Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

VR has finally started coming of age. I am very much enjoying this device but I'm also very annoyed at having to have a Facebook account. I'm also not very fond of the way the device daisy-chains to connect to Steam, and I've had problems across the two VR systems. There is a learning curve here for sure. That said, this is a whole lot of fun. UPDATE: lots of usage later I have discovered that this device is perfect for running a real-life emulation of what gaming was like in the early 90s. Conflicts and drivers and incompatibilities and half-ready features and buggy, homebuilt games. Oh my. I am not sure what the timeplayed to timefixing ratio might be with this thing, but I have to admit that my 'fun' threshold has been crossed. Here are some of the things you will learn about when you get one of these, to save you some time on Google: Oculus native vr, Oculus Link VR, Steam VR (always crashes eventually), Sidequest, Oculus developer account, VorpX, Virtual Desktop, games that support 90hz and games that do not, trying to reclaim your Steam titles from the Oculus, accidentally buying the native, link, AND steam versions of an app. The list goes on and on. Also, to me, anything that makes me take the headset off and go back to my pc is a strike against. Oculus link will fail at least 30% of the time. Also, if you want to attempt a wireless connection to the device you have to have a very specific network setup for it to even almost work. You must have your PC connected to the router by CABLE so that the only wireless connection is from the mask to the router. *** I accomplished this by hanging an extra access point from my Ethernet connection, bridged to my WiFi. Connecting directly to the private AP worked better in Link, almost perfectly in Virtual Desktop, but, Sidequest stopped working because you can't change the IP in there-- anyway, nothing is easy on this thing. I'm going to file this under "really cool and almost works novelty" and go back to gaming on my 3080/240hz modern setup. I'll strap the two ancient low-resolution, low-performance monitors to my face with the snorkling mask as an experiment but I've given up on any notion of actually playing any of these titles. Most of the time you end up taking your mask on and off to troubleshoot things and never progress in the games, unless you like jaggies and blurriness, freezes and skipped frames. Also, if you plan on getting the most out of this VR thing you need to have a VERY large, empty space to play in- you can choose to play seated and stationary in some games, but you still may end up knocking stuff off of your desk. Be careful. Which brings me to the METAVERSE. OK, I understand what Zuck is going for. Here are some problems that will put that idea in the ground: * Headaches and nausea for everyone thanks to the low quality graphics, if you wear glasses you will have problems. *ALL of the "meta" apps are creepy and featureless works in progress. I've never had any desire to either float around as a noseless cartoon head with three fingered hands or play a hyper-realistic sex robot. *The user community is, by definition, very very young and very very spoiled. This is a rich kid's toy (or a toy for a retiree with too much time on his hands.) It takes a beefy computer to make this work. Not cheap. *Mandatory Facebook integration: I don't expect this to last. (BTW, anyone who thinks that Zuck didn't know that "Meta" means "Death" really needs some critical-thinking skill training.) There is something creepy going on here. So the "metaverse" will be populated solely by people with money and time and huge empty play spaces who enjoy playing ping-pong with strangers on the death network. This is not an idea destined for popular acceptance. Don't invest in it. This is not ready for prime time yet, and it appears that Facebook is intent on developing the technology solely to enslave people with it. This thing COULD be fun, but it ain't there yet.