Valve To Announce Half-Life VR Game, Half-Life: Alyx, on November 21st

[Raevenlord]

Well, that headline must've been met with both a warm fuzzy feeling of nostalgia, and a sudden, stab-like wound on the back of many readers. The usage of Valve and Half-Life together in the same sentence has been the victim of multiple memes and disappointments over the years, with the studio being seemingly unable to keep up with the mantle of great games it has released before in the Half-Life universe. Half-Life 3 is already so much of a failed expectation that the game could (likely) never live up to the expectations set on it at this point in time. It seems valve is shrugging the game away with a Half-Life set VR game, though, in the form of Half-Life: Alyx.

Valve itself have posted a teaser image on Twitter, announcing it as a flagship VR game available for SteamVR. To be unveiled on November 21st, nothing much is known about the game by now; but it's expected it will be a VR-exclusive experience. The game started out as a single-player exploration experience for VR, and it seems to have found its way developed into a full-fledged game. Apparently, this Half-Life: Alyx game is the first in Valve's plans of releasing more VR games in the future, which may or may not be set in the Half-Life universe. This could actually be an interesting experience for VR, if you can get beyond the usual betrayal of not seeing an announcement for Half-Life 3. Who knows - this could even be the killer app for VR, or an Half-Life renaissance in the minds of gamers and Valve themselves. At the very least, we know it will induce nostalgia.



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[claylomax]

Will it come later for non VR PCs? That'd be great.

 

[neatfeatguy]

With how shitty the library UI change is from Valve, I have zero faith they they could even remember how to make a game.

Last I tried the new Library UI, just a few days ago, it's still eating lots of extra RAM, sluggish, meet with black screens, plagued with one of the ugliest layouts I've seen for a game library, forced update/ads (or whatever you want to call them) in the "What's New" shelf that you cannot remove, hang ups and crashes still happening....

Will people actually believe they can make a game without it turning out like crap?

 

[xkm1948]

Cue the VR haters in 3, 2, 1.

Oh wait, the haters are already here~

@Mindweaver See for yourself. I am confident the vast majority of "Technology Enthusiasts" here at TPU will bash this non stop

With how shitty the library UI change is from Valve, I have zero faith they they could even remember how to make a game.

Last I tried the new Library UI, just a few days ago, it's still eating lots of extra RAM, sluggish, meet with black screens, plagued with one of the ugliest layouts I've seen for a game library, forced update/ads (or whatever you want to call them) in the "What's New" shelf that you cannot remove, hang ups and crashes still happening....

Will people actually believe they can make a game without it turning out like crap?

What does the UI have to do with VR? Have you even TRIED Valve's now 3 yrs old VR title "The Lab"?

Oh lord the ignorance level

Will it come later for non VR PCs? That'd be great.

Or get off your chair and monitor and try something new for a change

 

[neatfeatguy]

Cue the VR haters in 3, 2, 1.

Oh wait, the haters are already here~

What does the UI have to do with VR? Have you even TRIED Valve's now 3 yrs old VR title "The Lab"?

Oh lord the ignorance level

I've got nothing against VR.

I've used a couple VR devices and enjoyed them, though I'm not inclined to buy one - simply not something in the budget.

The problem I have is that a simple (compared to building/coding/designing a game) UI change can break so many aspect of their game launching client doesn't bode well in me having faith they can properly design a game anymore.

What kind of fuck up does it take to make a launcher where it causes game to crash/fail to launch when you click on the "Play" button?
Or the client itself constantly hangs and crashes?
Or the memory leak that hasn't been fixed yet?
Or the failure for images to load up and display properly?

If their redesign and horrific implementation of the updated UI on their digital platform is any indication of what kind of talent they're hiring/keeping/using.....just think of what you can expect from them trying to make a new game, especially one they want to hype using the Half-Life name tied to it.

If you want to kiss Valve's butt and defend them tooth and nail, by all means, do so. I'm not going to give them any kind of hope of success anymore until they can actually prove it.

 

[goodeedidid]

Cue the VR haters in 3, 2, 1.

Oh wait, the haters are already here~

@Mindweaver See for yourself. I am confident the vast majority of "Technology Enthusiasts" here at TPU will bash this non stop




What does the UI have to do with VR? Have you even TRIED Valve's now 3 yrs old VR title "The Lab"?

Oh lord the ignorance level



Or get off your chair and monitor and try something new for a change

You very very cringe...

 

[xkm1948]

You very very cringe...

ok gamer

 

[nickbaldwin86]

I still want to know where the mystery man(aka G-Man) got away to... maybe we will never know/maybe we will never play Half Life 3

 

[TheDeeGee]

Steam Survey bugged for Valve?

99% of the gamers still use Mouse and Keyboard.

 

[silentbogo]

Oh, crap. Now I need to figure out where to borrow Vive w/ controllers for this one. I have access to OSVR, but if Valve goes the old route (e.g. The Lab) - there will be no comfortable way to play on the controller.

 

[Assimilator]

Cue the VR haters in 3, 2, 1.

