Did Valve just announce a new Half-Life game?

Am I alive right now?

chances are I'll pour gasoline on the headset and set it on fire the first time a headcrab jumps at my face.

Part of me hopes this is just some dumb shooting gallery to see how people react.

Ugh, VR.

I thought to myself for a long time that I would never feel a thing for a new Half-Life announcement, but the news made me feel very weird. Very excited weird.

No they announced a new VR game that will use Half-Life assets. Call my a cynical grouch but I don’t think anyone was asking for this when they were - by now jokingly - asking for more Half-Life.

@panfoot: “ Ugh, VR.”

Yeah. :/

This is akin to Michael Jordan announcing he’s coming out of retirement to play more baseball. I say that as someone who owns and enjoys two VR headsets, but they have never figured out locomotion in a satisfying way, and all the games, even the ones I enjoy, are basically gimmicks.

I’m trying to be open-minded on this and failing.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Crossbow Training

Could've had twice the armpit farting noises if they announced this in conjunction with Blizzard's mobile Diablo.

I feel kind of shitty writing it off without even knowing what it is but I havent enjoyed anything VR and I dont see that changing.

I actually feel like it being a VR game is kind of expected. Jeff's brought it up before but thinking about how revolutionary HL1 and 2 were it only ever seemed like they would release a new game when they found a way to push the envelope for shooters in some way.

Now the fact that it's not a numbered sequel gives me some pause, could definitely end up disappointing, but I'm definitely interested to see footage of this game as someone who still believes in the potential of VR.

Guess we'll find out. Completely expected the next Half-Life to be VR. They are calling it a flagship VR title so maybe it is substantial.. but they were also cautious and didn't put "3" on it.

As someone who has a few of the headsets and has a Valve Index next to me.. fuck yea. Half-Life has become a title more about ground breaking tech and game design and less about an actual story. It only makes sense that the next entry would be in VR, arguably the next frontier for video games, even if we haven't solved the locomotion problem.

What locomotion problem? Just use the analog stick to move like any other game.

I want HL3 just like everybody else. But I sure as fuck will be getting this day one, just hope it works well with the Oculus Rift.

makes sense- always thought they'd save a half-life announcement for something related to VR.

here's hoping valve can still make a kick ass single player experience! (i'm somewhat skeptical, though)

I'm seeing a lot of people shitting all over this announcement. I can totally understand why. I mean, IT'S NOT HALF- LIFE 3 so who gives a shit, right?

For me, I'm excited for a couple reasons, even though I won't even be able to play this thing. For one, it means Valve actually still cares about this franchise and they're probably actually still working on 3. Two, I'm excited to see what a real game in VR designed by Valve looks like. I'm sure it will be ambitious. I'm willing to bet that HL: Alyx will be a sort of testing bed for concepts they want to implement in a possible Half-Life 3. And really, it's just cool that Valve is releasing a real game again.

@killem_dafoe: Yeah, I don't think Valve is dumb enough to throw out to the internet that they are internally working on a Half-Life game without having something substantial attached to it. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

Oh shit yo, remember Alyx? Remember Half-Life? Wowee-zowee, that shit takes me back.

This is gonna be interesting. I would think they would not announce anything new especially anything new related to Half Life if they didn't have a really good idea. This could either be a huge wet fart (sorry) or a game-changer for VR.

As someone who is currently playing through Black Mesa, was thinking of also diving back into HL2 & ep 1 & 2, and is also all-in on VR, this is pretty awesome news. Just hope I can play it on Oculus Rift.

I’d like to say I’m interested, but I don’t feel like coughing up about 1K worth of euros to play a VR game. Also the fact that it’s possibly a prequel is about as hilarious as BGE 2 also being one.

I hope it’s good though. Would be nice to see HL become relevant again.

No they announced a new VR game.

It isn't going to be what a lot of us are hoping it is, but that doesn't mean it won't be great. It certainly sounds like an interesting HL experience, I'm intrigued.

The term 'flagship' is the part of that Tweet that keeps raising my eyebrows, so I expect it to be much more than your standard VR thing.

Are people still invested in the story of half life 2 and it's characters? Don't get me wrong , Half Life 1 was one of my fav games back in the day and Half Life 2 had a very neat gravity gun & physics, but i never felt too passionate about the story or it's characters back then. But i might be an outlier. I just feel like nowadays Half Life is mostly known to be a gaming meme & a game that potentially could be the best game ever created, based on people telling eachother what half life 1 & 2 did. Even to those that have never booted up a Half Life game. I just don't think these characters & the story up to now will matter to enough people for them to put it back out in the limelight, but here they are making a thing named after Alyx.

@onemanarmyy: I cared a bit, at the time. Good characters, interesting world. It was much more rare then than it is now.

Still invested? Not really. But I wouldn't mind going back.

Not really interested at all in VR, so that's a shame. Still will be interesting to see it.

I'm with the others saying this: Valve announced another VR experience.

Jeff called this years ago!

No

GOTY

Is it really that surprising it's a VR thing?

- Gabe said they're working on 3 flagship VR titles

- There has been leaks about hlvr for a while now

- Gabe said in his reddit ama:

Products are usually the result of an intersection of technology that we think has traction, a group of people who want to work on that, and one of the game properties that feels like a natural playground for that set of technology and design challenges.

- Valve are obviously heavily invested in the VR space

And I think it will be more than an "experience", or, people will try to boil just about anything VR down to an "experience". That, or Valve did a whole bunch of R&D into things like how doors interact in VR for nothing.

I felt like the writing was on the wall for quite some time now that the next Half-Life would be a VR game.

- Half Life games have always taken a risk and tried out new tech

- Valve has been heavily invested in the VR space for years now

- Valve said they have multiple flagship VR games in development

Folk's frustrations aren't totally unfounded but you can't say you didn't sort of see this coming.

I for one am excited. It's been a hot minute since a VR game launched that I'm excited for. (There are a couple new Oculus games that interest me, but I have a Vive :(. )

I have a feeling this us going to be a bit like Vader Immortal - a neat tech demo but not much of a game. It's kinda hard to fit the free movement and aiming of an FPS into VR. That said, I am hoping to be surprised. Alyx is one of my favorite video game characters ever and I always wanted to spend more time with her.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c8_6Mli5WQ

20 minute talk with Geoff Keighley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9K0eJEmMEw

Movement and play styles: https://half-life.com/en/alyx/vr