I can honestly see where people are coming with the comments about VR being a gimmick since from what I've tried myself the current games offered have felt like tech demos more than actual titles like this one would be now that will be built entirely around it based on the experiences developers have learned from and it will (try to) be the best showing of what VR can do, if it can't deliver what people are expecting after having heard that VR will be "the future of the gaming" then I suppose it's just unfortunate in most cases then.

Still I don't think I'd be spending my money on VR tech just for this title alone at any point soon, but at least I know that people are guaranteed to start working on a HL2 mod of this as soon as it launches.

depends on the definition of gimmick. it's a "gimmick" because the VR experience is 95% of the reason for playing a VR game. I've tried a fair amount of VR games, and while beatsaber is great, it's just DDR bro. and that brings me to another example, in this sense, the interactive aspect of DDR could be seen as a gimmick too. it's just a game with arrows that fall down the screen. I wouldnt have played that game at all without the physical aspect because there's just not much else there. and while that's fine, my worry with VR, at least during the early stages, is that the games will have a poor narrative with boring mechanics, simply because the main focus of the game is the VR. and while those things could only improve the VR experience, will these new, trailblazing games like half-life really focus enough on the other tenets of a video game? only time will tell.

but honestly, even with those things aside, half-life just doesn't feel like a VR game. I want to shoot at things and jump around with source movement. maybe that's the boomer in me tho

I think the gameplay and combat opportunities will be really cool in the game, but it won't feel like traditional Source/Half-Life combat. It's gonna take advantage of all of the stuff you can do in VR. Just imagine stuff like ripping a headcrab off your head to throw it at a combine soldier. Opening a door slightly with your left hand to throw a grenade into a room of combine soldiers with your right and then slamming the door shut with your left fluidly. Imagine throwing a glass bottle into a room of combine soldiers from above to distract them, then using the gravity gloves to steal a grenade from one of them then chucking it right at them. Crouching down to sneak a shot through a little crack in a wall. Lots of cool opportunities, and there's probably a ton more that I haven't thought of. Not to mention the puzzle solving, hacking combine tech, and world exploration and storytelling. This isn't gonna be a gimmicky tech demo where you stand in a room shooting enemies for an hour and a half. This is a full 15+ hour long AAA Half-Life game.

I'm really happy they're not excluding anyone when it comes to VR, too. The game supports the Valve Index, Vive, Oculus Rift S, Oculus Quest (using the link to PC cable), and Windows Mixed Reality. You can play it seated, standing, or with full roomscale. You can teleport, shift (move from A to B smoothly), or move smoothly using the analog stick. They've got everything covered.

who else is going to lay down a little less than a grand for the VR kit to play this game?

Don't know if the cost of the VR kit is the biggest concern when you think about the minimum requirements needed for the game.

https://i.imgur.com/zAgv02T.png

Pretty sure plenty of people don't even have a CPU/GPU that has been released in the past 3 years or so, myself included because I simply haven't had a need to upgrade yet.

If you can afford a VR headset you probably have a pc with those specs anyways. Keep in mind that you need much higher res and frame rates for VR to be playable at all than a normal setup. 90fps is the recommended minimum to prevent motion sickness.

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I think I’ll be ok, it will just take time to get used too. I wonder how sensitive the joystick is, and how you can adjust it?

lf HL:A DM sponsorship

I'm just waiting to see what the HL speedrunning community does with this. I wanna see ABH in VR.

I don't know much about the streamers world.
Do you have any suggestion for who to follow for the release stream happening in about 2 hours?

i hope jaboodyshow is streaming they're very entertaining
gr8 humor too

valve: we believe VR is the way of the future
sorry mouse and keyboard are just not good enough

let's goooo

https://i.imgur.com/ngJGpxT.jpg

I have to complete episode 2 right now though haha

have fun everyone!

VNN will probably stream this twitch.tv/tylermcvicker
If you haven't heard about him, VNN is a channel that makes news about valve related things, he is usually on top all the leaks regarding valve games and even internal things (what the employees get to eat at valve etc).

Thanks man. yeah that's the only one i knew that surely did, but i dunno if i can take a whole stream of him lel

In the end i settled with vinesauce because friend of mine i trust suggested him to me. He just started. Seems nice!

tagg's streaming it and he's not being annoying like 99% of people streaming that game

IGN has a full-game walkthrough on youtube, no commentary and plays objectives. Pretty good if you want to avoid annoying streamers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52VT2A4UZt4

Still wish I had a VR headset though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPcPRuRXlCg
he has a lot of.... character even with no talking
this could work if you don't want any talking at all

https://clips.twitch.tv/HardCrepuscularHeronWow

So I'm lucky enough to have had a fair bit of money set aside for a new PC as Alyx was announced (and then spent a lot less on a second-hand PC and bought a second-hand headset with what I saved) and I've got to say from what I've played it's pretty fantastic.

I was previously in the camp that thought VR wasn't there yet, the loss of movement wouldn't make up for the immersion and the hardware was too uncomfortable to really support that immersion anyway and I thought the need to keep a locked 90fps would see impacts on how games were designed (less enemies, particles etc.) that would leave them as less than what they could be were they traditional experiences.

Now though I think I was largely wrong, while there are significant tradeoffs (movement just won't be as well implemented or important in fast-paced games), Alyx is a full-blown game, and the experience VR offers is pretty incredible. Stuff like two handed interactions are really satisfying and demand a certain level of skill that other VR titles I've tried seem to be afraid of. Whether there will be any large amount of games in the future that match Alyx's scope and polish isn't clear yet, and if I weren't totally obsessive about the Half-Life series I would never say it would be worth the entry price, but Alyx is no gimick, even if I still think a lot of other VR titles are. It's like moving from keyboard only FPS games to using a mouse (but admitedly now a worse keyboard) it's a whole new level of input for a game that, while still a little clunky (Alyx is great but outside of Alyx every game I've played has controls and guns in particular that felt a little off), offers something really cool that traditional input just can't.

Do not even look at Alyx footage if you haven't played HL2: E2 though, you have been warned.