Category: Half-Life: Alyx

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Source 2 Tools Will Ship with ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ for VR Content from the Modding Community

Half-Life: Alyx is due to launch in March 2020; alongside it, Valve plans to release tools for its Source 2 engine which will let community creators build more VR content for the game and beyond.

Modding has long been a major part of Valve and Half-Life, the company has not only explicitly sanctioned modding of its works but over the years has released tools and distribution channels to help players make, find, and play community made content.

Half-Life: Alyx will be no different. Valve today announced that “a set of Source 2 tools for building new levels will be available for the game, enabling any player to build and contribute new environments for the community to enjoy.” ‘Hammer’, the studio’s level authoring tool, has been “updated with all of the game’s virtual reality gameplay tools and components.”

‘Hammer’, Valve’s level editor | Image courtesy Valve

Community-made content can be hosted via Steam Workshop, the mod distribution component of the Steam platform.

More of Today’s Half-Life: Alyx News

This is a bigger deal than just new weapon or enemy skins; major titles like Counter-Strike, DOTA 2, Team Fortress 2, and Day of Defeat, all started their lives as mere mods. With tools available for community modders to try their hand at making new VR content, the potential exists for great ideas to bubble up and spawn significant games.

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Half-Life: Alyx – Everything You Need To Know About Alyx Vance

As you’ve probably noticed, the name of Valve’s new Half-Life VR game, announced on Monday, is not Half-Life 3. It’s not even Half-Life 2: Episode 3. It’s Half-Life: Alyx.

So, who is Alyx?

We all know that Gordon Freeman is the primary hero of the Half-Life series. Sporting his iconic HEV suit with crowbar in hand, we’ve spent countless hours hacking away at headcrabs and bounding through the alien world of Xen as the silent protagonist. But judging by the name, in this new game we’ll be slipping out of Gordon’s suit and into the shoes of Alyx Vance.

It could be that we’re another character and Alyx features heavily, but we’ll likely find out for sure later this week.

So, if you’re not down on your Half-Life lore, let’s give you a quick rundown of exactly who Alyx is. Please note there will be spoilers for the entire Half-Life series in this post.

Half-Life VR: Who Is Alyx?

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Alyx made her debut in Half-Life 2. She’s a resistance fighter that joins you in the battle against the Combine, an authoritarian force that rules over people’s lives. While you never play as Alyx, she joins you for much of your journey and basically all of the expansion episodes that followed. She’s the daughter of Eli Vance, a scientist that worked at the Black Mesa Research Facility during the incident portrayed in Half-Life 1 that helps establish the resistance after relocating to the dystopian world of City 17.

Alyx’s mother, Azian, died in the Black Mesa Incident. Despite a tough upbringing, Alyx is a friendly and cheery presence. She’s able to hack Combine technology with a multitool and knows how to handle herself in a fight.

She Broke New Ground For NPCs

Alyx is considered to be one of the many groundbreaking elements that made Half-Life 2 such a landmark achievement. Valve went to great lengths to create a companion that wouldn’t agitate the player with repetitive dialogue and was authentically emotive in ways we hadn’t seen before. More importantly, though, Alyx was a genuinely useful presence in combat, and didn’t get in the way or need micro-managing like so many AI-driven characters did at the time. With those barriers out of the way, she became one of the first NPCs in a game it was possible to actually care for. Even today you can see remnants of her influence in games like The Last Of Us and God of War.

She Has A Really Cool Robot Named Dog That Isn’t Really A Dog

Half-Life Dog

Alyx isn’t the only companion Gordon adventures with in Half-Life 2; she also brings her pet Dog along for the ride. Not that capitalization isn’t a typo and no, Dog isn’t a dog. It’s a massive four-legged robot Eli built for Alyx as a child. It acts, as you can probably imagine, like a dog, and comes in handy when Gordon and Alyx are in some tight spots. You really grow a connection with Dog over the course of Half-Life 2. Here’s hoping Half-Life: Alyx strengthens that bond even moreso.

The Last Time We Saw Her It Didn’t Go So Well

Many Half-Life fans will have Half-Life 2: Episode 2’s ending burned into their brain by now. Not just because it’s the last moment of original Half-Life content for 12 years, but because of its particularly tragic events (NOTE AGAIN: This is where the spoilers really kick in). Gordon and Alyx are preparing to leave a resistance stronghold in search of an Aperture Science facility, aided by Eli.

In the game’s final moments, the Combine attack, incapacitate Gordon and Alyx and kill Eli. Dog saves Gordon and Alyx, who ends the game holding her father in her arms, sobbing.

