If 2016 was the year that true home-VR systems arrived, 2017 may be best described as the year that they didn't die. Backhanded as that may sound, this compliment is indeed sincere. In spite of a lack of major, industry-changing hardware arriving, virtual reality games and apps continue to be produced, and aging headsets continue to sell (thanks, in part, to dropping prices and cheaper compatible computers).

As a result, the year in VR was less about holy-cow-wow innovations and more about smarter, more-compelling VR content finding its way to system owners. And with more users, true VR multiplayer is starting to emerge, which means it's getting a little less lonely inside of these headsets.

In the end, the best VR content stands out for delivering experiences that are altogether impossible on flat screens, and that rule guides my picks for the best VR content in 2017. Games dominate this year's list, if only because last year saw so many incredible applications that have yet to be topped. But this list contains a couple of exceptions. (Last year, I called Google Earth VR and Tilt Brush "killer apps," and I further stand by those compliments thanks to major, free updates to both apps in the past 12 months.)

Best VR shooter of 2017: Onward

VR has never lacked shooting games, and all three major home systems (HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR) launched last year with an emphasis on gun-crazy titles. As a result, for the most part, 2017's major VR games shied away from that "yet another freaking shooter" glut.

The biggest exception is an "early access" game that launched late in 2016 but only really began to mature in terms of comfort, combat, and variety this year: Onward (HTC Vive, Oculus Rift + Touch).

No other VR shooting game comes close to replicating the tense, military-accurate combat of Counter-Strike while adding the delightfully tactile, lock-and-load sensation that only VR can provide. Dashing and dodging around this game's battlegrounds has only grown more comfortable thanks to various tuning tricks implemented this year. If you want to feel like you are getting your money's worth for a fully fledged PC VR system, you pretty much need to buy Onward, even if "realistic" online military combat isn't quite your bag.

Should you seek a more standard single-player VR shooting adventure, the best you're going to get this year is Farpoint (PlayStation VR). It's a wildly uneven game, thanks mostly to the quest portion running out of steam all too soon, but its "Crash Bandicoot" approach to VR momentum feels clever and exciting in action, especially during its best skirmishes and its (sadly) single boss extravaganza. As my review notes, you can save quite a few bucks by skipping the PlayStation Aim add-on controller; a standard DualShock 4 pad really does the trick, I assure you.

Doom VFR brings up the 2017 rear, at least if you play it on HTC Vive. While altogether too short and puffed up with some annoying world-traversal moments, the game absolutely nails a rip-and-tear-in-VR feeling... if you play in a large enough "room scale" VR space. That's because its battle arenas are designed for quick-spin and quick-turn combat. The PlayStation VR version is an utter failure, conversely, thanks to its limited camera-tracking system and its unwieldy control systems, whether playing with the PlayStation Aim add-on, a standard DualShock 4, or a pair of PS Move wands.

Just as this list was completed, one other "shooter" arrived in my download queue: #Archery (HTC Vive, Oculus Touch), from the gonzo weirdos at VRUnicorns (the makers of last year's brilliant Selfie Tennis). Anyone who has played a shooter or archery simulator in VR has seen this stuff before, but its nine primary modes are still uniquely compelling and hilarious, including one that finds you launching pizza ingredients at floating pies. But that's nothing compared to the bizarre, hidden challenges found all over #Archery's boisterous world.

Rec Room (HTC Vive, Oculus Touch, PlayStation VR), which made last year's list, deserves an honorary mention for continuing to bolster and polish its variety of online paintball and parlor games. (It even added cute, satisfying "adventure" quests!) How the heck this game continues to remain wholly free is beyond me (underpants gnome alert), but, hey, give it a crack—and enjoy multiplayer games in its packed lobbies—before the venture capital dries up.

Best VR comedy of 2017: Gorn

If you want to have a good laugh in VR, Rick & Morty: Virtual Rick-ality (HTC Vive, Oculus Touch) seems like an obvious choice. Fans of the Adult Swim cartoon series will leave satisfied, as the game includes nearly three episodes' worth of plot, jokes, and insanity. Virtual Rick-ality will likely land a little less intensely for R&M outsiders, though its silliest puzzles shine with the same "do whatever you want" nuttiness that the game's devs delivered in 2016's satisfying Job Simulator.













That game is fine enough, if a little too similar to Job Simulator. But for my money, the year's absolute best "comedy" VR game is Gorn (HTC Vive). You have to play Gorn. Just make sure to invite a crowd—and have that crowd cover your walls, your prized possessions, and each other's faces in protective foam—before booting the game.

Gorn is the year's absolute best shared-VR experience thanks to its Looney Tunes-caliber violence and bombast. You don't need a crowd in order to dive into and enjoy its premise: you're a slave in a Roman gladiator arena, and you must melee-kill every slave you meet to appease your captor, a comically obnoxious emperor. The hook here is that every weapon is equal parts violent and cartoony. Hammers, axes, flails, spears, battering shields, and Wolverine-styled knuckle claws all flex, bend, and flop around in your hands as if they were molded out of spare parts from Jim Henson's Creature Workshop.

Thus, you must contend with Gorn's comical physics system in order to properly land bruising and killing blows. This is already hilarious and enthralling as a solo enterprise (though, as mentioned, this could spell doom for fragile artifacts in arm-waving distance). But the weapon variety, goofy-looking enemies, and over-the-top brutality all come together as a masterful group-watch experience, especially because each player's approach to the melee-only arenas is surprisingly telling. Who likes to hang back and aim spears directly into foes' heads? Who likes to bludgeon already-dead foes while they lie comatose on the bloody sand? Who goes straight for the axe, just so they can chop off one enemy's legs and then use those, dual-wielding, to kill every other jerk who follows? The answer is one of the more entertaining versions of a Myers-Briggs exam in recent memory.