Half-Life 3 sorta announced

[ComradeYellow]

After all these years they're doing a 1.5 instead of a 3.0?  Sounds a bit diluted dunnit?  Sounds like they're just trying to push VR hardware more than anything.  I see what you did there, Valve.

Edited November 21, 2019 by ComradeMaster

[Bokishi]

Damn I heard this game will be same length as HL2! It’s a proper follow up

Edited November 22, 2019 by Bokishi

[MedicineDan]

It does explain why the main character is Alyx.  If this means they've got a Half-Life 3 in the works where we can play either character or both, that would be interesting.  It's one of the things I liked about the Dishonored franchise and I did complete the game as the father and the daughter.  I don't mind it being a prequel, but I probably will skip it for the time being if it requires me to buy VR equipment.

[Blodhemn]

On 11/20/2019 at 6:09 AM, marelooke said:

Looks like Valve trying to push VR by dangling a HL3 carrot in front of frothing fans to me.

Honestly once this much time has passed and with most of the people that made the originals gone I feel they should just be left alone. Putting stuff in the same setting is fine (like this game), but making a HL3 at this point, yeah, probably not a good idea. Unlike BG3, which most of the people going ape about haven't played the predecessors of, I doubt HL3  being rather unlike HL2 would go over too well.

Yep. Probably comes loaded with that cringe west coast humor, like Portal 2. Already see it in the trailer. I'll pass.

[Jozape]

Floating hands are... Jarring, to say the least. Is there a reason for that?

[Lexx]

The reason is that it looks better in VR. Which is what this game is made for. VR.

Most VR people only have the handheld controllers and not full body motion tracking. Sure you can animate arms based on the controller positions, but it's really not the same - pretty bad guessing half the time. So better to just not have the arms an be done with it. When playing in VR you won't notice it anyway.

[UrbaNebula]

I'm sure there are technical reasons for the floating hands. The most obvious one that comes to mind is awkward and unnatural movement. It also runs the risk of creating a disconnect with the player, with the game showing Alyx's arm in a position you know your own arm isn't.

[injurai]

11 hours ago, Jozape said:

Floating hands are... Jarring, to say the least. Is there a reason for that?

The floating guns were jarring in HL1/2 until you realize your hands are at your keyboard and not awkwardly superimposed in your view. You feel less disembodied from the world for it. VR is the opposite, you are inside the experience and not seeing your hands or some extension of yourself it would be hard to place your presents in the world.

[Lexx]

I'm pretty sure there were hands in HL1/2.

[injurai]

Oh wait... I'm thinking of the early six-axis motion control stuff. You're right.

Which makes it even more odd to find the hands jarring... most games have hands in FOV.

[Jozape]

1 hour ago, injurai said:

Oh wait... I'm thinking of the early six-axis motion control stuff. You're right.

Which makes it even more odd to find the hands jarring... most games have hands in FOV.

Half-life 2 had hands attached to arms 15 years ago. It was the rest that was missing, and that is jarring too but only when you look down for the torso. Some games nowadays even include the rest of the body. In Alyx though, the hands are always floating independently it seems. And that is much more jarring, on a laptop screen anyways. I don't have a VR headset.

[Lexx]

4 hours ago, Jozape said:

And that is much more jarring, on a laptop screen anyways. I don't have a VR headset.

So you're saying it actually doesn't matter to you, because you won't be playing it?

[Jozape]

1 hour ago, Lexx said:

So you're saying it actually doesn't matter to you, because you won't be playing it?

Damn, if only I had gotten into VR sooner. Now I never will!

[MedicineDan]

You might think you can't live with something, but the fact is that you can get used to almost anything.  I wouldn't make the floating hands a deal breaker because, at some point, VR will be the rule, not the exception.  On the other hand, if your stance is to wait, I'm with you, brother!

[injurai]

Racing wheels certainly aren't the standard for racing games, I sort of doubt VR will become standard. It's great for first person games, whether shooters, puzzles, or "point and click" adventure games. But It does not seem to be the future for may 3rd person action/adventure/over-shoulder games. I suppose laying on your back looking at a hires image while you casually play Civ7 or something might work out well too.

[Lexx]

So I was thinking the game will never look like the trailer on my PC. But then I thought... it's still Source engine, right? It looks better, but only because of high-res models and textures. So maybe it actually won't be that performance hungry... Kinda tensed now. I'm very likely going to buy this.

[Hurlshort]

Yeah, VR has been around for ages and still is more of a novelty. Maybe someday the tech will get there, but right now it makes too many people sick and has too many limitations.