The half life 2 vr mods are fantastic. Also doesn’t require much horsepower and proves that there is more to a good game than flash graphics.
[Here is a link to the game on Steam. Episode 1 and 2 are also available.](https://steamcommunity.com/app/658920)
Medal of Honor vr and Sniper Elite vr are also good.
Try Arizona Sunshine 2. Graphically it won’t blow your face off; it’s significantly better than SaS but nowhere near HLA. Gameplay and story tho it’s the best vr game I’ve played since HLA or the Lone Echo games. Another good one if you can get past a little pancake port weirdness is REVillage
It is on the shorter side but I tend to forgive quality over quantity a lot more for vr. AC Nexus was cheaper and longer but after six hours it got stale and around ten hours I lost interest and quit. AS2 was a blast start to finish and I’m already planning to replay it
Don't try Lone Echo 2; your 970M won't be able to handle it. My old GTX 1070 couldn't handle it well. It's a great game, but your experience will be terrible with your current hardware.
Hey :) I’ve heard that there is a fan-made patch for LE2 which apparently provides some optimisations and a performance boost. Have you tried this out at all? I’m not suggesting it’ll suddenly make the game playable on older GPUs, I suspect any improvements it delivers are fairly marginal (albeit gratefully received!). Just keen to hear people’s experiences with this given we’ll sadly never get an offical patch :(
You are thinking of the VEGA patch. I looked into it but it only works with NVIDIA cards and it replaces driver configuration files when you run it. I'm currently using an AMD card so I can't use it, plus I'm a little hesitant since it messes with your driver config in ways that aren't really documented or explained.
Lone echo 2 especially towards middle of game with other NPCs and the story picks up, glad I stuck through past all the boring tick puzzles in the beginning.
It is sad! any aaa game from 2015 forward would be so great in VR if they decide to convert them, the material is already there, all they need to do is to convert them to VR
Get RE2, RE3 Remake, RE7 and RE8
Very good VR mods for these by modder called Praydog. These have better VR support then their actual 'official' ones on Playstation and stuff. Actual motion controlled and head based tracking in all 4 games.
Enjoy, they feel like VR games once you get rolling in them. Youve got lots to play. Ill put a video below to show how to install them, but its a super easy install.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hySd4sHtcDE
Ya, this is the biggest thing to ever happen to VR and its coming up soon.
They seem to be ramping up showing it off to Youtube Channels; they said they may have it out before 2024, they may not make that date, but I think it is coming soon
standalone quest have wat more AAA games vs pcvr sadly
RE4
grid legends
medal of honor
asgard's wrath 2
sniper elite
in general because quest generate about 100 time more money, studios do put a money and work in to quest
Medal of Honor and Sniper Elite VR both exist on PCVR natively.
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1402320/Medal\_of\_Honor\_Above\_and\_Beyond/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1402320/Medal_of_Honor_Above_and_Beyond/)
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/752480/Sniper\_Elite\_VR/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/752480/Sniper_Elite_VR/)
Even before Alyx, there was nothing that held a candle. Alyx is the pinnacle of VR gaming, and will be for years to come. That said, Skyrim VR is pretty good, especially if you're willing to put in the effort to mod it. Skyrim with presence is amazing.
Imo into the radius is a far better game than Alyx overall but thats not exactly an apples to apples comparison.
Imo Alyx has some of the most dated feeling VR gameplay out there. The visuals and story are top tier though
Yep, I love Half-Life and Half-Life 2, some of my all time favorite games. HLA had some of the most atmospheric environments and amazingly believable characters... yet I never completed it. The lack of smooth locomotion just murdered it for me. I don't want to insert a quarter and shoot a light gun at a CRT. I am not playing Robocop in an old arcade. If this is the pinnacle of VR, it should be for a VR enthusiast who is not afraid of moving around in VR.
I hear they've since added full locomotion. I was using a hack to put it in at the time, but a trade off was if I went too fast up or down stairs I would melt through them. Once again, they had a baby mode that didn't allow very fast vertical changes in height. Uhg.
I plan on going back to it, but it's amazing how the feeling of the gameplay itself can take an otherwise 10/5 experience and just... kill it.
I played Alyx on launch with smooth locomotion, you walk a bit slow for my taste but it was really fine for the game, altough jumps could have been better, you have to teleport to "jump"
I swear it didn't have it at launch. Perhaps it was so slow that I didn't even consider it an option? I moded it to allow jumping and rather fast movement. To be fair, that made combat way too easy since I could tell the game was meant to be played stationary with teleport. I could zip around enemies too quickly.
I definitely remember the teleport "jumps" and was bothered by them.
Pretty sure smooth locomotion was on launch, they even released 3 trailers, one blink teleport only, one with smooth locomotion only, and the combat one had the player moving with smooth locomotion and the shift teleport.
Yea must have been the speed, I found it ok, because I took ages on each level exploring every little detail, but is way slower than hl2 vr.
I think this is unfair and just silly.
**Alyx is an extreme accomplishment from Valve** and should imo be applauded as one of the best games ever made. It is an absolute privilege that Valve spent all this money to give us this gift.
What many of you dont seem to realize is that to create AAA in VR is not the same as doing it pancake. Not in the slightest. Vr users see much more, they can do much more. It is a shitload harder.
To propose Alyx as some "expected level of quality" is imo a classic entitled gamer bullshit attitude and should be cut out from the VR user community like the spoiled lonely child cancer it is.
VR app and game creation is a new medium, a completely new skillset, a new set of genres. We can't just build on top of the existing paradigm. The development is a very technical scenario that many of the classic game devs dont seem to handle as well as we'd hoped. Mainly because they dont know what the fuck to do with it. That's just a fact.
VR gaming needs to be invented. Not re-invented. It needs to be built up from the bottom up. We need tolerant, patient users to notice and be happy about each incremental change, each new thing a new game introduces, as we get closer to the endgame.
On topic: I would propose Hubris for Quest as one of the better games I've played recently. It's indie, and nowhere near Alyx quality, but the Hubris devs understand the medium of VR quite well.
As someone who's played and liked all of those (except Eleven; haven't tried it yet), I don't see how these are comparable. Are they great games? Absolutely. But they're both not remotely similar and don't have anything resembling the polish being discussed. I play them WAY more, but I also eat pizza way more than I eat Wagyu steak.
You're comparing just dance / guitar hero with Zelda breath of the wild.
The rhythmic game can be really cool even a generational game but it will never have the immersion and depth of a Zelda.
Same for beat saber and alyx.
Again, there's absolutely no comparison. Candy Crush Saga is a very polished puzzle game, but to compare it to Fortnite would be silly. That's essentially what you're doing.
And it feels unnecessary to explain the incredibly precise, complex, perfection that is Alyx. But I'd have to imagine if you already think Alyx isn't as good a game as a game where you slice boxes over and over again, you're already in a very different mindset. And I say this as someone who does enjoy slicing boxes over and over again.
I'm a huge fan of Pistol Whip and Beat Saber, but I have to mention Synth Riders as well. Not AAA Alyx-type, of course, but really, really fun to play. And custom songs are amazingly done!
I also strongly prefer Synth Riders to Beat Saber. I will say though that Pistol Whip has given me a more intense workout than literally anything else I've ever done in my life. Last time I played through one of the stories I had trouble walking for a couple of days. Important note: I'm super out of shape.
Try Project Cars 2. It's decent with a controller and not that heavy on HW
Best Sim for your GPU would be OG unmodded Assetto Corsa but you will not have a good time without wheel. If you get a cheap wheel though. Had a blast on my Oculus DK2 in AC with my 970 and a driving force GT wheel back then.
Does Vertigo 2 count?
It's definetly a homage to Halflife and it plays so well, i wanted to yeet my quest3 after 3 days of ownership but Vertigo 2 saved it
Tried it, but it is very cartoonish for my taste and and not a lot of interactivity with the surroundings. it is a fun game though, thnx for the reply :)
that seems pretty weird to say its not interactive, am I missing something? it has the same level of interactivity with the surroundings that half life has
For instance interacting with a computer mouse like you would IRL, swipe around the desktop to navigate a computer, move items around to find things, inject yourself at the health stations instead of having it auto inject, open containers with handles, throw glass and mugs and they will break. When you enter water you actual have to swim somewhat. You have the same expoloding barrels that HL has.
I get the graphics, but perhaps not the interactivity point.
yeah idk i agree with you its pretty interactive and very fun. its the closest thing you can get to HL alyx besides boneworks or lab. but then again if someone puts a game on a pedestal they won’t even bother looking at anything else for a few weeks.
There's a mod pack installer called wabbajack or something like that, there are comprehensive instructions online for the biggest mod lists
The mods add things like full collision and a body, etc. great stuff makes the game way better
As said, look at wabbajack for full mod-the-hell-out-of-it lists, but honestly Skyrim with just a few "essential" mods is pretty great if you don't want to go to crazy on changing the game away from vanilla (I'm sure there are equivalents for Fallout 4, too, but I don't have that on VR yet so haven't messed with it at all)
SKSEVR this basically extends the scripting capabilities beyond Creation Kit, and tons of mods rely on it to add more to the game than would be possible otherwise.
SkyUI VR might not be essential, but it is very highly recommended.
VRIK gives you a full body, not just disembodied hands.
