Alyx

What?... No, no, darling, don't do like that... Come on, sweetheart, it was just one night.... No, don't throw that! Oh, come on! She's not even a simulator, it's just a simple game! Does that even count as cheating? No no no, wait, don't go away! I'll let you crash to the desktop when I'm in multiplayer and I have spent forty minutes prepping for a sortie and just started rolling and I won't complain! Come back! DCS!

Oh, well, flight sims! And just because last night I spent my time with this new, really hot chick called Alyx!

And, don't tell that to my airplanes, but, boy, is she something! An absolutely killer lady for VR! Best game (I said game, honey, not simulator!) I've played for VR, a real AAA game and, most importantly, a real Half-life game, after thirteen years!

Just the first location blew away my mind and in less than a second I was deep inside Half-Life again! Alyx will bring you around City 17, fighting zombies, dodging headcrabs jumping for your face, crawling (literally, you have to duck in real life!) into Xen infest sewers, solving with your hands physics based puzzles, fighting Combine soldiers and having the creeps in dark, barnacles infested rooms, where you can't shoot because there are dozens of explosive barrels and you'll blow yourself to smithereens if you hit the wrong spot!

So guys, have you met Alyx, yet? :smilewink:

yeah, the game is really phenomenal and finally a proper VR first person shooter.

I absolutely love the realistic/grounded art style of the series' games and this one perfected that look. Its the only VR game i really enjoy (besides DCS of course.)

Everyone I know that has played it can't stop singing its praises.

Longest session I’ve been in VR and didn’t even realize the time passing. One thing thou, I’m a short person 5’2” but the world feels bigger than real life. One way to verify other than being short are the cars are extra bigg. I can cheat by changing my floor height in steamVR home but I will not be able to reach the floor to grab things. My proper floor adjustment is to touch my real floor with controllers and adjust the virtual floor to collide with my virtual controllers.

Man HL:A is awesome.

Will continue playing it today.

The Alyx is again a show from the talents from the Valve, how to take something existing and then refine it by removing useless mechanics and features, and concentrate for great story with the features and mechanics that support player an the story.

There are some of the great VR games already, and I count DCS to be one of the greatest there. But as simulator it is already automatically far more realistic platforms than any shooter is.

The great games has already so far been on the Oculus side, as they seem to seriously take the VR for the story telling and good mechanics, like Chronos that truly surprised how to make a RPG game right!

A Lone Echo about how to make the Sci-Fi story correctly!

"Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes" is extremely fun game in group, in traditional manner where one plays in VR and is needed to defuse a bomb, while friends gather around a printed bomb defusing manual and actually need to work with the VR player to explain what is seen and what needs to be done, so combination of Alias and fun social gaming.

But when it comes to first person shooters, I am fairly tired for all the arrow/bow games, throwing stuff around, picking up from the ground or swording with melee etc. That was again one of the reason why I liked so much about Alyx as it simply focus to what is important in environment and not to "Hey, this is VR and we can now do these things by its mechanic".

The Alyx has amazing lighting. It is not by textures the highest out there like example DCS, but it does great work to save in performance and yet look natural.

It is funny how Valve has just explained how they have tried making HL3 multiple times but not managed to tell new story. And how Alyx was required to have crowbar removed as players believed to be Gordon Freeman instead Alyx, no matter how many times told that. And crowbar was needed to be removed too as it got stuck on doors and other stuff as people carried it in hand all the time.

Finished it few days ago,must say the immersion is awesome really enjoyed the game, had some uncomfortable moments in the Jeff chapter though...:music_whistling:

There are some of the great VR games already, and I count DCS to be one of the greatest there. But as simulator it is already automatically far more realistic platforms than any shooter is.

 

The great games has already so far been on the Oculus side, as they seem to seriously take the VR for the story telling and good mechanics, like Chronos that truly surprised how to make a RPG game right!

A Lone Echo about how to make the Sci-Fi story correctly!

"Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes" is extremely fun game in group, in traditional manner where one plays in VR and is needed to defuse a bomb, while friends gather around a printed bomb defusing manual and actually need to work with the VR player to explain what is seen and what needs to be done, so combination of Alias and fun social gaming.

 

But when it comes to first person shooters, I am fairly tired for all the arrow/bow games, throwing stuff around, picking up from the ground or swording with melee etc.

Yeah, there are some good games for VR (I don't include DCS among them, not because it's not great, but because it wasn't created for VR; then, of course, piloting/driving simulations and VR marry perfectly), I've played Lone Echo and found it wonderful, Defector, too, wasn't bad, with some decent variety, but the real problem of this titles is that they are usually short (excluding multiplayer experiences) and not very immersing (with the notable exception of Lone Echo).

Alyx is great because it's all the other games aren't: long (if you're not one who rushese games, of course, I'm in chapter 9 and have already logged 20 hours), set in an immersing environment and story, with that half-life approach to fps that makes it so much better, forcing you to use your brain as much as your aim and reflexes (taking Jeff around for a stroll is an amazing example! I feel for you, Randolph! ;)), with a perfect adaptation of VR unique mechanics to the needs of the game, and not viceversa: I won't esitate to consider it a masterpiece and a new benchmark for videogames all around, VR or not. I do hope that it'll help VR gaming to spread and reach maturity, because, as those of you guys who have a VR headset know, once you tried it, you can't go back (provided you're confortable using the technology, I have to say I'm lucky, no motion sickness at all!)

As for other fps, I can vouch for Onward (a tactical multiplayer fps), heard very good things about Pavlov VR (same genre, but a different, more "arcadish" implementation), and, if you like to play with firearms (and not only) I can't but wholeheartedly recommend Hot dogs, Horseshoes and Hand grenades, a firearms sandbox very addictive.

Happy to see that others have appreciated Alyx, I was sure to find someone else who played it in here, I think DCS community has one of the bigger percentages of players with VR headesets!

It's the first triple A game for VR. There are others that deserve to be played like: Asgard's Wrath, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, Lone Echo..

Truly ground breaking, I bought this because of the original post, thanks Gianky , wonder how quick the next install??????????? never mind I am going to start a new game :)

Awesome game. Even my wife loves it, and she has gotten already further than I have (she's past Jeff, kicking major butt in HL:A right now).

Alyx is the first game i've ever considered buying , because the reviews are so great . (I consider DCS to be a sim , not a game) .

Truly ground breaking, I bought this because of the original post, thanks Gianky , wonder how quick the next install??????????? never mind I am going to start a new game :)

You're welcome, Flask! :thumbup:

I'm sure sooner or later you'd have ended buying it anyway... but in this case I think sooner is better than later! :D

I started Alyx a few days ago, I am hooked for sure - loving it! Great looking game!

Still early on in the game though, my brain is not as good at working things out as it once was lol.