It’s Half Life Alyx day today!

It’s Half Life Alyx day today!

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Discussion

nigelpugh7

Original Poster:

6,041 posts

191 months

Monday 23rd March 2020
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So who will be getting it downloaded later?

I would love to hear from anyone who has all the VR gear ready and setup waiting to play once it’s available for download.

Sadly it’s seems our Valve Index is weeks away from shipping and I bet CV will affect that too!

Still would love to hear people’s Impressions once they have it up and running.


nigelpugh7

Original Poster:

6,041 posts

191 months

Monday 23rd March 2020
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Nobody else then?

Perhaps we are all too focused on the rest of the world and the madness going around.

Was just looking for a ray of sunshine in all the doom and gloom!

Never mine carry on.


nigelpugh7

Original Poster:

6,041 posts

191 months

Wednesday 25th March 2020
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Don’t rub it in guys, I can’t even get my new PC build to work Damn it!

nigelpugh7

Original Poster:

6,041 posts

191 months

Friday 27th March 2020
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Well my new build PC is all up and running now, I’ve been playing Black Mesa and Half Life 2 to get me in the groove.

Still no update on the steam store re shipping of my index to play Alyx on, its still saying delivery in 4-5 weeks.

Looks like I will be waiting some time!






nigelpugh7

Original Poster:

6,041 posts

191 months

Wednesday 8th April 2020
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Well guess what turned up this morning!





Looks like it’s going to take the rest of the day to do the download of Alyx though!

Still pretty god damn excited!

nigelpugh7

Original Poster:

6,041 posts

191 months

Wednesday 8th April 2020
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Mr Whippy said:
£920!!!

Does Alyx come with it?
Your god damn right it does!

Still your right it’s a lot of cash, but never wanted to play a game more in my life than this one!

nigelpugh7

Original Poster:

6,041 posts

191 months

Wednesday 8th April 2020
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mackie1 said:
You will not be disappointed, you will be terrified.
I’ve just spent a few hours playing with the VR set up.

It’s unbelievably cool.

And I’m not sure if it’s beaxuse the quality of the VR image and world is so good, it’s the first time I’ve played on a headset that doesn’t make me feel motion sickness!

I’ve had a quick hour or so playing Alyx, it sure is stunning.

I think I need to re Calibrate the sensor bases though, it seems to keep loosing where it thinks my hands are.

Perhaps I need to put them up higher,,at the moment they are on the same table the mouse and keyboard is on.

Also just for sanity, I do have the controllers set up correctly done i?

The movement for jumping to the next location is on my left hand controller, when it seems like it should be on the right hand one logically?

Also if you move, at first it feels like your face is right up against the wall you have moved to be by, you have to use the right hand control to click back to see everything else.

I am loving it though.

nigelpugh7

Original Poster:

6,041 posts

191 months

Wednesday 24th June 2020
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mackie1 said:
I just finished it at the weekend. I'm tempted to play through again on a harder setting. I see they've released to mod tools for it now so it'll be interesting to see what people come up with using the engine and assets.

Not sure what to try next... I guess Boneworks is probably the obvious choice but while my non-gamer wife would geniunely enjoy watching my play HL:A I doubt the same would be true of BW.
I thought it was time for an update.

So despite my Devoted half life fan status for 20 odd years, I have sad news to report.

The game, the graphics, and the gameplay, well it’s simply brilliant.

And the interaction, and challenge puzzles, are all so good it’s just almost too good?

And I think that’s the issue, as half life 1 and 2 players, on Xbox 360 and Xbox one, it’s great to play and easy to pick up where you were last time.

But this game, and the VR requirements for the play environment just make it too hard.

It’s the play area needed, the headset, the cables the whole Shabang and rigmarole to get it out, set it up and play, that makes it a ball ache..

There’s no easy way to just say, fancy a quick blast on half life?

And in minuites your would be playing and having fun.

The complexity of the whole setup for this, is for us the reason it’s not been played with at all.

And I do mean at all, I’ve played it twice,Tom has played it perhaps 5-6 times in total.

That’s not a good result for a setup that cost us over £2K and we did that on a budget.

So I asked Tom and his mates why they weren’t playing it, they answered, simply it’s too hard to get it all set up to play, then it’s actually a pain to play as the room isn’t big enough to play as we stumble and trip.

For reference we set it up in our dining room, it’s not a big room, but it’s 6M * 4M.

It’s still not enough for the whole set of movements.

And for me it comes down to what we loved about half life, you could sit on the sofa, spend a few happy hours playing and then just dip in and out as needed.

For alyx that’s just not the reality, it’s hard to get it all set up and running.

Even harder to play in , what we thought was a decent size room.

As as such you can’t just play it when you want for some fun.

And remember we have had a lot of time on our hands over the last four months.

And yet still it’s been played less than 10 times in total.

So we love it, but we don’t play it, and ultimately it’s going to sit in its box and never get played.

I’m sad to report I can’t see a full valve index and a mega powerful gaming pc being sold on for dimes on the dollar of what we paid for it ,,and very soon indeed too.

nigelpugh7

Original Poster:

6,041 posts

191 months

Friday 10th July 2020
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satans worm said:
If you have a 6X4m dining room, and assuming the table is not bang smack in the middle, its a massive room to play in and more than enough, you know you teleport and not walk right?
All you need to really have is enough space to hold your arms out all around you, and thats it

For getting it going, its the same as all VR, takes a minute or 2 longer to plug in the sensors and stick the system on your head?

VR is a different way to experience the games, it does take a touch more effort to get into the game, and the wires are a pain, standing and moving uses energy rather than slouching on the couch , its also less social as your in your own world, but for me and a good game, its totally worth thatr little extra effort

Im sure many will be happy to snap up an Index second hand(given the wait list, you might even make what you bought it for or close!)
I know your correct of course, and i think the 6 seater dining table is half the issue, but it cant be moved easily without dismantling it.

We wont be selling though, Tom and his mates have bought some more games to play in VR, so at least they are using it.

I on the other hand still haven’t played Alyx for probably 3 months now.

nigelpugh7

Original Poster:

6,041 posts

191 months

Friday 10th July 2020
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[redacted]

nigelpugh7

Original Poster:

6,041 posts

191 months

Sunday 19th September 2021
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I’m sad to say we have only ever completed the first few levels.

The pita of getting the whole VR setup means it’s not something you can turn on and just play.

As I suspected it was pretty much a waste of money investing in VR for just one game!

nigelpugh7

Original Poster:

6,041 posts

191 months

Sunday 19th September 2021
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Griffith4ever said:
What vr setup do you have?

I ask because with a wired and sensor system it is indeed too much of a faff, and that's before the system insists on updates every time you fire it up, and then argues that the usb 3 ports you used last month are now usb 2. That was the rift experience for me.

I now have the quest 2 and it is a totally different ball game. No sensors, no cables. Totally wireless. Power on and play. Want to play a pc vr game? Launch Oculus on the pc, tick one box to enable wireless pc vr and then put the headset on and enable it. Brilliant.
Yep we’ve got the valve index VR kit, which as you say covers both the player and the room in cables, not to mention the only room we have spare that’s big enough to give the play on area is the formal dining room in our house, and Mrs P only allowed that for about 3 months!

I won’t be buying another VR headset though, just can’t justify it!

nigelpugh7

Original Poster:

6,041 posts

191 months

Tuesday 28th June 2022
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FourWheelDrift said:
That is indeed fabulous news!