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Half-Life Alyx |OT| The right woman in the right place
- Thread starter MRORANGE
- Start date
If you get more scared by sustained tension than quick jump scares - as I do - you'll find Chapter 7 much scarier. Think Alien Isolation for an idea what to expect, but with a more predictable and forgiving AI.
Has anybody experimented with the amount of grenades one realistically can carry around in a container? I'm at about 15 now and I'm kinda curious how this will evolve :D
I even have started using continuous movement so I don't lose the grenades constantly. As long as I imagine I'm a person on an omnidirectional mini vehicle my brain seems to cope quite well. As crazy as that may sound.
I even have started using continuous movement so I don't lose the grenades constantly. As long as I imagine I'm a person on an omnidirectional mini vehicle my brain seems to cope quite well. As crazy as that may sound.
Nothing came close to scaring me as much as Chapter 5 did. Chapter 7 is still pretty creepy don't get me wrong, but it's something you adjust to really fast. It's scary but in a fun way not in a holy shit I have to stop playing way. You can get through it! And if I remember right, you're close to leaving the hotel and from there things get a lot easier.
I'm only on Chapter 6, but I feel like I'm fairly desensitised to the horror now. Dark areas still creep me out a bit, but I actually didn't find Chapter 5 all that bad. I do actually find the tension more stressful than the typical horror elements - so maybe Chapter 7 will get me.
I'd be curious to hear your thoughts after chapter 7
I played through using Link and didn't have any problems. I can't speak for Alyx in particular but I do notice more latency with wireless streaming options. I have a particularly hard time throwing objects as the input lag causes a delay. In SteamVR objects I try to throw just drop to the ground
Been experimenting a bit with grenade containers. The game seems to crash when you put down your bundle, and then grab one from it. So what I'm doing now, is to simply carry around a bucket with 7 grenades between encounters, and dumping the whole bundle on the floor before an encounter. This way, you can grab one without moving the others.
Then do the encounter and look for pickups. When I'm about to move on, I put the remaining grenades in my bucket and carry that a bit to the next area. I save my game, and until combat starts I just keep the bucket in my hand.
Then do the encounter and look for pickups. When I'm about to move on, I put the remaining grenades in my bucket and carry that a bit to the next area. I save my game, and until combat starts I just keep the bucket in my hand.
Well, starting my 4th play through, guess I'm going to do the Gnome achievement run. All other games are dead to me after this. All I want is more HL in VR. I don't care for anything else anymore.
Woo just finished Chapter 3.
I was having tracking problems throughout the whole Xen Garden section, and was convinced it was sunlight creeping in to the room. Turns out I did that whole section with only one lighthouse powered on. Whoops.
It was good to have a Combine battle after all that creeping around. Being so close to Advisors is unnerving, even dead (or dead-looking) ones.
It was good to have a Combine battle after all that creeping around. Being so close to Advisors is unnerving, even dead (or dead-looking) ones.
Out of curiosity, which GPU does your iMac have?
If you like RPG's I cannot recommend Asgard's Wrath enough. Playing through it now and it clearly has the budget backing it and is story driven. You can also highlight objects and bring them to your hands. Game came out months before Alyx. Plenty of games have a mechanic similar to the gravity gloves.
Oh? Did they confirm that already? If so, awesome. I hope they actually get around to making more Half-Life games quicker, this time.
It's not exactly confirmed, but... theres no way they're making a non VR version of a Half-Life game ever again. I would be shocked if that ever happened. I'd bet my life on it.
It's not the "best" as in the best headset out there, but playing via Link is still a great experience (when it works correctly... Link was quite buggy for me before I got my Index)
Just make sure to use a clip to make the Link cable be attached to the back of the headset so it isn't pulling your Quest sideways constantly.
I agree with this - the game is meant to be scary and I'm usually scared of horror games, but Alyx (mainly Chapter 7) was much more of a "fun" tension for me. I have no idea why. On paper theres chapters that are incredibly horrifying but actually playing them was so much fun that it took over the horror factor for me.
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Put your hand in the mask and grab it? Like, just put your hand near your mouth and grab.
Try the SteamVR beta, that fixed up a lot of Oculus tracking problems for me.
Bruh just finished this game and wow wow wow. Definitely one of the GOAT for me wonderful game. Yes it has elements of other VR games but nothing is this level of polish everything works almost flawlessly and for anyone that is used to playing VR that is rare to have soo many systems working. The story is great and fun. Can't wait for more.
