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.

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[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 0 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

The idea was people would buy the game and play it.

[–] gonzo-rand19@moist.catsweat.com 2 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

The idea of sinking $500 into a headset and then another $80 for one game is pretty crazy. Not like Valve doesn't have the ownership numbers from the hardware survey. It was never going to sell like HL2.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 0 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I mean it‘s 5 years old now and what has Valve released for VR since? A single game isn‘t gonna make a hardware and they know that. It was a failure in the end of the day.

[–] gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

5 years old now and what has Valve released for VR since?

You know Valve has released a whopping 3 things total in that timespan (didn't include deadlock cuz I'm not sure that's officially released yet), right? A free steam deck teaser, the card game they've been working on for a while, and the CSGO 2 update

Valve works slow, my guy

A single game isn‘t gonna make a hardware

Good thing there are a shit ton of other games, then

It was a failure in the end of the day

No it wasn't, you high? They sold out of Indexes around the games launch. Would have sold more if not for COVID, too

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 0 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Hold on. Why are you replying with unrelated things that Valve did instead of focusing on VR to get people onto that platform? Kind of proves my point, doesn‘t it? Also Covid? Seriously? If anything Covid should‘ve accelerated development on VR games.

[–] gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 4 weeks ago

Also Covid? Seriously? If anything Covid should‘ve accelerated development on VR games

Your claim was that the game was a failure, my point with COVID was that you would have been extra wrong about that had there not been a pandemic limiting how many headsets they could actually sell, which was the point of the game. In the world that we got they sold out and had Back-orders for a year, had there not been a global pandemic those Back-orders would have been sales, and likely many who couldn't buy one would have been able to as well

The rest of your comment shows you have 0 idea how Valve works internally. The whole studio doesn't just work on one project, there are smaller teams that pick and choose what they do. This is why Valve tends to release shit a couple years apart that are wildly different (Alyx and Artefact), but 5-8 years between similar products (Portal 2 and Alyx). It being 5 years or more since their last major VR release is to be expected from them, not a sign of failing at anything

[–] Asetru@feddit.org -1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

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?).

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 0 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

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.ee 0 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 0 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

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!"

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world -1 points 4 weeks ago

God damn people want to just argue about everything