Half-Life: Alex (VR-only)


Looks like this is going to be good...

And completely FREE for anyone that already owns either the Valve Index or the Index controllers! Thanks Valve!

I've enjoyed reading all the flat screen pancake gamer posts whining and crying about this being a VR only game as well... :D

This should generate quite a few new VR adopters over the xmas holidays in prep for the March release... Valve is going all out finally with the VR support... even saying it will work with a PC tethered Oculus Quest!
 
And the most expensive game release of the decade goes to....


It looks good... just not $1000-on-top-of-a-VR-ready-PC-so-I-can-flail-my-hands-around-trying-to-load-weapons-and-use-gadgets-for-a-total-of-15-hours good.

I think Valve wants to go for the "Popeye's chicken sandwich" effect by creating a product that is available to only a limited number of people, creating....what do millenials call it? Hype? Vibes? That works great for a $4 sandwich.

Best case scenario, this will send a message that VR experiences are still out of reach of the common peasantry. Worst case, the entire industry of gaming journalism will put this title under a microscope more powerful than the hardware needed to run it.
 
SputnikYuri said:
And the most expensive game release of the decade goes to....


It looks good... just not $1000-on-top-of-a-VR-ready-PC-so-I-can-flail-my-hands-around-trying-to-load-weapons-and-use-gadgets-for-a-total-of-15-hours good.

I think Valve wants to go for the "Popeye's chicken sandwich" effect by creating a product that is available to only a limited number of people, creating....what do millenials call it? Hype? Vibes? That works great for a $4 sandwich.

Best case scenario, this will send a message that VR experiences are still out of reach of the common peasantry. Worst case, the entire industry of gaming journalism will put this title under a microscope more powerful than the hardware needed to run it.
Click to expand...

You are using absolutes there... Try $300 for a tethered Quest. Yes, the "premium" VR experience is going to run $1K... but there are many other VR options out there at well below half that. I know lots of gamers that didn't flinch much spending upwards of $1K on just a high end GPU for pancake gaming.

The good news is that this will further drive VR adoption and market share... fostering more development in both the tech and in VR games, as well as help to further drive down cost in the long run.
 
SputnikYuri said:
I think Valve wants to go for the "Popeye's chicken sandwich" effect by creating a product that is available to only a limited number of people, creating....what do millenials call it? Hype? Vibes? That works great for a $4 sandwich.
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Or just trying to push a technology that has already existed for several years now, with limited adoption due to lack of killer apps.
 
Supercharged_Z06 said:
You are using absolutes there... Try $300 for a tethered Quest. Yes, the "premium" VR experience is going to run $1K... but there are many other VR options out there at well below half that. I know lots of gamers that didn't flinch much spending upwards of $1K on just a high end GPU for pancake gaming.

The good news is that this will further drive VR adoption and market share... fostering more development in both the tech and in VR games, as well as help to further drive down cost in the long run.
Click to expand...

But you have to at least have the Index controllers to play, right? This will probably get some people to at least look in to the existing and forthcoming VR technology, and that is a good thing. But I wouldn't necessarily call any Half-Life title the "killer app" that will get people standing in line for a Black Friday deal or whatever. Which is strange, because as a whole, the Half-Life intellectual property is pretty solid.... if you stop counting at about 2008 I'd say. I think that's the big problem. You have an entire generation probably scratching their heads right now, thinking "wtf is half-life." I recall a younger student I lived with playing HL: 2 on their PS3 around 2007, and they were overall not impressed, or compelled at all to delve into the other titles. The same person probably played and loved Portal later, and never realized they were made by the same developer.

Even when Facebook bought Oculus, I was thinking "oh wow Facebook made a move maybe they will develop some type of compelling communication application akin to Second Life or VR chat, that will suddenly have Facebook users buying an Oculus or people that want an Oculus signing up for FB..." but that has not happened.

