Half-Life: Alyx was released today in what feels like one of the strangest watershed moments in recent video game history.

Alyx is the first new official entry into the Half-Life narrative released in the last 13 years. For so long, we thought we’d never get a new Half-Life game. Developer Valve, after all, was making too much money with Steam to even think about bothering with such things. Now, here we are with a brand-new Half-Life adventure just sitting out there waiting for us.

The problem, though, is that Half-Life: Alyx isn’t waiting for us. At least it’s not waiting for most of us. Actually, the legacy of Half-Life: Alyx may be that of a $1500 game that many of us will never actually get the chance to play.

See, Half-Life: Alyx isn’t just a new Half-Life game. It’s a VR game. It’s the first VR entry into the main Half-Life franchise, and it’s almost certainly the most anticipated VR game ever made. Some are already saying that it may be a VR system seller.

That last part is where we run into a bit of a problem as it concerns you and your ability to actually play Half-Life: Alyx.

Let’s say that you don’t own a gaming PC capable of properly running VR. That might be somewhat unlikely considering the popularity of gaming PCs in general, but it’s not a stretch to suggest you don’t. It’s also not a stretch to suggest that you don’t own one of the VR headsets supported by Half-Life: Alyx. If that is the case, then you’ve got quite a bit of catching up to do.

It starts with that gaming PC. There are some PC builders who argue you can build a VR ready gaming PC for as low as $500. That feels optimistic (especially if you want said VR games to run smoothly), but for conversation’s sake, let’s say that you can get a pre-built gaming PC capable of somewhat respectably running VR for about $700. Actually, just for fun, let’s say it’s $600.

From there, we come to the matter of a VR headset. This is where things get even more interesting. The Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets all support Alyx. The price of these units varies somewhat based on availability, sales, and other factors, but despite an increase in market competition, you’re probably looking at about an $800 investment for a VR headset, controllers, and everything else you need to party. Again, the numbers can vary, but you’re not going to be disappointed by the VR buying process if you start it with that number in mind.

That brings us up to about $1400 to realistically play Half-Life: Alyx with a fresh start. Oh, and you’ll need a copy of the game too, we suppose. That will be an extra $60 unless you find some kind of bundle promotion. Put it all together, and you’ll see that it’s really not unrealistic to suggest that Half-Life: Alyx is, essentially, a $1500 game for the unprepared user.

That’s a problem. Half-Life: Alyx is good. Early reports indicate that it is very good and is likely the best VR title ever made. The idea that it is so good that it’s worth $1500 seems…unlikely. There’s not really any game that is so good that you can easily recommend spending $1500 to play it. It’s also reportedly about 12 hours long, which certainly doesn’t help its overall value.

Then again, that’s really less of a problem with Half-Life: Alyx and more of a problem with the entire concept of a VR system seller.

Valve was well within their rights to make Half-Life: Alyx a VR game. By all accounts, they’ve done things with the medium nobody else has. The problem is that selling people on the idea they should invest in VR to play Half-Life Alyx is really about selling them on technology that has rightfully been largely limited to trade shows and the home of enthusiasts thus far. Valve obviously knew that Half-Life: Alyx wouldn’t be enough to really sell people on the idea they should pay about $1500 to play it, but the idea that we’ve got to wait for other studios to make enough great VR games to justify finally owning a fully-fledged VR system just to play Half-Life: Alyx is undeniably frustrating.

Maybe that day will come, but if Half-Life: Alyx ends up being a gem of an ultimately failed technological experiment which millions of people never get the chance to play (and perhaps the last new Half-Life game will get for another decade) there will ultimately be some who rightfully look at it with feelings of scorn and anger.

Today Steam announced the “Play Next” experiment that uses an algorithm to help you decide what games you should play. This process uses similar technology to the Interactive Recommender Valve released some time ago. While I’ve only tested the Recommender, it did suggest games that I already had interest in or would at least like to try.

Digging into my extensive backlog, the first set of games wasn’t particularly impressive. All three were very old games. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine has been in my library since 2012. They were even suggested based on games I haven’t played in years. I think there might be some bugs to be worked out in this process.  

Personally, my method for attacking my ever-growing backlog is to play what seems most interesting. Plenty of games are going to slip through the cracks, but I can’t dwell on lost opportunity. I find it more enjoyable to play a classic game people would want to talk about from the past few years than to dig into some obscure indie title I might have overlooked from 2014. That’s just my perspective though. This tool on Steam may be your new best friend in defeating the multi-headed hydra that is the video game backlog.

Here’s a full article discussing how I decide what games to play.

Nearly nine years ago we were once against tossed into the broken down laboratories of Aperture Science with Portal 2. The game followed up a franchise introduction that practically created the bar for puzzle platforming. Puzzle games, especially those from the first-person perspective, have been chasing that level of quality ever since. So far, only Portal 2 was able to deliver and expand upon the near perfection it delivered.

