
Half-Life: Alyx - arthurfm
https://half-life.com/en/alyx
======
rocky1138
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.

~~~
cmcd
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.

~~~
Nexxxeh
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.

~~~
cmcd
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.

~~~
pmichaud
I only do hobby gamedev, so I don't know what I'm talking about, but when I
think of a tool that's "too complex" to release, I imagine not just a
conceptually difficult thing, but a dangerous thing. For example, the editor
lets you shoot yourself in the foot with a bunch of a esoteric considerations
that don't really make sense, but the internal people know how to work around
them more or less, like making sure that there's a dummy Bar for every Foo on
the map, and that they are named in some crazy way, and that the name doesn't
contain the "%" symbol, and you have to do that all manually and if you don't
the host computer hard locks. Internally they solve this by hard-won intution
about how to use the tool, plus a huge and thorough testing scheme.

I think that's the key -- if the tool allows you to harm the user's computer
in some way, then it's not a tool you can really release without polishing a
lot more, to prevent the failure modes. And it's particularly bad if it's hard
not to mess up.

~~~
cmcd
I would be very surprised to hear Blizzard has an internal tool with issues of
that magnitude.

~~~
Jamwinner
Then you would be very suprised at a lot of what happens in game dev. Many in-
house tools are mere skeletons, fleshed out just enough to get the job done.
The bug squashing is focused on the primary product. Developing end-user ready
tools is basically a paralell dev process. Difficult, rare, expensive but
often immensely valuable and rewarding.

------
ben7799
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 but I don't remember beating
it till much later. Probably 2010, by which point I was married and had bought
a house.

Now I'm 42 and I have a 7 year old.. so I'm old enough to actually remember
this, don't really have the time to play anymore.. and I'd be looking at
buying a new PC & VR equipment to play it.. yah no thanks.

That and I remember HL2 and Ep1/Ep2 taking forever. The whole thing was good,
unlike time sinks like Oblivion and Skyrim that were full of filler, but it
still took forever to play through.

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.

Even as an engineer who knows more than a usual amount of gamers including
younger players I'm not sure I know anyone who has VR equipment. If you're
15-20 do you care about this or do you just think it's your Dad's stuff?

~~~
mmanfrin
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.

~~~
whatshisface
I think we're all waiting with bated breath to see if Valve can push VR into
the mainstream with this or anything else they do. I'm not going to buy a kit
just to play glorified mobile games, but if this is really the future of
entertainment then I can see myself buying a headset.

~~~
puranjay
I get motion sickness easily. So that counts me out of the VR experience. And
I reckon that's going to be true for a lot of other people as well.

The price and inherent limitations (such as motion sickness) of VR are going
to ensure that it doesn't hit mainstream, at least for the time being

~~~
JelteF
Have you tried one of the newest generation headsets? Supposedly the higher
frame rates counter motion sickness quite well. I haven't had anyone mention
motion sickness when playing on my Valve Index (only when looking on a monitor
how someone else plays, because the screen shakes so much then).

(The price of the Index definitely doesn't make it mainstream though. Just
trying to get a sense of this issue)

------
SimonPStevens
"Play on any SteamVR system. If you have VR hardware that works with a
computer, then it works with SteamVR."

Bravo Valve. This is why anyone interested in this should get a Vive and stay
well clear of Oculus/Facebook's headsets. They are busy trying to capture the
VR market by setting up exclusivity arrangements with studios to lock games to
their platform to cut others out which just divides up the already small
market.

Value have built a cross platform framework and SDK and are releasing their
games for all headsets.

~~~
ChicagoBoy11
Although I suspect they have carefully made it so that the game has quite a
few mechanics that would benefit greatly from the finger-tracking mechanics
available only on the.... Valve Index. To be clear, your point is absolutely
correct, but I'd be shellshocked if the experience isn't geared heavily to
take the most advantage out of their own headset.

