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Half-Life: Alyx Announced
- Thread starter Nzyme32
- Start date
The thing is, Valve has no need for money or exposure from a single game. Their main business is Steam so if their goal is to bring in more people to their service and PCVR, releasing HLA on a closed console and VR platform is completely antithetical to that.
Seeing some of the posts in this thread remind me of how out of touch with VR I was before getting into it.
I thought it was a gimmick too, but 2019 has brought two, huge AAA games in Asgard's Wrath, a 40+ hour RPG, and Stormlands, basically Far Cry with flying and other crazy powers. It is far from a gimmick these days.
I feel like most of these people saying "just port it to pancake ffs" either haven't tried VR yet or, if they have, have only tried pancake games ported to VR. Playing a game built for the platform from the get-go is a night and day difference to a port.
Also for those worried about motion sickness - that is valid but also normal. It's common to only be able to stomach 20-30 minutes or less at first but as you get used to VR most people's bodies adapt. At first I couldn't play more than 20 minutes of Arizona Sunshine without feeling sick. Now I can pull of crazy dogfights on Elite or put 4-5 hours into Asgard's Wrath no problem. There's definitely an acclimation curve and that's normal.
Also, seeing people compare HL: Alyx to the Diablo Immortal reveal I think are kinda missing the point. Mobile games restrict what is possible in a creative space to some extent, whereas here, with VR, it's a new technology which can actually expand the creative potential.
I thought it was a gimmick too, but 2019 has brought two, huge AAA games in Asgard's Wrath, a 40+ hour RPG, and Stormlands, basically Far Cry with flying and other crazy powers. It is far from a gimmick these days.
I feel like most of these people saying "just port it to pancake ffs" either haven't tried VR yet or, if they have, have only tried pancake games ported to VR. Playing a game built for the platform from the get-go is a night and day difference to a port.
Also for those worried about motion sickness - that is valid but also normal. It's common to only be able to stomach 20-30 minutes or less at first but as you get used to VR most people's bodies adapt. At first I couldn't play more than 20 minutes of Arizona Sunshine without feeling sick. Now I can pull of crazy dogfights on Elite or put 4-5 hours into Asgard's Wrath no problem. There's definitely an acclimation curve and that's normal.
Also, seeing people compare HL: Alyx to the Diablo Immortal reveal I think are kinda missing the point. Mobile games restrict what is possible in a creative space to some extent, whereas here, with VR, it's a new technology which can actually expand the creative potential.
Erik Wolpaw Response to concerns and conjecture
someone needs to make an updated version of this with HLVR
Well, I do get how getting a complete VR experience can seem somewhat overwhelming for people, but the narrative is strange, I agree.
To run Crysis in 2007 took about the same amount of money and effort as running a VR game today.
Maybe people think it's more expensive because they have to upgrade more than 1 thing, as the cartoon actually shows. :)
I like VR a lot (even though I do think the non-gimmicked games are still too feud) but I think it's always going to come down to money. It's just too expensive based on what else is available. There is really cool shit available but when you can play so many other games with a lot less hurdles, it's difficult.
To be honest, I'm not sure Valve is big enough for something like this to be possible, unless the Portal game is very modest in scope.
There are almost no hurdles to buying into VR these days.
I have an HP Reverb, but I'll admit the Oculus Quest really is the games changer for people that want to play games like this in this day and age. And it's only going to get better.
I woke up this morning and honestly thought I had dreamed that this was a real thing.
I'm so giddy. Also how ironic that members of a gaming enthusiast forum are so out of touch with gaming. The comments in here are so baffling. Just reminds me that I seem to have less and less in common with people the more the world turns.
So odd
I'm so giddy. Also how ironic that members of a gaming enthusiast forum are so out of touch with gaming. The comments in here are so baffling. Just reminds me that I seem to have less and less in common with people the more the world turns.
So odd
For me, I am lucky enough to have a VR setup at work. But if I were to get a setup at home, I'd have to massively upgrade my computer + get the VR headset, and because I live in the middle of a city I won't ever really have room to do a real full size setup. So for someone like me, the cost is a little prohibitive (and difficult to justify for a handful of games, even if they are very, very good).
Even after this game is out and if it's good, there will still be a contingent of people staunchly refusing to recognize its validity -- based on some of the responses in here. Moving goalposts, the usual stuff.
I'm so excited/nervous. I need this to be amazing, but I also need it to feel like Half-Life.
I honestly don't get how people don't get that.
It's like looking at Super Mario 64 and saying to the room
"Nintendo will probably make a 2D port of this game, for those of us who don't like 3D. If not, modders will handle it. Nobody can stop them!1"
It's kind of just... nonsense.
A VR Portal game seems like it would cause near instant nausea in most people, haha.
Some people are so salty at VR its really depressing. Was it like that when games transitioned from 2D to 3D? I can't remember such outcry.
