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Games Technology

Half Life Alyx Hits PC VR Headsets In March 2020 (arstechnica.com) 67

Posted by BeauHD from the designed-for-VR dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: After a tease earlier this week, Valve has revealed more details and a new trailer for the first new Half-Life content in over a decade. The "full-length" Half Life: Alyx will hit Steam in March 2020, Valve says, with support for "all PC-based VR headsets." Pre-orders are already available for $59.99, though the game will be free if you own a Valve Index headset. The game, which Valve says is "set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2," has been "designed from the ground up for Virtual Reality" (i.e. you can stop hoping for a 2D monitor release). "Everyone at Valve is excited to be returning to the world of Half-Life," Valve founder Gabe Newell said in a statement. "VR has energized us."

Today's video trailer shows that next year's Alyx-ization of Half-Life is equal parts abstract and concrete. The VR perspective from today's trailer doesn't include any floating body parts or feet; the only part of your virtual self you'll see, at least in today's trailer, is your hands, covered in a pair of gloves. Yet we also hear Alyx's voice, which indicates that this game's protagonist won't be nearly as silent as Freeman in his own mainline adventures. Today's announcement includes video footage that confirms a data-leak examination by Valve News Network earlier this year: a new manipulation system dubbed the Gravity Gloves. And boy do these things look cool. Need to grab or pick something up? Point at whatever that object is (whether it's close or far away) with an open hand until it glows orange, then close your hand and flick your wrist toward yourself to fling the item in your direction. At this point, you get a moment to physically "catch" the object in question. Point, clench, flick, catch.

Today's trailer also confirms bits and pieces of the exciting HLA details I've previously heard about from multiple sources. For instance, the trailer includes teases of the game's approach to VR-exclusive puzzles, particularly those that require moving hands around a three-dimensional space. Some of these puzzles will require scanning and finding clues hidden inside of the virtual world's walls (and moving or knocking down anything hindering your ability to see or touch said walls). Other puzzles will require arranging what look like constellations or grids of stars around a 3D space in order to match certain patterns. And then there's the matter of familiar Half-Life creatures coming to life for the first time in over 12 years, which means they're that much more detailed and gruesome as rendered in the Source 2 engine. The Half-Life website specifies that this game can be played sitting, standing, or with "roomscale" movement. Players can use finger-tracking or trigger-based VR controllers and move around the VR environments by "teleporting" from point A to point B, "shifting" smoothly to a new position, or just walking continuously with an analog stick.
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Half Life Alyx Hits PC VR Headsets In March 2020 More

Half Life Alyx Hits PC VR Headsets In March 2020

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  • ...unconfirmed!

  • It's a prequel and it's for VR. Can't justify $600+ for a single piece of hardware for one game. Can't do it sadly.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Strill ( 6019874 )

      I'd say VR is worth it for Beat Saber alone. It's way cheaper than any other exercise machine you could buy, and a lot more fun.

    • It's a prequel and it's for VR. Can't justify $600+ for a single piece of hardware for one game. Can't do it sadly.

      Then you should be happy that some excellent headsets are $400, the steam library contains over 5000 VR games, and the Oculus library (assuming you get the very much compatible with Steam VR headset from Oculus for $400) contain even more games including some titles from AAA studios.

      • I feel it's disingenuous to tell people it's only $400 for a headset without telling them that this is the old-stock/open-box/clearance pricing for the old model Oculus. Availability not guaranteed, get them while you can.

        • I feel it's disingenuous to tell people it's only $400 for a headset without telling them that this is the old-stock/open-box/clearance pricing for the old model Oculus. Availability not guaranteed, get them while you can.

          WTF are you talking about. $399 is the RRP of the latest Oculus Rift S, current model only 6 months old, available all over the place and in stock everywhere.

      • Still couldn't justify it. Now if there were a library of games I'd play.. sure.. i'd drop a grand easy, but I've tested many VR headsets on a multitude of games, and it's not impressive at all. I only found 2 games in testing to be semi-decent.

