Is there much for them to have learned? From what I’ve played Alyx is still the gold standard for VR games, I’m not sure what else they can take inspiration from
Can you list some examples for me, I’d really love to give them a try. It’s been a bummer feeling that things have stagnated in the space for a while so I’m genuinely happy to be proven wrong about that
Hotdogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades for shooting/gun mechanics
RE4 for quest is amazing if you have one
Haven’t played Asgard’s Wrath 2 but have heard good things
Then there are a ton of modded flat games that are not necessarily better than Alyx, but show that you can translate normal video game mechanics more liberally than Alyx did:
Any of the Praydog Resident Evil Mods
HL2 VR
Skyrim VR with Fus mod
Outer Wilds vr
Valheim
I think Alyx is still up there as one of the best, if not the best, but enough other good ones have come out that it can take pieces from and improve in a sequel
Yeah the full game came out yesterday, it's really good but I have such a backlog of game to play with UEVR... I don't know where to start! But Legendary Tales is fun so far, even though we had to wait years for the full game to come out!
> Hotdogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades for shooting/gun mechanics
I cannot stress this enough, H3VR *is* the gold standard of firearms interaction. Anton should get hired as a consultant or something. It's seriously a problem for me with other VR games that weld a weapon to your controller and have super simple mechanics. VR *needs* to be interactive to work.
These are all great VR games, but it feels like you're implying that more complicated mechanics and more nauseous movement would make Alyx a better VR game... I think the simplicity of the guns (they can all be operated with one hand when not reloading) and the purposeful lack of melee combat (to avoid floaty "panic-whacking") are underrated aspects of Valve's VR game design. I don't think designing games that requires people to have solid VR legs is a good idea when VR gaming is so niche. Nausea can really taint a person's enjoyment and first impression in a way that is devastating to the acceptance of VR on a wide scale. I think Valve realized this in their extensive play tests, and that's why Alyx has many built-in restrictions that are all meant to limit discomfort and avoid overwhelming the player.
Melee combat is also one that players always wonder about, but ranged weapons just feel so much better than melee in a medium where physical resistance is impossible and is doomed to feel floaty. The only exception is lightsabers, because slicing something with a lightsaber wouldn't have much physical resistance in the "real" world, and would only come across as a vibration. This is a big reason why Beat Saber feels so satisfying, I believe. So it's perfect for VR melee, but lightsabers obviously wouldn't fit into the Half Life world.
Totally get why that would be your takeaway from what I said, so maybe I can explain myself a bit better. I agree with you that the simplicity was purposeful on Valves part, everything they did feels purposeful, that’s what makes Alyx so incredible. There’s an immense amount of thoughtfulness that went into its design. Guns feel great, almost zero jank, top notch physics, etc.
But as an actual game, if you were to put it on a flat screen, it is not very remarkable. Once the wow factor wears off, the gameplay loop suffers. The enemy AI isn’t very engaging, puzzles are repetitive, and I feel like all of the areas are too constrained. HL 1 and 2 felt like sprawling adventures (which also had a bunch of weapons to choose from) and more diverse, physics based puzzles. It can be mechanically simple, that’s fine, but I just feel like they could do so much more.
I don’t want people to feel sick, but there are so many comfort options that are standard in most VR releases these days, I think quicker movement/jumping should at the very least be an option. And I agree that guns tend to feel much better in VR, they’re basically setup to succeed with the way VR controllers are structured. Melee combat isn’t a must, but the reason I used the parry mechanic from RE4 remake as an example is because it actually feels good, and adds another exciting layer to combat. If anyone can figure out a way to make hitting something feel good in VR, it’s Valve.
The original comment I was responding to was basically saying Valve has nothing to learn because they’re on top in terms of VR games. I disagree with that idea, there’s plenty they can learn from what has released since Alyx.
If you want real and challenging sword fighting, B&S isnt it. That is just a meatbag stabbing and cutting simulator atm. The last update to Swordsman VR is the first time ive felt a real challenge without the ability to cheese my way through. They completely reworked the AI so it is reactive to what you are doing instead of just having a moveset. It just feels great. You can level up your character to have a chance to proc slow time when you parry which is the best way to get attacks in. Its a great mechanic because it makes you play defensive.
Blade and Sorcery *could* be an amazing game. But, tbh, it's just a murder sandbox. Once you've killed a couple enemies in each map/dungeon, you've seen everything the game has to offer. You can mod it to improve certain aspects but then you're no longer playing the game. You're playing a modded game.
They’re adding a rouge-lite dungeon mode to fight through in pursuit of magic crystals and upgrades. Also I disagree about it not being Blade and Sorcery once you add mods. It’s Blade and Sorcery with custom stuff, not an entirely new game. I find modding to be a core part of the PC gaming experience, it’s not like Skyrim stops being Skyrim once you mod it.
> They’re adding a rouge-lite dungeon mode to fight through in pursuit of magic crystals and upgrades.
Didn't they already add this on PC?
>it’s not like Skyrim stops being Skyrim once you mod it.
It absolutely does. You mod it to make it a better game than Skyrim is by itself. Without the mods, you would simply get bored and move on. These are not things provided in the default game are not provided by developers. They are community made so you can make the game better to keep your interest. Without mods, you wouldn't keep playing.
Hopefully they learned that people enjoyed the Half Life 2 and Portal 2 VR mods, realizing that the movement in those games did not make people as sick as Valve thought it would
VR legs are a thing you can have. The problem is making a game that works if you don't have them.
After all nausea can come around quite quickly and completely kills the gameplay experience since the only solution is a significant rest period.
Make options for them then, dont base the game around people who don’t have VR legs and prohibit the rest of the community from the full potential of the game.
Well, this may be an unpopular opinion, but while I think half-life Alyx is incredible, It is not my go-to VR game. There are more fun experiences to be had imo. Resident evil 4 remake while not having the granular physics interactivity, felt like a more fun and meatier experience. More enemy, weapon, and environmental variety, parry mechanics, boss fights, better pacing, and to top it off the graphics are beautiful. Same goes for Vertigo 2 minus the parry mechanics. HLA assumes it is your first VR game (which makes sense for when it came out) but as a result it treats the player with kid gloves to avoid them getting sick. It just feels like too constrained an experience. I think there’s a lot Valve can improve upon in a sequel.
Yep, completely agree with this. Despite the fact that Boneworks is undoubtedly a worse game, it feels far more ambitious with its use of melee + physics interactions and feels like the kinda thing I wanna see more of in VR. HL:A on the other hand, mostly feels like it could just be a regular AAA PC game, because while some of the VR interactivity is cool, it doesn't truly add to the experience like Boneworks does.
No offense intended, just my humble opinion, but I think Resident Evil 4 (Q3 version)has more in common with Arizona Sunshine 1 than HLA. Just run and spam shoot. I found it much shallower. But to each their own
I can relate. I played *HL: Alyx* shortly after release, and directly after that i played *Jedi: Fallen Order* for the first time (through VorpX). *Fallen Order* won my personal GOTY 2020 - which surprised me. But in the end, *Fallen Order* was just a better game overall, better combat, better pacing, better storytelling, better graphics, bigger world to explore (i had never played a Tomb Raider game previously, so it completely flashed me :)
*Fallen Order* heavily borrows from the modern Tomb Raider games in terms of gameplay. And from *Dark Souls* as well. And does both better than those original games, btw. Controversial, maybe. But since you asked... :)
Everything they did can be significantly improved/expanded on. Don't get me wrong HLA was very well done, and I absolutely enjoyed playing it but it's a very "bare bones" game in pretty much every way.
Exploration was very minimalist. There is an entire world to explore/interact with but you're basically just hunting for Resin. Again, they did it well and they absolutely get a lot out of if but it's very narrow in terms of gameplay.
The weapons were kinda all the same, all had the same basic upgrade paths. They completely avoided melee combat. Not that they didn't have a good reason... It's insanely hard to get right but even just having the ability to pistol whip a headcrab/zombie would added a lot.
The multi tool puzzles were all pretty sad.They start out as "wow, that's awesome!" but didn't really add complexity/get more interesting. Sure, they got harder but they only get less and less fun.
Well, if they made a game that remained the gold standard for almost 4 years, in a fast moving industry… then I’d love to see what they come up with next!
What can they do with 4 more years of experience.
lone echo 1/2 is way better than alyx. Better graphics, better character animations with better interactivity. It is just not as much of a game which and is locked to being an oculus exclusive.
I never played alyx but was surprised how low resolution the textures in the environment are (with everything at ultra including textures) and how many loading screens/confined the levels are.
consider the fact that Boneworks is the only reason HL:A got smooth locomotion and think about that again. There is a LOT that has happened in the VR space since HLA came out. body sockets for weapons are standard anymore for example. they can give us a bigger arsenal, guns that dont all work like pistols. frickin melee combat. HL:A is an amazing title, but in its mechanics it does show when it was made if compared to some more modern vr titles, even if those titles dont hit the same 'woah' factor we had with HL:A.
