Thanks for watching! It's so interesting to read all the comments and see how split everyone's opinions are. Glad everyone is having these conversations. I'm looking at doing some "quick look" style videos to get more videos out between these bigger pieces. Let me know if you would like to see any games in that format!
Can you make people aware that all these games got VR mod portal 2 Half-Life Half-Life 2 (and sequels) Deep Rock Galactic Minecraft Jedi Academy Risk of Rain 2 Gamecube emulator (Dolphin VR) Metal: Hellsinger Valheim All modern Resident Evil games/remakes (except 4 which should be coming out soon) Dark Souls Remastered Cyberpunk 2077 Final Fantasy VII Remake Ghost Runner Elden Ring Ghostwire: Tokyo Horizon: Zero Dawn No One Lives Forever 2 Stray Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales Grounded Red Dead Redemption 2 (Old version) GTA V (Old version) RDR2 (Old version) Mafia Trilogy Remake (Old version) Left 4 Dead 2 Life is Strange: Before The Storm - Dawn VR Alien: Isolation - MotherVR The Stanley Parable - StanleyVR Valheim - VHVR Risk of Rain 2 - Drbibop The Outer Wilds - Nomai VR Deep Rock Galactic - VRG Firewatch - TwoForksVR GTFO - VR plugin Dead By Daylight (Private Server) Hogwarts Legacy Mirror 2: Project X Satisfactory It Takes Two STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order Stray Squad Astroneer Borderlands 3 Mordhau Ready Or Not SCUM Conan Exiles The Isle Tekken 7 eFootball 2023 Poppy Playtime Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice OUTRIDERS Dragon Ball FighterZ Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach Grounded Days Gone Remnant From The Ashes State of Decay 2 Ghostrunner Code Vein Little Nightmares Back 4 Blood Brick Rigs Bright Memory: Infinite Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot What Remains of Edith Finch Life is Strange 2 Foxhole ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE- The Callisto Protocol Medieval Dynasty Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Remnant II ENDER LILIES Little Nightmares II Tales of Arise 死寂（Deathly Stillness） One-armed cook Hydroneer ABZÛ FPS Chess Aliens: Fireteam Elite GEARS 5 PAYDAY 3 Tropico 6 The Ascent Gas Station Simulator Atomic Heart Dark Deception Ground Branch Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet Vampyr Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles Hi-Fi RUSH Tribes of Midgard Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade Hatred Witch It Sword and Fairy 7 Omega Strikers Biomutant The Day Before SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated Scarlet Nexus Subverse We Happy Few Dark and Light Choo-Choo Charles Gotham Knights Terminator Resistance Octopath Traveler Torchlight 3 Spyro Reignited Trilogy Darksiders III Ghostwire: Tokyo Life is Strange: True Colors Session: Skate Sim Operation: Harsh Doorstop High On Life BPM: Bullets Per Minute Marauders Ruiner Chernobylite Enhanced Edition POSTAL 4: No Regerts Xuan-Yuan Sword VII Maneater Darksiders Genesis Empires of the Undergrowth Tiny Tina's Wonderland MechWarrior 5 SOULCALIBUR VI Orcs Must Die! 3 Kena: Bridge Of Spirits Marvel's Midnight Suns Call of Cthulhu Scorn The Forgotten City Psychonauts 2 Destroy All Humans! Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 Slender: The Arrival Torchlight: Infinite The Beast Inside Six Days in Fallujah The Vagrant Space Hulk: Deathwing - Enhanced Edition Aliens: Dark Descent Minecraft Dungeons Tower of Fantasy Ride 4 Octopath Traveler II Azur Lane: Crosswave Wandering Sword Fernbus Simulator Visage Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Predecessor Gears Tactics DRAGON QUEST® XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age
Dude. if you haven't already, you should try the JKXR VR port for the Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy games. In my opinion it's one of the best VR Star Wars experiences you can have right now, those games were already damn good back then but HOLY SHIT VR elevates them to new heights
@@gomersimpson777ram Are you talking about the HL2 mod? You can definitely play the mod standing, you don't need to be seated. I think it might even be difficult to play seated tbh.
First time I used the smg in vr, I was like "well, never using this again"..... then I realized I could use second hand to bring it up to iron sights, and lean around corners, it brought a smile to my face that I haven't had playing a fps since cod 1.