        Realistically VR tech will have to be far better than what it is before I drop that kind of cash. VR is still too far into its' technological infancy, and has not matured enough to be worth it... yet.

        • So follow up question:
          a) what is it you didn't like about it?
          b) did you test it in the past 6 months, because the technology has changed dramatically with the most recent generation of headsets even at the entry level price point.
          c) did you test it in the past 6 months, because the world has moved on from 3D vomit simulators to properly designed titles with all the features of great AAA games, and if you doubt that well there's several AAA games themselves which have been ported in the past year too.

          I would

          • a) what is it you didn't like about it?

            Then it was quirky, uncomfortable, and the games felt sub par.

            b) did you test it in the past 6 months, because the technology has changed dramatically with the most recent generation of headsets even at the entry level price point.

            c) did you test it in the past 6 months, because the world has moved on from 3D vomit simulators to properly designed titles with all the features of great AAA games, and if you doubt that well there's several AAA games themselves which have been ported in the past year too.

            Unfortunately this would have been around mid February. I may give VR another test run to see where it's at now.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ranbot ( 2648297 )

      Don't be surprised if one day Valve pulls an irresistible Orange Box-like VR bundle that changes everything. Don't forget that way back when Valve got all the grumpy gamers who swore they would never do digital distribution to jump onto this strange Steam thing.

      OTOH, Valve totally borked the Steam machine. The Steam Controller wasn't exactly a huge hit either (I tried it and couldn't return it fast enough).

      We'll see, but I wouldn't dismiss Valve out of hand. They've been down this road before and may have s

      • Yeah I played the shit out of hl, tfc, and cs. When hl2 released tied to steam, which felt like ugly, resource heavy spyware, I refused to buy it. Of course, several years later they wore me down. Now I'm a blissful steamsheep.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pascoea ( 968200 )

        We'll see, but I wouldn't dismiss Valve out of hand. They've been down this road before and may have some tricks of their sleeve.

        This reeks of the Fallout debacle. Literally every Fallout Fan: "We want a new Fallout game. Maybe with a co-op mode, but still a good single player experience?" Bethesda: "Here's your game! Good news: It breaks everything that was good with Fallout. It's buggy as hell. And, before I forget, it's useless as a single player." Sound familiar? Literally every Half-Life fan: "How about you finish Episode three?" Valve: "Nah. Buy our $600 VR headset." Fuck 'em. Maybe in 5 years when you can get th

    • You can pickup a WMR headset capable of playing the game for under $200.

  • VR was the next big thing, and very few people are interested. Maybe 2019 will be the VR year, or not?
    • Probably not, but it might be back in another few years after the bugs get worked out and you don't need a $300+ GPU just to get a borderline acceptable experience. It seems like the next big thing/craze that's going to get pushed is ray tracing since NVidia already has cards that do it and the AMD cards in both the next Sony and Microsoft consoles are rumored to have it as well. In reality is has the same problem as VR, but we need another shiny new technology to add after motion controls, cameras, and VR

      • Probably not, but it might be back in another few years after the bugs get worked out and you don't need a $300+ GPU just to get a borderline acceptable experience.

        What you're describing with your $300+ GPU is a NVIDIA GTX 1660. A bottom of the line entry level GPU which should be a bare minimum considered for any gamer building a computer now, incidentally one that also has no problem at all maintaining suitably high framerates for a VR headset. Can you play games with everything turned to 11? No, but then you can't do that without VR either (see how well you run Control with all graphics options turned on).

        I honestly don't see why people are averse to spending $300

    • VR was the next big thing, and very few people are interested.

      Last year it was estimated 6 million units would ship this year, that was before major announcements that show Sony hitting those targets and Oculus pulling ahead massively from them in a surprise move that saw Facebook alone generate $750million in what they eloquently call "non-advertisement revenue". So good estimates put the shipment of VR headsets this year somewhere over 6 million. Given that year end projections for discrete GPUs are expected to be below 30 million, effectively gamers in a 1:5 ratio

      • You can ship as many as you want, but people aren't buying them.

