Half-Life: Alyx - Valve flagship VR game

[Kronecker–Capelli]

Dont read topic, so I guess someone already told same

I think valve have VERY nasty situation within company, since they try release half life game, and release of this game probably would be tipping point for valve/game industry as a whole.
I almost sure that this is because of investor/shareholders, which says something like "where games lebovski gabe? we dont believe in grow of you company and better move our actives in acti-ea-bethe-warner-cd poles-vision".

Because look at this, valve dont show its game because quality of another  VR game, boneworks, makes their game looks awful. Just think of it, intercontinental company, with technically infinity amount of money are literally scared from game of a three and a half developers which create game just for bottle of beer and two packs of ramen. Pathetic.png
Nowaday valve cant make games, and artifact proof it.

[luke11685]

Is Gabe Newell afraid to count to 3 because he didn't make Windows 3.0 in the past?

[[McD] James]

2 hours ago, Required field said:

Dont read topic, so I guess someone already told same

I think valve have VERY nasty situation within company, since they try release half life game, and release of this game probably would be tipping point for valve/game industry as a whole.
I almost sure that this is because of investor/shareholders, which says something like "where games lebovski gabe? we dont believe in grow of you company and better move our actives in acti-ea-bethe-warner-cd poles-vision".

Because look at this, valve dont show its game because quality of another  VR game, boneworks, makes their game looks awful. Just think of it, intercontinental company, with technically infinity amount of money are literally scared from game of a three and a half developers which create game just for bottle of beer and two packs of ramen. Pathetic.png
Nowaday valve cant make games, and artifact proof it.

 

Valve is a privately owned company. They have no shareholders or investors to answer to.

 

Valve has also put out a fair amount of gameplay content, and have done a pretty good job of explaining the game's mechanics, so I don't quite understand where you're getting the impression that they're afraid to show the game off.

Edited December 23, 2019 by Ajora

[luke11685]

Valve is indiepedent company than Epic Games(they have investors such as Tencent). Steam was created in 2004 and Epic Games Store in 2018.

Edited December 23, 2019 by luke11685

[Murdoch]

7 hours ago, terrcraftguy695 said:

to be fair. judging vr by the phone stuff ls like saying all  video games are like candy crush.

 

It's not the quality of the apps I am judging - most of which are not that great - but just the sheer act of it. It becomes unpleasant after a time. I actually used another VR headset too and while it's unquestionably cool, I just can't see myself using one for hours at a time.

[snapshot]

 

[zen4040]

Really exciting stuff, the trailer also makes it look amazing but I can't afford to get this on release

[warman2012]

A failure on arrival, that's my two cents. The minute Laidlaw left was the day the series tanked.

[[McD] James]

32 minutes ago, warman2012 said:

A failure on arrival, that's my two cents. The minute Laidlaw left was the day the series tanked.

 

This game is going to be a megahit, as well as both a cultural and technological touchstone. It's a game that people are going to be talking about and making comparisons to for decades to come. You can take that to the bank. 

[snapshot]

You can read answers of some of the most interesting AMA questions in this summary.

[seed]

Nah, for once in life, I actually agree with warman on something.

 

Valve is long dead as a game developer, let alone one that still carries the spark they used to have when they made good games and before greed took over. I wish this game to be actually good and successful, but even if I had VR equipment I still wouldn't buy it, for the simple reason that as a developer, Valve has been dead for years to me. I only like them as publishers these days.

Edited January 23, 2020 by seed

[Graf Zahl]

13 hours ago, Ajora said:

 

This game is going to be a megahit, as well as both a cultural and technological touchstone. It's a game that people are going to be talking about and making comparisons to for decades to come. You can take that to the bank.  

 

We'll see. Looking at Steam's hardware survey, it's a whopping 1% of their users having a VR device. Do you really believe that this will move enough potential customers? I think most of those who don't have one yet will just vote with their wallets and not buy the game.

 

[[McD] James]

4 hours ago, Graf Zahl said:

 

We'll see. Looking at Steam's hardware survey, it's a whopping 1% of their users having a VR device. Do you really believe that this will move enough potential customers? I think most of those who don't have one yet will just vote with their wallets and not buy the game.

 

 

Even though I recently purchased an upper mid-range gaming PC, I still won't quite meet the recommended hardware requirements, nor do I own a VR device. But I'm sure at some point down the road that will change. And yes, I do think a lot of people will buy a VR device just for this game. Maybe not immediately, as will be the case with myself, but this game will sell a lot of devices over time. I have zero doubt that the game is going to get outstanding review scores. 

[Graf Zahl]

VR has been hailed as the next big thing for gaming for years - but what all its proponents forget is that for many people who do not have perfect vision this fake-3D can be really painful. I think it speaks volumes that 3D did not work out for TV sets, and for games I don't see it ending differently.

 

In this case probably even less successful because of the high price for a device that has no real purpose outside of gaming. This may appeal to a few hardcore enthusiasts but certainly not to the average gamer who wants to comfortably sit in front of their computer.

 

[DuckReconMajor]

By "perfect vision" do you mean 20/20 or another vision issue? My vision is awful, but you can wear glasses with the headsets. The only discomfort I experience is the occasional motion sickness, but as someone who wants to vomit after reading one text in a car's passenger seat, it's surprisingly seldom. For my Valve Index I got these prescription lens covers which protect the lens and allow me to play without glasses, and they are incredible so far.

 

I felt the same way about VR until the Oculus Quest came out last year, and curiosity got the best of me and I picked one up. It's so much better than the old Oculus headsets I tried years ago, even as a standalone wireless device. And with Oculus Link, people are getting the ability to play PC vr games like Alyx.