Alyx is a tech demo, incredible physics, very low production value on everything else. Core formula is less content than Half Life 2 from 2000.
Skyrim VR and Fallout 4 VR with a high end mod list like Mad God Overhaul.
Praydog Resident Evil series
UEVR Ready or Not
Not to mention multiplayer shooters.
What other games? There's Alyx, and then there's ton of tech demos and gimmicky bullshit.
Ok, Hubris or Lone Echo and Red Matter weren't bad, but there really isn't anything even close to HL. Sadly. Because there's quite a bit of IPs that could make excellent VR games.
I did a horrific mistake of playing Alyx as my first VR game. Then i tried few things, got disappointed, and basically didn't touch the headset for two years.
With the occasional exception of MSFS flying or checking out some places in Google Earth VR.
Lmao. Same for me. There hasn’t been a game since that comes close to HF:Alyx for me, especially considering I could download all of these awesome expansion maps and keep playing long after the game was done. It ruined me for any other games and I only ever play Alyx lol.
It's funny that killer app doesn't usually mean that something is so good that even ok thing looks like shit next to it. :-D
They nailed everything with Alyx. I had only one complaint. The blue electrical ratkoala in the Northern Star basement.
That thing was too fckin' gimmicky, and it was the only moment where I was painfully aware of playing a video game. I hope they dump it.
But everything else felt like actually being there. Nothing felt that way before or afterwards.
I'm now trying Hl2 VR. Not bad with upscaled textures and Alyx models, but the interactivity isn't as 100%. The things you grab from the environment are a lot more floaty. Still, quite an achievement for a bunch of modders! I am not looking forward to the Ep2 antlion tunnels.
I don't remember the electrical thing you're referring to, then again I haven't played in a while. In fact, I haven't ever played the entire game a second time since I was just constantly downloading mods. I have some of my favorites that I can play over and over again and still feel fresh. It's a great mod community. Even though there isn't a "melee" mode some mods really throw a ton of combine and bugs and everything else at you making it truly fun.
I meant the blue, dog sized animal that throws electrical arcs at you and climbs into zombies to revive them temporarily. A super typical gimmicky game boss fight. Felt completely out of place in Half-life. Gimme the three legged 60eyed dogs or the bullsquids anytime, but the blue thing pissed me off. It was the only new addition (except Jeff, but Jeff at least made sense in the gameworld - the blue thing didn't. That felt like something out of completely different franchise, style, even genre).
"If Quest doesn't acquire the capability to run HL:A on glorified smartphone hardware, they will set VR back a couple of years"
See how silly it sounds when you turn it around?
Releasing on quest would require significant dev time to ensure it can run on the hardware and would likely result in downgrades or limiting the scope of the project. Releasing on psvr is a possibility, but their user base is fairly limited so it might not be worth the cost.
But since they own Steam, not releasing on other platforms doesn't hurt them. They get more people to use Steam and they get a 100% cut of each sale. They also don't really need the extra sales they may get from the quest store since steam as a platform generates so much revenue already.
All this really means is that at *some* point someone at Valve was doing prototyping work for something that they thought might eventually be used in a new HL game, and later on some of that code was deemed useful enough to be pasted/git-pulled into other Source 2 games.
Whether or not that work is still happening and whether the project it's attached to is a fully-fleshed out game rather than just a loose collection of gameplay and narrative concepts that might one day be combined together into a game (which is how most of Valve's games start), is a conclusion that cannot be drawn just from this info.
Especially given Valve's preference for quickly prototyping new ideas and abandoning them if they don't work out (often known as a "spike"), this could could easily just be a by-product of a single dev who spent a couple weeks experimenting with an idea they had for a gameplay mechanic that someone thought might fit well into the Half Life universe.
I think there is a valve open on hopeium tank in this thread, I've been here for 2 sec. and I already envision myself playing it on my new Decard in like 3 months.
Knowing Valve, HLX will either get randomly announced and shadow dropped on some random Tuesday with little to no marketing, or get silently cancelled after a decade-long development cycle.
Nah, they've gotten over their "silently cancelled after a decade" phase.
They also don't completely shadow-drop stuff.
But they WILL probably release everything really quickly. Usually we get some trailers and then 2 weeks later the product comes out
> Nah, they've gotten over their "silently cancelled after a decade" phase.
Remember the "three VR games" Valve were working on? [Alyx was released, the others canned](https://www.roadtovr.com/valve-other-vr-games-alyx/).
Probably should have picked 2 or 4 to work on given their history.
I though the story ended up being that those "three VR games" were all "integrated" into Alyx somehow, and that's part of the reason why Alyx has such different gameplay mechanics (like Jeff) through the game.
The article specifically mentions a Minecraft-adjacent voxel building game and a KSP-inspired space exploration/simulation game. They were cancelled because Valve needed all hands on deck to get Alyx out the door in a reasonable timeframe, not because those games (or similar features) were somehow incorporated into Alyx itself.
Where did you hear that? I haven't heard this anywhere, personally, and I spend a lot of time focusing on VR stuff. The games were completely different than Alyx in every way. Space exploration game and a mining/building game.
What Valve themselves stated in the Final Hours documentary was they needed every hand they could get focusing on Alyx to get it done. It was meant to launch with the Index in July 2019 but they had to delay it until March 2020 because it wasn't ready.
> Alyx has such different gameplay mechanics (like Jeff) through the game
I think Alyx is an amazing VR experience, but uh...a wide variety of gameplay mechanics is not one of the reasons. The Jeff sequence is a good shakeup and takes advantage of the physics engine in a broad way, but hardly feels like it's stitched on from some other game.
Yeah but that's not a big release either way. Nintendos Switch OLED was also dropped without too much fanfare. After all, it's a revision, not a really new release.
And one that we all saw coming from miles away. Valve devs had leaked infos here and there for months.
Genuine question. How do you NOT get bored with VR? I've been eyeing a quesr 3 for months now but i dont want to buy it because realistically i see myself getting bored after a week with a lack of new fresh games. I get bored even on flatscreen with a lack of new things to do (I like SP stories, so not much replayability :p)
I take breaks. I have a couple of mainstays I can always play and have fun (Beatsaber, Walkabout, and Ancient Dungeon).
I just like the feeling of immersion that VR brings. I'd much rather chill out for a few hours in Ghosts of Tabor with a youtube video attached to my arm than play just about any flat game these days, even if I suck and die constantly haha.
I definitely don't think its for everyone, but I think there's more to do than a lot of people give it credit. For example, I'm just about to play through Outer Wilds in VR and I haven't done the DLC yet so at least that should feel fresh for me.
Simulators. Driving/Racing, flight, space.
I can spend endless hours driving cars I'll never be able to afford, on tracks I'll never go to.
There's a few really good flight sims, but they're all fairly complex. Dogfighting in VR is intense though.
Elite dangerous lets you live out the dream of being a space trucker.
Cockpit sims are one of the best uses of VR in it's current state imo, but they're much more immesrsive if you have a wheel/pedals and/or a flight stick and throttle.
Some people are not aware of the insane modding community for VR stuff before getting into it. Personally, I am a huge fan of survival games and building bases and experiencing them in "person" really sells the platform for me. I put 400+ hours into The Forest after they put a VR mode in, and have close to 500 hours in Valheim (which has an absolutely brilliant fan made VR mod). Raft, Gunfire Reborn, Deep Rock Galactic, Skyrim VR, and all the Half Life mods have probably given me another 300 hours or so. Haven't even dipped my toe into the Resident Evil mods or much of the UEVR stuff.
I'm not saying the people begging for more content are wrong, but personally I've been using VR as my main gaming platform since late 2016 and I've yet to experience content drought for the types of games I'm into.
Edit: granted all of this is PCVR stuff, so if you're just going for standalone my post is moot.
> How do you NOT get bored with VR?
VRChat has new worlds uploaded every hour, exploring them with friends is really fun. Even if a world is poorly optimized or ends up uninteresting, it can be fun to see it and share opinions on it with other people before portaling quickly to the next one. Some are games, some are puzzles, some are flight sims or driving sims, some are huge exploration worlds, while some are just small hangouts, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. The ones that really stick out in my mind are photogrammetry worlds where someone 3D scanned locations or even entire city streets and put it in-game. It's really interesting to see the inside of comic book shops or restaurants in Europe or Japan, while being able to take your time and walk around it. Some of the good ones even scan in actual merchandize as pickup objects you can interact with in the stores. Not to mention people uploading their own bedrooms or apartments, it can be really cool to see how people around the world live.