I am blessed with very good VR legs so a lot of the gripes you had, in particular to motion, didn't really effect me. I do also agree the vehicle segments are kinda wonky. Overall though it is a jaw dropping experience. It is such a treat to experience a game close to my heart in VR!
Honestly that last point was my biggest take away. I think for a lot of games like this immersion was always the goal and VR just takes a step further towards it. Getting to revisit our favorites like this really is special. I have a 20 minute clip of me just walking around the first c17 area outside the train station because I was beside myself.
I don't know if you'll appreciate me telling you this after having figured out this creative workaround, but the grenades actually have an alt-fire mode for precision throws that we added specifically because of these window throws :D It's accessible with the secondary fire button.
@@fholger Oh shit did you work on the mod? Yeah, I remember seeing the dotted line in a screenshot on the steam page but couldn't figure it out or forgot about it. My way is cooler anyways lol.
@@fholger Congratulations on the killer mod! This must have been an immense amount of work. Rumor has it you are working with the RTX team too👀🙏. I mentioned it in another comment thread, while the accessibility features just aren't for me, I think the stuff you all added should become standard practice for VR projects regardless if they are native to VR or not. A lot of the general discussion so far in the comments has been about the need for more large scale projects like this that are accessible for newer users to help grow the community.
@@bonezzVR Thanks. I agree that the alt-fire throw may not be the most amazing feel in VR, unfortunately this is a situation where we are limited by the flat game choices and typical volunteer modding constraints. VR throwing, as natural as it may appear, is very imprecise by nature and just cannot handle the kind of accuracy that these window throws require. In a native VR game you'd never design this mechanic in the first place, but since we are dealing with what's present from the flat game, our options were somewhat limited. If we had the necessary time and resources, we could perhaps have altered the level design in ways to make the throws more forgiving, or implement a cunning aim assist to make those throws succeed without you noticing the assist. But ultimately, the aimed throw was just simpler to do for us. Some team members have indeed moved on to the RTX project, but I'm not personally involved. I joined the Flat2VR Studios, instead, where we are actually trying to get flat games ported in an official capacity :)
I was lucky enough to have had this VR mod be my first playthrough of the game. I played a little bit a bit before the mod released, but it was only about to the vehicle segments. The moment I got to ravenholm and saw that trapped zombie go up in flames was the moment I knew that I had a real golden ticket, so to speak: One of, if not the most influential games ever made, ported over, very impressively, may I add, to one of my favorite mediums, and being able to experience it mostly blind, was an incredible journey for me.
@@bonezzVR I did the same thing. It was awesome. Not a lick of motion sickness either, because I had already gotten my VR legs from Vertigo 2 and Half Life: Alyx. I also played the episodes -- insanely awesome experience. Alyx looks way better, but 2 played way better
Half Life 2 being probably my favorite game of all time, I envy those like you who get to experience it for the first time with such a great mod. I truly believe this is a great way to play the game for the first time.
I played it in 2005 on the original Xbox at 20fps and absolutely loved it outside of the fps. Almost 20 years later I got to experience it at 6x the framerate and full world scale and motion controls. Incredible experience.
I'm still personally sorting out if it's because HL2 was just that good originally or if this kind of game just works well in VR. You can definitely tell in some of the combat sequences that it was never intended to be in VR. HLX maybe someday😪
@@bonezzVR it is idiotims that you spended so many time in video about problems, its do not feel so bad to spend on it half video but giving people bad perspective what are you doing
I completely disagree, showing that you haven't tried other proper vr games. Every fps works well in vr. I just want Rainbow Six Siege and Apex Legend in vr
yes, Alyx feels like some extended tutorial for the actual game - HL2VR. With all limitation Valve has put adding training wheels for the new users instead of just creating an ultimate VR game.
I think they were learning what works. Alyx was kind of the first really big game made specifically for VR and you can only do so much internal testing to see how players respond. Unfortunately a lot of more advanced game still make the average player motion-sick and while we might have our VR legs, its pretty clear that parts of HLVR will make most people dizzy.
HL2VR was one of the selling points for me even getting a headset in the first place, but just seeing your footage of the vehicle sections made me remember why I took a break and never went back to it. It's definitely worth another try though
Very well said. As someone that has 100% in the games, replayed them nearly 15 times, constantly refreshed Steam User Forums HL2:Episode 2 threads for HL3 news and leaks, and nearly 4,000 hours in Garry's Mod.. Words CANNOT describe the VR mod and how it transcended anything I have ever consumed in media. Literally brought tears to my eyes in moments. It was truly breath taking...