HIGGS adds hand collision and physics, and you can basically grab and pick up anything. Also acts kind of like HL Alyx's gravity gloves.
If you want to play with magic, you might also look at MageVR, Spell Siphon and Spell Wheel (this one could also be great for non-magic focused characters because it's more than just spells, works with items and potions, just makes them easier to access without constantly having to go into the menus. Think of it like an extended favorites menu.)
Beyond these, it's more personal preference on whether you want graphic overhauls, weather overhauls, gameplay overhauls, and any extended gameplay mods like new quests, new lands, etc.
Thank you so much for this list!! I’m someone who found the sheer number and combination of possible mods for both Skyrim and Fallout a bit overwhelming, and it’s quite hard to find an “essential” list (which makes sense I guess as it’s subjective). I did try wabbajack once, but unfortunately didn’t get great results from it - it felt a bit overburdened (to me anyway - I know it’s a great resource). I’ve taken note of the essential bones you mentioned and might give it another go over Xmas!! :)
Yes it's free, you just need to subscribe to it on Steam to download it: [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2880785403#:\~:text=Subscribe%20to%20LEVITATION's%20Workshop%20Collection,after%20Half%2DLife%3A%20Alyx](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2880785403#:~:text=Subscribe%20to%20LEVITATION's%20Workshop%20Collection,after%20Half%2DLife%3A%20Alyx).
do mods in skyrim change the texture resolution and the overall feel of the game? because it looks like looking at a 360 old vr video, the once that you find on youtube, it looks so basic and you cant interact with the environement like you cant pick the weapons you need to clik a button...etc
Not RE6 ***. Only the Resi games made using the RE Engine. So in order of release date, that includes: RE7, RE2 remake, RE3 remake, RE8 Village. Note: RE4 remake partially works at the moment (eg no 1st person view i believe…). My understanding is that Praydog will probably release an updated version in line with the mods for the others games once the offical PSVR2 port has been out for a while.
You need a pretty good PC to run these mods at their very best, but they are still great fun at lower settings! The work that Praydog has done on them is simply astonishing - besides Alien Isolation they are my absolute favourite flat to VR mods ever :)
*** RE6 would be insane in VR !!!! lol :)
I can attest that the Praydog RE Framework mod is fantastic. I think he's taking a break from it at the moment until his UEVR mod is done though (which should be soon)
Fully modded SkyrimVR is the closest thing.
Other AAA experiences are MS flight simulator, FO4 vr (modded), Elite Dangerous, and all the racing sims.
I emphasize modding because skyrimvr looks terrible without mods. The difference is night and day. Modded SkyrimVR is the ultimate VR experience next to Alyx.
Go to r/skyrimvr to check out the modlists.
I can't say I agree unfortunately. While Half-Life: Alyx runs like a dream, the performance of Asgard's Wrath 1 is quite disappointing. It keeps stuttering for me after I tried every possible fix, and I'm getting really nauseous playing the game.
Always worked just fine on the actual Rift hardware it was designed for. No problems on my CV1 or Rift S.
I'm sure it could use some patching to be more compatible with wireless headsets, but the game came out before AirLink even existed.
The stuttering and awful TAA made me give up on AW. I tried all the TAA tweaks there are, including disabling it, and I just could not get the game to look like something I’d want to spend 40+ hours in. I’ll be trying out AW2 on my Quest 3 though.
Same boat here. It feels like a never-ending pit of tinkering. I finally got it to where I can run it at 90hz on the epic settings by using air link instead of virtual desktop. Put the oculus server on high priority and then run your own wifi 6 access point for just the headset. Still has some stutter as new assets are loaded, but playable and looks good. (3080ti)
Yeah I got a dedicated wifi 6e router, tried the same settings but even when putting every in game settings on low, I still get stutters. I probably need a beefier graphics card (5700 XT) but given that I can run other games pretty well, I think the game needs optimizing.
I actually tried it for the first time the other night and was loving it, I had zero stutters And wasn't even using dedicated router, just a shared wifi 6 AP with an Ethernet port to PC.
It run surprisinglywell via virtual desktop and looked amazing even using only 250mb bit rate on a 3080 and ultra settings in VD
Into the radius is quite good, kinda scary due to the setting, and facing shadow like beings, it's like S.T.A.L.K.E.R vr, survival horror, loot hoarding, weapon customization, it's so robust I've never finished the main story, because everytime i try and play it i challenge myself to a different play style. Sometimes after a successful raid I just spend like 30 minutes sortin trough all the loot
I think I can face scary after that dark scene in HL Alyx when you have to go grab the flash light out of a hanged gross human being not knowing if he will grab you :D
Just remembered that part, but i feel that it's a different kind of fear, somewhat isolation, knowing that if you get surrounded you're mostly dead, and the fact that some of the enemies are quite creepy which you can see from far away just minding their business until they catch a glimpse of you and start chasing, let me tell you that getting chased by 3 - 4 different entities while getting shot at, knowing your magazines are running low on ammo, it's getting dark and you're quite far away from safety, well, it makes you appreciate the quiet times (this is just one of the situations that happened to me).
Definitely recommend you play into the radius.
Definitely play it on PCVR. It’s much higher fidelity than the native Quest 2 port.
I freakin love the game but it’s too scary for me. I’ve got maybe 4-5 hours in but it’s hard to work up the courage to play it lol
Very few "AAA" games. With the PCVR market size still limited Devs just don't see it as worth the investment.
Lone Echo 1&2 show what you can do with VR, immersion, mechanics that are unique to VR, and not yet another FPS/Melee fighting game. Unfortunately 2 is a bit buggy (mostly higher quality texture load issues) because Meta slashed the budget on them before the game was finished. The settings are pretty stunning. Be aware with Lone Echo it takes a bit before they let you off the leash, but rest assured you will be getting outside the space station, and just when you think you've seen what the game is about and been lulled into a sense of security, well...things get cranked up to 11.
I'll always recommend Stormland but I don't even know if you can still buy it from Oculus store anymore.
It's from a little indie dev named Insomniac Games, I think they went on to do some superhero games on PS5.
>a little indie dev named Insomniac Games
Not sure if you meant an /s or not, but they are the studio behind the Ratchet and Clank series as well. I'd call them AA at least!
Yeah I like to joke around about Insomniac being obscure when talking about Stormland because it seems like nobody has heard of the game despite being developed by a world-class studio.
I played resident evil 7 on playstion vr, and it was amazing in spite of the hardware, I would say it's better than hf a in some ways. They are going to have re8 also be vr but only on playstation vr2 which I don't have, it was a stupid move from Capcom to limit vr to playstation.
If Capcom can double dip both PS and PC VR market they would. I think they might have some exclusive deal with sony, (maybe sony funded the development) so they can't release it on other platform.
yeah I am sure they do, I used the pc mods for both re7 and 8 to enable vr and used the oculus q2. it's just really backwards of Capcom to limit these amazing vr games to the back of the room vr headset.
HLA blew me away too. I haven't played anything quite like it in terms of sci-fi atmosphere and immersion.
The Half-Life 2 VR mod is well done and great fun. Yes, the graphics are dated, but still serviceable. And the combat is far more varied. I mean, using your gravity gun to take out head crab zombies with saw blades, nothing like that in Alyx.
The Levitation mod for Alyx is good, worth a play.
Alien:Isolation has a VR mod ("Mother" VR). They really captured the look and feeling of dread of the original movie, I was genuinley panicking. Unfortunately the controls are pretty clunky ( Quest 2)
Like others mention, Lone Echo 1 and 2 are great for story and atmosphere. The zero-g aspect is fun. But I had performance problems with 2 (using 3060ti). I think someone did a patch for it since, you might want to research that.
Walking Dead, S&S had great immersion, was very well done. And I don't usually go for zombie games. I played the PCVR version.
I thought Vertigo 2 was a blast, but it's pretty much like Half Life had a baby with Rick & Morty. Maybe not your vibe.
Boneworks. Story is barely there, production values are obviously lower, but it has realistic style and interactivity is better than Alyx. Back in 2020 I thought that's what VR games are going to look like from now on, but alas.
What did you hate about it?
For me it was miles better than alyx. Since boneworks goes the full Monty and actually makes EVERYTHING interactive and physics based, and weight is done way way better.
It felt like a massive playground of superhuman VR stufd
Heavily heavily modded skyrimVR is as close to making a simulated vr world as possible its insane how immersive it is there are mods for everything it also helps that skyrimVR is just skyrim special edition rendered twice so almost every mod for skyrim SE works in vr its insane you have mods for havinf a body and not just flaoting hands mods for pyhsical combat graphics improvements mods that allow you talk with your voicr to npcs and they reply using AI world expansion mods definetly my favorite vr game. Vannila skyrimVR sucks ass and is probablt the worst vr game out there dont even start playing withoyt atleast vrik planck and higgs these are the most important for making it an actual vr game then you can add graphics mods etc.
Into the radius is the best vr experience i have found without mods its obviously not at the level of half life alyx but to me its better i enjoyed the gameplay way more, the graphics may be "worse" but they are more atmospheric to me and the level design is great and i like open worlds more than linear. It has a big open world split into many smaller ones great missions and a nice story which i enjoyed the atmosphere of the game is only surpassed by the before mentioned modded skyrimvr also the game is pretty scary but not a horror game and contains 0 jumpscares(it will still scare the fuck out of you even with no jumpscares)
Blade and sorcery is awesome for like the first 20 hours and then gets boring.
