If you're me, you would be someone who would be mildly interested in VR for almost 8 years but never actually managed fork over the money to get a headset. Maybe because you couldn't or because you were afraid to spend so much money on something you don't even know if it would give you motion sickness.

Last week, I decided that now is the time. I've looked over several devices, like Valve Index, Pico 4, Meta Quest 2 and 3. But my mind was kinda made up, I knew that I would either go for Valve Index or Meta Quest 3. I picked up MQ3.

The thing arrived on saturday morning. Time to play some games.

I boot up my desktop and install Steam VR, time to play Half Life Alyx... Cards on the table: I don't consider myself a Half Life fan. Not because I disliked the games, it's just I never played them when they came out. I can see why they are fan favorites and how impressive they were at the time, but I missed the chance to be wowed by them when I played them so many years later.

But HL Alyx is fixing that.

First, being "inside" the game was new. As someone who always played games on a 2D screen, I spent way more time than I care to admit looking at different objects, rotating them, interacting with them, etc. Once that novelty wore off, I proceeded with the game.

There's a scene where someone throws you a weapon. He tells you not worry, it's not loaded... Well, except it was, and when that thing dropped on the floor, it fired, I legit got jump scared. Later, when the crab thingies jump at you, I legit panicked and started shooting hoping that I would hit them. Dark sections? Legit horror.

I... Do not remember the last time I felt any of these things. If this was a conventional game, the gun falling would at best get a chuckle from me. Crab thingies? Meh, just aim and shoot them. Dark sections? Just another gaming section.

I think I get it now. I get why so many people like VR games. It's different. Because it's more immersive, you feel more involved with what's happening. Now that I'm writing this, yeah it sounds obvious, duh, but in a VR game it feels like it's you who is inside the game, in a 2D screen it feels like you, but at the same time you also understand that it's not you, it's your character who is inside the game.

I've been also trying Job Simulator.

As far as games go, this isn't really a "game". It feels more like a fun tech demo "hey, this is what you can do with a VR". An equivalent game with conventional 2D screen and controllers wouldn't get any attention from the public, and as for me, I would turn it off after 5 or 10 minutes.

But, it was legit fun. The Gordon Ramsay Robot yelling at me to cook food just made me grab everything and throw them at his face. In the office, I would throw things over to other cubicles like an annoying kid.

It's exhilarating to rediscover the joy and immersion that gaming can offer through the lens of VR. The sense of presence and tangibility breathes new life into familiar experiences, reigniting that childlike wonder I once felt.

Do you go by gut/heart feeling?

Do you analyze by head?

Do you write out long lists of pros and cons on paper?

Do you consult a lot of family and friends and then go by consensus majority?

Do you overanalyze and agonize and hit decision paralysis? If so, how do you get over that or push through it?

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

So I have heard of the game for a while, but I am not a fan of zombie games. I was recently shown a video apparently about it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XuKU2RziLo), and the game itself looks pretty awesome from my point of preferences.
The problem? None really, except... zombies. Just not a fan at all.

Edit: I like the menu options, though they seem like they could be clunky. I like the survival and crafting aspects.

So my question is this: Are there any games similar to this style of gameplay that might do without the zombies?

Would prefer on Steam/Linux, but if you have a similar equivalent that's great. Thanks. :)

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!

On the original book nomination thread, a couple of people nominated nonfiction. If we read nonfiction, I want to have a separate voting thread for that category so that everyone can submit books. However, should we? This thread is a chance to vote no for nonfiction and if voting yes to suggest a frequency such as 1 in 3 books, 1 in four books, 1 in six books etc.

If voting yes, please suggest a rate to read nonfiction books in proportion to fiction ones.

Edit , I am counting these as alternative options. Either we read some nonfiction or we don't, so please vote in a way that reflects your honest opinion.

Strap in folks, this is a fun one.

