Virtual reality technology is literally a game changer. For the first time since 3D graphics came around 20 years ago, it radically changes the way we play games and opens the door to new experiences that until now would’ve been impossible. The Oculus Rift is the first headset available, and it does a fantastic job of not just displaying high-quality VR, but making it easy to use.

It’s tough to relate the experiences the Rift can give you with words and two-dimensional video and images, because this is unlike anything most people have ever seen. To give you an idea of how powerful it is to fully immerse yourself in a virtual world: it can not only make you forget where you really are, but fool your brain into thinking you’re moving (or falling) when you’re actually sitting still, creating a real sensation you can feel in your stomach. It’s hard to believe this technology exists – and that it works – but it does. It is, in a word, amazing.

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It’s also pricy. At $600, on top of requiring a fairly powerful PC, the Rift is very much a fancy toy for enthusiast early adopters. But unlike most first-generation consumer technology, what you get here is surprisingly polished and easy to use.

All you need to do is install the software from www.oculus.com/setup, plug the headset into a USB 3.0 port and an HDMI port, plug the sleek-looking camera sensor into a second USB 3.0 port and point it at where you intend to sit or stand, and then plug the included Xbox One wireless controller dongle into any USB 2.0 or 3.0 port. I was up and running in minutes, and had no issues making the software or hardware work as intended.

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“ This has become known around the office as “VR Face.”

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The Rift headset itself is light, weighing just over a pound. That weight doesn’t include slight addition of the single, four-meter (13.2-foot) cord the width of an Ethernet cable; that cable contains both HDMI and USB connectors, and splits near the end so you can plug them both into your PC. The weight of the headset is comfortably distributed by the straps that secure it to your head, and thanks to soft padding where it makes contact with your face (which is replaceable, but only one comes in the box) it feels like wearing some nice but slightly heavy ski goggles. Despite its light weight, its textured matte plastic housing doesn’t look or feel cheap or flimsy, and it doesn’t pick up fingerprints or smudges – which is nice on a device you’ll handle frequently.

“ This is not a “room-scale” VR system.

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When you do take it off, a handy proximity sensor on the inside detects that it’s been removed and turns the headset off and pauses your game (if it can be paused). Putting it back on automatically reactivates the headset, smartly managing the lifespan of the OLED screens without ever interfering with use.

“ When it’s set up correctly, the image is strikingly clear.

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When using hardware that meets or exceeds the recommended specs, the 90-frames-per-second refresh rate is, as promised, extremely smooth, and latency as you move your head is non-existent. (I have experienced a few games that eventually became choppy as I played, but restarting them fixed it.) The only noticeable artifacting is a light-streak effect that happens when I’m in a black environment with bright-white text, as is often seen during title screens and startup sequence. I suspect this has more to do with the way the light hits the lenses than the Rift’s software.

“ The integrated headphones effectively block out external sound.

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The Rift also includes a simple remote control device, and it, too feels sturdy and well built. It doesn’t do anything the Xbox One controller can’t, but this is less for gaming and more of a one-handed, always-on control for watching video in a virtual theater, or other more passive experiences that don’t require any precise input.Finally, the Xbox One controller that comes included with every Rift is the revised version that includes the standard headphone jack. This is currently the standard input device for all games sold in the Oculus store, but there’s no reason you couldn’t use an alternative controller if you prefer.

The one area where the Rift’s hardware is disappointing right now is the lack of hand-tracking motion controllers. Because we’re playing games with the Xbox One controller, the ways in which we can interact with these virtual worlds is limited to mostly the same methods we use for conventional games. That means nearly everything on the Oculus right now could be played elsewhere, from a different perspective, and that keeps VR’s potential for truly unique games from really taking flight. Oculus says the Oculus Touch controllers will be out sometime later this year, but considering the competing HTC Vive launches on April 5 with its controllers included for $800 (as well as the promise of “room-scale VR” experiences), that’s a temporary but significant disadvantage for the Rift.

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“ If this is to be my VR “home,” I’d like to feel more at home there.

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The Oculus store page, accessed from a button at the bottom of the screen, is more of the same, with the left column displaying a variety of sorting options for games, entertainment, applications, concepts, and early access content. Strangely, though there’s a media tab in every entry that will show you screenshots of the game or application you’re considering purchasing, there is no video player to be found in these store pages. That seems like a big oversight.

The interface can be navigated either using the d-pad on the Xbox controller or the remote, or by simply looking at something and pressing a button on a controller to select. That method is faster and much more natural than a d-pad - why scroll through options when the system already knows exactly what you’re looking at?

“ To install a game, you’re prompted to remove the headset.

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And what about the games catalogue? The quality of the items in the store vary widely, from the jaw-dropping space dogfights of EVE: Valkyrie, to ports of existing games like Defense Grid 2 and Project CARS, all the way down to disappointingly simple games designed for Samsung’s phone-based GearVR system, such as the bland zombie-dodging game Into the Dead.

“ you can look up through your fighter’s canopy and maintain visual contact with your target

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With a few exceptions, most of the other games would be unremarkable or even kinda lame if you played them on a conventional gaming system. Even the relatively high-profile Oculus exclusive Lucky’s Tale (which is free with every headset) seems to have few original ideas to contribute to the 3D platformer genre as it moves to this new medium - it’s all about double-jumping and butt-stomping through a colorful cartoon world, and the new VR perspective does little to change that. However, the novelty of experiencing a game like this in VR alone makes it vastly more interesting than it otherwise would be. Seeing a cartoon fox – or in the case of Defense Grid 2 and AirMech, aliens and robots – appear to run around in front of me like toys come to life is something I’d never seen before. But having tried touch controllers in demos, all I really want to do is reach out and touch them with my hand, and I can’t do that here.

Also, make sure to check out my VR-focused review of the spacesuit simulator, Adr1ft. Speaking of Adr1ft, it’s important to note that buying the VR version of a game does not necessarily give you access to the traditional desktop version, or vice versa. Make sure to check before you buy.

The other aspect of the Rift is the non-gaming side, where you can passively consume entertainment. The most notable are story-based experiences like the impressive Iron Giant-esque Lost. They’re dynamically rendered as a game would be, but you can’t move or interact with anything as the short story unfolds in front of you. We also get the ability to view full 360-degree video and photos, and the ability to watch video from Facebook, Twitch, Vevo, or your hard drive in a virtual movie theater with a big screen. This is functionality that has already existed on the GearVR for some time, but the improved resolution on the Rift makes watching video a better experience. It’s still nowhere near 1080p quality, since many of the pixels on the screen are used to render the area around the movie instead of the movie itself, but totally watchable.All of this is available through the Oculus store, but the Rift isn’t limited exclusively to that store’s contents. The options menu contains a setting for allowing “unknown apps” obtained from outside the Oculus ecosystem to run on your Rift. It’s off by default, however, and as of now, the Rift is not recognized by Steam’s VR mode. It will take some time for outside applications to update to be compatible with the final version of the Rift (as opposed to the Development Kit 2 version).