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Half-Life: Alyx |OT| Three's Company

worldwithpyramids

worldwithpyramids

Member
Yeah, C17YSCAPE is pretty good. It made me realize some of the stuff I was missing from Alyx. Namely more friction in environmental problem solving and an under-utilization of the city itself (probably a performance thing).

I recently did a playthrough of Alyx with the commentary (my 4th playthrough) and it kinda solidified how much this game sacrificed in an attempt to appeal to beginners. Often feeling like they adjusted to cater to someone who had never even played a video game, let alone a game in VR. Don't get me wrong, I get it. It's already a small market, they want this game played by as many people as possible comfortably. It still hurt the game overall for me though. My biggest issues are that it's way too easy and doesn't really do enough to push VR mechanically. Not that I was expecting BONEWORKS level interactivity but I was a little letdown in that regard. I feel like they didn't even try to push boundaries because they were concerned about people getting sick. Having said all that, this was still my GOTY lol. I accept it as the beautiful theme park ride it is and love it for that.
 
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mango drank

mango drank

Member
Is Half-Life: Alyx worth it at the full price of $60? Steam's got a sale going on, but Alyx isn't discounted. Should've bought it during the winter sale.
 
Maiden Voyage

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
I don't get why anyone would want to play Alyx outside of VR. The combat is specifically tailored for VR. The reloading controls alone make playing w/ M+KB trivial. It is going to be super boring to anyone only playing this way and they are ruining an otherwise amazing experience.
 
rofif

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Maiden Voyage said:
I don't get why anyone would want to play Alyx outside of VR. The combat is specifically tailored for VR. The reloading controls alone make playing w/ M+KB trivial. It is going to be super boring to anyone only playing this way and they are ruining an otherwise amazing experience.
Click to expand...
Exactly. And to think you can get quest 2 for 300 and just play wirelessly 90hz with great controls? Why bother with bad mod
 
ResurrectedContrarian

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
How did the OT for this amazing game only reach 9 pages? Anyhow, I finally got my VR setup and started the game at last this past week, so I'm bumping this thread.

I use the smooth teleport, and try to get our living room furniture out of the way before playing, so that I can max out the space for a bit of freedom. On an Oculus Quest 2 with wireless connection. I have to keep the graphics settings modest, but it runs wonderfully smooth without the slightest hiccups, so I'm quite happy.

So far, my reaction: seeing things in VR changes everything. The scale of the city in the intro is amazing, and it was surreal to watch the large strider climb near me.

The first section of crab-zombies in the subway was so much more tangible than any other gaming experience. Leaning around the corner, shooting through a crack in the glass, etc -- feels great. I do get a bit of anxiety in dark areas but I'll keep moving. Reloading your gun manually and managing ammo is amazing.

Finally, I love the little touches. The way your hand feels when you bump into something gives the world solidity, as does the ability to push a dead zombie's head with your gun, feel it bounce. Murray from Flight of the Conchords is brilliant casting, reminds me of the great choice of Stephen Merchant for Portal 2.
 
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Romulus

Romulus

Member
ResurrectedContrarian said:
How did the OT for this amazing game only reach 9 pages? Anyhow, I finally got my VR setup and started the game at last this past week, so I'm bumping this thread.

I use the smooth teleport, and try to get our living room furniture out of the way before playing, so that I can max out the space for a bit of freedom. On an Oculus Quest 2 with wireless connection. I have to keep the graphics settings modest, but it runs wonderfully smooth without the slightest hiccups, so I'm quite happy.

So far, my reaction: seeing things in VR changes everything. The scale of the city in the intro is amazing, and it was surreal to watch the large strider climb near me.

The first section of crab-zombies in the subway was so much more tangible than any other gaming experience. Leaning around the corner, shooting through a crack in the glass, etc -- feels great. I do get a bit of anxiety in dark areas but I'll keep moving. Reloading your gun manually and managing ammo is amazing.

Finally, I love the little touches. The way your hand feels when you bump into something gives the world solidity, as does the ability to push a dead zombie's head with your gun, feel it bounce. Murray from Flight of the Conchords is brilliant casting, reminds me of the great choice of Stephen Merchant for Portal 2.
Click to expand...


Pretty much the reason i don't believe hardly anyone that says theyve tried real vr and thinks its a gimmick or overrated.
 
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Maiden Voyage

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
ResurrectedContrarian said:
How did the OT for this amazing game only reach 9 pages? Anyhow, I finally got my VR setup and started the game at last this past week, so I'm bumping this thread.

