I attended an Alicia Keys recording session, walked a tightrope and pet a dinosaur without leaving an Apple Store in New York City. The tech giant officially launched the new 3,500 Vision Pro in-store Friday and I was able to try out the headset this morning, along with dozens of others who waited patiently outside before the doors opened. But unlike the crowd, I was not expecting to enjoy the experience. I am somewhat of a Luddite and just could not imagine needing or wanting a mixed-reality headset - much less one that costs more than my month's rent in Brooklyn. However, each experience during the 20 minute demo felt shockingly intimate, vivid, and up close - I actually felt self-conscious about maybe having haphazardly stumbled my way into multiple dangerous or V.I.P. locations that I wasn't supposed to be in.

As Oculus hosts its annual OC5 event in San Francisco this week, the company isn't just looking back at its five years in existence, it's looking forward. Specifically to "the latest and greatest in gaming content," Steve Arnold, head of Oculus Studio Content, told assembled reporters at a preview event held the week prior. "One of the'aha' moments for VR for people is definitely multiplayer," Nate Mitchell, head of the Rift team, added. "Getting in VR with someone else, really feeling like you're truly there in a way that you can't do with traditional games is one of the little bits of magic that we've seen VR developers working on." I definitely felt a bit of that magic in a pair of these games on display: Vox Machinae by Space Bullet Dynamics Corporation and Stormland by Insomniac Games.