Yesterday at around midday my almost 75 yr old Pa started feeling extremely fatigued, weak all over, hot and, in his words, very odd.

He rang my sister who lives 5 minutes away, she got there and immediately called an ambulance. They were there in sub 10 minutes and checked him over. He couldn't even walk in a straight line. They took his blood pressure and it benched 199/98. They said he had a possible stroke and needed to go to A&E (ER for my US friends). Not living more than 10 minutes from the local Medway Hospital (major hospital) they went there. It took 3 hours to get to being triaged. The time was 4:30pm when they're told that the closest Stroke clinic is Maidstone hospital, 40 minutes away at rush hour.

On the way out, they saw the paramedics that had been out to respond and they called ahead to Maidstone Hospital so he was on record. That did nothing. When he got there, it took another 2 hours for them to do another triage, then another 2 to do blood work. Then the stroke unit refused to take him stating that they didn't think it was a stroke. After politely arguing the case my sister had to remind them to do his blood pressure again. At this point it had come down a little. He is still really weak and couldn't hold a cuppa without spilling it.

Eventually they relented and did a CT scan. When they checked the results they said it wasn't a major stroke but could have been a posterial stroke which wouldn't show. They couldn't do anything else there and should go back to Medway. At this point it's midnight. At 1am, my sister is checking my dad back into Medway A&E. 1.5hrs later they're through reception and sitting in waiting room 3 with 29 other people. I headed down at 5am to relieve my sister. Between 5am and 11am they took his blood pressure twice and we waited in the waiting area with everyone, my usually fit and healthy dad in a wheelchair. He's exhausted, had no sleep and was genuinely scared, which he never is.

It took until 2pm to see a doctor and we had to put in an official complaint to the nurses liaison team about the handling to even get that far. An hour later and then he saw a consultant who gave him a thorough check.

Concerned, the doctor said he wants an MRI scan performed, but to do this he was being made an outpatient and sent home. He would get an appointment and come back in the next few days. Why? Because if they admitted him he would join the inpatient side and they have 1 MRI scanner. He may not have been seen for up to 2 weeks and would simply be taking up a bed. As an outpatient the team has 3 MRI scanners and he will be seen quicker, plus less likely to pick up an infection from the hospital. It took another hour and a half after this, plus chasing the team to get them to take bloods and remove his cannula so he could go home.

Sorry for the long read, but how backward and broken is this system?

They still don't know if it was a stroke or a brain degenerative issue, all we know is he is home, cannot look after himself or my disabled mother and the whole situation sucks.

(A follow-up to Game recommendations, specifically)

This is a topic for book recommendations, but not just any standard book recommendations.

This is a topic for book recommendations where you have a very specific thing that you're looking for.

Maybe you're looking for a certain type of story that can't easily be summarized with genres and tags. Maybe you're looking for a book that will evoke a particular feeling that's hard to put into words.

Whatever you're looking for, share your desired specificity below, and let people try to recommend books that fit it.

I'm in the process of moving apartments, and I'm realizing I don't have an elegant solution to all of the tech gadgets/accessories/junk my hoarding tendencies refuse to let go of.

By electronic accessories I mean all the cables, flash drives, SD cards, dongles, headphones, power bricks, etc. that have I've gathered over the years. There are some larger items like musical instrument cables, wireless speakers, an computer mouse, even an old PS3 I don't really know what to do with. While most don't get used frequently, there have definitely been times where one of these items comes in clutch.

I'm not opposed to getting dedicated furniture like an under-desk cabinet, although I would want to make sure the space is used efficiently, and that it can be sturdy enough to be multipurpose (e.g. my work office cabinets have a cushion that can be used for sitting on top of). I'm in NYC so space is a premium and there's a low likelihood that I'll have extra space in existing drawers/closets, so I'd prefer a standalone solution.

Hoping there might be some clever solutions/suggestions Tilerinos find handy, even if it's accepting that a Marie Kondo-style purge of unused electronics is necessary.