Valve Announcing Half-Life: Alyx VR Game On Thursday

[Guest]

Meanwhile, everyone is still waiting for half life 3

I think this might be it. Or the closest we're going to get.

[Guest]

And then we have the 1% of the people with VR headsets who run Linux! And they hang out around here :-)

The 1% of the 1%.

[Guest]

If VR is as amazing as they say it is, then people would buy into it regardless of exclusives. There would be no need for Valve to force people to get one just to play the only half-life game in over 10 years

Well it costs a heck of a lot more than the average keyboard/mouse/joystick, plus you need a high performance GPU for it to work well enough.

[starshipeleven]

If VR is as amazing as they say it is, then people would buy into it regardless of exclusives.

If consoles are as amazing as they say it is, then people would buy them regardless of exclusives. If you didn't have exclusives consoles would get simply slaughtered by prebuilt Windows PCs.

VR requires special-purpose hardware, just like a console, and you know how mass production works.

Unless you produce (and sell) enough units, the price-per unit is too high and much less people will buy.

If you add exclusives and stuff, you push people to buy the hardware, increasing sales, and driving per-unit-price down.

This is the only way to kick-start the ecosystem.

[cybertraveler]

If consoles are as amazing as they say it is, then people would buy them regardless of exclusives. If you didn't have exclusives consoles would get simply slaughtered by prebuilt Windows PCs.

That isn't true. There's a lot of people out there who aren't good with technology and don't have the time / inclination to learn.

Games on Consoles generally Just Work. That's not the case for Windows. Before you say it is, think of all the things the average PC gamer geek does or knows about to make a good experience. Some examples:

• Hardware selection
• tweaking game graphics settings to make the game playable but pretty
• making sure lots of stuff isn't running in the background
• knowing what stuff not to install as it may contain malware
• selectively configuring or disabling the internet security software to make sure it doesn't break or slow down a game

All simple for me, but not for others. I've met the true console gamer and the stuff I listed above is a massive headache for them. They just want their entertainment and the value it over 60+ fps, cost savings & freedom.

[starshipeleven]

That isn't true. There's a lot of people out there who aren't good with technology and don't have the time / inclination to learn.

This isn't 1999. Prebuilt gaming PCs are a thing.

Games on Consoles generally Just Work. That's not the case for Windows.

Again, this is not 1999, Steam games are plug-and-play.

Hardware selection/tweaking game graphics settings to make the game playable but pretty

Most games do this automatically, or don't need it.
You only need to select hardware if you want high-end PC gaming. For console-like gaming you can get away with prebuilts.

making sure lots of stuff isn't running in the background

Not required? Matters only for PC gamers that stream stuff or do other intensive tasks.

knowing what stuff not to install as it may contain malware

Sorry what? Steam/GOG/Origin store games or physical disk games don't ship malware.
Wtf are you talking about.

selectively configuring or disabling the internet security software to make sure it doesn't break or slow down a game

Lol get lost you flthy casul.

That's just a click when you install to "allow network access" for Windows Firewall.

The actual bitchy part is dealing with the external embedded device router/firewall to open ports or such, and I've had to help plenty of console users to open firewall ports and deal with double NAT because the console could not play multiplayer games otherwise.

See here an Ubisoft Faq for example, which is valid for every platform (consoles included) https://support.ubi.com/en-GB/Faqs/000026724/Double-NAT because the issue is in the embedded device doing firewall/router job (and in the ISP of the Internet contract), not in the PC/console.

I've met the true console gamer and the stuff I listed above is a massive headache for them.

I've met true console gamers too and I've helped many to set up the firewall properly, to add proper drives to store more games on their console, to deal with console drives failing as now consoles can't just take a goddamn disk or cassette and run it, and so on and so forth.

So no, if I say it's bullshit, it is bullshit and you are wrong.

[cybertraveler]

So no, if I say it's bullshit, it is bullshit and you are wrong.

Wow! You win.

Here's a Unicode cake for you which may or may not render on your computing device and may or may not look like a cake: 🍰

[Guest]

Time to get a new gaming rig and a Valve Index, I guess. I've been waiting for a new Half-Life game for years.

[starshipeleven]

here's a unicode cake for you

[CochainComplex]

If VR is as amazing as they say it is, then people would buy into it regardless of exclusives. There would be no need for Valve to force people to get one just to play the only half-life game in over 10 years

It is amazing as they say but after paying 500$+ for some decent VR gear you will realize that you have to spend at least additional 2000$+ on a new pc to run them otherwise you will have headaches and endless vomiting attacks. I dont want to know your personal financial status but at least for a lot of others this is not a no brainer.

p.s.: ...at least the pc got a bit cheaper thanks to AMD Ryzen