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Speedruns for this game have funny implications. I await the tale of Alyx, hero of the resistance that assassinated 50 combines by beaning them with bottles from 100m away; the only person in the history of City 17 to polevault into the flying vault; headcrab rebound Hall of Famer; friend of Snark and Jeff alike.
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Mar 29, 2020 19:51
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I think the G-Man practically tells the player what's going on. Some people think that fate is immutable (like we've seen the Vorts and the G-Man talk about future events as though they've already happened.) But in fact, G-Man is capable of nudging events. Alyx disappearing is a nudge.
Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Mar 29, 2020 |
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Mar 29, 2020 20:25
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Hey, how about some spoiler tags if that's about this game.
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Mar 29, 2020 20:27
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Arglebargle III posted:spoilers Cmon now you know better.
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Mar 29, 2020 20:42
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I finished the game last night and it turns out I'm a little disappointed. I had expected a future-alyx becoming a pseudo villain working with the combine to stop herself from opening the vault ever since I heard that Merle Dandridge was still involved with the game in some capacity, thinking she'd be doing the voice of older alyx. It's cliche as gently caress but I was really hoping there'd be an additional hook apart from the typical mystery box style Gman poo poo. I was pretty captivated by the whole idea of there being something more going on and it seemed like the game was actively feeding into my expectations up until I finished the game and realized I was projecting. Turns out it's mostly a retread of the original Half Life's ending with a sort of nonsense retcon? If young alyx gets put in stasis, why does Ep. 2 alyx disappear? It just doesn't read in a way that makes sense and doesn't feel satisfying, and it feels like it was done that way just for the benefit of the post-credit teaser. The game also really could have used an additional boss fight setpiece right at the climax of the Zoo. Having the smaller, gorilla shaped iteration of Dog show up to help you fight a silverback headcrab zombie would have been incredible and the fact that they sort of set up that idea with the gorilla statue left me really disappointed when it didn't happen. The game also feels a bit static in places. Seeing civilians and civil protection running around early in the game was exciting but then later on when you start loving things up and getting into trouble, you never see combine or drones or anything mobilizing on the streets below. You hear Overwatch shouting commands but nobody ever shows up to put pretend pressure on you. The world just feels a little lifeless. I'm glad the game wasn't too much longer than it is but I just kept getting the feeling they wanted to do a lot more than they were able to, which is a lovely feeling to have knowing Valve has the luxury of taking all the time they need to really flesh out a game. HL:A feels like a sort of simple, play-it-safe experimental first iteration that would be massively improved in a sequel. That's normally fine but after 13 years it stings a little.
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Mar 29, 2020 20:45
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treat posted:I finished the game last night and it turns out I'm a little disappointed. I had expected a future-alyx becoming a pseudo villain working with the combine to stop herself from opening the vault ever since I heard that Merle Dandridge was still involved with the game in some capacity, thinking she'd be doing the voice of older alyx. It's cliche as gently caress but I was really hoping there'd be an additional hook apart from the typical mystery box style Gman poo poo. I was pretty captivated by the whole idea of there being something more going on and it seemed like the game was actively feeding into my expectations up until I finished the game and realized I was projecting. Turns out it's mostly a retread of the original Half Life's ending with a sort of nonsense retcon? If young alyx gets put in stasis, why does Ep. 2 alyx disappear? It just doesn't read in a way that makes sense and doesn't feel satisfying, and it feels like it was done that way just for the benefit of the post-credit teaser. The way I read it was that young Alyx doesn't get put in stasis, Ep. 2 Alyx does. Young Alyx just gets her memories of the Vault (and HLA in general) erased.
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Mar 29, 2020 20:55
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Finally got to Jeff. Just after you’re introduced to him, I found a respirator in a yellow crate. To my surprise I could wear it. Thus negating the putting my hand over my mouth annoyance when near Jeff. In fact I could walk right next to him and he wouldn’t do poo poo unless he bumped into me. Which did happen and scared the poo poo out of me as I died a horrible death.