The rumor is that Half-Life: Alyx will be a prequel to Half-Life 2, so we likely won’t see the direct ramification of these events. But that does mean we’ll probably get a chance to see Alyx and Eli’s relationship in greater detail. We wouldn’t be surprised if, by the end of the game, the final moments of Episode 2 are made all the more heartbreaking than they already were.

This Won’t Be The First Time We Haven’t Played As Gordon

Far from it, in fact. The original Half-Life actually had three expansion campaigns that cast us as new characters. In Half-Life: Blue Shift we played as friendly security guard, Barney (who also returns in Half-Life 2). In Opposing Force we were one of the soldiers sent into the Black Mesa facility. Finally, a PS2-exclusive co-operative campaign cast two players as scientists in the Black Mesa incident too.

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Half-Life: Alyx — Valve’s 7+ Year Path To A Flagship AAA VR Game

In case you hadn’t heard (somehow), Half-Life is coming back. Or, more specifically, it’s coming to VR. Half-Life: Alyx is set for reveal later this week and will release soonish on VR headsets, some 12 years after the last game in the series.

So, where did all of that come from?

To people outside of VR circles, all of this might seem a big sudden. But the truth is Valve has more than 7 years of history with serious interest in VR, all leading up to this moment. For many, it’s been a question of not if, but when? If you haven’t been following along on the adventure up until this point, let us take you back along the road to Half-Life: Alyx.

Before we get into this timeline keep in mind that VR as a real, technically usable, technology existed for decades prior to our current one. But it was expensive and low quality by modern standards, and practically all previous efforts to prepare the technology for consumers, including through VR arcades, failed. Instead, VR survived in labs and training scenarios where researchers could justify hundreds of thousands of dollars of investment in the hardware required to transport people to virtual worlds.

Then, with proliferation of small high resolution and low cost display panels and motion tracking hardware in this decade, things started to change. Enter Oculus and Valve.

August 1, 2012 – Valve Supports Launch Of Oculus Rift Kickstarter

The Oculus Rift’s original Kickstarter page is a bit like stepping into a time machine. The then-fledgling company asked for $250,000 via crowd-funding and ended up raising nearly $2.5 million. That’s thanks in no small part to Valve, which endorsed Rift in the Kickstarter video. Michael Abrash (then a Valve developer, now Facebook Reality Labs head) and Gabe Newell himself appear in the clip.

January 15 – 16, 2014, Valve Discusses VR Prototypes At Steam Dev Days

Alongside supporting Oculus, Valve worked on its own VR prototype technology. At Steam Dev Days, Michael Abrash provides details on the Valve VR Room, which has positional markers plastered on the walls, ceiling and floor to allow people to walk around in virtual space. Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey also speaks at the event.

March 25, 2014 – Facebook Buys Oculus, Oculus Begins To Recruit Valve Staff

Following the success of its Kickstarter, Oculus gets bought up by Mark Zuckerberg for what’s now believed to be around $3 billion. Around this time Oculus started recruiting Valve staff including Michael Abrash and Atman Binstock, with a growing division between the companies ultimately pushing Valve to seek a partnership with HTC.

March 1, 2015 – HTC Vive Revealed, Valve VR Demos Shown

HTC announces the Vive at its Mobile World Congress press conference in Barcelona, while Valve demos the kit at GDC in San Francisco. While the world still awaits the reveal of the consumer Oculus Rift, Vive promises room-scale tracking, letting users walk in VR with their headset tracked by the precise timing of lasers scanning the room like lighthouses, complete with tracked hand controllers. Valve’s demos include a Portal-themed experience in which players fix a character from the game. HTC’s Cher Wang states she hopes Half-Life will be playable on the device, and the company apologizes for confusion soon after.

April 5, 2016 – HTC Vive Released, Valve’s The Lab Released, Half-Life VR Datamining Begins

Vive starts shipping a little later than expected (initial units had been promised for 2015). On launch day, Valve releases The Lab, a compilation of its different VR minigames and experiments set in the Portal universe. Not only that, but updates to The Lab and other Valve releases are intensely datamined by fans and reporters like Tyler McVicker, finding regular references to ‘HLVR’ over the years.

October 13, 2016 – Valve Reveals First Knuckles/Index Controller Prototypes

About six months following the launch of Vive, Valve hosts its next Steam Dev Days event. An image emerges of some very early prototypes for what it calls the Knuckles controllers, which would go on to become the Index controllers.