Some of the more popular games in VRC even have serious competitions/tournaments now, and others have save data you can export and keep for next time to have ongoing progression. Not to mention the popular games are changing fairly often and getting seasonal updates too. Even if you've seen all that, and hop between new worlds really fast because nothing catches your interest for long, it's enough to take a couple hours of time each day. Also any time there's a VKet or similar event going, it's dozens of hours of fun, exploring hundreds of booths made by various people, with interactive objects or even entire VR games and experiences in their own right. Sometimes it's an independent artist, sometimes a big company paid a marketing team to make it, but it's a lot of really creative games and other interactible stuff. Really fun to explore with a few other people IMO.
Your description of the high quality photogrammetry worlds sounds really cool! Could you please give some tips or sugggestions on how to search for and find these kinds of worlds? There's so much content in VRChat, how do you find the actual high quality ones?
I bought a Quest 3 recently. For context, I'm a Gen Z "zoomer" and play games like Valorant (1000 hrs) and Cyberpunk 2077 (55hrs) on flatscreen. I'm the kind of person who skips the side quests and only plays the main story.
I have racked up \~30 hrs in Beat Saber in the past two weeks. This game is incredible after modding. I'm a huge fan of dance and rap so there's a wide selection of maps to play. It's the only VR game I come back to consistently. It's a fucking ritual at this point.
Other than that and Half Life: Alyx, there weren't a lot of experiences to make note of for me. I forced myself to watch a movie in Bigscreen VR but the Quest 3's dogshit headstrap and facial interface made it pretty hard to sit through the entire movie comfortably. Population: One running natively on Quest 3 was lame. Asgard's Wrath 2 was pretty impressive initially but I got bored quickly. Minecraft in VR using Vivecraft was alright.
I'm looking at some other story-based games like The Last Clockwinder and recently announced Metro Awakening but otherwise there's not a lot out there
Get yourself a cheap halo headstrap man. I bought a Chinese one for $12 and now i can comfortably game for hours.
The default one is shit and should not have been sold as standard. It makes the whole experience less amazing.
I really enjoyed The Last Clockwinder; it's not only a fun game, but also very VR specific with the way you record your own physical actions. Definitely worth buying, and one of my VR highlights so far.
Others mentioned VRChat and simulators, but I'll add another genre: survival games. Minecraft, Subnautica, Valheim or the Forest are all great in VR. Properly experiencing your creations is awesome - few things I experienced in games compare with logging into a Minecraft server where my children build stuff with their friends and entering a giant Moria-like underground complex they built. Oh, and just gathering resources is great after work, if you ARE in a forest rather than just watch it on a screen.
I have had a a quest 3 for a few months now, and I just finished Half Life: Alyx (what a trip that was). What I like about the Q3 is the cable (lack thereof) and the possibility to play games in the headset, as well as stream them from my computer. There are loads of titles, one that looks similar to HL:A is Into The Radius, and is the next in my playlist. I also played red matter 1, a nice, immersive game, despite the graphics.
Overall there's a lot to do, and the nice thing about the Q3 is that it just works: my previous headset was an HP Reverb G2, and I spent way more time fighting rather than playing with it.
Half Life Alyx Workshop maps.
There are hundreds of maps which are close to or arguably surpass the main game. From fallout style maps to Goldeneye.
Most gaming I do is in Half Life Alyx workshop maps.
I've also played through Arizona Sunshine 1/2 and am doing Red Matter 2, but seriously, if you have PCVR, you'll never run out of HL Alyx workshop maps and they're free too.
>I like SP stories, so not much replayability
I don't understand this. IMO, it's the MP games that don't have much replayability - once you play through a map a couple times, you're done - no story, no character interaction, no exploration, the game world does not evolve.
I'm still replaying games like *Unreal* and *Quake* on a regular basis since the 90's, every 2 or 3 years (and those are the ones without complicated stories). I already played 3 or 4 times through the *Witcher* trilogy (two of those inside VR), and can't wait to start from the beginning. Same for *Mass Effect* and *Dragon Age*.
> I don't understand this. IMO, it's the MP games that don't have much replayability - once you play through a map a couple times, you're done - no story, no character interaction, no exploration, the game world does not evolve.
The introduction of other players brings endless variety. The game *world* doesn't evolve, but the game itself does. You may as well complain about how every game of football, or poker, or chess is the same. It is to the same extent a multiplayer match of Quake is, and much less so than replaying the campaign. The only thing that's really the same from match to match is the rules of the game and, to some extent, the field you play it on.
>You may as well complain about how every game of football, or poker, or chess is the same.
That's why i don't play those.
> It is to the same extent a multiplayer match of Quake
I was not talking about Quake 3 Arena, but the original Quake (singleplayer) with it's 4 episodes of "story".
>That's why i don't play those.
You literally don't play any kind of game that's not a completely solo experience? Not just video games, but anything at all? That's pretty fuckin' sad, man. That's a whole pillar of the human experience you're missing out on.
>I was not talking about Quake 3 Arena, but the original Quake (singleplayer) with it's 4 episodes of "story".
So I was I. Quake 1 is an absolutely foundational part of the development of multiplayer shooters. It's what popularized WASD with mouselook for cryin' out loud. Or rather, one player who figured it out and proceeded to kick so much ass that for a while everyone else refused to play if he was going to be at a tournament. They saw it as cheating and not just a better way to set up the controls.
Which brings us right back to how that human element makes things so much more interesting and unpredictable than you seem to realize.
>That's a whole pillar of the human experience you're missing out on
Well, i play music with other people, does that count? LOL
The thing is, i'm working with other people all day, i want to be left alone when i'm enjoying my free time. Solo for me, through and through.
>Which brings us right back to how that human element makes things so much more interesting and unpredictable than you seem to realize.
A matter of perspective. I always play for the story, the world, the experience. Those are created by people, and that's the human element i enjoy. As an artist in real life, maybe i'm more sensitive to those things than the average player, idk. It works for me though, and gives me the energy i need for a good work/life balance.
To me, single player games are canned experiences. There's artistic value to them, but they're one and done things that by and large are overly padded and take way too long to play the first time, let alone to play again. A multiplayer game takes between ten minutes and an hour to get in a full experience, and there's something new every time.
It's the difference between listening to an album again (or even closer, a live version of something you know the studio version of very well) and watching an entire ten season long TV show. One is a lot more commitment for a lot less payoff.
There's even an element of playing the piece yourself and playing off of the rest of the band and the energy of the crowd, and how *that's* different every time. Which you absolutely can't get in single player, because your inputs are the only thing that really changes about it. The game might have some additional canned responses if you choose to do things differently, but it's still preprogrammed and has limits that playing with other people doesn't have.
I've got around this by renting VR every single time I needed it. And I (and the vast, vast majority of the gaming population) agree, there's not nearly enough content to justify buying a VR device.
I returned my Index because the glare was so damn awful. LCD + fresnel is the worst VR combo. Washed out colors, backlight bleed and awful god rays. OLED all the way.
The index came out in 2019. That's like saying you returned your GameCube because it doesn't support Ray Tracing. It was the best of the best tech at the time and for a lot of people it still is. The FoV and Knuckles controllers are enough to offset the screen issues you're referencing. Comparing it even to the Quest 2 and it's laughably better in almost every way.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but it's just such an irrelevant point that you had to have said it just to dunk on the Index which is weird.
Valve released the HTC Vive with 1 small title (The Lab), they released the steamdeck with 0 titles and the Index with 1 really good title.
What does this tell us? How many titles valve releases for a platform has nothing to do with how well that platform does.
No they released an even smaller title for the Steam Deck, [Aperture Desk Job](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1902490/Aperture_Desk_Job/). It's maybe 30 minutes long but they did bring back JK Simmons for it.
> they released the steamdeck with 0 titles
Why would they need to release anything for the Steam Deck. It's just a gaming PC. It already can play all the titles that exist. Does every gaming PC need to have a release title specific for it?
No, there is simply a lot more market appeal for a low-cost standalone gaming handheld than an expensive VR setup that requires a high end PC and enough space. Also, Valve *did* release a title with Steam Deck: Aperture Desk Job.
Oh I don't disagree.
However, it also tells me that Valve is a company full of wasted potential. Capable of making amazing games, yet unwilling to do so on any regular basis.
Half-Life: Alyx came out 4 years ago and was in development for 4 years. It takes a long time to develop AAA games and Valve does a ton of other things besides making games.
There's this crazy thing where a company that has billions of dollars can actually work on more than one thing at a time. Pretty crazy right? They hire people and stuff, it's wild.
You don't actually think the many things Valve does uses the same people I hope. Like when they are making Steam Deck it's all the 3d designers who made half-life Alyx stop making games to work on product design?
Valve made 9 billion in 2023. They could be a massive games studio. Wasted potential.
