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Half-Life: Alyx

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Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#411

Post by fit2rule »

the_af wrote: post #136
squarefoot wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. That helped also to make gems such as Black Mesa, a 100% fan made recreation of the first HL using HL2 engine and graphics. I wonder what would become of this game if they added a proper story, characters interactions, NPCs, subplots etc. (think Mass Effect style). Here's a full walkthrough for those living under a rock when it came out:*) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brFEN4x9Xao

Thanks for posting! Impressive. By the way, back then I really liked the first stages of HL2 -- the dystopian intro absolutely rocks -- but eventually had to stop playing, partly because it was getting too long, and partly because of motion sickness. This really took me by suprise because I was a gamer, had enjoyed the original HL without problems... and suddenly there was a new breed of 3D games where I got motion s…

I used to love playing 3D games, too. Then I got older and my eyes stopped playing along with the fallacy of 3D/VR.

This is normal, and imho is one of the biggest challenges facing the VR industry: as people age, they are less and less able to do VR.

Its because you're getting older and your eyes are not as level as they used to be. Our brains are wired to correct the differences in horizon that each eye sees, and applies a filter to the 3D inputs so that we don't get motion sick. As we age, our eyes physically change position, and the brain has to do more work to make this horizon correction - with 3D games, it no longer has all the inputs it needs to do the correction (because 3D games aren't really 3D but rather an imitation of it on a flat plane), and thus you start to feel motion sickness more and more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_perception#Disorders_aff...

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#412

Post by ProZsolt »

puranjay wrote: post #232
rocky1138 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand what you're saying and I can see why you'd think that, but it's helpful for me to think of Half Life like the videogame equivalent of Star Wars. Not being alive during the release of the first films doesn't preclude one from entering at any point and enjoying the continuation of the story. Even if they haven't played it, kids today know of Half Life as a first person shooter that changed how we play firs…

Star Wars was never a thing outside of America. Even today, fans in China, who otherwise love their CGI heavy sci-fi, don't care much for Star Wars. You really have to have been either a firsthand or secondhand part of that culture to appreciate Star Wars and similar IPs. Even if you didn't watch it when it was released, you probably heard everyone from your dad to SNL discuss it. If that wasn't your experience growi…

Star Wars is definitely a thing outside of America (at least in Hungary)

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#413

Post by on_and_off »

0xcde4c3db wrote: post #396
on_and_off wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does she like ? Why does she fall in love with the mute player character at first sight ? Don't she already have relationships ? What exactly does she find attractive in that mute guy that appears and disappear ? She is here to as a reward/carrot for teenage boys, not as a full fledged character with her own wants and needs :/

> Why does she fall in love with the mute player character at first sight ? Don't she already have relationships ? To be fair, it's heavily implied that Gordon Freeman is literally legendary among the resistance by that point. It's not a stretch that she'd at least be a bit star-struck. But yeah, I'm always disappointed when I see Alyx near the top of "strong female character" rankings. Sure, she clears the bar for "…

>I see Alyx near the top of "strong female character" rankings

That might be what makes me uncomfortable. badly written game characters are legion but this one that is often quoted as an example of great female character to replicate.

Sure she is dressed realistically and does not have enormous breasts, and that puts her apart most of her counterparts of the time but strong character ? really ?

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#414

Post by himinlomax »

reificator wrote: post #358
himinlomax wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was no backlash because nobody whatsoever has a problem with a female protagonist. What some people have a problem is recasting an iconic character as a woman for the sake of "diversity," or any form of forced diversity for that matter.

I ask this earnestly: Did you read past the first sentence in my previous post? I wasn't suggesting that there would be backlash with a female protagonist. I was suggesting there could have been backlash to the way that protagonist was treated, due to her gender.

Sorry, I didn't understand because what you meant seems so strange. I can't believe anyone without a major psychotic breakdown would take personally what an obvious recording says about a virtual character you're just happening to be controlling.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#415

Post by ProZsolt »

solipsism wrote: post #402
hombre_fatal wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just seems like a small target of players who are old enough to fondly remember the original Why oh why would you need to play prequels to enjoy a game? Half-Life is a series where you have guns and you kill shit in an inherently interesting setting: earth invasion. Getting dropped in medias res without knowing 100% of what is going on is just an ancient trope of story-telling. Look how much people enjoy the latest…

Getting dropped in medias res without knowing 100% of what is going on is just an ancient trope of story-telling. It's certainly a trope. But is it ancient? I'm trying to think of ancient examples of this but I can't. Are you sure it's not a modern trope?

