Had to look up this VentureBeat review and literally laughed out loud that people are squabbling over an 8/10.
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Half-Life: Alyx - Review Thread
- Thread starter vestan
- Start date
I was going to just read the verdicts from each review, but seeing that the ign one already sounds spoilery, I decided to just look at the scores and go in completely blind for the rest of it....have to wait till 5:30 since the room where my VR setup is, is also my wife's work from home office space lol agonyyyyyyy
This seems to assume that points were knocked off for this reason. Reading the review, there are definitely some other qualms they had with the game - they brought up movement issues in VR and same environments.
Cultural and current events can be brought into a review without necessarily being related to the score (which itself is a very good score still)
I want to hear about the reviewer's experience with the game, that includes how personal or largely irrelevant experiences impacted their playing or interpretation of the game. That stuff is far more interesting to me than a cold and detached analysis.
The poster you're responding to was being very reasonable.
Thank you for putting the effort into writing a review for Half-Life: Alyx when it was difficult for you to do so: I'm sympathetic to your situation.
It does list enhanced editions, in the past it only lists games on release day.Too bad OC does not list enhanced editions because there is also this:
Persona 5 Royal Reviews
Persona 5 Royal brilliantly tweaks the original game by building on fan feedback, adding new characters and content that manages to set the bar even higher for what a JRPG can be in the modern...opencritic.com
With FFVII and RE3 in the next two weeks we are eating!
No game is reviewed on its merits alone. You perceive all art and everything else through your own biases and an unwritten frame of context. The pursuit of objectivity is a worthless exercise and the best outlets have moved to engage with games as art and not products in the white vacuum of consumer oblivion.
There's your problem. It has smooth locomotion and runs at 60 FPS. A world of difference between Alyx at 90 FPS with teleportation, or even with smooth locomotion.
I'm really looking forward to see how the tone, atmosphere, and general feel of this first person shooter/horror game aligns with the reality we are living in now. I haven't seen an ounce of it in gameplay yet, but I'm gonna keep my mind open.
That's part of your problem. That game doesn't have a teleport option does it?
I want to play this so hard. It makes me sad I don't personally have the hardware.
And yet....
Thanks to working from home I have my work desktop in my spare room with a GTX 2080ti RTX, an i9 and 64gb ram......I've been making noises about VR at work for work purposes (refurb stuff) so have been intending to hire a VR headset, a vive or something. It's not too expensive. Reckon I could install Steam VR/Steam on there as I have admin rights.......
Tempted....
So tempted.
And yet....
Thanks to working from home I have my work desktop in my spare room with a GTX 2080ti RTX, an i9 and 64gb ram......I've been making noises about VR at work for work purposes (refurb stuff) so have been intending to hire a VR headset, a vive or something. It's not too expensive. Reckon I could install Steam VR/Steam on there as I have admin rights.......
Tempted....
So tempted.
This person was not in the correct emotional state to review a game. As a result, his own real world emotions made it's way into the review. That's not professionalism.
You absolutely cannot under any circumstances reflect your real life circumstances in a review. That's negative bias.
I'm not sure. Though honestly I couldn't play HL Alyx even if I wanted to, I have a PSVR but I can't afford to get a headset for PC, and I'm not even sure my PC is powerful enough to run it properly.
Seriously. I can't quite fathom what's so egregious about a reviewer bringing up their personal experience playing the game and giving it a positive review while also having some small quibbles
Ah so we should see it on the 31st? Damn what a list this is going to be. Hopefully RE3 and FFVII will deliver.
I too want completely emotionless takes on all video games.
Oh man, this from Eurogamer is excellent:
"And the more I played of Alyx, the more I thought about how VR and Half-Life were made for each other. And the more this left me thinking about the G-Man, the shadowy figure in a suit who turns up at crucial moments throughout the series and does intriguing stuff. The G-Man is the focal point for a lot of lore conspiracies in Half-Life. Who is he? Is he human? Is he Gordon Freeman himself?
Let's not worry whether he makes an appearance in Alyx or not. Maybe it doesn't matter. Because throughout the course of this game, I think I worked out who he really is. He's Valve. Think about it: inscrutable Valve, a company that seems to see further than most, that seems to have a separate agenda to that of most developers - and who, granted, doesn't always seem to be entirely benevolent. The G-Man disappears for long periods of time, but then turns up just as events have caught up with his intentions. It's his way or no way at all. He waits for the right pieces to appear, and then he makes the most of them with little apparent effort."
