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Half-Life Alyx |OT| The right woman in the right place
- Thread starter MRORANGE
- Start date
It's pretty crazy how 'right' this game gets everything. I think ladders feel a little hacky, but I guess they added that fairly late.
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Pretty much every time Alyx has spoken during gameplay, she's saying something I'm thinking IRL in that exact moment.
Ladders feel great to me, perfect implementation of it. As a very current counter point Walking Dead, whilst a good game overall had pretty bad climbing.
I can't get over how absolutely gorgeous this game is. Both in terms of technology and art design. Some of the scenes look like beautiful pieces of concept art that you can actually inhabit and move around in. It also runs incredibly well given what it's doing.
I'm not a full time game dev, just a hobbyist. I want to make VR content as I feel like it's a pretty open ocean right now. As I've been playing this, I've just been marveling at the design decisions Valve made with this. From the UI, to the multitude of control options, to the crisp visuals and the level design. It's all there.
I felt somewhat similar until chapter 5. The level design takes a step up.
Since I got Revive working well with the Index I purchased this. Looking forward to some Ready At Dawn goodness once I've completed Alyx.
I think I agree. Not that I don't think the dialogue or voice isn't well done. I think it would be more immersive if Russel was talking to ME.
It wouldn't make much sense since she talks in the other games though. It doesn't make any sense that Gordon doesn't talk but it's always been that way so it feels fine.
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This game is so, so good. The atmosphere is insane. I hope Valve (I know, not gonna happen) will keep on pushing out more VR games if they can do it at this level.
I think Valve mentioned they have 2 other VR games in development.
edit: guess not https://www.google.com/amp/s/uploadvr.com/new-valve-vr-games/?amp
Gladly I could fix my crashing issues with reinstalling the old AMD drivers and I could continue the game without problems. It even improved my occasional micro-stutters IMO, but maybe I am getting a bit of crazy with that stuff now.
Anyway. Finished the game. And holy shit at that final act. That was so brilliant. Seriously if Half-Life 3 isn't in VR that will be a huge disappointment for me. They have to improve and extend on that formula. VR will be more advanced in five years and they can push the boundaries once again. It's way too good to go back to "flat" gaming.
Game of the gen contender. I think God of War flashed my slightly more, but some passages in Alyx were straight out surreal and had me crouching and screaming in joy on my floor :'-D
Valve is still one of the best gaming companies around. They proved that with Alyx and I can't wait for more VR games from them. I wish them all the best with advancing the medium further.
Anyway. Finished the game. And holy shit at that final act. That was so brilliant. Seriously if Half-Life 3 isn't in VR that will be a huge disappointment for me. They have to improve and extend on that formula. VR will be more advanced in five years and they can push the boundaries once again. It's way too good to go back to "flat" gaming.
Game of the gen contender. I think God of War flashed my slightly more, but some passages in Alyx were straight out surreal and had me crouching and screaming in joy on my floor :'-D
Valve is still one of the best gaming companies around. They proved that with Alyx and I can't wait for more VR games from them. I wish them all the best with advancing the medium further.
hope they're just on hold, I'm not even finished with Alyx and I want more from Valve. doesn't have to be Half-Life but anything within the VR space from them.
Wow what a game. Anyone else a pack mule? At one point I had like 5 syringes and 8 grenades, and a med station refill. I was carrying it around in a bucket but game kept crashing.
Can anyone tell me how many headcrab sections there are? I'm basically PTSD-level with VR spiders nowadays, I just fucking hate shit jumping at my face in VR but I also really want to play this game :\
I was going to ask how you were carrying multiple items in your inventory at once until that last line. Amazing.
Ehm, they're pretty much everywhere, I'm almost at the end and I honestly don't remember a single section without at least 1 headcrab....
On another note, just finished chapter 9 and I'm honestly getting sad knowing that this will end soon, we're probably gonna have to wait another couple of years for an AAA VR experience like this, don't get me wrong, current games are great, but this shit just raised the bar to a skyscraper level.
Also, when the eventual "flat screen" mod hits, people are gonna complain, cause I don't see this being as intense as it is with a mouse and keyboard, like holly shit
having to juggle dismembering antlions and keeping track on combine soldiers in that traintrack section was one of the most intense gaming experiences I've ever had in my life.
last night I finally made the comparison that clicked with me why headcrabs are so scary in this game: they move like roaches. When they're in the dark and all you see is a glimmer of light on them as they scurry about, they look like large, turkey-sized roaches. THAT'S why they're so incredibly terrifying IMO.