~~~
SimonPStevens
Yeah, sure. But I'm all in favour of that. I want to see systems compete on
their comparative merits. That hopefully drives innovation. I just dislike the
way Oculus are preferring to compete by locking up the market with exclusives.
It only hurts gamers by reducing choice.

I thought Oculus touch did support finger tracking. Wikipedia describes it as
a "system for detecting finger gestures which perhaps is different. I've only
ever used a Vive, so I'm not sure.

------
aresant
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](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8260949)

(1) [https://www.rakutenintelligence.com/blog/2016/virtual-
realit...](https://www.rakutenintelligence.com/blog/2016/virtual-reality-
mostly-mobile)

(2) [https://www.statista.com/statistics/865625/fortnite-
players-...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/865625/fortnite-players-
gender/)

(3)
[https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8260949](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8260949)

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

~~~
puranjay
I doubt Valve decided on the protagonist recently. This has to have been years
in the making

------
MaximumMadness
Looks like this game's focus is going to be on the player, rather than the
game world itself.

Where HL1/2 were focused on making the objects, enemies, and places you
interacted with feel like real life. HL:A will be focused on the character you
control, giving you complete autonomy with finger capture and motion control.

Valve is pushing forward gaming with Half Life once again

~~~
wayoutthere
Given the accuracy (or lack of it) of individual finger movements on the Valve
Index controller, it's not going to be anything more than a gimmick. The tech
looks impressive in a demo, but our hands are used to manipulating things with
a much finer touch than the Index controller allows so it doesn't translate
very well to games.

~~~
dvtrn
_it 's not going to be anything more than a gimmick._

Not sure if I share this sentiment, I read elsewhere Valve is treating this as
their next "flagship" release, a true first class VR game (hopefully not just
some 30 minute "experience" that ends right as it's getting good). It this
were literally _any_ other game studio I'd have an eyebrow raised right now,
but when Valve puts their full muscle and creative energy behind something as
a flagship, lead-off hitter, they've yet to disappoint.

~~~
zerocrates
> When Valve puts their full muscle and creative energy behind something as a
> flagship, lead-off hitter, they've yet to disappoint.

Genuine question: when would you say is the last time they did that? I don't
really think of Dota 2 or CS:GO or whatever to be "flagships." I'd have to go
back to, Portal 2, I guess, but I'm not sure even that I would call a
"flagship," just a really good game. Certainly the Orange Box as a whole...
but that was 12 years ago. Even Portal 2 is 8 years ago.

~~~
riversflow
Seriously curious, how is CS:GO not a flagship? It’s core to the esports
scene, and is always one of the most played games on steam.

~~~
dvtrn
A great deal of CS:GO (minus the Source engine) was developed by another
studio with, admittedly, a lot of collaboration and investment from Valve, so
in this case when I think "flagship" for a game studio it's referring to a
game built by employees and developers of the studio as a first-party.

At least, in my initial comment, that's the intention I had in mind.

------
atonse
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?

~~~
pc86
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.

~~~
capableweb
Unless you're a pilot, try using good a VR airplane simulator for a while (DCS
World for example), getting a feel for the airplane and then push it until you
crash into the ground. The moment you loose control and start falling towards
the ground, you start panicking, even though you know it's a game.

While not PTSD, I can totally imagine you can find ways of using VR to cause
PTSD or similar. Like forcing someone to have a VR headset on with disturbing
experiences for a long time and the person would surely eventually go insane.

~~~
outworlder
X-Plane also works with VR (and arguably better, as with VR enabled aircraft
you can actually use the controllers to pilot).

VR definitely triggers more areas in the brain than just a monitor as I can
empathize very well with the feeling you describe. Supposedly fans modified
Alien: Isolation to work with VR. THERE'S NO WAY I'M TOUCHING THAT. Subnautica
VR is "bad" enough :)

~~~
capableweb
After trying both X-Plane and DCS: World (and a couple of others, waiting for
to see if Microsoft's Flight Simulator manages to include VR or not as well),
X-Plane's VR is definitely good but DCS: World is way better. It seems to
operate way smoother. I'm more of a fan of using joysticks instead of the VR
controllers as well.

