HardwareVR HardwareOculus Quest 2What do you mean you’ve never played Half-Life: Alyx? Y’know one of the best VR headsets is down below $200 for the first time, right?When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
HardwareVR HardwareOculus Quest 2What do you mean you’ve never played Half-Life: Alyx? Y’know one of the best VR headsets is down below $200 for the first time, right?When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Meta)
Price check:Best Buy $199.99|B&H Photo $199.99
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After all, if you want to experience Half-Life 3 you’re not going to get any closer than grabbing a crowbar and braining a Combine grunt in the outstanding Half-Life: Alyx.
As a package, theMeta Quest 2 for $199 at Amazon(or£199 at Amazon UK) is the perfect pick for anyone wanting to dabble in virtual reality who hasn’t already taken the plunge. Admittedly, most of the VR-curious will have already dropped cash on some kind of VR facehugger, but this is bringing the price down to a level where it can almost be picked up on a whim.
The Quest 2 is an older generation of headset, but Oculus-then-Meta kept updating the software to the point where it’s a more capable device now than it was at launch. It’s got a refresh rate that can go all the way up to 120 Hz—which can have a big impact on how comfortable it is to game with them on—and a decent native resolution of 1832 x 1920 per eye.
It can be used independently, with apps running natively on the Snapdragon XR2 chip, or you can tether to your gaming PC to run SteamVR games, or titles from the Meta store with a good USB Type-C cable. You can even play while connected wirelessly to your PC, too, so long as you’re rocking a modern Wi-Fi router, anyways.
There are higher-resolution devices, with broader fields of view—theMeta Quest 3, for example—but they’re all far more expensive than this budget VR eyeball-filler. And, honestly, unless you’re all-in on VR, spending more than a couple hundred notes is a lot just to dabble.
One thing I would say, however, is that the strap the Quest 2 ships with is absolutely abhorrent. Luckily theElite Strap replacement is similarly discounted down to $25at the moment, and it’s pretty much essential for any kind of comfort while playing on the Quest 2.
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I tried a sim racing rig that generates ‘wind’ at CES 2025 and it’s claimed to help keep VR nausea at bay
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