Penny Arcade - Comic - Deep Sight

Dog

Penny Arcade - Comic - Deep Sight

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

Read the full story here

Pavio

I just read the write up on this.

My mind was blown by Half-Life: Alyx. I have always been kind of a VR... not quite hater, but disliker, because I feel like it does some unique things but never enough for me to be like, hey, "this game" is a whole game that I don't regret. Meaning, sometimes you look at games in VR and go, hey, that's a cool new mechanic. But most games just have a couple of those, and not what you'd consider "complete" necessarily.

But now that I've played Alyx, and specifically used the Valve Index, I finally believe that we're going to see some awesome things happen. That game is incredible.

silence1186

I really liked the news post for this one. Tycho has always been a masterful wordsmith, and this entry was just another example in a long line of good ones.

Grendus

In regards to the writeup, I gotta add one more con to the Quest. As someone with the Index controllers who has family with Quests, they Index knuckles are better than the Quest controllers. The quest has a bit of the finger tracking, it can tell if you're touching a button, but the Index makes it feel more natural and straps to your hand so it's a better model. Also the Index headset has a higher refresh rate and pixel density, so there's that.

With all that being said, the Quest is absolutely the best choice for anyone who isn't already both a PC gaming enthusiast and a VR gaming enthusiast. I'm even considering getting one in addition to my Vive/Index hybrid just for the Occulus exclusives, since they have the Link working. I only wish that Occulus wasn't owned by Facebook.

dennis

Grendus wrote: »

In regards to the writeup, I gotta add one more con to the Quest. As someone with the Index controllers who has family with Quests, they Index knuckles are better than the Quest controllers. The quest has a bit of the finger tracking, it can tell if you're touching a button, but the Index makes it feel more natural and straps to your hand so it's a better model. Also the Index headset has a higher refresh rate and pixel density, so there's that.

While this is a fair read, I feel like I should note they've just recently enabled hand tracking on the Quest (as in, they allow apps in the store that use the feature). This allows you to discard the controllers altogether. It uses the cameras on the headset to track the hands and maps them to in-game hands. It's kind of magical.

Now, there are definitely some caveats to that (ones that I'm especially aware of as I do Quest development). But it is a pretty interesting feature and can allow for some things that VR hasn't really supported well.

jebmak

I play the dungeon crawler Karnage Chronicles in VR with my brother who lives on the other side of the country and it's great! It's hard to put into words how cool it is to look up and warn him, "ABOVE YOU!"

It's not for everyone, but VR really is like no other gaming experience.

Hevach

Pavio wrote: »

I just read the write up on this.

My mind was blown by Half-Life: Alyx. I have always been kind of a VR... not quite hater, but disliker, because I feel like it does some unique things but never enough for me to be like, hey, "this game" is a whole game that I don't regret. Meaning, sometimes you look at games in VR and go, hey, that's a cool new mechanic. But most games just have a couple of those, and not what you'd consider "complete" necessarily.

But now that I've played Alyx, and specifically used the Valve Index, I finally believe that we're going to see some awesome things happen. That game is incredible.

I'd been watching VR stuff for a while and everything ranged from gimmicky to bad and even the good things I just couldn't help but think they would be better in a traditional format.

But the first video of Alyx that I watched, this guy picks up a box to carry extra stuff around and at one point picks up a chair and uses it bat a headcrab through a window and I'm just like... YES, this is what Star Trek promised me thirty years ago.

McFodder

Hevach wrote: »

Pavio wrote: »

I just read the write up on this.

My mind was blown by Half-Life: Alyx. I have always been kind of a VR... not quite hater, but disliker, because I feel like it does some unique things but never enough for me to be like, hey, "this game" is a whole game that I don't regret. Meaning, sometimes you look at games in VR and go, hey, that's a cool new mechanic. But most games just have a couple of those, and not what you'd consider "complete" necessarily.

But now that I've played Alyx, and specifically used the Valve Index, I finally believe that we're going to see some awesome things happen. That game is incredible.

I'd been watching VR stuff for a while and everything ranged from gimmicky to bad and even the good things I just couldn't help but think they would be better in a traditional format.

But the first video of Alyx that I watched, this guy picks up a box to carry extra stuff around and at one point picks up a chair and uses it bat a headcrab through a window and I'm just like... YES, this is what Star Trek promised me thirty years ago.

It really can't be overstated how different playing in VR is to watching it on a screen. There definitely are a lot of gimmicky titles, but there are also some that really could only work as well as they do in VR.

furlion

I saw a tweet or post here or on reddit that said Alyx is the first VR game that is a great game even without the VR. That is pretty high praise I think. I even played a bit of the first level, and watched my buddy played some of the latter levels, and damn is it good. And the VR immersion is incredible. Unfortunately I imagine it was also incredibly difficulty to develop and probably well outside the possibility of a studio that does not have the gdp of a medium sized country.

dennis

furlion wrote: »

I saw a tweet or post here or on reddit that said Alyx is the first VR game that is a great game even without the VR. That is pretty high praise I think.

It is, but I think people might read more into that than maybe they should and think less of VR as a result. If a game truly uses the VR to its fullest, it wont ever be a "great game even without the VR." That doesn't mean it's not a great game, though. It's like saying "it's a great game even without multiplayer." Okay, well, that can be a measure of a game quality, but it can also just ignore what multiplayer can bring to a game.

furlion

dennis wrote: »

furlion wrote: »

I saw a tweet or post here or on reddit that said Alyx is the first VR game that is a great game even without the VR. That is pretty high praise I think.

It is, but I think people might read more into that than maybe they should and think less of VR as a result. If a game truly uses the VR to its fullest, it wont ever be a "great game even without the VR." That doesn't mean it's not a great game, though. It's like saying "it's a great game even without multiplayer." Okay, well, that can be a measure of a game quality, but it can also just ignore what multiplayer can bring to a game.

Yeah I think the point was that even without the gimmick of VR it was great, but with VR it was even better. Personally it has convinced me that with the right setup ($Texas) VR is actually capable of being really fun.