• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Rumor: Valve to announce Half-Life: Alyx at The Game Awards on December 12

Romulus

Member
They blew their goodwill a long time back as far as HL goes. Pushing out some VR promotion and slapping the HL tag on it doesn't really cut it when we are talking about a franchise they just let die on the vine for a decade, least of all when the basically didn't even have the decency to wrap up what they started with the episodes. They want to buy some goodwill? HL1 + Hl2 + EP1 & 2 remasters with 3 as the cherry on top using the lastest Source tech.

Maybe they are in a financial position to make the games they want. Half life was always about immersion, so after playing top tier VR games I can see the fit. You can do everything and more than you can with a traditional shooter, but the immersion is 100x. At least.

Of course making money is important, not saying it isn't, and maybe they see it as a way to sell headsets too. But the first time I played VR thought. "Damn. Imagine half life like this."
 

Lister

Banned
If this and the rest of their VR lineup is good, I'll probably upgrade to their latest VR tech from my humble Oculus.
 

awcarew

Member
They blew their goodwill a long time back as far as HL goes. Pushing out some VR promotion and slapping the HL tag on it doesn't really cut it when we are talking about a franchise they just let die on the vine for a decade, least of all when the basically didn't even have the decency to wrap up what they started with the episodes. They want to buy some goodwill? HL1 + Hl2 + EP1 & 2 remasters with 3 as the cherry on top using the lastest Source tech.

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no thanks. Already played Half-Life 2 in VR with the Razer Hydras and it totally blew my mind. Anything less than Half-Life VR would be such a huge step backwards for Valve, and for the future of gaming in general, it just wouldn't be worth it. And HL1 was just ported to the Oculus Quest and is one of THE most immersive experiences you can have right now, even with a decades old engine. And as much as I do love Black Mesa Source, the Quest version of the game is my favorite definitive version --- VR adds so much more to the table that you just can't replicate with updated pancake engines.
 
Last edited:

Soltype

Member


Rumour: Valve is about to announce a VR game called Half-Life: Alyx

We'll believe it when we see it.

4IwzmKb.jpg


Update: According to a new transcript of the leaked interview, Half-Life: Alyx will be shown at The Game Awards on December 12.

Original story: This November 19 will mark the 21st anniversary of the release of the original Half-Life, and according to rumor it will also be when Valve announce a flagship virtual reality game called Half-Life: Alyx.

Valve are rarely interested in celebrating their own game's anniversaries, so take this rumor with a mouthful of salt. The source is apparently the same leaker responsible for the DOTA Underlords leak, and is quoting from an interview between "Geoff" (Geoff Keighley, in his capacity as the creator of the "Final Hours" documentaries about Valve games), Robin Walker (co-developer of Team Fortress 2 among other games), and an unnamed third person.

"March 2020, "Half-Life: Alyx" comin' out", says Geoff in the transcript.

Responding to the question of whether this game would be available for players without VR headsets, "I mean we would love to be delivering a version of this that you could play with a mouse and a keyboard, but like as we said, it began as an exploration of VR," an unnamed person replies.

As for how this entirely hypothetical game would play, the only clue is this statement: "You can see their whole body-- Respond to the situation. You know, panicking, dropping clips on the ground as they fumble their weapons 'cause a zombie's in front of them, all these things, they're just - it's been really fun watching playtests."

I've reached out to Valve for comment and will update this story if they reply.


Edit: In case you haven't guessed it by now, this is a rumour. Or a rumor.




RUMOR/RUMOUR!

Love that song
 

Kadayi

Banned
Maybe they are in a financial position to make the games they want. Half life was always about immersion, so after playing top tier VR games I can see the fit. You can do everything and more than you can with a traditional shooter, but the immersion is 100x. At least.

Of course making money is important, not saying it isn't, and maybe they see it as a way to sell headsets too. But the first time I played VR thought. "Damn. Imagine half life like this."

Making the games they want? How about making the games that they actively promoted? Episode 3 was supposed to conclude the HL2 Trilogy around 2006.


For a Guy whose key advice to modders was 'Ship & Ship Often' surprisingly Gabe Newell is terrible at following it himself.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
Why torture us with this?????

The Quartering is saying he confirmed it from sources as well. His source indicated that Valve may hold this over the fans heads and imply "if this doesn't sell well, you'll never get Half Life 3" as a means to push their new VR system.
 

