OCULUS TOUCH $200
Controllers make a difference with Rift
The Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset became available this year to much fanfare, but it was missing something that would have made playing around in the digital world even better: the ability to move your hands independently. Oculus has released a pair of new controllers, called Touch, which give you a controller to use with each hand.
It is hard to overstate how much of a difference this makes in terms of immersion. Everything feels different when your arm and hand movements are reflected into the digital world — pointing at objects, reaching for handholds and even pulling a trigger is much better with dual controllers. It's much easier to lose yourself in a world when you are using your own limbs.
Looking beyond games — something that is vital to the future of virtual reality — the addition of individual controllers for each hand is a big step. Some of the most compelling Touch experiences are not traditional games. Quill, Oculus' own drawing and painting program, lets users really get close to their art and shows just one way that virtual reality can move beyond gaming into other creative ventures.
Overall, the Touch controllers are not as good as the HTC Vive's, which come with that headset. This also doesn't change the recommendation that the top virtual-reality headset to fit most people's needs will be the PlayStation VR, if only because the people most likely to want a gaming headset are likely to have a PlayStation already (Rift requires a high-end computer and storage many don't have).
REALLY BAD CHESS FREE FOR IOS
Two queens? It might happen with this game
Really Bad Chess is an engaging and wacky version of the classic game, which assigns players a random set of chess pieces. The pieces move in the same way as in regular chess, but players could end up with three bishops, a couple of queens — you never know what you are going to get. The result is a controlled version of chaos on the chessboard, and it provides an interesting challenge for new and old chess players. The free version of the game (for iOS devices) pits players against the game's artificial intelligence in a few game modes that let you improve your rank among all of the game's players. You can also pay $3 to unlock a pass-and-play mode, which has an ad-free mode.
