Half-Life: Alyx - It's PC gone mad - The Bear and Badger

SpaceGazelle

Armitage_Shankburn wrote:

Yeah I think it is more of a "loss-leader" rather than a system seller.

Yeah, if its not a loss it's probably at cost.

Armitage_Shankburn

Well I'm guessing the cost of making the game is astronomical and won't be offset by the margins on the thingy

Time_on_my_hands

Seriously - how is it that HL is still such a draw? HL2 was okay, but I originally played HL 1 after playing Deus Ex and found it pretty meh. Portal was much more fun.

I replayed it all on the Orange box and just felt that it's a lot of rose tinted specs from the master race.

bad_hair_day

Having to mount transmitters on walls and running the power cables to a socket is still putting me (and probably your non gaming partner) off. That and the two grand.

SpaceGazelle

Armitage_Shankburn wrote:

Well I'm guessing the cost of making the game is astronomical and won't be offset by the margins on the thingy

Well yes, or the years of hardware R&D. There a lot of people getting a PC for Alyx will then buy a shitload of Steam games. Besides, Valve are in that weird position of having more money than they could realistically spend, without any shareholders. This whole VR thing seems to be a hobby project to keep Newell amused for a few years.

SpaceGazelle

bad_hair_day wrote:

Having to mount transmitters on walls is still putting me (and probably your non gaming partner) off. That and the two grand.

It's not that much of a bother really. Once you've done it you don't need to worry about it again until you move house, and the tracking is mm precision amazing. Needing a plug socket for each one might be a pain.

SpaceGazelle

And the other half might moan.

bad_hair_day

No might about it

SpaceGazelle

Tell them it's worth it for the porn.

g.man

bad_hair_day wrote:

Having to mount transmitters on walls and running the cables back to a socket is still putting me (and probably your non gaming partner) off. That and the two grand.

I genuinely thought this was a gameplay feature you were referring to.

GurtTractor

Time_on_my_hands wrote:

Seriously - how is it that HL is still such a draw? HL2 was okay, but I originally played HL 1 after playing Deus Ex and found it pretty meh. Portal was much more fun. I replayed it all on the Orange box and just felt that it's a lot of rose tinted specs from the master race.

HL2 is still one the best games I've ever played, I've yet to play anything else that has the same feel. Like it's quite a linear game, but somehow it doesn't feel like it to me, I think it's that I pretty much always want to go in the direction that the designers intend, so much stuff and so many ideas to keep you interested. I'm not sure if we'll see its like again.

Lord_Griff

Mount transmitter to make your partner... moan?

bad_hair_day

Hammer time.

SpaceGazelle

GurtTractor wrote:

Time_on_my_hands wrote:

Seriously - how is it that HL is still such a draw? HL2 wais okay, but I originally played HL 1 after playing Deus Ex and found it pretty meh. Portal was much more fun. I replayed it all on the Orange box and just felt that it's a lot of rose tinted specs from the master race.

HL2 is still one the best games I've ever played, I've yet to play anything else that has the same feel. Like it's quite a linear game, but somehow it doesn't feel like it to me, I think it's that I pretty much always want to go in the direction that the designers intend, so much stuff and so many ideas to keep you interested. I'm not sure if we'll see its like again.

What HL does is usher in new tech that makes games better. Here's hoping this is the same.

acemuzzy

g.man wrote:

bad_hair_day wrote:

Having to mount transmitters on walls and running the cables back to a socket is still putting me (and probably your non gaming partner) off. That and the two grand.

I genuinely thought this was a gameplay feature you were referring to.

Me too lol.

To be fair, it probably is...

SpaceGazelle

GurtTractor wrote:

I'm not sure if we'll see its like again.

Well, apart from this.

Time_on_my_hands

SpaceGazelle wrote:

GurtTractor wrote:

Time_on_my_hands wrote:

Seriously - how is it that HL is still such a draw? HL2 wais okay, but I originally played HL 1 after playing Deus Ex and found it pretty meh. Portal was much more fun. I replayed it all on the Orange box and just felt that it's a lot of rose tinted specs from the master race.

HL2 is still one the best games I've ever played, I've yet to play anything else that has the same feel. Like it's quite a linear game, but somehow it doesn't feel like it to me, I think it's that I pretty much always want to go in the direction that the designers intend, so much stuff and so many ideas to keep you interested. I'm not sure if we'll see its like again.

What HL does is usher in new tech that makes games better. Here's hoping this is the same.

I think I was being a bit grumpy when I wrote that. I think the problem is I came to Half Life late on when a lot of it's features had already made their way into other games, and so it didn't feel as fresh. Maybe I'll dig it out and have another look.

dynamiteReady

For me, it's the attention to detail Valve pay, in tying the actions of the player to the narrative.

It's still all very linear, the controls are still a little clunky like all FPS games, the level design flaky in places ('how do I get out of here!!?') and some parts are awfully padded out, but my play-throughs felt like I was playing the lead role in a sci-fi movie...

A knocky one, but the feeling was legit.

SpaceGazelle

They nail atmosphere which is kind of what you're after in VR.

dynamiteReady

That thing they pioneered, replacing cut scenes and any form of non interactive exposition with... well... play... It's still ahead of it's time, and few other devs have emulated such a scheme successfully.

A big part of that, was in keeping Gordon silent.
Alyk already has a voice, so I wonder if that's something Valve will acknowledge in some way.

SpaceGazelle

I'm looking forward to more reveal on the 12th. Hopefully showing actual realtime gameplay along with a dev chat about things like locomotion.

bad_hair_day

SpaceGazelle wrote:

And of course all this is to make you more immersed. It's easy to be pulled out of VR but if it's comfortable - physically, visually and mentally - you're more likely to forget it's all just screens. It doesn't take much to pull you of VR.

Have to disagree here, it takes a lot to pull me out of VR - especially when there's no wires.

g.man

dynamiteReady wrote:

That thing they pioneered, replacing cut scenes and any form of non interactive exposition with... well... play... It's still ahead of it's time, and few other devs have emulated such a scheme successfully. A big part of that, was in keeping Gordon silent. Alyk already has a voice, so I wonder if that's something Valve will acknowledge in some way.

There is apparently a new voice actress voicing Alyx in this game. Her original voice didn't get the gig this time.

SpaceGazelle

It's been that long a couple of voice actors have actually died.

GurtTractor

The new Gman reminds me a bit of Brian Cranston or someone, doesn't really look much like he did in HL2.

SpaceGazelle

Dr. Breen and her Dad, it was.

GurtTractor

SpaceGazelle

Not much news but Tested go over the various HMD's with Alyx to see how they compare.

bad_hair_day

'I was shocked how good the Quest was'.

Yassss.

SpaceGazelle

Yeah, they've designed it to work on everything pretty well it seems. Even the Vive visuals got a thumbs up.

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