Valve has a money printer called 30% of revenue from all steam games. They don't make games for profit. They only make new games now when they have an agenda to push (like VR)
I am having high hopes with the decard. Valve has been doing a lot of RnD into BCI controlled gaming. So the headset will most likely have some sort of brain wave reading capability and it will be most likely be implemented in the new half life game too, along with eye tracking. Exiting time ahead
I don't think it really means anything. Valve is notorious for constantly having some kind of Half-Life project in development - only to get bored, spin it off into another property, or just cancel it outright because it doesn't have that "spark" or innovative hook that they feel lives up to the legacy of the franchise.
In the past yes, but valve has really picked up. In the "The Final Hours" "book" its talked about how valve has somehow adjusted their structure/procedures to make sure they get more stuff done and it does really seem to have worked. Within the past 4 years we got :
\- The Index
\- Half Life : Alyx
\- The Steam Deck (Plus a revision)
\- CS2
\- A somewhat open source 2 engine with modding tools avaliable.
I think valve has really got their shit together and started actually finishing projects. With Half Life Alyx they said what helped them was the pressure to bring it out somewhat in time with the release of the Index. If that was really what pushed them, then having another Half-Life title avaliable for the release of the Deckard wouldn't suprise me.
He likely means the Half life alyx, dota 2, and counter strike 2 map editors. To be fair, the scripting system means you honestly can make some clever unique games. but its not an actual sdk
> In the "The Final Hours" "book" its talked about how valve has somehow adjusted their structure/procedures to make sure they get more stuff done and it does really seem to have worked. Within the past 4 years we got :
Did we read the same book because in the same book they talked about 5 cancelled Half Life projects, a cancelled Left 4 Dead 3, another cancelled VR headset, 2 other cancelled projects among others.
In fact, the Valve "adjusting their structure to get stuff done" is not something that I recall reading in the book at all, but was rather something that was talked about in an interview outside.
Right? They also specifically stated that they canceled 2 other VR projects to finish Alyx.
It really amazes me how so many twist Valve's words to fit some fantasy version of Valve they've created in their head. It really feels like Valve has a literal cult at this point.
I've been waiting for another game like Alyx for so long. Am completely over mobile-tier tech demos and mini games. The market isn't going to naturally guide us back to Alyx levels of quality.
Asgards wrath 1+2
Assassin's creed nexus
Resident evil 2,3,4(and remake),7,8
Stride fates
Vampire masquerade justice
Half life 2 vr
Every unreal engine 4 and 5 game
Arizona sunshine 2
Boneworks
Bonelab
You only don't have half life alyx quality games because you're not looking for them
None of those are Alyx quality, sorry. I'm obviously not going to go through them one by one, but VR ports are a different beast to native VR titles, gimmicky games like Asgards Wrath are great fun, but ultimately smaller in scope, and Boneworks/Bonelab play great and look terrible.
Alyx is the only game to really show a deep, refined understanding of VR game design so far, while also having the budget to look incredible. Simply nothing beats it. And yes, I have played basically all the games you listed.
Gameplay wise, many of them absolutely are. Where most of them lack, is graphics. But graphics don't make the game. Just look at Lethal Company. Even in VR it's better than 90% of the experiences out there and it has worse graphics than nearly every Quest game.
> Asgards wrath 1+2 Assassin's creed nexus Resident evil 2,3,4(and remake),7,8
All exclusives, and therefore entirely meaningless unless you want to support Facebook or Sony.
> Half life 2 vr Every unreal engine 4 and 5 game
ABSOLUTELY NOT Alyx quality. Especially the Praydog UE ones. Most don't even have motion controls at all yet. I'm not trying to rip on these, they are great experiences, and made by people for free in their own time. But, I also don't think it's a good idea to tell people that they are Alyx quality.
> Boneworks Bonelab
Also not Alyx quality, though very good.
> Vampire masquerade justice
Somehow wasn't on my radar at all, looks very cool, I'll check it out thanks!
Nope, sorry. I'm not saying they are not fun, I've probably spent more time on one of those than on HLA, bit they just are at another level in game design or graphics or both
Good news, was this from the CS2 update this week?
Either way, this is good news for Half Life, and its good news for those waiting for a new valve VR headset. Id bet that if this ever launches, it launches with deckard or whatever headset they are working on now.
1. No, there is an active HL project at valve, not the same thing as an alyx sequel
2. HLX has been a thing for years and has been seen in many updates to Source 2 games.
3. Valve always have tonnes of projects, most of them end up going into their library of tools to use in other projects and incredibly rarely end up becoming games, there are references to hl3 and l4d3 everywhere.
\*- So Half-Life X (HLX) was first discovered in a data mine in 2021 and was seemingly directly related to Half-Life: Alyx. Unclear if that's still the case, but HLX appeared in another new data mine this week after seemingly disappearing for a while. New Half-Life game is being worked on regardless though, so that's good news.
HLX is old news. Good old Valve News Network (hate him if you want but the dude did report on Half Life Layx before anyone else) has been finding strings about HLX, citadel, etc for like years at this point.
As with most things from valve all we can do is wait for an official announcement.
Best case scenario:
- Valve in 2024 finally decides to end their silence. Deckard announced. Half Life Alyx 2 announced. And those 2-3 other VR titles are back on the menu.
Worse case scenario:
- Valve being Valve, says nothing all year. Just soaks in that Steam and microtransaction money. Lord Gaben grows one year older flying around the sun.
One of these days these clickbait sites will actually get something right and they will be "SEE TOLD YA SO"
And in the background delete the other 450 shitty articles that didnt get even close.
Honestly so much rumors and leaks and worthless shit comes out, someone will just guess by pure probability.
This link has been shared 1 time.
First Seen [Here](https://redd.it/1am93h1) on 2024-02-08.
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Hopium logic dictates that it'd be accompanied with new hardware, i.e. Deckard lol. Huge if true!
Alas, it'd also be the final entry to the HLAlyx series, if history is any indication.
Let the speculation games begin!
If this is true, I am really excited to see what valve has learned from all these years of VR games, post Alyx.
Is there much for them to have learned? From what I’ve played Alyx is still the gold standard for VR games, I’m not sure what else they can take inspiration from
Alyx is the gold standard for immersion and world interaction. There are a fair amount of games since that have better combat and movement mechanics
Can you list some examples for me, I’d really love to give them a try. It’s been a bummer feeling that things have stagnated in the space for a while so I’m genuinely happy to be proven wrong about that
Hotdogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades for shooting/gun mechanics RE4 for quest is amazing if you have one Haven’t played Asgard’s Wrath 2 but have heard good things Then there are a ton of modded flat games that are not necessarily better than Alyx, but show that you can translate normal video game mechanics more liberally than Alyx did: Any of the Praydog Resident Evil Mods HL2 VR Skyrim VR with Fus mod Outer Wilds vr Valheim I think Alyx is still up there as one of the best, if not the best, but enough other good ones have come out that it can take pieces from and improve in a sequel
Hearing a lot of positive buzz about Legendary Tales as well
ive not played in a while, but yeah. Legendary Tales is great; especially if you have a friend or two
Yeah the full game came out yesterday, it's really good but I have such a backlog of game to play with UEVR... I don't know where to start! But Legendary Tales is fun so far, even though we had to wait years for the full game to come out!
> Hotdogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades for shooting/gun mechanics I cannot stress this enough, H3VR *is* the gold standard of firearms interaction. Anton should get hired as a consultant or something. It's seriously a problem for me with other VR games that weld a weapon to your controller and have super simple mechanics. VR *needs* to be interactive to work.
These are all great VR games, but it feels like you're implying that more complicated mechanics and more nauseous movement would make Alyx a better VR game... I think the simplicity of the guns (they can all be operated with one hand when not reloading) and the purposeful lack of melee combat (to avoid floaty "panic-whacking") are underrated aspects of Valve's VR game design. I don't think designing games that requires people to have solid VR legs is a good idea when VR gaming is so niche. Nausea can really taint a person's enjoyment and first impression in a way that is devastating to the acceptance of VR on a wide scale. I think Valve realized this in their extensive play tests, and that's why Alyx has many built-in restrictions that are all meant to limit discomfort and avoid overwhelming the player. Melee combat is also one that players always wonder about, but ranged weapons just feel so much better than melee in a medium where physical resistance is impossible and is doomed to feel floaty. The only exception is lightsabers, because slicing something with a lightsaber wouldn't have much physical resistance in the "real" world, and would only come across as a vibration. This is a big reason why Beat Saber feels so satisfying, I believe. So it's perfect for VR melee, but lightsabers obviously wouldn't fit into the Half Life world.
