Half-Life Is Back - wow, you'll be able to pick up that can in VR

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Half-Life Is Back - wow, you'll be able to pick up that can in VR

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Combat Pretzel: Jun 23, 2004; No, seriously... what kurds?!

Jack Trades posted:

Sure, the latter was added into the game in the last minute but still you could see that it was a last minute hack by how they still make you teleport through a bunch of sections anyways.

Go figure that a game whose development started years ago, where its game design decisions were probably cemented, too, can't just make a heel turn the last moment, because Jack Trades thinks it isn't innovative enough/lags behind games with shorter lead time.

Combat Pretzel fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Jun 6, 2020

# ? Jun 6, 2020 22:49

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# ? Apr 19, 2024 21:21

sigher: Apr 22, 2008; My guiding Moonlight...

Jack Trades posted:

Holsters.
Melee.
Smooth Movement.

Holsters I'll give you, because that's some awful conscious choice Valve made for some reason, but realistic Melee in VR is pretty much garbage as evidenced by Boneworks but the Smooth movement was completely fine?

# ? Jun 6, 2020 23:15

Lemming: Apr 21, 2008

Combat Pretzel posted:

Go figure that a game whose development started years ago, where its game design decisions were probably cemented, too, can't just make a heel turn the last moment, because Jack Trades thinks it isn't innovative enough/lags behind games with shorter lead time.

The fact that it's understandable doesn't make it less true

# ? Jun 6, 2020 23:19

Brownie: Jul 21, 2007; The Croatian Sensation

Lemming posted:

It doesn't have to, but it does mean that if you value that innovation then Alyx isn't going to be as appealing to you. It's like saying you like apples, if I have a peach pie I'm probably not going to like it as much as apple pie. It's not bad or wrong for people to like it more, I'm just not going to.

Some of these are Oculus exclusives, but I think that doesn't really affect whether they're innovative or not, so I'll just list some stuff off the top of my head (and this is not overall "do I think this is a good game," it's just whether I think they're trying something new or interesting. Especially the sandbox stuff I think is pretty boring even if it's innovative, because I don't think sandboxes are any fun):

The Unspoken is pretty great, the back and forth spellcasting stuff ends up feeling a lot like a fighting game, where there are lots of different responses you can do and different ways you can attack your component. At the most base level the interaction is you use one hand to attack and one hand as a shield, so you're both attacking and defending yourself by moving your arms independently at the same time. The moment to moment gameplay feels great and I really like the multi-tasking nature of things. The gesture spells also feel pretty badass, stuff like doing a shield gesture to block a huge attack at the last possible moment is super fun and cool. It only has teleportation movement, but it ends up being more like a dodge tool; it has a cooldown, and you can only go to a limited number of places, which can be reduced by certain attacks. Completely dead at this point but it was a lot of fun.

Onward was the first that took the idea seriously of making stick locomotion work, which I still personally despise, but they went against the grain and proved out that you can have a popular game that a lot of people can handle. They also used the two handed guns, which many games were avoiding in favor of only allowing you to use one handed pistol type guns. They also have a physical body layout, where magazines, grenades, syringes, etc, were physically located somewhere on your body, so there's no magic button you press to make something pop out in your hand. It's about as grounded and realistic as you can get, barring the stick locomotion still feeling slidey and floatey.

Blade and Sorcery probably has the best melee physics, though it's definitely full sandbox where you have to make your own fun. A lot of games either shy away from the idea of using melee entirely, or will let things stick to your hand pretty much 1:1 and you can just waggle stuff to death. B&S definitely has waggle, but it was the first thing (that I can remember) to really push that idea, and let you do stuff like knock weapons away, give weight to larger two handed weapons, etc.

For me, Lone Echo/Echo Arena are the big one. The movement there is completely grounded in the way that you move your real life body, and as a result it manages to be both really comfortable and open up a lot of space for being able to interact in a virtual world without being limited by more abstract input mechanisms. Lone Echo, the SP game, does end up being more of a walking simulator where you solve some basic puzzles, but the atmosphere and the sheer joy of feeling like you're physically present in space makes it completely kickass. The multiplayer, Echo Arena, is essentially just a straight up new sport. It's got a massively high skill ceiling, they nailed the simplicity of the game that allows for an incredibly deep level of competition, and there's straight up nothing like it, and it could ONLY exist in VR.

