Valve has now confirmed Half-Life: Alyx, their new VR flagship title

They should really have made a "real" game. Not a VR game.
I wonder what is happening with Valve They really seem to be doing a lot of wrong decisions recently. And with a title that has such a potential! :S:
VR is death. There's really nothing exciting about it. The same is with 3D movies. Interesting thing to see it once or twice, then you go back to real games.


Last edited by Power-Metal-Games on 19 November 2019 at 8:48 am UTC

For a company with almost limitless access to user data, surely they must be aware that VR, while growing, would give them sales nowhere near those that a non-VR, mainstream Half-Life would. They could release absolutely anything else with the Half-Life logo and people would flock to it, there's still a community around the Half-Life series just like with their other titles such as Left 4 Dead, while the only group I regularly see going back to VR are people who wear anime avatars in VRchat.

Since this would be a VR-only title, would something like this push you towards buying a VR kit if you were on the fence?

I've had the opportunity to try out Oculus CV1 with ETS2, IL-2:BoS, DCS and Alien:Isolation quite a while ago as well as some tech demos and static museum-type presentations on a decent hardware and the VR technology just isn't there yet. Tech demos and static presentations were great, in regards to other titles - it was okay for casual, short intervals (coincidentally the type of gameplay that dominates the VR market at the moment), but overall it felt like trying to play the game while having a bag on your head while it was making you nauseous at the same time. I'd give it 5 years before trying it again.

This. I had Oculus in my possession too. I didn't put that on my head more than 10 times during 7-8 months that I had it. It's literally useless, overpriced peace of bad try. Sold it with a big pleasure for ~150€ (not joking. It was a gift instead of a payment.).

I can guarantee that the best thing to enter virtual reality is a giant 4K screen. Not some idiotic thing on your head.


Last edited by Power-Metal-Games on 19 November 2019 at 8:59 am UTC

Why all the hate? Cause Valve released another game that isn't Half Life 3?
Yay, more VR content!

They should really have made a "real" game. Not a VR game.
I wonder what is happening with Valve They really seem to be doing a lot of wrong decisions recently. And with a title that has such a potential! :S:
VR is death. There's really nothing exciting about it. The same is with 3D movies. Interesting thing to see it once or twice, then you go back to real games.

That's great. I personally don't consider anything that isn't VR worthwhile to spend my time on these days though. Haven't touched a flat game for almost year.
Whatever rocks your boat.

I can guarantee that the best thing to enter virtual reality is a giant 4K screen. Not some idiotic thing on your head.

This might qualify as the greatest nonsense about VR I've ever read. There's lots of qualified critics about price, weight, cable, lack of big games, nausea, maybe even fundamental problems making "real" games with VR.

But there's nothing a flat screen can offer that's comparable to turning around - your head, not pressing some controller stick - to see what's lurking behind you. It's something that fucks with your inner ape in a way a monitor just cannot and never will.

("fucks with your inner ape", is that something a native speaker might say - if he's in a somewhat colloquial mood, of course?)


Last edited by Eike on 19 November 2019 at 10:45 am UTC

I've seen comparisons where people claim that the high barrier to entry for VR is similar to the barrier to entry when people need to get a new graphics card, or a new console, to play the latest games. (On twitter, George Weidman (superbunnyhop) said something to the effect, 'I had to buy a $300 radeon in order to play Doom 3', so it's the same deal, etc. etc.)

I don't think that argument holds water, though. For one thing, the use of a GPU isn't limited to a handful of titles; for another, a VR headset itself requires a beefy computer.

(Off-topic, but I really think that *AR* headsets have a higher potential at this point. Jeri Ellsworth's 'tabletop AR' company carefully avoids mentioning pc/console gaming, but it's not hard to imagine exciting new applications -- e.g., I'd be very curious to play something like Papers Please with an AR headset, with the documents actually laying on my desk.)

Why all the hate? Cause Valve released another game that isn't Half Life 3?
Yay, more VR content!

They should really have made a "real" game. Not a VR game.
I wonder what is happening with Valve They really seem to be doing a lot of wrong decisions recently. And with a title that has such a potential! :S:
VR is death. There's really nothing exciting about it. The same is with 3D movies. Interesting thing to see it once or twice, then you go back to real games.

