I tested the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PS VR – the winner was clear

Virtual Reality was the talking point at this year’s rAge 2016 expo.

It’s clear the new peripherals were an immense point of interest as hundreds queued at every VR booth to get some hands-on time with the new technology.

Fortunately, I was given some genuine hands-on time with the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PS VR.

Ultimately, it was the PS VR that impressed me the most – here’s why:

It’s the most comfortable

I feel like I should mention that I don’t wear glasses and that my hair is quite short, but the PS VR is easily the most comfortable for a number of reasons.

It fits on the head more snugly than the other two headsets and it uses a series of buttons as opposed to finnicky straps to secure the headset firmly.

There’s also a little dial attached you can tweak to make sure everything fits correctly. It gives the impression that Sony has geared the headset towards consumers first and foremost and have not just built another “toy”.

It’s first

Despite the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive both releasing internationally earlier than the PS VR, Sony’s platform will be the the first to touch down on local shores in January.

It’s easy to say now, but if the PS VR is the only console that’s widely commercially available (the other two have no official local release date), it’s the one you are going to want to check out.

It’s reasonably priced

R7,000 is reasonably priced compared to the expected price of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in South Africa.

The other headsets aren’t locally available yet, but their current international price points to them being at least R1,500 more expensive than PS VR.

The fact that it works out of the box with your standard PS4 console and doesn’t require an additional GPU upgrade makes it the more user-friendly option.

The Games

There are very few games that I checked out on the Vive or Rift that stood out as must-play titles.

Rec Room aside, Batman VR, RIGS, and Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, all used the PS VR in interesting ways that the Rift and Vive just didn’t.

It’s cool to slash with a fake sword in a Fruit Ninja clone, but those aren’t the in-depth experiences I’m looking for.

Have you tried a VR-headset? What did you think of it? Let us know in the comments below and in our forums.

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