Stepping into VR Gaming: Quest 3s
Posted on July 25, 2025 by Aywren
Two days ago, my first VR Gaming headset – the Meta Quest 3s – arrived. This was an unexpected gift from Syn, after we had a very short discussion whereupon she stated her desire to buy me a VR headset so that we could share VR gaming experiences – with the goal to become more physically active while gaming.
She’d introduced me to her Quest when I visited during the holidays last year, and that had been my very first experience with VR ever. I had so much fun messing around with just the free apps – the one called First Encounters about the little aliens invading your house – but I still hadn’t considered picking up a VR set for myself despite that.
The Quest 3s was on sale this past week, and she brought up the idea to me – so I wasn’t going to argue! I just didn’t expect it to arrive so quickly.
As I noted, the idea was to encourage physical activity while gaming together, and she already has a few games in her library, including Dungeons of Eternity and Medieval Dynasty New Settlement, that would do just that. I received three free months of Horizons + (think Game Pass, but for VR) that includes both of these games, so I can hopefully trial them out for a few months before spending money on them.
That’s the one thing I see about the VR storefront – games feel more costly compared to Steam, and I’m not sure if there are store sales there or not. I haven’t decided if keeping the Horizons + sub is worth it just yet, but I have three months to make up my mind about it, I suppose.
Day 1 Exploring in VR
The first thing we did was meet up at the Fireside Chat world. Worlds are virtual locations that allow your Meta avatars to interact in VR space, along with the voice chat feature (which works quite nicely). I haven’t tried many of the other worlds just yet, but it seemed the Fireside Chat was empty just for us – I don’t know if that was because no one else was using it or if it’s just a private instance between a group of connected friend users.
After that, I started to explore other experiences, such as the YouTube app and a place called Theater Elsewhere. The Theater tutorial taught me about movement in VR experiences, guided by a cute snail avatar, while viewing a giant sand snail.
Can’t say that I’ve had that anywhere else. And I can say that coming at this as someone totally new, all of the apps have provided excellent hands-on tutorials to get me running very quickly. Something I appreciate.
Theater Elsewhere was loaded with lots of creative short experiences – something I plan to come back to visit when I have more time. One of my favorites was this haunted house that has something amazing happening in every room.
The screenshot does not do it justice as it’s just something that has to be experienced.
Steam Gaming VR Style
The other thing I explored was the Steam Link app, which allows me to stream VR-ready Steam games from the SteamVR software on my PC. I wasn’t sure how well this would work, since I’ve heard it depends on your PC specs and your internet speed. I heard that having a wired Internet connection is a boon to this, and my gaming PC is actually wired. So, yesterday, I tried it out.
Like a number of things with the headset, this can be finicky and weird until you figure out all of the nuances of it. Once I finally got everything aligned to work, I discovered that the Ultimate Fishing Simulator game – something I installed on my PC and have meant to play again – had a VR DLC.
Luckily, this was currently on sale for $2.99. I own all other DLC for the game, though I haven’t put the time into any of it as I wanted to. So, I was stoked to try out the Steam Link VR with a game I want to play, already own, and had a cheap VR DLC for.
It took some time to figure out the controls and get the settings where I wanted them – that was a me vs. game thing moreso than an VR thing, however. Once I sorted all that, I had to get gud at the game again. It had been years since I first played it, and needed to learn how to reel fish and get a net – that sort of thing.
But once all of those hurdles were overcome, I was fishing in VR! It’s not the most realistic environment being a 7-year-old game (I read it’s being remastered), but it was still very chill to put on a radio station, sit in the high grass next to the pond and catch some fish!
You can see an example of gameplay in this video review:
Accessories Needed
Spending any amount of time with my Quest has already made it known that I’ll need some additional accessories to play it the way I want. For one thing, the battery life is dreadful. After a first night of just poking around at things, the batter was down to less than 30% in just a few hours’ time.
Syn recommended picking up a battery pack from Amazon, which I did. Mine arrived today, one of the wear-around-the-neck versions, and I’ll get to try it out later this afternoon now that it’s fully charged. It’s supposed to extend the life of the battery playtime by 4-6 hours. I can’t imagine I’ll need any more than that (so I say right now).
The second thing I’ve determined is that I need a better head strap. Being a player with glasses, I have to get everything specifically aligned with the headset to see things clearly. This was an issue with Syn’s headset when I first tried it at her house, too. She ensured that I had the glasses extender insert included along with my headset, which has been a help, but I need a better strap to hold the headset in place, so I’ve purchased one, and it should arrive tomorrow. Looking forward to that, and my first weekend exploring VR!
I’ve been in a bit of a slump when it comes to gaming lately – there’s just a lot of negativity floating around for my favorite MMO and on once-favorite console that it’s been hard to fully enjoy gaming for all the drama. This unexpected VR headset has given me a completely different rabbit trail to explore, in an environment that’s so far detached from what I’m used to, and I think that’s a great thing.
It really couldn’t have come at a better time for me. So don’t be surprised if I focus a bit more on my VR experiences here on my blog as it’s nice to get away from drama and just feel like a noob in a new world again.