Half Life Alyx and Boneworks - The two VR games that dare to be different. Okay maybe just one, but still. AKA Floop’s shill thread.

[heyilikeyourmom]

Man, I still feel bad about Mark Laidlaw.
He was excited enough about writing the Half-Life universe that he made his own fanfic twitter account, BreenGrub, and slowly fed out sidestory information purely for fun.

Releasing the hypothetical "ending" to Half-Life must have hurt him just as hard as it did for us to read it

I remember liking what I read, too. I didn’t care much for how Episode 1 retconned Freeman back into the story, much preferred the idea of each game having G-Man drop him in different eras, so I like how the concept for episode 3 essentially did just that.

 

[The Big Vivs]

There weren't many games out in general when Half-Life 1 was released, and yet that turned out to be revolutionary. I'm just mildly interested to see how the new team does. It's kinda stupid to get angry either way, unless you happen to personally own substantial stock in Valve and are banking on their success.

 

[Kotaro]

"Hey guys, let's make the game fans have been wanting for years, but do it for a platform/ecosystem that's an overpriced gimmick at this point, that'll do great!"

What is it with Valve and bad decisions?

 

[Tour of Italy]

Yes but how many winters before I can buy it on sale at Christmas for $1.50?

 

[Floop]

You’ll see! You’ll all see!

 

[Marissa Moira]

They apparently got a new VA for Alyx's dad.

It's sounding like this game is the equivalent to the Half Life 2 Church episode.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

"Hey guys, let's make the game fans have been wanting for years, but do it for a platform/ecosystem that's an overpriced gimmick at this point, that'll do great!"

What is it with Valve and bad decisions?

Steam revenue is such that they can absorb any number of disastrous releases. On the positive side, it means they can afford to take risks and do whatever they want. On the negative side, a lot of those risks are actually going to fail and suck, as is the nature of risky ideas.

 

[MrTroll]

This is going to be like a 2-hour-long gimmick puzzle game that has almost no narrative or story and shamelessly recycles HL2's art design and environments.

Imagine getting excited over a bad HL2 mod with VR because it's made by Valve.

 

[Token Weeaboo]

My eternal gaming white whale will be a new Silent Hill made by some of the original Team Silent staff, I've waited 15 long years for another "real" Silent Hill game.

I too am waiting for a real Silent Hill, but I'm not holding my breath ever since they let the Western devs make the last two disappointments under the name "Silent Hill". I'm really into the lore and I refuse to believe those are any form of cannon.

Every Silent Hill after 0rigins have done worse and worse. Psychology horrors like Silent Hill are becoming far and few between.

 

[Dom Cruise]

I too am waiting for a real Silent Hill, but I'm not holding my breath ever since they let the Western devs make the last two disappointments under the name "Silent Hill". I'm really into the lore and I refuse to believe those are any form of cannon.

Every Silent Hill after 0rigins have done worse and worse. Psychology horrors like Silent Hill are becoming far and few between.

Well Shattered Memories was surprisingly solid, I wish at the very least Climax had been allowed to make another Silent Hill.

Everything other than SM for the western developed Silent Hills was garbage though.

 

[Floop]

Stop getting mad at valve for pushing new technology.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Stop getting mad at valve for pushing new technology.

"New"

 

[Dom Cruise]

Here's the thing, Half-Life is simply not the series to push VR with, at least not right now, it's been too long since the last game, this is a middle finger to fans who have waited for so long.

I'm sympathetic to devs trying to push VR forward, but you don't do it with a series that has been missing for over a decade, that's not the time to rock the boat.

But this is pretty clearly in spinoff territory, like Opposing Force and Blue Shift back in the day, so I'm not too mad, what I hope is that this is just a way to get their foot back in the door with the ip and a follow up to Episode 2 will be next which maybe won't be VR.

The really incredible thing is that Valve is doing something, anything new with Half-Life, I'm just thankful for that.

 

[MrTroll]

But this is pretty clearly in spinoff territory, like Opposing Force and Blue Shift back in the day, so I'm not too mad, what I hope is that this is just a way to get their foot back in the door with the ip and a follow up to Episode 2 will be next which maybe won't be VR.

The really incredible thing is that Valve is doing something, anything new with Half-Life, I'm just thankful for that.