This isn't an exhaustive list but it's the first things that I thought of and yeah, honestly, there's not a *ton*. A bunch of people have done experiments, but only a few of the bigger studios have made any sort of effort, and barring a few things like Echo, I don't think there's been the massive paradigm shift in the way people approach VR game dev that I've been hoping for. I think that the hardware has far outpaced the software at this point, so I'm still really hoping to see more exploration and new stuff done as investment increases and more people get into it.

Thanks for the lengthy response!

I also struggle with �make your own fun� sandbox games, so I�ve been a bit disappointed by just how many games seem to be at that stage, or are not planning to move past it due to budget/resourcing limitations.

I�m excited to try Lone Echo now. I�m not interested at all in the Lone Arena but considering my favourite thing about VR so far has been exactly what you describe (the sense of physical presence) It�ll be the next thing I pick up.

# ? Jun 6, 2020 23:22

Beve Stuscemi: Jun 6, 2001

Jack Trades posted:

but still you could see that it was a last minute hack by how they still make you teleport through a bunch of sections anyways.

Counterpoint: I liked teleporting through crouch areas because I�m generally lazy when I play games and while I get ~my immersion~, it�s also obnoxious.

# ? Jun 7, 2020 03:59

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

sigher posted:

Holsters I'll give you, because that's some awful conscious choice Valve made for some reason, but realistic Melee in VR is pretty much garbage as evidenced by Boneworks but the Smooth movement was completely fine?

Actually Boneworks melee is very good, even then I would've been fine with "slap a zombie to make it stumble back" levels of melee but they didn't even bother doing that.

Jim Silly-Balls posted:

Counterpoint: I liked teleporting through crouch areas because I’m generally lazy when I play games and while I get ~my immersion~, it’s also obnoxious.

Levels should've been designed to accommodate both options.

# ? Jun 7, 2020 08:53

sigher: Apr 22, 2008; My guiding Moonlight...

Boneworks melee is pure misery, but I do agree that Valve should have at least let us stun enemies by hitting them with objects or knocking them down.

# ? Jun 8, 2020 05:08

Captain Hygiene: Sep 17, 2007; You mess with the crabbo...

I will never forgive Valve for including a frying pan in the game without even the most rudimentary melee mechanics

# ? Jun 8, 2020 05:23

NoEyedSquareGuy: Mar 16, 2009; Just because Liquor's dead, doesn't mean you can just roll this bitch all over town with "The Freedoms."

Finished playing through this last night on Oculus Quest. Most immersive gaming experience I've had before would probably have been Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii but this is on a whole new level. Might just be because I've never used VR of any kind until about a week ago but the basic experience of being inside the game is still some crazy future stuff for me. The only thing holding it back from complete immersion is more hardware limited than anything else since the screen resolution on the Quest is low enough that you can still make out individual pixels. Loved the game the whole way through and it felt like a worthy successor to HL2 after waiting 13 years for a follow up.

Not sure what to play after this though since it's supposedly miles ahead of all the other VR titles. I tried the Subnautica VR mode and it seemed barely functional after something as polished as Alyx.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 22:59

Chadzok: Apr 25, 2002

Sorry for making the same post again and again, but after Alyx you'll want to play Lone Echo.

# ? Jun 13, 2020 23:03

AzureSkys: Apr 27, 2003

I really enjoyed Moss. I think it was my second purchase after Beat Saber. It was an awesome idea for VR and although it had issues I adored interacting with Quill. I felt so bad everytime I got her killed so that gave platforming a new twist. Some similar style games are out there it looks, but I'd love to see a high quality Dark Souls game done in a similar style.

# ? Jun 18, 2020 16:16

Lemming: Apr 21, 2008

AzureSkys posted:

I really enjoyed Moss. I think it was my second purchase after Beat Saber. It was an awesome idea for VR and although it had issues I adored interacting with Quill. I felt so bad everytime I got her killed so that gave platforming a new twist. Some similar style games are out there it looks, but I'd love to see a high quality Dark Souls game done in a similar style.

You might wanna check out Chronos, then

# ? Jun 18, 2020 17:17

The Kins: Oct 2, 2004

https://twitter.com/finalhours/status/1281007124215037952
https://twitter.com/geoffkeighley/status/1280968266270179328

# ? Jul 9, 2020 17:24

PIZZA.BAT: Nov 12, 2016

The Kins posted:

https://twitter.com/finalhours/status/1281007124215037952
https://twitter.com/geoffkeighley/status/1280968266270179328

What is this? The people in the comments seem to be real hyped though

# ? Jul 9, 2020 17:38

forest spirit: Apr 6, 2009; Frigate Hetman Sahaidachny
First to ~~Fight~~ Scuttle, First to ~~Fall~~ Sink

I think it's a documentary on HL Alyx

# ? Jul 9, 2020 18:24

Captain Hygiene: Sep 17, 2007; You mess with the crabbo...