Oh wait, the haters are already here~

@Mindweaver See for yourself. I am confident the vast majority of "Technology Enthusiasts" here at TPU will bash this non stop




What does the UI have to do with VR? Have you even TRIED Valve's now 3 yrs old VR title "The Lab"?

Oh lord the ignorance level



Or get off your chair and monitor and try something new for a change

A lot of people can't or don't want to pay hundreds of pounds for VR, especially when they've spent that money on high-end computers.
A lot of people experience nausea using VR.
A lot of people don't find VR immersive enough, what with the wires, and having to stay in a tiny playable zone, and the weight of the equipment, and how it makes you sweat...

I've tried VR (my friend owned a Vive, now has an Index) and I don't enjoy it. That doesn't make me a "hater". But your whiny little rant does make you look like a twelve-year-old who's on the internet way past his bedtime. Shouldn't you go kiss mommy goodnight?

 

[nickbaldwin86]

oh and on the subject of VR... tried it, didn't find it to be worth the cost or hassle.

I could afford it easily, but don't see the need or want

 

[Assimilator]

oh and on the subject of VR... tried it, didn't find it to be worth the cost or hassle.

I could afford it easily, but don't see the need or want

Dude, stop being such a hater! Twelve-year-olds will cry!

 

[Mindweaver]

Ok, let's stop taking jabs at each other. Let's get along and have a discussion. This is a warning.

 

[Ruru]

VR is awesome, but personally I've never got into the HL games.

 

[Vya Domus]

A lot of people can't or don't want to pay hundreds of pounds for VR, especially when they've spent that money on high-end computers.
A lot of people experience nausea using VR.
A lot of people don't find VR immersive enough, what with the wires, and having to stay in a tiny playable zone, and the weight of the equipment, and how it makes you sweat...

I've tried VR (my friend owned a Vive, now has an Index) and I don't enjoy it. That doesn't make me a "hater". But your whiny little rant does make you look like a twelve-year-old who's on the internet way past his bedtime. Shouldn't you go kiss mommy goodnight?

Don't bother, you're a conservative technologically illiterate hater if you don't drool all over anything VR related. On a more serious note I see this dude praise VR with a bizarre militant attitude literally everywhere on this forum when the matter is brought up and insult anyone who doesn't share his fetish for it so don't try to argue with him.

And yes, that really was on a serious note, unfortunately.

 

[Ruru]

I tried VR a little about 1½ years ago and liked it immediatelly. When my friend said that he'll getting an Oculus Rift S in a few days, it wasn't hard to guess who bought his old Rift CV1..

 

[yotano211]

Cue the VR haters in 3, 2, 1.

Oh wait, the haters are already here~

@Mindweaver See for yourself. I am confident the vast majority of "Technology Enthusiasts" here at TPU will bash this non stop




What does the UI have to do with VR? Have you even TRIED Valve's now 3 yrs old VR title "The Lab"?

Oh lord the ignorance level



Or get off your chair and monitor and try something new for a change

Some of us are not haters, some of us just get headaches from the VR. I am one of those so I wont try any VR game.

 

[Sithaer]

Some of us are not haters, some of us just get headaches from the VR. I am one of those so I wont try any VR game.

Same here,I feel sick even from those 3D glasses lol.

That and VR is still not considered a 'cheap' thing/hobby where I live,I only have 1 friend who has VR gear 'Vive'.

HL 2 was the first game I've pre-ordered,the CD version so ye I would be interested in the game otherwise.

 

[Ruru]

Same here,I feel sick even from those 3D glasses lol.

3D glasses were meh, in some rare situations they kinda worked, but I could use those for about a hour at maximum

That and VR is still not considered a 'cheap' thing/hobby where I live,I only have 1 friend who has VR gear 'Vive'.

I can count the people owning a VR headset with one hand's fingers, and I can include myself.. and we all have Oculus. Maybe it just feels like a standard..?

 

[Patriot]

VR requires a very good setup and consistent frame rate. Lags can be very jarring, movement mechanisms are also very important, I have found using a non-vr controller (xbox) to play in a vr game to be very jarring and I nearly fell over. I love my vive but the screen is not hd enough and can cause eye fatigue over a couple of hours usage.

Given valve made the-lab I trust they know how to do VR properly.
The HTC-pro was kinda meh and I am glad valve went their own way.

 

[amit_talkin]

Cool, finally can get my Oculus out from cupboard. Its sitting there for a while.

 

[csendesmark]

Would be nice to see a full feature game in the HL universe,
it's more than ten years since the last title...

 

[nickbaldwin86]

Dude, stop being such a hater! Twelve-year-olds will cry!

but 12 year olds don't know the hole I have in my lyfe! I got HL2 with my X850XTPE WAY back in duh day. I'd guess most 12 year olds or even most would even know what that was... LOL but I am still waiting for an ending the HL2. oh well I am not alone on this.

 

[Mindweaver]

Less than 24hrs and 15 minutes until the announcement! Tyler McVicker is streaming on Twitch if you want a reaction type video. The biggest thing I'm looking for from HLA is the interaction and story. I can remember how lifelike the characters were in HL2 and the whole vibe of the city. What is everyone looking forward to from HLA?

EDIT: I forgot to add the 24hrs.. part.. haha