Half-Life Alyx

    Yeah that's all cool and all but I set this kit up explicitly so I could walk around a room and experience every penny I paid for it. Not too impressed with this. ?

    We're probably still a few years away from full wireless VR, but it's coming for sure. Once the kits get lighter, they'll be able to put powerful Wifi antenas inside them, not sure if wifi is capable of transferring so much data though.

    Quote from [HP]

    12 hours ago, [HP] said: We're probably still a few years away from full wireless VR, but it's coming for sure. Once the kits get lighter, they'll be able to put powerful Wifi antenas inside them, not sure if wifi is capable of transferring so much data though.

    i think is more likely they can get more power out of mobile chips and solve the wireless problem that way, than streaming from a PC. Although with all these streaming platforms you would think they would be able to do it already locally.

    I remember seeing "wireless" setups with laptops strapped at the back.

    Anyway @dux's problem with the cable could be possibly solved with a better cable, i'm thinking braided and stuff. I look just at my controllers, and how the old X360 cable doesn't tangle and doesn't deform, whist the Xbox One (for PC) is all ruined after much less use.

    It requires extra investment but if one can have a room just for gaming, then maybe one can look at some swiveling arm so the cable hangs down from the ceiling. Maybe even a podcasting mic arm can be adapted for the use.

    Quote from FMPONE

    12 hours ago, FMPONE said: Wireless sounds amazing, but live transmission right next to my brain sounds pretty shite

    Interesting point. The WiFi signal is much different from cellular, the latter being more powerful. People don’t seem to be concerned to sleep next to a router so wonder how much an antenna onto your head would be different. That being said you could easily offset the antenna stealing it onto the back or something.

    It does seem though that WiFi causes problems, I’ve heard directly of someone calling it “an allergy” and searching for info you find that

    Quote

    Quote Repeated Wi-Fi studies show that Wi-Fi causes oxidative stress, sperm/testicular damage, neuropsychiatric effects including EEG changes

    There’s the whole bunch of wearables that are being commercialised that I guess will tell us something about this, considering there are still smart glasses in development. There is already a cable free Oculus too.

    Yes, even if there was wireless VR on offer, I don't think early adoption would be worth the huge risks. Anything beaming signal near your brain (or lack thereof in my case) is just not worth playing games with, pardon the pun. It's already a bit alarming to consider any potential long-term effects of VR on your eyeballs.

    I would love a wireless VR that was self-contained, but we're probably a long way from that tech-wise.

    Anyways, sorry if this has been a bit of a digression from Half-Life :D

    Quote from FMPONE

    16 hours ago, FMPONE said: Yes, even if there was wireless VR on offer, I don't think early adoption would be worth the huge risks. Anything beaming signal near your brain (or lack thereof in my case) is just not worth playing games with, pardon the pun. It's already a bit alarming to consider any potential long-term effects of VR on your eyeballs.

    I would love a wireless VR that was self-contained, but we're probably a long way from that tech-wise.

    Anyways, sorry if this has been a bit of a digression from Half-Life :D

    Oculus Quest already does this, but at the expense of compute power. I can see the next gen version of it becoming a real game changer. I wonder if Valve would support it tho, as it cuts steam completely out of the equation.

    Quote from Zarsky

    7 hours ago, Zarsky said: Oculus Quest already does this, but at the expense of compute power. I can see the next gen version of it becoming a real game changer. I wonder if Valve would support it tho, as it cuts steam completely out of the equation.

    We just need to go back to Gameboy cartridges, then.


    Just beat the Northern Star. Really fun level design in terms of challenging you, introducing new ideas. That rifle is just really fun to use. I like how when you get the rifle you get to tee off on the zombies, feel powerful, then the lights cut out and you get serious. The electric dogs are a really fun idea, a shaman enemy, I enjoyed it a lot.

    Quote from FMPONE

    On 4/2/2020 at 3:42 AM, FMPONE said: We just need to go back to Gameboy cartridges, then.


    http://# Hide contents

    Just beat the Northern Star. Really fun level design in terms of challenging you, introducing new ideas. That rifle is just really fun to use. I like how when you get the rifle you get to tee off on the zombies, feel powerful, then the lights cut out and you get serious. The electric dogs are a really fun idea, a shaman enemy, I enjoyed it a lot.

    Spoiler I found the hotel northern star place to drag on a bit too long, was glad to get out of it in the end.

    Quote from dux

    11 hours ago, dux said: http://# Hide contents I found the hotel northern star place to drag on a bit too long, was glad to get out of it in the end.

    I think I agree with you. In terms of the weird pacing I chocked that up to them just packing in content, which I couldn't really argue with, given that content is exactly what we've been craving for years.