That's great. I personally don't consider anything that isn't VR worthwhile to spend my time on these days though. Haven't touched a flat game for almost year.
Whatever rocks your boat.

There is absolutely no hate at all. You didn't get what the poet wanted to say. It's just an honest opinion of someone who had VR and that's all. Before you try it you think that it most be something amazing. In reality it's not worth bothering with. I honestly doubt that there are people out there who only play the VR games.

There is absolutely no hate at all. You didn't get what the poet wanted to say. It's just an honest opinion of someone who had VR and that's all. Before you try it you think that it most be something amazing. In reality it's not worth bothering with. I honestly doubt that there are people out there who only play the VR games.

I think VR is just not something the majority of consumers are interested in. My local specialty computer store used to have a prominent VR demo area, but I noticed that customers were showing less and less interest over time until it was eventually removed about a year ago and replaced with a multi-screen racing cockpit. I've also noticed that their stock of VR headsets has shrunk dramatically.

I suppose Valve thinks that Half-Life VR could be the "killer app" that will finally get a critical mass of gamers to buy into the tech, but I have my doubts.

I suppose Valve thinks that Half-Life VR could be the "killer app" that will finally get a critical mass of gamers to buy into the tech, but I have my doubts.

I doubt it. I think Valve wants to be a major player in VR when/if it gets more mainstream. To do that, you need to actually know what you're doing. And the best way to do that is to actually make something. Even if it's not an immediate commercial success, it's the best lesson in VR game development they could learn. And of course they used HL because it will at least generate a lot of interest. But they're not burning themselves by continuing the main franchise and keep it relatively safe by doing working on a spin-off.

[quote=Eike]

But there's nothing a flat screen can offer that's comparable to turning around - your head, not pressing some controller stick - to see what's lurking behind you. It's something that fucks with your inner ape in a way a monitor just cannot and never will.

As someone who pre-ordered Valve Index the hour pre-orders started, I've never felt like this. I know that a lot of people get immersed in the way that you're describing, but I'm not one of them. I've also never experienced nausea in VR, so maybe that has something to do with it.

I think VR is just not something the majority of consumers are interested in. My local specialty computer store used to have a prominent VR demo area, but I noticed that customers were showing less and less interest over time until it was eventually removed about a year ago and replaced with a multi-screen racing cockpit. I've also noticed that their stock of VR headsets has shrunk dramatically.

I wouldn't be surprised if that were to happen. The same sort of thing happened in the 90's/early 2000s. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0n5B3fl-bU

Why all the hate? Cause Valve released another game that isn't Half Life 3?
Yay, more VR content!

They should really have made a "real" game. Not a VR game.
I wonder what is happening with Valve They really seem to be doing a lot of wrong decisions recently. And with a title that has such a potential! :S:
VR is death. There's really nothing exciting about it. The same is with 3D movies. Interesting thing to see it once or twice, then you go back to real games.

That's great. I personally don't consider anything that isn't VR worthwhile to spend my time on these days though. Haven't touched a flat game for almost year.
Whatever rocks your boat.

There is absolutely no hate at all. You didn't get what the poet wanted to say. It's just an honest opinion of someone who had VR and that's all. Before you try it you think that it most be something amazing. In reality it's not worth bothering with. I honestly doubt that there are people out there who only play the VR games.

I think you communicated your lack of hate very poorly, among other things by contrasting VR games with "real games". Different strokes for different folks. Maybe this will be a great evolutionary step. Maybe it will be nothing. There most definitely are people who (now) only play VR games. Just as there are people who only play Linux-native games or local-multiplayer games.

I wouldn't be surprised if that were to happen. The same sort of thing happened in the 90's/early 2000s. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0n5B3fl-bU

Dactyl Nightmare. Ah, the memories. That was such a novelty they didn't put it inside the arcade at my local shopping mall, instead they placed it in the mall promenade so passersby could gawk at the players. The only other arcade attractions I remember ever being displayed in the promenade were a couple of roller coaster simulators. Even with the public promotion, none of them came close to attracting the throng that Street Fighter II did in the arcade.

What's the best VR device that is stably and completed supported on Linux these days? (cost not being a factor) And how well is that device actually supported? (e.g. stability and are the features of the hardware being completely taken advantage of). I've been ready to pull the trigger on a set since the original HTC Vive was announced to support Linux (unfortunately they backpedalled on that)

But there's nothing a flat screen can offer that's comparable to turning around - your head, not pressing some controller stick - to see what's lurking behind you. It's something that fucks with your inner ape in a way a monitor just cannot and never will.

