Thanks Gazelle..I managed to play on continuous movement this arvo and I didn't throw up so I'm guessing my settings are pretty good and I'm getting used to it. I don't have motion smoothing on though. Might give that a go.

I played 4 hours today.... That's a VR record for me. It was with a bunch of breaks because my head needs rest eventually but I'm wondering if it's more to do with my glasses being pressed on my face instead of the VR-ness

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

Thanks Gazelle..I managed to play on continuous movement this arvo and I didn't throw up so I'm guessing my settings are pretty good and I'm getting used to it. I don't have motion smoothing on though. Might give that a go. I played 4 hours today.... That's a VR record for me. It was with a bunch of breaks because my head needs rest eventually but I'm wondering if it's more to do with my glasses being pressed on my face instead of the VR-ness

You can get lenses. https://vroptician.com/

Also, you can use continuous but when it gets a bit much if you pull back on the thumbstick with your gun hand the shift legs will still appear, so you can mix it up without going into options.

I'm really loving some of the design choices. The swapping out of hand/gun/tool feels awkward at first until you realise you can do it from any initial hand position without looking. Press button and release after moving hand up/down/left etc. it means you don't have to look at your hand to get your gun out.

I also love the limited arsenal. Your gun is much more personal when you can examine it up close, as are your gloves. The combat is much slower than a traditional fps but it's also more scary and intense. The gun requires careful aiming with shaky hands so using the other hand to support becomes normal. It feels much less like a videogame and more a grim reality. I also tried this with the Vive wands and although grabbing stuff and no finger tracking made it feel much less natural the actual combat was just as good. I suppose the wands really feel like guns.

What I love most of all is the way you are gently taught things, but here those things are really your skills with the weapons. As the combat ramps up it utilises all the things you've learnt along the way. Admittedly I've got in on the hard setting and I don't know how it compares, but the scavaging for bullets and an almost constant shortage of ammo really ramps up the tension and you have to make shots count.

It all feels so real that some of the more traditional videogame choices seem a little off. Who would leave some resin in a cardboard box? And why would anyone leave two shells on an otherwise empty desk? I do like the health stations this time around. It starts to become a proper puzzle as there's always one medikit to put into the machine and it's always close by the machine but they get harder to find.

I can see why they've done the random bullet placement in a way. They want everyone to explore the whole environment as much as possible and I'm not surprised. There's plenty of asset reuse but the amount of art and design on display here is simply amazing. It must have cost a fucking fortune. Everything needs to be modelled to VR standards that you can stare at from inches away. The only thing that lets it down is some texture popping.

The movement has turned out to be unexpectedly good. It's the combination of smooth and shift without going into options. It's far better in smooth, if only to smell the flowers on the way but shift really works too. It's much better than standard insta-teleport and combining the two styles feels even better. It doesn't feel unnatural in a universe that lets you pull stuff towards you using the gloves.

As an experience they've fucking nailed it here. It's so good it doesn't feel like this game should exist and it only gets better the longer you play. The constant dialogue feels much more personal than it would in flatscreen. He's not just dialogue in a game, he's talking to you. Everything in this game feels personal. It's ace.

Just play some more elite dangerous.

Managed to get the index, a pair of knuckles and a good computer from work set up at home only to find one of my base stations has broken. Opening scene looked great but completely unplayable, gutted.

I know there's a spare in the office, that's essential travel right?

Some of the vistas in this are just beautiful. Chapter 4 has a stunner.

Yeah that's not good, not when the combat ramps up. Still, you make do. Can't you just use one basestation for now? Not ideal but it'll get you through the first two chapters.

bad_hair_day wrote:

Turned the fidelity down to low and traversing was a bit smoother. Can't see a graphical difference really, so no biggy. The mechanics really starting to click, and what a world Valve have constructed.

Have you tried motion smoothing?

I can’t wait for that bloody cable. Put the laptop on a chair behind me. Cable down my back gives me a metre or so of forward and backward movement. And so far I’m coping. The fucking crabs!! Scare the shit out of you.

Quick question. Can you partial reload the pistol? I’m guessing not as you are just swapping clips. Hate it when you finish off a crab and you have a couple bullets left. It’s real panicky deciding when to swap clips.

I think I’m gonna take this in short bursts. But think I was just in for an hour ish.

Looking forward to getting back into this. Hopefully the source 2 release has the full VR suite for devs. Or even release it with all the Alyx assets like they used to for half-life.

This really is a new benchmark for gaming. The panic of reloading under duress is high!

It's amazing how faithful this all is to a Half Life game. I was expecting this to take HL into a whole new direction but there are so many bits that remind me of how I felt in both HLs. In HL2 I was sort of amazed by how lovely the huge train station ticket Hall was with the sunlight streaming in, in the midst of all this dystopia. I got that again on steroids in this (but the setting was different) and right there and then I remembered what it was like to gawp playing HL2 and how exciting games were back then. It was really clever.

You'll know exactly which bit I mean when you see it and it's unexpected, and you'll be gawping too. It's not the setting that's replicated, it's the emotion.

I thought this was interesting.

Wow Gerstmann is not hot on this game surprise surprise ...

Lord_Griff wrote:

You're all wankers as I play whatever flat, low res, 2d bullshit I've got.

Well you should've jumped in early then. There were loads of helmets back in the previrus magical happy days. Well maybers not after Alyx was announced but when it was released it was fine.