SabinBlitz fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Mar 29, 2020 |
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Mar 29, 2020 21:13
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SabinBlitz posted:Boy wouldn't it be cool if people were able to figure this out on their own Guys, come on, the game came out like a week ago, think before you post unspoiled poo poo like that
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Mar 29, 2020 21:19
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End of Shoelace posted:Speedruns for this game have funny implications. I await the tale of Alyx, hero of the resistance that assassinated 50 combines by beaning them with bottles from 100m away; the only person in the history of City 17 to polevault into the flying vault; headcrab rebound Hall of Famer; friend of Snark and Jeff alike. Can or can't you hurt enemies with junk? In the first chapter(s), I was trying to bash the zombies to death with iron bars, but they didn't seem to take notice. Cojawfee posted:I don't get why people are doing this in the first place. Whenever you need an item, the game gives it to you. I usually get pissed off when I break a supply crate and it gives me a syringe, because I'm always at or near full health. I don't bother with most of the health stations I go near. I'd up the difficulty, but getting hit already seems to do two hearts of damage sometimes. The game just dumps healing items on me. As for grenades, I usually just use the one I have in a pocket, kill a guy, and the the item he has is a grenade which I put into my pocket. Sure, from a purely functional point of view, you don't really need all that excess firepower and health. But scrounging together what you can and hauling it along seems natural to me in this game. In practically every game except StrikeForce, you're trained to haul as much junk around as possible. Just look at any Skyrim player house ever. In addition, this particular game is incredibly physical. You sort through drawers and shelves, throw stuff at enemies (effectively or not), use crates and corpses as body shields, crack open doors juuuust a little to throw a grenade through, wear a hat, and so on. This game invites interacting with the world as much as possible. So, seeing a bunch of stuff you want, and an empty box next to it just begs to be seen as an invitation, doesn't it?
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Mar 29, 2020 21:28
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Lord Stimperor posted:Can or can't you hurt enemies with junk? In the first chapter(s), I was trying to bash the zombies to death with iron bars, but they didn't seem to take notice. You can't as far as I'm aware.
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Mar 29, 2020 21:34
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sigher posted:You can't as far as I'm aware. Ah shame, good melee like in Robo Recall (tear out limb, beat to death with limb) is the one thing this game is missing.
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Mar 29, 2020 21:47
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Beat it today, some minor gripes but loved it overall. There's some jankiness around the finer hand controls (especially for manipulating levers and such, puzzles get repetitive even if I initially love the use of 3D manipulation setting it apart from traditional games). But that's outweighed by everything it does right, in most ways it feels like the well-polished VR experience I've been wanting, with action gameplay that really sells what you can do with independent hands and head movement. I loved the final level and ending. The trippy "apartment" interiors near the end blew me away in just how successfully something like that can be shown in VR compared to a 2D FPS. And I was really happy with the unexpected amount of time and story we got with the G-Man at the end. Overall they nailed the return to the whole setting as skillfully as I could've hoped, and I'm happy that it feels like a launching point back into the franchise rather than the impactless, standalone VR test it could've been.