Also if I was dropping a grand on a single purchase, I probably wouldn't flinch either. The consensus on those people is: good for them. I figure they make up a very small portion of the market. But comparing $1000 GPU to $1000 proprietary input device is almost apples and oranges.

I would say they'd almost have more of a gambit creating a CS:VR game... There are certainly more people playing CS than HL right now. So maybe they have more planned and are just testing the waters.
 
SputnikYuri said:
But you have to at least have the Index controllers to play, right? This will probably get some people to at least look in to the existing and forthcoming VR technology, and that is a good thing. But I wouldn't necessarily call any Half-Life title the "killer app" that will get people standing in line for a Black Friday deal or whatever. Which is strange, because as a whole, the Half-Life intellectual property is pretty solid.... if you stop counting at about 2008 I'd say. I think that's the big problem. You have an entire generation probably scratching their heads right now, thinking "wtf is half-life." I recall a younger student I lived with playing HL: 2 on their PS3 around 2007, and they were overall not impressed, or compelled at all to delve into the other titles. The same person probably played and loved Portal later, and never realized they were made by the same developer.

Even when Facebook bought Oculus, I was thinking "oh wow Facebook made a move maybe they will develop some type of compelling communication application akin to Second Life or VR chat, that will suddenly have Facebook users buying an Oculus or people that want an Oculus signing up for FB..." but that has not happened.

Also if I was dropping a grand on a single purchase, I probably wouldn't flinch either. The consensus on those people is: good for them. I figure they make up a very small portion of the market. But comparing $1000 GPU to $1000 proprietary input device is almost apples and oranges.

I would say they'd almost have more of a gambit creating a CS:VR game... There are certainly more people playing CS than HL right now. So maybe they have more planned and are just testing the waters.
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Err, nope. It will play just fine with Rift Touch, Rift S and Quest controllers - they all are pretty much on par with the Index controllers and SteamVR already maps them all quite well. The original Vive wands may be a little more problematic as to great/seamless hand control, but all the other will be fine.
 
I think what I meant to say was you would at least need the controllers if the game was playable without a VR headset (I'm going to assume it will not be, ever).

If you wanted the best experience in a flight simulator, a VR headset and the appropriate flight controllers would be a good fit. But it's not like you wouldn't be able to play the game at all with just a keyboard, mouse, and monitor.

Hell, I would rather invest in VR tech to play a flight or racing simulator over a comparatively short and standard narrative experience, even if it is a really good one. But it probably isn't going to be like any game we've seen before. When I saw players linking their headsets up to GTA and RDR2, among other games, it was genuinely exciting. Like "Damn, there's this whole other spectrum of gaming to consider." I've kind of lost touch with all the VR tech, so it's refreshing to see a reason to even talk about it.
 
And it is free for buyers of Index or the Controllers :D. It's in my games list already though unreleased.
 
Room scale is supported and nothing in the trailer indicates anything is "on-rails", seems very free as much as any decent VR game anyways...
if you mean on-rails like how some considered HL2 to be, well, that's an entirely different thing :)
 
SputnikYuri said:
And the most expensive game release of the decade goes to....


It looks good... just not $1000-on-top-of-a-VR-ready-PC-so-I-can-flail-my-hands-around-trying-to-load-weapons-and-use-gadgets-for-a-total-of-15-hours good.

I think Valve wants to go for the "Popeye's chicken sandwich" effect by creating a product that is available to only a limited number of people, creating....what do millenials call it? Hype? Vibes? That works great for a $4 sandwich.

Best case scenario, this will send a message that VR experiences are still out of reach of the common peasantry. Worst case, the entire industry of gaming journalism will put this title under a microscope more powerful than the hardware needed to run it.
Click to expand...

You're really going to the extreme here... You can play Alyx on Windows Mixed Reality headsets too if you want. You can play this on any number of VR headsets that have been out for a while including all Oculus and Vives which you can get for relatively cheap. The Oculus Quest, Rift S are $400 and are great options. You also don't need any extremely powerful $1000 computer to play VR either so yes the best experience will be on more expensive setups, but it's still the same game and can be enjoyed just as well using a cheaper setup. It's like the difference between a game on Ultra and Medium to High settings... it'll still be enjoyable.

