Dayyālu
Arcane
As I've already said, methinks that the only ones who would truly enjoy VR are the milsim enthusiasts, because they massively focus on realism already (thus fumbling reloading and having slow and choppy shooting would help with immersion, same with having the chance to manually launch grenades or flip switches). And let's not even talk about equipment like driving tanks, where speed and flexibility isn't needed because you are doing it for fun, mostly against human opponents (that are slaved to the same limits) and milsim people aren't usually utterly incompentent in gaming.
Point is, we need to see how HL: Alyx is as a game and as a shooter. Discussing VR as a platform is beyond the point, VR has somewhat failed (until now, I guess) both to get a killer app and to get noticed at large. All the videos and the laundry lists posted here are essentially shovelware or walking simulators, but I presume there's still some room to grow.
But will HL: Alyx be a good Half Life game? VR brings limitations both to design, enemy design, weapon design. For every thing you can do in an "immersive manner" with VR you can do stuff faster with keyboard+mouse (typical example, the difference in performance with light gun shooters with real peripherals and mouse aiming). They are different control set-ups, and many shooters have been built with kb+mouse in mind up until now. I do not doubt that if we would ever get to a duel between in Counterstrike between a VR team and a conventional team there would be no hope, mostly because the shooter experience on PC was built for kb+mouse, and even console shooters had to follow a completely different philosophy (what I like to call "theme park shooter", CoD-likes, slow and devoid of particularly challenging encounters and map design, and focused on cinematic setpieces). Controllers shape the kind of shooter you are developing.
The fact that quick-time events or PRESS F NOT TO DIE can be performed with VR controls is interesting, but what about level design? Enemy design? Can I afford difficult fights (and I don't mean damage sponges) with a controller that gives players more limited reaction times? How are you going to deal with scoped weaponry? What about verticality? Do you have to restrict engagement ranges due to players not managing to fight properly?
I do not doubt that Valve can put out great art (also essential for a shooter, ambience is good) but we need to see what are the bones of the game, even before considering VR gimmicks.
Point is, we need to see how HL: Alyx is as a game and as a shooter. Discussing VR as a platform is beyond the point, VR has somewhat failed (until now, I guess) both to get a killer app and to get noticed at large. All the videos and the laundry lists posted here are essentially shovelware or walking simulators, but I presume there's still some room to grow.
But will HL: Alyx be a good Half Life game? VR brings limitations both to design, enemy design, weapon design. For every thing you can do in an "immersive manner" with VR you can do stuff faster with keyboard+mouse (typical example, the difference in performance with light gun shooters with real peripherals and mouse aiming). They are different control set-ups, and many shooters have been built with kb+mouse in mind up until now. I do not doubt that if we would ever get to a duel between in Counterstrike between a VR team and a conventional team there would be no hope, mostly because the shooter experience on PC was built for kb+mouse, and even console shooters had to follow a completely different philosophy (what I like to call "theme park shooter", CoD-likes, slow and devoid of particularly challenging encounters and map design, and focused on cinematic setpieces). Controllers shape the kind of shooter you are developing.
The fact that quick-time events or PRESS F NOT TO DIE can be performed with VR controls is interesting, but what about level design? Enemy design? Can I afford difficult fights (and I don't mean damage sponges) with a controller that gives players more limited reaction times? How are you going to deal with scoped weaponry? What about verticality? Do you have to restrict engagement ranges due to players not managing to fight properly?
I do not doubt that Valve can put out great art (also essential for a shooter, ambience is good) but we need to see what are the bones of the game, even before considering VR gimmicks.
) we felt that it balances quite nicely, difficulty-wise. And since you still burn a lot of ammo if you do that, it's not _that_ OPed.
