My daughter has decided she wants a VR game console, specifically a Meta Quest, after playing one at a friend's house. She wants to buy it herself, which I support and appreciate, but I don't know anything about them (nor does she) and want to be sure she gets the best option.

At $199, she can afford a Meta Quest 2, but with the Meta Quest 3 out now, is the 2 still worth getting? Or is there a better option out there (HTC Vive, PS VR, etc)?

PS VR requires a PlayStation 5, HTC Vive requires a gaming PC. Really probably deciding between a Quest 2 and 3.

I have both. The Quest 2 is a nice headset. It's been very reliable and the image quality is great. The Quest 3 has slightly better image quality and much better passtrough cameras. The 3 doesn't have as good of battery life as the 2. My first 3 bricked and was replaced under warranty by Meta. No problems with the 2nd one.

The 2 will be fine for most things, but if she is needing AR/passthrough, the 3 is much better at that. I don't notice much difference between the two in MSFS which is my primary use, but my computer is outdated so I can't run at full res anyway.

The Quest 3 is really great, but kids don't always have the funds to get top of the line. As far as I know the Quest 2 can play all the games as the Quest 3. Some games will have updated/better graphics than the 3, but I doubt that matters to her.

I'd say get the Quest 2, $199 is a great price point for a really cool device.

The only game that requires the 3 so far is Batman. Of course as more titles come out there will be more and more that are Q3 only as they take advantage of better processor and such.

I would look for a used Q3 as the best deal.