Meta's best decision with the Quest 3S? comes with Batman: Arkham Shadow.
Yes, the Quest 3S is the Meta-reducing headset of the Quest 3, but it can play the same games. For the most part, Meta made the right trade-offs with their newer, cheaper headsets, so ultimately being Batman will feel pretty similar on both devices. To be clear, the Quest 3 is a better headset. It also costs $499.99. At $299.99, the 3S is the better buy.
So if you don't have a Quest 3 yet but want to get into VR, save $200, get the Quest 3S, and jump into Gotham. And then look at everything you can play. There is more to do than you think.
The Quest 3S itself is more or less the body of the Quest 2 and the guts of the Quest 3, including the same Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor, the same cameras for full-color streaming, and the same Touch Plus controllers. Like other Quests, it's a standalone device that doesn't need to be connected to anything to work, which I think gives it an advantage over the PSVR 2.
At 514 grams, the Quest 3S is essentially the same weight as the 515-gram Quest 3. But the Quest 3S is noticeably bulkier than the Quest 3 because of the two places Meta found to save money: the lenses and the screens.
The Quest 3S, like the Quest 2, uses Fresnel lenses, while the Quest 3 uses pancake lenses. Not only are pancake lenses thinner, they can also have better image quality and bring the headphones closer to your face, making them feel more balanced. The Quest 3S also has the same resolution (1832 x 1920 pixels per eye) and field of view as the Quest 2, meaning you won't see as much in front of you as you would with the Quest 3 and Field's 2064 x 2208 resolution. slightly wider vision.
That said, I always felt the Quest 2's screen was perfectly fine for gaming and general web browsing, and I think it's still acceptable for the 3S, especially at this price. And it has been good in shadow of arkham. Sure, the graphics aren't as good as a PS5, but on the Quest 3S, everything looks good enough to make sneaking through sewers and pipes and taking out waves of bad guys a blast.
Of course, the Quest 3S's graphics aren't as good as a PS5, for many reasons besides the lenses: one is a giant home console and the other is a front-end computer, you know? – but the Quest 3S is more than useful. If you want your Quest games to look their best, you should get the Quest 3, and that's fine. But I don't think you'll lose much by going for the 3S and saving $200.
I should say here that if you have a Quest 2, the Quest 3 will feel more like an upgrade. Yes, the Quest 3S's hardware has improved a lot, meaning things are generally snappier and you can play better-looking games. But, at least for now, there are only a handful of games you can only plays on Quest 3S and Quest 3, one of which is shadow of arkham and the Quest 3 also has visibly better display and field of view.
The best argument for the Quest 3S, and perhaps for VR as a whole right now, is shadow of arkham, which is free with the headset until end of april. No matter which headset you play it with (it comes included with the Quest 3 and 3S), there's always something In fact great to play as batman in virtual reality. Hiding in the rafters and pouncing on a villain is everything to Batman, and this game lets you do it from the Caped Crusader's first-person perspective. Meta is packaging the game for a reason: beyond the arkham lineage, the game is that good. We've been waiting a long time for a really great VR game, one that sells the entire setup on its own. shadow of arkham It could be that game.
However, if caped crusades aren't your thing, you'll also have access to the huge library of Quest VR games, such as Beat saber and Resident Evil 4. I really enjoyed TeacherA recently released music game in which you conduct an orchestra. Starting last year, you can also wirelessly stream VR games on Steam from a PC to your Quest headset.
The VR app situation is getting pretty good on Quest. But while Meta has also pushed hard on the augmented reality and pass-through elements of the Quest 3 and Quest 3S headsets, I haven't seen any mixed reality games or apps that look like they're worth playing in something that's a virtual reality. totally immersive.
Passthrough, which lets you see the world around you while wearing the headphones with their cameras, still seems like a small feature to me. While I love the Quest 3S's “action button” that lets you easily switch between step and dip modes, it's something I've only used to jot down a note about a game I was playing or check Slack on my laptop before. to press it again. to return to virtual reality. The ability to place windows wherever you want in space is nice (and something you can do with other Quest headsets, too), but I don't do any serious work on a headset that requires that level of organization.
And sure, you could hang out and play at Meta's horizon worlds. But every game I've played horizon worlds It was terrible, so I wouldn't recommend it. Maybe I could give Meta a pass here if horizon worlds It was new. But Meta has been pecking horizon worlds for years, and I still don't think it makes sense to use it.
The Quest 3S doesn't solve some of the problems inherent to virtual reality: you still put on a large helmet that covers your eyes and largely excludes you from the world around you. Hand tracking is fine – you'll probably still want to use the controllers to interact with things while wearing the headphones. After spending about 45 minutes playing a game like shadow of arkhamI start to feel the weight and need to lift the headphones to give my head and neck a rest. The Quest 3S, at least, comes with Meta's Y-shaped top strap, which is more comfortable and more configurable than the Quest 2's standard strap.
I also noticed that I was largely only picking up the Quest 3S for the purpose of writing about it for work; After work or on weekends, I preferred to play on my Steam Deck or PS5. I think there are a few reasons for this. One is that those other devices allow me to more easily chat with my wife while I play, rather than leaving her out. We have a new baby crawling, so when I have time to play while the baby sleeps, I'm tired enough to not look for the physical aspect of VR. And games, for the most part, don't interest me like the games I can play on my non-VR gaming devices. (If you read my article about regretting buying the PSVR 2, these arguments may sound familiar to you.)
The cheaper Quest 3S doesn't address the trade-offs and limitations inherent in virtual reality. And if you already have a Quest 2, you won't miss many games. But $299.99 for the same chipset as the Quest 3 but with slightly worse screens makes the Quest 3S the best headset to buy right now.
Even if it's just a shadow of arkham machine, it's probably worth it.