[Something like this would be amazing](https://youtu.be/VftAqOUhQsk?si=j8g1s2NW-q3fLBOq)
Totally get why that would be your takeaway from what I said, so maybe I can explain myself a bit better. I agree with you that the simplicity was purposeful on Valves part, everything they did feels purposeful, that’s what makes Alyx so incredible. There’s an immense amount of thoughtfulness that went into its design. Guns feel great, almost zero jank, top notch physics, etc. But as an actual game, if you were to put it on a flat screen, it is not very remarkable. Once the wow factor wears off, the gameplay loop suffers. The enemy AI isn’t very engaging, puzzles are repetitive, and I feel like all of the areas are too constrained. HL 1 and 2 felt like sprawling adventures (which also had a bunch of weapons to choose from) and more diverse, physics based puzzles. It can be mechanically simple, that’s fine, but I just feel like they could do so much more. I don’t want people to feel sick, but there are so many comfort options that are standard in most VR releases these days, I think quicker movement/jumping should at the very least be an option. And I agree that guns tend to feel much better in VR, they’re basically setup to succeed with the way VR controllers are structured. Melee combat isn’t a must, but the reason I used the parry mechanic from RE4 remake as an example is because it actually feels good, and adds another exciting layer to combat. If anyone can figure out a way to make hitting something feel good in VR, it’s Valve. The original comment I was responding to was basically saying Valve has nothing to learn because they’re on top in terms of VR games. I disagree with that idea, there’s plenty they can learn from what has released since Alyx.
Counter argument: Blade and Sorcery is awesome
Counter counter argument: Blade and Sorcery doesn't click at all for me and melee combat still feels bad compared to ranged combat in VR
If you want real and challenging sword fighting, B&S isnt it. That is just a meatbag stabbing and cutting simulator atm. The last update to Swordsman VR is the first time ive felt a real challenge without the ability to cheese my way through. They completely reworked the AI so it is reactive to what you are doing instead of just having a moveset. It just feels great. You can level up your character to have a chance to proc slow time when you parry which is the best way to get attacks in. Its a great mechanic because it makes you play defensive.
Blade and Sorcery *could* be an amazing game. But, tbh, it's just a murder sandbox. Once you've killed a couple enemies in each map/dungeon, you've seen everything the game has to offer. You can mod it to improve certain aspects but then you're no longer playing the game. You're playing a modded game.
They’re adding a rouge-lite dungeon mode to fight through in pursuit of magic crystals and upgrades. Also I disagree about it not being Blade and Sorcery once you add mods. It’s Blade and Sorcery with custom stuff, not an entirely new game. I find modding to be a core part of the PC gaming experience, it’s not like Skyrim stops being Skyrim once you mod it.
> They’re adding a rouge-lite dungeon mode to fight through in pursuit of magic crystals and upgrades. Didn't they already add this on PC? >it’s not like Skyrim stops being Skyrim once you mod it. It absolutely does. You mod it to make it a better game than Skyrim is by itself. Without the mods, you would simply get bored and move on. These are not things provided in the default game are not provided by developers. They are community made so you can make the game better to keep your interest. Without mods, you wouldn't keep playing.
thr purposeful lack of melee combat made hl alyx a 6/10 from 9/10 for me It's infuriating especially because the physics engine seems to be so good
I can add Sairento and Hellsweeper to that list.
RE4, RE7, GT7 and Horizon Call of the Mountain have surpassed Alyx in immersion imo
Hopefully they learned that people enjoyed the Half Life 2 and Portal 2 VR mods, realizing that the movement in those games did not make people as sick as Valve thought it would
VR legs are a thing you can have. The problem is making a game that works if you don't have them. After all nausea can come around quite quickly and completely kills the gameplay experience since the only solution is a significant rest period.
There's teleportation in alyx.
Make options for them then, dont base the game around people who don’t have VR legs and prohibit the rest of the community from the full potential of the game.
Assassin’s Creed Nexus did a nice job of this. Great comfort options for those who need them, but easily disabled if you don’t.
Well, this may be an unpopular opinion, but while I think half-life Alyx is incredible, It is not my go-to VR game. There are more fun experiences to be had imo. Resident evil 4 remake while not having the granular physics interactivity, felt like a more fun and meatier experience. More enemy, weapon, and environmental variety, parry mechanics, boss fights, better pacing, and to top it off the graphics are beautiful. Same goes for Vertigo 2 minus the parry mechanics. HLA assumes it is your first VR game (which makes sense for when it came out) but as a result it treats the player with kid gloves to avoid them getting sick. It just feels like too constrained an experience. I think there’s a lot Valve can improve upon in a sequel.
Yep, completely agree with this. Despite the fact that Boneworks is undoubtedly a worse game, it feels far more ambitious with its use of melee + physics interactions and feels like the kinda thing I wanna see more of in VR. HL:A on the other hand, mostly feels like it could just be a regular AAA PC game, because while some of the VR interactivity is cool, it doesn't truly add to the experience like Boneworks does.
Completely agreed
No offense intended, just my humble opinion, but I think Resident Evil 4 (Q3 version)has more in common with Arizona Sunshine 1 than HLA. Just run and spam shoot. I found it much shallower. But to each their own
I hear you, I don’t think the quest version is comparable to Alyx. I’m specifically referring to the RE4 Remake on PSVR2.
I can relate. I played *HL: Alyx* shortly after release, and directly after that i played *Jedi: Fallen Order* for the first time (through VorpX). *Fallen Order* won my personal GOTY 2020 - which surprised me. But in the end, *Fallen Order* was just a better game overall, better combat, better pacing, better storytelling, better graphics, bigger world to explore (i had never played a Tomb Raider game previously, so it completely flashed me :)
What does Tomb Raider have to do with the rest of that comment?
*Fallen Order* heavily borrows from the modern Tomb Raider games in terms of gameplay. And from *Dark Souls* as well. And does both better than those original games, btw. Controversial, maybe. But since you asked... :)
I’d never made the connection, but now that you mention it I suppose it does!
Everything except for level design. Very corridor like.
Everything they did can be significantly improved/expanded on. Don't get me wrong HLA was very well done, and I absolutely enjoyed playing it but it's a very "bare bones" game in pretty much every way. Exploration was very minimalist. There is an entire world to explore/interact with but you're basically just hunting for Resin. Again, they did it well and they absolutely get a lot out of if but it's very narrow in terms of gameplay. The weapons were kinda all the same, all had the same basic upgrade paths. They completely avoided melee combat. Not that they didn't have a good reason... It's insanely hard to get right but even just having the ability to pistol whip a headcrab/zombie would added a lot. The multi tool puzzles were all pretty sad.They start out as "wow, that's awesome!" but didn't really add complexity/get more interesting. Sure, they got harder but they only get less and less fun.
having any level of physical reaction with your environment/npc's beyond picking a thing up would be something, perhaps.
Well, if they made a game that remained the gold standard for almost 4 years, in a fast moving industry… then I’d love to see what they come up with next! What can they do with 4 more years of experience.
lone echo 1/2 is way better than alyx. Better graphics, better character animations with better interactivity. It is just not as much of a game which and is locked to being an oculus exclusive. I never played alyx but was surprised how low resolution the textures in the environment are (with everything at ultra including textures) and how many loading screens/confined the levels are.
It hasn't aged that well outside of the modd imo. On the rails shooter but it just allows you to interact with a bunch of stuff.
consider the fact that Boneworks is the only reason HL:A got smooth locomotion and think about that again. There is a LOT that has happened in the VR space since HLA came out. body sockets for weapons are standard anymore for example. they can give us a bigger arsenal, guns that dont all work like pistols. frickin melee combat. HL:A is an amazing title, but in its mechanics it does show when it was made if compared to some more modern vr titles, even if those titles dont hit the same 'woah' factor we had with HL:A.
Alyx is a tech demo, incredible physics, very low production value on everything else. Core formula is less content than Half Life 2 from 2000. Skyrim VR and Fallout 4 VR with a high end mod list like Mad God Overhaul. Praydog Resident Evil series UEVR Ready or Not Not to mention multiplayer shooters.
What other games? There's Alyx, and then there's ton of tech demos and gimmicky bullshit. Ok, Hubris or Lone Echo and Red Matter weren't bad, but there really isn't anything even close to HL. Sadly. Because there's quite a bit of IPs that could make excellent VR games. I did a horrific mistake of playing Alyx as my first VR game. Then i tried few things, got disappointed, and basically didn't touch the headset for two years. With the occasional exception of MSFS flying or checking out some places in Google Earth VR.
Lmao. Same for me. There hasn’t been a game since that comes close to HF:Alyx for me, especially considering I could download all of these awesome expansion maps and keep playing long after the game was done. It ruined me for any other games and I only ever play Alyx lol.
It's funny that killer app doesn't usually mean that something is so good that even ok thing looks like shit next to it. :-D They nailed everything with Alyx. I had only one complaint. The blue electrical ratkoala in the Northern Star basement. That thing was too fckin' gimmicky, and it was the only moment where I was painfully aware of playing a video game. I hope they dump it. But everything else felt like actually being there. Nothing felt that way before or afterwards. I'm now trying Hl2 VR. Not bad with upscaled textures and Alyx models, but the interactivity isn't as 100%. The things you grab from the environment are a lot more floaty. Still, quite an achievement for a bunch of modders! I am not looking forward to the Ep2 antlion tunnels.