It’s no mystery that Valve has neglected the revered franchises that made it one of the most popular game developers. Half-Life is only this year getting its first new game since Half-Life 2: Episode 2 released in 2007. Left 4 Dead hasn’t seen a new title since 2009 and there’s little hope of one coming any time soon. Does that leave any chance of getting the third iteration in the Portal franchise?

Gabe Newell “three” memes aside, Portal is one of the few IPs that Valve has seemingly given some effort in maintaining over time. The Lab was one of the first VR experiences Valve pushed out and is probably partially responsible for getting Half-Life: Alyx moving forward. They even licensed the use of the brand to Clockstone Software to create Bridge Constructor Portal. Unlike Half-Life and Left 4 Dead, this franchise has kept a heartbeat for the near-decade since its last full game release.

However, could a return to the test chambers and underground world of Aperture Science still work after the conclusion of the second game? I like to imagine it would be more than reasonable considering the story retcon of the ending of the original Portal to justify the second. Yet it may be interesting to expand from the location to give the same fresh feel Portal did by venturing so far outside of the labs. It would also be nice to get more of that incredible J.K. Simmons powered Cave Johnson performance.

The co-op element of Portal 2 was also one of the best I’ve ever played before or since, so it would be an important thing to bring back. In fact, it was so good that I’d be content if it was the only thing they did in a future game. Would it even be crazy to create DLC for a game nine years later? I’d still buy it. I don’t think I’d be alone in that sentiment considering how positive the perception is for Portal 2.

There is no shortage of unique first-person puzzle games over the past decade. Some were more evocative of Portal than others, but the quality level has varied even more. Lately, I’ve come across some particularly good designs like Superliminal, which didn’t feel like Portal in function but gave me the same sense of wonder and surprise throughout. Games like Lightmatter also seem to follow that exploration of using distorted physical properties to make unexpected gameplay. Some may consider The Witness and The Pedestrian in the same category as well. 

Still, Portal can’t be replaced. Talented individuals can create mods and maps that rival the original designs, but it’s not quite the same. The inclusion of characters like GLaDOS, Wheatley, and Cave Johnson along with that unmistakable attention to detail gave it a spark that can’t be duplicated by your average Joe. Even though Dota 2 is still going strong, VR is growing every day, Dota Underlords is about to release, and Artifact… still exists… room should be made for Portal 3. It may not be Half-Life 3, but nothing ever will be, so let’s have another chance to explore another great (but neglected) Valve franchise.

Don’t get me wrong, the trailer for Half-Life: Alyx looks great. It seems like it is channeling just enough Half-Life 2 to make it immediately appealing to fans, but it also leaves no doubt that it’s a full-blown VR game. However, it is important to remember that this game, from the start, was Valve trying to build up VR and Half-Life was where they settled.

This isn’t my opinion or an assumption, it’s an answer to a question by David Speyrer, one of the developers for Half-Life: Alyx, during an interview with Geoff Keighley. Within this interview, the group of developers building this game goes through some of the more obvious questions relating to the subject. Geoff asks why they decided to go with Alyx rather than Half-Life 3.  Robin Walker replied,

“Back in 2016 when we started this, Half-Life 3 was a terrifyingly daunting prospect. I think, to some extent, VR was a way we could fool ourselves into believing we had a way to do this.”

The fear of not living up to the high expectations of the franchise isn’t unfounded. After the scrapping of Half-Life 2’s episodic design due to it being ineffective at delivering content quickly, every day since has made the fan base desire more. Building a game that could follow up the significance of Half-Life 2 and its episodic expansions only became more intimidating as time went on. At this point, that third iteration would have to be a masterpiece to avoid heavy criticism given the 12 years since Episode 2’s release. 

Geoff also asked, “Why does this need to be VR only?” The condensed answer to this was simply that the goal was initially to build a VR game. They built the game from the ground up to be an experience that involved complex movements and that is something that can’t be translated to a mouse and keyboard. This further expands on the fact that Half-Life: Alyx isn’t a game that is necessarily for the longtime fans of the 21-year old franchise but to convince more people that a VR headset is worth owning.

The name “Half-Life” carries with it all of the masterful work of the franchise as well as all of the disappointment from its modern shortcomings. Creating something experimental to try to grow a very limited segment of the market will be risky, to say the least. Even the most popular VR games haven’t had sales anywhere near what Half-Life 2 sold (4 million copies). Therefore, it is clear that the goal is to lift up VR with the strength of the Half-Life franchise.

