The stereotype, however unfair, of the unfashionable video game player may soon be adjusted to include helmet hair. Head-mounted displays for virtual reality were everywhere at the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco that ended Friday.

Oculus, the company that started the virtual reality fever when Facebook bought it for $2 billion a couple years ago, brought more than 30 games for its Rift headset, which will be sent at the end of this month to consumers who preordered it. The video game company Valve showed off 30 more games in its booth for the Vive, a headset from HTC that goes on sale in April. Sony highlighted 20 games for its PlayStation VR headset, coming in October.

Still more games — and movies and interactive experiences — were available in hotel suites and on the show floor. I tried more than 50 demonstrations of virtual reality this week at the conference. I raced cars, flew spaceships, shot zombies, entered psychedelic landscapes and even made virtual sandwiches.

These were my favorites.