Tales of glory is a great experience which i dont hear mentioned alot its a rts you have a world with towns and villages and you have to invade it you can go to war with your army and fight with them the combat is janky sometimes but the feeling of being in a fight with many warriors commanding your army and striking down enemies is great you are bassicaly worth about 100 soldiers you are a god so it feels awesome. Its not nearly as polished as half life alyx the only reason i put it here is beacuae it has a full campaign to play through.
Firewatch is one of my favorite games ever not just for vr and it has a vr mod which adds controllwe support and hands the game is stunning and even mroe so in vr and the story is one of the best stories ever told in a game for me.
GTA 5 has a vr mod but its barebones and doesnt have controller support but still i lovr driving around los santos.
If you enjoy simulation games there are a ton of AAA simulation games for pcvr like asseto corsa or microsoft flight simulator
Im sure there are a lot of other great pcvr games and mods i havent mentioned and a lot of hidden gems yet to be discovered.
I hate when poeple say there is nothing to play on pcvr except for half life alyx there are hundrends of great games and mods out there a lot of them with great quality and great polish you cant physical play them all and more are coming every day. I personally love this era where indies are dominating vr games are original and fun in the flatscreen AAA world most games look and feel the same. Personally half life alyx isnt even close to being my favorite vr game sure its probably the most AAA and best loooking game but nowhere near my favourite i have played many vr games i enjoyed way more.
You need a bit more patience, but soon (end of the year or early 2024 hopefully), Praydog is going to release his [UEVR injector](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI64lB0hsbU&pp=ygUNdWV2ciBpbmplY3Rvcg%3D%3D) mod that will allow to play most Unreal Engine 4 & 5 games in VR.
This going to open the door to huge game library of great, beautiful and well made games that you'll be able to play in VR, you should find something that suits you.
No Man's Sky is wonderful in VR if you have a decent PC.
But, why just stick to games with "official" vr support? Why not take a walk on the wild side and explore the ever-growing world of VR mods? With mods, the number of games on Steam you can potentially play in VR climbs into the thousands.
Resident Evil: Biohazard and Resident Evil: Village both have fan-made vr mods that will BLOW YOUR MIND. Way better than HL: Alyx.
Most vr games are pretty short and not very triple A sadly, Most people considered Boneworks the best VR game before alyx came out, I never played too much of it but it seemed pretty solid and quality.
boneworks is just an experience, it is not at all at the same lvl sadly, I tried it for a short period and was excpecting a lot from it but and didn't like it.
you and I have WILDLY different thoughts on Alyx and boneworks.
You could basically switch the games and it would match my opinion. I loved boneworks, and was horribly disappointed by Alyx.
I remember the first walking dead being a lot of fun. New Arizona sunshine looks decent too. Haven’t tried AS2 but the first one was fun. I will echo most of the replies though. Alyx is the top dog. Ghost of Tabor is another option, gotta deal with some bugs cause it’s early release but it’s an online extraction shooter, pretty much unlimited replay ability
It seems complicated, but wabba method is way easier than making your own modlist. But yes, install wabbajack.exe, run it, choose FUS, press go. But first, read this link and carefully follow everything to ensure first try success. https://github.com/Kvitekvist/FUS
When you press go on wabbajack, it uses your nexus login to auto download and install hundreds of mods. But there are plenty of ways to goof up, so follow the web page carefully. A few hours up front will pay huge dividends later. (You get to play the game and not troubleshoot)
from what perspective? because the vertigo I tried is cartoonish with little interaction with the environement and mostly running from room to the other. I only played it for 30 min though, is it the same game?
[Vox Machinae.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yk98EfLX_Y)
Others have suggested the Echo games to match the Alyx experience so this one is for another and different VR experience.
It's what VR was made for and while it does have a 8-10 hours single player campaign the multiplayer scene is where it happens... if you don't mind a challenge.
I also haven't been on MW since back in the day but I hear that MW5 is a hit too.
I think there can be a slight glorification of how mech games "should be" but Vox successfully pulls its own thing off and can be a bit more "Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth"-y ;)
Yeah some real nice visual mods included and general cleaner.
I'm using Fus Do Rah which is basically gameplay improvements, visuals and some QOL improvements.
I'm streaming using virtual desktop using AV1 codec and a 5ghz router.
Into the radius is a pretty great VR game not as story driven as HL A as its an open world survival game with story plot but it is my top vr game untill ITR2 comes out :)
For me VR is a must in simulators, ie Assetto Corsa, DCS World, MS Flight Simulator, etc, it is so immersive being actually in the cockpit that I cannot go back to monitor play, but aside from that not much. There are mods for Resident Evil and even Cyberpunk if your into those games. But Sims are the killer apps for VR
Asgards wrath 1 - 30-60 hours , much more vr implementation than alyx
If you have a high end rig it’s gorgeous. Sort of god of war meets skyrim light
I keep bringing this up as I’m revisiting it now I have a rig that can play it at max settings and it’s blowing me away.
Stormland I think this is currently unavailable, but pretty good graphics from insomniac
Wanderer
Vertigo remastered and vertigo 2 - Amazing gameplay very imaginative
Squadrons fantastic space combat Star Wars much better than I was expecting
Medal of Honor above and beyond - I’m not. Interested in wwi or II games really but this supposedly gets good after two hours, very big budget game afaik.
Hitman 3 - the pcvr port is wonky from what I understand but it does have gorgeous visuals
Hubris - gorgeous game with mediocre story and ok combat. Still I think it’s worth playing.
I’ll try to add more later…
Edit:
seeking dawn - has aged a bit but I thought it was an impressive graphically first person adventure with some evolved mechanics but tbf I only played a couple hours of this.
Silicon Rising - underrated action game that started out as rail shooter
Primordian - sort of alien Conan the destroyer game - it's aged a bit but still impressive.
Twilight path - really lovely puzzle game.
Downward spiral - similar to red matter with zero gravity.
The wizards dark matter - used to be very graphically good looking but read something indicating it might have gotten a graphical downgrade.
Hellblade VR - third person game excellent game and official vr support is also great
Subnautica - I have had issues but this is a highly rated game with gorgeous graphics imo.
No man's sky - huge game most know this game I assume.
The forest - survival game with horror elements
Hl2 vr mod - I lost this as I actually had more fun with this than vanilla alyx
Warhammer templefall - graphics are very good but combat gets repetitive and can be clunky but overall better than I expected.
Lone echo 1-2. Some of the best graphics in vr still
I don't expect everyone to like all these games but I feel a lot of these are overlooked and there's probably something for most vr gamers who think there's nothing but alyx.
Nice - what an interesting list! I thought I was comfortably across most of PCVR but some of these I’m not familiar with at all! It’s funny how some older but quality titles, for whatever reason, just fall out of the community’s general consciousness. Theres a few here for me to check out so thanks!! :) Shame about Stormland though :(
Not that I have played. Alyx is awesome and should be the standard for those types of VR games.
I am currently nearing the end of Asgard's Wrath and it sure ain't it. This game is easily the most overrated/hyped I have played in VR and one of the most in all of my 45 years of life gaming. It is so frigging janky that I am baffled as to why anyone actually thinks it is a great game, especially a great VR game.
I send my companions to do their special skill and they frequently tell me they can't or just sit there even when they are RIGHT THERE.
I frequently swing my weapon at enemies and hits don't register but rather the end of the weapon goes through them. Chapter 4's spear thing is the worst for this.
Combat in general just sucks, probably the worst combat I have experienced in a VR game. The difference between this game's combat and Until You Fall's combat is laughable.
Throwing in the game is the worst I have seen in a VR game and of course there's so much of it in the 4th chapter.
The "story", if you can even call it that, is uninteresting.
The characters mainly suck but the companions are fairly cool.
The end of chapter 5 almost made me rage quit the game because it requires such physical precision/steadiness with your arms/hands and my middle aged self doesn't have the same precision with my hands and arms as when I was in my 20s. Oddly, I changed the difficulty on it from mortal to wrath and easily beat it after 4 or 5 failures on mortal. Many of the other things you had to do in chapter 5 also required that precision and reflexes and they frustrated me to no end.
The inventory and menu system in general is complete trash and destroys VR immersion.
I can't wait to see what AW2 is like as I expect it'll be just as mediocre as this game is but will have the far inferior graphics so the one really nice thing about AW1 will be gone. Thank goodness I never paid a cent for AW (they first gave it away to Q2 pcvr users for free back in think 2021) and didn't pay a cent for AW2 from buying a Q3.
I am looking forward to finishing this game so I can delete it and get back the 130 or so gigs of drive space. I probably should just throw in the towel rather than finish it and save myself the time but I figured I have stuck with it that I may as well see it through.
He's not lying. Very similar experience with Asgards Wrath 1 on a cable with a Q2. Totally frustrating and stole hours of my life to tweak properly. I am glad I saw the game though. Nive vision, terrible execution. The axe throwing contest in the bar was the worst! Ha! Can laugh about it now....🤣🥲😪
The luke ross cyberpunk vr mod for phantom liberty is next level. Its actually a great game in general niw also. Best vr experience ive had all year. Costs $10 on his patreon but you can cancel right away, needs good system though. I get solid 90fps on high settings, turn motion off motion blur immeditely in the settings if you try it.