Maybe there was an update to the mod when I played it a few weeks ago but I was able to press a button to bring up a throwing arc which made throwing grenades a lot easier. Not the normal way you throw things in VR, but considering this game's physics engine wasn't made for VR, it seems like a good addition to the mod.
When it comes to movements, the smallest bending of the knees goes a long way. Next time you use stairs in VR, give a little high-step jog to trick your brain and you may be surprised. And when I say little, you don't even need to lift your feet off the ground
My wife laughs at me when I musicman jog in place when running away from stuff. I prefer locomotion, but still almost fall over when I start hovering like a floating god at full speed, then stop suddenly with no momentum.
I was sick of beat saber and other infinitely replayable or arcade style games for vr and looked for anything in my steam library with vr support or mods, when lo and behold I saw a little game I happened to get when I purchased the portal via the orange box, and oh my god it was probably the best video game experience I've ever had
🙏 One of the reasons I do it! At least for all my pcvr stuff I plan to capture like this if it is possible, I'm looking at covering quest stuff in the future and I need to figure out if it is possible with that still.
I love every Half-Life's VR Mods. 😁 I've finished HL Alyx with all achievements. HL 2 with all two episodes. And now I'm playing Black Mesa VR. Of course, all in VR. 🤩
Half Life 2 was my favourite game of all time up until two years ago. Half Life 2 VR is now my favourite game of all time and I can say hand on heart it will never ever be topped!
Episode 1 is fucking built for VR. Please anyone that reads this play the first 30 minutes. Having dog put you in the Van and throw you across that gap is so fun in vr lmao literally roller coaster
I grew up sailing, so the only time I really get sick from VR is if it lags and I get like sub 30 fps. Which my rig is pretty good, so it's almost never. I'm also just an insane VALVe fan since I could reach the keyboard. I also last played this mod during a time where it was still receiving bigger updates. I played when they finally added hand animations to every weapon, and workshop mods were getting stable. I have spent thousands of hours playing Source games and even making maps for them, and so for me, I was very used to the physics and just had to get used to them in a VR setting. It didn't take long. There was minimal jank, because I just simply know how to get around even non-VR Source jank. It's basically instinct for me. Even the vehicles were easy for me to get used to and navigate with like a charm. But that's purely from having no life, lol. However, I think a lot of your points are totally valid and I can one hundred percent see how this game would make even some experienced VR goers puke their stomachs out, or just get frustrated. I also agree with both points about Alyx. As a veteran VR player, I think it was a bit limiting. However, I also thought that wasn't ever a bad thing. It's easily the most accessible VR shooter out there, and is highly enjoyable to both novice and veteran players. The only thing I can really bring myself to disagree with is your point about accessibility issues. You really should have tweaked them. There are many related to the vehicles that while I haven't tried myself, figure would greatly help some people better enjoy and play those segments especially. VR isn't and might never be a 'one size fits all' kind of thing. So, you HAVE to give people options to sift through sometimes. Especially when it's a mod for a game that isn't even meant to be played in VR. Alyx demonstrates this a shitload, with the amount of accessibility options it has. I think while it's normal in lots of non-VR games to just go with the default and expect it to be of reasonable quality... it's a lot less realistic to expect that the default will be good for you in VR games. Even though it would be awesome if we could do that. Also, I'd like to point out that this mod is FAR from finished. They have plans to redo assets (they're actually helping make the HL2 RTX project right now), add details to the map (and use some mapping magic to fix certain things like the juttery stairs) and some other stuff too. They released this version of it simply because you CAN play through it the whole way. We haven't reached peak HL2 VR just yet, which is extremely exciting to see. Overall though, this is a fantastic video. Enjoyed it and the comment section a lot.
