Spirit Bomb
Cartoon Pony Wrangler
#DeathToAmerica #DeathToTheAmericas #DeathToChristianity #DeathToFascism
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Post by Spirit Bomb on Nov 25, 2019 3:09:25 GMT
So a few days ago out of nowhere, Valve announced an official direct prequel to Half Life 2 called Half Life Alyx.
As a casual fan of the Half Life series, I have mixed feelings about the footage shown. The production values are impressive and the story seems interesting, but there's a catch: forced VR & motion controls.
Based on the disastrous experience I personally have had with motion controls via first party Wii titles, and considering that I've never enjoyed 3D in movies or games, can't say I would go out of my way to purchase a VR rig just to play this prequel to HL2, however good it may be. It doesn't help that I'm not the biggest fan of Half Life 2, so being forced to shell out hundreds of dollars on VR tech that I will probably hate using on a game I may not play through more than twice is less than appealing.
Anyway, what are your thoughts on Half Life Alyx?
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Pimpjira
Guardian Force Shooter
Posts: 1,102
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Post by Pimpjira on Nov 25, 2019 9:18:28 GMT
I get why other people love it but I just never got into the Half-Life series so I'm happy for fans that the series is showing life again, but personally I don't care.
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Bogard
Night Raider
Posts: 584
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Post by Bogard on Nov 26, 2019 0:51:35 GMT
I get why other people love it but I just never got into the Half-Life series so I'm happy for fans that the series is showing life again, but personally I don't care. i never played it but wondered what the hype was about. Watched playthroughs on youtube and still don't get what people love about it. looks like a shit early FPS for the PC from the 90's. I'm guessing it's the story. |
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Cervantes
Off-Brand Transformable Robot
A former Incompetent Evil Commander (XP: 2423)
Posts: 2,863
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Post by Cervantes on Nov 26, 2019 10:54:53 GMT
I looks quite impressive from the footage they've shown and I like the Half-Life series a lot, but I really don't have enough interest in VR (or even in Half-Life itself) to invest that much money on it. It needs a VR headset and controller and a very high-end PC, they list a GeForce 1060 as the bare minimum to run it. Well, maybe in a few years, if VR prices go way down, I might get it, but right now it's just too expensive.
One thing that I noticed is that we never see the main character going from one place to another (walking, running). It still seems to be a limitation in VR games, so it seems most of the game will based on you being stuck in a single place while enemies pour down, you kill them, then you move to the next one (maybe automatically? I don't know). That isn't the most thrilling gameplay in my opinion for a longer story-based game, only for quick arcade on-rails shooters, but I'll wait to see more footage.
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Spirit Bomb
Cartoon Pony Wrangler
#DeathToAmerica #DeathToTheAmericas #DeathToChristianity #DeathToFascism
Posts: 3,651
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Post by Spirit Bomb on Nov 27, 2019 4:05:26 GMT
I get why other people love it but I just never got into the Half-Life series so I'm happy for fans that the series is showing life again, but personally I don't care. i never played it but wondered what the hype was about. Watched playthroughs on youtube and still don't get what people love about it. looks like a shit early FPS for the PC from the 90's. I'm guessing it's the story. For me, it's the story. I just love the lore behind the enemies, settings, etc., and the passion put into the storytelling itself is very impressive. |
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Spirit Bomb
Cartoon Pony Wrangler
#DeathToAmerica #DeathToTheAmericas #DeathToChristianity #DeathToFascism
Posts: 3,651
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Post by Spirit Bomb on Nov 28, 2019 5:38:12 GMT
I looks quite impressive from the footage they've shown and I like the Half-Life series a lot, but I really don't have enough interest in VR (or even in Half-Life itself) to invest that much money on it. It needs a VR headset and controller and a very high-end PC, they list a GeForce 1060 as the bare minimum to run it. Well, maybe in a few years, if VR prices go way down, I might get it, but right now it's just too expensive. One thing that I noticed is that we never see the main character going from one place to another (walking, running). It still seems to be a limitation in VR games, so it seems most of the game will based on you being stuck in a single place while enemies pour down, you kill them, then you move to the next one (maybe automatically? I don't know). That isn't the most thrilling gameplay in my opinion for a longer story-based game, only for quick arcade on-rails shooters, but I'll wait to see more footage. I totally agree with you about VR. I feel like Valve is really shooting themselves in the foot by forcing VR on us just to play Alyx. It's no surprise to me that Valve is interested in doing VR stuff, since Gaben was an outspoken admirer for Nintendo's work on their motion controls for the Wii (barfs) and admitted to being impressive by the experiemental pseudo-VR FPS Trespasser, so he seems to really have a thing for VR. But IMO it's a really bad idea to take gaming in that direction, seeing as how the Wii and Wii U both alienated hard core gamers at the time. VR really is just a gimmick. I gotta say though, I'm surprised at your opinion on Half Life. I thought I remember you saying that you are a huge fan of Half Life 2 and upgraded your PC back in the day just so you could play it along with those other powerhouse 2004 PC exclusives like Doom 3 and Far Cry? Also wasn't aware that your current rig wasn't powerful enough to run Alyx (which means mine probably isn't lol). |