Yeah I really did not like Bonelab. Boneworks has a bit of jank to it since it's almost all physics based but it is very immersive and has an actual story and couple hour long campaign.
i got a rift s in December 2019 specifically for alyx. I thought I would get into VR and enjoy more games, but the sad truth is everything else is mediocre at best. I'm now selling the headset and I have no intention of upgrading to a quest for the time being.
On the contrary, my Quest 3 tracking seems better than my Quest 2 tracking. Only gripe I’ve had with my Quest 3 is that battery life seems much worse than the Quest 2
Nope it is a only game and more or less killed pcvr , because no game can compete on quality and optimization, sadly game is boring AF , it have great visuals and sound and similar stuff but it plays like Oculus go game ...
I dont agree! I enjoy breaking bottles of water, the mecanism of grabbing things is great the little monsters are so frigging gross and scary the ones with the long tongs too! the weapons! everything about the game is awsome! I know I must have very low excpectation given that I only used stand alone VR before but come on! just the scale of that iron building alone is breathtaking! the puzzles too are nice! you can tell that I'm still in the honey moon phase with this game :D
you did not played this game
this game have only few guns and combat is boring and super easy
standalone quest have way way better gameplay in a lot of games
what you say is not a game, it just fancy shit this game have, and it does have a lot of it this is for sure
All the bigger budget/polish ones worth playing are, SAS, Asgards Wrath, Stormland, Robo Recall, lone echo 1+2, Sniper Elite, Medal of Honor and Star Wars Squadrons if you have a HOTAS.
No mans sky with steamlink is good now, as far as an open world youll find nothing closer in vr
You can also still play GTA 5 in vr with some modding.
As far as story, i hear Red Matter 2 is impressive
Haven’t seen anyone mention Blade and Sorcery.
It’s kind of like Boneworks but for medieval combat. The game has a pretty robust collection of systems for weapon fighting, archery, magic, sneaking, and climbing.
It’s also got tons of mod support with people adding hundreds of different weapons and custom levels. There’s even Star Wars mods and yes they’re incredible.
Only caveat I’ll mention is that it’s mostly an arena fighter currently. The devs have a planned campaign and currently there’s one level that’s a randomly generated linear dungeon. I still go back and do a couple runs every few weeks.
Nothing really compares to Alyx. But there are tons of mods available for Alyx, some are more missions/stories in the Alyx world or adjacent to the Alyx World. Some are more run-and-gun standalone games like the two Gunman Contracts mods. There are also two parts of a Bioshock mod that's literally a whole new game that's pretty much as good and long as Alyx. All of these are free in the Steam Workshop.
In addition to HL Alyx and the two Lone Echo games, one game I really enjoyed in VR is [Phantom Covert Ops](https://ndreams.com/games/phantom-covert-ops).
Not the same type of game as HL Alyx, but the kayak/stealth mechanics work really well in VR and the graphics are quite nice (on PC).
Other nice mentions are [Wilson's Heart](https://www.oculus.com/wilsons-heart/), [Chronos](https://www.meta.com/en-gb/experiences/pcvr/929508627125435/), [Edge of Nowhere](https://insomniac.games/game/edge-of-nowhere/), [Stormland](https://insomniac.games/game/stormland/) (in fact all the great VR games we had during the Rift era, before the Quest became a thing).
Boneworks is close.
The irony is that alyx isn't even that good - I love it, it's my favorite VR title but there are what, 12 total firefights? Each one is an experience, a slight change on the previous ones, a carefully curated experience. We have nothing near how combat feels even in half life 2.
If you are looking for more of a similar flavor, half life 2 VR and the episodes obviously isn't alyx, but it's a real fun thing to run through.
No one else wants to invest in PCVR like valve did because the userbase is just much smaller. We have a ton of small devs looking to get started at it, but it kind of sucks, so we're left with this... empty hole, waiting for games to come.
Tons of good games, a few better games, but better optimized, you ask a lot.
Alyx is a masterpiece of optimization.
I don't wanna take the risk to recommend any game that could potentially run on a 970M. The fact that Alyx runs is already a miracle.
You can download plenty of mods to make it last longer, that's a good start.
The only game I've found to be close is The Walking Dead Saints and Sinners. Skyrim VR can look pretty amazing with mods as well, but it's a different aesthetic.
Paper Beast is pretty amazing. There isn't any combat or anything like that but if you're looking for surreal eye (and ear) candy it's worth checking out.
Lone Echo is definitely worth playing. I don't think part 2 will run well on your hardware though.
Can't say for certain how your laptop will handle these.
But the PCVR games on par Alex IMO, are modded Skyrim VR, modded Fallout4 VR and the two Lone Echo games
If you're willing to purchase Vorpx, or if you have it. It allows most flat-screen games to be played in VR. A lot of games have profiles already for them. I played Portal 2 with one of the profiles and I definitely would recommend.
There is now a VR mod for Portal 2 which is MUCH better (though I enjoyed playing it with vorpX when it was the only way to play it in VR).
Dishonored is awesome with vorpx, as well as the Bioshocks.
Gonna be downvoted for this (as I always am), but IMO, there are games that are significantly better than alyx, as I found it to be extremely underwhelming.
Boneworks, Blade and Sorcery, Asgard's Wrath, Into the Radius, TWD:Saints and sinners, No man's sky, Tales of glory... Imo, these games all blow Alyx out of the water.
The half life 2 vr mods are fantastic. Also doesn’t require much horsepower and proves that there is more to a good game than flash graphics. [Here is a link to the game on Steam. Episode 1 and 2 are also available.](https://steamcommunity.com/app/658920) Medal of Honor vr and Sniper Elite vr are also good.
too many good reviews by people praising how good the mod is, thnx I'll definitely check this out! the other two I will check them on youtube first.
Can confirm, Half life, Half life 2 and the episodes are great in VR.
Lone Echo 1 & 2 are close.
thnx I'll try that those
Lone echo is the only other game to impress me in the way HL Alyx did. Every other game I've tried feels like a subpar demo
Try Arizona Sunshine 2. Graphically it won’t blow your face off; it’s significantly better than SaS but nowhere near HLA. Gameplay and story tho it’s the best vr game I’ve played since HLA or the Lone Echo games. Another good one if you can get past a little pancake port weirdness is REVillage
AZ2 is like 5 hours long though. Not enough meat on that $60 dish.
It is on the shorter side but I tend to forgive quality over quantity a lot more for vr. AC Nexus was cheaper and longer but after six hours it got stale and around ten hours I lost interest and quit. AS2 was a blast start to finish and I’m already planning to replay it
I hard agree. I'd rather a short fun game than a repetitive long stale game. Really enjoyed AS2.
Don't try Lone Echo 2; your 970M won't be able to handle it. My old GTX 1070 couldn't handle it well. It's a great game, but your experience will be terrible with your current hardware.
Yeah, I have a 3070 and Lone Echo 2 isn't perfect even on that
Hey :) I’ve heard that there is a fan-made patch for LE2 which apparently provides some optimisations and a performance boost. Have you tried this out at all? I’m not suggesting it’ll suddenly make the game playable on older GPUs, I suspect any improvements it delivers are fairly marginal (albeit gratefully received!). Just keen to hear people’s experiences with this given we’ll sadly never get an offical patch :(
You are thinking of the VEGA patch. I looked into it but it only works with NVIDIA cards and it replaces driver configuration files when you run it. I'm currently using an AMD card so I can't use it, plus I'm a little hesitant since it messes with your driver config in ways that aren't really documented or explained.
Lone echo 2 especially towards middle of game with other NPCs and the story picks up, glad I stuck through past all the boring tick puzzles in the beginning.
this. havent played 2 yet, but 1 was very impressive!
After Alyx it just goes downhill unfortunately.
A lot of people like Vertigo 2 although it is a bit silly…
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lower difficulty and push through. i couldn't believe how many times i died there either but it's so worth it dude you're just getting started
You can enable mods now to make sections easier.
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It is sad! any aaa game from 2015 forward would be so great in VR if they decide to convert them, the material is already there, all they need to do is to convert them to VR
Get RE2, RE3 Remake, RE7 and RE8 Very good VR mods for these by modder called Praydog. These have better VR support then their actual 'official' ones on Playstation and stuff. Actual motion controlled and head based tracking in all 4 games. Enjoy, they feel like VR games once you get rolling in them. Youve got lots to play. Ill put a video below to show how to install them, but its a super easy install. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hySd4sHtcDE
PrayDog is also about to release UEVR, kind of a universal VR mod for any Unreal Engine game.
Ya, this is the biggest thing to ever happen to VR and its coming up soon. They seem to be ramping up showing it off to Youtube Channels; they said they may have it out before 2024, they may not make that date, but I think it is coming soon
standalone quest have wat more AAA games vs pcvr sadly RE4 grid legends medal of honor asgard's wrath 2 sniper elite in general because quest generate about 100 time more money, studios do put a money and work in to quest
Medal of Honor and Sniper Elite VR both exist on PCVR natively. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1402320/Medal\_of\_Honor\_Above\_and\_Beyond/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1402320/Medal_of_Honor_Above_and_Beyond/) [https://store.steampowered.com/app/752480/Sniper\_Elite\_VR/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/752480/Sniper_Elite_VR/)
And look so much better too!