My hang-up with accessibility options was that while yes they are there and could have eased some of my frustrations, they are solutions to problems I don't usually have in VR and they are not how I WANT to play the game. I do agree that including them was a great move by the mod devs and I think other VR devs should take note. Someone commented that HL:Alyx is the best VR experience but HL2VR is the best VR game and that has really stuck with me because I think it hits on how I feel overall. This is a highly personal take, but I, like many others, play VR for that immersive experience. Not to say HL2VR doesn't have moments where it is really immersive, but for me, when you start to use some of those accessibility options, it really starts to take me out of that and feels more and more like a game than really existing in that virtual space. On the flip side, Alyx feels like they were unapologetically focused on maintaining immersion, to the point that they were willing to cut anything that took from that experience. As I mentioned in the video, I don't think these are necessarily problems with the mod; they did their best to bring a 20-year-old game built before VR was even feasible into reality and did it really well. This is honestly the best of the VR mods for older titles as far as I'm concerned but I can't help but wonder what the evolution of this and Alyx looks like. I'm glad you enjoyed the video thanks so much for watching and joining in the conversation! The best part of making these has been all the great chats coming out of them, and I'm even more happy that everyone is being mostly civil and having good-faith conversations about this stuff. I think it's really important for the medium to grow. Also as a side note seeing this with the full RTX remake would warrant another video from me. On my note about immersion, I think lighting is such an overlooked element in VR that can really have a transformative effect (and selfishly as a HL fan I just can't wait to see it).
if they're able to port over the enhanced assets from the RTX remix and add those other improvements you mentioned then this will end up simultaneously being one of the best looking, most fun, and most story rich VR games out there. i think peak HL2 VR might just be peak gaming in general.
I really loved playing HL2 VR Mod. Half Life 2 is my all time favorite video game. I have been blessed with excellent VR legs, I never get motion sick outside of select instances (Such as the entire world moving around me without my input) I find ease in moving with continuous movement compared to teleport. Love this vid. I like this mod a lot, even if there are minor/major gripes. Like the vehicles, I dislike those sections
Those MODs where alongside the best VR experiences I had. They gave me exactly what I missed in HL Alyx... intense combat sections. Textures from those games are showing it's age and VR makes that even more apparent. But it didn't bothered me at all. Even playing HL1 in VR without texture filtering (like when I first played with software rendering) is an amazing experience. Seeing those low res assets in front of you is beautifull. I'm immune to motion sickness so platforming and vehicles were just as awesome. Makes you wonder how good could it be if it were made by Valve themselves.
Nah doesn't that feel like it defeats the purpose of VR tho? I avoided the auto pickup and reload features, I wanted to know what raw VR version of this was like. I guess an argument could be made for the customization. You CAN make it whatever you need it to be for the best experience.
@@bonezzVR I don't know how you can complain about the weapon reloading and grenade throwing when there are literally options in the game to fix it and you chose not to use them
@@18thealien I mean, I did specifically say in my video that those options are available... My point is that, personally, it feels like using those options takes away from the experience that I and many others want out of VR to use them, especially when there are plenty of games where these things are not issues.
Im playing hl2 for the first time and in vr. There are some sections that frustrate me because i am overwhelmed with enemies and my weapons are unwieldy. I finally just gave in and used the lazer pointer.
I like your take and agree with most everything! As a small VR dev, I am so impressed with what they did with this mod. I absolutely love it, even the ones that made you and others uncomfortable. However…I am in VR every day for work and fun, so I have some pretty sturdy VR legs. Can’t wait to see where tech goes from here, and hopefully the games we make will inspire tech to implement new features, which will inspire us to make better games and so on!
I think there is a niche of advanced users desperate for more complex games, but the reality is, that's such a small subset of an already small community. I've got pretty solid VR legs myself. Sometimes, experiences I think are incredible and worth trying, end up making new players dizzy and turn them off of VR. I think talking about VR, at least for the time being requires us to acknowledge some of the drawbacks so that devs like yourself CAN look for solutions in gameplay or headset manufacturers can look for ways to better the play experience. We all want the community to grow but just one look at the comment section in any of my videos makes it clear just how split everyone is.
@@bonezzVR can’t really say much about what is coming, but know that comfort/ease and new VR players are very much in mind as well as options for advanced players. The platform will never grow if it’s only aimed at advanced VR players. As much as I love boneworks and other advanced games, I LOVE alyx and how simple it is. Still replay it like twice a year from beginning to end. Things need to advance while not alienating new-to-Vr players.
