I genuinely can’t believe Half Life Alyx is five years old.
No other video game has felt the way Alyx felt. No one else has taken such a bold swing in what a video game can be. It’s burned into my mind as my Half Life game, the one that came out at just the right time for me.
It was also my “pandemic” game. While everyone else was playing Animal Crossing or Doom Eternal, I was playing and replaying Half Life Alyx.
It definitely feels like it’s somewhat doomed to be less remembered in the popular consciousness than most big games that come out, and indeed the rest of the games in the Half Life lineage. Cries of “Half Life 3 when?” still abound in spite of the very clear effort Alyx made to move the story forward. But to me it feels like a game that still hasn’t been topped in the five years since it came out, not by a long shot.
Half Life Alyx received a Game of the Year win from GameSpot, and nominations from a few other publications. When it came to events like The Game Awards with a dedicated “Best VR Game” category, it won handily.
The reason it’s forgotten because most people aren’t able to play it. If valve really did put important story in a game that they knew most gamers would never be able to play that’s kind of shitty
The idea was people would buy the game and play it.
Valve’s ‘official’ VR hardware costs ~$1500. Ain’t no way 😆
But it’s not required, there are much cheaper options, especially today with used quest 2 devices.
Plenty of people aren’t interested in vr for different reasons.
Don’t tell me that. Tell Valve.
It’s the only good way to do VR. Otherwise it’s just a gimmick.
Fair but why not include a traditional mode so everyone can experience it. Otherwise it’s still just a gimmick to sell hardware
For the same reason N64 games couldn’t run on the SNES
Oh I didn’t realize connecting a VR headset to my computer made it not a computer anymore
Kingdom Hearts would like a word.
Incredible game. If you ever get the chance I 10000% recommend playing it.
It is such a beautiful game. One of my top gaming experiences.
The environments, the pacing, the story telling, the interactivity - just excellent.
If you are interested in playing it and you don’t have a PC with a 1060 or better; or can’t afford PSVR2 or Quest 3s, then consider giving it a go at a VR game cafe.
I was really hoping for a PSVR2 port of Alyx, and the timing with a lot of PS games coming to Steam had my theorizing that was a compromise they made with Valve to make it happen but I think that was just wishful thinking now.
Whoa. A bit off from your point but I was going to say if you could use the psvr2 on pc it would have sold a lot better. Turns out Sony seemingly shadow dropped a pc adapter and now you can!
Honestly if that was a launch feature I would have probably bought one since ps5 doesn’t really have a compelling library for it to be worth it alone. Now I’m too broke to justify it :(
That’s actually how I played hl2 Alyx! Great headset, game was awesome. Wish there were more games of the same quality
PSVR2 works on PC now :)
What’s the status of VR games on Linux? With headsets that don’t require weird accounts (Meta)
If you have a Quest headset, ALVR allows you to stream SteamVR to it.
I believe the Valve Index allows for Linux usage, but I’ve never owned one.
Seems like WiVRn is also a good solution these days, just tried it out for the first time a few hours ago and I’m very impressed.
Wow never heard of this application. I’ll have to give it a try.
“But… the future refused to change” – game over screen, Chrono Trigger
It wasn’t “my” Half Life but it was a damn good one. It felt true to the series and that brought a tear to my eye. The writing, the environments, the soundtrack all felt very Half Life without compromise. I didn’t like that it was a VR title but I understood why they went that route. In 2D, it would probably lack in depth (in more ways than one).
I borrowed a VR set from a friend to play it and bought the game at 60% off, which it frequently drops to. I’d urge anyone who has a VR capable PC to try and play it some way but VR is always going to restrict access to this. I’ll probably play through it in 2d Mode (via mod) some day in the future to try and relive it. And if non-VR is the only way you get to experience it, at minimum, use headphones… and dont go online saying it sucks after because, remember, it was made for VR.
I played it last year. It was certainly interesting, though it showed me the challenges of VR games. Before, I always hated the idea of using the teleport feature because it seems cheesy. However, after several tries without it, I can say it’s necessary. You end up feeling very nauseous otherwise. But, as a player you’re just way less capable than non-VR games. You can’t move around as easily and so you can’t take on as many enemies or maneuver as easily around the map. In most encounters with enemies, you can only fight a max of maybe 3, before you start to feel overwhelmed. Even 1 is usually enough to feel stressed and when those saw drones fly at you, you’ll panic and possibly yank a cable or get disoriented and bump into something in the real world. Crouching behind cover and shooting is pretty cool though — possibly the most immersive part.
If you actually want a viable discussion on this game, you’re better off posting this into a virtual reality community as the comments there won’t devolve into salty sour grapes that they couldn’t / wouldn’t play it since “vR iS uh GImAuCk”
Yeah, that would be wise, but by the same token since Lemmy is a bit smaller the amount of people with things to say in those communities would be smaller overall too.
And, lets review where we are: Valve is supposedly making a new Half-Life that will reportedly be both flat and VR.
Oh, sod off with those posts allready.
I know perfectly well that I’m old, even without those “Hei, didyo know that yu are closer to WW3 than The first single of the Brian Eno”
I would lo to be able to justify buying a 1500€ vr set. But using it for one or two games does not make the threshold for me.
I hope they make more really good games so it become justifiable.
I use the 300 dollar quest 2 and stream it?
Here’s a list of VR games I’d 1000% recommend:
- Half Life: Alyx
- I Expect you to Die (James Bond themed virtual escape rooms - 3 games in the series so far, all of them are good)
- Super Hot (slo-motion first person combat puzzle game)
- Beat Saber (a unique rhythm game)
- Pavlov (CS:GO but in VR with extensive modding support)
There are other good ones out there but that’s the list that justifies the headset to me.
Also there are some good VR ports of non-VR games out there such as Myst and The Talos Principle. Also there are some good Minecraft mods that add VR support (Java edition of course). Stay away from the Skyrim port though.
- the walking dead games
- Walkabout VR (putt-putt game)
- Dungeons of Eternity (quest exclusive)
- Any flight/racing sim (this is actually the biggest selling point I can make. Seriously if you like flight/racing sims, please get one. It’ll change your life)
- No Man’s Sky (one of my demo games)
Vertigo 2
The Skyrim port is amazing! …with 100 mods.
What? Quest 2 is like $250 and it connects to your PC and works just fine for Alyx.
Dude, VR has been affordable for over half a decade now. Get with the times.
Get a Quest 3 for like $400 CAD, incredible for its price.
Hands down the best game I ever played. The immersion is unreal and the ending left me with goosebumps and a dropped jaw.
Well, I got it with my Valve Index but have not played it yet. I feel bad. Just flying around in MSFS 2020 lol
And their still asking 70+ bucks for it…
It was literally just on sale for $19.99.
Which is nice IF YOU HAVE THE MONEY!!!