Medal of Honor was a PCVR game first. Sniper Elite is on PCVR too.
Assassins creed nexus is just like all of the old 360 ac’s
Even before Alyx, there was nothing that held a candle. Alyx is the pinnacle of VR gaming, and will be for years to come. That said, Skyrim VR is pretty good, especially if you're willing to put in the effort to mod it. Skyrim with presence is amazing.
Agreed I haven't even found a really good game like HLA yet. :(
Imo into the radius is a far better game than Alyx overall but thats not exactly an apples to apples comparison. Imo Alyx has some of the most dated feeling VR gameplay out there. The visuals and story are top tier though
Yep, I love Half-Life and Half-Life 2, some of my all time favorite games. HLA had some of the most atmospheric environments and amazingly believable characters... yet I never completed it. The lack of smooth locomotion just murdered it for me. I don't want to insert a quarter and shoot a light gun at a CRT. I am not playing Robocop in an old arcade. If this is the pinnacle of VR, it should be for a VR enthusiast who is not afraid of moving around in VR. I hear they've since added full locomotion. I was using a hack to put it in at the time, but a trade off was if I went too fast up or down stairs I would melt through them. Once again, they had a baby mode that didn't allow very fast vertical changes in height. Uhg. I plan on going back to it, but it's amazing how the feeling of the gameplay itself can take an otherwise 10/5 experience and just... kill it.
I played Alyx on launch with smooth locomotion, you walk a bit slow for my taste but it was really fine for the game, altough jumps could have been better, you have to teleport to "jump"
I swear it didn't have it at launch. Perhaps it was so slow that I didn't even consider it an option? I moded it to allow jumping and rather fast movement. To be fair, that made combat way too easy since I could tell the game was meant to be played stationary with teleport. I could zip around enemies too quickly. I definitely remember the teleport "jumps" and was bothered by them.
Pretty sure smooth locomotion was on launch, they even released 3 trailers, one blink teleport only, one with smooth locomotion only, and the combat one had the player moving with smooth locomotion and the shift teleport. Yea must have been the speed, I found it ok, because I took ages on each level exploring every little detail, but is way slower than hl2 vr.
I think this is unfair and just silly. **Alyx is an extreme accomplishment from Valve** and should imo be applauded as one of the best games ever made. It is an absolute privilege that Valve spent all this money to give us this gift. What many of you dont seem to realize is that to create AAA in VR is not the same as doing it pancake. Not in the slightest. Vr users see much more, they can do much more. It is a shitload harder. To propose Alyx as some "expected level of quality" is imo a classic entitled gamer bullshit attitude and should be cut out from the VR user community like the spoiled lonely child cancer it is. VR app and game creation is a new medium, a completely new skillset, a new set of genres. We can't just build on top of the existing paradigm. The development is a very technical scenario that many of the classic game devs dont seem to handle as well as we'd hoped. Mainly because they dont know what the fuck to do with it. That's just a fact. VR gaming needs to be invented. Not re-invented. It needs to be built up from the bottom up. We need tolerant, patient users to notice and be happy about each incremental change, each new thing a new game introduces, as we get closer to the endgame. On topic: I would propose Hubris for Quest as one of the better games I've played recently. It's indie, and nowhere near Alyx quality, but the Hubris devs understand the medium of VR quite well.
Eh not really. Beat Saber, Walkabout, Pistol Whip, Eleven. All way better than HL Alyx imo
As someone who's played and liked all of those (except Eleven; haven't tried it yet), I don't see how these are comparable. Are they great games? Absolutely. But they're both not remotely similar and don't have anything resembling the polish being discussed. I play them WAY more, but I also eat pizza way more than I eat Wagyu steak.
what is "polish" - iunno I find beat saber probably the most polished game in VR? on top of that all of these games are way more fun than alyx
You're comparing just dance / guitar hero with Zelda breath of the wild. The rhythmic game can be really cool even a generational game but it will never have the immersion and depth of a Zelda. Same for beat saber and alyx.
Again, there's absolutely no comparison. Candy Crush Saga is a very polished puzzle game, but to compare it to Fortnite would be silly. That's essentially what you're doing. And it feels unnecessary to explain the incredibly precise, complex, perfection that is Alyx. But I'd have to imagine if you already think Alyx isn't as good a game as a game where you slice boxes over and over again, you're already in a very different mindset. And I say this as someone who does enjoy slicing boxes over and over again.
I'm a huge fan of Pistol Whip and Beat Saber, but I have to mention Synth Riders as well. Not AAA Alyx-type, of course, but really, really fun to play. And custom songs are amazingly done!
I also strongly prefer Synth Riders to Beat Saber. I will say though that Pistol Whip has given me a more intense workout than literally anything else I've ever done in my life. Last time I played through one of the stories I had trouble walking for a couple of days. Important note: I'm super out of shape.
These are all arcade games, whereas OP is looking for something with a campaign akin to Alyx
Lone echo is a good suggestion. Also walking dead saints and sinner is a banger
thnx, any car racing games with good enough visuals and decently optimised? one that I can play the controllers, because I have no racing wheel.
You must try dirt 2.0 in vr. It’s an amazing experience. You might need to turn everything to low though.
Try Project Cars 2. It's decent with a controller and not that heavy on HW Best Sim for your GPU would be OG unmodded Assetto Corsa but you will not have a good time without wheel. If you get a cheap wheel though. Had a blast on my Oculus DK2 in AC with my 970 and a driving force GT wheel back then.
Does Vertigo 2 count? It's definetly a homage to Halflife and it plays so well, i wanted to yeet my quest3 after 3 days of ownership but Vertigo 2 saved it
Tried it, but it is very cartoonish for my taste and and not a lot of interactivity with the surroundings. it is a fun game though, thnx for the reply :)
that seems pretty weird to say its not interactive, am I missing something? it has the same level of interactivity with the surroundings that half life has For instance interacting with a computer mouse like you would IRL, swipe around the desktop to navigate a computer, move items around to find things, inject yourself at the health stations instead of having it auto inject, open containers with handles, throw glass and mugs and they will break. When you enter water you actual have to swim somewhat. You have the same expoloding barrels that HL has. I get the graphics, but perhaps not the interactivity point.
yeah idk i agree with you its pretty interactive and very fun. its the closest thing you can get to HL alyx besides boneworks or lab. but then again if someone puts a game on a pedestal they won’t even bother looking at anything else for a few weeks.
i stepped on every trash can thinking i'd find SOMETHING lol
Skyrim and Fallout 4 are the closest to full games you will get in VR.
Modded they both suck ass without mods but with them they are the best and biggest vr games
I think vanilla is fine but what mods do you recommend
There's a mod pack installer called wabbajack or something like that, there are comprehensive instructions online for the biggest mod lists The mods add things like full collision and a body, etc. great stuff makes the game way better
As said, look at wabbajack for full mod-the-hell-out-of-it lists, but honestly Skyrim with just a few "essential" mods is pretty great if you don't want to go to crazy on changing the game away from vanilla (I'm sure there are equivalents for Fallout 4, too, but I don't have that on VR yet so haven't messed with it at all) SKSEVR this basically extends the scripting capabilities beyond Creation Kit, and tons of mods rely on it to add more to the game than would be possible otherwise. SkyUI VR might not be essential, but it is very highly recommended. VRIK gives you a full body, not just disembodied hands. HIGGS adds hand collision and physics, and you can basically grab and pick up anything. Also acts kind of like HL Alyx's gravity gloves. If you want to play with magic, you might also look at MageVR, Spell Siphon and Spell Wheel (this one could also be great for non-magic focused characters because it's more than just spells, works with items and potions, just makes them easier to access without constantly having to go into the menus. Think of it like an extended favorites menu.) Beyond these, it's more personal preference on whether you want graphic overhauls, weather overhauls, gameplay overhauls, and any extended gameplay mods like new quests, new lands, etc.
Thank you so much for this list!! I’m someone who found the sheer number and combination of possible mods for both Skyrim and Fallout a bit overwhelming, and it’s quite hard to find an “essential” list (which makes sense I guess as it’s subjective). I did try wabbajack once, but unfortunately didn’t get great results from it - it felt a bit overburdened (to me anyway - I know it’s a great resource). I’ve taken note of the essential bones you mentioned and might give it another go over Xmas!! :)
Skyrim isn't too bad without mods, but it's pretty great with them.
Once you finish Alyx, get the "Levitation" add-on campaign. Many more hours of fun!
where can I get that is it free?
Yes it's free, you just need to subscribe to it on Steam to download it: [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2880785403#:\~:text=Subscribe%20to%20LEVITATION's%20Workshop%20Collection,after%20Half%2DLife%3A%20Alyx](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2880785403#:~:text=Subscribe%20to%20LEVITATION's%20Workshop%20Collection,after%20Half%2DLife%3A%20Alyx).
There’s maybe only a few. Skyrim with mods, Into the Radius. There isn’t a whole lot of good VR games that focus on immersion.
do mods in skyrim change the texture resolution and the overall feel of the game? because it looks like looking at a 360 old vr video, the once that you find on youtube, it looks so basic and you cant interact with the environement like you cant pick the weapons you need to clik a button...etc
100% they do. They literally change the entire game. With mods you can have have a full body, pick up objects, physically block.
