Half Life: Alyx

[Mudface]

Holy fuckin' shitballs. I don't even have a VR set and I'm ridiculously excited for this. It looks a quantum leap beyond any other VR stuff that's been released before, and well... it's fucking Half Life. The thought of Valve getting back in the saddle and producing games of the quality they did before is giving me a right stubbie. Time to start saving for an Index.

 

 

[Numero Veinticinco]

Although I'm not interested in Half-Life all that much as I didn't play the other games, I am interested in VR developments. I genuinely thought it would fade away like 3d glasses at home did, but boy was I wrong. The latest developments look pretty insane. I suspect I'll end up getting one when Star Citizen finally releases. Hopefully by then all the flaws will be completely worked out. 

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Mudface said:

Holy fuckin' shitballs. I don't even have a VR set and I'm ridiculously excited for this. It looks a quantum leap beyond any other VR stuff that's been released before, and well... it's fucking Half Life. The thought of Valve getting back in the saddle and producing games of the quality they did before is giving me a right stubbie. Time to start saving for an Index.

 

 

I think you get the game free if you buy one of the VR headsets, presumably it's one by Valve?

[Mudface]

Just now, Shooter in the Motor said:

I think you get the game free if you buy one of the VR headsets, presumably it's one by Valve?

You do, yes- https://store.steampowered.com/sub/354231/ - they're using it as a killer app to drive sales.

 

VR is too pricey for me at the moment, and I'd likely need a new PC to fully take advantage of it anyway as I only have a 970GTX at the moment, but it's great to see a company like Valve going all in on it. It's going to be an exciting time, a lot more interesting than yet another round of consoles and micro-transaction riddled AAA grinds.

 

 

[Mudface]

7 hours ago, Numero Veinticinco said:

Although I'm not interested in Half-Life all that much as I didn't play the other games, I am interested in VR developments. I genuinely thought it would fade away like 3d glasses at home did, but boy was I wrong. The latest developments look pretty insane. I suspect I'll end up getting one when Star Citizen finally releases. Hopefully by then all the flaws will be completely worked out. 

So about 2075 then...

[Numero Veinticinco]

20 minutes ago, Mudface said:

So about 2075 then...

Beta? 

[Mudface]

Just now, Numero Veinticinco said:

Beta? 

Very likely. Although with people willing to pay ridiculous money for ships that don't even exist, they could probably keep going forever.

[Numero Veinticinco]

3 minutes ago, Mudface said:

Very likely. Although with people willing to pay ridiculous money for ships that don't even exist, they could probably keep going forever.

I didn’t do that. 
 

What? I didn’t. 
 

Okay, I did. 

[Mudface]

Just now, Numero Veinticinco said:

I didn’t do that. 
 

What? I didn’t. 
 

Okay, I did. 

No, really? What did you buy?

 

I never buy early access games because I know I'll be bored of them by the time the actual release happens.

[Numero Veinticinco]

15 minutes ago, Mudface said:

No, really? What did you buy?

 

I never buy early access games because I know I'll be bored of them by the time the actual release happens.

I got a ship called the Banu Merchantman. I think it was $350 but the exchange rate was better then, so it was something like £260. Not that that makes it better. 
 

I realise how ridiculous it is to pay money for something that doesn’t actually exist. That said, I believe that Star Citizen is a project that is near unique in type. A true ly next generation game that isn’t being rushed by a studio - you’ve not got a situation like with BF4 where EA forced Dice to push it out despite it not being ready. You’ve got a crowd funded, open development of a game that I just don’t think would exist in the way it will one day. The level of detail and immersion goes way beyond. 
 

That said, I’ve been very critical of the project down the years, it was poorly run for a good while, and the unexpected growth of the project wasn’t handled well. Thankfully they hired the right people to run the business and organise things a couple of years ago, and since then it’s actually incredibly impressive. 
 

Its finally in a position now, with a well defined project and development roadmap, with many of the core mechanics, and development tools they’ve had to build from scratch that you can actually see the finish line. Well, you believe there is a finish line. 
 

It’s CitizenCon tomorrow. The yearly event with keynotes and dev demonstrations. Have you been keeping up with any of it or is it just not your type of game no matter how good/bad it is? 

