SQL Licensing: Physical vs VM

I need to setup a new SQL server, and typically we are fine with SQL Express but the software for this new deployment needs a full version of SQL. I'm getting a bit confused between SQL licensing and also best practices. I'll be needing Microsoft SQL 2014 Standard Edition.

I've read a few articles that warn against setting up SQL as a VM. If this really is a bad idea I do have a physical server I can repurpose as a SQL database server, but it is a dual 8-core processor so licensing all 16 cores would be pretty expensive! (Not to mention probably way way overkill for what we actually need). If my estimates are correct licensing this box would almost run $30k, ouch!!

Initially I was just going to setup a 4-core VM to run SQL on which seems cost effective, but I'm not a SQL expert so I don't want to start something that will run like...