Video Game News and Miscellany
- Thread starter figmentPez
- Start date
figmentPez
Staff member
Half-Life: Alyx documentary video: 'We couldn't possibly' make it for mouse and keyboard
"[Half-Life: Alyx] began as an exploration of VR, and the more we used the controllers and the headset, we realized the amount of interactions this gives, the amount of possibilities these things give us, the more we explored it and the more we realized that there's so much opportunity that we can't really translate back to the keyboard," Casali said.
"When you can track your hands separately from your head, they're all 3D space, all simultaneously tracking and moving, you just can't really get that with a mouse and keyboard. And when you put that into game mechanics, the kinds of interactions that we can do now, we couldn't possibly do with a mouse and keyboard."
That said, I think it's likely fans will recreate the story without those interactions, leading to much internet debate.
Honestly, I'm greatly disappointed. I've made it no secret that I'm a big Half-Life fan. I'd hoped for years and years that maybe - maybe - we would see a new Half-Life game. But not a VR game that would require hardware at the price point of a new console. No. Fuck that. It's not worth it.
You never know, maybe HL:A will be the killer app for VR. Before I got a VR rig, I pretty much figured I'd never spend that much money on a peripheral like that. After getting a cheap one, I kinda wish I had just spent the money on a better one in the first place. I don't regret purchasing the cheap one though, since hindsight is 20/20 and all that.
You should give Half-Life 2 a try. I recently replayed it and it still holds up as an incredibly well paced action game/fps
figmentPez
Staff member
Black Mesa, the fan made Half-Life 1 remake, is very nearly complete. It's been worth playing for a while now, IMO.
figmentPez
Staff member
Does 240Hz matter?
TL;DR Yes, even though the difference between 144Hz and 240Hz isn't as definitive as the difference between 60Hz and 144Hz, higher frame and refresh rates make a big difference in gaming.
TL;DR Yes, even though the difference between 144Hz and 240Hz isn't as definitive as the difference between 60Hz and 144Hz, higher frame and refresh rates make a big difference in gaming.
figmentPez
Staff member
Don't forget about the controller teardown:
TL;DW the controller is actively designed to prevent user service, possibly any sort of repair at all. Other than that, it's a really boring controller.
I totally want to. It's just hard to justify buying it when I've got over 100 games now to play (although most were free at this point).
Actually at ten bucks I bet I'll pick it up. What's the deal with Half-Life 2 and the episode one and two thing? Is that three games?
Last edited:
GasBandit
Staff member
The episodes continue the story like expansion packs, but each is much, much shorter than half life 2 proper. The explanation at the time was "if we release these shorter episodes, we can crank them out faster and cheaper, so you won't have to wait as long to continue the story of Gordon Freeman!"
Welllllll we see how that all worked out.
I'm biased because I grew up with the series, but I think they hold up well to time. They're still incredibly well-polished FPS games that set a new bar for the genre at the time. Your mileage may vary, of course, because you don't have that nostalgic bias. But yeah, as Gas said, Half-Life 1 and 2 and proper full games. Half-Life 2: Episode 1 & 2 are natural extensions of Half-Life 2 rather than a full-blown sequel.
Wait for them to go on sale, though. They always have big discounts during every major Steam sale. You can probably get the whole series for like $10-15.
figmentPez
Staff member
Both videos are from Linus. This is a more rigorous retest that introduced a variety of tests, a 144Hz test rig, pro gamers, and a longer testing period.
I had originally put “...when he tried it in the Summer,” but deleted that because it sounded too “First!”-y.
However this does NOT excuse the fact that I failed to notice the LTT logo and Linus’ smiling face peeking out from behind the YouTube “play” button.
I blame being on mobile. Yeah, that’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.
And now I have to wait until lunch to watch it, dang it.
—Patrick
Not really news maybe, but I'm curious if the people here who play a lot and talk about it, through whom I vicariously play games since I never have time, are aware of Iratus: Lord of the Dead. Darkest Dungeon style combat, combined with Slay the Spire style maps and a Heroes of Might and Magic style hero...And you play as the bad guy. Sounds like it could be fun!
I saw people play it once? It looked... okay? It's definitely less refined than Darkest Dungeon.
figmentPez
Staff member
Google is doing some major backpedaling about Stadia.
To paraphrase, "We know we said 4K 60fps, but some developers went with 4K 30fps for artistic reasons. We're still technically giving you 60fps because of frame doubling, though. It's not our fault, we gave the developers the power they needed, it's on them if the game runs poorly on our amazing system. We wouldn't lie to you, and we certainly won't abandon Stadia the moment it becomes unprofitable because developers get sick of being blamed. All hail the game cloud! The game cloud has no need for hardware. The game cloud simply is. All hail the game cloud. And now, game cloud slaves, the weather..."
To paraphrase, "We know we said 4K 60fps, but some developers went with 4K 30fps for artistic reasons. We're still technically giving you 60fps because of frame doubling, though. It's not our fault, we gave the developers the power they needed, it's on them if the game runs poorly on our amazing system. We wouldn't lie to you, and we certainly won't abandon Stadia the moment it becomes unprofitable because developers get sick of being blamed. All hail the game cloud! The game cloud has no need for hardware. The game cloud simply is. All hail the game cloud. And now, game cloud slaves, the weather..."
Mechwarrior 5 Mercenaries comes out in a few days, unfortunately as an Epic Game Store exclusive. The other unfortunate thing, for me anyway, is that it takes place 30 years before the clan invasion, so all oldie mechs and none of the kick-ass clanner mechs I grew up loving. After playing through all of Battletech's DLC and such, I'm a little sick of pre-clanner mechs and I want my Mad Cats, Vultures, etc.
Yeah, I had this pre-ordered and then refunded when they went Epic. I've heard they had quite a few people do that, not that it affected them much... the big sack of cash they got from Epic more than made up for the losses. But I did get something like 200+ dollars worth of free MWO stuff out of the deal though, so that was nice.
figmentPez
Staff member
Black Mesa (the Half-Life 1 remake) released the Xen Complete Beta. It's been a long time coming, but it's finally possible to play the full story of Half-Life with much better graphics.
I'll wait for the official release, which I'm sure won't be too far behind. But I thought they weren't close to finishing it? For some reason, I thought they were only done maybe the first third of Xen and the rest still had a lot of development left.
I guess Master Chief Collection has sold a million units on Steam. That's on top of however many people got it for just the subscription fee for PC Game Pass.
That's a lot.
Here's the part that confuses me. Halo Reach is also very high on the best sellers list, but you need Halo Master Chief Collection to play Halo Reach....and if I'm reading everything right, the Halo Master Chief Collection comes with Halo Reach.
Are they just counting the sale of MCC as a sale of Reach? That seems shady.
That's a lot.
Here's the part that confuses me. Halo Reach is also very high on the best sellers list, but you need Halo Master Chief Collection to play Halo Reach....and if I'm reading everything right, the Halo Master Chief Collection comes with Halo Reach.
Are they just counting the sale of MCC as a sale of Reach? That seems shady.
Last edited:
figmentPez
Staff member
https://steamcommunity.com/app/976730/discussions/0/1752394042379952800/
TL; DR it's a quirk of the Steam store because Reach uses MCC as a launcher. You can buy just Reach, and it will work without buying the whole collection.
We just call those "triple-A games" nowadays.
figmentPez
Staff member
CrAAApitalism.