I personally think i'll likely get a Rift S for this. I already had the original Rift but I sold it a few months ago. There are already some really great games on VR I want to get back into like Fallout 4 VR and Robo Recall... those games are fucking great.
 
also 1060 card, which is the min spec for the game, are under $200... if you really have an ancient PC and wanna go as cheap as possible
 
I don’t really doubt the hardware at this point. Even the 900 series was touted as “VR Ready” and would probably manage to just keep up with some concessions. And I realize now that there are indeed a few options for headsets on the market that I wasn’t aware of. I still feel like it’s a steep entry level, but over the last week that feeling has normalized to “well you saw this coming, didn’t you?” With VR, I’m not really sure yet if anything - even the “best” experience - is even worth the money. I’ve never demo’d any of these PC headsets, and not because I don’t want to.
 
On topic please. Plenty of VR whiner threads already.
 
Any idea how or if the Index cpntrollers gives any advantage over the others? Like sign language or keyboards that make use of the additional fingers, maybe unlocking a bit more of the game via Index-only sidequests?
 
Might haft to get a rift S or a cheap windows mixed reality headset to play this. Looks fantastic. Humm an OC 2500k 16gb ram and a 2060 or 5600XT should be enough to get decent details?
 
ndpvv7dcadc41.jpg


Wait, does this mean we're ACTUALLY going to get HL: Alyx in March!? I won't believe it until I see it!

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atarumoroboshi18 said:
Wait, does this mean we're ACTUALLY going to get HL: Alyx in March!? I won't believe it until I see it!
Click to expand...

I never really doubted it. I know Valve has a history with delays, but I think the reception this game gets is perhaps more important for them than any previous release. It's been 12 years since we got half life, but it's also been a while since Valve really presented themselves as as game developer. This is also really the first AAA game release designed from the ground up for VR. It hits a lot of important milestones for both Valve as a game developer and VR as a technology as a whole, and could end up impacting the future of both. I think they waited as long as they did to announce so that they could be 100% confident there would be no delays, valve time, "when its ready", etc.

Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I expect great things from Alyx.
 
Alright, just played the game all the way through. The graphics are second to none, it's insanely good looking. Let me be very clear, the ENDING ALONE is worth playing the game. I will not spoil anything and while the game is amazing, the ending made me go HELL YEAH!
 
atarumoroboshi18 said:
Alright, just played the game all the way through. The graphics are second to none, it's insanely good looking. Let me be very clear, the ENDING ALONE is worth playing the game. I will not spoil anything and while the game is amazing, the ending made me go HELL YEAH!
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I have been holding off, just to make sure that all way good. Apparently Valve was on, no patches needed.
 
18 hours in. Loving the game overall, though the slow gameplay is starting to get on my nerves. Give me more action, damn it.

There are some weird bugs. I like exploration and spend considerable amount of time inspecting every little corner. That's how I sometimes get inside certain areas (mostly containers) without a means to get out.

Sometimes gas tanks disappear in the floor, and just yesterday an ant lion managed to become invisible and has been following me for almost the entire level. I can't kill it, and it can't kill me, but I can't move past it and ended up getting stuck in a corner a few times before I realized what was going on. I can hear it, I can see how it pushing bodies and other object throughout the level. I think I finally managed to get rid of it by luring it far enough and closing a door behind my back.

The worst thing about my experience with Alyx is our cramped living room. Almost broke a few fingers trying to toss a grenade just the way I wanted to. Action is great. Sadly, there isn't much of it and I simply don't have enough room to perform all the things that I want to. I can't imagine Quake like gameplay but snooze fests such as BF/PUBG and such could totally transition to VR in just a few years.
 
