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Half-Life: Alyx

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Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#241

Post by chungus_khan »

cmcd wrote: post #40
rocky1138 wrote: post #13

A criminally overlooked feature of this game is the release of the dev tools used to make maps and mods. Giving the tools away for such a powerful base game is what gave HL1 and HL2 it's incredible staying power.

I remember everyone saying Blizzard would release map making tools for Overwatch like they did for Starcraft and Valve did for TF2/CSGO. Seems like a great way to add longevity to the game and the community content can even help fund the game.

I think a server browser and the ability to run community servers would be essential alongside that. Back when I was big into multiplayer PC games that whole scene was amazing fun, and is the reason even games like WolfET still survive in some form today.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#242

Post by shadowgovt »

s9w wrote: post #133
outworlder wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No one tried it because it's expensive AF. And you need space. And there are so many of them. And the storefronts don't match. And there are no games. And you sweat. And they're heavy. And you need a monster PC. And it doesn't work. And and and. It's a gimmick. Alyx is a $2000 game for a normal gamer, counting an index and a sizeable PC upgrade.

> expensive AF

Google Daydream headset and controller are $60, and operate with the smartphone people already own (assuming you've got a decently-beefy smartphone). Price is hitting record lows on this hardware.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#243

Post by swalsh »

ralfd wrote: post #27

Question to VR gamers: Why are the arms not animated?

From my experience, you don't notice when there's no arms, but you do notice when there's arms and they're not doing exactly what your real ones are doing.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#244

Post by wlesieutre »

the_af wrote: post #167
mmanfrin wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Besides sharing an engine, Counter Strike and Half-Life have little to do with each other. One is a ruthless and plotless multiplayer game with a military theme, the other is a scifi plot-heavy single player experience (yes, HL also has multiplayer, but that's not the point of the game).

In the same way that Half-Life gave us Counter Strike and Team Fortress, imagine what the editing tools for Half-Life: Alyx could do for VR content development.

And let's not forget Garry's Mod either. VR physics sandbox in the HL:Alyx engine? That's going places.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#245

Post by blibble »

cmcd wrote: post #110
Nexxxeh wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Workshop was huge, albeit late, addition for the community, even without a map editor. But even Blizz couldn't reliably make maps using their internal tools that kept Reaper where he was supposed to be.

Was definitely a step in the right direction, they like to say their map making tools are too complex to release which is almost offensive. If employees can learn them then surely dedicated community members can figure out enough to get by. Community maps are never expected to be perfect and if one was ever picked up for the official rotation they could clean it up as needed.

they never said they were too complex (for people to understand) to release

they said the tools are too tightly integrated into their authoring and content delivery systems

if you watch a couple of videos where they reveal how it all works: this excuse seems plausible

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#246

Post by [deleted] »

OnlineGladiator wrote: post #202
skyyler wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

24 year old here. I played video games in my teens, including the HL series. I stopped playing video games roughly five years ago. I will be building a computer to play this game. Peers my age are also very excited for this. Not just because it's a new Half Life game, but because it's the VR game we have been waiting for since the VR craze started.

But how many people are going to spend $2000+ to play this? You're building a new gaming PC and possibly buying a new VR headset just for this game?

[deleted]

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#247

Post by KON_Air »

mlindner wrote: post #200
aresant wrote: post #54

I think a fascinating part of Alyx is Valve choosing a female protagonist. 85%+ of VR users are male, compared to say 70/30 male/female balance of say Fornite. (1/2) Any way you carve it the audience for Alyx is going to weight heavily male. And research suggests that gender-swapping in VR is a profound psychological experience: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8260949 (1) https://www.rakutenintelligence.com/blog…

Female protagonists in game is the new fad. It has nothing to do with the gender ratio of the players playing the game.

I can see that happening but consider this; the closest "character" they have to "player character" with a voice is Alyx.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#248

Post by shadowgovt »

fhood wrote: post #149
thatguyagain wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. It is not a gimmick and will definitely be a "thing" in the foreseeable future. So we have different ideas of the foreseeable future, interesting.

Nobody is going to play games that make them sick. Ever. It will not happen. This is not a solved problem, and VR will never be anything but a niche technology until you can walk in a video game without needing to throw up.

There are people who are made motion sick by modern FPSs, and the FPS market has absolutely exploded in our lifetimes.

I think we'd need to see hard numbers to estimate that (and the hard numbers would need to factor in that this generation of hardware---the Rift and later---is much higher-fidelity and responsive than its predecessors and tends to trigger less nausea).

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#249

Post by e12e »

skunkworker wrote: post #124
e12e wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried elite:dangerous?

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

Haha, yes, pretty much.

Although I found for trading/freight play (ie: not pvp combat) the dynamic hud (hud/menus light up based on where you look) worked very well with a gamepad.

Retracting gear becomes: look down to the right, select option from menu. Etc.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#250

Post by shantly »

cdirkx wrote: post #220
fhood wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. A movie is what 90 minutes? 2. Movies aren't often filmed from first person perspective for any length of time.

I'm merely curious, as when 3D movies came out a major complaint against them was that people got sick from watching them. From my very thorough research (googling "3D movie sick", and looking at the dates; all from the period 2010-2015) this doesn't seem to be a big problem any more. Now this could of course also be because people have just accepted that it is not for them, the people who get sick don't talk about i…

The people who get sick from them don't go to them anymore. That's why it was "temporary". Kids finding out they get sick from 3D don't post about it on the same social media adults use.
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