        • It's great that you've found something which isn't Musk-related to get all ignorantly indignant about. Always nice to see you expanding your horizons. Maybe next week you can tell us all how horrible smartphones are and how they'll die out any day now.

    • for the same reason there won't be a 3D TV year. Not sure of the percentage, but a good chunk of your potential audience's eyes can't focus like that. Mine can't. VR & 3D just give me headaches and/or double vision. That limits mass market appeal and sales.

    • > VR was the next big thing, and very few people are interested.

      Lots of people are interested, it's just the cost is a large barrier to entry. Want to play Fortnite or Overwatch or Minecraft? That $500 PC you already bought from a big box store will run those in an acceptable fashion. Want to do VR? That $500 PC is going to need about $200-$400 in upgrades before you even start picking out the VR hardware you are interested in. I have a first-gen Vive and it is great. But I did have to drop a coupl

      • Agreed. I'm actually debating getting a PSVR just to get my feet wet in VR while I wait for the tech to mature and the price to come down. It's not exactly cheap, especially since I need to get the console as well, but still substantially cheaper than a PC headset with the whole new PC I'd need.

        If the Oculus Quest were made by anyone other than Facebook, I'd already be on that boat.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sad_ ( 7868 )

        Oculus Go or Quest are great for that, stand alone unit with no need for a PC. Easy to take with you as well, as you don't need to haul your PC along.
        Are the gfx good? No, well, yes, depending on what you compare it with. No match for a modern mid-range PC, but decent enough. With the right dev team amazing things can be accomplished.
        Go's can now be found second hand for super cheap (got one for €100) and it's an awesome VR system for that price!
        I don't really see the Go as a game device (maybe the que

        • I dunno, I see them as a bit of a step up from playing with a Google Cardboard. Which I will say for the price was quite impressive. But it doesn't hold a candle to an actual VR set like a Vive or a real Oculus.

    • Wake up. VR is here to stay and have been great for a long time.. It's not going anywhere. Just getting better and better.

  • Complaint containment thread (Score:3)

    by mobby_6kl ( 668092 ) on Thursday November 21, 2019 @06:50PM (#59440732)

    Whaa it VR-only, I'm into PC gaming but I'm never spending $150 on a headset to experience something totally new!

    Just kidding, it was clear it's not going to be HL3 and although the style of play seems similar to RoboRecall, it's proven to be fun as hell so let's see how it good it is. It can suck of course but it won't be due to VR and I'm going to give Valve the benefit of the doubt based on prior experience.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ledow ( 319597 )

      $150?

      Try $1000 if you want to have any fun at all.

      And though you say that, I paid more than that for 2Mb RAM in order to run Doom and Windows 3.0, and far more than that for a Pentium and a Voodoo to run Quake.

      • Try $1000 if you want to have any fun at all.

        Huh? Why would you need to pay for the top of the line, single most expensive headset which was only just released in order to have "fun"? A $400 Rift S will get you 90% of the way there, and that definitely cost less than 2MB of RAM back in the day (incidentally $400 is less than the cost of the 3Dfx Voodoo in inflation adjusted terms).

  • Not my cup of tea (Score:3)

    by Artem S. Tashkinov ( 764309 ) on Thursday November 21, 2019 @07:14PM (#59440814) Homepage
    No non-VR version of the game will be made according to an interview with Valve developers [youtube.com]. Probably Valve expects to recoup the cost of development with the sales of their super expensive VR headset [steampowered.com] because right now less than 1% of players own a VRH, so this game sales will be relatively low no matter what. At least the system requirements are relatively modest [steampowered.com], so you won't have to upgrade to 9900K/3950X with RTX 2080 Ti just to play this game with full immersion.

    • At least the system requirements are relatively modest, so you won't have to upgrade to 9900K/3950X with RTX 2080 Ti just to play this game with full immersion.

      I'd have to build an entirely new PC and buy a VR headset in order to play this game. The only part of my system that meets spec is the amount of RAM. I can play AAA games at a decent resolution and quality setting, on one display. But not on two.