I use the smooth teleport, and try to get our living room furniture out of the way before playing, so that I can max out the space for a bit of freedom. On an Oculus Quest 2 with wireless connection. I have to keep the graphics settings modest, but it runs wonderfully smooth without the slightest hiccups, so I'm quite happy.

So far, my reaction: seeing things in VR changes everything. The scale of the city in the intro is amazing, and it was surreal to watch the large strider climb near me.

The first section of crab-zombies in the subway was so much more tangible than any other gaming experience. Leaning around the corner, shooting through a crack in the glass, etc -- feels great. I do get a bit of anxiety in dark areas but I'll keep moving. Reloading your gun manually and managing ammo is amazing.

Finally, I love the little touches. The way your hand feels when you bump into something gives the world solidity, as does the ability to push a dead zombie's head with your gun, feel it bounce. Murray from Flight of the Conchords is brilliant casting, reminds me of the great choice of Stephen Merchant for Portal 2.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the future! HL:A is bar-none the best VR game I've had the opportunity to play. Loved every second of it.
 
Salz01

Salz01

Member
Do you guys think this will run on a laptop 3060 16mb i7 with Oculus 2? Or would the experience be degraded?
 
ResurrectedContrarian

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
Thaedolus said:
It would probably run fine. Ran fine on my i7 7700K and 1080ti, it scales well.
Click to expand...
Valve's developers have always done a fantastic job on scaling their engines. I remember when I first played HL2 on a laptop potato back in the day, and despite extremely poor graphical power I was able to have a solid experience at lowest settings, with the Source Engine physics and smooth gameplay still fully on display despite the lowered textures & fidelity.
 
D

Deleted member 1159

Unconfirmed Member
It's kinda funny how we have these weird roadblocks in our heads about doing stuff we like. I really like VR, but the last time I played (months ago) I stepped on a lego and said fuck this for a while. Then it was like "well I don't want to get it out" whenever I got a little urge to play. Then I saw this thread and thought "yeah Alyx would be fun," and...yeah, once I verified there were no landmines on the floor it took all of 20 seconds to click "Start SteamVR" and put on the headset and controllers. For all the talk of it being cumbersome or whatever, my setup is extremely easy to jump into. And I think Alyx is actually running smoother than before, I wonder if it got a bit better after patches or driver updates.

Shit man, this game is so damn good. I really wish there was more VR content on this level out there.
 
MR ARCADE FOREVER

MR ARCADE FOREVER

Member
Thaedolus said:
It's kinda funny how we have these weird roadblocks in our heads about doing stuff we like. I really like VR, but the last time I played (months ago) I stepped on a lego and said fuck this for a while. Then it was like "well I don't want to get it out" whenever I got a little urge to play. Then I saw this thread and thought "yeah Alyx would be fun," and...yeah, once I verified there were no landmines on the floor it took all of 20 seconds to click "Start SteamVR" and put on the headset and controllers. For all the talk of it being cumbersome or whatever, my setup is extremely easy to jump into. And I think Alyx is actually running smoother than before, I wonder if it got a bit better after patches or driver updates.

Shit man, this game is so damn good. I really wish there was more VR content on this level out there.
Click to expand...
Thank Facebook and the shitty Quest Wii vr for pooping on AAA vr development and ruining vr core gaming. Hopefully Sony will bring it back with the psvr 2, otherwise get ready to get excited for shit like Mr. Wii vr with an annoying voice likes to play :

 
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ResurrectedContrarian

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
Played through the Jeff chapter for the first time this past weekend.

Damn good. And anxiety-inducing, so I had to play it during the daytime (usually I've firing up Alyx when the wife & kids are asleep, but I just didn't want that level of fear with Jeff).
 
ResurrectedContrarian

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
Antlion area had fantastic environments. I spent quite a while just enjoying the details of those exhibits and spaces.

The game just keeps getting better, each chapter, and never runs out of ideas.

i-dont-want-the-game-to-end-jean-luc-picard.gif
 
Wonko_C

Wonko_C

Member
I'm getting stutters on my Quest 2, no matter what I set it to. My first playthrough back in 2022 was completely smooth and I haven't changed anything. This is the only game that does it.
 
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worldwithpyramids

worldwithpyramids

Member
Wonko_C said:
I'm getting stutters on my Quest 2, no matter what I set it to. My first playthrough back in 2022 was completely smooth and I haven't changed anything. This is the only game that does it.
Click to expand...

Did it start at the hotel? Whenever I play now I have a smooth experience until I reach that point and then it's awful for the rest of the game.
 
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