Hopefully they came up with a good explanation for why I can't smack a headcrab with a goddamn frying pan somewhere in those ten years

# ? Jul 9, 2020 19:04

The REAL Goobusters: Apr 25, 2008

Penpal posted:

I think it's a documentary on HL Alyx

It�s an interactive book

# ? Jul 9, 2020 19:34

The Kins: Oct 2, 2004

It's out now on Steam for ten bucks. It's a 25,000 word ebook about Valve's last decade and the creation of Half-Life Alyx along with various goofy little interactive toys like toner puzzles and a Headcrab sound mixer.

# ? Jul 9, 2020 20:20

Beve Stuscemi: Jun 6, 2001

Aaaaaaand Steam is down. Is this really that huge of a thing?

E:maybe it�s up? :iiam:

# ? Jul 9, 2020 20:39

TontoCorazon: Aug 18, 2007

The Portal 2 Final Hours was great, this should be good too.

Edit: poo poo, did not know he did one for Titanfall and Tomb Raider too, that's cool

# ? Jul 9, 2020 21:49

Ruflux: Jun 16, 2012

TontoCorazon posted:

The Portal 2 Final Hours was great, this should be good too.

Edit: poo poo, did not know he did one for Titanfall and Tomb Raider too, that's cool

The format actually got its start with The Final Hours articles Geoff Keighley did for Half-Life and Half-Life 2, I think both are archived somewhere but they're not online officially on whatever gaming site they were originally hosted on

# ? Jul 10, 2020 13:27

frogbs: May 5, 2004; Well well well

I don�t see myself getting a VR headset anytime soon, what�s the best run through of this game on YouTube? I thought I remember someone in this thread posting one where the guy playing it was pretty quiet, but couldn�t find it when I looked back through the thread. Any recommendations?

Edit: I think this is it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8ZFPdkPol4

frogbs fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Jul 10, 2020

# ? Jul 10, 2020 18:35

Fame Douglas: Nov 20, 2013; by Fluffdaddy

There's also always the option of waiting for one of those non-VR mods to be more fully baked if you want to see the environments and story for yourself.

# ? Jul 13, 2020 14:52

hhhat: Apr 29, 2008

I've had this game for a few weeks now that I've got a headset.

So it's great and terrifying.

Spoilers for the mid-to-late-game ahead:

How the heck do you actually get through the part of the northern star where you have to drop down into the infested floor where there's zombies and two electrodoggies? cause gently caress if i just don't get zapped and die real drat fast. Is there something i'm missing aside from just rambo the hell out of it and hope for the best?

# ? Aug 2, 2020 20:09

sigher: Apr 22, 2008; My guiding Moonlight...

I Rambo'd the hell out of that part.

# ? Aug 2, 2020 20:24

TontoCorazon: Aug 18, 2007

sigher posted:

I Rambo'd the hell out of that part.

Yea you gotta go mental and move fast. Basically rip and tear to your hearts delight

# ? Aug 2, 2020 20:27

SabinBlitz: May 19, 2015; Firm believer that muscles conquers all

There�s a catwalk I jumped onto and then shot things from and they couldn�t hurt me.

# ? Aug 3, 2020 03:49

hhhat: Apr 29, 2008

SabinBlitz posted:

There�s a catwalk I jumped onto and then shot things from and they couldn�t hurt me.

*inside* the room? because it looked to me like I was caught in there until I had a way to open the door. And there was no cover or any place I could climb back to to stand on. Are you talking about the planks over the hallway? I don't think there's a way back up to that level... but I'd like to find out there's a place I could go back up to...

# ? Aug 3, 2020 17:41

SabinBlitz: May 19, 2015; Firm believer that muscles conquers all

Sorry. I was thinking of the room just before you ride the first elevator up.

Yeah for that room you�re talking about just gotta be confident in your aim. I�ve done it both ways. First play through I did it safe, I threw a grenade down first to clear the zombies in that main room. Jumped down with my shotgun and just got point blank on the dogs with it. Back up, pistol zombies in the head as they close in. Reload shotgun when needed at distance. Use pistol at distance when the dogs jump into a zombie. As soon as they come out blam blam with shotgun then retreat. Don�t be afraid to blam a zombie with a shotgun if one gets too close.

