Half Life: Alyx

Won't be able to play it, but this game looks great. Played HL2 many times over. Wish I could get a VR setup.
 
I bought a PS4 for Bloodborne but I don't see myself buying a VR kit for HL: Alyx...if this title doesn't give a major boost to VR then nothing will

this thread should be in the dedicated VR forum
 
polonyc2 said:
I bought a PS4 for Bloodborne but I don't see myself buying a VR kit for HL: Alyx...if this title doesn't give a major boost to VR then nothing will

this thread should be in the dedicated VR forum
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Nothing will give VR a boost, it is unreasonable to expect that. VR is an expensive niche. I would be on the fence about this game even if I didn't have to buy a $1200 setup to properly enjoy it.

I purchased a PS4 pro for HZD, but that only cost $400. And even that was uncomfortable territory. Not to mention you don't need a high end gaming PC on top.
 
M76 said:
Nothing will give VR a boost, it is unreasonable to expect that. VR is an expensive niche. I would be on the fence about this game even if I didn't have to buy a $1200 setup to properly enjoy it.

I purchased a PS4 pro for HZD, but that only cost $400. And even that was uncomfortable territory. Not to mention you don't need a high end gaming PC on top.
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I thought a VR kit was ~$500?...the PC requirements are pretty low end
 
M76 said:
Yeah but you need valve index to fully experience it right? That costs $1200 here.
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Nope .. people that playtested it with all the major HMDs say it played surprisingly well on $225 Odyssey+
 
M76 said:
I would be on the fence about this game even if I didn't have to buy a $1200 setup to properly enjoy it.
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I keep seeing this argument, and it's simply not true unless you're including a GPU in that total.
 
odditory said:
Nope .. people that playtested it with all the major HMDs say it played surprisingly well on $225 Odyssey+
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Surprisingly well is not gonna cut it, when I'm dropping any large sum of money for one game. Not to mention the odyssey+ does not seem to be available where I live.
I'm not questioning whether it runs on a 225 something, I'm saying if you want to have the optimal experience you need a valve index.
 
Pringle said:
I keep seeing this argument, and it's simply not true unless you're including a GPU in that total.
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Valve index set is exactly $1200. Sure I can get a VR set for about $600 but will it be just as good?
 
I'm taking a wait and see approach to this game. The lack of wireless support with the index is pretty disappointing to me. The best setup imo would be a vive pro headset (with oddysey plus screens mod and gear vr lens mod applied) + wireless adapter + index controllers. This isn't worth the money or the hassle to me though unless the game and community content somehow turns out to be something really mind-blowing. I'm not sure that will be possible though due to the inherent limitations of roomspace itself (I've expressed my thoughts on this in the 'is vr worth it' thread).

But hell I'm sure anyone just getting into VR is going to have a blast regardless, and it's great to see Valve make a huge marketing push in the VR space. I expect that there will be tons of hype when it comes out and as many people enjoy their honeymoons with VR, but I think the hype will level out sharply over time. What I know for sure is that Valve is going to make a ton of money lol.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Price could go down...
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The newest/best sets will always be expensive, that you need to enjoy the newest games to the fullest extent.

It's basically another expensive bit you need to buy on top of the GPU, you might not have to replace your VR set as often as your GPU, but eventually it will become obsolete too. How many early adopters of VR have upgraded already to something new?
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Price could go down...
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Instant success if Apple releases the iBrain VR device. Not because it does anything useful, just because... Apple...

(envision hoards of people driving with their iBrains on.... wait a minute, that might help....)

The iBrain will be affordably priced so everyone can own it at $2999 USD.
 
M76 said:
Surprisingly well is not gonna cut it, when I'm dropping any large sum of money for one game. Not to mention the odyssey+ does not seem to be available where I live.
I'm not questioning whether it runs on a 225 something, I'm saying if you want to have the optimal experience you need a valve index.
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Given you've never tried VR, this post is.. uninformed.

It's like someone that's never played a console game believing that you need a $150 Xbox Elite controller, or don't bother because a $30 Xbox controller isn't the "optimal" experience.

The experience delta between a $225 Odyssey+, and a Index + Knuckles controller is minimal -- with the latter you can use a little more manual dexterity like seeing individual fingers move. BFD. Effectively it's like saying "I won't be able to see and manipulate my individual fingers when picking up bullets, so why bother playing at all" -- that's silly.

I could buy ten Indexes without a care, but I keep 3x Odyssey+ stocked in the house because value-for-money ratio is off the chart.
 