It's funny, because as someone who hasn't played it yet, footage of headcrabs always look cute due to the way they now ragdoll when they hit stuff, which really shows the different experience of playing VR versus watching. I'm definitely not going to watch a play through.
Man the music in this game gets me so incredibly pumped up. It's the same in basically every half life game really. Those few moments when the fast paced action music kicks into high gear are incredible.
My previous favorite song in the entire series actually came from Black Mesa:
But I've heard 2 songs in Alyx that are even better IMO. I hope they release the soundtrack soon.
My previous favorite song in the entire series actually came from Black Mesa:
But I've heard 2 songs in Alyx that are even better IMO. I hope they release the soundtrack soon.
This game is just fantastic.
I made a VR basketball game for the Houston Rockets where all you did is shoot a free throws. I cannot tell you enough how unbeliveably hard what you just did is to accomplish through programming. This is one of those "when you do things right, people won't know you've done anything at all" but solving throwing mechanics in VR is one of the most complex problems around. It's all faked, we outright don't have enough tracking points to model a throwing motion correctly. I flat out don't know how valve does it, their tech for the physics model regarding throwing objects is black fucking magic.
Very honestly one of the single most impressive parts of Alyx.
I had a fun time playing last night without wires via side quest, but by the end of an hour or two, I had a bit of a headache I didn't have when I played with the Link. It might be coincidence, but there was a slight lag that you'd notice when doing very sudden hand movements, so that may have been the reason.
I'm going to play again with the Link tonight to see if is can triangulate the reason.
I'm going to play again with the Link tonight to see if is can triangulate the reason.
Fascinating stuff, didn't realise it was so difficult to pull off. I have been playing a lot of VR stuff recently, and Valve is definitely miles ahead in this regard. I'd never be able to do that in any other game, just don't have that sort of confidence in the physics.
So people who have finished... without spoiling anything, do you feel like Valve is going to make another HL game soon or was this more of a one-and-done, stop-asking-about-HL game?
This goes onto my "to do" list for the game!
Also: Laser sight for the regular gun is a lifesaver.
For some reason I often missed using the iron sights and the holographic sights.
It probably has to do with the angle I hold the controller with, but with the laser sight all is well and it's raining head-shots.
To accurately simulate a throwing motion, you need to track rotation of both the elbow and shoulder. All we get from current VR is the angular velocity of the hand. We see the object flying forward, but can't really tell the difference between an arcing lob, like shooting a basketball, and throwing something like darts.
It's a very, very math heavy topic that lots and lots of engineering teams have tried to conquer. That's partially why H3 is well lauded in VR circles, they do a pretty good job of simulating lobbing hand grenades. One problem that comes when trying to simulate throwing physics is that you can fake a lot of it for one type of throwing motion, but it doesn't apply to other throwing motions. So like, with the basketball free throw thing I made, I could go through and tweak it so that it would feel right for a free throw style shot, but if someone tried to shoot the ball like it wasn't a free throw, it'd look all wrong. Like the ball would automatically arc as though it was assumed you were shooting that way, even if you weren't. Valve's tech looks right for any throwing motion, which is mind boggling.
I'm being serious when I say I don't know how Valve pulled of the throwing mechanics in this game. I hope they give a lecture on it, because this is really amazing stuff.
I wonder if there's an element of 'auto-aim' in the throwing? Like it automatically correcting if you're close enough to the target?
It does feel strangely natural and intuitive (as does the whole game, tbh).
It does feel strangely natural and intuitive (as does the whole game, tbh).
It's the first time in VR that I feel like my throws are accurate. The grenades go in the general area of where I expect them to go. One of my favorite things to do is throw plates like frisbees very accurately.
If I did have any complaints about the game it would be that I wish there was a little more interactivity with the environment. There is some inconsistency of what you expect to be interactive and what is actually not. For instance, why can't I open an oven that has a handle, but I can open a fridge or cupboards?