"And the more I played of Alyx, the more I thought about how VR and Half-Life were made for each other. And the more this left me thinking about the G-Man, the shadowy figure in a suit who turns up at crucial moments throughout the series and does intriguing stuff. The G-Man is the focal point for a lot of lore conspiracies in Half-Life. Who is he? Is he human? Is he Gordon Freeman himself?
Let's not worry whether he makes an appearance in Alyx or not. Maybe it doesn't matter. Because throughout the course of this game, I think I worked out who he really is. He's Valve. Think about it: inscrutable Valve, a company that seems to see further than most, that seems to have a separate agenda to that of most developers - and who, granted, doesn't always seem to be entirely benevolent. The G-Man disappears for long periods of time, but then turns up just as events have caught up with his intentions. It's his way or no way at all. He waits for the right pieces to appear, and then he makes the most of them with little apparent effort."
That's not what I said. The emotion written in a review should come from playing the game, what the game invoked, what it offers to the person as a game-playing experience. Not bringing real life issues into the game and then having those overshadow what the game invokes.
every single piece of media is looked through a biased lense , what are you on about
I bet The Last Of Us 2 will be the next game similarly affected by real-world events. The story is about a virus and the game seems to be incredibly bleak and full of graphic violence.
Anyway, I can't wait for my headset to arrive. I should have my money saved up and ready when the Index is back in stock.
Played a few minutes. Can't wait till done work to dig in for real.
So far it's pretty great!
3700x 2080ti both watercooled, rift s, smooth as butter on max settings.
So far it's pretty great!
3700x 2080ti both watercooled, rift s, smooth as butter on max settings.
Yeah, my mistake was pulling out the headline and jumping off point from the review and stating that it looked like it had been docked points for it, when the reality is that these comments aside, the review clearly explains where the game itself falters.
What?
What if you want to discuss how a game specifically impacted you as a member of a minority group?
HahahahahahahaPlayed a few minutes. Can't wait till done work to dig in for real.
So far it's pretty great!
3700x 2080ti both watercooled, rift s, smooth as butter on max settings.
you wrote "Hi"
Reviews aren't news, are opinions. They are intrinsically biased.
It's absolutely ridiculous honestly, and the only garbage takes are the people calling it a garbage review because it's pulling parallels to our lives today.
Absolutely. This is literally the worst time to bring that game into stores.
I've played Boneworks a few times on my Vive and I could somewhat stomach smooth movement. My Index controllers arrived yesterday (good timing too) so I decided to try Boneworks again and just now realized there was a smooth turning option instead of snap turning. I nearly threw up when I tested it out lol
Art criticism is not journalism. A review is not reporting a list of facts, in that case they would all be the same.
It's somehow a shitty take to find it bad that a review brings a pandemic into a game, saying they're jealous of people playing Animal Crossing and that this isn't the right time to play Alyx?
Era truly never fails to disappoint with the bizarre comments.
All people reviewing all games will bring in their real-world biases and the best reviews (in my opinion) recognise these exist and explore them in relation to what they're talking about.
Looking at gameplay videos I don't think it has it. Teleport movement shouldn't normally make you sick since the world doesn't move around you. Also as DarthBuzzard mentioned it's a 60hz game which makes it more likely to make you sick just from moving your head. Most of the PC headsets support around 90 with the Index going up to 144hz (though almost nothing can run that high lol). The point being that some of your issues are likely already fixed and conditions should be even better 4-5 years from now. I'm also partially convinced that some of this brain interface stuff Gabe Newell has been talking about lately will go towards fighting motion sickness lol (but that's probably further out).
If one reads a review of Half-Life Alyx so far removed from our current moment that they require a history book to understand what COVID-19 is then they would also need a history book to understand any game review ever written. What is a lootbox? What is a controller? What are graphics? My mind and body are one with the matrix. What is this thing they call outside?
And the reviewer of Half-Life Alyx who engages with COVID-19 in their review as the virus is underway is a primary source and therefore extremely valuable, so far as history books are concerned. The false-objective car review of a game is not.
Are people really getting bent out of shape for one, singular review that was an 8/10 (still great) for their pet game? The game is a triumph with a 93 aggregate. Is that not enough?