Performance

Specs are all very well but which one is the best to play with?

t’s worth saying now that I regardless of which of the big three you choose, donning one of these headsets is transformative. They are literally a window to another world. Every friend that visits will be forced to don VR and experience exactly what it’s like to disappear into pixels. But which experience truly reigns supreme?

Performance-wise, the PS VR is constantly surprising. This is a headset built for existing home console tech and in that it excels. While the PS4 Pro delivers a slight boost in graphical quality and framerate in games like Crytek’s dino adventure Robinson: TheJourney, the standard PS4 offers up a satisfyingly solid experience. It has a slightly smaller field of view than its competitors but your eyes never feel restricted and, like the other headsets, it’s easy to forget that you might once have been able to see the edges. Pair with a set of Move wands and a gorgeous experience like Batman:

Arkham VR and Sony’s headset holds its own.

This finally feels like the slick consumer version of Oculus we deserve

The full experience is where Vive truly comes to life. The pillars are there: slick Steam integration, a great set of controllers, roomscale VR. Add in the crisp OLED screen and a powerful gaming PC and you’ll quickly exit the real world. Exceptional visual quality thrillingly combines with the fact that, if you’ve got the space, you can walk freely around the game. Add in the front-facing camera and chaperone system to keep you safe and, despite the fact that it looks a little less slick than its competitors, the Vive is a hell of a package.

The Rift might not have quite the same room-scale offering, but its visual fidelity matches the Vive. The field of view is consistently impressive, and if you find things slightly fuzzy, twiddling the lens distance knob sharpens everything. Given how many iterations Oculus has been through, this finally feels like the slick consumer version we deserve. Plus, Microsoft’s clear involvement means exclusive VR experiences like Minecraft make the experience even more enticing.