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Mar 29, 2020 22:14
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Endgame discussion:Al Cu Ad Solte posted:Ending theory: The VR sim for Alyx doesn't really hold to me because of the post-credit stinger. What would make more sense to me is after Gordon is freed and the G-Man's influence is held back by the vortigaunts, the G-Man sets up a long term gambit; he waits til the vorts are distracted healing Alyx and then orders Gordon to make sure she gets to White Forest, as per the events of Episode Two, then lets Eli get killed. He jumps back in time, lets himself get captured by the Combine using vort energy to test Alyx's resolve in her mission as seen in the game. Then we get the ending and now he's got a new pawn. This seems like the closest plausible explanation, but then how could the events of HL2, ep1, and ep2 still end with Eli getting killed in exactly the same way? Biff goes back in time to give his younger self the almanac, and he actually can't return the delorean to marty and doc because the future is already unwritten. Similarly, the G-Man can't go back in time, drop a vault on City-17, and then somehow warp forward to Alyx's lowest point to snatch her away for future errands. Pylons posted:The way I read it was that young Alyx doesn't get put in stasis, Ep. 2 Alyx does. Young Alyx just gets her memories of the Vault (and HLA in general) erased. This would work best, but would come across as the cheapest, laziest writing when Alyx says in HL3 "I guess G-man erased my memories" and there was no foreshadowing of that being a mechanic in the game up until she plasters over a plot hole with it. I feel confident someone at Valve has a diagram that explains all this stuff perfectly, but I haven't seen an explanation that rings true quite yet. There's no way they don't have people who would unabashedly tear a time travel plot hole apart. Right? ...Right?
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Mar 29, 2020 22:29
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For more discussion, VNN put together this video with the beginnings of some codes scattered throughout the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrZ6jkwtArM I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess (hope) that we're looking at Alyx: Opposing Force. Game spoilers: When you come across the hidden bedroom of what appears to be a resistance member, the scattered combine helmet pieces made me immediately think it was Barney's digs (which I guess technically means Alyx: Blue Shift).
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Mar 29, 2020 22:33
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A poll for the thread. What headset are you using for this game? I used an Oculus rift (standard, not the S).
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Mar 29, 2020 23:06
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TimWinter posted:Endgame discussion: It sort of works with the way Alyx tells Eli to "prepare for unforeseen consequences" without understanding why or having any recollection of speaking to the gman in Ep. 2 but I still agree, it's pretty lazy/sloppy. I think any way you shake it, we're dealing with multiple timelines/altered timelines. I don't think the writers had an overarching vision of how things would play out in the future, particularly because of how they handled the ending, but I think they've left it open and subtle enough to take it in a few different directions. Particularly with: TimWinter posted:Game spoilers: When you come across the hidden bedroom of what appears to be a resistance member, the scattered combine helmet pieces made me immediately think it was Barney's digs (which I guess technically means Alyx: Blue Shift). I interpreted it as the place an older, more grizzled future Alyx had been staying while trying to get the combine advisor on the combophone to stop her past self from accessing the vault. Everything in there looks like stuff she'd be interested in tinkering with, the sarcastic writing of the mystery woman has Alyx written all over it, and at one point she says to the advisor "what in the history of today makes you think you're gonna stop her?" as though they've been through this multiple times. If it really is intended to be a time-traveling Mossman, the writers did a terrible job of making her feel like Mossman. Whoever it was supposed to be, I think the whole section was intentionally written vaguely enough to open some possibilities without committing to anything in particular.
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Mar 29, 2020 23:07
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WOWEE ZOWEE posted:A poll for the thread. That’s the headset I have; how does it look on that headset? Does Alyx have any up-res/super sampling options in the menu?
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Mar 29, 2020 23:08
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Same here, CV1
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Mar 29, 2020 23:08
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chaosapiant posted:That’s the headset I have; how does it look on that headset? Does Alyx have any up-res/super sampling options in the menu? It’s still gorgeous in the CV1. You can super sample it in SteamVR up to something wild like 250% if you have the horsepower for it. I’m gonna take forever to get through the game because I stop all the time to gawk at things and pick them up and bend down to inspect stuff, yada yada. Never once have I thought “this looks good but I wish it was better”. This is on a 2600x and a 1080ti on 100% supersampling and the high fidelity setting inside the game
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Mar 29, 2020 23:09
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I'm playing on an Index, yo. It's the most comfortable headset I've ever used.
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Mar 29, 2020 23:10
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WOWEE ZOWEE posted:A poll for the thread. Odyssey+ It's fineTM
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Mar 29, 2020 23:19
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Sorry guys! I have a brain injury. My brain is injured. Ow.
