There's been multiple presence improving updates to The Lab, everything feels ultra polished and you can lose yourself in it just seeing how objects behave and react with each other. I'm pretty sure the only people not excited for this are people who haven't tried VR, or haven't tried an actually good experience in VR. I have an Index and recently it's what I spend most my time in, nothing played via traditional methods compares to the physics based combat of Blade & Sorcery, and the upcoming Boneworks looks like it'll be good enough to tide me over until this releases. I'm glad it's VR only. I feel if it were a normal FPS it wouldn't reach anywhere near people's expectations, there would be compromises to the VR side of things if they had to make it work for m+kb as well, and if anything is going to push VR adoption, it'll be a massive game like this. Were you all opposed to us moving from sprites to polygons too?
I broke my thumb playing Rec Room bowling on my Rift. It's now back in the box. VR hurts man, lol! I'd much rather see a proper full length HL3 with a proper DXR implimentation, some new physics fun stuff and great gameplay. They could tack on a VR mode as DLC for that extra gimmick, because that is what VR still is. Edit: That said, I do hope that this is a really good VR game, for those that like VR.
I mean, if they keep tacking VR modes on to 2D games it will remain a gimmick. Full VR experiences are nowhere near a gimmick, it's a completely different platform to play a completely different kind of game.
I do agree, but it's quite a niche experience. As I said, hopefully this will be a good one for guys like you who are all in on this experience. For me, I'll pass.
So it´s basically an Half-Life spin-off to try to push their VR hardware... Could work but i´m not interested.
Just thought, unless this is really good, it makes things for Valve, HL, and VR even worse. I say, the stakes are still high in response to my fellow guru @sverek As of now, VR is quite expensive to get, and this game does need flawless execution of it at least, if not even a need to improve on the gameplay with new ideas, or it will cater just to those saying that VR is a waste of time / money. This game tanking would have potential to destroy down both dev cost money for Valve (not that they wouldn't have the money), cred of the franchise, and their own hardware sales of the Index.
I hate being one of those old farts not wanting to move on with the times, but as other guys already pointed out, VR is just not there yet. 5-10 years from now, I'll likely be singing a different tune, but for now the hardware available is not only expensive, but simply nowhere powerful enough to create the desired effects. Anyway, we'll see soon enough how it turns out with this new HL game (not I refuse to call it HL3).
A Half Life vr game has been rumoured for a while. However, the majority of us don't own a headset, so, won't be buying this. That's the problem with vr games; no non-vr mode. Anyway, for me Valve needs to release Episode 3 (even if it doesn't stand-up to todays graphics/game-play etc. Sell it for "cheap" to stir some interest, then, release HL3 with all the bells and whistles imaginable. The problem with HL multiplayer is that it doesn't translate to consoles (especially stuff like tau jumping), so, for that reason there's nowhere for HL mp to go. HL2 mp is totally different from HL imho and nowhere near as good.
Valve. Biggest trolls in the industry. Hit game franchise and they just turn it into a storyboard for their tech demos. Kind of crazy when you think of crap franchises out there that keep making games even though the story has long ran out of ideas/steam. Meanwhile Half-Life barely scratches the surface and hasn't made a new game in over 10 years.
Interesting. So will this be the final nail in the Half Life coffin. What I mean is this is never going to be a commercial success that option was sealed when they decided to make it not only a VR only title but also a non direct continuation of the Half Life Saga. The game would have to be truly stellar for anyone who hasn't already invested or hasn't been heavily considering investing in the hardware to want to buy this game and that's the thing. I just don't think Valve have it in them to push out that ground breaking truly steallar game. With years of making bank from Steam surely they have lost a fair bit of talent when it comes to actual game design? Also if it's a Source Engine game how long before someone adapts it so that it works without VR?
The first Star Wars episode on VR is rather terrific, I don't think this will be worse. The main problem with VR is the low resolution on the screens. Who wants to see any dots these days?
Totally agree, VR has been improving rapidly the past few years... the only problems now are the lack of a "big" / must-play title and the price of entry. Most of the quality VR titles available now are indie games with some rough edges or short duration. Here's hoping Valve is about to give us a long-format, AAA game we have yet to see! In my experience, most people who haven't tried decent titles on a high-end VR setup. I love VR games and I've heard people shoot down VR who have only tried (now/soon to be) discontinued phone android phone VR. Others have gotten sick using the DK2 or used a Vive connected to a minimum spec 7-year-old i5 or basically any laptop that proclaims "VR-ready" (spoiler: it's probably not). VR had too much hype too fast, and frankly the low/minimum specs were too low which added to user frustration. If you have played VR games on low with a minimum spec system you know what I mean, it is garbage. If you haven't tried VR at all or have had a bad experience with it, try to keep an open mind. This is Valve's first traditional ("real" ?) game since before microtransactions and loot-boxes with Dota2 and Artifact. They bought the developers of Firewatch last year too. I don't know if that team is involved, but it's safe to say they still have skilled devs who can do story-driven single player. TL;DR: Cheer up folks - This is the first big title to be VR-specific and VR has finally advanced to the point where this sort of game could be worth it, it's the first "real" game from Valve in years, and it's Half-Life!
