The 10 best Oculus Rift games you can play right now (2015)

At the Oculus E3 conference, the company finally put a date on the long-awaited consumer version of the Oculus Rift. It's coming out in the first quarter of 2016.

But for the early adopters among us, there's already plenty to keep you going until next years release.

All of the games here are compatible with the DK2 headset, although some may not work perfectly yet and could require a little bit of tweaking.

Many of the made-for-Rift games here aren't finished yet because the Rift itself isn't released yet, so we've tried to provide a mix of great games whose experience is enhanced by the addition of the VR headset and some exciting new ideas that play with technology.

There's a lot of different rollercoaster demos for the Rift, but this one is the most interesting. Zipping around a realistic living room on a set of tracks doesn't offer much in the way of interactivity, but the environment is beautifully realised.

Looking out of the cart across the giant expanse of the living room was incredible and despite every trip being the same, the ability to look freely around the room as you hurtle about it like a hamster-sized rocket makes it a great experience.

Sadly not a VR bodybuilding sim, Pixel Ripped is a game that has you playing a game inside the game. Gameception.

It's not finished yet but in the alpha demo you're clutching a not-Game Boy under your desk and trying to sneak in a few minutes of your favourite game during lessons.

What's impressive here is the concept: you're sitting a fully realised environment playing a 2D platformer, but it's adorable and your playful interactions with the environment make it one of the most charming games on the Rift.

This is basically VR MechWarrior.

Following the suggestion of a fellow player, I played this demo with a subwoofer turned up and placed under my feet. I felt every single step as my gigantic Mech got his stomp on and explored alien worlds with extreme prejudice .

I think of all the work-in-progress games on the list, this one is probably my favourite.

It might be the stompy mech feet or the incredible looking cockpit, and if I was trying to sound smart I'd say it was the physics based combat. In honesty though, it's the fact that it feels like MechWarrior in VR, and if the real game delivers on that promise it's going to be one of the first of the virtual reality classics.

All is Dust, and a disembodied hand holding a lantern, in this horror game.

There's a few caveats in that it can be a tricky to get this to work and when it does, the scale is off, making you huge.

It's on the list regardless. Running for your life through hazy cornfields with unknowable horrors chasing you is absolutely thrilling. Not everyone can stomach it but horror games are really improved by the sense of presence that VR gives. You can't look away from the scary stuff when the screen is attached to your face.

I definitely didn't squeal at the top of my voice and pull my headset off with terror at one point playing this game. Not once.

I grew up in Dover. The trucks invading the the port daily meant childhood trips in the car were limited because my Nan didn't really want to emulate the road warrior.

I wanted to be a pilot of those shiny steel chariots, hauling toilet roll and other essential items around Europe.

The base game does this fine with bizarrely successful gamification of long haul drives, but with VR It's almost like you're really reversing through traffic at a roundabout outside Cardiff with one hand over your eyes in panic.

With a VR headset and a steering wheel, you too could experience the trouser-browning terror of wrestling a Ford Cosworth round a muddy field in Wales.

While it's still in early access, Codemasters has delivered one of the best rally games in years, and native VR support coupled with a promise of more content makes this a must buy for any Rift owners feeling the need for speed.

VR seems to be used most when you're put in a stationary viewpoint: behind the wheel of a car or in a cockpit. I'm hoping that as the consumer Rift edges closer to release we'll see more multiplayer shooters embracing the tech.

For now, you can get stuck in to Valve's seminal FPS. Not that one, the one with the funny videos and hats.

Everyone has played Team Fortress 2 but with a few tweaks to get it working you can use the Rift to rejuvenate the aging shooter.

What could be better than accidentally jabbing a scalpel into your patient's eye during an operation?

Doing it in VR. Top marks for Surgeon Simulator.

Probably the only game on the list I had to play with a laminated instruction manual, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a game of bomb defusal for two or more players.

One player can look over the bomb using the Oculus Rift, while the others are frantically trying to make sense of the reams of paperwork to try and work out how to defuse the bomb. As the time ticks down the situation gets more tense and mistakes are made.

Elite: Dangerous is the best argument for treating yourself to a DK2 headset right now.

Many of the made-for-Rift games here aren't finished yet because the Rift itself isn't released, but this just feels "right" with the VR headset in place. Lots of games on the list will make you feel like you are something: a surgeon, a truck driver, even a rally driver.

Elite:Dangerous can make you feel like Han Solo. Whether you're running illegal cargo into port, dogfighting in an asteroid field or lazily exploring the galaxy, Elite is immediately compelling and absolutely beautiful. Your starter ship has a glass roof, I'd recommend looking up and watching the stars once in a while.