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Mar 29, 2020 23:26
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TimWinter posted:Endgame discussion: I personally subscribe to the theory of "HLA Alyx is 'hired' the moment she zaps the Advisor, but has her memories erased and is sent back. HL2-Episode 2 happens as normal until the Ep2 ending, where Eli is saved by HLA Alyx and HL2 Alyx is taken by G-Man." G-Man has already demonstrated the ability to implant commands into people ("Prepare for unforeseen consequences"), so it's not a huge stretch for him to be able to erase memories. G-Man's VA has hinted at a much larger story for him, and that "time is not a confining element for him" That being said, Valve has all but stated that HLA is a retcon because doing so frees them creatively going forward with HL3, instead of being cornered into the Borealis that Episode 3 was going to be. I don't think they completely trashed the original story or anything, but they definitely dropped a couple plot points and shuffled everything around so there's bound to be some plot holes. Interestingly, HLA's ending is pretty close to Laidlaw's Epistle 3 ending for Alyx and Gordon: Alyx is taken by G-Man, Gordon has been cut loose and left to die before getting saved at the last second by Vortigaunts.
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Mar 29, 2020 23:29
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ymgve posted:What I don't get is the timeline of Alyx as a person - she frees the Gman, sees her dad die and changes it, but after that she goes through HL2-EP2 like nothing of this ever happened? The games are released in chronological order from the perspective of the player, who is distinct from Alyx as a character (despite the obvious connection). In the most straightforward example of how this works, the player is told, right off the bat, that Eli will die in five years (and is therefore 'already dead') - yet Alyx doesn't actually learn this until the end of the game. Even when the brain-injured alien explains the situation, Alyx stays in denial. The point of this disconnect is that the player doesn't directly control Alyx, but provides her with unconscious motivations and impulses. As a result, Alyx somehow knows exactly where and how her father will die, even though she is unaware of it: "what if I could offer something you don't know you want?" In a more general narrative sense, it's why Alyx can express fear and desperation while the player might gently caress around stacking objects or scribbling on a wall. After she wakes up on the balcony, she seemingly doesn't realize that her handwriting has changed. That's what's been tripping up this Shoelace guy: Alyx is friends with Russel, but the player isn't necessarily. It could very well be that Alyx unconsciously despises Russel. You are not the protagonist. Anyways, as for 'timelines', it's not really important. For all intents and purposes, Alyx just loses her memory after opening the vault. She continues with her life and then, at the end of Episode 2, Alyx mysteriously vanishes. The player regains control of Gordon at this point, imbuing him with a new motivation to "perform the tasks laid before him".
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Mar 29, 2020 23:46
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WOWEE ZOWEE posted:A poll for the thread. Me too. I was considering waiting and getting an index and so glad I didn't. This game is incredible even on a CV1. Just hit chapter 7 and HOOOO BOY. Also good to mention I use oculus tray tool and super sample to 1.5
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Mar 30, 2020 00:00
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End of Shoelace posted:Rumor is that Dandridge pissed someone off in one of those secular Valve employee cadres. As far as she knows, she had finished a large part of the voicelines for HLA, then she got the shoe pretty much out of nowhere. She IS very vocal about her character, and worked very closely with the writing team in previous installments. That sounds like some poo poo someone made up on reddit, to be fair.
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Mar 30, 2020 00:22
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Claes Oldenburger posted:Me too. I was considering waiting and getting an index and so glad I didn't. This game is incredible even on a CV1. Just hit chapter 7 and HOOOO BOY. Check your steam supersampling to make sure it’s at 100 because steam is dumb and makes its own supersampling and Oculus’s additive to each other ^^^^^^^^Havent they come out and said that they need Alyx to sound like a 19 year old and Dandridges voice wasn’t appropriate for her anymore? I’d imagine if we see another Alyx who is older in a future game, Dandridge might be back?
