So it turns out the New York Times has been doing daily 360 stories for some time now. You can view them all on their sub site, the aptly named “The Daily 360“.

Not every one of these is improved by being a VR experience, but many are. Below are three that really caught my eye.

Aftermath of a deadly Mumbai building collapse

Watching it in browser is one thing but with a VR headset on it’s almost like you’re there. given the nature of the content, the scene has a strange mix of hope and sadness to it. Being able to be “present” really makes this story feel real, personal almost. You’re there with the people involved. It’s items like this that make you see why VR is sometimes called an empathy machine.

Paraglide Over Peru in 360

Hard to imagen how you could go wrong with a title like “Paraglide over Peru in 360”. It’s as beautiful as it sounds. One thing to be aware of though, simulator sickness. Experiences like this make you want to look about (sort of the point eh) but given the slow moving nature of the video, if your not careful it would be easy enough to make yourself sick watching this. Especially those who are susceptible to other forms of motion sickness. Having said that, as someone that once spent 45 mins sitting on the floor of a café bathroom following a bad VR session, I had no issue with this particular scene.

A ride for the red planet

This one’s a bit of a mixed bag. Large chunks of this basically put you on the sidelines at the museum showcasing the concept mars vehicle. Given the vehicle is the only thing of interest in the scene, it’s not much of an advantage being in VR over standard video. The part that really works though is when the scene changes to be inside the vehicle. It gives you a sense of what it might be like to be piloting this thing. Which let’s face it is very cool.