Kadayi

Banned
The Quartering is saying he confirmed it from sources as well. His source indicated that Valve may hold this over the fans heads and imply "if this doesn't sell well, you'll never get Half Life 3" as a means to push their new VR system.

I'd take anything that biscuit says with a hefty pinch of salt, but regardless, I dare say the Index is a great VR experience, but the pricetag is too much. I bought in with a Rift S when NMS VR launched and that felt like a decent buy in level.


Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no thanks. Already played Half-Life 2 in VR with the Razer Hydras and it totally blew my mind. Anything less than Half-Life VR would be such a huge step backwards for Valve, and for the future of gaming in general, it just wouldn't be worth it. And HL1 was just ported to the Oculus Quest and is one of THE most immersive experiences you can have right now, even with a decades old engine. And as much as I do love Black Mesa Source, the Quest version of the game is my favorite definitive version --- VR adds so much more to the table that you just can't replicate with updated pancake engines.

No thanks to what exactly? An ending?
 
Last edited:

Xyphie

Member
Valve finally going for that 3. as in 3 games no one wants in a row. Artifact, Underlords and now this.
 
Last edited:

Romulus

Member
Making the games they want? How about making the games that they actively promoted? Episode 3 was supposed to conclude the HL2 Trilogy around 2006.


For a Guy whose key advice to modders was 'Ship & Ship Often' surprisingly Gabe Newell is terrible at following it himself.


Maybe episode 3 was awful in beta and was scrapped. Maybe no one wanted to work on it. So many reasons for it being pushed off, and its better that way than to force it.

I'd rather them wait until they have something they're passionate about.
 
Last edited:
Why torture us with this?????

The Quartering is saying he confirmed it from sources as well. His source indicated that Valve may hold this over the fans heads and imply "if this doesn't sell well, you'll never get Half Life 3" as a means to push their new VR system.
Eh, that guy is a complete buffoon who has no idea what he's talking about. Valve didn't even realize they wanted to make a VR headset until their Vive partnership went south, and this game started development before Vive even released.

See how easy it is to disprove him? (I mean he's right about the leak, but that's about it)

Is this game being made to sell VR? Well yes, like Mario 64 was made to sell N64. Is it also being made to be a good Half Life game? Yes, and a lot of the playtesters say it's the best and does it justice. We shall see about that part, but the potential is absolutely there and yet this guy is clearly upset about it, and apparently his source thinks the reception is mixed to bad despite basically many sources from ValveNewsNetwork saying otherwise. It was in a bad state a couple of years ago, but that's not related to how it is today, supposedly.
 
Last edited:

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Of course it does. Why nobody believes it. It's the worst kept secret and it makes sense
 

Wonko_C

Member
2 years ago:

"VR needs more AAA games for me to buy it."

Now:

"Why are Valve/Respawn/Insomnaic choosing VR for their AAA games??!?!"

wE0hQzT.gif


Some people will always make up excuses for things they can't buy. The worst is they end up convincing themselves they suck, and try to convince others in the process.

About the game itself, I don't get why so many want HL3 outright. It's best to release a spinoff/prequel to warm up the dormant fanbase, then drop the direct sequel a few years after that.
 
Last edited:

Kadayi

Banned
Maybe episode 3 was awful in beta and was scrapped. Maybe no one wanted to work on it. So many reasons for it being pushed off, and its better that way than to force it.

I'd rather them wait until they have something they're passionate about.

Handwave the post

In the time they haven't shipped Episode 3, entire AAA franchises have sprung into existence
 
Last edited:

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
wE0hQzT.gif


Some people will always make up excuses for things they can't buy. The worst is they end up convincing themselves and others in the process.
Ive had all vr headseta starting with dk1 in 2013... Ive had it all(almost). It's always amazing for a week and then collecta dust... And then You notuce horrible lenses quality, image bending, glare and pixels.
Rift S was the best there was yet though. 1 cable, flawless room tracking, bright lcd screen... Still sold it.
Index is just too damn expensive for being rift s with few more fingers... In which You will hold a gun anyway
 

GrayChild

Gold Member
People: "LOL VR has no games that make it truly worth it to invest in a new headset"
Valve: "OK guys, here's a new Half-Life game which can be played on every VR set that is compatible with SteamVR (including Vive and Oculus Rift instead of being limited only to the Index)
People: "WHAT?! How dare you make this one VR exclusive."
Valve: "It just wasn't possible to make a non-VR version of the game considering some of its design principles."
People: "GREEDY ASSHOLES! YOU BETRAYED US! REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

So, hold your horses until we get some more info on the game.
 