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Mar 30, 2020 00:24
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Lambert posted:That sounds like some poo poo someone made up on reddit, to be fair. Merle Dandridge literally said she has no idea why she was recast. They were recording until one day they weren't and she was never even told about it. Some of her recorded dialogue is still in the game files, and honestly? They're way better than the new VA. I dunno if it's a lack of experience, a lack of direction or something else, but Merle's Alyx just sounds better to me.
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Mar 30, 2020 00:29
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Well that’s because merles Alyx is the original one that everyone knows over 3 games
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Mar 30, 2020 00:31
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Ruflux posted:Merle Dandridge literally said she has no idea why she was recast. They were recording until one day they weren't and she was never even told about it. Some of her recorded dialogue is still in the game files, and honestly? They're way better than the new VA. I dunno if it's a lack of experience, a lack of direction or something else, but Merle's Alyx just sounds better to me. Crying about bullying by the evil SJWs at Valve that formed a secular cabal makes it sound like every dumb right-wing forums conspiracy ever.
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Mar 30, 2020 00:32
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Lambert posted:Crying about bullying by the evil SJWs at Valve that formed a secular cabal makes it sound like every dumb right-wing forums conspiracy ever. Well done, except nowhere, anywhere, did anyone actually mention the "evil SJWs at Valve". What the earlier rumors were referring to was ex-employee testimonies about high school like cliques, stack ranking and hidden management layers making working at Valve miserable if you didn't agree with the general consensus or wanted to work on something that was unpopular. Replacing VAs for relatively minor slights or indeed, no decipherable reason at all seems to fit right in with the picture painted of Valve as a pretty dysfunctional company when it comes to actually working on something like a full-size game to completion. A place where the individual egos of popular long-time employees would be alone enough to influence making such a decision.
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Mar 30, 2020 01:03
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Moaning about "secular" cliques is pretty much prime right-wing dog whistle, maybe don't repost any old garbage from reddit, even if its fanfic about the inner workings of Valve.
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Mar 30, 2020 01:51
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I wonder if there's the possibility that she was recast because, 13 years down the line, she might not sound young enough for the part anymore.
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Mar 30, 2020 02:20
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The new actor sounded fine to me, I honestly never even would've thought about it because she sounded similar enough to my memories of the original, just pitched younger.
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Mar 30, 2020 02:28
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sigher posted:I wonder if there's the possibility that she was recast because, 13 years down the line, she might not sound young enough for the part anymore. Especially since Alyx is younger in this game than she was in HL2
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Mar 30, 2020 02:40
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I’m renaming Half Life Alyx to Half Life filing cabinet simulator due to the fact that I will spend hours opening every single one.
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Mar 30, 2020 02:44
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Same. play boneworks if you haven't. same cabinet energy
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Mar 30, 2020 02:49
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Game ruled. The Jeff chapter made me wish for a full length horror VR game built around puzzles and legit scares crafted by great level designers, rather than by throwing a zombie at you like Saints & Sinners. The whole sequence was downright cinematic, not just in the action but in the thought processes and realizations it forces the player to go through. Realizing I had to let Jeff out, in pitch darkness, to get to the fuse, made me say "Well poo poo" out loud. Genius.
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Mar 30, 2020 03:16
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The things I felt were missing in this game were: 1. a vehicle section. I wanted to see how Valve would do driving in VR. 2. a rifle modification to shoot orbs like the gun in half life 2 and the episodes. 3. Melee weapons. It seemed to me that you couldn't just smack enemies with plywood or hammers or other junk lying around. Hell, even pistol whipping would be good. Ammo is always scarce in this game. America Inc. fucked around with this message at 04:41 on Mar 30, 2020 |
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Mar 30, 2020 04:37
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There probably wasn't any sort of vehicle since that would require the player to sit down in order for it to be immersive, unless you're driving some weird-rear end vehicle that has you standing to drive it.
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Mar 30, 2020 05:05
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