Time Used: 14.4 hours.

  1. Beat Saber.
  2. Half-Life: Alyx.
  3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR.
  4. Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs.
  5. Knockout League - Arcade VR Boxing.
  6. Swordsman VR.
  7. Minecraft.
  8. Blade and Sorcery.
  9. DCS World Steam Edition.
  10. DiRT Rally 2.0


    The first game I knew of VR games was Beat Saber, the best VR rhythm game. It is not like a common VR game, that you focus on exploring the virtual world. It is so simple that you don’t need to move around, just swing your controller, but it is so immersive and highly replayable with lots of fun.

    Then, I played Half-Life: Alyx. Another famous VR game. Honestly, I haven’t played the Half-Life series on my PC before. But this game worked really well with VR. The interaction between the user and the game was natural. The design of gravity gloves and puzzle solving make the game immersive and interesting. My playing experience was fantastic, except that the monsters in the virtual world were so scary.

    10 years ago, Angry Birds was a very popular mobile game along with the iPhone coming out, and I played it everyday to score 3 stars in each level. Now it supports VR where I can recall those childhood memories and get a new immersive playing experience, which draws my interest to try this game.

    So, unlike Beat Saber and Half-Life: Alyx, brand new games for VR, the idea of adapting some existing games for VR might also be interesting. I have played The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim before, and after I have tried Skyrim VR, I feel like it is a completely different experience. In VR, I, not my character but myself, am adventuring on the land of Skyrim. This leads to a point that needs to be further researched: whether it is a good idea to create a VR version for an existing game. Those games that get a VR version must be popular on traditional platforms so that their developers choose to adapt it for VR. But how many people who have bought a previous game would buy the game again just for the VR version?

    When trying DCS World Steam Edition and DiRT Rally 2.0, the two vehicles simulation games, I drove race cars and flew attack jets on VR that was much more exciting than traditional 2D driving games. This could be a promising area for VR. Users can try extreme sports or various vehicles without having to learn professional skills, and stay at home playing games with less danger.

    Describing the overall feeling of playing VR games, since this was my first time spending a long time playing a ton of VR games, I was so excited as if I immersed myself into a new world. But at the same time, I noticed that it was uncomfortable if I wore glasses inside the headset. So I also need to figure out how to solve this problem so that I can improve my playing experience.

    For the VR game genre, I was planning to build a VR fighting game. But after I played games like Knockout League - Arcade VR Boxing and Swordsman VR, I hesitated. There are games similar that have already been built. And I looked at the comments to see what I can improve. It seemed that players were not quite satisfied. For example, a user mentioned that the game had a really fancy UI and meshes, but combat actions were not designed well, decreasing the playability. I played a knight with a longsword, and when swinging it, the movement of the sword was not smooth and natural. If I keep my initial idea of building a game like street fighter for VR, I need to consider and fix these issues and make improvements.

    There are other concerns, after I thoroughly read the essay Ethics of Virtual Reality Applications in Computer Game Production. In order to make a game look like real world boxing, the action should be designed realistic. However, what if the game looks so real, will such violent scenes psychologically affect users? There was an user comment that “Besides the nice feeling of nostalgia this game is getting me severe dyspnea and chest pain. My heart rate rises to 200 and I need to rest after each fight.” When I was playing Arcade VR Boxing, it was like my enemy punching my face in front of me, even though I was sitting on my chair, and I knew it all happened on a screen, but due to the sense of immersion of VR, I still instinctively moved my head to avoid his attack. So would this fighting game on VR be more likely to cause physical risks? I think this should also be further researched.