There's a bit at one point where to access some optional part of a level, you have to toss a grenade into a duct in the air, and it definitely doesn't seem like there is "auto aim." I'm just as terrible a shot in VR as I am IRL haha. It's not that the grenade wasn't going where I was aiming, it's that my aim when throwing a ball like a basketball is just naturally terrible. Ever since I've been a kid, I've been an awful free throw shooter. If I was nailing the shot, I would have assumed some auto-aim haha.
I feel like a complete dummy.
I upgraded the pistol with the extended mag about 2-3 chapters ago but have only realised now, in chapter 9, that I need to load 2 mags one after the other to make the most of the upgrade. It didn't even register to me that I still only had 10 shots this whole time.
Ive also only just realised I can store things on BOTH wrists. D'oh.
I upgraded the pistol with the extended mag about 2-3 chapters ago but have only realised now, in chapter 9, that I need to load 2 mags one after the other to make the most of the upgrade. It didn't even register to me that I still only had 10 shots this whole time.
Ive also only just realised I can store things on BOTH wrists. D'oh.
So I purchased the laser sight upgrade for the shotgun
The laser sight worked at first. But in the first pitch black area where I'm holding the flashlight, the laser sight doesn't show up on the wall at all. Bug? Or am I missing something?
Haha, so funnily enough - I literally just got off the game having done that section and the fact I managed to get it first time is what made me think there may be some kind of... aid? Though I don't have any evidence to suggest there is any such thing beyond surprise that I did it first time lol.
Just finished Chapter 6 -- by far the most 'busy' chapter I've seen in the game so far in terms of action. There's a lot of shoot-shoot-bang-bang here, and it can become pretty damn stressful. One thing that has dawned on me is that the AI here does some very interesting and unexpected stuff. They're pretty good at flanking you when you aren't moving around, and they have really, really good aim. Sometimes they might be a bit *too* on the mark, considering how much damage they can do in a relatively short amount of time, but since the player can warp around reasonably quickly to flank them it seems like a pretty fair trade-off. Without getting into any spoilers, it's pretty apparent that every single enemy in Alyx has drastically different AI at play, and some of them optimize on very different pathways in terms of what they want to accomplish. There's one enemy in particular who actually likes to keep as much distance as he can between himself and the player, because they're relatively weak when you're up close, but at a distance they can saw through you if you're not in cover. It's brilliant watching when and how they make those choices.
Valve really chose a great selection of weapons here when you think about what you're up against in the game. Not every gun is good for every scenario. Game continues to impress me with every little detail in its core design. I honestly wasn't sure if after all this time Valve could hold a candle to their younger selves -- but they actually aged like fine wine. And seeing portions of The Lab in here (like the disarming mini-game is straight out of the space shooter they built -- what a fucking application!) brings a smile to my face.
Valve really chose a great selection of weapons here when you think about what you're up against in the game. Not every gun is good for every scenario. Game continues to impress me with every little detail in its core design. I honestly wasn't sure if after all this time Valve could hold a candle to their younger selves -- but they actually aged like fine wine. And seeing portions of The Lab in here (like the disarming mini-game is straight out of the space shooter they built -- what a fucking application!) brings a smile to my face.
I just started chapter 6 last night and just had the ending spoiled for me thanks to a YouTube channel recommendation that literally made the title of the video the ending spoiler, beyond annoyed :(
Through things like their keynote presentation at Steam Dev Days and little tidbits I hear, and having seen their offices before, valve basically takes an academic approach to video games. They operate essentially like a laboratory. They science the shit out of everything they do.
Never doubted for a minute that Valve could pump something like this out. Their approach lets them concentrate on the extreme minutia. Everything they do has a deeply thought out and intended purpose, even if it doesn't resonate with everyone.
haha yeah that's where I looked after since I remembered they put the others there recently
is there no way to listen to the OST? Gahhhhh need it in my veins
i just did chapter 3 (well nearly all of it) and i got the light. I instinctively put my left hand out to hold my right, which is my gun hand, and the light change directions to face forward like it was attached to the gun, just as i was thinking, i wish it would do that.
Truly, fucking, phenomenal.
Truly, fucking, phenomenal.
My god I can't handle this anymore!!
The Index isn't going to be here anytime soon.
What are your thoughts on the Oculus Quest All-in-one VR Gaming Headset – 128GB?
Is it comparable to the Index?
The Index isn't going to be here anytime soon.
What are your thoughts on the Oculus Quest All-in-one VR Gaming Headset – 128GB?
Is it comparable to the Index?