Another, somewhat less colloquial way of putting it came to my mind...

VR is the opposite of QTE

While QTE lets you swing your sword against Sauron, beat Darth Vader with a light sabre, get rid of the wolf on your neck just be pressing "E" or "□" in less than 0.3 seconds...

... VR lets you turn around your head by turning around your head, or lifting and stabbing by, well... lifting and stabbing.

I believe they will port it to classic display eventually saying VR did not provide enough revenue.

Considering they have sales figures at least for the Index, and there have been several methods of guessing how many Oculus and Vive owners are out there. One could assume they've done the math of 'everyone with VR will want this, and it'll probably drive sales for new VR buyers' I'm sure they understand that it's worth it to just force people into the new age of gaming.

What's the best VR device that is stably and completed supported on Linux these days? (cost not being a factor) And how well is that device actually supported? (e.g. stability and are the features of the hardware being completely taken advantage of). I've been ready to pull the trigger on a set since the original HTC Vive was announced to support Linux (unfortunately they backpedalled on that)

I have the Vive, Vive Pro and Index. All of them work on Linux. I was having an issue with the two Vives due to having G-Sync monitors, but they say they fixed it. I haven't tested it since my Index is currently hooked up to my system.

But with Proton, there are quite a few games that just work out of the box on it too. I haven't tried in a while, but need to check out No Man's Sky and Elite: Dangerous again under Linux. They are both amazing in VR.

One could assume they've done the math of 'everyone with VR will want this, and it'll probably drive sales for new VR buyers' I'm sure they understand that it's worth it to just force people into the new age of gaming.

Anyone remember when we thought this could happen with Linux...?

One could assume they've done the math of 'everyone with VR will want this, and it'll probably drive sales for new VR buyers' I'm sure they understand that it's worth it to just force people into the new age of gaming.

Anyone remember when we thought this could happen with Linux...?

Excellent point of the week (in my life)! Though I still sympathize with slaapliedje's point as well.

One could assume they've done the math of 'everyone with VR will want this, and it'll probably drive sales for new VR buyers' I'm sure they understand that it's worth it to just force people into the new age of gaming.

Anyone remember when we thought this could happen with Linux...?

Here is the difference 1) they refused to release any exclusive games for Linux. 2) They sell their own hardware (that apparently everyone who bought it is getting a free copy of Half-Life: Alyx.

The port of Steam to Linux for most people is just an 'also runs on...' and they just stick with Windows. We all know the truth of the matter is that Valve/Gabe didn't want to be locked out potentially of being able to sell games on Windows. With various attempts like Windows S, it seems he may (eventually) be correct in those assumptions. Now of course the question is, why doesn't CD Projekt also see that as a possibility, and properly port the GOG stuff to Linux?

I think it is absurd though that Valve haven't announced Linux support for HL: Alyx. "We Support Linux!" "Well, maybe not THIS time, or yet..."

Now of course the question is, why doesn't CD Projekt also see that as a possibility, and properly port the GOG stuff to Linux?

I think most companies are extremely short-sighted and worry a lot more about the here and now and can be abused in the longer term. If companies were rational, non-USA companies would definitely avoid MS Windows, since NSA was shown to have performed industrial espionage to the profit of USA companies and detriment of non-USA companies. Avoiding Intel on the other hand is more difficult since they would be left between choosing USA-based espionage or PRC-based espionage. (But some bigger companies could still pour some money into open-source hardware to that end).

Now of course the question is, why doesn't CD Projekt also see that as a possibility, and properly port the GOG stuff to Linux?

I think most companies are extremely short-sighted and worry a lot more about the here and now and can be abused in the longer term. If companies were rational, non-USA companies would definitely avoid MS Windows, since NSA was shown to have performed industrial espionage to the profit of USA companies and detriment of non-USA companies. Avoiding Intel on the other hand is more difficult since they would be left between choosing USA-based espionage or PRC-based espionage. (But some bigger companies could still pour some money into open-source hardware to that end).

Ha, Intel needs to somehow be punished for selling processors that then have to be gimped to be secured. Whether it is a class action to make them pay cash to the customers, or that they give away replacements with fixes.