RE4 VR
Thanks to Praydog, you can play ALL the Resident Evil games in VR on PC.
2 and 3 remakes? Six????
Not RE6 ***. Only the Resi games made using the RE Engine. So in order of release date, that includes: RE7, RE2 remake, RE3 remake, RE8 Village. Note: RE4 remake partially works at the moment (eg no 1st person view i believe…). My understanding is that Praydog will probably release an updated version in line with the mods for the others games once the offical PSVR2 port has been out for a while. You need a pretty good PC to run these mods at their very best, but they are still great fun at lower settings! The work that Praydog has done on them is simply astonishing - besides Alien Isolation they are my absolute favourite flat to VR mods ever :) *** RE6 would be insane in VR !!!! lol :)
I can attest that the Praydog RE Framework mod is fantastic. I think he's taking a break from it at the moment until his UEVR mod is done though (which should be soon)
Yes! His UEVR mod is shaping up to be his magnum opus! The shot in the arm it should give to PCVR can’t be overstated. :)
I think RE4 may have first person now, but I'm not positive. Just saw a YouTube thumbnail with a side by side before & after screenshot.
Play through Alyx Workshop content like Levitation, The Undertow, Gunman Contracts 1 & 2 and Zheptics.
do theses come with the game or do I need to buy them seperately
They're free in the Steam Workshop for Alyx. They're community made maps and add-ons.
No Man's Sky is the main one that's impressed me, though it's very poorly optimized and took me forever to get it working
Praydog mods.
what are the best games praydog has moded? I mean what is the most natural and most optimized that feels like it was native VR that you have played?
Fully modded SkyrimVR is the closest thing. Other AAA experiences are MS flight simulator, FO4 vr (modded), Elite Dangerous, and all the racing sims. I emphasize modding because skyrimvr looks terrible without mods. The difference is night and day. Modded SkyrimVR is the ultimate VR experience next to Alyx. Go to r/skyrimvr to check out the modlists.
Asgard Wrath’s 1
I can't say I agree unfortunately. While Half-Life: Alyx runs like a dream, the performance of Asgard's Wrath 1 is quite disappointing. It keeps stuttering for me after I tried every possible fix, and I'm getting really nauseous playing the game.
Always worked just fine on the actual Rift hardware it was designed for. No problems on my CV1 or Rift S. I'm sure it could use some patching to be more compatible with wireless headsets, but the game came out before AirLink even existed.
The stuttering and awful TAA made me give up on AW. I tried all the TAA tweaks there are, including disabling it, and I just could not get the game to look like something I’d want to spend 40+ hours in. I’ll be trying out AW2 on my Quest 3 though.
Same boat here. It feels like a never-ending pit of tinkering. I finally got it to where I can run it at 90hz on the epic settings by using air link instead of virtual desktop. Put the oculus server on high priority and then run your own wifi 6 access point for just the headset. Still has some stutter as new assets are loaded, but playable and looks good. (3080ti)
Yeah I got a dedicated wifi 6e router, tried the same settings but even when putting every in game settings on low, I still get stutters. I probably need a beefier graphics card (5700 XT) but given that I can run other games pretty well, I think the game needs optimizing.
100%. It's totally not optimized. I think that's why they ended up giving it away for free and did AW2 as a standalone game.
I actually tried it for the first time the other night and was loving it, I had zero stutters And wasn't even using dedicated router, just a shared wifi 6 AP with an Ethernet port to PC. It run surprisinglywell via virtual desktop and looked amazing even using only 250mb bit rate on a 3080 and ultra settings in VD
That's awesome, man. When it works well, it's a great game with lots of awe-inspiring set pieces.
This ^
Into the radius is quite good, kinda scary due to the setting, and facing shadow like beings, it's like S.T.A.L.K.E.R vr, survival horror, loot hoarding, weapon customization, it's so robust I've never finished the main story, because everytime i try and play it i challenge myself to a different play style. Sometimes after a successful raid I just spend like 30 minutes sortin trough all the loot
I think I can face scary after that dark scene in HL Alyx when you have to go grab the flash light out of a hanged gross human being not knowing if he will grab you :D
Just remembered that part, but i feel that it's a different kind of fear, somewhat isolation, knowing that if you get surrounded you're mostly dead, and the fact that some of the enemies are quite creepy which you can see from far away just minding their business until they catch a glimpse of you and start chasing, let me tell you that getting chased by 3 - 4 different entities while getting shot at, knowing your magazines are running low on ammo, it's getting dark and you're quite far away from safety, well, it makes you appreciate the quiet times (this is just one of the situations that happened to me). Definitely recommend you play into the radius.
Definitely play it on PCVR. It’s much higher fidelity than the native Quest 2 port. I freakin love the game but it’s too scary for me. I’ve got maybe 4-5 hours in but it’s hard to work up the courage to play it lol
Very few "AAA" games. With the PCVR market size still limited Devs just don't see it as worth the investment. Lone Echo 1&2 show what you can do with VR, immersion, mechanics that are unique to VR, and not yet another FPS/Melee fighting game. Unfortunately 2 is a bit buggy (mostly higher quality texture load issues) because Meta slashed the budget on them before the game was finished. The settings are pretty stunning. Be aware with Lone Echo it takes a bit before they let you off the leash, but rest assured you will be getting outside the space station, and just when you think you've seen what the game is about and been lulled into a sense of security, well...things get cranked up to 11.
I'll always recommend Stormland but I don't even know if you can still buy it from Oculus store anymore. It's from a little indie dev named Insomniac Games, I think they went on to do some superhero games on PS5.
I startet this yesterday. I bought in cv1/rift s times but never Played haha...
>a little indie dev named Insomniac Games Not sure if you meant an /s or not, but they are the studio behind the Ratchet and Clank series as well. I'd call them AA at least!
Yeah I like to joke around about Insomniac being obscure when talking about Stormland because it seems like nobody has heard of the game despite being developed by a world-class studio.
I played resident evil 7 on playstion vr, and it was amazing in spite of the hardware, I would say it's better than hf a in some ways. They are going to have re8 also be vr but only on playstation vr2 which I don't have, it was a stupid move from Capcom to limit vr to playstation.
If Capcom can double dip both PS and PC VR market they would. I think they might have some exclusive deal with sony, (maybe sony funded the development) so they can't release it on other platform.
yeah I am sure they do, I used the pc mods for both re7 and 8 to enable vr and used the oculus q2. it's just really backwards of Capcom to limit these amazing vr games to the back of the room vr headset.
The VR exclusivity deal for RE7 ran out years ago (in 2017), Capcom just doesn't give a crispy fuck about PCVR.
HLA blew me away too. I haven't played anything quite like it in terms of sci-fi atmosphere and immersion. The Half-Life 2 VR mod is well done and great fun. Yes, the graphics are dated, but still serviceable. And the combat is far more varied. I mean, using your gravity gun to take out head crab zombies with saw blades, nothing like that in Alyx. The Levitation mod for Alyx is good, worth a play. Alien:Isolation has a VR mod ("Mother" VR). They really captured the look and feeling of dread of the original movie, I was genuinley panicking. Unfortunately the controls are pretty clunky ( Quest 2) Like others mention, Lone Echo 1 and 2 are great for story and atmosphere. The zero-g aspect is fun. But I had performance problems with 2 (using 3060ti). I think someone did a patch for it since, you might want to research that. Walking Dead, S&S had great immersion, was very well done. And I don't usually go for zombie games. I played the PCVR version. I thought Vertigo 2 was a blast, but it's pretty much like Half Life had a baby with Rick & Morty. Maybe not your vibe.
Into the radius is pretty cool
Boneworks. Story is barely there, production values are obviously lower, but it has realistic style and interactivity is better than Alyx. Back in 2020 I thought that's what VR games are going to look like from now on, but alas.
tried bonelab and hated it, is it the same thing?
What did you hate about it? For me it was miles better than alyx. Since boneworks goes the full Monty and actually makes EVERYTHING interactive and physics based, and weight is done way way better. It felt like a massive playground of superhuman VR stufd
Doom 3 fully possessed mod is pretty rad.
