Valve dev - Half Life: Alyx will be a solely single player experience

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Claimed to be an engaging but linear adventure which you will enjoy playing for hours.

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I've always thought that what was really killing VR was exactly the lack of any realy engaging, cinematic experience that actually tried to do a "Virtual Reality" instead of just fun demos like beat saber. I still don't think my money would be well spent on a VR system, but now I can actually see this being the case in the future, as long as games like this keep being launched.

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Originally Posted by meuvoy

I've always thought that what was really killing VR was exactly the lack of any realy engaging, cinematic experience that actually tried to do a "Virtual Reality" instead of just fun demos like beat saber. I still don't think my money would be well spent on a VR system, but now I can actually see this being the case in the future, as long as games like this keep being launched.

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The weird thing with HL2's world is that it was built with no idea that new gen VR was coming, but has all the aspects to make it work the best. There are the well-lit, spartan city block areas, the descents into tunnels, the ascents through the shimmering black crystal of Combine towers. Everything about those environments is going to look great, but the thing I think will be most affecting is the striders. Imagine how it's going to feel having one of those things stepping over you, and seeing its shadow stripe across the road.

This is the kind of thinking/happy accident that VR game worlds have been missing: the feeling of scale, which ought to have a huge emotional effect in VR versus seeing it on a flat screen.

..it could be the gaming equivalent of the 2nd coming of the messiah, but I still ain't spending the best part of £1K to play it.

Quite frankly I'm sick to the back teeth of these companies thinking that PC gamers have a bottomless pit of money to throw at them.

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Originally Posted by Bagpuss

..it could be the gaming equivalent of the 2nd coming of the messiah, but I still ain't spending the best part of £1K to play it.

Quite frankly I'm sick to the back teeth of these companies thinking that PC gamers have a bottomless pit of money to throw at them.

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You can play it on an Oculus Rift S or Quest (connected to PC) which are RRP 399, have been on offer few times for 350 so dont feel the need to spend on the 1k index system as it isnt that much better.
I returned my index and got a rift s, its got worse audio (can add quick headphones anyway) and the screen lacks the higher refresh rate but its like 80 - 90 % of the same and has much better lenses.

I'm always on the lookout for good single-player games so this caught my eye.

But then it seems it's VR only and whether it's £350 or £1000 for a VR system doesn't matter to me. No way am I spending either on VR. It also appears to require Steam, and that's a non-starter for me too.

Oh well.

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Originally Posted by Saracen999

I'm always on the lookout for good single-player games so this caught my eye.

But then it seems it's VR only and whether it's £350 or £1000 for a VR system doesn't matter to me. No way am I spending either on VR. It also appears to require Steam, and that's a non-starter for me too.

Oh well.

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I agree, personally i can't justify spending that much on VR. But I'm glad it exists, if it's going to get anywhere it needs to start off in this painful (for your wallet) phase and hopefully the costs will come down later.

How come steam is a non-starter?

The weird thing with HL2's world is that it was built with no idea that new gen VR was coming, but has all the aspects to make it work the best. There are the well-lit, spartan city block areas, the descents into tunnels, the ascents through the shimmering black crystal of Combine towers. Everything about those environments is going to look great, but the thing I think will be most affecting is the striders. Imagine how it's going to feel having one of those things stepping over you, and seeing its shadow stripe across the road.

This is the kind of thinking/happy accident that VR game worlds have been missing: the feeling of scale, which ought to have a huge emotional effect in VR versus seeing it on a flat screen.[/QUOTE]

spot on. not to mention the physics aspect [if you get a gravity gun] would lend itself to using the controllers to fling stuff about really well.

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Originally Posted by chj

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How come steam is a non-starter?

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Personal choice, I guess. There are several things about the entire Steam model that I don't like, don't agree with and won't sign up to. One of which is spending large sums on games and then relying on a different company to validate installation and/or activation. Or even startup, or requiring a net connection, which my games machines don't have.

Steam have been known to decide someone has breached their T&C's and lock their account, at which point you lose access to many of those expensive games. Personally, I'm not buying games under that scenario.

So I decided, all those years ago that I wasn't going tovuse Steam, and I still haven't. So anything that requires Steam, or similar, I don't and will not buy.

Instead, I'll wait until it comes out in a DRM-free variant on GOG, etc, or do without entirely.

I expect it'll be great, but I'm still not spending hundreds on VR for one game. Plus I don't really have much desire to buy a headset - I'd much rather a big screen and head tracking, but there's no industry push for that, so I can't see that happening outside of niche hacks.

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Originally Posted by Dashers

I expect it'll be great, but I'm still not spending hundreds on VR for one game. Plus I don't really have much desire to buy a headset - I'd much rather a big screen and head tracking, but there's no industry push for that, so I can't see that happening outside of niche hacks.

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I find when playing Elite one of the great advantages is the ability to look all around, generally whilst muttering "where did the ******** go". It is an arse for typing on the chat system though, the only time when not being able to see the keyboard matters.

Alyx looks fabulous. However, is there a reason why Steam Index costs 3 times as much as Occulous Rift S? Other than Valve wanting all the money.

I'm so glad the single player market is being supported, it all seemed to be going multi-player these days, time for me to go VR.