I think Homer's Odyssey is ancient enough.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#416

Post by puranjay »

bananabreakfast wrote: post #343
puranjay wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Star Wars was never a thing outside of America. Even today, fans in China, who otherwise love their CGI heavy sci-fi, don't care much for Star Wars. You really have to have been either a firsthand or secondhand part of that culture to appreciate Star Wars and similar IPs. Even if you didn't watch it when it was released, you probably heard everyone from your dad to SNL discuss it. If that wasn't your experience growi…

lol what? Never a thing outside America? What an absurd thing to say

It was never a thing in India or China. That's about 40% of the world's population. Fair to say that it wasn't a massive thing outside America.

Compare the overseas gross of the recent Star Wars releases against a globally popular franchise like the MCU or Fast and the Furious. Despite the massive press and marketing push, Episode VIII was outgrossed by Fate of the Furious internationally by nearly $300M. Endgame outgrossed Episode VIII internationally by $1.2B.

If a crappy Vin Diesel starring franchise that's barely two decades old can outsell a cultural touchstone like Star Wars, it's not wrong to say that Star Wars isn't a big thing outside America

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#417

Post by jorams »

thanatos_dem wrote: post #92
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…

It’s not new tho, Chelle in portal was a female protagonist, and that game has been VR’d to hell and back. I think Alyx makes sense as a protagonist given how prominent of a character she was in HL2, regardless of gender.

> that game has been VR’d to hell and back.

What do you mean by this? As far as I can see there is no actual VR port of Portal. You can play it through something like VorpX, which gets you 3D display through a headset, but that can hardly be called "VR'd to hell and back".

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#418

Post by erk__ »

taurath wrote: post #407
erk__ wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about? Firstly Dota 2 started in source 1 and was the first game ported to source 2. It has nothing to do with dota 1? It is made by multiple of the original developers of the warcraft 3 mod, your whole comment does not make a whole lot of sense.

It was made by the third (3rd) maintainer of Dota Allstars, the warcraft 3 mod. Eul was first, Guinsoo was #2. It had quite a large community attached. Valve hired Icefrog. Icefrog did not invent MOST of the characters, IP, nor mechanics, nor design the map. He DID balance a lot of the characters and interactions. I was an admin for Team Dota Allstars at the time and helped run the semiprivate leagues on battlenet an…

Both Eul and Icefrog assigned their copyright of to valve while getting employed at them, Guinsoo assinged them to Riot who then transferred the rights to Blizzard. And as far as I know Valve have only only done any kind of claim jointly with Blizzard as they are not the sole owners of the copyright. They are though owner of the Dota 2 trademark.

Also a nitpick there have been more maintainers than those three they were the major ones for example the original developers of Dota Allstars Meian and Madcow. Guinsoo worked on the game for around 2 years until early 2005 and then Neichus took over and worked jointly with Icefrog who became the lead after Neichus left.

Main source: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3726401/Blizzardv...

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#419

Post by hoffs »

the_af wrote: post #165
outworlder wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just seems like a small target of players who are old enough to fondly remember the original + still have time to play long form games + still have gaming equipment + have VR/are willing to buy VR. Are they making playing the previous games a requirement? Games can stand on their own, even if they are best enjoyed when you already have some emotional investment.

No idea, but my guess would be the previous games are a requirement, or at least HL2. The Half-Life series is "story heavy" single player. These are characters we know.

This is a prequel so it should stand on its own just as well.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#420

Post by hoffs »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #329
ben7799 wrote: 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…

> Just seems like a small target of players who are old enough to fondly remember the original Why oh why would you need to play prequels to enjoy a game? Half-Life is a series where you have guns and you kill shit in an inherently interesting setting: earth invasion. Getting dropped in medias res without knowing 100% of what is going on is just an ancient trope of story-telling. Look how much people enjoy the latest…

This is actually a prequel to those.
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