February 10, 2017 – Valve Says It’s Building Three Full VR Games

Valve updates press on its work in VR, revealing the SteamVR 2.0 Base Stations. At the same event, Gabe Newell confirms the company is working on not one, but three VR games. He specifically notes that these will be three ‘full’ VR games, not demos or experiences. It remains unclear if the other two games are still in production following the announcement of Half-Life: Alyx this month.

November 10, 2018 – New Valve Headset Leaks Alongside Half-Life VR

After months of rumors, images of a supposed new Valve VR headset leak online. Sources confirmed to us that they were real. This Half-Life VR game was said to be a prequel rather than the full Half-Life 3. It looks like this will still be the case.

April 30, 2019 – Valve Reveals Valve Index, Confirms ‘Flagship VR Game’

valve index

After a quieter few years on the VR front, Valve teases the reveal of a new VR headset and, after a few leaks, confirms the release of its own VR headset, not made in partnership with HTC. Index is an enthusiast PC VR headset with improved resolution, audio and comfort, shipping with the Index Controllers which enable finger-tracking and grabbing sensations in VR. The full kit costs $999. The same day, the company announces a ‘flagship VR game’ will release this year, not just on Index but all SteamVR-compatible headsets.

June 25, 2019 – Index Starts Shipping, Aperture Hand Lab Released

Aperture Hand Labs High Five Valve

Two months on from reveal, Index starts shipping with no mention of the flagship VR game. Its launch is accompanied by Aperture Hand Lab, another free demo set in the Portal universe. It’s a showcase for the types of hand interactions possible with the Index controllers, developed by Cloudhead Games.

November 18, 2019 – Half-Life: Alyx Announced

valve half-life vr steam

Rumors swirled in recent days that Half-Life: Alyx would be revealed at The Game Awards in December. Then Valve made its first-ever tweet, confirming that the game will, in fact, be revealed this Thursday, November 22. And now we wait. What will this reveal bring? We can’t wait to find out.

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Valve Confirms Half-Life: Alyx is Real, Details Coming Thursday

Yesterday, VRFocus reported on a rumour Valve was working on a virtual reality (VR) edition of Half-Life called Half-Life: Alyx. Valve being the secret company that it is, rarely confirms any rumours regarding projects, let alone anything to do with the Half-Life franchise. However, last night the company broke from the norm and announced that Half-Life: Alyx is real and more details are soon to arrive.

half-life

Valve made the announcement on its very new Twitter account – only opened in June 2019 – with the Half-Life: Alyx tweet being the very first. The company confirmed that Half-Life: Alyx will be its flagship VR title and that this Thursday (21st November) would see its official unveiling at 10am PT (6pm GMT).

Hopefully, that’ll be a teasing trailer, showcasing some gameplay, characters or even a hint at the storyline. If there’s no video VRFocus would still settle for a couple of screenshots. Support for all SteamVR compatible headsets like Valve Index, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality is expected.

Other details about Half-Life: Alyx has surfaced online with Ars Technica reporting that the title is a prequel, set between the original videogame and 2004’s Half-Life 2. A single-player experience, you’ll supposedly take the role of Alyx Vance a character introduced in Half-Life 2. 

Half-Life: Alyx will continue around the series’ physics-based gameplay, with a new control system called the “Grabbity Gloves” being employed. Supposedly these function like ‘magnet hands’, allowing players to attract distant objects without the need to walk there or simply picking stuff up off the floor. This would certainly favour VR motion controllers, especially the new Valve Index controllers with their finger tracking and pressure sensors.

Ars Technica also notes that sources say the iconic crowbar which has featured as the first Half-Life weapon may not be making an appearance this time around. What will be showing up in Half-Life: Alyx are doors, as a Valve developer went into great detail about a couple of months ago.

There are only two days to wait until official details are finally released. When they are VRFocus will bring you as much information as possible.

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Report: Half-Life: Alyx Introduces A New Weapon But May Remove A Classic

Half-Life: Alyx, the new VR game from Valve, will reportedly introduce a major new tool to the series, but could also remove another.

In our report yesterday, we made mention of something called ‘Grabbity Gloves’. It’s not hard to imagine how those might work, based on the name. But Ars Technica is citing its own sources in saying that these gloves are real and will work like ‘Magnet Gloves’. Basically, the idea is that you’ll be able to point to an object in the game and then summon it straight to your hands.