------
notus
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 and not relaxing.

~~~
Analemma_
I'm not pleased that Valve has shifted its focus from developing great games
to being a digital platform rent-extractor that tinkers with VR and
disinterestedly ships occasional updates to Dota and CS:GO, but I'm optimistic
this might be good, even if it's only out of motivated self-interest to drum
up the VR hype again.

What I mean is, I get the sense Valve is unhappy that VR hasn't had its
system-selling killer app yet, and I wonder if Alyx is trying to be that. If
so, I'm reasonably hopeful they'll push hard to make this a genuinely good
game that shows VR's full potential, rather than a disposable gimmick.

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
> 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 and
find an audience than I have from any game Valve itself produced.

Hell, they even made Linux gaming a significantly less laughable concept than
it once was.

~~~
fhood
> 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.

~~~
outworlder
> The Steam client is terrible. Unresponsive, un-intuitive, and surprisingly
> bad for searching in as well.

I can only agree with the last one. It works fine for, you know, downloading
and playing games. It rarely ever has issues.

The store could use some work, but it does a better job than, say, Apple App
Store – the discovery queue has shown me titles I would have never seen
before, as did the curators.

Have you tried the competition?

~~~
fhood
Steam's only real purpose is as a store right? I can open an executable pretty
well most of the time. And Steam makes enough money through said store that I
think they need to be held to the standards of Amazon, rather than their
contemporaries.

~~~
shadowgovt
Store, purchase tracker, platform identification system, and analytics engine
to push data on game performance and hardware configuration back to the Steam
service itself as a mass aggregator so they can keep their finger on the
"pulse" of real PC deployments and thereby come quite close to solving the
problem that was once the bane of the entire industry ("Game doesn't work on
my PC because drivers").

I think people tend to overlook how valuable Steam has been as a clearinghouse
to aggregate that last piece of data.

------
on_and_off
Call me salty but I am not sure I am super interested in half life 1.5 while
half life 2 episode 2 has ended on a cliffhanger more than ten years ago.

I am still curious to see how they will handle the character of Alyx, she was
little more than an admiration delivery device in half life 2. They will have
to do a lot more now that she is the center of the game.

~~~
badloginagain
> little more than an admiration delivery device

Actually if anything she was the primary driver of the plot. Freeman, being a
passive mute, follows what Alyx and co are doing for the majority of the
plot(s).

~~~
on_and_off
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 :/

~~~
0xcde4c3db
> 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 "character", which is
better than ~95% of portrayals of women in video games, but that's not saying
much.

~~~
on_and_off
>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 ?

------
eanzenberg
I still remember the first time I saw screen grabs of screenshots of Half Life
2 from PC Gamer, back in 2004 (or was it 2003). I thought I was looking at
real-life photos and didn't realize they were from a video game initially.
Then, watching the tech demo with all the cool physics really excited me.

Maybe it's because I'm older now, but this didn't "knock me out" like that
did.

~~~
dariusj18
VR is tricky to get a sense for without actually wearing a headset. When a
coworker brought in his Oculus for the first time I thought it was going to be
gimmicky, and I was blown away by how immersive it is.

~~~
shadowgovt
Oculus is the first headset kit I ever used that effectively solved the
lateral motion problem. Specifically, the human neck isn't hinged so that the
head rotates around a pivot right behind the eyes; if you tilt your head up
and down, your point of view is moving forward and backward, not just
tracking.

3DOF trackers (like Google Daydream) and low-fidelity 6DOF trackers don't
capture that dimension of data, and even if you don't consciously notice it's
missing, strapping into anything of equivalent fidelity to Oculus Rift or
better makes you _really_ notice the difference. It's night-and-day.

------
mikl
Hope they’ll make a non-VR version at some point. Much as I enjoyed previous
Half-Life games, I don’t want to buy a VR-rig. They’re obviously hoping that a
Half-Life game will be enough to get gamers to adopt VR, but I don’t see a lot
of people willing to remodel their living room to make space for a VR setup,
at least over here in Europe, where people have fairly small homes in
comparison to the U.S.