There will never, ever be a proper follow-up to Episode 2 unless some mega-publisher like EA or Activision comes along and offers to develop and publish the entire thing itself and Valve agrees. Valve is no longer the kind of company that can marshal 100+ people to work on a single project.

https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/01/11/searching-for-half-life-3.aspx

Read the interview with the anonymous Valve source.

How close do you think Half-Life 3 or Episode 3 has come to release?

I’ve heard that some teams have had two to three people working on it, and they eventually ran into a wall, and some teams may have gotten up to 30 or 40 people before it was scrapped.

Do you know the direction some of these teams were going in?
Yeah. Some people – I don’t want to name names – were excited about their projects. They’ve had some different thoughts about what it should be. Some are all over the place, from one end of the spectrum being what you would expect – a single-player narrative-focused game – to completely different entertainment ideas that are as wild as they are weird. They were thinking about using the Half-Life characters as a brand for entirely different purposes. Some were bizarre, like turning Half-Life into an RTS, or a live-action, choice-driven game. These things have been contemplated by people, but were never being considered by the whole of Valve as “Yeah, that was the plan.” The nature of Valve is there aren’t plans like that. That’s not how Valve operates. Ideas come from the passion and drive of the individuals within the company’s walls.

Does Valve owe it to fans to finish what they started? At least wrap up Half-Life 2?
I don’t think there will be any more. But at any given moment, they make decisions as they come. If some people within Valve make something that they collectively feel is exciting, then it will happen. That’s going to be hard for that to happen now. Every time a Half-Life project gets some gravity and then collapses, it becomes harder for the next one to start up. Because the business changes so much, and there are so many other things to do, it just gets harder and harder. It’s one of those things they’ll always have to accept. People are going to harass them for more Half-Life. The idea of delivering a third episode of Half-Life 2, that’s dead. There’s no universe where that will happen. I think there is a universe where a standalone thing could come together to fill in that hole, but that’s tough.

Splinter factions of "geniuses" working on their own terms is not how a big-budget game gets made. It's how stupid shit like VR goggles and controllers nobody wants and gimmicky tech demos get made.

 

[AsbestosFlaygon]

"New"

This comparison is so dumb, the only thing that's really similar between the Virtual Boy and modern VR headset's is the form factor and that they allow you to see depth. It was not trying to be a VR headset, the 3D was its key feature with the VR label being pretty much marketing lingo, in current tech I'd say the 3DS is closest to what the VB was. Granted you're not wrong about VR not being new, there were full blown VR headsets with motion tracking I believe since the early or mid 90's, nothing the average consumer could buy but I do believe a few places you could try them out at.

 

[Floop]

This comparison is so dumb, the only thing that's really similar between the Virtual Boy and modern VR headset's is the form factor and that they allow you to see depth. It was not trying to be a VR headset, the 3D was its key feature with the VR label being pretty much marketing lingo, in current tech I'd say the 3DS is closest to what the VB was. Granted you're not wrong about VR not being new, there were full blown VR headsets with motion tracking I believe since the early or mid 90's, nothing the average consumer could buy but I do believe a few places you could try them out at.

That’s the point you philistine

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

This comparison is so dumb, the only thing that's really similar between the Virtual Boy and modern VR headset's is the form factor and that they allow you to see depth. It was not trying to be a VR headset, the 3D was its key feature with the VR label being pretty much marketing lingo, in current tech I'd say the 3DS is closest to what the VB was. Granted you're not wrong about VR not being new, there were full blown VR headsets with motion tracking I believe since the early or mid 90's, nothing the average consumer could buy but I do believe a few places you could try them out at.

Just pointing out that this whole "VR" jerkoff has been around for a long time, just a few years ago it was 3D that people like Floop were circle jerking too. The only reason anyone is even talking about "VR" is because Facebook paid someone way to much for the Occulus.

 

[Damn Near]

"heh heh well we have one of the most beloved game franchises of all time, let's do absolutely nothing with it and instead shit all over ourselves and roll around in the shit" - Valve, regarding Half Life

 

[Floop]

Just pointing out that this whole "VR" jerkoff has been around for a long time, just a few years ago it was 3D that people like Floop were circle jerking too. The only reason anyone is even talking about "VR" is because Facebook paid someone way to much for the Occulus.

Facebook buying oculus is irrelevant now, when that was first announced everyone that oculus was ruined and VR was done. It’s kinda silly to look back on when you think about it.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Stop getting mad at valve for pushing new technology.

This is old as shit actually. Older than Half-life itself, older than even Doom.