 

2019 was huge for VR, and while I still don't think it's quite "mainstream", it's a hell of a lot closer than it was even a year ago. Every decent headset was sold out the end of last year. I had to wait almost 2 months on backorder to receive my Index (with which I receive Alyx for free).

 

And as @terrcraftguy695 said, don't judge by the crappy phone-based VR stuff. If you get a chance to try an Oculus Quest or a good PC VR (Valve Index, Rift S, Vive/Pro), give it a go.

[Graf Zahl]

11 hours ago, DuckReconMajor said:

By "perfect vision" do you mean 20/20 or another vision issue? My vision is awful, but you can wear glasses with the headsets. The only discomfort I experience is the occasional motion sickness, but as someone who wants to vomit after reading one text in a car's passenger seat, it's surprisingly seldom. For my Valve Index I got these prescription lens covers which protect the lens and allow me to play without glasses, and they are incredible so far. 

 

What I mean is people with uneven vision between both eyes. I cannot use any of these fake 3D technologies due to that, it gives me headaches after a few minutes of use.

 

 

11 hours ago, DuckReconMajor said:

2019 was huge for VR, and while I still don't think it's quite "mainstream", it's a hell of a lot closer than it was even a year ago. Every decent headset was sold out the end of last year. I had to wait almost 2 months on backorder to receive my Index (with which I receive Alyx for free).

 

It may have grown, but I think in this case Steam Hardware Survey is a good indicator because it represents mainly gamers. And 0.9% doesn't qualify as "coming to mainstream", it merely means it has grown from virtually nothing to close to nothing. And I fully expect it to remain there.

 

 

11 hours ago, DuckReconMajor said:

And as @terrcraftguy695 said, don't judge by the crappy phone-based VR stuff. If you get a chance to try an Oculus Quest or a good PC VR (Valve Index, Rift S, Vive/Pro), give it a go.

 

I surely won't. See the "headache" issue above.

 

[Yourfacedotcom]

Looking forward to it. Hoping the game works well with the original Oculus touch controllers and CV1.

[hoover1979]

I hope it works well on the Original HTC Vive + Ryzen 9 3900x + GTX1080 (Non-ti).

[Kizoky]

You don't need an expensive VR headset to play Alyx, you can get one of those very cheap Windows VR headsets
The resolution will probably be borked, but atleast you can play the game.

[snapshot]

Only time will tell how successful it will be, you can tell they're trying to make it as accessible as possible, they're allowing different VR sets to be used with it, they're giving you different options to play it however you want by supporting different room setups and movement types and they're even going to provide Source 2 Tools alongside it to help the longevity of the game.

On 1/23/2020 at 12:29 AM, warman2012 said:

The minute Laidlaw left was the day the series tanked.

Not really, according to the last AMA he's been "super generous with his time throughout the development of HL:A"

"We've never been able to figure out where the rumors of us falling out with Marc came from, because there's no truth to it. He's been super generous with his time throughout the development of HL:A, answering many questions from Erik, Jay, and Sean as they hammered away on the story. As is always the case with Marc, we send him an email, and he sends us a response, and then roughly 40 more replies to his own email."

Edited January 26, 2020 by sluggard

[snapshot]

As a side note, anyone who says Valve is greedy doesn't know what he's talking about, they could have easily made a big Triple A first-person shooter and quickly cash-in on all the money but Valve isn't in dire need of money, and they wouldn't risk making a proper sequel that likely won't live to someone's crazy expectations, they like to try out different things, It's ironic that people go out claiming other people "hate change" yet they themselves refuse to accept the fact that Valve has changed.

[Touchdown]

HYPE!

 

 

[snapshot]

Top left lol

 

Spoiler

 

 

[cambreaKer]

2 hours ago, sluggard said:

Top left lol

 

  Hide contents

nice to see the classic error model return

[seed]

5 hours ago, sluggard said:

Top left lol

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

I dunno, but staring at these images and apart from the hand models, nothing really looks like a big jump in graphical fidelity to me...

 

Call me blind if you want, I won't get mad over it :V .

 

Also these Combine soldiers make me feel awkward. They look like a cheap recolored version of the regular soldiers but with the Elite's color scheme. Did someone think of simply slapping the heads of the regular soldier on an Elite's body when designing those?

[kaleb.]

as a normal game, nah its not super duper good looking. for a VR game tho, it is indeed very good looking.

 

you gotta remember, the normal VR headset is 1440p 90hz. so games naturally need to look a tad bit worse than a normal AAA game since its targeting a higher resolution and framerate than most normal games.

[Touchdown]

 

 

 

[seed]

Huh, the Overwatch voice <3 . Pretty clearly re-used and maybe slightly altered from HL2's sound files though.

 

But I dunno, it's still not a wow moment for me. I've never seen a game I wanted to be hyped for and it failing to hype me. Nothing in particular really surprises me. At least not positively, there is one thing that makes me want to throw a brick at the screen - the organic materials.

 

For some reason they all look like plastic from a distance, without the shine effect to them they don't look believable at all. I feel the same about the zombie, and... just what the fuck happened to the headcrabs? Their mouths look awesome but the rest of the skin looks like plastic again... HL2's headcrabs looked so much better in comparison, not to mention fan films such as Escape from City 17...

 

 

As for the Combine... I... still don't know what kind of troops are those supposed to be. They die very quickly - unless it's all scripted? - and use the Metrocop death sound. Yet they look like something intermediary, between regular Soldiers and Elite.

[snapshot]

a different gameplay from IGN.

[Jello]

So... we've gone back to Myst movement. I really can't say I'm impressed at all by it, gameplay looks boring, same stuff we saw in Half-Life 2 16 years ago, movement looks clunky. 

 

I guess it's just not for me, but it looks even worse than I thought it would. And I'm not going to strap a device on my head and wave my arms around to relax after work. My arms are tired enough as it is.