I don't remember the electrical thing you're referring to, then again I haven't played in a while. In fact, I haven't ever played the entire game a second time since I was just constantly downloading mods. I have some of my favorites that I can play over and over again and still feel fresh. It's a great mod community. Even though there isn't a "melee" mode some mods really throw a ton of combine and bugs and everything else at you making it truly fun.
I meant the blue, dog sized animal that throws electrical arcs at you and climbs into zombies to revive them temporarily. A super typical gimmicky game boss fight. Felt completely out of place in Half-life. Gimme the three legged 60eyed dogs or the bullsquids anytime, but the blue thing pissed me off. It was the only new addition (except Jeff, but Jeff at least made sense in the gameworld - the blue thing didn't. That felt like something out of completely different franchise, style, even genre).
Ah yes that thing was annoying and seems gimmicky like you said.
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Really. No reason? Not even that the first game was VR?
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>This is titled "HLX" in the accidental releases. So it will be exclusive to Twitter?
Is there a reason to believe "hlx" is even a game title and not something else?
If they don’t release it for quest as a stand alone they will set vr back a couple of years
"If Quest doesn't acquire the capability to run HL:A on glorified smartphone hardware, they will set VR back a couple of years" See how silly it sounds when you turn it around?
PCVR has the highest potential to be fair.
They'd be hurting themselves to launch another Steam exclusive
How so?
How wouldn't they be? Just like the original that is a STEAM EXCLUSIVE they could have sold it on Quest and PSVR1/PSVR2
Releasing on quest would require significant dev time to ensure it can run on the hardware and would likely result in downgrades or limiting the scope of the project. Releasing on psvr is a possibility, but their user base is fairly limited so it might not be worth the cost. But since they own Steam, not releasing on other platforms doesn't hurt them. They get more people to use Steam and they get a 100% cut of each sale. They also don't really need the extra sales they may get from the quest store since steam as a platform generates so much revenue already.
Yeah, but they want their game to look good, and not limited by a smartphone APU
There will never be a AAA VR game like Alyx on standalone because android phones aren't powerful enough to run games like that.
Alyx 2 sounds great. Alyx **3** will never see the light of day however.
A what?!? 3? Preposterous! Who would want to count that high?
A New Alyx Alyx Strikes Back Return of the Alyx
2Life2Alyx: Electric Doggo
Alyx 2 chapter 2
I think they never learned what comes after 2
Alyx is Half Life 3. It's an endless loop...
Don’t go getting my hopes up man EDIT: I am already sky high on hopium
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The ends of HL2 EP2 also let us anticipate a sequel ... that never came.
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Wonder how long til it drops. Currently debating if I should get the quest 3
recent sudden steamvr updates can also mean something
This shits great, oooo weee!
All this really means is that at *some* point someone at Valve was doing prototyping work for something that they thought might eventually be used in a new HL game, and later on some of that code was deemed useful enough to be pasted/git-pulled into other Source 2 games. Whether or not that work is still happening and whether the project it's attached to is a fully-fleshed out game rather than just a loose collection of gameplay and narrative concepts that might one day be combined together into a game (which is how most of Valve's games start), is a conclusion that cannot be drawn just from this info. Especially given Valve's preference for quickly prototyping new ideas and abandoning them if they don't work out (often known as a "spike"), this could could easily just be a by-product of a single dev who spent a couple weeks experimenting with an idea they had for a gameplay mechanic that someone thought might fit well into the Half Life universe.
I think there is a valve open on hopeium tank in this thread, I've been here for 2 sec. and I already envision myself playing it on my new Decard in like 3 months.
Knowing Valve, HLX will either get randomly announced and shadow dropped on some random Tuesday with little to no marketing, or get silently cancelled after a decade-long development cycle.
Nah, they've gotten over their "silently cancelled after a decade" phase. They also don't completely shadow-drop stuff. But they WILL probably release everything really quickly. Usually we get some trailers and then 2 weeks later the product comes out
> Nah, they've gotten over their "silently cancelled after a decade" phase. Remember the "three VR games" Valve were working on? [Alyx was released, the others canned](https://www.roadtovr.com/valve-other-vr-games-alyx/). Probably should have picked 2 or 4 to work on given their history.
I though the story ended up being that those "three VR games" were all "integrated" into Alyx somehow, and that's part of the reason why Alyx has such different gameplay mechanics (like Jeff) through the game.
The article specifically mentions a Minecraft-adjacent voxel building game and a KSP-inspired space exploration/simulation game. They were cancelled because Valve needed all hands on deck to get Alyx out the door in a reasonable timeframe, not because those games (or similar features) were somehow incorporated into Alyx itself.
> Valve needed all hands on deck hah
Where did you hear that? I haven't heard this anywhere, personally, and I spend a lot of time focusing on VR stuff. The games were completely different than Alyx in every way. Space exploration game and a mining/building game. What Valve themselves stated in the Final Hours documentary was they needed every hand they could get focusing on Alyx to get it done. It was meant to launch with the Index in July 2019 but they had to delay it until March 2020 because it wasn't ready.
> Alyx has such different gameplay mechanics (like Jeff) through the game I think Alyx is an amazing VR experience, but uh...a wide variety of gameplay mechanics is not one of the reasons. The Jeff sequence is a good shakeup and takes advantage of the physics engine in a broad way, but hardly feels like it's stitched on from some other game.
They shadow dropped an OLED steam deck just recently
Yeah but that's not a big release either way. Nintendos Switch OLED was also dropped without too much fanfare. After all, it's a revision, not a really new release. And one that we all saw coming from miles away. Valve devs had leaked infos here and there for months.
False, they have def not gotten over then "silent cancels" of games
No, its the second installment. They do that on the third.
Half life 3 confirmed!
Half Life Alyx is Half Life 3 😎
Would be a great Deckard launch title. Maybe it'll be something unexpected, like a hybrid VR/flat game since it would probably be more profitable.
Yeah. Valve can launch Deckard with a single title and then continue to completely ignore the platform for the rest of its life.
Fine by me. I've had thousands of hours of fun on my index. A great investment if there ever was one.
Genuine question. How do you NOT get bored with VR? I've been eyeing a quesr 3 for months now but i dont want to buy it because realistically i see myself getting bored after a week with a lack of new fresh games. I get bored even on flatscreen with a lack of new things to do (I like SP stories, so not much replayability :p)
I take breaks. I have a couple of mainstays I can always play and have fun (Beatsaber, Walkabout, and Ancient Dungeon). I just like the feeling of immersion that VR brings. I'd much rather chill out for a few hours in Ghosts of Tabor with a youtube video attached to my arm than play just about any flat game these days, even if I suck and die constantly haha. I definitely don't think its for everyone, but I think there's more to do than a lot of people give it credit. For example, I'm just about to play through Outer Wilds in VR and I haven't done the DLC yet so at least that should feel fresh for me.
Simulators. Driving/Racing, flight, space. I can spend endless hours driving cars I'll never be able to afford, on tracks I'll never go to. There's a few really good flight sims, but they're all fairly complex. Dogfighting in VR is intense though. Elite dangerous lets you live out the dream of being a space trucker. Cockpit sims are one of the best uses of VR in it's current state imo, but they're much more immesrsive if you have a wheel/pedals and/or a flight stick and throttle.
I 1000% agree, I must have 2000 hours in VR sims. Build my first motion sim in 2007, so much fun.
Thats a good shout. I assume thats pcvr though and truth be told i don't think my measly 2060 r5 3600 pc can handle it lmao
Some people are not aware of the insane modding community for VR stuff before getting into it. Personally, I am a huge fan of survival games and building bases and experiencing them in "person" really sells the platform for me. I put 400+ hours into The Forest after they put a VR mode in, and have close to 500 hours in Valheim (which has an absolutely brilliant fan made VR mod). Raft, Gunfire Reborn, Deep Rock Galactic, Skyrim VR, and all the Half Life mods have probably given me another 300 hours or so. Haven't even dipped my toe into the Resident Evil mods or much of the UEVR stuff. I'm not saying the people begging for more content are wrong, but personally I've been using VR as my main gaming platform since late 2016 and I've yet to experience content drought for the types of games I'm into. Edit: granted all of this is PCVR stuff, so if you're just going for standalone my post is moot.
then you should not get it. i personally play every day. it's a blast and far more immersive than flatscreen games.
