Here's one for serious Valve enthusiasts and people wanting to get juice details on their cancelled projects, and everything that led up to Half-Life: Alyx.
Half-Life: Alyx - Final Hours is an interactive storybook, written by Geoff Keighley, that takes fans inside Valve Software to chronicle the company’s past decade of game development, including the return of Half-Life. There's so much detail in there it's crazy, it's also pretty amazing to learn it all with this new Valve Software that doesn't seem to mind talking a bit more. If you're curious, that does include a cancelled Half-Life 3. Yes, it really actually was a thing (as if there was any doubt) but it along with a lot more didn't make the cut.
Direct Link
As for all the projects mentioned that got canned, I won't go over them all in-depth because that spoils a lot of the fun but there's a few big obvious ones like Half-Life 3, that no doubt fans will be sad to learn of its fate. Unlike previous games, it sounded quite different with plans to be more replayable with some random generation, taking some inspiration from Left 4 Dead. Left 4 Dead 3 was also going to be a thing, in a more open world setting. Both games didn't get too far, sounds like Source 2 wasn't in a good state. Other Half-Life themed games and Left 4 Dead attempts were also mentioned, like one involving a time-travelling ship. There was even going to be an RPG, a voxel-based destruction game and a VR game made with original Kerbal Space Program developers.
Hilariously, Vader was the name of their first attempt at a VR headset with an estimated eye-watering $5K price tag that was clearly far too ambitious.
The good news is, Valve don't sound done with Half-Life and that they're "not afraid of Half-Life no more" and future projects might even be outside of VR for the rest of us. Nothing confirmed there though. Other better news perhaps, is that another major "top secret" project is under way and has been since 2018 but no idea what it is.
You can find Half-Life: Alyx - Final Hours on Steam for £7.19 / $9.99 / €8.19. It doesn't officially support Linux but it's possible to run it with the Steam Play Proton compatibility layer. You may need the community made Proton GE though.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: barottoI check regularly on their site but they won't budge an inch, it's always €1K, take it or leave it
Considering the fact that they struggle with meeting the demands, it's likely going to stay there for a while. I believe it's still several months delivery time.
Quoting: EhvisHow about letting the community finish this one first! Open source projects do tend to take their time.
The FAQ is missing an entry about Linux...
Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoIf you want something well done, do it yourself... I think the community should develop HL3.So, like, a group-storytelling fanfic?
Quoting: HoriWell let's look at the full half of the glass: It's a success!
Unlike the Steam Controller (RIP, sadly), and Steam Machines (RIP but meh), this one is actually a huge success.
Oh absolutely! I am very thrilled by this, I want to see as many on the VR train as possible, for it to keep pushing forth!
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 12 July 2020 at 4:49 am UTC
Quoting: Patola[If you were convinced by this example, I would say that: never use the limits of your own imagination as an argument or a point.
He didn't though, he actually literally asked: "how much would Stellaris or Civilization or whatnot get from going VR?"
Alyx as a game and the immersion IS AMAZING.
Yet, even with getting somehow used to the Index and not facing
heavy motion sickness anymore, I can only use it for about 30 mins at max.
This is always so exhausting (for me) ending in headaches and at least slight sickness. :/
Quoting: PatolaLet me just stop you right there. I like some RTS. I spent a good deal of time back in the day playing original Starcraft; it's fun. But, despite the word being in there, they are not strategy games, they are tactical action games. My claim does not apply to them. I am perfectly capable of imagining ways in which VR could be applied entertainingly to RTS games.Quoting: Purple Library GuyIn the abstract, I generally think VR is a good thing. But I can't see it improving the strategy games I mostly play very much. Like, how much would Stellaris or Civilization or whatnot get from going VR? I guess I actually like my games fairly abstract.
So, your argument is: "I can't see (imagine) it improving the strategy games...". And as you can't imagine, you seem to assume a way to do it doesn't exist, it is not possible to happen.
Look at this game.
QuoteIf you were convinced by this example, I would say that: never use the limits of your own imagination as an argument or a point.You think you're being deep, but you are not. Nobody ever does anything else but use the limits of their own imagination as an argument. There is no choice, that's what you have to work with.
Luckily, imagination is extensible--as soon as you get an example of something you hadn't imagined, you can imagine it. That's how you learn. But, sometimes, one's imagination about a topic is accurate.
QuoteThe internet is vast and there are smart and creative people who can get deeply in a framework of thinking and get birth to powerful ideas and new ways of doing things. In other words, they outsmart everything you (and me) can personally imagine.That's all very fine, but not every tool is suited to every job. Just by the by, I also can't imagine how someone could use Microsoft Bob to improve strategy games, nor do I think a really good IDE for the computer language R would improve strategy games much. There may be smart and creative people out there who could show me for the foolish philistine I am on these topics; I am satisfied to remain deluded until they actually make a great strategy game incorporating an IDE for R.
I remember once I got a brand new 4X space game, and it looked very very pretty. And instead of a flat technology tree, it was like this three dimensional thing, which looked really really cool and you could navigate around kinda. It took me a while to realize that actually, it wasn't conceptually any different--they'd just taken a flat tech tree and curved it so it looked more like a tube shape, the net effect being that it was a bit harder to see all the tech at once and more cumbersome to select one. And actually, the technologies weren't very interesting, and actually, the game kinda sucked.
So for instance, with VR it would be easier to do a 4X space game with a genuine three dimensional galaxy, where you'd walk around the stars and stuff. But what I'm not at all sure of is whether that would actually make it a better game or if it would just be a distraction from the decisions that make strategy games interesting.
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