Half-Life is back you bastards

[backdrifter]

Valve have neglected the Half-Life IP up until this point and now they're acting like they've always cared

At the risk of bursting some kind of bubble: Valve are a corporation that just wants to sell products. They are never gonna make decisions based on how much they "care" about certain IPs.

Pretty sure I read there will be 3 movement styles, one of which being the "sick-proof" teleporting, which feels fine but does break the immersion a bit.

[popcorn]

We now have the first gameplay videos of this.

https://youtu.be/Qspam8ftpIc?list=PLSXFSBSGcg467zZDr07HZu2dkQT0z5QXR
https://youtu.be/nFjtVmka54E?list=PLSXFSBSGcg467zZDr07HZu2dkQT0z5QXR
https://youtu.be/LTLotwKpLgk?list=PLSXFSBSGcg467zZDr07HZu2dkQT0z5QXR

There are more out there if you google around.

Apparently there are three different movement styles. You can walk around with the thumbstick like in a normal game but that makes loads of people motion sick so they'll have to be teleporting instead. That will probably include me, unfortunately, which is a shame because the teleporting looks laaame. Hopefully it's something you get used to.

Otherwise I still think this looks really neat. Valve have released a couple of the game environments for people with VR to walk around in and the level of detail and fun things to discover is really impressive. They seem to have come up with lots of really interesting, novel, witty applications for the VR tech.

The only thing I'm not much keen on so far is the writing. I'm just not persuaded I'm going to enjoy Alyx nattering on all the time - do I really need to examine a creepy alien bug and hear her say "Eww"? And you can tell it's the Portal writing team, because - as good as Portal's writing is - some of the Russel dialogue is basically just Wheatley again, right down to the casting of an indie comedy non-American actor.

[ToneLa]

Not sure I want to shell out for VR just to play as the chick from Beyond Good and Evil

[Famous Mortimer]

Not sure I want to shell out for VR just to play as the chick from Beyond Good and Evil

Are all white guy characters from computer games are the same, too?

(unless both of them are voiced by the same person or something, in which case ignore that)

[ToneLa]

Are all white guy characters from computer games are the same, too?

There's more than one white male character??

.. It was a wee light hearted comment about character design. But suppose Jade has a different coloured bandana...

[Lemming]

Are all white guy characters from computer games are the same, too?

(unless both of them are voiced by the same person or something, in which case ignore that)

[bgmnts]

Would, would, would, would....

[ToneLa]

Crack a smile, lads.

[bgmnts]

Crack a smile, lads.

Max Payne had his wife and child killed by druggies, everyone around him dies and as a result is living at the bottom of the bottle and is addicted to painkillers.

[popcorn]

[ToneLa]

Yeah, seemed alright with it in the original before he got all grimdark. I suppose we process grief in different ways!

Some by glaring sourly into the middle distance. Some by holding in turd.

ANYWHO Alyx has no forearms and that's a unique look. Trespasser VR, where are you??

[Bazooka]

Johnny Knoxville has let himself go.

[Famous Mortimer]

There's more than one white male character??

.. It was a wee light hearted comment about character design. But suppose Jade has a different coloured bandana...

Come on, they don't look anything alike. I don't want to keep banging on about this, but your original comment was out of order.

[bgmnts]

The women codec face portraits in Metal Gear Solid are hilariously homogenous:

[ToneLa]

Come on, they don't look anything alike. I don't want to keep banging on about this, but your original comment was out of order.

So you're positing I'm being racist and outing myself as such via the unique medium of joking that two action video game characters in titles that were contemporaneous and each vaguely notable for their then-unique portrayal of strong females, are dressed similar in that both wear short green midriff baring jackets, head bands to tie their hair back and fingerless gloves with jeans. You introduce race into that, bypassing all else completely. You, in fact, posit race is noticed or relevant at all, and incorrectly assume Alyx and Jade are the same race.