    Another thought, in hindsight, I wish that the beginning of the game evoked more of the Dystopian HL2 vibes. That's a huge loss for this one, it really has no foreplay in terms of world-building, it just kind of says "hey you're in the world now."

    I think that's fantastic for gameplay on the first playthrough, but you in a sense don't know what you're missing, because HL2 really had the foreplay aspect down. It had a really slow burn, people muttering to themselves "don't drink the water", a more of a George Orwell atmosphere. The beginning of Alyx, unfortunately, is very forgettable in comparison. There are some cool set pieces, but nothing will beat walking through the civilian apartments and feeling their lives.

    Overall the writing on this title is a big step down from the previous 2 games. They need that Laidlaw touch of mystique, IMO. I love that I'm laughing at the lines I'm supposed to laugh at, but that Half-Life mood and ambiance only arrives in waves.

    Quote from FMPONE

    10 hours ago, FMPONE said: http://# Hide contents I think I agree with you. In terms of the weird pacing I chocked that up to them just packing in content, which I couldn't really argue with, given that content is exactly what we've been craving for years.

    Another thought, in hindsight, I wish that the beginning of the game evoked more of the Dystopian HL2 vibes. That's a huge loss for this one, it really has no foreplay in terms of world-building, it just kind of says "hey you're in the world now."

    I think that's fantastic for gameplay on the first playthrough, but you in a sense don't know what you're missing, because HL2 really had the foreplay aspect down. It had a really slow burn, people muttering to themselves "don't drink the water", a more of a George Orwell atmosphere. The beginning of Alyx, unfortunately, is very forgettable in comparison. There are some cool set pieces, but nothing will beat walking through the civilian apartments and feeling their lives.

    Overall the writing on this title is a big step down from the previous 2 games. They need that Laidlaw touch of mystique, IMO. I love that I'm laughing at the lines I'm supposed to laugh at, but that Half-Life mood and ambiance only arrives in waves.

    Spoiler I'd even go a little further to say this feels more like portal 2 than Half-Life. I'm struggling to find the HL feeling you get playing a HL game. Not saying it's bad by any means. Just a very different feeling and take.

    I think a big reason as to why it gives off Portal 2 vibes more than Half-Life is due to the constant dialogue between Alyx and Russel which is similar to Wheatley/GLaDOS in the sense that there's always someone talking to you throughout the entire journey. For me, this duo dynamic felt more similar to Firewatch's Henry and Delilah.

    Another thing that plays into that Portal 2 feeling is the use of music, especially the dynamic aspect of it. Half-Life has always been similar to something like Samurai Jack, where you have long moments of background noise being punctuated by music at key intervals. Of course, the fact that Kelly Bailey hasn't worked on this was heard throughout. Music definitely feels more Portal 2-like, with a clear contrast when they use the old hl tracks now and then.

    However, I would say it made up for those aspects with the more horror-like experience and macabre depictions of Xen and combine. That was very much in line to what we've seen in previous Half-Life games, maybe even more than in HL2.

    But deep down we all know what it was truly missing...

    Spoiler

    I think the humor is also very close to the one we see in Portal 2.

    Basically: the joke of the very complex situation the player is asked to solve very quickly, otherwise terrible things will happen. You see that in HL:A a few times for example:

    Spoiler When you finaly find a way to get inside the ship by opening a big catwalk or something, and you have like 10 levers in front of you that seem to do complex things and you end up making the ship collapse into the ground

    This is very close to what we saw in Portal 2 (with Weathley asking you, right before waking up Glados, not to read at all those levers' labels but in the same time to look for one of them) or even with the Portal VR repair demo where you're asked to repair Atlas and are overwelmed by the amount of interactive holographic stuff in front of you.

    I liked the game very much but I also wasn't convinced by the radio calls with Russel. It tried to get personnal and show how Alyx is curious about how the world was before all that but didn't feel right to me. In Firewatch you don't have the pressure of aliens coming on earth to kill you, it takes its time and fills spaces that would be empty otherwise. In HL:A, there's tons of stuff on your mind already and in the end I was really intrigued by the radio calls when it made the story move on.

    I'm so done with this cable on the headset. It's really spoiling the experience for me. I mentioned before it keeps tangling up, and while that still keeps happening the worst happened to me last night. It tangled and bundled up over my right foot without me noticing. I went to walk forward really quickly to take cover behind a box from a heavy combine and YEET. Headset got partially yanked off my head, cable got ripped out the back of the PC and my vision went black and I thought I had royally fucked it. Fortunately a restart fixed everything. But fuck sake man. £1000 to trip over a wire all day ain't my idea of fun. :(

    Sean = Me

    Girl = Alyx

    Nuh uh dude = Index Cable

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