Half-Life: Alyx

Half-Life: Alex - A Little of the Old Ultra-Violence (That is interesting)?

That got a big laugh out of me.

Seriously. What have things come to?

I think they’re doing it because they have mounds of cash and feel like making a big-budget VR game/experience. In interviews that I’ve seen they’ve been pretty candid that this is likely to lose money for them, but it’s something they want to do and they have the cash to do it.

Fair enough. I can respect that, and I’m sure it’ll be an awesome experience!

And I can see it making some HL fanboys get off of the fence and invest in VR.

Oh, so it’s just Valve doing the same thing they did with HL2/Steam again-- holding something they know fans want hostage to an unpopular technology platform to force adoption.

Weird way of looking at it, but okay!

This reminds me of when games just started requiring video cards to run back in the mid 90s. Back then, video cards were very expensive (much more expensive than baseline VR headsets) and plenty of gamers complained (especially young kids playing on their parents computers). I’m really hoping that this game is good, so that even more people will have a reason (excuse?) to buy into VR.

VR is normal mode. This is a VR game set in the Half-Life universe. What you’re looking for is Half-Life 3, which hopefully happens sometime in our lifetimes.

Without Alyx, HL3 still would not exist. This game didn’t steal resources away from Half-Life 3. Half-Life 3 doesn’t exist because Valve currently doesn’t want to make it.

The problem with what you’re thinking is that VR is definitely not for everyone. Many people get physically ill while using it and they are forever going to be unable to play VR games.

Actually, the same thing can be true for 3D games, especially early FPS games. I had an uncle who loved gaming, but could never play any FPS games in the 90s because they made him sick.

I think much fewer people are getting sick from VR now that technology has improved and developers gaining more experience. I’m not sure how Half Life Alyx will be in terms of motion sickness, but I’m sure Valve are doing everything they can to minimize it.

It’s not the technology improving so much as developers figuring out how to save gamers from puking. Basically, there’s no free first-person movement, you teleport or shift instead, except when you’re in a cockpit. It’s unclear if there’s any way to fix this, it may be an inherent limitation in the human brain, that disconnection between your eyes telling you you’re moving while your inner ear and body awareness say you aren’t.

This game has me excited. I’m sure the main story will be good, and if it is reviewed well I will probably buy it. But this bit at the bottom of the steam store page:

“A set of Source 2 tools for building new environments will ship with the game, enabling any player to build and contribute new environments for the community to enjoy. Hammer, Valve’s level authoring tool, has been updated with all of the game’s virtual reality gameplay tools and components.”

This could be big for VR gaming on multiple levels.

Nausea in VR is almost entirely a problem to be solved by game design and hardware. Sure there will be some people who will always get nauseous no matter what but the same could be said for any other form of interactive media.

Most people who’ve experienced nausea in VR did so at cheap horrible mall kiosks, shitty phone cardboard-like docks, and other early hardware before quality stuff like the Quest and better. And/or games which had poor traversal mechanics.

My understanding is the vast majority of people are nauseated by free first-person movement in VR, even on modern hardware.

For sure, which is why it’s awesome Valve is offering so many different traversal mechanisms.

For people who can handle smooth motion it’s there, for those who can’t there are other options for snapping turns, teleportation movement, etc.

Right, there’s just no way around it. And that really sucks.

Hell Wolfenstein 3D made people sick.

In regards to free traversal, there are certainly better ways of doing it than others. I remember when Valve ported a test version of TF2 to the Rift and the fast-paced movement in that made people really sick. However, more and more games nowadays use free traversal, and many VR fans are even upset when it is not an option.

Also, it seems like it is possible to become acclimated to VR movement to a certain degree. It makes me wonder if the the next generation (who start playing VR when they’re younger) will be much better suited physically for it than older generations with less-adaptable brains.