Half Life: Alyx is Five Years Old Today
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I genuinely can't believe Half Life Alyx is five years old.
No other video game has felt the way Alyx felt. No one else has taken such a bold swing in what a video game can be. It's burned into my mind as my Half Life game, the one that came out at just the right time for me.
It was also my "pandemic" game. While everyone else was playing Animal Crossing or Doom Eternal, I was playing and replaying Half Life Alyx.
It definitely feels like it's somewhat doomed to be less remembered in the popular consciousness than most big games that come out, and indeed the rest of the games in the Half Life lineage. Cries of "Half Life 3 when?" still abound in spite of the very clear effort Alyx made to move the story forward. But to me it feels like a game that still hasn't been topped in the five years since it came out, not by a long shot.
Half Life Alyx received a Game of the Year win from GameSpot, and nominations from a few other publications. When it came to events like The Game Awards with a dedicated "Best VR Game" category, it won handily.
Incredible game. If you ever get the chance I 10000% recommend playing it.
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Are "plenty of people" enough to make a game commercially viable? And not in an indie way.
I zone out, completely cut off from others, while playing games all the time. What I don't want to do is fork over more cash for things that will collect dust (like a headset for a single game).
Given how different it is to other, normal 3D games, I think it's a bit much to stake your franchise on something most people will never have. It's obvious Valve knew that, they're not idiots and have put out good hardware that didn't see mass adoption in the past (Steam Controller, Steam Link, etc.); it's clear they wanted to try out something new even if it wasn't a huge blockbuster. They have lots of revenue from other sources to fall back on.
They probably hoped that some people would take a chance and get the hardware to play the game, and some people did. But to expect that most would do that? Lol. They're not that dumb.
"The idea" was to do something no one had done before with a beloved franchise. Not to sell headsets.
I don't think they particularly cared if you bought their headset, but they had the premium offering if you were interested. I think they wanted Alyx to be the Mario 64 of VR.
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Plenty of people do that to play a single game.
Given how different it is to other, normal 3d games, I don't think the comparison is fair. Additionally there are a lot of other, really great games in VR too.
Regardless, I don't think the problem is financial anymore. Rather that VR requires a sort of "commitment to inconvenience" where you feel cut off from the outside world (among other things) that I don't think a lot of people are comfortable with.
Its $500 today but at the time it was $1500 and required cable and beacons.
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I genuinely can't believe Half Life Alyx is five years old.
No other video game has felt the way Alyx felt. No one else has taken such a bold swing in what a video game can be. It's burned into my mind as my Half Life game, the one that came out at just the right time for me.
It was also my "pandemic" game. While everyone else was playing Animal Crossing or Doom Eternal, I was playing and replaying Half Life Alyx.
It definitely feels like it's somewhat doomed to be less remembered in the popular consciousness than most big games that come out, and indeed the rest of the games in the Half Life lineage. Cries of "Half Life 3 when?" still abound in spite of the very clear effort Alyx made to move the story forward. But to me it feels like a game that still hasn't been topped in the five years since it came out, not by a long shot.
Half Life Alyx received a Game of the Year win from GameSpot, and nominations from a few other publications. When it came to events like The Game Awards with a dedicated "Best VR Game" category, it won handily.
I should probably go finish it.
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Do you know about gaming consoles? 3D accelerator cards? Graphics cards? Or... CD ROM drives?
People have been buying hardware to play a certain game for literal decades. The games are called "system sellers". Games so good they sell hardware. It's usually even the opposite: if your hardware doesn't have such a game, it doesn't sell (atari Jaguar anyone?).
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It's both financial (huge investment for a single game) and not. Playing with a thing strapped to your face does not sound fun. Especially with glasses. Or in the summertime. Plus I'm a Linux gamer, so I'd probably run into a lot of issues before I could run it.
I also run on Linux exclusively and I could play Half-Life Alex almost flawlessy on the Steam Index. And other VR games as well, including Beatsaber, Gorn, Walkabout Golf and many others. I'm really grateful to Valve and their Proton.
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What's the status of VR games on Linux? With headsets that don't require weird accounts (Meta)
As I mentioned in another comment it plays quite well. At least with the Steam Index that I use. Most games seem to work out of the box. One thing that isn't currently implemented is BT communication with the lighthouses which is a bit annoying but there are other apps and tools to workaround that.
