I genuinely can’t believe Half Life Alyx is five years old.

No other video game has felt the way Alyx felt. No one else has taken such a bold swing in what a video game can be. It’s burned into my mind as my Half Life game, the one that came out at just the right time for me.

It was also my “pandemic” game. While everyone else was playing Animal Crossing or Doom Eternal, I was playing and replaying Half Life Alyx.

It definitely feels like it’s somewhat doomed to be less remembered in the popular consciousness than most big games that come out, and indeed the rest of the games in the Half Life lineage. Cries of “Half Life 3 when?” still abound in spite of the very clear effort Alyx made to move the story forward. But to me it feels like a game that still hasn’t been topped in the five years since it came out, not by a long shot.

Half Life Alyx received a Game of the Year win from GameSpot, and nominations from a few other publications. When it came to events like The Game Awards with a dedicated “Best VR Game” category, it won handily.

  • Asetru@feddit.orgEnglish
    267·
    3 days ago

    Do you know about gaming consoles? 3D accelerator cards? Graphics cards? Or… CD ROM drives?

    People have been buying hardware to play a certain game for literal decades. The games are called “system sellers”. Games so good they sell hardware. It’s usually even the opposite: if your hardware doesn’t have such a game, it doesn’t sell (atari Jaguar anyone?).

    • pory@lemmy.worldEnglish
      152·
      3 days ago

      $1000 and your gaming PC for Alyx is way beyond buying a PS4 for Bloodborne, and even doing that is a bridge too far for me.

    • Stovetop@lemmy.worldEnglish
      141·
      3 days ago

      VR has the extra element of needing a suitable living space to play in, though. Other games I can do at my desk or in my tiny, cramped living room, but I have nowhere I can easily set up for VR that would allow for significant range of motion.

      I own a VR headset, but I only really use it for games that allow you to be stationary and just use the headset as an immersive monitor with a standard controller. As one would expect, it doesn’t get much use, because not many VR games are made to play that way!

    • Hadriscus@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      I thought you still needed to plug the VR headset into a computer ? is the computer built into the headset ?

      • Kanzar@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        Most of the common ones now do wireless streaming from the PC for PCVR. But yes, for PCVR games you will still need a PC to run it. There are some VR headsets that are capable of running some games on it without a connected PC, like my Quest 2 can run Superhot or BeatSaber etc.

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      76·
      3 days ago

      So people should buy hardware to play a single game and then leave the hardware to accumulate dust after a few hours of gameplay? Quite the waste!

      • tauren@lemm.eeEnglish
        17·
        3 days ago

        I agree, that would silly. Luckily, Half-Life Alyx is not the only VR game.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          46·
          3 days ago

          Sure, but if people love Half-Life and don’t care about other VR games it sucks that it’s locked behind hardware requirements that even Valve doesn’t give a crap about considering it’s the only VR game they made.

          Edit: I’m sure all of you would be pissed if Sony released a new PlayStation with one game from a beloved series and then just said “now it’s in other people’s hands, let them take care of creating more games for our hardware!”

          • skulblaka@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2·
            2 days ago

            This entire argument can be made identically for Half-Life 1 and 2 requiring people to upgrade their PCs to be able to play them.

          • tauren@lemm.eeEnglish
            71·
            3 days ago

            It isn’t up to Valve alone to push forward the industry and release top-tier VR games every other year. They took a risk and created one of the best games I’ve played, and I’m not alone in that opinion. Valve are trying expand the gaming experience, they are trying to be innovative, and people blame them for “not giving a crap”. Say what you want, but I thank Valve for what they are doing.