7 Oculus Rift games to break in your new headset

So, your Oculus Rift has arrived, you've got it working, and you're ready to go. What are you going to play?

Don’t worry, we've got you covered. Here's a list of great Rift games you can play right now. If you're looking more towards the future, we'll have something for you later in the week.

So, without further preamble, here are 7 Oculus Rift games worth your time.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is not only one of my favourite VR games, but also my favourite party game.

You'll have seen me mention it at every opportunity because it's not just a good game, but it's a good game that takes advantage of what VR can do.

One player is wearing a VR headset. They've got to defuse a bomb. They can see the bomb, and all of its machinations, but have no idea to how defuse it.

Enter the player (or players) in the real world. They've got the bomb disposal manual and can tell you how to defuse it. It's simple to learn, simple to play, and is the only VR game you can play with a room full of drunken friends.

Eve Valkyrie

Eve Valkyrie is bundled free with all pre-ordered headsets, so if you're getting your headset in the first batch, you'll probably have this. CCP Games' multiplayer space combat game is VR's killer app right now.

CCP bought into VR in a big way (you can also get its title Gunjack on the system to experience a different space based shoot-em-up) and as a result, Valkyrie feels made for the platform.

Multiplayer dogfighting is one of the best feelings I've head in VR, despite the fact that the many twists and turns should turn your headset into a vomit comet.

A few years from now, when people look back on the Oculus Rift and the games that ran on it, Valkyrie could be viewed as VR's Halo.

Chronos

Chronos is a third-person fantasy RPG that cribs a few elements from several popular RPGs like Dark Souls and The Witcher, but adds a cool time-based component to make your deaths feel important.

Each of your deaths will age you by a year, and this changes the cost of acquiring your skills.

It also has a few meta moments, tipping its hat to virtual reality inside the game.

All of this is wrapped up inside a world that blends high fantasy with alternate history and makes it the best RPG you can play in VR right now.

Radial-G: Racing Revolved

Racing Revolved isn't a typo. Radial-G is Wipeout in a washing machine, giving you all of the speed of a futuristic racer as you pirouette around a 360-degree neon soaked raceway hitting ramps and speed boosts.

A hyper-realistic racing simulation this is not (look below for one of those) but this arcade racer is a giggle, and you'll struggle to keep a smile off your face as you tear around the track with techno music pulsing.

Adrift

Adrift is a lot of fun. It's a first person narrative game set in a space station stricken by a disaster. You wake up floating in space outside of the damaged station, with no idea how you got there.

Space is scary. Given long enough, nothing can survive in a vacuum, and the smallest wrong move can prove fatal. While you're investigating what happened on the empty space station, you'll also need to try to avoid dying horribly in space.

Adrift works outside of VR too, so it's one of the games on this list you can play while you're waiting for an Oculus Rift to arrive, but really, the best way to experience the ambience and isolation is in virtual reality.

Darknet has been around for a while, but a lot of people are fond of it, and rightfully so.

It's a cyberpunk hacking title that will see you solving procedurally-generated puzzles to capture data nodes and then plan a strategy to take control of entire computer systems.

The Oculus Rift version adds a few more features over the Gear VR version, and takes advantage of the Rift's positional tracking and the extra grunt a full gaming PC can give it.

Hack the planet.

Project Cars

Project Cars is already the most technically advanced racing game on the PC, supporting wheels, pedals, 12k graphics, second screen apps…

For racing simulator enthusiasts, Project Cars has always been a no brainer - for those of you looking for new experiences on your Oculus Rift? Why not try motor racing.

When you strap on the VR headset and close your hands around the steering wheel on your desk it's almost like you're really in the car, ready to race.