the Facebook situation using your own morals, but either way just wait a few months to see if anything new rolls around
 
Yeah but like I said fuck Facebook (and I'm just assuming that the Index is out of his price range, so the Index 2 is likely not an option)
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
I am 90% the next Valve headset will be standalone…
Wait Pilgrim do you have a good PC for VR?
If not, the probably happening new headsets will be your only financially feasible choices.
 

Blog entry information

Author
Mama Looigi
Views
986
Comments
38
Last update

More entries in Personal Blogs

More entries from Mama Looigi

General chit-chat
Help Users
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: https://youtu.be/MddR6PTmGKg?si=mU2EO5hoE7XXSbSr