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dgz said:
18 hours in. Loving the game overall, though the slow gameplay is starting to get on my nerves. Give me more action, damn it.

There are some weird bugs. I like exploration and spend considerable amount of time inspecting every little corner. That's how I sometimes get inside certain areas (mostly containers) without a means to get out.

Sometimes gas tanks disappear in the floor, and just yesterday an ant lion managed to become invisible and has been following me for almost the entire level. I can't kill it, and it can't kill me, but I can't move past it and ended up getting stuck in a corner a few times before I realized what was going on. I can hear it, I can see how it pushing bodies and other object throughout the level. I think I finally managed to get rid of it by luring it far enough and closing a door behind my back.

The worst thing about my experience with Alyx is our cramped living room. Almost broke a few fingers trying to toss a grenade just the way I wanted to. Action is great. Sadly, there isn't much of it and I simply don't have enough room to perform all the things that I want to. I can't imagine Quake like gameplay but snooze fests such as BF/PUBG and such could totally transition to VR in just a few years.
Click to expand...
Slow gameplay gets on your nerves but your spend extra hours looking at and exploring every single detail? OK.
 
FrgMstr said:
Slow gameplay gets on your nerves but your spend extra hours looking at and exploring every single detail? OK.
Click to expand...

Ugh huh. It's slow in terms of there aren't enough action sequences where you get to use your weapons.

Doom 2016 maps are basically interconnected arenas, and yet there are plenty of secrets exploration in between the fights.

To me, exploration means "can I get to that ledge (or fall outside the map). Seems like they don't want me going there".

Just the other day I managed to get back to an area I wasn't supposed to go back to. I wanted to pick up a few more gas tanks but found the edge of the rendered world. All geometry was unloaded and all I could see was part of the skybox. I couldn't walk into the nothingness, though.
 
Thinking about grabbing this. I've got a WMR headset and controllers. Honestly how much will I be missing without knuckles? I'm really not in the market for a new HMD at the moment... or controllers.... or damn near anything fun haha.
 
rgMekanic said:
Thinking about grabbing this. I've got a WMR headset and controllers. Honestly how much will I be missing without knuckles? I'm really not in the market for a new HMD at the moment... or controllers.... or damn near anything fun haha.
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I have the knuckles and I don't think you'll miss anything at all. IMHO it doesn't really use the knuckles features at all because of how Alyx is setup. I can have my hand completely open and the gun just sits there in my hand. It's not like in other VR games where the gun would be on the floor. The stuff you grab is basically set for only hand open/closed setting so a button can deal with all the possibilities.
 
dgz said:
The worst thing about my experience with Alyx is our cramped living room. Almost broke a few fingers trying to toss a grenade just the way I wanted to. Action is great. Sadly, there isn't much of it and I simply don't have enough room to perform all the things that I want to.
Click to expand...

I could NEVER throw a grenade worth a damn in this game.
 
Fuck Jeff, tho...for reals. Why they gotta turn this into a horror game every chance they get...I just wanna play Half-Life, lol.
 
MavericK said:
Fuck Jeff, tho...for reals. Why they gotta turn this into a horror game every chance they get...I just wanna play Half-Life, lol.
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I know the feeling, but at the same time I think they were actively trying to make it feel different than Half-Life in the sense that you are NOT Gordon Freeman and you can't handle everything even with weapons.
 
I got to play literally 5 minutes today. God damn. It's rather impressive even in that short span. Like...wow!
 
I can't wait to play. Finaly asked for my payment info today so I should have by next week!
 
Had a long weekend off work and just finished the game a few minutes ago; 21 hours total.

So uhh... where's that next installment, Valve?

3uc1h2.jpg
 
$39.99 right now -- 25% discount for Steam Summer Sale, and another $5 off "Road Trip Special" (auto-applied at checkout, one time use)
 
I got to the part with
ant lions
, but stopped because I was hitting performance issues with my 1080 after upgrading to an Index. Waiting on my 3080 to jump back in and finish the game.
 
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