      • Same. I do pretty well for most games with 2012 hardware with a 2014 graphics card. I really can't justify a complete rebuild for one VR game even though I'm probably due for one soon. Add to that the backlog of games I really want to play that run just fine on it.

        Add to that the problem I have of not really having an area clear enough to play it safely.

  • The game, which Valve says is "set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2," has been "designed from the ground up for Virtual Reality" (i.e. you can stop hoping for a 2D monitor release).

    But boy will "journalists" on youtube have something to drone about for YEARS.

    Also, pathetic man babies who'll blame "the wokeness" and not a retarded attempt to reinvent the keyboard by a long irrelevant studio beating a dead horse.
    With a crowbar.

  • No game will ever entice me to buy and/or use a VR headset.

    • Same. I like to multi-task, and VR is the opposite of what I'm looking for when I fire up a game.

      • Same. I like to multi-task

        WTF? That's weird man. Games are what I do when I want to ignore the whole fucking world.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gumpish ( 682245 )

      Then why are you posting a comment in response to a post about a video game?

      Do you visit other websites which discuss items you have no interest in and alert the users there about your ambivalence towards the topic?

      You must be a hit at parties.

      • Hi, you must be new to the internet.

      • Honestly... VR is a hard sell. I've tested them.. even had an interest in one. Found out very quickly they are not what people make them out to be. Yes, there are a few cool games, but not enticing enough to justify it's current diminishing returns.

        I think maybe in 5 years if VR improves drastically i'd then consider it. Right now even though its been on-going off and on for quite a few years, its' still too bleeding edge in a lot of edge cases that matter most for the experience.

    • No game will ever entice me to buy and/or use a VR headset.

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      • Your sarcasm implies that you don't understand the connection with Valve putting a game that EVERYONE has been wanting more of for the past 20 years exclusively on a device that has mostly failed to pay off like Valve hoped it would? It's called trying to bribe your customer. In my case, the bribe wasn't accepted.

  • ...back in the day. Voodoo 2 ... remember that? They were pricey, like a VR is now. It seems poetic that it's VALVE that will push new hardware again :) Even though its only around 1 out of 100 STEAM users that have VR, I believe most will buy this game, making it a best-seller. Seeing quality VR for the first time gives you that "oh my god" experience that some of you probably remember when you first saw DOOM, or WOLF 3D

    • But back then I was single and all my money went on me.

      Now I'm 2 kids and a couple of mortgages up.

      My financial liquidity is in a whole different place

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sad_ ( 7868 )

        your gaming days are over, well, at least the type of games where you can/need to sink in hours and hours of your time and are best enjoyed with the latest and greatest gpu (which are very pricey, just like a top of the line vr unit).

    • But most importantly HL1 still ran in software mode. So everyone could get a taste for it and decide if they wanted a better experience. In this case I imagine there's a very large number of people who are intrigued but aren't going to spend the big bucks on something they may not like. A tiny percentage of them might be able to try it out somewhere first, but most, not so much.

      I strongly suspect that within the first week or so, there will be a quick and dirty No-VR patch for Alyx followed by a series of u

      • I'm sure you can Jerryrig the game to display on your screen, flip it horizontally and then play it crosseyed to get the experience.

        A tiny percentage of them might be able to try it out somewhere first, but most, not so much.

        There are VR labs in every major city now. I don't think the excuse that you can't try first will fly in 2019. Hell I got into VR precisely this was. I was bored in Greece while waiting on a flight so while the wife was shopping I walked into the VR lab, slapped down $10 for the hour, and had such an awesome time that I bought a Rift S a week later.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by wilsong ( 322379 )
      I played Half-life without a 3D card at first, with software rendering. The game was built to be usable by people with a wide range of hardware. I didn't mind buying gear to play games. I don't like being forced to buy specific gear to play games.

  • I don't want a facebook rift nor to give money to microshart for their 'mixed reality'. I want the best, the index. Can't buy it in my country. You can make all the AAA games you want, I still can't enjoy it if you don't let me even buy it.

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