Consider this your Oculus Rift starter kit.
There's a lot going on in the Oculus Store, which is the primary place you get games for your Rift headset. Titles range wildly when it comes to price and description, due in no small part to Oculus pulling content that was originally made for the Samsung Gear VR into the store so you can experience it in a higher resolution. It's a lot to take in, and that's only going to get more interesting when you start playing games for your that come from Steam instead of the Oculus Store.
To help you get started with your Oculus Rift, we've put together a quick lift of titles everyone should have in their library in order to fully appreciate this incredible VR experience.
Ready, go!
Project CARS, for all racing fans
When it comes to racing in VR, you either want the most realistic experience possible or you want something utterly fantastic with weapons and whatnot. Project CARS is the former, and in regular PC form it's a fantastic racing sim that offers more realism than just about anything else available today. Put that experience in a VR headset, and you include real world head tracking from the driver's seat to take that immersion one step further.
The cost of admission into this incredible experience is $50 through the Oculus Store. If you're a fan of driving games, the Project CARS will be well worth it.
Adr1ft, for a disembodied adventure in space
Virtual Reality has created an incredible space for First Person Experiences, or FPX for short. These games create an environment where you experience a story happening all around you. These games are often powerfully emotional without being overly action-packed or requiring an itchy trigger finger.
Adr1ft puts you in a space suit as you float silently through a space station that has just failed catastrophically, and through your Oculus Rift that experience can be downright terrifying if you let it.
This stunning FPX will set you back $20, but is a perfect way to show off VR to someone who doesn't handle shooters or campy platformers well.
Chronos, to get your RPG on in VR
Most great games are great regardless of where you're playing. Virtual Reality adds depth and immersion, but the story and the game mechanics still need to be above and beyond to really capture the player. Chronos is an RPG with an interesting twist: every time you "die" in the dungeons your character ages by a year, forcing you to be very careful about the decisions made at every turn.
Through Oculus this game becomes an experience you witness almost from above. Using your head as the 'camera' makes finding treasure and lurking enemies a lot more interesting, ultimately leading to an enjoyable and unique experience all around.
Chronos is $50 through the Oculus Store.
The Climb, to experience beautiful immersion
Rarely do you hear the words "achieved with CRYENGINE" and walk away disappointed. With games like FarCry, MechWarrior Online, Crysis, and Ryse: Son of Rome all having been built with the CRYENGINE platform, seeing that brand usually means you're in for a visual treat. In The Climb, you may not walk away at all. The game is built to make you feel as though you're climbing massive rock formations. As you look around with your Rift, the environments you're climbing in are intoxicating and — if you're afraid of heights — terrifying. You can race your climb against friends if you need co-op in your lift, but clearly the goal here is to solve some cool puzzles and enjoy the remarkable scenery.
Bonus points: this game will almost assuredly be even more incredible when played through Oculus Touch controllers when they are made available later this year. For $50 in the Oculus Store, it's nice to know you're getting a game that will be even more fun later on.
Eve: Valkyrie, for intense space combat
If you're one of the first to order an Oculus Rift, you already own Eve:Valkyrie. If you weren't so lucky, add this game to your library right now. It's a futuristic space flying game that puts you in control of an incredible aerial experience. As a fighter pilot, you need to be constantly looking out of your cockpit windows for the enemy, which makes using your Rift headset a ton of fun. Play in squads with friends or in massive groups to take down even bigger ships in some of the classic battles throughout the Eve universe.
There's no other way to say this, the game is nonstop excitement and well worth the $50 from the Oculus Store.