Half-Life: Alyx (formerly: Half Life 3 is coming??)

mrcheez

EDGE magazine has first review out. 9/10.... they gave Doom 7/10 for comparison. Print only unfortunately


https://www.reddit.com/r/HalfLife/comments/fmjfk1/edge_may_issue_alyx_review_gaben_interview_valve/

Images of review there

Sierra Oscar

TheValeyard wrote: »

Now to charge up controllers!

Thanks for the reminder! :eek:

mrcheez

Again I love this working from home lark. 5pm sign off work and sign into City 17!

Thargor

Tell us what its like!

5pm

mrcheez

mrcheez wrote: »

Again I love this working from home lark. 5pm sign off work and sign into City 17!

Deleted User wrote: »

5pm

:pac:

https://yourcountdown.to/half-life-alyx

TheValeyard

mrcheez

Signing out early ... gotta get the quick VR-robics session first to loosen up so I don't pull my back dodging freaking headcrabs

Sierra Oscar

mrcheez wrote: »

Signing out early ... gotta get the quick VR-robics session first to loosen up so I don't pull my back dodging freaking headcrabs

Enjoy it!

I won't get the time to play it until tomorrow unfortunately, gonna avoid Half Life related content until I get to dive into it.

Homelander

Absolutely

What's the story with the shortages of Oculus headsets?

Unpacking now...

https://ie.ign.com/articles/half-life-alyx-review

10/10!!!!

cnocbui

Homelander wrote: »

What's the story with the shortages of Oculus headsets?

Demand exceeds supply?

Homelander

Absolutely

Well yes, but I just meant Oculus specifically. I see few places still have the Vive/Cosmos etc, but there are no Quests or Rift's. The Vive's a great headset too, so if it was purely a mad global demand for VR, surely they would be gone too....

Kiith

92% from PCGamer.

https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/half-life-alyx-review/

Eurogamer Recommended

Calling Retro to the thread!

mrcheez

Jeebus... This is executed beautifully!

The realistic graphics, superb audio and music... it's like being in a movie.

I was sneaking around a house at the start and out of the corner of my eye I spot a headcrab for a brief second scurrying through the attic slates... it wasn't a set-piece or anything, it just one of the 1000s of world building details they've thrown in. If I hadn't been looking I would easily have missed it, but because I saw it I was ****ting myself that at any moment it was about to drop on me. The tension is palpable.

This seeps quality... can't wait to get back in.

Lovin' the Gravity Gloves... very intuitive

TheValeyard

mrcheez wrote: »

Jeebus... This is executed beautifully!

The realistic graphics, superb audio and music... it's like being in a movie.

I was sneaking around a house at the start and out of the corner of my eye I spot a headcrab for a brief second scurrying through the attic slates... it wasn't a set-piece or anything, it just one of the 1000s of world building details they've thrown in. If I hadn't been looking I would easily have missed it, but because I saw it I was ****ting myself that at any moment it was about to drop on me. The tension is palpable.

This seeps quality... can't wait to get back in.

Lovin' the Gravity Gloves... very intuitive

Yeah, I'm really not liking the idea of a VR head crab leaping at me

Oafley Jones

cnocbui wrote: »

Demand exceeds supply?

Factories affected by Coronavirus.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Taking a break to get my sea legs settled...its amazing.

How the hell do you play seated properly
It's like I'm always sitting down in the game. It's driving me nuts.
Rift S

mrcheez

Deleted User wrote: »

How the hell do you play seated properly
It's like I'm always sitting down in the game. It's driving me nuts.
Rift S

are you trying to play seated?

There are sections you need to crouch physically to get through like tunnels so I think it was designed for standing play.
Maybe there is a setting in the menu for seated play?

btw if it comes to specific settings about Half Life Alyx that won't interest the non-VR community there is a thread in the VR forum that you can post to and might be more suitable for questions about VR configurations?