My 2nd play though I just went full Doom guy with the shotgun on everything. Ammo would magically appear as I ran low.

# ? Aug 3, 2020 18:03

hhhat: Apr 29, 2008

SabinBlitz posted:

My 2nd play though I just went full Doom guy with the shotgun on everything. Ammo would magically appear as I ran low.

I did in fact just go rambo through that area and came out on top

I'm just used to slowly crawling my way through this game around every corner, didn't occur to me to RIP AND TEAR

# ? Aug 4, 2020 22:24

8one6: May 20, 2012; When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

I finished Alyx yesterday and it was fantastic.

The first time I encounter the headcrab zombies I kill one with some decent accuracy. Then one tries to bust through a window to get me but it's almost point blank and I kill it easily. This leaves me out of ammo for the third one that's gotten up at the far end of the room and is staggering towards me. I smoothly eject the spent mag, pull out a fresh one, slam it home and go to fire.

Click click.

Oh right, need to reset the slide. As the headcrab zombie gets to just outside of reach I press the button and the magazine slides out of the gun and hits the floor.

poo poo poo poo poo poo WRONG BUTTON!

Queue frantic grab for the magazine and a full clip into the headcrab zombie at the last possible second before it hits me.

Game owns. 11/10 GotY!

# ? Aug 27, 2020 09:30

Beve Stuscemi: Jun 6, 2001

Bumping this thread from 10 months ago to say that there is still code from Quake in Half Life Alyx

https://kotaku.com/ancient-90s-code-from-quake-still-controls-lights-in-h-1847105972

# ? Jun 16, 2021 02:24

PIZZA.BAT: Nov 12, 2016

Jim Silly-Balls posted:

Bumping this thread from 10 months ago to say that there is still code from Quake in Half Life Alyx

https://kotaku.com/ancient-90s-code-from-quake-still-controls-lights-in-h-1847105972

Cool. I now know the Wilhelm Scream of flickering fluorescent lights in video games

# ? Jun 16, 2021 02:36

Arc Hammer: Mar 4, 2013; Got any deathsticks?

Jim Silly-Balls posted:

Bumping this thread from 10 months ago to say that there is still code from Quake in Half Life Alyx

https://kotaku.com/ancient-90s-code-from-quake-still-controls-lights-in-h-1847105972

Quake DNA is all over the place but it is really cook to trace it back from the source through every iteration of GoldSource and Source 1/2.

# ? Jun 16, 2021 02:41

Vinylshadow: Mar 20, 2017

Thank you for your continued contribution to gaming, Quake.

# ? Jun 16, 2021 05:15

TIP: Mar 21, 2006; Your move, creep.

thank you for your continued contribution to gaming, flickering lights

# ? Jun 16, 2021 05:25

smoobles: Sep 4, 2014

I miss the good old days of 1 year ago when a AAA VR game existed. Oh well

# ? Jun 16, 2021 11:48

Beve Stuscemi: Jun 6, 2001

Half life Alyx still exists. You can play it today if you�d like, friend.

# ? Jun 16, 2021 12:57

PIZZA.BAT: Nov 12, 2016

It's a real shame that this game was basically just a flash in the pan for VR. VR in general is incredible tech but I've come to accept that it's never going to go beyond niche adoption. It makes me cynical that we'll ever get to see a full fledged HL3

# ? Jun 16, 2021 13:31

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# ? Apr 19, 2024 21:21

Arc Hammer: Mar 4, 2013; Got any deathsticks?

Anyone here remember that Escape from City 17 fanfilm? Just got thinking about it for the first time in years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4g6i9o7vTI

For a budget of $500 and breaking into the trainyards to do the shots it holds up surprisingly well. I remember not caring as much for the second fanfilm they did. It went a bit too far into the "drama" side of things. Half Life 1 and 2 have got a very specific balance of tone between horror, mad science, comedy and other modes so of you go too far in any one direction it can end up overturning the whole thing. That was my main turn off to Black Mesa when I first played it because it felt like it was going too far into the sadface and horror elements and it lacked Kelly Bailey's incredible soundtrack.

Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Jun 16, 2021

# ? Jun 16, 2021 16:02

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Half-Life Is Back - wow, you'll be able to pick up that can in VR

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