In Half-Life: Alyx it is possible for you to to lure headcrabs, the prime nemesis of footlobsters, inside buckets. “It’ll move the bucket as it crawls around”, confirmed the Half-Life: Alyx group in yesterday’s Reddit Q&A, including that “playtesters all keep reporting it as a bug”. I hadn’t given all that a lot thought to Half-Life: Alyx however that is truthfully a game changer. It’s somewhat crystallisation of what a Half-Life VR game truly means; one thing I can clearly see myself doing and having fun with.
Lauren’s already reported that Valve are assured the game gained’t be delayed, however I’ve scoured the AMA for different tasty titbits, resembling the truth that the 80 individuals engaged on Alyx are the “largest single team” Valve’s ever had.
Just shortly, earlier than we transfer on from the bucket factor: Reddit consumer Griffin-Bro wonders if this implies you’ll be able to put a bucket in your head and run safely down a corridor filled with headcrabs. No affirmation on that however I dearly want it to be true.
Back within the boring world of details, it was good to see them point out accessibility options, that are “almost all” completed. Seated and left-handed modes are in, although “there’s a little bit more we’d like to do there (support for one armed play, for instance)”.
In a separate response, they do say that the weapons will all work with one hand, and will be steadied with a second. One armed play looks as if a tall order given they “really wanted to focus on simultaneous two handed play throughout the game, so we needed the player to always be able to easily have a free hand.”
Valve additionally touched on motion, which may make or break a VR game. Expect a lot mantling, and little leaping: “Because the game includes the ability to mantle in continuous motion, you don’t need often need to jump”. Barnacles are nonetheless in and nonetheless a risk, however gained’t work fairly like they used to as a result of Valve discovered “moving the player without their input in VR didn’t work very well”. (They’ve already confirmed there might be three motion varieties: common strolling, teleporting, and a “shift” mode that allows you to “smoothly zoom from point A to point B”.)
Elsewhere, Erik Wolpaw commented on how he prefers “writing games where the viewpoint character speaks”, and that if he had his method they “wouldn’t do any more silent protagonists”.
He didn’t affirm if we’ll be listening to from Alyx in-game, although this would possibly tie right into a separate response to somebody asking why Alyx’s Half-Life 2 voice actor Merle Dandridge wasn’t returning. Valve stated they labored together with her in the beginning of growth, however wound up wanting “to go in a different direction”. They nonetheless “hope to work with her again in the future”, thoughts.
Responding to a query about dev commentary, like these floating speech bubbles in earlier games, Valve stated they have been “huge fans” and positively plan on including it, although it appears “unlikely that we’ll have it in for launch day”.
At least one prepare journey is confirmed, because of Valve clearly stating that “It’s actually illegal to ship a Half-Life game if you don’t spend at least a little time riding in a train.”
They utilized the same philosophy to the individual asking if the ceilings can be any much less boring than in Half-Life 2. “Func_boring_ceiling is a hallmark of the Half-Life series”, they stated, clarifying that they did “significant playtesting and iteration to make them more boring than ever, which was a particular challenge in VR, where even the most boring surface takes on the sheen of novelty and delight.”
That’s all I’ve acquired. Feel free to scour the AMA your self.
Half-Life: Alyx is deliberate for March 2020. It’ll value £46.50/€50/$60 on Steam. The remainder of the Half-Life sequence is free to play till Alyx arrives this spring.
