The following text is taken from a review of a virtual reality gaming headset, the Oculus Rift. The review was published on a technology website in 2018. Oculus Rift review Oculus Rift is an affordable, desktop PC-powered VR headset ☆By Nick Pino 15 days ago Gaming accessories OUR VERDICT Oculus Rift isn’t the all-encompassing ‘future of entertainment’ some may have expected, but we’re optimistic that it might earn that title in the coming years. FOR Snug fit Best VR games Growing list of movies and apps AGAINST Can cause nausea Minimum PC requirements Still a big investment The Oculus Rift is already two years old – doesn’t time fly, etc etc. It promised to change the world of gaming forever when it launched in 2016, and while it hasn’t quite done that yet, the VR landscape has slowly matured and become a more attractive proposition. Since it made its debut, the Oculus Rift has been given opportunities to spread its wings a bit – a number of high-profile games have launched on the hardware, and it’s received motion controllers in the form of Oculus Touch (one of the most crucial upgrades since launch day). Recent sales data would seem to suggest Oculus Rift is catching up with HTC Vive, though the numbers are by no means definitive. But you’re not here for speculation, right? You’re here because you’re interested in reading about one of the world’s coolest, most bleeding-edge technologies: VR. Now, after two years with the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR, can we finally say ‘virtual reality is here to stay’? How the Oculus Rift works So, what exactly are you buying? What does the Oculus Rift do? I’ve tried my best to explain virtual reality in words and, on multiple occasions, have completely and utterly failed. At best all I can do is paint a half-baked image in hopes to inspire you to go out and find a friend or co-worker with an Oculus Rift of their own who’d be kind enough to let you give it a whirl. Here goes nothing. Imagine standing on the ledge of a 100-storey building. Imagine looking down at the street below you. Imagine the tightening of your stomach and the sense of dread that you might, at any second, fall to your demise. Now imagine taking one step forward. You’re falling and the world is whipping before you. You’re petrified. But you also feel alive. The second right before you hit the ground is the worst – your brain is actually prepared for the moment by dumping adrenaline into your system as a mild painkiller. But while all this is happening, you haven’t actually moved. You’ve been sitting in a chair in your own home, staring into a screen. Your biometrics have changed, but, geographically speaking, you’re exactly where you were 10 minutes ago. This is what it’s like to use virtual reality, to get the experience of being somewhere else in a different time, a different place, sometimes as far as an alien world, all without ever leaving your home. The latest iteration of the headset is significantly better than any of the previous development kits. It’s easier to set up thanks to an intuitive program that you’re prompted to download when you plug it in, and it now takes less technical know-how to install games and troubleshoot when things go awry. Once you’ve plugged the headset into the HDMI port on your GPU, the two USB cables from the headset and sensor to two USB 3.0 ports on your PC, and the Xbox One controller adapter into a USB 2.0 port on your PC, you’re ready to start the short and simple setup process, which only takes about 10 minutes. What you’ll find when you’re done is a library of about 100 titles that are longer than anything found on the HTC Vive. I’ve played a good deal of them, and while some are better than others, there weren’t any that I felt were a waste of time or money. I’ll cover them in more detail on the next page but, in the broadest of strokes, the Rift is a fun gaming system, even if it’s not number one right now.