Video Gamers Podcast - Gaming Quick Takes: Half Life Alyx

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Starting point is 00:01:16 Hey everybody, it's Josh and I am back with another Gaming Quick Takes. Okay, as I mentioned in my previous one, I'm going to dive into the world of VR gaming just a little bit. If you don't have a VR system, find somebody that does because they're incredible. Don't worry. I'm not going to talk about VR games forever, but it is a subject that I am passionate about. I love VR gaming. I think the technology is absolutely incredible. And in the last quick takes, I told you why I think you should pick up an Oculus Quest 2. But as promised, I am going to talk about a few games that are in VR that make the whole experience worth it. And obviously, you can't talk VR gaming unless you bring up Half-Life Alyx. Now, Half-Life Alyx is a Steam exclusive. So wait a minute, Josh, how do I play

Starting point is 00:02:05 Half-Life Alyx on my Oculus Quest 2? Well, that's a good question, but there is a very, very easy solution. They have been improving the Oculus Quest 2 for quite some time now. It used to be that if you wanted to play other games besides the ones that you could download straight to the Oculus, you had to have a big long cable. They'd charged you like $80 for it. You plugged it into your PC and it played on your PC, but it routed the video to the headset. What they've done is through a recent update, they've gotten rid of that. They call it Air Link now instead of Oculus Link, and it will just stream the data directly to your headset over Wi-Fi. Now you do have to have a good Wi-Fi connection for that, but it works pretty flawlessly. And what this does is it takes the limitations of the Oculus Quest 2 away completely. As long as you've got a capable PC that can play these games,

Starting point is 00:02:54 then you can do it wirelessly and you can play any SteamVR game on the Oculus Quest. It's honestly a pretty phenomenal perk that they built into it and that they've been developing. I got to give them kudos because they could have just tried to keep it exclusive and they didn't. So that's how you play Half-Life Alyx. Now, what is this game about? If you don't know anything about the Half-Life universe, I get it. They're older games, but these games were absolutely groundbreaking when they came out. And Half-Life Alyx is the daughter of the Gordon Freeman's

Starting point is 00:03:27 buddy. Man, I can't even think of the guy's name right now. So total brain fart. But you play as her. This is an entirely 3D world. You start off on a balcony in the city, and these huge creatures walk over you. And there's this vault that's up in the sky and you can see all these cables and there's just so much going on. You just kind of pause for a minute and you just take it all in. And it is all you can really say is just, wow, the graphics in Half-Life Alyx are better than any game I think I have ever seen in VR. And on this balcony, there's a ton of stuff that you can just interact with. I mean, legitimately, I think I spent the first 30 to 40 minutes in this game on this little balcony, just picking things up, looking at them, throwing them over the side of the balcony,

Starting point is 00:04:15 you know, looking around. There's like a plant that's in a pot that's in the corner and you can crouch down and like move your head and look at the different leaves. It's really hard to describe to somebody, but I'm telling you, there's nothing like it in the world. That's a bold claim, but it's very true. So other than standing on a balcony and looking around, what do you do in this game? Well, this is a full-fledged AAA title. So there's adventure, there's combat, there's exploration, there's secrets, there's exploration, there's secrets, there's great storytelling and characters, there's wow moments that you come across. It really has everything that you could hope for in a VR game. You progress through the city, the city is on lockdown by the evil forces, you know, you're trying to make your way around. You know, bad things happen,

Starting point is 00:05:04 you come across the monsters, like the little headcrab things that are in this. You come across the zombies when they control those. But what's really cool is the combat system in this. It is a shooter in that regard, but you get some very cool abilities. You can actually chuck grenades and stuff like that. So the gunplay is very tight. It feels very good. There's a lot of puzzle solving and things like that. None of it's too brain bending, but it definitely makes you interact with the world around you. That's the fun of VR, right? Is you want to reach out, you want to grab something, you want to press a button, you want to turn a dial.

Starting point is 00:05:36 All those things exist in Half-Life Alyx. But when they couple that with phenomenal graphics, where you feel like you are actually living in this world. That is an accomplishment. When you feel like you are in a gunfight with these enemies, whether they're the headcrabs or humans, you're ducking, you're hiding behind cover, you're chucking grenades. One of the cool things is in this game to heal yourself, you have these little syringes. So you have to grab this syringe off your hip, and then you have to stab yourself with it to make it actually work. It all feels real and it all works. The characters in this game,

Starting point is 00:06:19 I mean, you interact with them, you talk to them, you feel like you're talking to people, you're really getting invested in the story. It's such an experience that it is one of those things where everybody, I genuinely feel this way, everybody in the world should play Half-Life Alyx to have their minds blown and see what VR is actually capable of. Because I feel like this pushes it to its limit. And it is everything that people wanted a VR game to be. Now it's pricey. It's like 60 bucks. You could probably pick it up a little bit cheaper than that. But it's worth every penny. The experience is something that you can't explain to somebody. They have to just be in the VR and going through these motions. There's times where

Starting point is 00:07:04 you're up on top of a building like on a catwalk and the sense of height is phenomenal. I'm scared of heights. I don't like those ones. They kind of freak me out a little bit, but that's what it does. It completely tricks your brain and your eyes and your body into feeling like you are actually in this world. And let's be honest, that's what video gaming is about. I mean, we play games to escape reality and have fun and interact with things. And Half-Life Alyx just fits the bill perfectly. So I can't recommend it enough. I'm going to group together some VR games in the next one so that, again, I'm not talking VR for the next few months. But man, I could just go on about how fun these

Starting point is 00:07:41 games are and how fun the experiences are. If you own an Oculus Quest 2 and you have not picked up Half-Life Alyx, you are missing out. Believe me, save up your money, buy this game right away, because I guarantee you, you will not regret it. If you're on the fence about a VR headset, Half-Life Alyx is the tipping point for you, to be honest. Like I said, there's reasons people buy consoles and Half-Life Alyx is the reason to get into VR. So that's it for me on this Quick Takes episode. Again, thank you. I mean, we really mean this. I know we say it all the time, but thank you for your support. We could not do this without you. We are eternally grateful for it. I hope you're enjoying these Quick Take episodes. If you have suggestions or there's things you want us to talk about,

Starting point is 00:08:24 come to the Discord server, hit us up., you know, we want to talk about things that interest you. And, uh, you know, if we can do that, then we're most, uh, you know, we're certainly happy to try. So, all right, that's it for me for this episode. Hope you guys have a great day.

Video Gamers Podcast - Gaming Quick Takes: Half Life Alyx

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