I don’t believe that this process will have Valve Indexes flying off the shelves now or any time in the near future, but I do see this being a catalyst for VR in general. People who have been hesitant to buy a cheaper headset may now be looking to get one during the upcoming holiday season. The $1000 Valve Index VR Kit probably isn’t going to be the biggest benefactor, but more affordable compatible kits will benefit from a premium game with high production value. It’s hard to say right now, but luckily we have only four months before people get their hands on Half-Life: Alyx and let us cheap folks know if it’s worth the investment.

Valve has released a documentary film titled “Free to Play” that focuses on the Dota 2 International Tournament. The film premiered on Weds., March 19 during the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, and was then made available for free viewing on Steampowered.com, iTunes, and YouTube.

The Valve-produced film runs approximately one hour and fifteen minutes, featuring professional gamers Dendi, hyhy, and Fear and the Dota teams they play on who compete for a one million dollar tournament prize.

There are also several shorter videos including “Behind the Scenes: The World of Dota,” “Behind the Scenes: The Finale,” and “Historical Tour of L’viv with Dendi.”

Valve has released a demo of the new Steam Controller in action, playing a variety of Steam games including Portal, Civilization 5, Counter-Strike, and Papers, Please. The controller, of course, is a prototype. But the demo shows off the controller functions that will be shipped to 300 steam users. According to Steam, the controller was “built with high-precision input technologies and focused on low-latency performance.” The Steam Controller touch pad is still a bit of a mystery though, as the touch pad is now represented by four blank squares. (In the first pictures released, the touch pad area was covered by the Steam logo.) We’re hoping Steam releases another demo soon that may tap into the features of the touch pad, and offer some explanation of the area which will supposedly act somewhat like a laptop track pad, but is controlled by your thumbs.

The third batch of Greenlight games has been announced, as well as the first batch of software.

New Steam Greenlight Games (see all Greenlit games here)

• Blackspace
• Darkfall Unholy Wars
• Dawn of Fantasy
• Dragon’s Lair
• Euro Truck Simulator 2
• Gear Up
• Kinetic Void – Space Adventure
• The Light
• No Time To Explain
• Primordia
• Sang-Froid : Tales of Werewolves
• StarForge
• Waking Mars

First Steam Greenlight Software Titles (see all Greenlit software here)

• Action! Screen Recorder
• Bandicam: Game Recorder
• Construct 2
• Display Fusion
• HitFilm 2
• You Need A Budget 4

> “With the help of Greenlight, the indie games market share of games sold on Steam has increased by 50 percent for a third consecutive year.”

That’s good to hear.

* http://steamcommunity.com/games/765/announcements/detail/1281535715093415350

• Black Mesa – Enhanced remake of Half-Life 1 using the Source engine.
• Cry of Fear – Singleplayer survival horror game using the Half-Life 1 engine.
• Dream – Exploration/adventure game where you take on the role of a directionless graduate obsessed with dreams.
• Heroes & Generals – F2P MMO FPS set in WW2 with a strategic mode.
• Kenshi – Open-ended squad-based RPG. Currently in Alpha.
• McPixel – A series of 20 second adventure game puzzle style minigames. The creator recently did a promotion with The Pirate Bay, but that’s over now.
• No More Room In Hell – Cooperative first person horror with George Romero style zombies.
• Project Zomboid – Zombie sandbox. Has had a remarkably troubled life so far.
• Routine – First person survival horror ON THE MOON. Do want. Not nearly enough games are set on the Moon.
• Towns – City building/time management dealie. The twist is that the city is located on top of an active monster dungeon.

Announcment

Greenlit Games Page

One of the features of Steam’s new Big Picture Mode is the ability to use a gamepad to browse your library of games, surf the Internet and type. This seemed quite interesting to me. Unfortunately, my gamepad is not supported. And neither, apparently, are a lot of people’s. In its current beta state, Big Picture Mode only supports Xinput gamepads. Users with DirectInput devices are currently kind of screwed.

Valve’s explanation is that the sheer number of DirectInput configurations means that they were unable to implement support for them at the present time. They hope to add support for DirectInput and key re-binding in the future.^[1] Seems reasonable and sounds good. It’s in beta. Things aren’t gong to be perfect.

So, onto the stuff that does work. The new interface works, and seems like it would work well with a gamepad. I was able to muddle through most of it with the arrow, enter and escape keys. The aesthetics of the new interface are quite pleasing, and work well on a television from a distance. The “once cable” setup works, although it would be immeasurably more surprising if it didn’t.

Valve, as ever, seems to know what they’re doing. While there are inevitable beta issues, the fundamentals of the design seem solid.

1 ^ http://steamcommunity.com/groups/bigpicture/discussions/1/882959903396797563/

Valve also announced that it would be releasing a Source Filmmaker for free this year on Steam. This software suite will allow anyone to create the same sort of videos that Valve has been making with their games. Looking forward to seeing what kind of videos the community makes with Portal 2 and Half-Life. The video below is a demonstration/info on the software.