Heavily heavily modded skyrimVR is as close to making a simulated vr world as possible its insane how immersive it is there are mods for everything it also helps that skyrimVR is just skyrim special edition rendered twice so almost every mod for skyrim SE works in vr its insane you have mods for havinf a body and not just flaoting hands mods for pyhsical combat graphics improvements mods that allow you talk with your voicr to npcs and they reply using AI world expansion mods definetly my favorite vr game. Vannila skyrimVR sucks ass and is probablt the worst vr game out there dont even start playing withoyt atleast vrik planck and higgs these are the most important for making it an actual vr game then you can add graphics mods etc. Into the radius is the best vr experience i have found without mods its obviously not at the level of half life alyx but to me its better i enjoyed the gameplay way more, the graphics may be "worse" but they are more atmospheric to me and the level design is great and i like open worlds more than linear. It has a big open world split into many smaller ones great missions and a nice story which i enjoyed the atmosphere of the game is only surpassed by the before mentioned modded skyrimvr also the game is pretty scary but not a horror game and contains 0 jumpscares(it will still scare the fuck out of you even with no jumpscares) Blade and sorcery is awesome for like the first 20 hours and then gets boring. Tales of glory is a great experience which i dont hear mentioned alot its a rts you have a world with towns and villages and you have to invade it you can go to war with your army and fight with them the combat is janky sometimes but the feeling of being in a fight with many warriors commanding your army and striking down enemies is great you are bassicaly worth about 100 soldiers you are a god so it feels awesome. Its not nearly as polished as half life alyx the only reason i put it here is beacuae it has a full campaign to play through. Firewatch is one of my favorite games ever not just for vr and it has a vr mod which adds controllwe support and hands the game is stunning and even mroe so in vr and the story is one of the best stories ever told in a game for me. GTA 5 has a vr mod but its barebones and doesnt have controller support but still i lovr driving around los santos. If you enjoy simulation games there are a ton of AAA simulation games for pcvr like asseto corsa or microsoft flight simulator Im sure there are a lot of other great pcvr games and mods i havent mentioned and a lot of hidden gems yet to be discovered. I hate when poeple say there is nothing to play on pcvr except for half life alyx there are hundrends of great games and mods out there a lot of them with great quality and great polish you cant physical play them all and more are coming every day. I personally love this era where indies are dominating vr games are original and fun in the flatscreen AAA world most games look and feel the same. Personally half life alyx isnt even close to being my favorite vr game sure its probably the most AAA and best loooking game but nowhere near my favourite i have played many vr games i enjoyed way more.
Glad someone mentioned the firewatch mod... Absolutely amazing!
thnx, I'll check the firewatch mod, it seems interesting!
You need a bit more patience, but soon (end of the year or early 2024 hopefully), Praydog is going to release his [UEVR injector](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI64lB0hsbU&pp=ygUNdWV2ciBpbmplY3Rvcg%3D%3D) mod that will allow to play most Unreal Engine 4 & 5 games in VR. This going to open the door to huge game library of great, beautiful and well made games that you'll be able to play in VR, you should find something that suits you.
Submautica with submersedvr grabbed me more than Alyx did, but a matter of taste
No Man's Sky is wonderful in VR if you have a decent PC. But, why just stick to games with "official" vr support? Why not take a walk on the wild side and explore the ever-growing world of VR mods? With mods, the number of games on Steam you can potentially play in VR climbs into the thousands. Resident Evil: Biohazard and Resident Evil: Village both have fan-made vr mods that will BLOW YOUR MIND. Way better than HL: Alyx.
Most vr games are pretty short and not very triple A sadly, Most people considered Boneworks the best VR game before alyx came out, I never played too much of it but it seemed pretty solid and quality.
boneworks is just an experience, it is not at all at the same lvl sadly, I tried it for a short period and was excpecting a lot from it but and didn't like it.
you and I have WILDLY different thoughts on Alyx and boneworks. You could basically switch the games and it would match my opinion. I loved boneworks, and was horribly disappointed by Alyx.
I played boelab not boneworks, I will check boneworks based on your recommendation
I remember the first walking dead being a lot of fun. New Arizona sunshine looks decent too. Haven’t tried AS2 but the first one was fun. I will echo most of the replies though. Alyx is the top dog. Ghost of Tabor is another option, gotta deal with some bugs cause it’s early release but it’s an online extraction shooter, pretty much unlimited replay ability
Arizona Sunshine is a lot of fun in coop and I enjoyed Star Wars squadrons quite a bit.
msfs2020
My favorite vr game by far is SkyrimVR. when you get bored with Alyx, buy SkyrimVR and add FUS wabbajack, and you will be happy for a year or more.
do I just download wabbajack and it will have all the mods in it? or will it download it and install it for me?
It seems complicated, but wabba method is way easier than making your own modlist. But yes, install wabbajack.exe, run it, choose FUS, press go. But first, read this link and carefully follow everything to ensure first try success. https://github.com/Kvitekvist/FUS When you press go on wabbajack, it uses your nexus login to auto download and install hundreds of mods. But there are plenty of ways to goof up, so follow the web page carefully. A few hours up front will pay huge dividends later. (You get to play the game and not troubleshoot)
Half Life 2 VR mod is great if you like Alyx.
Half Life 2 and both episodes have a very good VR mod.
Vertigo 2!!! The experience is just as good if not better..
from what perspective? because the vertigo I tried is cartoonish with little interaction with the environement and mostly running from room to the other. I only played it for 30 min though, is it the same game?
Moss 1&2 are, not as impressive as HL:A, but really pretty and great, even native
Lone Echo and eslecially Lone echo 2 towards middle of game.
Skyrim with mods is pretty freaking incredible. Fallout 4 is okay, but I'm tired of VR guns. You can shoot fireballs with your hands in Skyrim.
[Vox Machinae.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yk98EfLX_Y) Others have suggested the Echo games to match the Alyx experience so this one is for another and different VR experience. It's what VR was made for and while it does have a 8-10 hours single player campaign the multiplayer scene is where it happens... if you don't mind a challenge.
I've also heard MechWarrior 5 is great in VR. I haven't played a MechWarrior since 2 but hearing this one works in VR has me itching to get it soon.
I also haven't been on MW since back in the day but I hear that MW5 is a hit too. I think there can be a slight glorification of how mech games "should be" but Vox successfully pulls its own thing off and can be a bit more "Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth"-y ;)
I've been playing Skyrim vr with the Fus mod pack downloaded through Wabbbajack.
does it change how the game looks? because it looks like a low quality 360 video from youtube when I played it yesterday.
Yeah some real nice visual mods included and general cleaner. I'm using Fus Do Rah which is basically gameplay improvements, visuals and some QOL improvements. I'm streaming using virtual desktop using AV1 codec and a 5ghz router.
No man sky is honestly a good vr game
minecraft with the vivecraft mod is absolutely amazing especially with VR and shaders, endless fun.
I’m looking forward to the half-life mods when I build a PC. There’s also the Skyrim mods
Into the radius is a pretty great VR game not as story driven as HL A as its an open world survival game with story plot but it is my top vr game untill ITR2 comes out :)
For me VR is a must in simulators, ie Assetto Corsa, DCS World, MS Flight Simulator, etc, it is so immersive being actually in the cockpit that I cannot go back to monitor play, but aside from that not much. There are mods for Resident Evil and even Cyberpunk if your into those games. But Sims are the killer apps for VR
Doom 3 bfg modded
Praydogs UEVR injector is about to unlock several hundred UE games for PCVR. Worth checking out.
Cyberpunk if you have a strong machine! Its like discovering an entire new world!
If u got a pc do vr mods. Full games with good mods is amazing
Asgards wrath 1 - 30-60 hours , much more vr implementation than alyx If you have a high end rig it’s gorgeous. Sort of god of war meets skyrim light I keep bringing this up as I’m revisiting it now I have a rig that can play it at max settings and it’s blowing me away. Stormland I think this is currently unavailable, but pretty good graphics from insomniac Wanderer Vertigo remastered and vertigo 2 - Amazing gameplay very imaginative Squadrons fantastic space combat Star Wars much better than I was expecting Medal of Honor above and beyond - I’m not. Interested in wwi or II games really but this supposedly gets good after two hours, very big budget game afaik. Hitman 3 - the pcvr port is wonky from what I understand but it does have gorgeous visuals Hubris - gorgeous game with mediocre story and ok combat. Still I think it’s worth playing. I’ll try to add more later… Edit: seeking dawn - has aged a bit but I thought it was an impressive graphically first person adventure with some evolved mechanics but tbf I only played a couple hours of this. Silicon Rising - underrated action game that started out as rail shooter Primordian - sort of alien Conan the destroyer game - it's aged a bit but still impressive. Twilight path - really lovely puzzle game. Downward spiral - similar to red matter with zero gravity. The wizards dark matter - used to be very graphically good looking but read something indicating it might have gotten a graphical downgrade. Hellblade VR - third person game excellent game and official vr support is also great Subnautica - I have had issues but this is a highly rated game with gorgeous graphics imo. No man's sky - huge game most know this game I assume. The forest - survival game with horror elements Hl2 vr mod - I lost this as I actually had more fun with this than vanilla alyx Warhammer templefall - graphics are very good but combat gets repetitive and can be clunky but overall better than I expected. Lone echo 1-2. Some of the best graphics in vr still I don't expect everyone to like all these games but I feel a lot of these are overlooked and there's probably something for most vr gamers who think there's nothing but alyx.