Yeah sure you got me! Just make sure you edit Jade's Wikipedia entry which drew me to the comparison originally.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jade_(Beyond_Good_%26_Evil)

Edit: thinking about it, if you took that post at 100% irony-free face value you're a cunt for not pulling me up on using the hideous sexist hangover noun for women, "chicks". In this climate??

[ToneLa]

The women codec face portraits in Metal Gear Solid are hilariously homogenous:

Holy shit mate. Mortimer's gonna hurl you off scaffolding for that!

Except the one on the bottom right. Imagine all the people...

[Lemming]

Jade and Alyx do resemble each other in a couple ways. Especially Beta Alyx, who had Jade's jacket:

[popcorn]

The women codec face portraits in Metal Gear Solid are hilariously homogenous:

This is a product of female anime faces basically amounting to being ovals with dots for noses. In most anime series you distinguish the female characters (and their personalities) by the colour of their hair.

[popcorn]

By all accounts this is fucking brilliant.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Sticking one of those VR hats over my face doesn't appeal in the current situation.

[popcorn]

Appeals more than ever for me. At least the Combine give citizens clear instructions.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Did ToneLa do a flounce again?

[Barry Admin]

Permanently banned for violent threats/being unstable.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Oh dear. I've noticed he's quite.. erratic sometimes.

[evilcommiedictator]

Watched the TESTED review and it seems like it'll be getting 9/10s but to me all the looting seems bloody tedious

[AsparagusTrevor]

I've put a few hours into this over the past couple of days and I must say the hype is spot on. (I've been playing on my Oculus Quest hooked up to my laptop via USB)

It's scary as hell, it's like what RE7 could've been with proper VR controls. Scrambling to (realistically) reload your weapon while enemies advance is a shittening experience. It's also funny in parts, the dialogue between Alyx and Rhys Darby's character is often amusing but used sparingly and doesn't undercut the tension.

The graphics, even on the lowest setting which I'm using, are great, definitely a few steps up from Half-Life 2 while still having recognisable art direction. I couldn't believe my old GTX1060 was managing to push this out. There have been several jaw dropping moments so far,  with some brilliant sense of scale.

The controls are comfortable and intuitive, the gravity gloves work well though they only used to grab objects, they are definitely not weapons. I've only found two weapons so far, pistol and shotgun. I don't know if a crowbar shows up but I hope so, I wanna twat things in the chops in VR.

The looting isn't too tedious, it's optional for if you want to upgrade your weapon but I haven't found anything too well hidden yet. Plus the looting adds to the apocalyptic atmosphere of the game.

[popcorn]

Aargh I'm gagging for this. Blagged a VR kit through work but got no PC. Having to use all my self-restraint not to order one immediately.

The looting is the bit I'm imagining finding most fun. I love rummaging around piles of stuff in HL2 - like when you search a scrapyard for batteries, I love that tactile, concrete connection to the environments - so I'm hoping VR will multiply that.

[AsparagusTrevor]

I've been playing this today wirelessly over Virtual Desktop and I'm quite amazed at how similar it was to playing wired up, barely noticed any difference except for the freedom of having no cable in my way. Much better experience.

The looting is the bit I'm imagining finding most fun. I love rummaging around piles of stuff in HL2 - like when you search a scrapyard for batteries, I love that tactile, concrete connection to the environments - so I'm hoping VR will multiply that.

You'd love it then, it definitely feels tactile. Similar to HL2 there's a lot of physics in play - you can shift pretty much anything you'd imagine being able to in real life, which gives a nice heft to the rummaging.

[popcorn]

I've been playing this today wirelessly over Virtual Desktop and I'm quite amazed at how similar it was to playing wired up, barely noticed any difference except for the freedom of having no cable in my way. Much better experience.

What is this exactly? I looked up Virtual Desktop and it just seems to be a way to use your PC in VR.

[Zetetic]

Oculus Quest thing:
https://uploadvr.com/half-life-alyx-oculus-quest/