If the game itself is 'very good' [-> great & consistent storyline, lots of attention to detail (Deus Ex), some new funny weapons (e.g. like the shrinker in Duke3D), or for example the ability to temporarily manipulate the enemies with gas (Deviator in Dune II) or sth. else, etc. etc.] it could become a great game. And IF the game has that quality, VR could become the cream on top. But VR alone doesn't guarantee, that it'll be a good game...
Honestly though who the frack cares... they waited too procreating long to come out with another half-life game and for the VR none the less... Steam should really reconsider the VR move and instead aim for Higher end PC gamers again because that is where they shined in their past life games. PC gamers breathe life literally into their half ass games anyways. Time to pay the piper VALVE they at least owe that much to the millions of PC gamers that put em on the map.
Their VR kit is $1000 and essentially requires 1080Ti levels of performance to maintain framerates in AAA titles built for it. How is that not targeting higher end PC gamers? I'm also pretty sure their incredible games put them on the map - HL1/HL2/L4D/Portal/TFC/TF2/Etc weren't accidents. They were beloved games because they had interesting mechanics, design choices, stories, settings, characters, whatever. Huge swaths of the gaming community played those games because they were excellent games not because they were "half ass" and gamers felt bad or whatever entitled nonsense it is you're trying to say.
Let me clear that up more traditional higher end gamers who still like their monitor over VR and honestly i have nothing against VR but at this point in time there are alot more ppl who still use their tv's and monitors to game crap up instead of VR ... U understand me now DENIAL?
But that's literally the entire point of this game? The problem with VR is that to really sell the experience the gameplay has to be crafted around the VR experience itself - in which case the same game is either going to be radically different or just be really bad on a standard setup and that there are no AAA "ground breaking" "flagship" games to warrant buying $1000 VR headsets. The entire point of this game, presumably, is to solve both those issues by creating an entirely VR driven narrative title around a beloved franchise and hopefully help sell the VR platform. Trying to shoehorn a non-VR experience into it is either going to sully the VR aspect or defeat the purpose of trying to sell VR to the masses. Personally, I bought the Oculus Rift DK2 back in 2014 and haven't touched VR since. My experience was that the resolution wasn't there yet, the games weren't there yet and the entire platform probably needed another 5 years or so to bake but the promise of something awesome was leaking through all the teething issues. 5 years later, Valve launches the index - despite it's high price (barrier of entry) it seems to solve most of the VR hardware problems - could resolution and optics be a little better? Sure but it's basically hit a "good enough" point to sell an awesome experience and now they are creating that experience with this game. Is the game going to be good? No idea - judging by Artifact, it seems like Valve may have lost touch with gamers. But should Valve compromise this game in order to appeal to the masses? No. I don't think they should. I think if VR is ever going to succeed and become a thing it needs a flagship game with an experience that's fully designed for VR and compromises nothing for traditional setups. I just keep seeing these posts pop up here, on reddit, etc - all these people wanting a traditional gaming experience and often saying similar stuff like "Valve doesn't care about gamers" while the company is literally taking a massive risk, essentially for gamers, by building a title in one of the most beloved franchises ever on hardware that like 6 people own - all in an attempt to show people that VR can be a good gaming experience. Valve didn't have to do any of this stuff - they could have just sat on steam money for a billion years and attempted zero innovation. I admire the risk and I don't care for people saying their games are "half assed" when they are some of the best games of all time.
Nobody asked them to show that "VR can be a good gaming experience". They didn't have to do this, but nobody asked them to do it either. What people really wanted is a proper sequel to HL2. So Valve delivers something that nobody asked for while continuing to ignore what the overwhelming majority are desperate for - is it any surprise that people are upset? It's almost like the situation with Blizzard and Diablo Immortal. Nobody asked for a mobile Diablo game. Meanwhile, the game that people really wanted - Diablo 4 - went completely unmentioned. People were rightly upset by that (even when they already had the hardware for it) and HL fans have every reason to be upset by this. Compounding all this is the fact that Valve recently released the Index, which makes this look like a blatant attempt to sell their own hardware. Just bad taste overall.