Last edited:

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
Eh, that guy is a complete buffoon who has no idea what he's talking about. Valve didn't even realize they wanted to make a VR headset until their Vive partnership went south, and this game started development before Vive even released.

See how easy it is to disprove him? (I mean he's right about the leak, but that's about it)

Is this game being made to sell VR? Well yes, like Mario 64 was made to sell N64. Is it also being made to be a good Half Life game? Yes, and a lot of the playtesters say it's the best and does it justice. We shall see about that part, but the potential is absolutely there and yet this guy is clearly upset about it, and apparently his source thinks the reception is mixed to bad despite basically many sources from ValveNewsNetwork saying otherwise. It was in a bad state a couple of years ago, but that's not related to how it is today, supposedly.

What guy, Quartering or his source?
 

Wonko_C

Member
Ive had all vr headseta starting with dk1 in 2013... Ive had it all(almost). It's always amazing for a week and then collecta dust... And then You notuce horrible lenses quality, image bending, glare and pixels.
Rift S was the best there was yet though. 1 cable, flawless room tracking, bright lcd screen... Still sold it.
Index is just too damn expensive for being rift s with few more fingers... In which You will hold a gun anyway

That's why I said some people, not everyone.

I can't really afford a powerful PC, much less a VR headset so I can't relate to your experience. I only have a PSVR since 2016 and I still play it frequently. Infact I almost exclusively buy VR games now. With a few exceptions, TV games have been really not doing it for me this gen, save for the retro-style stuff like Ninja Warriors Once Again, Metroidvanias, and fighting games. Not into the big western AAA stuff as I used to.

All I know PC-side is Valve abhors exclusivity so luckily you will be able to use any PCVR headset to play their games.
 
Last edited:

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
Quartering. Though I expect the source will be incorrect about the reception of the game because that doesn't tie in with what ValveNewsNetwork says, who would have much more contact.

He was quoting his source, he wasn't saying per se that Valve was going to do any of that. I don't think he feels strongly about it one way or another.
 
Somebody had a Monkey Paw wish, didn't they? Sure Half-Life Alyx sounds interesting if you want to invest $200 dollars into VR... and I am sure it will be a solid game. But where is Half-Life 3?
 
On the scale of quality and effort we've come to associate with Valve over the past decade plus:

A soulless micro-transaction filled knock-off card game at the low end and a micro-transaction filled mod of another game, copyright stamped and rereleased under the Valve banner at the high end...

Where can I expect this next assuredly high quality, totally not creatively and morally bankrupt latest effort from Valve to fall?
 

theHFIC

Member
Hopefully Valve won't make this Index only and I will be all in. It's about time PC starts getting some decent VR titles to hopefully flex the extra muscle over PSVR which seems to be ruling over VR at this point and with PSVR2 or whatever it is called coming in 2020 too, it should be a hot year.
 

Ristifer

Member
Just seeing a tweet where Valve is actually acknowledging a new Half-Life entry is remarkable enough in itself.

I'm completely out of the loop (and have no money) with regards to VR, but I remember Half-Life threads from long ago where certain folks argued that the next big Half-Life game from Valve would need to showcase a leap into something like VR. Something that would take the Source engine to the next level. This might not be Half-Life 3, but years later, those people seem to have been right all along.
 

wipeout364

Member
It probably says a lot that I don't really care, given that I am/was a massive half life fan. It's been too long and VR doesn't interest me at all. I've played around with it (Vive) and honestly after a few hours had my fill. Knowing Valve I would wager on this being some sort of tech demo rather than a full fledged single player experience but I would love to be proven wrong. Who is still at Valve that designs single player games, seems like they have had a big exodus over the last few years.
 

nkarafo

Member
used vive is like 300 boners, entry fee isn't that staggering

someone has to push this tech forward and get it to scale, better valve than anyone else
You also have to add the graphics card update for it. Mid range cards won't cut it. 60fps is the minimum accepted frame rate and you need to feed 2 screens.

I agree about the second part but they should not make it VR only. VR can still be the best experience though.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom