News Half-Life: Alyx - Releasing March 23, 2020 on SteamVR

TheTrain

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By the way guys, i'm probably too much excited. I think it's because I was on the fence for so long and it's been almost an year that I'm ready to dive into the VR but damn, Boneworks was already enough to get me spend a thousand euro on the Index but....a new half life? That's like a dream!
Can't wait to see what they've cooked in all this years.
 
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Aelphaeis Mangarae

Aelphaeis Mangarae

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According to Tyler McVicker, Half-Life: Alyx originally had a newcomer writer. He was told that while HL: Alyx was praised by playtesters for its mechanics, the plot was described as "low stakes" and the writing in general was seen as a major flaw. So in early 2019, the game was rebooted and writing was handed over to Erik Wolpaw and Jay Pinkerton. (I think the second writer was Pinkerton, can't be sure, though. I'd have to check the stream again.) Personally, it's a shame that Marc Laidlaw ended up retiring from Valve. I would have preferred him to guide this ship all the way to the end.
 
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HK-47

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Aelphaeis Mangarae said:
According to Tyler McVicker, Half-Life: Alyx originally had a newcomer writer. He was told that while HL: Alyx was praised by playtesters for its mechanics, the plot was described as "low stakes" and the writing in general was seen as a major flaw. So in early 2019, the game was rebooted and writing was handed over to Erik Wolpaw and Jay Pinkerton. (I think the second writer was Pinkerton, can't be sure, though. I'd have to check the stream again.) Personally, it's a shame that Marc Laidlaw ended up retiring from Valve. I would have preferred him to guide this ship all the way to the end.
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Can you blame Laidlaw though? A man can’t wait around forever
 
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Arsene

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I got no money or space for VR but im still stupidly excited for this. I cant believe we’re getting a fucking single player linear Valve game in 2020, and a HALF LIFE one at that.

God damn it feels good
 
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EdwardTivrusky

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Aside from the reveal time and that it's in VR do we know anything else about the game at all? Oh, it was praised for great mechanics but the story was low-impact and... Single/Multi? Linear/Procedural? FPS/TPS?

What if it's just a walk in the park with Alyx & Dog?
 
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Arsene

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EdwardTivrusky said:
Aside from the reveal time and that it's in VR do we know anything else about the game at all? Oh, it was praised for great mechanics but the story was low-impact and... Single/Multi? Linear/Procedural? FPS/TPS?

What if it's just a walk in the park with Alyx & Dog?
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Takes place between Half Life 1 and 2 and its apparently a linear FPS game. Probably will focus on Alyx growing up and joining the resistance.

We MIGHT get to see the Seven Hour War or the direct aftermath.
 
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Aelphaeis Mangarae

Aelphaeis Mangarae

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EdwardTivrusky said:
Aside from the reveal time and that it's in VR do we know anything else about the game at all? Oh, it was praised for great mechanics but the story was low-impact and... Single/Multi? Linear/Procedural? FPS/TPS?

What if it's just a walk in the park with Alyx & Dog?
Click to expand...
Because the project was rebooted with new writers, any leaks prior to 2019 are likely very unreliable although knowing Valve a fair bit was likely re-used. Some of the old rumours I recall hearing included a flashback to Alyx at Black Mesa. The "Heart to Heart" speech from Episode 2 pointed to the G-Man "plucking" her from Black Mesa despite objections. A flashback where you play as Alyx as a child would make a great deal of sense, but again, this could have been scrapped with the new writers. Or scrapped, period. What most leaks agree on is that it primarily takes place between the events of HL1 and HL2, and has a length on par with HL2.

It's also worth noting that time travel is pivotal to the story of Half-Life. Episode 3 was originally going to be about finding the Borealis. This section from Epistle 3 seems hugely relevant for a prequel.
The Borealis, and the moment of its activation, were stretched across space and time, between the nearly forgotten Lake Huron of the Seven Hour War and the present day Arctic; it was pulled taut as an elastic band, vibrating, except where at certain points along its length one could find still points, like the harmonic spots along a vibrating guitar string. One of these harmonics was where we boarded, but the string ran forward and back, in both time and space, and we were soon pulled in every direction ourselves. Time grew confused. Looking from the bridge, we could see the drydocks of Aperture Science at the moment of teleportation, just as the Combine forces closed in from land, sea and air. At the same time, we could see the Arctic wastelands, where our friends were fighting to make their way to the protean Borealis; and in addition, glimpses of other worlds, somewhere in the future perhaps, or even in the past. Alyx grew convinced we were seeing one of the Combine's central staging areas for invading other worlds–such as our own. We meant we fought a running battle throughout the ship, pursued by Combine forces. We struggled to understand our situation, and to agree on our course of action. Could we alter the course of the Borealis? Should we run it aground in the Arctic, giving our peers the chance to study it? Should we destroy it with all hands aboard, our own included? It was impossible to hold a coherent thought, given the baffling and paradoxical timeloops, which passed through the ship like bubbles. I felt I was going mad, that we all were, confronting myriad versions of ourselves, in that ship that was half ghost-ship, half nightmare funhouse.
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I think that it's best to approach Half-Life media with an open mind. The answers to the Half-Life story doesn't necessarily lie forward in a traditional chronology.
 
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EdwardTivrusky

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Oh, my mind is totally open when it comes to HL stuff especially the story. Just let 'em get on with it. I was just curious as to whether we knew what to expect tonight because i have no idea what shape or form this game is going to be.
 
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crimsonheadGCN

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I'm expecting the interview as well as the Store page and trailer to be posted on Steam today. Preorders to go live and the game being given out to those who have bought any part of the Valve Index (Lighthouse, Controllers, Headset). Source 2 SDK going live for everyone.

Then gameplay and a tech analysis by Digital Foundry at The Game Awards. Talks about a multiplayer mode.
 
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fantomena

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It's kinda funny how people think it will get a PSVR version. I own PSVR and Rift and the PSVR's technology is a lot inferior to the Rift (or the Index, Vive, Quest for that matter) due to PSVR camera.

PSVRs camera has very limited tracking and the move controllers must bi in the cameras view at all times and the cameras field of view (how much the camera can see) is very limited. I had to do a tone of fickling wher to place the camera above or underneath my TV and so on just to be able to crouch and step aside to avoid walls in Beat Saber. You cannot turn 180 degrees with your move controllers due to the camera need to see them at all times.

The move controllers are also not very good and a lot of VR devs have problems porting PCVR games due to the Moves lack of joystiq or tracking pad (Vive controllers use this). PSVR uses the PS3 move controllers which I guess says something about the technology. Drifting happens very often, as in, the controllers in-game/your hands in-game starts moving away from you, this can easily seen when standing still.

The PSVR headset itself is not bad actually. Of course, graphics is more blurry and lack of resolution.

PSVRs main problems are tracking (PSVR camera) and the Move controllers imo.

For me when playing a PSVR game with Move controllers, it feels like 30-40% of the time Im fighting against tracking problems.

The PSVRs tracking and controllers are the reason I bought a Rift.
 
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Alextended

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It's just borne of harmless ignorance, many PSVR users only ever saw VR as advertised by Sony and have no idea what more there can be to the platform, why would they care to check on what's happening with PC or the Quest if all they ever play on is their PS4? I wish Sony hadn't botched its potential by using the ancient Move controllers (just as I hate Nintendo didn't advance motion tracking after Wii and instead had half hearted support for the original Wii remotes on Wii U) and then the only reason it wouldn't get this or that game would be the console specs. I fully expect PSVR2 for PS5 to be completely fucking amazing for most people and do wonders for VR in general but we're already at that level on PC and PSVR really doesn't hold a candle to it in so many ways even if it still has some fucking cool games and it's good enough for others. So yeah just looking into VR game design a little bit is enough to make it clear but most don't.
 
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Myradeer

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Where are they going to show the news? I thought it was going to be on Game Awards, but I just checked the date and it's apparently on December.
 
Alextended

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My internet seems to be slowing to a crawl, gaming forums, twitter, etc., must be the imminent half-life stuff :d
 
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Alextended

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It's actually a hoax, no announcement is coming, that's the only post ever on an otherwise unused since its creation last summer Valve twitter account!
 
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BlackRainbowFT

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i bought an HTC Vive on day 1 and it's been collecting dust for at least two years.

and now I'm thinking about purchasing the wireless module and I'm also trying to find a way to get Valve's index controller because, ironically, Valve is currently giving the finger to Swiss customers.
 
Arulan

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One thing I thought The Lab did really was the design of the tools. They not only look nice, but a lot of detail was added to make them feel like a real physical object in the world. The balloon tool is an excellent example of this, and unfortunately I can't seem to find any screenshots of it. It has some nice bulk to it, wires, and the interface (color selector using the pad) is easy to read. The SteamVR Home tools are designed in a similar manner as well. I think one-handed tools like this are a natural fit for VR, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Half-Life: Alyx do something similar.
 