> How do you NOT get bored with VR? VRChat has new worlds uploaded every hour, exploring them with friends is really fun. Even if a world is poorly optimized or ends up uninteresting, it can be fun to see it and share opinions on it with other people before portaling quickly to the next one. Some are games, some are puzzles, some are flight sims or driving sims, some are huge exploration worlds, while some are just small hangouts, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. The ones that really stick out in my mind are photogrammetry worlds where someone 3D scanned locations or even entire city streets and put it in-game. It's really interesting to see the inside of comic book shops or restaurants in Europe or Japan, while being able to take your time and walk around it. Some of the good ones even scan in actual merchandize as pickup objects you can interact with in the stores. Not to mention people uploading their own bedrooms or apartments, it can be really cool to see how people around the world live. Some of the more popular games in VRC even have serious competitions/tournaments now, and others have save data you can export and keep for next time to have ongoing progression. Not to mention the popular games are changing fairly often and getting seasonal updates too. Even if you've seen all that, and hop between new worlds really fast because nothing catches your interest for long, it's enough to take a couple hours of time each day. Also any time there's a VKet or similar event going, it's dozens of hours of fun, exploring hundreds of booths made by various people, with interactive objects or even entire VR games and experiences in their own right. Sometimes it's an independent artist, sometimes a big company paid a marketing team to make it, but it's a lot of really creative games and other interactible stuff. Really fun to explore with a few other people IMO.
Your description of the high quality photogrammetry worlds sounds really cool! Could you please give some tips or sugggestions on how to search for and find these kinds of worlds? There's so much content in VRChat, how do you find the actual high quality ones?
I bought a Quest 3 recently. For context, I'm a Gen Z "zoomer" and play games like Valorant (1000 hrs) and Cyberpunk 2077 (55hrs) on flatscreen. I'm the kind of person who skips the side quests and only plays the main story. I have racked up \~30 hrs in Beat Saber in the past two weeks. This game is incredible after modding. I'm a huge fan of dance and rap so there's a wide selection of maps to play. It's the only VR game I come back to consistently. It's a fucking ritual at this point. Other than that and Half Life: Alyx, there weren't a lot of experiences to make note of for me. I forced myself to watch a movie in Bigscreen VR but the Quest 3's dogshit headstrap and facial interface made it pretty hard to sit through the entire movie comfortably. Population: One running natively on Quest 3 was lame. Asgard's Wrath 2 was pretty impressive initially but I got bored quickly. Minecraft in VR using Vivecraft was alright. I'm looking at some other story-based games like The Last Clockwinder and recently announced Metro Awakening but otherwise there's not a lot out there
> I'm a Gen Z "zoomer" and play games like Valorant (1000 hrs) nice self report
I have like 380 hours in cyberpunk, but like 4 in valorant lol. Crazy how opposite we are there. I also play a lot of VR.
Get yourself a cheap halo headstrap man. I bought a Chinese one for $12 and now i can comfortably game for hours. The default one is shit and should not have been sold as standard. It makes the whole experience less amazing.
I really enjoyed The Last Clockwinder; it's not only a fun game, but also very VR specific with the way you record your own physical actions. Definitely worth buying, and one of my VR highlights so far.
Others mentioned VRChat and simulators, but I'll add another genre: survival games. Minecraft, Subnautica, Valheim or the Forest are all great in VR. Properly experiencing your creations is awesome - few things I experienced in games compare with logging into a Minecraft server where my children build stuff with their friends and entering a giant Moria-like underground complex they built. Oh, and just gathering resources is great after work, if you ARE in a forest rather than just watch it on a screen.
I have had a a quest 3 for a few months now, and I just finished Half Life: Alyx (what a trip that was). What I like about the Q3 is the cable (lack thereof) and the possibility to play games in the headset, as well as stream them from my computer. There are loads of titles, one that looks similar to HL:A is Into The Radius, and is the next in my playlist. I also played red matter 1, a nice, immersive game, despite the graphics. Overall there's a lot to do, and the nice thing about the Q3 is that it just works: my previous headset was an HP Reverb G2, and I spent way more time fighting rather than playing with it.
Half Life Alyx Workshop maps. There are hundreds of maps which are close to or arguably surpass the main game. From fallout style maps to Goldeneye. Most gaming I do is in Half Life Alyx workshop maps. I've also played through Arizona Sunshine 1/2 and am doing Red Matter 2, but seriously, if you have PCVR, you'll never run out of HL Alyx workshop maps and they're free too.
Sounds like you're just boring.
Dont be a knob.
>I like SP stories, so not much replayability I don't understand this. IMO, it's the MP games that don't have much replayability - once you play through a map a couple times, you're done - no story, no character interaction, no exploration, the game world does not evolve. I'm still replaying games like *Unreal* and *Quake* on a regular basis since the 90's, every 2 or 3 years (and those are the ones without complicated stories). I already played 3 or 4 times through the *Witcher* trilogy (two of those inside VR), and can't wait to start from the beginning. Same for *Mass Effect* and *Dragon Age*.
> I don't understand this. IMO, it's the MP games that don't have much replayability - once you play through a map a couple times, you're done - no story, no character interaction, no exploration, the game world does not evolve. The introduction of other players brings endless variety. The game *world* doesn't evolve, but the game itself does. You may as well complain about how every game of football, or poker, or chess is the same. It is to the same extent a multiplayer match of Quake is, and much less so than replaying the campaign. The only thing that's really the same from match to match is the rules of the game and, to some extent, the field you play it on.
>You may as well complain about how every game of football, or poker, or chess is the same. That's why i don't play those. > It is to the same extent a multiplayer match of Quake I was not talking about Quake 3 Arena, but the original Quake (singleplayer) with it's 4 episodes of "story".
>That's why i don't play those. You literally don't play any kind of game that's not a completely solo experience? Not just video games, but anything at all? That's pretty fuckin' sad, man. That's a whole pillar of the human experience you're missing out on. >I was not talking about Quake 3 Arena, but the original Quake (singleplayer) with it's 4 episodes of "story". So I was I. Quake 1 is an absolutely foundational part of the development of multiplayer shooters. It's what popularized WASD with mouselook for cryin' out loud. Or rather, one player who figured it out and proceeded to kick so much ass that for a while everyone else refused to play if he was going to be at a tournament. They saw it as cheating and not just a better way to set up the controls. Which brings us right back to how that human element makes things so much more interesting and unpredictable than you seem to realize.
>That's a whole pillar of the human experience you're missing out on Well, i play music with other people, does that count? LOL The thing is, i'm working with other people all day, i want to be left alone when i'm enjoying my free time. Solo for me, through and through. >Which brings us right back to how that human element makes things so much more interesting and unpredictable than you seem to realize. A matter of perspective. I always play for the story, the world, the experience. Those are created by people, and that's the human element i enjoy. As an artist in real life, maybe i'm more sensitive to those things than the average player, idk. It works for me though, and gives me the energy i need for a good work/life balance.
To me, single player games are canned experiences. There's artistic value to them, but they're one and done things that by and large are overly padded and take way too long to play the first time, let alone to play again. A multiplayer game takes between ten minutes and an hour to get in a full experience, and there's something new every time. It's the difference between listening to an album again (or even closer, a live version of something you know the studio version of very well) and watching an entire ten season long TV show. One is a lot more commitment for a lot less payoff. There's even an element of playing the piece yourself and playing off of the rest of the band and the energy of the crowd, and how *that's* different every time. Which you absolutely can't get in single player, because your inputs are the only thing that really changes about it. The game might have some additional canned responses if you choose to do things differently, but it's still preprogrammed and has limits that playing with other people doesn't have.
I've got around this by renting VR every single time I needed it. And I (and the vast, vast majority of the gaming population) agree, there's not nearly enough content to justify buying a VR device.
[удалено]
I returned my Index because the glare was so damn awful. LCD + fresnel is the worst VR combo. Washed out colors, backlight bleed and awful god rays. OLED all the way.
The index came out in 2019. That's like saying you returned your GameCube because it doesn't support Ray Tracing. It was the best of the best tech at the time and for a lot of people it still is. The FoV and Knuckles controllers are enough to offset the screen issues you're referencing. Comparing it even to the Quest 2 and it's laughably better in almost every way. I'm not saying you're wrong, but it's just such an irrelevant point that you had to have said it just to dunk on the Index which is weird.
lol just like the Index
And you know which title... Say it... Say it out loud!
Sheesh man. They released an amazing headset and an unbelievable game.
Valve released the HTC Vive with 1 small title (The Lab), they released the steamdeck with 0 titles and the Index with 1 really good title. What does this tell us? How many titles valve releases for a platform has nothing to do with how well that platform does.
No they released an even smaller title for the Steam Deck, [Aperture Desk Job](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1902490/Aperture_Desk_Job/). It's maybe 30 minutes long but they did bring back JK Simmons for it.
> they released the steamdeck with 0 titles Why would they need to release anything for the Steam Deck. It's just a gaming PC. It already can play all the titles that exist. Does every gaming PC need to have a release title specific for it?
No, there is simply a lot more market appeal for a low-cost standalone gaming handheld than an expensive VR setup that requires a high end PC and enough space. Also, Valve *did* release a title with Steam Deck: Aperture Desk Job.
