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Half-Life: Alyx

half-life.com

121–130 of 444 posts

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#121
post #109

As much as a Half-Life fan I am, VR is a gimmick. It's expensive and will not be a "thing" in the foreseeable future. This is such a wasted opportunity. A normal Half-Life 3 would have brought back a lot of goodwill for Valve.

You need big money, games and studios to help push the tech forward. I think that's the point of this game

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#122
post #109

As much as a Half-Life fan I am, VR is a gimmick. It's expensive and will not be a "thing" in the foreseeable future. This is such a wasted opportunity. A normal Half-Life 3 would have brought back a lot of goodwill for Valve.

It is not a gimmick. It seems that you have not yet tried it. There are a few improvements required, such as resolution and the freedom of movement.

Note that I did not mention price. It will come down – even more, that is.

Also, they need Half Life 2 Episode III. The series ended in a cliffhanger.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#124
post #35
post #3

It looks interesting at least, It's hard to tell how gimmicky it will be though. I've felt like a lot of VR experiences I have had felt gimmicky. Some of my best VR experiences have been more in line with games like beat saber rather than story driven games. I'm also the type of person that pretty much exclusively plays story driven games so I want to like those experiences in VR but they just feel kind of off to me…

Have you tried elite:dangerous?

Reminded me of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa0b2Kd2xhU

Comical and also accurate.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#125
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not pleased that Valve has shifted its focus from developing great games to being a digital platform rent-extractor I actually kinda am. Because they created a really great platform that has helped the market thrive even for tiny nobody indie devs. They've set a seriously high bar for digital store fronts and distribution services. I think I've got a lot more enjoyment from the games Steam has enabled to exist…

> They've set a seriously high bar for digital store fronts I agree with your general point, but no. No they have not. The Steam client is terrible. Unresponsive, un-intuitive, and surprisingly bad for searching in as well.

I agree. I have no idea why so many people praise steam endlessly. The last two games I tried to play through the app were unfixably buggy at times. These games were Portal and Doom2016. Boooooo.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#126
post #38

This has got to be the most narrowly targeted game ever. I played through all of HL/HL2/Ep1/Ep2 IIRC, but I can barely even remember the story clearly it was so long ago. And it's such a blur maybe I never finished Ep2. I was 21 when HL1 came out but I didn't get to play it till I was like 24 maybe when I had gotten out of school and got a nice computer & some money. HL2 came out when I was 27.. still playing games b…

> This has got to be the most narrowly targeted game ever.

I'll have you know that this honor goes to the point-and-click adventure game / noir detective story that licensed the "Fables" comic book series, "The Wolf Among Us." It was great, and I may be the only point and click adventure game enthusiast who was also a fan of "Fables."

But seriously, I think that the low spread of VR is the whole point. Valve wants people to buy VR headsets. How do you convince them to do that? Create content that people want that needs a VR headset.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#128
post #39
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'd block 20% of your view and you would block the part where you would want 'put' your hand ( like a button to press) and since there is no tactile response, it would be impossile to do so. Also, the IK-system would not be able to mimic the exact movement of your own arms, making them feel foreign and weird.

Why are your hands displayed as hands if you’re holding “game-pads”? Or are there actual gloves?

Different games will do things differently. Some will display hands, others will display the controllers. You can do either.

After some time, you forget you are even holding controllers (on the Rift, I'm not sure about those clunky Vive controllers, and I haven't tried the Index).

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#129
post #42
post #10

A cool idea that I'd never ever ever try. Half Life 1 on low res was scary enough. In all seriousness though – is there any studies done on potential PTSD-like effects that arise from this sort of VR game?

You can't develop PTSD from VR because VR isn't real. Even if you get scared it's not the same kind of fear as being in a situation where you can actually get hurt, or die, or you actually kill another human being.

>You can't develop PTSD from VR because VR isn't real. Even if you get scared it's not the same kind of fear as being in a situation where you can actually get hurt, or die, or you actually kill another human being.

Weird, this study shows the exact opposite with regards to regular video games.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6370668/

Conclusion from above study:

>Accumulating evidence led to a clear consensus that a high frequency of exposure to violent video games significantly alters important interpersonal behaviors in negative ways (Bender et al., 2018). Atypical disadvantageous defensive reactions and higher vulnerability to PTSD symptoms, revealed in the present study, add to other shortcomings for the heavy players themselves.

I would assume the same in VR, if not more significant as it is more immersive than regular video games.

I do not have a study for VR video games however as I do not know of any that have been done off the top of my head.

I would like to add, I by no means want to make light of the impact PTSD due to real life trauma. I personally know a few people who suffer from being in active combat and would never wish that upon anyone.

I personally feel that PTSD developed due to real life trauma will always be far more severe than any sort of PTSD developed through video games or other virtual means.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#130
post #38

This has got to be the most narrowly targeted game ever. I played through all of HL/HL2/Ep1/Ep2 IIRC, but I can barely even remember the story clearly it was so long ago. And it's such a blur maybe I never finished Ep2. I was 21 when HL1 came out but I didn't get to play it till I was like 24 maybe when I had gotten out of school and got a nice computer & some money. HL2 came out when I was 27.. still playing games b…

I think you underestimate how popular Half-Life was. The #1 game played on steam right now is a former HL mod, Counter Strike. I don't think the market for HL is small at all. VR, though, is a different story. That absolutely limits the market. That being said, I'd wager that a majority of people who play VR games on PC will likely buy this game, as it's probably the first true AAA title developed specifically for VR…

I'm sure Valve is thinking of this as a killer app to drive VR adoption. All it takes is one amazing game, but it's been a chicken and egg problem for buying VR hardware before sufficiently compelling games are available.
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