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Cervantes
Off-Brand Transformable Robot
A former Incompetent Evil Commander (XP: 2423)
Posts: 2,863
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Post by Cervantes on Nov 28, 2019 16:59:21 GMT
Spirit Bomb - I do get that the game really seems to be designed around VR, though (just look at the scene where she looks for something on the shelves and reloads her gun, on normal controllers that couldn't really be done unless it was a completely automatic action), so I understand why they won't be releasing a "standard" version of it. It's still not interesting *enough* for me, considering the price. Yep, my pc isn't good enough for it right now: they ask for more RAM (I'm at 8GB, they ask for 12GB) and I don't know if my 970GTX is on the same level as a 1060. And consider this is the *minimum*, not recommended specs. Anyway, even if I upgraded my pc, I would still need the VR headset + motion controllers and that thing is super expensive. When I upgraded my pc around the Half-Life 2 time, it wasn't just for HL2: there were many other great games, too; you even mentioned one of them, Far Cry. As what I have now is more than enough to play everything that I want (I get to play even the newest releases at high settings), I only intend to do a major upgrade by 2021 - if, by then, VR headsets get absurdly cheaper and it gets more full releases, and *if* HL: Alyx is well reviewed, then I might consider buying it. Until then, I have no intention of either upgrading my pc or getting any VR headset - not enough games to justify this expense.
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Spirit Bomb
Cartoon Pony Wrangler
#DeathToAmerica #DeathToTheAmericas #DeathToChristianity #DeathToFascism
Posts: 3,651
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Post by Spirit Bomb on Nov 30, 2019 3:20:42 GMT
Spirit Bomb - I do get that the game really seems to be designed around VR, though (just look at the scene where she looks for something on the shelves and reloads her gun, on normal controllers that couldn't really be done unless it was a completely automatic action), so I understand why they won't be releasing a "standard" version of it. It's still not interesting *enough* for me, considering the price. Yep, my pc isn't good enough for it right now: they ask for more RAM (I'm at 8GB, they ask for 12GB) and I don't know if my 970GTX is on the same level as a 1060. And consider this is the *minimum*, not recommended specs. Anyway, even if I upgraded my pc, I would still need the VR headset + motion controllers and that thing is super expensive. When I upgraded my pc around the Half-Life 2 time, it wasn't just for HL2: there were many other great games, too; you even mentioned one of them, Far Cry. As what I have now is more than enough to play everything that I want (I get to play even the newest releases at high settings), I only intend to do a major upgrade by 2021 - if, by then, VR headsets get absurdly cheaper and it gets more full releases, and *if* HL: Alyx is well reviewed, then I might consider buying it. Until then, I have no intention of either upgrading my pc or getting any VR headset - not enough games to justify this expense. Huh, it's weird that Alyx is going to be so hardware demanding considering that it runs on the Source 2 engine, which powered CS GO back when it launched in 2012 or so, and that wasn't a very demanding game from what I've heard (haven't played it). So I don't know why this Half Life 2 prequel is asking for the computer equivalent of a nuclear reactor just to run at the minimum settings. |
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stratogustav
Supreme Overlord
Warrior with Bandana
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Post by stratogustav on Dec 3, 2019 11:36:40 GMT
I just love the fact that Steam is finally getting a first party release. They rarely get those.
I also think it is appropriate it is on VR, we are almost in 2020, so it simply makes sense Valve is promoting their AAA release on the most powerful hardware, which are the PCs that can smoothly run this thing.
Not everyone can afford a Valve Index, or a HTC Vive, but the Windows Mixed Reality headsets are pretty sweet, and relatively affordable in comparison to the other headsets, specially the Samsung ones.
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lukefonfabre388
Air Dueler
Move like a shadow, sting like a nuke.
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Post by lukefonfabre388 on Dec 4, 2019 2:11:24 GMT
I can run this on mine. My specs are Rx 580 8gb 16gb of ddr4 ram and ryzen 5 2600.
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stratogustav
Supreme Overlord
Warrior with Bandana
Posts: 7,647
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Post by stratogustav on Dec 5, 2019 7:30:54 GMT
I can run this on mine. My specs are Rx 580 8gb 16gb of ddr4 ram and ryzen 5 2600. That is awesome man. That sounds like a nice built. |
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