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Technically it’s the announcement of an announcement. But this is one of the few cases where I heavily doubt Valvetime of more than some hours might happen. So yes, we seem to get a new Half-Life game announcement for reals. TIme to go measure temperature in hell and be aware of the consequences.
That’s because so far, VR was mostly experimental and delivered content to early adopters. You could have argued if The Lab even was games or a tech demo. Now Valve say “Okay enough playing around, here, have some proper good stuff.”
@Originope IIRC they even said that their in development titles were full length AAA.
It’s Valve so it will run as good as it technically can on every VR setup with motion controls, no matter what vendor. I bet there’s going to be mods to make it “Screen compatible” and even if not as awesome, people will likely still enjoy it that way.
As for the price tag:
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I have an Oculus Rift S, and it is compatible with SteamVR.
(Sorry for this slight tangent about the concept of VR)
I think in general the public perception of VR isn’t really there yet. As somebody who isn’t exactly a “hardcore gamer”, VR still feels like a gimmick to me. I know it obviously isn’t, and there have been some great titles I’ve heard about that disprove that, but it just still feels like a gimmick.
If I were to boil it down logically, I’d say it comes down to the question “why is this in VR?”. If an experience must be played in VR, it feels like it must also lean on the VR technology, and thus become less of a game, and more of a showcase.
I know that doesn’t necessarily check out, and honestly I’m pretty neutral on the issue of VR in general, but that’s why to an uninformed person like me, this doesn’t really feel like a proper new Half Life game (Even if I can recognize logically that it probably is).
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Your choice of words here is interesting to me. Does it sound like a gimmick or did you try it and it felt like one? 
That implies “games” in VR can’t be “games” anymore.
I think it was Chet Faliszek who defending against calling VR a gimmick compared it to 3D TV but I can’t find it anymore right now. The point was something like: 3D TV may have added an extra dimension but that didn’t increase the interactivity bandwidth. VR removes the abstraction layer of keyboard and mouse and lets you use all the bandwidth you have interacting with the real world in the virtual space. It’s not that your keyboard shoots rainbows when you press spacebar to jump, you don’t have to press spacebar, you just jump. You, yourself.
Yeah, I’m inclined to agree with most of that, I’m just talking about how VR is perceived.
I’m not really referring to the actual feeling of playing a VR game, more the conceptual idea of it. However well it plays doesn’t really change whether it feels like a gimmick or not.
VR could be this amazing world changing platform, but due to the points I shared above, many people don’t naturally see it as such. It doesn’t matter how invalid those points are, it’s just the current feeling from a large portion of society. You can recognize the merits and achievements of VR, but that on its own won’t change your gut reaction to it.
I also think immersion doesn’t require VR, and although VR offers a very unique and often satisfying game experience, the concept of immersion (In my mind) is about a lot more than just doing the in-game things yourself (I know you were specifically talking about the layers of interactivity, which is a tad different, though I think its worth noting that just more direct interaction doesn’t necessarily enhance any experience).
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we’ll just have to wait and see if there will be a non-vr mode (which i highly doubt there will be)
at least we’re getting a new half life game after 12 FUCKING YEARS, HOLY SHIT VALVE
Still on edge, looks pretty good but I can’t get into it just yet.
if that trailer cant persuade you man idk what will
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I mean it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before, but in the half life universe. And even then I’m not seeing anything new there, except updated graphics. Also I wait for gameplay pretty much always these days before getting too interested. There are a few exceptions, like Red Dead 2 cause it’s rockstar and Death Stranding cause it’s kojima. You could say I should be excited cause it’s valve, but valve hasn’t exactly been in the gaming scene lately, and a lot of the team behind HL2 isn’t there anymore.
Just dropping this here real quick, too.
Skip to 9:10 to get a long version of “Why in VR, why not mouse and keyboard?”
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the trailer looks actualy pretty amazing
and it runs on source 2
finally
then again, bummer that its on vr, in the next 15 years or so, thats the only time im able to get/get into vr
good on vr users nonthenless.
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alot of people are gonna become vr users because of this game
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thank god i have vr, i will definitely get this
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Yeah, it’s not like I’m disappointed of it being on vr, it’s just that the stuff is super expensive.
First time I played HL2 was in 2015, which is like 11 years after it’s release. I’m guessing the same thing is gonna happen with this one as well.
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You can get a Rift for $400. That’s not too bad.
Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn.
That is all. lol
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2 words.
fuckin brilliant.
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I’ve linked the VNN video above where he lists good Microsoft Mixed Reality HMDs in the $200 range. That’s like “let me buy a new budget GPU for this new game” money.
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Random bump, but some more news has come to light on Half-Life Alyx! (and for VR in general)
Release Date
Valve has officially confirmed that Half-Life Alyx will be releasing on March 23rd!
New Screenshots
Valve has also posted some new screenshots from the game.
News for Valve Index
For people who pre-ordered Half-Life Alyx along with the Valve Index (which i’m pretty sure is a small number), pre-order bonuses will start rolling out the week of March 2nd, starting with the SteamVR Home environments inspired by locations in Half-Life Alyx. Valve have also said that there will be more information on Index avaliability soon.
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