Virtual reality golf and 4 other video games to ease stress, improve your quality of life – and have fun
- Test studies suggest imagery and level of immersion of VR games can enhance players’ well-being
- Holiday simulator with bots as your hosts and rhythm-based electronic DJing with laser guns among new game offerings
Building on the school of thought that films and imagery can improve the quality of life, recent test studies have shown that playing virtual reality (VR) games can help with relaxation, too. It all depends on the type of game you’re playing, and perhaps, how you play it.
In terms of the technology’s relaxation capabilities, academic interest in this field is currently running high.
Already, in 2019, a search on Google Scholar – the web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly literature across publishing formats and disciplines – for the terms “VR” and “relaxation” returns over 4,000 results.
Virtual environments modelled on nature are generally championed in such studies, but there’s also significant exploration in the use of imagery and level of immersion for creating a better sense of well-being.
We look at five new games for VR headsets including the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality and Playstation VR (PSVR) that should help you to relax.
From taking a virtual holiday to hitting a few rounds at your own private golf course, the games combine popular pastimes with the power of VR to help you unwind.
1. Vacation Simulator