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Do you know about gaming consoles? 3D accelerator cards? Graphics cards? Or... CD ROM drives?
People have been buying hardware to play a certain game for literal decades. The games are called "system sellers". Games so good they sell hardware. It's usually even the opposite: if your hardware doesn't have such a game, it doesn't sell (atari Jaguar anyone?).
VR has the extra element of needing a suitable living space to play in, though. Other games I can do at my desk or in my tiny, cramped living room, but I have nowhere I can easily set up for VR that would allow for significant range of motion.
I own a VR headset, but I only really use it for games that allow you to be stationary and just use the headset as an immersive monitor with a standard controller. As one would expect, it doesn't get much use, because not many VR games are made to play that way!
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Valve's 'official' VR hardware costs $1500. Ain't no way
Huh? It's $1K, not $1.5K. still expensive though for outdated as shit hardware.
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I genuinely can't believe Half Life Alyx is five years old.
No other video game has felt the way Alyx felt. No one else has taken such a bold swing in what a video game can be. It's burned into my mind as my Half Life game, the one that came out at just the right time for me.
It was also my "pandemic" game. While everyone else was playing Animal Crossing or Doom Eternal, I was playing and replaying Half Life Alyx.
It definitely feels like it's somewhat doomed to be less remembered in the popular consciousness than most big games that come out, and indeed the rest of the games in the Half Life lineage. Cries of "Half Life 3 when?" still abound in spite of the very clear effort Alyx made to move the story forward. But to me it feels like a game that still hasn't been topped in the five years since it came out, not by a long shot.
Half Life Alyx received a Game of the Year win from GameSpot, and nominations from a few other publications. When it came to events like The Game Awards with a dedicated "Best VR Game" category, it won handily.
I was really hoping for a PSVR2 port of Alyx, and the timing with a lot of PS games coming to Steam had my theorizing that was a compromise they made with Valve to make it happen but I think that was just wishful thinking now.
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Do you know about gaming consoles? 3D accelerator cards? Graphics cards? Or... CD ROM drives?
People have been buying hardware to play a certain game for literal decades. The games are called "system sellers". Games so good they sell hardware. It's usually even the opposite: if your hardware doesn't have such a game, it doesn't sell (atari Jaguar anyone?).
So people should buy hardware to play a single game and then leave the hardware to accumulate dust after a few hours of gameplay? Quite the waste!
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Do you know about gaming consoles? 3D accelerator cards? Graphics cards? Or... CD ROM drives?
People have been buying hardware to play a certain game for literal decades. The games are called "system sellers". Games so good they sell hardware. It's usually even the opposite: if your hardware doesn't have such a game, it doesn't sell (atari Jaguar anyone?).
$1000 and your gaming PC for Alyx is way beyond buying a PS4 for Bloodborne, and even doing that is a bridge too far for me.
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Valve's 'official' VR hardware costs $1500. Ain't no way
But it's not required, there are much cheaper options, especially today with used quest 2 devices.
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So people should buy hardware to play a single game and then leave the hardware to accumulate dust after a few hours of gameplay? Quite the waste!
I agree, that would silly. Luckily, Half-Life Alyx is not the only VR game.
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I agree, that would silly. Luckily, Half-Life Alyx is not the only VR game.
Sure, but if people love Half-Life and don't care about other VR games it sucks they it's locked behind hardware requirements that even Valve doesn't give a crap about considering it's the only VR game they made.
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Huh? It's $1K, not $1.5K. still expensive though for outdated as shit hardware.
With the little box doohickeys it's currently $1300 CAD. Add on tax and shipping.
I believe it used to be more. -
The idea was people would buy the game and play it.
Plenty of people aren't interested in vr for different reasons.
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Sure, but if people love Half-Life and don't care about other VR games it sucks they it's locked behind hardware requirements that even Valve doesn't give a crap about considering it's the only VR game they made.
God damn people want to just argue about everything
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Plenty of people aren't interested in vr for different reasons.
Don't tell me that. Tell Valve.
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Sure, but if people love Half-Life and don't care about other VR games it sucks they it's locked behind hardware requirements that even Valve doesn't give a crap about considering it's the only VR game they made.
It's ok, get it out.