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058032089

Dyr

Feck it im stuck indoors for the forseeable so gonna give this a shot, reckon I'll have have to OC my trusty old i5-6600K 3.50ghz.

See if I can squeeze a few more cycles out of the old girl, VR deffo not the place to experience lag

johnny_ultimate

Absolutely stunning tbh. The sense of presence in the world is precisely what we were promised from VR. The sense of scale at the start as you look over the city, to your first encounters with the enemies... it’s basically the next HL evolution I’ve been waiting for since Episode 2 credits rolled, even if I didn’t quite imagine I’d be wearing a headset

Don’t think I’ll ever tire off using the gravity gloves to grab some ammo, catch it mid air, and casually toss it in my backpack!

A few little quirks with the Oculus (original) but generally smooth and intuitive. That said, tried continuous movement and yeeeaahh definitely get that VR motion sickness (FPS seems to suffer with it anyway). But the standard movement works much better than I though, and already flying along

mrcheez

mrcheez wrote: »

are you trying to play seated?

There are sections you need to crouch physically to get through like tunnels so I think it was designed for standing play.
Maybe there is a setting in the menu for seated play?

btw if it comes to specific settings about Half Life Alyx that won't interest the non-VR community there is a thread in the VR forum that you can post to and might be more suitable for questions about VR configurations?

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058032089

Figured it out. You need to click the thumb-sticks in during seated play to crouch and stand.

"Enabling Seated Options In Half-Life: Alyx
Once you're in Half-Life: Alyx, navigate to the accessibility options in the main menu screen. You can also access these options mid-game. You're looking for the Height Adjustment options, of which there are four. Find them listed below, along with their in-game descriptions:

Height Adjust: Crouch - Crouch action only. Stand is disabled. When the crouch action is enabled, toggle to quickly duck or adjust to a lowered position.

Height Adjust: Stand - Stand action only. Crouch is disabled. When the stand action is enabled, toggle to raise your position to help with reach. Recommended during seated play.

Height Adjust: Crouch And Stand - When the crouch and stand actions are enabled, use them to lower or to raise your position on two separate inputs.

Height Adjust: Hybrid - Hybrid uses a single input for both crouch and stand actions. To crouch, click to lower your position. To stand, press and hold to raise your position."

BTW* **** the head-crab mother****ers!!!! ****ing **** myself the first time it jumped at me!
This is an incredible game. Next level VR. It looks gorgeous too.

Taking a break but I was able to play for 2 hours seated play no problems.

TheValeyard

Really enjoying this. Played about two hours so far. Its very immersive, it looks absolutely stunning, the humour is great and story line is good fun so far.

BlitzKrieg

It's like slow half life 2, which is expected in vr. The flick and grab mechanic is just far too satisfying.

I am glad to see Valve went 110% in on what I said much earlier in this thread.

Best thing about vr is not big things, its little things and all those little touch movements in the trailer make me super excited. It genuinely looks like Valve has spent the last 4 years of the vive paying close attention to what works in vr and what people enjoy out of vr and oh god I want it. I am tempted to upgrade to an index for it.

There are so many moments where you are just fiddling with little things it's full on VR crack.

playing with a classic vive wand and headset and it still plays great. If the knuckles really improve things I might splash out for them later.

For now though it plays great and I've put 90 minutes in so far with full intent of going back tomorrow night and every night for the rest of the week.

K.O.Kiki

Absolutely

Valve Explains Why Half-Life 2: Episode 3 Was Never Made

Potential-Monke

Well that is both the best and most acceptable answer to the lingering question. It all makes sense and I agree with the view in that article. Gonna have to figure out what body part I don't need so I can upgrade the PC and get the Index. Not going to half arse this, gonna go all or nothing if I'm gonna splash. Article did nothing for me intent to ignore until affordable attempt.

It has the most seamless control scheme I have played in a VR game without question.
I'm not fiddling with controllers or lifting my headset trying to figure what controls this or that.
The gloves themselves are an indication of perfect game design.