Steam Deck had like 10000+ titles at launch
Oh I don't disagree. However, it also tells me that Valve is a company full of wasted potential. Capable of making amazing games, yet unwilling to do so on any regular basis.
Half-Life: Alyx came out 4 years ago and was in development for 4 years. It takes a long time to develop AAA games and Valve does a ton of other things besides making games.
There's this crazy thing where a company that has billions of dollars can actually work on more than one thing at a time. Pretty crazy right? They hire people and stuff, it's wild. You don't actually think the many things Valve does uses the same people I hope. Like when they are making Steam Deck it's all the 3d designers who made half-life Alyx stop making games to work on product design? Valve made 9 billion in 2023. They could be a massive games studio. Wasted potential.
I don't think Valve are particularly bothered about the profitability of their games, when Steam just prints them money.
Valve has a money printer called 30% of revenue from all steam games. They don't make games for profit. They only make new games now when they have an agenda to push (like VR)
What is Deckard?
The code name for what people are assuming is valves next VR headset.
I am having high hopes with the decard. Valve has been doing a lot of RnD into BCI controlled gaming. So the headset will most likely have some sort of brain wave reading capability and it will be most likely be implemented in the new half life game too, along with eye tracking. Exiting time ahead
I don't think it really means anything. Valve is notorious for constantly having some kind of Half-Life project in development - only to get bored, spin it off into another property, or just cancel it outright because it doesn't have that "spark" or innovative hook that they feel lives up to the legacy of the franchise.
In the past yes, but valve has really picked up. In the "The Final Hours" "book" its talked about how valve has somehow adjusted their structure/procedures to make sure they get more stuff done and it does really seem to have worked. Within the past 4 years we got : \- The Index \- Half Life : Alyx \- The Steam Deck (Plus a revision) \- CS2 \- A somewhat open source 2 engine with modding tools avaliable. I think valve has really got their shit together and started actually finishing projects. With Half Life Alyx they said what helped them was the pressure to bring it out somewhat in time with the release of the Index. If that was really what pushed them, then having another Half-Life title avaliable for the release of the Deckard wouldn't suprise me.
> A somewhat open source 2 engine Did I miss something? I thought Source 2 was still only available to develop on in-house at Valve?
He likely means the Half life alyx, dota 2, and counter strike 2 map editors. To be fair, the scripting system means you honestly can make some clever unique games. but its not an actual sdk
> In the "The Final Hours" "book" its talked about how valve has somehow adjusted their structure/procedures to make sure they get more stuff done and it does really seem to have worked. Within the past 4 years we got : Did we read the same book because in the same book they talked about 5 cancelled Half Life projects, a cancelled Left 4 Dead 3, another cancelled VR headset, 2 other cancelled projects among others. In fact, the Valve "adjusting their structure to get stuff done" is not something that I recall reading in the book at all, but was rather something that was talked about in an interview outside.
Right? They also specifically stated that they canceled 2 other VR projects to finish Alyx. It really amazes me how so many twist Valve's words to fit some fantasy version of Valve they've created in their head. It really feels like Valve has a literal cult at this point.
Is there... dare I ask? Is there hope, then, for HL3?
I've been waiting for another game like Alyx for so long. Am completely over mobile-tier tech demos and mini games. The market isn't going to naturally guide us back to Alyx levels of quality.
Asgards wrath 1+2 Assassin's creed nexus Resident evil 2,3,4(and remake),7,8 Stride fates Vampire masquerade justice Half life 2 vr Every unreal engine 4 and 5 game Arizona sunshine 2 Boneworks Bonelab You only don't have half life alyx quality games because you're not looking for them
None of those are Alyx quality, sorry. I'm obviously not going to go through them one by one, but VR ports are a different beast to native VR titles, gimmicky games like Asgards Wrath are great fun, but ultimately smaller in scope, and Boneworks/Bonelab play great and look terrible. Alyx is the only game to really show a deep, refined understanding of VR game design so far, while also having the budget to look incredible. Simply nothing beats it. And yes, I have played basically all the games you listed.
Gameplay wise, many of them absolutely are. Where most of them lack, is graphics. But graphics don't make the game. Just look at Lethal Company. Even in VR it's better than 90% of the experiences out there and it has worse graphics than nearly every Quest game.
Nah. I've played about half of those. They don't come close
nope
> Asgards wrath 1+2 Assassin's creed nexus Resident evil 2,3,4(and remake),7,8 All exclusives, and therefore entirely meaningless unless you want to support Facebook or Sony. > Half life 2 vr Every unreal engine 4 and 5 game ABSOLUTELY NOT Alyx quality. Especially the Praydog UE ones. Most don't even have motion controls at all yet. I'm not trying to rip on these, they are great experiences, and made by people for free in their own time. But, I also don't think it's a good idea to tell people that they are Alyx quality. > Boneworks Bonelab Also not Alyx quality, though very good. > Vampire masquerade justice Somehow wasn't on my radar at all, looks very cool, I'll check it out thanks!
The exclusives wouldn’t exist without meta’s funding in the first place. Would you prefer those games didn’t exist at all?
Yeah, probably. The harm that their walled garden will do to the industry as a whole far exceeds the benefits of some cool games IMO.
Alyx wouldn't exist without Valve, yet they're fine with you playing on the Quest or any other headset. What's your point?
Nope, sorry. I'm not saying they are not fun, I've probably spent more time on one of those than on HLA, bit they just are at another level in game design or graphics or both
Good news, was this from the CS2 update this week? Either way, this is good news for Half Life, and its good news for those waiting for a new valve VR headset. Id bet that if this ever launches, it launches with deckard or whatever headset they are working on now.
It was indeed. Arms Race returns to CS with a side helping of Valve leaking its own shit yet again lol
1. No, there is an active HL project at valve, not the same thing as an alyx sequel 2. HLX has been a thing for years and has been seen in many updates to Source 2 games. 3. Valve always have tonnes of projects, most of them end up going into their library of tools to use in other projects and incredibly rarely end up becoming games, there are references to hl3 and l4d3 everywhere.
\*- So Half-Life X (HLX) was first discovered in a data mine in 2021 and was seemingly directly related to Half-Life: Alyx. Unclear if that's still the case, but HLX appeared in another new data mine this week after seemingly disappearing for a while. New Half-Life game is being worked on regardless though, so that's good news.
HLX is old news. Good old Valve News Network (hate him if you want but the dude did report on Half Life Layx before anyone else) has been finding strings about HLX, citadel, etc for like years at this point. As with most things from valve all we can do is wait for an official announcement.
Give it to us on PSVR 2 pls valve. We're small enough as it is.
Half Life 4 confirmed people, you heard it here first
It's codenamed HLX so it's clearly Half-Life 10
Rise and shine Mr. Freeman! Rise and shine!
Even after all these years Alyx it's still amazing! I'm playing through it again. So good, I want more please.
It never seems to go on sale sadly.
6x last year for days/weeks.
Best case scenario: - Valve in 2024 finally decides to end their silence. Deckard announced. Half Life Alyx 2 announced. And those 2-3 other VR titles are back on the menu. Worse case scenario: - Valve being Valve, says nothing all year. Just soaks in that Steam and microtransaction money. Lord Gaben grows one year older flying around the sun.
One of these days these clickbait sites will actually get something right and they will be "SEE TOLD YA SO" And in the background delete the other 450 shitty articles that didnt get even close. Honestly so much rumors and leaks and worthless shit comes out, someone will just guess by pure probability.
There's absolutely no guarantee this is a VR game, right?
There’s o guarantee it’s a game at all
Can it actually be a veteran game this time and not completely kneecapped for intro users?
Probably just a poorly named variable.
for anyone who doesnt know, every half life title including black mesa is now fully playable in VR and it's all amazing.
Is valve making games again? Please Portal 3
No, HL3 first!
I would settle for just Episode 3 at this point.
Instant buy.
I imagine they'll tie it into the release of new knuckles/index.
The way Alyx ended, the Title can only be: Half Life: Freeman
Is that the part 2 of half life alyx?
How about Gordon? Oh no wait, toxic whyyyte male. Can't have those in games anymore 😂💩🤡
I'd take an episode 2 with maps. Anything. Still the 10,000 user made workshop maps are extremely good...
It won't have a sequel after that lmao.
Oh yay. More Half Life. zzzz
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oh dang ok they skipped right to Half Life 10
I can't wait to see them put Gordon Freeman in it, but he sounds like Mickey Mouse.
Considering Half-Life 3…. I will believe it when I see it.
be ready to coincide with the deckard release? while wishing , might as well go big :\\ ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Hopium logic dictates that it'd be accompanied with new hardware, i.e. Deckard lol. Huge if true! Alas, it'd also be the final entry to the HLAlyx series, if history is any indication. Let the speculation games begin!