2016 is VR’s big year. We look at its main players, tech and games

Vr is back! And the technology has finally caught up with our imaginations. T3 gives you the lowdown on the magical world of a different reality…

It may sound like a bad case of déjà vu, but virtual reality really is back. In the Nineties, popular culture had a short but sweet love affair with VR. From films like

The Lawnmower Man on our cinema screens, to VR rides in amusement arcades and theme parks, we were obsessed with giant polygons rendered via neck-breaking headsets. And then they were gone, dropping seemingly out of existence, like a fad.

Now, a good two decades later, the VR dream is back – and this time, it’s ready to become far more than a passing fancy. The technology has finally caught up with the ambitions of the people behind it, and some of the biggest companies in videogaming, social media, smartphones and more are pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into VR start-ups and projects. VR is fast becoming a platform all of its own - ready for games, movies and interactive experiences that would simply be impossible on a TV or cinema screen.

More importantly, all that investment from the likes of Facebook, Samsung, Google and Sony is making VR the kind of tech that everyone can afford to own - some headsets cost a fraction of what we spend on smartphones and games consoles. And while the more top-end headsets (the soon-to-be-launched Oculus Rift, for example) will come at a more premium price, they should still be affordable.