"TheTurbochargedSquirrel" (thatsquirrel)
01/22/2020 at 20:56 • Filed to: None
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"TheTurbochargedSquirrel" (thatsquirrel)
01/22/2020 at 20:56 • Filed to: None | 4
| 21 |
In preparation for Half-Life Alyx Valve is giving away all the classic Half-Life games. Just follow the link and download away. If your computer can run Chrome it can run Half-Life.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Snuze: Needs another Swede
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
01/22/2020 at 21:03 |
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YEEEESSSSS!
Alyx has me seriously looking at a VR setup.
RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
01/22/2020 at 21:05 |
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I wish Al
yx wasn’t VR-only as VR is cool, but at this point still isn’t super mainstream, which makes it a bit gimmicky to me.
Alyx does look friggin’ epic though!
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TheTurbochargedSquirrel
> Snuze: Needs another Swede
01/22/2020 at 21:08 |
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I’ve been looking at VR for sim racing but Alyx will likely accelerate that purchase. $1000 for the Index hurts though. I’ll have to see how it works on non-valve VR hardware. I was planning on getting a Vive at some point.
DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
01/22/2020 at 21:21 |
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Samsung HMD Odyssey currently on sale for $229.
gin-san - shitpost specialist
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
01/22/2020 at 21:24 |
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Steam says that it’s free to play until the Alyx release date and still shows a 38.27 CAD price for the bundle.
I loved the HL1 games - Half Life got me into multiplayer FPS; it came packaged with Team Fortress Classic which was my #1 game when I was around 12-14 years old. The single player story was fun, while Opposing Force and Blue Shift provided familiar but new perspectives on the main story.
I loved Half Life so much that I played the hell out of the mods. Counter-Strike is obvious, but imagine playing it pre-Steam when Sierra was still running its WON servers.
The Opera was a unapologetic ripoff of The Matrix, with diving actions and tons of weapons you’d recognize from the lobby scene alone.
Natural Selection was an awesome mod which felt like playing Terran v Zerg from Starcraft on a close-quarters, unit level.
To me, Day of Defeat set the foundation for my love of the early WWII Call of Duty games. I remember the Axis MG-42 and Kar9something were sooooo good in the game, but I loved using the B ritish American Racing Browning Automatic Rifle with that strange top loading magazine.
I haven’t played much of HL2 so I’ll probably get into that. Thanks for letting us know, I would’ve missed this.
facw
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
01/22/2020 at 21:26 |
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I’ve got Acer’s Windows Mixed Reality headset and am hoping it works well enough with that. For the most part it seems to do well, though I was actually a bit tempted to try the Odyssey+ for the higher resolution when it was on sale for $230 before Christmas. Ultimately I decided I can wait and hope that eventually a wireless solution will be cheap enough to consider.
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facw
> gin-san - shitpost specialist
01/22/2020 at 21:32 |
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Yep, I think these are free to play for a couple months as opposed to just getting them for free to keep forever. They are usually available pretty cheap though.
HL2 was good (though it’s of course been ages since I played it), but I really liked the Episodes. The teamwork with Alyx was nicely done, and made her stand out much more than in HL2 where she’s basically a prop, and poorly developed love interest. Though in Episode 1 I did feel like a bit of a wimp for needing heavy weapons and what is essentially power armor to fight aliens while Alyx did fine with a leather jacket, jeans, and a pistol. IIRC for Episode 2 she at least got a better gun.
I really liked that they had the commentary available as well, it should be required listening for anyone who wants to make games. They said in their AMA that they are hoping to do it for Alyx as well , but don’t expect it at launch.
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DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
01/22/2020 at 21:32 |
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I think the point is to push VR into the mainstream. I can’t really think of another AAA title that’s come out that’s VR only, and it makes sense because Valve just came out with their own VR headset this pa st summer.
tromoly
> gin-san - shitpost specialist
01/22/2020 at 21:35 |
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There was a paintball mod back in the day I played the crap out of, that and HL:Deathmatch inside HL1 were the bulk of my Freshman College year.
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tromoly
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
01/22/2020 at 21:36 |
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> Looks at Steam
> Realizes everything GoldSrc was purchased 15 years ago
> Instantly feels old
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TheTurbochargedSquirrel
> gin-san - shitpost specialist
01/22/2020 at 21:38 |
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Steam doesn’t allow bundle prices to be set all the way to zero so that’s why the bundle still has a price.
I have seen mixed reports on if they are claimable for free until Alyx launches or if they are only playable until Alyx launches. Different sources each seem to be interpreting Valve’s wording of “all games in the Half-Life Series FREE to play for Steam users, from now until the day it launches!” differently. That sentence can easily mean that they are only playable until the Alyx launch or that the oppor
tunity to get them free ends with the Alyx launch. Either way all you can say for sure is that they will go back to their normal price after the launch.
I have claimed free games in the past that are still playable from my library that presented on steam in the same way the half life games do now. The Half-Life games didn’t show up as install-able options from within my library like a game in a free play period does (though to be fair I haven’t seen a game pop up in that manner in a few years, I had just figured that no one had decided to offer a free play period for a while, they weren’t exactly common to begin with).
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TheTurbochargedSquirrel
> DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back
01/22/2020 at 21:40 |
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Dammit, I don’t have $200 to spend on my rig right now. A month from now I would be all over that.
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facw
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
01/22/2020 at 21:48 |
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Steam bundles can definitely contain free games though. See the Valve Complete Pack with its four free titles for example: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/232/Valve_Complete_Pack/
And of course individual games can certainly be free. Look at The Lab: https://store.steampowered.com/app/450390/The_Lab/ and note that it lists “Free” next to “Play Game” while the Half-Life games don’t show anything there.
And they could certainly discount the bundle more than they have even if they had a limitation. Given the fact they are advertising this as “Play for free” rather “Get for free”, it seems pretty clear they are just letting people play temporarily.
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facw
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
01/22/2020 at 21:50 |
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It was priced like that before Christmas as well, so it wouldn’t be shocking if it stays low (though you do wonder if they are blowing out inventory, last year around this time Microsoft was selling a bunch of headsets at half of MSRP, but they all disappeared from the market entirely shortly afterwards)
MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick)
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
01/22/2020 at 22:00 |
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GOD DAMNIT. I just bought a bunch of these within the last 6 months
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TheTurbochargedSquirrel
> facw
01/22/2020 at 22:05 |
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I’ll probably end up picking one up if they are still $230 in a month. Got smacked around by bills around Christmas and am still trying to restabilize.
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Snuze: Needs another Swede
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
01/22/2020 at 22:46 |
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I saw this YouTube vid today where they tested Alyx on like 8 different VR setups.
HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
01/22/2020 at 22:58 |
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And if you like Half-life you should probably go watch Freeman’s Mind.
SmugAardvark
> gin-san - shitpost specialist
01/23/2020 at 01:15 |
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Day of Defeat was absolutely my jam back in high school and college. Unfortunately, they gutted it of all the fun when Valve and Ac tivision bou ght it and made a commercial release. By the time the Source version came out, I had sadly moved on.
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RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back
01/23/2020 at 09:59 |
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It’s still pretty expensive though...a decent gaming rig is
like $800-$1000 or more alone, let alone more for VR!
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DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
01/23/2020 at 12:08 |
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Oh for sure. If you’re starting from scratch you’re taking a $1500 minimum investment.