f-log

The Oculus Quest 2 is curse and blessing. Pick up and play, sell your soul to Zuckerburg!

I have found the headset is not comfortable and this seems to be a common theme amongst reviewers. The display is not super clear and the way you wear the headset can ruin the sharpness of the visuals when moved 1mm.

But, the PRICE! It is so cheap and if you are willing to hunt around there is a lot of high quality free content.

There is a set of hidden games on the Oculus store that are pre-approval. Not necessarily free, but, most are. To get to them open the Oculus Browser in the headset and search for the web address
https://applab.games/

Then any game listed can be installed directly by following the link and making sure you are logged in. I had to allow Oculus permission to connect to Facebook.

One of the Games I tried was "Puzzling Places Beta" which is just a 3D jigsaw puzzle experience. But, it is so good. Really well done and very relaxing. Also, get very hard. From 20 pieces to 100 and then 200.

After almost five years I am now VR ready. Nothing to do with having new hardware, I mean I can finally stomach moving in VR.

I had totally avoided any VR experiences on the Vive that didn't involve teleporting and the Vive supported this wholeheartedly. Any game/experience that had sliding motion also had teleporting, usually as the default.
The feeling of the world around you sliding past you (think virtual roller coaster) mad me very queasy, very quickly and then it could take many hours to recover.

The Oculus Quest 2 on the hand expects many games and experiences to be slide to move and not teleport. It also offers lots of "Google cardboard videos" which track the rotation of your headset but no movement. When you rotate your head the pivot point is not in the center of the headset and this setup also used to make me want to hurl.
I kept reading that everyone who had the same response as me just powered through it, so instead of giving up I tried to find a good VR experience that I could gradually train myself in.

There was a free app on the Quest from NASA allowing you to explore the ISS (International Space Station) and complete mini missions. I knew it would be rough due to all the floating around, but I found that the design of the space station also meant I could grab a rail at almost anytime and arrest my motion.

The ISS experiences is a lot of fun and there are a number of support videos with astronauts describing life and work. These along with the mini missions and space walk allowed me to try out floating in VR in short bursts where I felt in control at all time.

Eventually I had reviewed all the videos and completed all the missions and was ready for something new. The kids had bought Population:One which is a battle royal game in the fortnite vein. Needless to say, you need to slide to move around, there is also some flying and tiny amount of falling. It was not perfect, but I manged to stay in the game until dead and then used the spectator mode to fly above the battle field. I needed rest afterwards and felt a bit "off". Nothing like the dizzy and sick feelings I would have had previously.

I still find a hour of intensive VR play quite draining, but I can jump back in after some hydration!