[Mudface]

4 minutes ago, Numero Veinticinco said:

I got a ship called the Banu Merchantman. I think it was $350 but the exchange rate was better then, so it was something like £260. Not that that makes it better. 
 

I realise how ridiculous it is to pay money for something that doesn’t actually exist. That said, I believe that Star Citizen is a project that is near unique in type. A true ly next generation game that isn’t being rushed by a studio - you’ve not got a situation like with BF4 where EA forced Dice to push it out despite it not being ready. You’ve got a crowd funded, open development of a game that I just don’t think would exist in the way it will one day. The level of detail and immersion goes way beyond. 
 

That said, I’ve been very critical of the project down the years, it was poorly run for a good while, and the unexpected growth of the project wasn’t handled well. Thankfully they hired the right people to run the business and organise things a couple of years ago, and since then it’s actually incredibly impressive. 
 

Its finally in a position now, with a well defined project and development roadmap, with many of the core mechanics, and development tools they’ve had to build from scratch that you can actually see the finish line. Well, you believe their is a finish line. 
 

It’s CitizenCon tomorrow. The yearly event with keynotes and dev demonstrations. Have you been keeping up with any of it or is it just not your type of game no matter how good/bad it is? 

I haven't really kept up with it to be honest- I'm definitely interested, but there are so many games on my Steam backlog, I can wait for it. It's good to hear it's in a better place though, I really like the idea of crowd funding and giving a company time and space to create the best thing they can.

 

At the moment, I'm dabbling with Two Point Hospital, which is pretty enjoyable. After that, I really ought to play Divinity OS 2 and Pillars of Eternity 2, both of which I bought in the last Christmas sale and haven't touched.

[Numero Veinticinco]

47 minutes ago, Mudface said:

I haven't really kept up with it to be honest- I'm definitely interested, but there are so many games on my Steam backlog, I can wait for it. It's good to hear it's in a better place though, I really like the idea of crowd funding and giving a company time and space to create the best thing they can.

 

At the moment, I'm dabbling with Two Point Hospital, which is pretty enjoyable. After that, I really ought to play Divinity OS 2 and Pillars of Eternity 2, both of which I bought in the last Christmas sale and haven't touched.

For me, I generally play one main game for years with a group of friends, then other games that you pick up and play either by yourself or to fuck around with friends. For me, Star Citizen is that main game. 
 

Right now, playable in the alpha, it is multi-planetary, missions, etc. Multi-systems is rumoured for tomorrow’s presentation. We have seen games like Elite Dangerous and offer multi-systems before, but it’s totally fucking empty for the most part. I call it ‘a million miles wide and an inch deep’ where Star Citizen feels as million wide and a million deep’. 

 

The detail that goes in to everything is amazing. The sheer amount of options you’ll have in game to do whatever you want to do is very attractive to me, and allows for large organisations to form in game. There’s already multi-thousand player ‘Orgs’ out there, like there is in Eve. I’m into the whole ‘one persistent universe for all players’ thing. Especially when you add in the level of detail in the game mechanics, the visual fidelity, and the general feeling of being in space. 
 

It took me months to really learn about the game, there’s just so much content and core mechanic details. You don’t need to learn about any of them to play, but I wanted. There are a few things they’ve done that really demonstrate the level they’re going to with everything they do. For example, on most games a character will step through objects, especially when those objects have been generated in-game by destruction or whatever, but in Star citizen the area around the character’s feet are ‘scanned’ and he will step around objects, even if it’s part of a ship that’s just been blown up. It’s a small thing, but lots of these small things really make up a better, more immersive user experience. As I’m likely going to be putting in many hundreds of hours into it, the detail is important. 
 

EDIT: Here’s the steps thing I was talking about. It’s a couple of years old now, so probably not as impressive as it was when I first saw it, but have a scan through when you’ve got a free minute. 
 

 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Mudface said:

You do, yes- https://store.steampowered.com/sub/354231/ - they're using it as a killer app to drive sales.