Virtual Desktop for wireless alyx VR experience and the picture quality is way better than using the link. Granted you have 5ghz router
I just replayed the last few chapters again and im still legit blown the fuck away.. this is hands down one of gaming best experience. I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH LOOKING FORWARD to more Half Life VR game!!
For the past week I've been constantly searching for a new Oculus Rift S just to play this game.
Now that the game has been out about 2 weeks, what is everyone's favorite chapters so far?
For me, in no order;
Chapter 3
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 9
Chapter 11
Chapter 3 is really good imo.
For me, in no order;
Chapter 3
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 9
Chapter 11
Chapter 3 is really good imo.
From the moment the zombies break through the walls to the end is pretty intense, even on my second play through.
Replaying on hard now, can't believe I completely missed the sleight of hand in the first major encounter with several zombies in the train station. You go through the train, with clear sight of the station through the windows as you go, likely eliminating all the zombies spawned at that time. Then, when you reach the train car's exit, a new batch of like six zombies spawn in to ambush you as you pass through the area you just clearly saw was empty. You can even see the spawn happen if you're fast enough. This encounter was featured in preview footage, which primed me for it I guess, and as I played it for the first time I was already caught up in admiring how the encounter used sightline blocking to surprise you (which also teaches you to be wary of similar situations in the future - that's some real silent tutorializing), but it stuck out on replay. I'm surprised they resorted to that kind of solution to make this encounter work.
I'd say to try it first. People are saying they played the game well with i5 4460's and 4590's. Looks like your i3 actually performs better than those after glancing at some benchmarks. Your GPU should work fine at least on low settings, but don't let that discourage you. Low settings looks really good in this game and I can't even tell the difference between high and low.
Bleh, just got to Jeff. Only got to the first puzzle and I'm already annoyed.
I had some tracking issues because I was running Folding @ Home in the background (helping with COVID-19 research and all that), have to turn that off to make VR work well.
Have a look at this in the meantime.
Here's Half-Life 2 running in VR, using Half-Life: Alyx's engine
The VR port demo was made in just under a week.www.pcgamer.com
ahhh this is amazing, thank you for sharing it :D
My guess is that may be possible to miss something in that room and still get through it.
VR is still a niche market regardless Alyx's success and there is still a HUGE half life fanbase out there without VR headsets willing to pony up for the next non-VR Half Life (a fact Valve would be all too aware of).
HL:A will go down as being a very successful side project. I wouldn't bet something as important as your own life on something that is no way near being a certainty
The problem with this is Valve has no need to cater to that fan base and hasn't for over a decade, so the idea that now they're suddenly going to seems very unlikely.
Valve had 13 years to make a 2D Half Life game, and only actually made one when they found VR. If they truly cared about the size of the market, they wouldn't have made it at all. Valve see VR as the future of gaming, making a sequel that is 2D again would be an incredible downgrade and will never happen. It's like if they made Episode 3 with the Half-Life 1 engine. You can't go back.
Unless you are a Valve employee or someone very close to the company....you cannot say that with any degree of certainty. They could well be using Alyx as a method of testing the waters to see how much interest there was for another 'traditional' HL game. Obviously the interest is still there on both sides of the VR fence
How does that test the waters? If anything it muddies the waters as now there are HL fans who want the next game to be VR.
I can't say it with 100% degree of certainty... but if we follow the clues.. the destination is very very obvious. There will never be a 2D HL game ever again. Let's come back to this in 5 years and I'll gladly eat my words.
And again, Valve doesn't care about interest. They made a VR exclusive game. It's an incredibly small userbase.
They released a new Half Life game to a niche market....knowing full well that sales would be much lower than if they made a traditional HL game (simpy due to the amount of custs it would hit). That is testing the waters...there is no reason in my mind why VR and non-VR Half Life titles going forward cannot co-exist
It completely depends on the success of Alyx. Gabe said they would be looking at critic and user reception along with what other devs had to say. They aren't making these games for profit. Steam does that on its on and they've stated as much.
Personally, I'm leaning towards them doing another VR title. Alyx has been successful and all these people are buying their expensive headsets. Got to keep them interested somehow.
They tested the waters for VR, certainly. By all accounts, HL: Alyx is the success they were looking for in the VR space. Several hundred thousand copies sold and hundreds of thousands of VR units sold. Valve Index has been sold out for over 4 months. Oculus headsets coming in and out of stock as well. 93 metacritic rating and over 18,000 reviews, and an "overwhelmingly positive" rating.
You don't have that kind of success and suddenly go backwards.
Look don't get me wrong....I own a Vive and loved H:A as well (It's easily the best VR game currently out there)...but it is a totally different experience to a traditional Half Life. Everything from the pacing, weapon variety to encounters and the enrironment/levels being specifically tailored for VR make it a different game (It plays more like survival horror than a shooter).
I long for a new traditional Half Life just as much as I long for a VR follow up to Alyx...but I do not want to see one replace the other in the franchise.
Man it just feels like time goes so slow when I'm in this game. The world kind of melts and I just get so engrossed in it.
I am only on Chapter 5 still which is nuts to me, I feel like I have been played for so much longer than the 4 or so I have. I cannot believe I'm barely even halfway still.
I am only on Chapter 5 still which is nuts to me, I feel like I have been played for so much longer than the 4 or so I have. I cannot believe I'm barely even halfway still.
Yeah, I hear you on all that and I agree. I think a lot of that really isn't VR specific, though. Pacing can be sped up some and weapon variety....well...let's all be honest here. It sucks and there's no excuse to have only 3 weapons. Most VR games have a lot more than 3 guns.
That said, our personal opinions aside, I think Valve got what they wanted out of HL: Alyx. I think they've learned quite a bit from creating VR games in this process and will continue to learn a lot more from player feedback and watching others in the industry.
But, I do agree. I want some of that faster pacing, better weapon variety, and more diverse and interesting environments in the next HL game.
It's Valves first fully fledged VR game. A lot of your issues could be addressed in a future title. However, I don't get the complaints about the horror elements. Those have always been around, but are more intense in VR.
The problem with the pacing issue in VR is locomotion. You cannot tailor a VR experience to be played at a specific pace when you offer a way to blink/teleport around a level (but you have to offer that simply due to the nature of VR -- Some people just cannot handle smooth movement in VR). If all users were forced to smooth movement, only then could you control the pacing.
The way Alyx handles this is by severely limiting the numbers you encounter and having fairly restrictive movement....if they zipped around like they would in a traditional 2D shooter, it would just be a very frustrating VR experience
Half Life VR certainly has its good sides (immersion, interactivity) etc but this is one of its inherent issues, which isnt the fault of the game but the medium itself.
I don't see pacing as much of a traversal speed issue as I do with the spacing of enemy interaction, with the combine at least. That said, if they decide to build the next VR game around the lowest common denominator(teleport) again, then I frankly would rather they just drop VR completely. I really think the training wheels need to come off on their next VR game. But, like I said, pacing would be much better even with the slower VR space if they kept the action up.
And I don't find traditional FPS speed frustrating one bit in VR. I've played a lot of HL2 in VR and it feels fine. Certainly, far from ideal in particular places, but I think there's plenty of evidence to show VR games don't need to move at a snail's place just because they are VR. There are other VR games plenty faster. Even Boneworks moves at a significantly faster pace than HL: Alyx, even with it's emphasis on exploration, puzzles, physics, etc. You just have to give them that ability to do so.
One of the biggest complaints from people in this game is the AI being too docile or slow. I think most people can handle AI that's more aggressive and quick on their feet. As of right now, they just feel like mannequins standing in one place gladly taking your bullets. Especially the heavy gunner. Only the shotgun heavy guy puts any kind of pressure on you. I don't consider myself a VR pro by any means, but I can dispatch 3-5 combine in a matter of seconds. You really don't need encounters this small or slow.
Beat the game this evening. Really really loved it. What people said about the back half of the game being even better was true.
Side note-I noticed while playing today, if I pulled up the steam VR menu-it was very laggy and weird. I don't think this happened to me before- anyone have this happen to them?
Side note-I noticed while playing today, if I pulled up the steam VR menu-it was very laggy and weird. I don't think this happened to me before- anyone have this happen to them?
I don't remember if i originally found this here or not, but there is a Lethal Combat Rebalance mod that I'm excited to try out for playthrough 2. Makes headshots MUCH more effective, and neuters body shots severely along with some other stuff.
When new Hammer tools come out, I'd love to try messing around with the above, plus making a remixed enemy encounters mod. Adding in more combine soldiers to battles, and adding more interspersed in some locations.
When new Hammer tools come out, I'd love to try messing around with the above, plus making a remixed enemy encounters mod. Adding in more combine soldiers to battles, and adding more interspersed in some locations.