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odditory said:
Considering you've never tried VR, this post is cringeworthy.

It's like someone that's never played a console game believing that you need a $150 Xbox Elite controller or don't bother because you're not getting the oPtiMaL experience as a $30 Xbox controller.

The experience delta between a $225 Odyssey+, and a Index + Knuckles controller is minimal -- with the latter you can use a little more manual dexterity like seeing individual fingers move. BFD. Effectively it's like saying "I won't be able to see and manipulate my individual fingers when picking up bullets, so why bother playing at all" -- utterly silly.

I could buy ten Indexes without a care, but I keep 3x Odyssey+ stocked in the house because value-for-money ratio is off the chart.
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The real cringe is that you admit it is worse and missing functionality, but try desperately to understate it. And that still won't make the odyssey plus available in EU. The cheapest VR set I can find is about $300 here which is the oculus quest, and I'm not paying that for one game, especially if I'm not even getting the best possible experience for that money.

They even say it in the video, that the gloves add a ton to the game, but are fairly expensive. Some of us refuse to pay a $300 entry fee for a sub-par experience, you'll have to deal with it.
 
odditory said:
Given you've never tried VR, this post is.. uninformed.

It's like someone that's never played a console game believing that you need a $150 Xbox Elite controller, or don't bother because a $30 Xbox controller isn't the "optimal" experience.

The experience delta between a $225 Odyssey+, and a Index + Knuckles controller is minimal -- with the latter you can use a little more manual dexterity like seeing individual fingers move. BFD. Effectively it's like saying "I won't be able to see and manipulate my individual fingers when picking up bullets, so why bother playing at all" -- that's silly.

I could buy ten Indexes without a care, but I keep 3x Odyssey+ stocked in the house because value-for-money ratio is off the chart.
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Another comparison would be saying that the optimal experience for any new PC game is SLI RTX 2080Ti with a 4K Gsync 144Hz IPS display etc. etc. Yes, the best hardware enhances the experience but it isn't truly necessary in this case from early reports. I'll be keen to see reviews when the game launches, I don't think I can justify an Index but a cheaper setup for a mind blowing Half-Life experience? Sure.
 
grambo said:
Another comparison would be saying that the optimal experience for any new PC game is SLI RTX 2080Ti with a 4K Gsync 144Hz IPS display etc. etc. Yes, the best hardware enhances the experience but it isn't truly necessary in this case from early reports. I'll be keen to see reviews when the game launches, I don't think I can justify an Index but a cheaper setup for a mind blowing Half-Life experience? Sure.
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Or, "if you can't watch the Superbowl on a OLED TV, why watch it at all". That's the wet blanket mentality. I digress.

Anyhoo, this (Odyssey+ on Alyx):

 
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I don't have enough space for a proper room scale. Judging by the trailers, I am going to need to do some serious cleaning, starting with the wife.

Seriously though, I hope it's a least playable in standing only mode.
 
FrgMstr said:
Not exactly new information, but a fun countdown.

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dgz said:
I don't have enough space for a proper room scale. Judging by the trailers, I am going to need to do some serious cleaning, starting with the wife.

Seriously though, I hope it's a least playable in standing only mode.
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upload_2020-1-29_16-9-42.png
 
grambo said:
Another comparison would be saying that the optimal experience for any new PC game is SLI RTX 2080Ti with a 4K Gsync 144Hz IPS display etc. etc. Yes, the best hardware enhances the experience but it isn't truly necessary in this case from early reports. I'll be keen to see reviews when the game launches, I don't think I can justify an Index but a cheaper setup for a mind blowing Half-Life experience? Sure.
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The gpu performance is not a good analogy. A proper comparison would be playing a racing simulator with a wheel and pedals or playing it with a gamepad.
if I couldn't justify the cost of the wheel because it was so expensive I'd rather not play than buy a gamepad for it.
 
Decided to look up how Alyx affected VR sales, apparently Valve Index sales doubled for the holidays, but it's a drop in a pond:

Despite all the relative sales jockeying among competing headsets, overall sales for the entire category remain too small for the market to be anything but a small niche for the time being. Only PlayStation VR—which recently passed the 5 million sales mark and has outsold all
other VR headsets combined—makes anything approaching a dent on the wider gaming market. And the size of that dent is roughly comparable to failed accessories like the Sega CD, proportionally.
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https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020...more-than-doubled-amid-half-life-alyx-reveal/
 
polonyc2 said:
if this VR Alyx game doesn't move the needle then nothing will...
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Most people are still in the wait and see period. it's hard to sell an accessory if it only has one game attached to it. If HL:Alyx is first of many high profile titles, things might start to move. I mean much cheaper accessories like the ps move failed too, and that cost 1/5th of a proper vr setup.
 