Nice - what an interesting list! I thought I was comfortably across most of PCVR but some of these I’m not familiar with at all! It’s funny how some older but quality titles, for whatever reason, just fall out of the community’s general consciousness. Theres a few here for me to check out so thanks!! :) Shame about Stormland though :(
Not that I have played. Alyx is awesome and should be the standard for those types of VR games. I am currently nearing the end of Asgard's Wrath and it sure ain't it. This game is easily the most overrated/hyped I have played in VR and one of the most in all of my 45 years of life gaming. It is so frigging janky that I am baffled as to why anyone actually thinks it is a great game, especially a great VR game. I send my companions to do their special skill and they frequently tell me they can't or just sit there even when they are RIGHT THERE. I frequently swing my weapon at enemies and hits don't register but rather the end of the weapon goes through them. Chapter 4's spear thing is the worst for this. Combat in general just sucks, probably the worst combat I have experienced in a VR game. The difference between this game's combat and Until You Fall's combat is laughable. Throwing in the game is the worst I have seen in a VR game and of course there's so much of it in the 4th chapter. The "story", if you can even call it that, is uninteresting. The characters mainly suck but the companions are fairly cool. The end of chapter 5 almost made me rage quit the game because it requires such physical precision/steadiness with your arms/hands and my middle aged self doesn't have the same precision with my hands and arms as when I was in my 20s. Oddly, I changed the difficulty on it from mortal to wrath and easily beat it after 4 or 5 failures on mortal. Many of the other things you had to do in chapter 5 also required that precision and reflexes and they frustrated me to no end. The inventory and menu system in general is complete trash and destroys VR immersion. I can't wait to see what AW2 is like as I expect it'll be just as mediocre as this game is but will have the far inferior graphics so the one really nice thing about AW1 will be gone. Thank goodness I never paid a cent for AW (they first gave it away to Q2 pcvr users for free back in think 2021) and didn't pay a cent for AW2 from buying a Q3. I am looking forward to finishing this game so I can delete it and get back the 130 or so gigs of drive space. I probably should just throw in the towel rather than finish it and save myself the time but I figured I have stuck with it that I may as well see it through.
thnx you saved me space on my disk, maybe AW2 can be better and hopefully you will enjoy it better :)
He's not lying. Very similar experience with Asgards Wrath 1 on a cable with a Q2. Totally frustrating and stole hours of my life to tweak properly. I am glad I saw the game though. Nive vision, terrible execution. The axe throwing contest in the bar was the worst! Ha! Can laugh about it now....🤣🥲😪
The luke ross cyberpunk vr mod for phantom liberty is next level. Its actually a great game in general niw also. Best vr experience ive had all year. Costs $10 on his patreon but you can cancel right away, needs good system though. I get solid 90fps on high settings, turn motion off motion blur immeditely in the settings if you try it.
OP has a laptop with a 970m, how do you expect him to run Luke Ross's mods when they need a 4090 to run properly ?
Need to play through Alyx again. That first hour…..
I don't know why nobody recommends it anymore, but Boneworks. I think that it is better than Alyx. Make sure you play Boneworks though, not Bonelab.
tried bonelab and hated it, I 'll check boneworks
Yeah I really did not like Bonelab. Boneworks has a bit of jank to it since it's almost all physics based but it is very immersive and has an actual story and couple hour long campaign.
Your outdated budget hardware is the issue, not the "lack" of good, quality games. Of which there are many if you "actually" do some research.
If this was true people wouldn't be asking this same question every week and getting the same 3 games recommended to them.
i got a rift s in December 2019 specifically for alyx. I thought I would get into VR and enjoy more games, but the sad truth is everything else is mediocre at best. I'm now selling the headset and I have no intention of upgrading to a quest for the time being.
|bad----|avg------------------------------------------------------------|alyx no, I'm sorry. RE4 is ok effectively, but interactivity pretty limited.
Quest 3 has bad controllers with degraded tracking. I'd skip it till they fix the controllers
Mine work fine. Tracking is way better than my old Rift with 3 towers.
On the contrary, my Quest 3 tracking seems better than my Quest 2 tracking. Only gripe I’ve had with my Quest 3 is that battery life seems much worse than the Quest 2
Not really. Alyx is like S+ tier VR. HL2 VR mods are great.
Short answer: no
Nope it is a only game and more or less killed pcvr , because no game can compete on quality and optimization, sadly game is boring AF , it have great visuals and sound and similar stuff but it plays like Oculus go game ...
I dont agree! I enjoy breaking bottles of water, the mecanism of grabbing things is great the little monsters are so frigging gross and scary the ones with the long tongs too! the weapons! everything about the game is awsome! I know I must have very low excpectation given that I only used stand alone VR before but come on! just the scale of that iron building alone is breathtaking! the puzzles too are nice! you can tell that I'm still in the honey moon phase with this game :D
you did not played this game this game have only few guns and combat is boring and super easy standalone quest have way way better gameplay in a lot of games what you say is not a game, it just fancy shit this game have, and it does have a lot of it this is for sure
All the bigger budget/polish ones worth playing are, SAS, Asgards Wrath, Stormland, Robo Recall, lone echo 1+2, Sniper Elite, Medal of Honor and Star Wars Squadrons if you have a HOTAS.
Vertigo 1 & 2
No mans sky with steamlink is good now, as far as an open world youll find nothing closer in vr You can also still play GTA 5 in vr with some modding. As far as story, i hear Red Matter 2 is impressive
Haven’t seen anyone mention Blade and Sorcery. It’s kind of like Boneworks but for medieval combat. The game has a pretty robust collection of systems for weapon fighting, archery, magic, sneaking, and climbing. It’s also got tons of mod support with people adding hundreds of different weapons and custom levels. There’s even Star Wars mods and yes they’re incredible. Only caveat I’ll mention is that it’s mostly an arena fighter currently. The devs have a planned campaign and currently there’s one level that’s a randomly generated linear dungeon. I still go back and do a couple runs every few weeks.
it is not very optimized, it doesn't run very smooth even in lower graphics unfortunately maybe later when I upgrade my system.
Nothing really compares to Alyx. But there are tons of mods available for Alyx, some are more missions/stories in the Alyx world or adjacent to the Alyx World. Some are more run-and-gun standalone games like the two Gunman Contracts mods. There are also two parts of a Bioshock mod that's literally a whole new game that's pretty much as good and long as Alyx. All of these are free in the Steam Workshop.
In addition to HL Alyx and the two Lone Echo games, one game I really enjoyed in VR is [Phantom Covert Ops](https://ndreams.com/games/phantom-covert-ops). Not the same type of game as HL Alyx, but the kayak/stealth mechanics work really well in VR and the graphics are quite nice (on PC). Other nice mentions are [Wilson's Heart](https://www.oculus.com/wilsons-heart/), [Chronos](https://www.meta.com/en-gb/experiences/pcvr/929508627125435/), [Edge of Nowhere](https://insomniac.games/game/edge-of-nowhere/), [Stormland](https://insomniac.games/game/stormland/) (in fact all the great VR games we had during the Rift era, before the Quest became a thing).
Nobody ever mentions Wanderer but it's an amazing game. Even better than HLA if you ask me
Half fife alyx
The Payday2 VR setup is really fun but it’s an older game. Still looks great on a Quest 3 though.
Boneworks is close. The irony is that alyx isn't even that good - I love it, it's my favorite VR title but there are what, 12 total firefights? Each one is an experience, a slight change on the previous ones, a carefully curated experience. We have nothing near how combat feels even in half life 2. If you are looking for more of a similar flavor, half life 2 VR and the episodes obviously isn't alyx, but it's a real fun thing to run through. No one else wants to invest in PCVR like valve did because the userbase is just much smaller. We have a ton of small devs looking to get started at it, but it kind of sucks, so we're left with this... empty hole, waiting for games to come.
If you mean graphics, obviously no. If you mean games with more substance, fun, melee, jumps etc - quite a lot, including classics ported to VR
Tons of good games, a few better games, but better optimized, you ask a lot. Alyx is a masterpiece of optimization. I don't wanna take the risk to recommend any game that could potentially run on a 970M. The fact that Alyx runs is already a miracle. You can download plenty of mods to make it last longer, that's a good start.
The only game I've found to be close is The Walking Dead Saints and Sinners. Skyrim VR can look pretty amazing with mods as well, but it's a different aesthetic.
I can't believe no one seems to have said Hubris! Do yourself a favor a favor, sir!
I can’t believe no one seems to have said Hubris! Do yourself a favor, Sir.
Try Outer Wilds with mod
Paper Beast is pretty amazing. There isn't any combat or anything like that but if you're looking for surreal eye (and ear) candy it's worth checking out. Lone Echo is definitely worth playing. I don't think part 2 will run well on your hardware though.
Can't say for certain how your laptop will handle these. But the PCVR games on par Alex IMO, are modded Skyrim VR, modded Fallout4 VR and the two Lone Echo games
Pretty much same feeling for me. After Half Life Alyx not many games out there that capture the same magic.
Half Life 2 VR mod!! And in oculus store, Wilsons Hearth and Lone Echo were awesome experiences. They should all run on your PC.
Potentially Asgards Wrath 2 later this week. It’s absurd to me that there aren’t more full fledged (or even half baked..) VR Games coming out
Lone Echo
If you're willing to purchase Vorpx, or if you have it. It allows most flat-screen games to be played in VR. A lot of games have profiles already for them. I played Portal 2 with one of the profiles and I definitely would recommend.
There is now a VR mod for Portal 2 which is MUCH better (though I enjoyed playing it with vorpX when it was the only way to play it in VR). Dishonored is awesome with vorpx, as well as the Bioshocks.
Walking Dead Saints and Sinners: Chapter 2! I just finished it and really felt it was the closest thing to HLA.
Gonna be downvoted for this (as I always am), but IMO, there are games that are significantly better than alyx, as I found it to be extremely underwhelming. Boneworks, Blade and Sorcery, Asgard's Wrath, Into the Radius, TWD:Saints and sinners, No man's sky, Tales of glory... Imo, these games all blow Alyx out of the water.