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fantomena

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BlackRainbowFT said:
i bought an HTC Vive on day 1 and it's been collecting dust for at least two years.

and now I'm thinking about purchasing the wireless module and I'm also trying to find a way to get Valve's index controller because, ironically, Valve is currently giving the finger to Swiss customers.
Click to expand...
If you haven't touched it in 2 years there's a ton of good to great games to play.

Why haven't you even tried Beat Saber?
 
Durante

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Arulan said:
One thing I thought The Lab did really was the design of the tools. They not only look nice, but a lot of detail was added to make them feel like a real physical object in the world. The balloon tool is an excellent example of this, and unfortunately I can't seem to find any screenshots of it. It has some nice bulk to it, wires, and the interface (color selector using the pad) is easy to read. The SteamVR Home tools are designed in a similar manner as well. I think one-handed tools like this are a natural fit for VR, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Half-Life: Alyx do something similar.
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Good point.

One reason those tools work so well haptically is that they mimic the exact shape of the Vive controllers though, which is harder to do if you want to support a wider variety of input devices.
 
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Alextended

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Arulan said:
One thing I thought The Lab did really was the design of the tools. They not only look nice, but a lot of detail was added to make them feel like a real physical object in the world. The balloon tool is an excellent example of this, and unfortunately I can't seem to find any screenshots of it. It has some nice bulk to it, wires, and the interface (color selector using the pad) is easy to read. The SteamVR Home tools are designed in a similar manner as well. I think one-handed tools like this are a natural fit for VR, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Half-Life: Alyx do something similar.
Click to expand...
Red Matter does this, nice game. I'm sure we'll see actual hands in Half-Life, it's pretty great when it works well, I think it's mostly up to well done interactions than if you're holding something in your hand to then interact with objects through or just using your hand directly to grab the actual object as you're grabbing your controller. But yeah, Index's main schtick is the finger tracking so, hands are in. Hopefully without rock paper scissors tests for us non Index peasants.

Edit: wait it seems Red Matter actually presents a different tool model per device? Dang, that's dedication I guess, unless it's just older versions in the screens. Obviously they can't keep that up for every device out there as the market grows anyway and just chose vive wands and oculus CV1 maybe to include. Though I don't think it matters if such tools match 1:1 the controller as long as the positoning and angle matches well enough, you don't see the controller when in VR.
 
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BlackRainbowFT

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fantomena said:
If you haven't touched it in 2 years there's a ton of good to great games to play.

Why haven't you even tried Beat Saber?
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I'm sure it's great but I truly hate being tethered to my PC (it's mostly because of the lack of space near my PC... hence my interested in the wireless module!). With that said, I've played Stepmania to death and I own the latest Taiko no Tatsujin (+ taiko peripheral!) on my Switch... so I'm not currently craving for a new rhythm game or at least now enough to warrant setting up everything. But thanks for the rec :highfiveblob: , it does look dope.
 
ISee

ISee

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19 pm cet (in one hour) was once the time when games on steam were unlocked on release day (or sometimes still are).
I think we'll see the steampage today too.
 
Alextended

Alextended

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BlackRainbowFT said:
I'm sure it's great but I truly hate being tethered to my PC (it's mostly because of the lack of space near my PC... hence my interested in the wireless module!). With that said, I've played Stepmania to death and I own the latest Taiko no Tatsujin (+ taiko peripheral!) on my Switch... so I'm not currently craving for a new rhythm game or at least now enough to warrant setting up everything. But thanks for the rec :highfiveblob: , it does look dope.
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Pistol Whip still worth it even if you never wanna see another rhythm game in your lifetime.

Get an active usb cable extention or something if a few metres would solve that problem, idk if such cables exist? They probably do! :)
 
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ISee

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Can I go off topic for a second and say how much fun it is to have a forum where we can enjoy stuff, without constantly being shut down by angry and negative people. Without console and platform warring. And all that without mods.

Thanks @ everybody.
 
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Stygr

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ISee said:
Can I go off topic for a second and say how much fun it is to have a forum where we can enjoy stuff, without constantly being shut down by angry and negative people. Without console and platform warring. And all that without mods.

Thanks @ everybody.
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We have Derrick for negativity

Derrick01 said:
If you want negativity I'm available. Just sayin :grinning-face-with-smiling-eyes:
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AHAHAHAHAHAHA
 
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RionaaM

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ISee said:
Can I go off topic for a second and say how much fun it is to have a forum where we can enjoy stuff, without constantly being shut down by angry and negative people. Without console and platform warring. And all that without mods.

Thanks @ everybody.
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No, you can't. BAN THIS DOG!!!

Just kidding, dogs are awesome. Now, if you were a cat...
 
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