~~~
cwkoss
VRcades will probably become a prevalent kind of retail establishment in the
next decade. Two people can game together from geographically separate
VRcades.

~~~
mikl
I doubt it. VRcades will have to compete with people being able to play
regular video games from their homes. Not only will playing from home be a lot
cheaper, it’s also a lot more convenient.

Unless VR becomes a lot more compelling, I don’t see a significant chunk of
gamers being willing to go down to the local VRcade to do their gaming on a
regular basis.

And imagine the cost. A VRcade would have to have a lot of space per player,
they’d have to be staffed, cleaned, maintained. A good game these days takes
at least 40 hours to play through. I’d wager that 40 hours of VRcade time is
going to be a lot more than people are willing to pay for a game these days.

~~~
Sohcahtoa82
You know VRcades actually exist, right? These aren't theoretical.

There are several VR arcades near me in the Portland, OR metro area. And as
the other commenter said, people don't play games that have long storylines at
them. They aren't playing Skyrim VR. Instead, they're playing games like Beat
Saber or racing games. In other words, they play the type of game you'd play
in a normal arcade. Games that you can easily enjoy in 3-5 minute sessions.

VRcades also aim to be a place to hang out. You pay to rent a VR space for a
certain amount of time and can play whatever you want on the headset for that
time. There are couches nearby for friends to watch, and they sell food and
drinks.

It's actually a great model, though I'm not convinced it'll survive, but not
because of a failure of VR, but because the whole "arcade" concept has been
slowly dying.

~~~
mikl
Not denying they exist. Just doubting that they’ll be a common, widespread
phenomenon. The competition from home gaming systems is hard to overcome.

------
purpleidea
Pretty lame that there's no Linux support. Valve was supposed to be on our
side. Oh well :(

~~~
coldpie
I'll see what we can do about that ;)

~~~
PAGAN_WIZARD
If I know I can play day 1, I'll gladly shell out the $1k for the full index
package. I just spent about that on new gpu + monitor so I was gonna wait to
save up, but tux == bucks.

~~~
shadowgovt
> tux == bucks

I don't have solid numbers, but a quick Googling suggests the rate of desktop
deployments of Linux is under 2%, and VR-ready deployments is going to be a
thin slice of any desktop OS deployment (I have no reason to believe Linux
users are more likely to have a VR rig attached to their machine than average,
and I'd put money on it being actually less likely unless they have a machine
configured to dual-boot).

------
whatshisface
This game is a lot more cartoony and blue/orange than Half-Life 2, which had a
very distinctive low-saturation photorealistic style. However, it's less
cartoony than half-life 1. It's fitting that a game set between them
chronologically would mix their art styles.

~~~
Sebguer
The requirements to double-render also force a cartoony style in a game at
this scale.

~~~
whatshisface
The graphics on the promo website are a lot higher resolution than Half-Life
2's graphics. HL2 was photorealistic not by having a high polygon count, but
by having desaturated textures that approached the things you would find in a
picture of a city. HL2 came out a long time ago.

~~~
bhhaskin
HL2 wasn't photorealistic by any stretch of the word. Sure it looked great for
the time, but go back and play it now.

~~~
whatshisface
HL2 wasn't photorealistic, it was made in a photorealistic _style_.

------
davnicwil
Assuming I'm starting from scratch, what's the minimum cost these days to get
the hardware that'll play this?

~~~
yboris
I'd say $400 for a great VR set (including hand controllers), and under $600
if you build a PC from scratch. Cheaper if you reuse some parts, cheaper if
you buy any parts used.

My 3-year old video card (bought for $300 then) is still kicking butt in any
VR title I throw at it.

~~~
s9w
This is a valve flagship game. It's made for the index, which is a $1000 piece
of hardware

~~~
penagwin
Yes but it doesn't require the index, it can use any steam vr compatible
headset.