It sounds very similar to the convenient quick grab options seen in many VR games. As with the iconic Gravity Gun, though, these gloves will apparently utilize realistic physics. Not that we’d expect anything different from a Half-Life game. We wonder, perhaps, if the physics-driven handling of Stress Level Zero’s Boneworks will be a good indication of what to expect?

All that said; Ars Technica also reports that another iconic Half-Life weapon may have actually been taken out of the game. The report claims that Valve has tested a virtual crowbar weapon, but scrapped its inclusion. The crowbar is typically the first weapon you get in a Half-Life game and has become synonymous with the series. The report notes, however, that it’s entirely possible the item still makes it into the game.

We’ll hopefully have an idea of whether or not these reports are true when the game is revealed on Thursday. Valve is promising to pull back the curtain at 10am PT. We’ll be here to bring you a full report.

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Rumor: Valve to Unveil VR Game ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ at Game Awards Next Month

Although Valve has yet to deliver on its promised three full VR titles (one was supposed to arrive this year), in typical Valve fashion the company’s ongoings are fundamentally a mystery to outsiders. Now, a PC Gamer report contends that Valve has not only named its upcoming VR project Half-Life: Alyx, but that it’s going to get a teaser at this year’s Game Awards.

PC Gamer’s report is based on a transcript of an alleged interview between Valve’s Robin Walker, founder and organizer of The Game Awards Geoff Keighly, and a third, unknown person.

The supposed transcript includes snippets of information provided by a user going by the name ‘Midoriyan’. As per the transcript, which is linked in the PC Gamer report, this is the same person behind the Dota Underlords leak from back in June.

In the supposed transcript, Keighly reportedly says that Half-Life: Alyx is slated to arrive in March 2020. A bit of conversation between the three also reveals that the game is allegedly a VR-only title, as it “began as an exploration of VR.”

Last month, Valve News Network’s Tyler McVicker offered up some cogent evidence of Half-Life related code popping up that details enemies, weapons, interactions, and settings the game will be built around.

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Leaked 'Half-Life VR' Code Could Offer Clues for Valve's Upcoming VR Game

At the time, McVicker postulated that Valve’s upcoming VR game would indeed be a Half-Life VR title set in the 20 year period between Half-Life and Half-Life 2. The player, he maintained at the time, will play the role of Alyx Vance, a central character in Half-Life 2.

As with all rumors and leaks, you’ll need to take it with a grain of salt, although with the promise of the game’s first bona fide announcement arriving during The Game Awards, which takes place on December 12th, we’re sure to know one way or the other fairly soon.

Provided the transcript leak is real though, it’s also possible Valve could be forced to delay the game and release word at some other venue. Either way, we’re hoping to hear more soon.

The post Rumor: Valve to Unveil VR Game ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ at Game Awards Next Month appeared first on Road to VR.

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Valve VR Game Rumoured to be Called Half-Life: Alyx

There’s nothing like a good rumour to getting those tongues a-wagging and as usual, Valve is at the top of that list. When it comes to Valve there’s only one videogame which continually pops up Half-Life, even when the original is 21 years old. The latest rumour could be related to that virtual reality (VR) flagship title the company mentioned back in May for the launch of Valve Index, and then never mentioned again. The VR game, Half-Life: Alyx.

Valve Index

Spotted by PC Gamer, the rumour stems from a supposed interview between Geoff Keighley (The Game Awards), Valve’s Robin Walker (co-developer of Team Fortress 2) and a third person who is unknown – possibly Gabe Newell. A transcript has been leaked detailing part of this interview (remember to take all this with a handful of salt) reportedly from the same person behind a DOTA Underlords leak.

Details talked about include why Valve is only making Half-Life: Alyx as a VR title, with the response being: “I mean we would love to be delivering a version of this that you could play with a mouse and a keyboard, but as we said, it began as an exploration of VR.”

As for gameplay details for this rumoured title, an unnamed person notes: “You can see their whole body– Respond to the situation. You know, panicking, dropping clips on the ground as they fumble their weapons ’cause a zombie’s in front of them, all these things, they’re just – it’s been really fun watching playtests.” So a zombie shooter then?

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If the Half-Life: Alyx rumour is true then confirmation will supposedly come in December, as part of The Game Awards 2019. That will then be followed by a March 2020 launch, which would be rather exciting. There’s less than a month to find out.

While on the subject of rumours, VRFocus reported last month about the possibility of a Horizon: Zero Dawn VR version for PlayStation VR in the works. Whilst the rumours remain unsubstantiated at this time, it would be great to see big IP’s like those mentioned coming to VR headsets, helping bolster the technology. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.