But new PC games have always required upgrades. And the Quest or a WMR headset doesn't use a full size setup (my apartment is 5 by 5).
After a decade I shouldn't have to buy VR gear to play a new Half Life. I don't have the space for VR nor the disposable income to buy it for one game.
That's cool. I hope he's added some laughs to the game (but not too many).
There's already a Portal VR game (albeit not by Valve). It works fine, but the game doesn't throw you around like 1/2 do.
Im so excited because VR is literally perfect for half life
Also I'm super upset about people just forgetting that Lone Echo exists as a system seller. it absolutely is
Also Portal in VR sounds like heaven, make it happen
Also I'm super upset about people just forgetting that Lone Echo exists as a system seller. it absolutely is
Also Portal in VR sounds like heaven, make it happen
I'm sure the mods will deal with it promptly, as they always do in Valve threads.
One can hope, at least.
Also there is a clue that something else might come along side Alyx:
Uh huh. It should also run on the pc you played episode 2 on
You should get into stand-up comedy, dogg, cuz that shit is a genuine knee-slapper
I actually thing the "PC games always require upgrades it's soooooooooo expensive!" is actually a little overblown. The upfront cost is way higher than a console, but generally if you get a good machine off the jump it can last for a long time, even if you do eventually have issues running newer stuff.
That upfront cost is really the issue for most people (not me). Having to (probably) commit to a brand new PC before you even start to think about VR setup stuff.
Yeah, I'm sure things would have to be simplified.
I meant a game more similar to 1 or 2, like that chamber in 1 where you repeatedly shoot yourself vertically over and over to get more height.
The perspective rotation, along with the sense of falling and speed would be out of control in VR.
This. I'm running Asgard's Wrath in VR just fine with a $75 GTX 970. The Oculus Quest + Link now does PCVR at a $399 price point and it'll only DROP in price with time too.
I'll have to dust off my Vive.
The constant upgrade was definitely there in earlier 2000s, but that was more because every year we had stuff that was twice as fast as the previous. My Haswell PC from 2013 can still run most things, and all I did was drop a new video card in 2016 when I got my Vive.
The constant upgrade was definitely there in earlier 2000s, but that was more because every year we had stuff that was twice as fast as the previous. My Haswell PC from 2013 can still run most things, and all I did was drop a new video card in 2016 when I got my Vive.
Listen if you wanna do some races on tracks irl you gotta commit. Same goes with everything else. I dont know why gaming brings so much concern from so many broke people who can't afford the hobbie / luxury
And at this point nobody even knows if Half Life VR will actually require index controllers to begin with
Thank you for saying this. People in here are acting exceptionally entitled and ignorant
the first PC I ever built as a wee middle schooler was build specifically for Far Cry so I was living high and mighty when all my friends were complaining about how bad Half Life 2 ran on their machines lmao
Honestly, I'd consider facial animations one of the series' defining features, right alongside physics, so I hope it's good. HL2 is still shocking good in that regard for a 15 year old game.
Probably depends on the scope of the game.
I'm sure they'll want to make sure the game runs well on the base hardware needed to run VR so that might limit things, but for faces I'm sure they'll have smaller room segments (like being in the lab/base in Half-life 2) that could push some impressive graphics.
If course it'll probably have graphics options so I'm sure they could make even a great looking game run OK on weaker hardware.
Imagine feeling like because I waited a decade for a sequel to Kameo 2 that I shouldn't have to upgrade from my Xbox 360 to play it.
I bet you'll find the disposable income for the Xbox 5 and/or PlayStation 5 tho, huh. Game was built for and exists because of the promise and inspiration that VR brought to the team at Valve. If you don't want the hardware required to run it, it wasn't going to be for you in the same way that Red Dead Redemption 2 was never going to be for you if you were holding out for a PS3/360 release of it and refuse to buy the hardware it was actually made for.
I've been looking for a reason to get a new rig I'm going to be making some ridiculous purchases on Thursday I just know it.
You can just say "VR is not for me" instead of saying something inflammatory. It's not like they made a VR game to spite you.
To your latter point, yeah as much I don't really love VR stuff and probably wouldn't play a Half Life VR game if I had to shell out a lot for it, definitely feels like we should wait for Thursday before getting all doom and gloom.
As to your former point, I think that the direction of the games industry as a whole is moving towards that. Dozens of free to play games have become smash hits, mobile gaming is huge, Steam and other sales have changed the way people purchase AAA games, and game streaming is on the horizon. More than ever, the divide between the super hardcore niche people who will spend lots of money on gaming and the hardcore "I care about gaming and play lots of games but I simply won't/can't spend a lot on it as a hobby" people is visible on this forum.
And I count myself as someone who's really in the latter group but understands the frustrations over misinformation/dismissiveness from the former group