~~~
s9w
That was not the goalpost here. The goalpost was that a "great" VR hardware
costs $400, which is not true. Same for a $600 PC for high-end VR and as a
bonus: the claim that a 3yo GPU is "kicking butt". All of these are false

~~~
ihuman
The goalpost wasn't "great" VR. It was the minimum cost. I agree that $400
won't get you the best VR set, but it still can be enough for a great one.

> what's the minimum cost these days to get the hardware that'll play this?

~~~
s9w
My post was entirely aimed at the comment it was a reply to

------
willis936
Here is a light read for any fans of the series who want a nice conclusion to
the story. This is a bit of a myth to me, as I don’t know how substantiated
the story is, but it is nice to think that this is a conclusion written by the
author. Considering its darkness, it is more likely a piece of fanfiction. It
reads like its fanfiction. Anyway, it was nice to go for one last ride with
the characters. It sounds like Vincent’s VA is different and the overall tone
is lighter. The tone of the trailer did feel very much like the writers
involved with portal, which managed to treat its setting with proper respect
while still managing to be light for those not paying too close attention. I
hope HL:A manages to keep the themes of the series intact.

[https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/08/half-life-3-plot-
marc...](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/08/half-life-3-plot-marc-
laidlaw/)

------
thatguyagain
I just want to say that this is without a doubt the most exciting thing I have
seen in VR so far, and I will definitely buy an Index for this. They got me.
Full length game, brand new engine, Half Life story?? Holy s*it

~~~
ChicagoBoy11
I'm pretty bullish on VR in general but a few experiences (like the Aperture
lab) were truly a class above. Problem was they were so short. The thing with
VR is you really notice shortcuts, but when there is a REAL investment made
the experience also can absolutely shine. My mental model for this is
essentially the kind of experience that the aperture lab was but blown up to a
full-length, AAA game. And that thought is simply awesome.

------
huhtenberg
I sure hope there'll be a non-VR version as well.

~~~
delive
Doubt it, the website says it was built 'from the ground up' for a VR
experience.

~~~
ofrzeta
I don't doubt this but I think it should be quite easy to make a regular 3D
FPS from an original VR game.

~~~
shadowgovt
Emphatically not. The interaction space of VR is entirely different from the
interaction space of a standard mouse-and-keyboard FPS. For starters, players
in a VR game have two hands. A lot of games in VR _could_ have been FPSs
instead, but only because they're generally vastly under-utilizing the
dimension space that two VR input controllers (plus the input of look
direction) give a designer.

If you used the dimensionality of the VR space and you port it to the FPS
space, you'll leave entire game mechanics on the floor.

~~~
ofrzeta
That makes sense. You could use the scenery from the game (although you would
probably provide more for more open world gameplay than in the VR game) and
also create FPS specific mechanis such as open world puzzles etc.

------
dsfyu404ed
On Tuesday I said:

>Due to some of the technical limitations with people (motion sickness does
not make a popular game) I don't think this is not going to be an open spaces
and free-movement heavy game like HL2. Not having some really good expansive
panorama scenes would be a disservice to the VR tech but don't expect to be
able to drive a go-kart around in them. I'm expecting a lot of semi stationary
scenes where the player is free around a small space as the environment
smoothly and steadily around them (like all the various freight elevator and
rail car scenes in HL1). I expect that in typical Half-Life fashion there will
be lots of object manipulation and head crab batting practice while the player
remains nearly stationary.

So based on the trailer it looks like I was decently right. I think you're
gonna spend a lot of time solving puzzles with one hand while defending
yourself with the other. I really hope they nail the cinematic aspect of it
like they did in HL2 since that greatly contributes to how immersive the game
feels.

~~~
dntrkv
[https://half-life.com/en/alyx/vr](https://half-life.com/en/alyx/vr)

This is interesting to me, though I haven't played many VR games. Is this
common with other games?

~~~
dariusj18
Yes, the teleportation mechanic was great in Robo Recall. Much better IMO than
movement with the analog sticks.

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

~~~
neals
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.

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

~~~
outworlder
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).

~~~
Sohcahtoa82
> I'm not sure about those clunky Vive controllers

Vive owner here.

Depends on the game. In a game like PokerStars VR, yeah I often feel like I'm
holding a controller. But that's not a game that aims to immerse you, as it's
more of a social game. The real draw to that game is interaction with other
players. VRChat is also in the same boat.

In any sort of shooter, not at all. Definitely still immersive and I don't
feel like I'm holding a controller. This also applies to games where I'm
holding things a lot, like Gorn. I feel like I'm holding inflatable toy
weapons, which is fine because the weapons in the game flop around a bit like
they're inflated.

------
martin1b
We've been waiting for decades for the release of this. I'm a HUGE fan of HL
but not a fan of prequels. Hopefully this will showcase VR as a viable medium.

IMHO, I think Portal VR would have given a more immersive experience, along
with less locomotion issues. However, I'm sure Valve has done their research.

My concern is, if this isn't met with favor, will Valve bow out of game
development permanently? It just feels as if they are losing interest in new
game development and would rather buy other studios and keep Steam chugging
along. More money there..

~~~
dom96
> IMHO, I think Portal VR would have given a more immersive experience, along
> with less locomotion issues. However, I'm sure Valve has done their
> research.

This was covered in the interview video[1], Valve employees mentioned that
they considered Portal but they thought that a game where you spend a
significant amount of time jumping through portals at high speed would make
you sick.

1 -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9K0eJEmMEw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9K0eJEmMEw)

------
filereaper
Bet this game ends at "Red Letter Day" starting Half-Life 2

~~~
ambrice
Probably not, need to leave room for Alyx episode 2.

------
BuckRogers
This is VR's big moment given the mod support. I have a gaming grade PC, but
have been completely sold on the Oculus Quest ever since they announced Oculus
Link support and that you'd be able to play games on Steam with it as well. I
need the standalone support to make it more useful, taking it into another
room and using it either for gaming or watching a video.

Looks like I'll be picking up that Quest, upgrading to Ryzen 4900X and a
Nvidia 3060 when they're out next year for this game.

------
tombot
The final hours interview has plenty of backstory to dig into
[https://youtu.be/-9K0eJEmMEw](https://youtu.be/-9K0eJEmMEw)

------
outworlder
I just want to know one thing: what happened to Half-Life 2 Episode III ? As
it is, I'll wait for people to play this and tell me if it ends in a
cliffhanger too.

~~~
ihuman
From the writer of half life, after he left valve:
[https://www.marclaidlaw.com/epistle-3/](https://www.marclaidlaw.com/epistle-3/)

~~~
outworlder
Thank you. Maybe I can finally get closure now.

------
fwxwi
Considering the price of the VR headset you must buy to play this, this might
be the most expensive game ever.

------
hising
It will be interesting to see if this title can drive adaption to VR and drive
sales of headsets and create a market for VR-games. Hard to find a more hyped
IP than Half-Life. Maybe it can breath some life into the "it will happen next
year"-hype of VR.

------
magashna
Wonder if I can do Oculus Quest + PC Link + Index controllers. Don't really
want to buy an Index, but the controllers look really nice. Also considering
Quest since my biggest gripe before was the wired headset and how heavy it was
overall.

~~~
rocky1138
In order to make this work, hardware-wise, you'd need the lighthouses, too.

~~~
neogodless
So I'm assuming that means that Valve programs this in a way that dictates the
hardware, instead of having an abstraction layer that accepts player position,
viewpoint and hand inputs regardless of the hardware?

Is that something you have a source to confirm?

I would like to think that if Quest is going to release a way to hook up to
the PC to play SteamVR, they'll be sending all that positional data from the
headset tracking to the PC through the link.

~~~
wccrawford
The Index Controllers need the lighthouses to know where they are in space.
They simply don't work without them.

~~~
neogodless
Oh I missed that rather important point that they want to add the Index
controllers to the mix!

------
s9w
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.

~~~
thatguyagain
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.

~~~
fhood
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.

~~~
cdirkx
Do people still get motion sickness from 3D movies?

~~~
fhood
1\. A movie is what 90 minutes?

2\. Movies aren't often filmed from first person perspective for any length of
time.

~~~
cdirkx
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 it any more,
or people in general have just moved on from 3D, but it does make me wonder.
Could the motion sickness not also just be a temporary thing for VR?

~~~
shantly
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.

~~~
cdirkx
But in terms of viability, it is also a matter of degrees: do more than half
of your users feel sick after using your product, or only very small
percentage?

------
dugditches
Appears to be fairly on rails, which I guess eliminates the whole movement
thing.

Good to see them releasing something, even if it is a narrow market. Seems to
be a lot of doubt in them after lackluster Artifact and Epic Store entering
their space.

~~~
strangecasts
The "compatible VR" page lists multiple options for movement:
[https://www.half-life.com/en/alyx/vr](https://www.half-life.com/en/alyx/vr)

~~~
ninkendo
I wonder how good an FPS game can really be with teleportation-based movement.

(Edit for clarity: “Because, for each of the non-teleportation motion
schemes...”:) Any VR game I've played where the camera moves while I'm
standing still, I want to vomit almost immediately. I'm usually sick for the
rest of the day. (I think it was a roller coaster simulation I tried, I didn't
even make it up the first hill, I had to throw the headset off right away.)

I want to play a new half-life game but I'm really skeptical they'll set it up
in a way that won't make me puke my brains out.

~~~
capableweb
"where the camera moves while I'm standing still" and "was a roller coaster
simulation I tried" doesn't even match. Of course you're gonna be sitting
still while the camera moves in 3d space in the game if you're playing roller
coaster. Seems the motion sickness was from something else in the VR than the
teleportation-based movement, as a roller coaster would probably not have
that.

~~~
ninkendo
I may have been unclear: teleportation-based combat is fine for me (motion
sickness-wise), I’m just wondering how good a high-action FPS can really be if
it’s teleportation-based.

Because, if the workaround for teleportation being lackluster is to use
joystick controls, _thats_ a nonstarter for me, for the reasons stated above.

------
hyko
Why does this need to be VR?

~~~
archarios
I'm sure Valve wanted to make a AAA VR game to help sales of their hardware so
they made a new Half Life. Rather than they wanted to make a new Half Life
game and then decided to make it VR.

------
canada_dry
> "Hammer - Valve's level authoring tool, has been updated with all the game's
> virtual reality gameplay tools and components.

Community built environments are possible - that's a pretty huge thing!

------
mdrachuk
Talking about managing expectations: starting the trailer narration with a
phrase “what we’re doing here could change things forever” puts a lot of
pressure on the game.

------
nottorp
Have they solved motion sickness yet? I borrowed a playstation VR once but got
nauseous after half an hour, no matter which game i tried.

Are the newer things getting better?

~~~
sillysaurusx
Unfortunately there's a chance it's biological. No matter how high the FPS is
or how responsive the screen is, if you're "walking" in VR, your body isn't
walking in real life. That's what your brain is probably reacting to.

~~~
nottorp
Yeah, sadly I think it's the body not walking for me. Guess I should try a
wheelchair simulator :)

------
xvx
Now make a Left 4 Dead VR game and I'm sold!

~~~
x2f10
L4D in VR? What a dream!

------
hacker_9
Wow this looks like finally a reason to buy VR

------
h91wka
Too late. Now I am only feeling disappointed that "after another Half-Life is
released" meme has become obsolete.

------
cptskippy
Does this feel like an attempt by Valve to flog VR by appealing to player's
desire for a new Half-Life game?

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
By that logic Half-Life 2 was an attempt to flog Steam... And we all know how
that turned out.

~~~
cptskippy
Yes and I feel like Half-Life 2 was a game they were going to make regardless
of Steam. They just leveraged it to promote Steam. This just feels like they
had no intention of making a HL game but VR hasn't taken off as much as they
expected so they decided to create a game to promote it.

------
d--b
Wooooo, parallax vertical scroll.

~~~
akjetma
it's funny, VR doesn't give me motion sickness but browser parallax stuff
does. i don't think i've ever seen a good implementation of this and i've seen
_tons_ of attempts. highjacking scroll just never feels good.

------
bilekas
Critics : "Development studios are making games for Valve hardware, sure, but
they're not using everything properly"

Valve : "Hold my beer, lets give them what they wanted in 3D, in VR"

------
microtherion
Frankly, I would rather play a new Portal.

~~~
shadowgovt
I think they've officially decided Portal is played out. If you want more
Portal, the Perpetual Testing Initiative is still there.

------
vhakulinen
I guess I'm buying VR gear then.

~~~
criddell
I'm already making space for the headset in the same drawer I keep my 3d
glasses for my TV!

------
2444344978
[https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workspace-ONE-
UEM/1904/And...](https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workspace-ONE-
UEM/1904/Android_Platform/GUID-AWT-ENROLL-WORKMAN.html)

------
dfcagency
I hate that In The Valley of the Gods was cancelled for this.

~~~
ihuman
Has it been officially canceled, or is this still speculation based on people
removing it from their twitter bios? The game's steam page is still up.

------
bloody-crow
I've never understood the appeal of the VR.

I play games that benefit from low reaction time and precision and my body is
the main source of latency and mistakes. When I watch recordings of my own
gameplay, I notice how my brain usually operates a few hundred milliseconds
ahead of what my hands controlling mouse & keyboard are capable of executing.
Throwing your untrained and sometimes unhealthy body into this mix doesn't
seem like a beneficial strategy.

Also, characters in the games I play do things that are completely impossible
for a regular human body to accomplish. They're running faster, jumping
higher, aim and swing swords better than I or any real human even could. Why
would you want your character to be a mirror of your real-world tired and
untrained self?

They say that the biggest sell of VR is immersion. How can something be
immersive when it has no capability to provide any kind of feedback besides
audio/visual? You can't swing swords in VR cause it has no capability to
communicate weight of the thing you're holding back to you. A light sword
feels exactly the same as a huge two-handed sword because all you're actually
carrying in a lightweight plastic controller. You can't punch a wall because
there's nothing in reality to stop your hand from going through. You can't
hide behind cover because the object you're trying to lean on doesn't exist in
real life. You can't feel an impact of receiving a fatal blow or taking a
rocket in your face, cause there's nothing to actually push you in real life.

I think VR is dumb and I haven't seen any games yet that would want me to
spend money on it. I was a huge fan of HL back in the day, but I guess I'm
going to skip this one.

~~~
Ajedi32
Have you tried it? You absolutely can do all those things you just described
in VR. I understand why you might think it wouldn't feel realistic, because
yes, the technology for realistic full-body tactile feedback isn't there yet.
But I can assure you from personal experience; audio/visual feedback is more
than enough to immerse you in the game even when the haptics don't precisely
match what you'd feel doing the same thing in real life.

~~~
bloody-crow
> You absolutely can do all those things you just described in VR

I haven't seen a single VR game that allows you to do things a typical
competitive FPS shooter character does or games like Dark Souls/Sekiro.

~~~
Ajedi32
Typical competitive FPS shooter => Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, Pavlov,
Onward

Dark Souls => Asgard's Wrath, Blade and Sorcery

Sekiro => Sairento VR, The Unbreakable Gumball

In fact, I'd argue the reverse is true: I haven't seen a single flat screen
game which allows you the same natural freedom of movement as VR games like
Echo VR or Windlands do. Full 6DoF controllers enable a lot of possibilities
for movement that just aren't feasible with a keyboard+mouse or controller.