what are the chances this eventually comes out on PC/console and this VR exclusivity is just a timed deal...Valve has to know that limiting this to VR is going to kill sales...I know the Steam platform gives them all the $$ they will ever need which allows them to experiment on things such as this but I have to believe they know that this would make a killing if sold on other platforms

does Valve really believe in VR that much that they are willing to use the Half Life brand as a way of pushing this technology?...how does Valve even measure the success of this game?...based on how many Valve Index kits they sell?...they don't even have enough in stock now...
 
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I wouldn't be surprised if it never got a non-VR release. Valve being private it's hard to know how much money they make but I'm sure it's a fuckton. I don't think they need the cash from a standard PC release.
 
J3RK said:
They don't really worry about such things anymore.
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They operate on a longer timescale.

Fast forward 3-5 years and people will be wailing about "Steam VR Monopoly" like they do about Steam now, with the same cast of characters like Tim Sweeney doing desperation giveaways of VR titles on EGS after yet again missing the boat.

Higher risk, higher reward. Valve once again doing the trailblazing and heavy lifting while the naysayers work hard not to understand.
 
polonyc2 said:
what are the chances this eventually comes out on PC/console and this VR exclusivity is just a timed deal...Valve has to know that limiting this to VR is going to kill sales...I know the Steam platform gives them all the $$ they will ever need which allows them to experiment on things such as this but I have to believe they know that this would make a killing if sold on other platforms
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In the final hours interview this question came up. Valve basically said that they were creating something to explore mechanics of VR and decided Half-Life was the best property they had for it. There are so many things you can do in VR that really cannot be done with the mouse and keyboard. A quote being "We would have to map an entire section of the keyboard dedicated just to interacting with doors." When you build a game specifically around VR mechanics trying to go backwards wouldn't work.

So essentially their options are strip stuff out of the game to make it playable on other platforms or keep it VR exclusive. They are choosing VR exclusive. I'd say there is a 99.9% chance that is never playable without VR.
 
Cypher- said:
In the final hours interview this question came up. Valve basically said that they were creating something to explore mechanics of VR and decided Half-Life was the best property they had for it. There are so many things you can do in VR that really cannot be done with the mouse and keyboard. A quote being "We would have to map an entire section of the keyboard dedicated just to interacting with doors." When you build a game specifically around VR mechanics trying to go backwards wouldn't work.

So essentially their options are strip stuff out of the game to make it playable on other platforms or keep it VR exclusive. They are choosing VR exclusive. I'd say there is a 99.9% chance that is never playable without VR.
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I understand that they built this specific version of the game with VR as the sole input...but I still think they could have dedicated another team to developing a non-VR version...but it's obvious they didn't want to do that...I give them props for trying to push VR gaming tech forward...I don't think it'll work but kudos to them for trying
 
some of us long predicted "HL3" would be VR only... so many signs Valve was going this direction. If they do a PC version they'd have to severaly gimp the controls in some way I think similar to QTEs, or redesign the game pretty significantly for more traditional keyboard/mouse... perhaps they'll let a third party do that "port" of sorts, I'd rather they concentrate on VR only
 
polonyc2 said:
I understand that they built this specific version of the game with VR as the sole input...but I still think they could have dedicated another team to developing a non-VR version...but it's obvious they didn't want to do that...I give them props for trying to push VR gaming tech forward...I don't think it'll work but kudos to them for trying
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I hope, at some point, you get the opportunity to try The Lab. It's free, and it's Valve's intro program into VR. But even in that "Tutorial" there are several minigames showing off the engine and its capabilities. It got me incredibly excited for what Valve could do with VR given the resources to develop a full game.
 
Gameplay trailer, unlisted for some reason. Maybe to drive traffic to useless and irrelevant "journalists?" Unfortunately it's using teleportation instead of locomotion.


Here are the other 2. Video 2 shows full locomotion and the ability to change between movement mechanics on the fly.


 
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I just skimmed through it quickly (don't wanna spoil it for myself too much) but looks really good. I bet they chose teleport for this demo because it's the most comfortable and thus will be what most newcomers to VR use as it will be the default setting. Had they used locomotion it might lead newbies to think that's how it should be played.... which it is, but they'll be put off quickly if they don't have VR legs

so hyped for this though, really hope it gets Valve back in the game. I'm looking forward to a wireless Index too
 
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