 

VR is too pricey for me at the moment, and I'd likely need a new PC to fully take advantage of it anyway as I only have a 970GTX at the moment, but it's great to see a company like Valve going all in on it. It's going to be an exciting time, a lot more interesting than yet another round of consoles and micro-transaction riddled AAA grinds.

 

 

£919?!?!? 

 

I'd be expecting a free PC with it.

[Mudface]

3 minutes ago, Shooter in the Motor said:

£919?!?!?

Yep, you don't have to use the Index with the game, it'll work with other, cheaper VR sets too. VR has an early adopter price premium at the moment, hopefully games like this and the other 2 VR games Valve are developing will drive sales and cause the price to come down.

[Elite]

My mate bought all the PS4 VR set up and I thought it was shit.

[Mudface]

On 22/11/2019 at 09:18, Numero Veinticinco said:

For me, I generally play one main game for years with a group of friends, then other games that you pick up and play either by yourself or to fuck around with friends. For me, Star Citizen is that main game. 
 

Right now, playable in the alpha, it is multi-planetary, missions, etc. Multi-systems is rumoured for tomorrow’s presentation. We have seen games like Elite Dangerous and offer multi-systems before, but it’s totally fucking empty for the most part. I call it ‘a million miles wide and an inch deep’ where Star Citizen feels as million wide and a million deep’. 

 

The detail that goes in to everything is amazing. The sheer amount of options you’ll have in game to do whatever you want to do is very attractive to me, and allows for large organisations to form in game. There’s already multi-thousand player ‘Orgs’ out there, like there is in Eve. I’m into the whole ‘one persistent universe for all players’ thing. Especially when you add in the level of detail in the game mechanics, the visual fidelity, and the general feeling of being in space. 
 

It took me months to really learn about the game, there’s just so much content and core mechanic details. You don’t need to learn about any of them to play, but I wanted. There are a few things they’ve done that really demonstrate the level they’re going to with everything they do. For example, on most games a character will step through objects, especially when those objects have been generated in-game by destruction or whatever, but in Star citizen the area around the character’s feet are ‘scanned’ and he will step around objects, even if it’s part of a ship that’s just been blown up. It’s a small thing, but lots of these small things really make up a better, more immersive user experience. As I’m likely going to be putting in many hundreds of hours into it, the detail is important. 
 

EDIT: Here’s the steps thing I was talking about. It’s a couple of years old now, so probably not as impressive as it was when I first saw it, but have a scan through when you’ve got a free minute. 
 

 

Cheers for that, that's fascinating. Not a criticism of Star Citizen, but I often wonder what wonders could be produced if developers spent as much time on AI and emergent game systems as they do on the little 'cinematic' things.

[Numero Veinticinco]

7 minutes ago, Mudface said:

Cheers for that, that's fascinating. Not a criticism of Star Citizen, but I often wonder what wonders could be produced if developers spent as much time on AI and emergent game systems as they do on the little 'cinematic' things.

Yeah, agreed. CIG (who are developing SC) will have massive amounts of AI stuff going on. The economy is player and AI driven, so it needs to be good. 

[Mudface]

3 minutes ago, Numero Veinticinco said:

Yeah, agreed. CIG (who are developing SC) will have massive amounts of AI stuff going on. The economy is player and AI driven, so it needs to be good. 

I should be renewing my PC towards the end of next year- I currently have a 970GTX and an 4670K which is fine currently but will probably struggle a bit with the new console gen games. I'll definitely be picking up SC then to take advantage of the new system. Hopefully, I can squeeze in an Index as well without my missus getting too annoyed...

[Numero Veinticinco]

27 minutes ago, Mudface said:

I should be renewing my PC towards the end of next year- I currently have a 970GTX and an 4670K which is fine currently but will probably struggle a bit with the new console gen games. I'll definitely be picking up SC then to take advantage of the new system. Hopefully, I can squeeze in an Index as well without my missus getting too annoyed...

I recently upgraded everything but my card as something to tide me over until I get an insane PC with a VR and sticks. I’ve got a 9700k on a Aorus Pro motherboard, an NVME drive (insane), but I’m still rocking a 780. I was going to get the 2080TI but it’s 1400 quid. Fuck that noise.