When I got a PSVR2, the first game I played with it was HL:Alyx. The second were the VR mods. I hated the boat and car parts, but I chose the 3rd person camera options for those sections. I like the variety in HL2 more, both regards to weapons and enemies. At first I was kinda shocked at how fast I was moving, but I got used to it eventually, and grew to enjoy the speed.
my two issues with it were the hands constantly grabbing things because of the index controller grips being the capacitive touch on the handles. and the vehicle sections. I think if someone remade the game in source 2, they could take a page from half life alyx and have the vehicle modes change to being using a vehicle that drive on train tracks. that way the motion can be a smooth and steady speed, and also free up your hands for using weapons. pretty much all the sections of the long travel vehicle modes could be recreated as being just off of the train tracks. which is something i thought they could have done better in half life alyx. you get on trains but it never feels like you're in control of the train in any way. a section where you take control of a train, and have to fight off a aircraft would have been a good mid game boss.
Half-Life VR Mod is a must-play, but not a game you should play first when getting into VR, but definitely something you must keep in your bucket list once you do own a vr headset and got a vr ready setup.
@@blueechodragon99 I can see that. HL2 as a game absolutely feels more like a grand journey but I do appreciate how grounded Alyx is. Really felt like you made the trek on foot yourself.
I started HL2 first time when it came out. Allthough a great game I never finished it then. I started again every few years but always hit a wall after some time. Ever since I bought Quest2 and after playing HL Alyx, I started HL2 again in VR and played it finally trough! Just because it is so awesome in VR! I played episode one after that and now I'm in the middle of episode 2.
I love HL2 in VR (and flatscreen). I think the modders did an outstanding job with the conversion of the game and in my opinion is on par with Alyx. I have a chair prepared for the vehicle sections and have absolutely no problem driving them :)
I got up to around sandtraps when I stopped playing the VR version. I do intend to go back but for many of the reasons you mentioned I found much of it more frustrating and less satisfying than flatscreen HL2. However theres likely some sort of skill bias hanging around there since Ive only played a few hours of HL2VR but hundreds and hundreds of flatscreen HL2. Biggest reason I enjoyed the VR version was seeing everything I love dearly in that great new grand perspective.
Big picture I think VR is in an interesting place like early pre WASD pc controls. Opinions vary wildly and there hasn't been an established "best" way yet. I also still think flatscreen is the best way to play HL2, that's how it was intended but, so impressive the work that was done here and how good it mostly translates. I really hope Valve takes another crack at it, they really only push out new Half-Life games when they have some way to legitimately change the way we interact with games, maybe the rumored HLX is that thing.
I'm so excited to play hl2 vr now because all the caveats you said are the things i specifically look for in a vr title pretty much and the watering down of the real control you can have over a game was really my one complaint with half life alyx which don't get me wrong, IS my favorite half life game but it was constantly obvious in half life alyx that the devs were restraining every bit of their games design and difficulty to cater to the new vr users it would bring in so as a veteran the hand holding really hurt the experience for me for what it could be. Half life alyx was never really remotely difficult for me, maybe in one section. THey were very careful to make the enemies not too aggressive, not hit too hard, not too smart because they know how much time it takes for a vr user to get to that point where the dexterity to do these reloads in a high stress situation makes a game not super scary or frustrating. I WANT a vr game to play like a flat game in that regard cuz for me doing a manual reload in vr is about the same as hitting a button on a flat game. I also don't get any motion sickness at all so this seems right up my alley.
I agree with most of what was said - this is a super fun experience in VR. I will say, the lack of dual wielding bothered me too. The only mod I use is called Half Life VR Unleashed which can be found online and installed easily. It adds left handed weapon functionality so you can dual wield anything. Dual pistols are a BLAST. But yeah there is no way around the fact that vehicle sections suck in VR and will give most players motion sickness at first. Other than that, I found this 20 year old game with a VR MOD plays far better than many modern native VR titles. It's an amazing experience. VR Protip: to get grenades in sniper windows, arm the grenade and quickly use the gravity gun to place your throw.
I feel like I should add this detail - I have strong "VR Legs" - I can play 99% of VR experiences with no motion sickness. That said, when I got to the airboat section I had motion sickness and a headache within the first minute of driving the thing. I did eventually get used to it and now the vehicle sections don't bother me but yikes those first few times were awful.
I played HL2 two times. And recently have played HL2 VR and maaaan! The same game but another level of immersion! Like I WAS IN THERE, and not just spectated it on a screen. Real adventure. Going under the railway bridge? OH MY GOOSH how cool that was! There are some issues here and there that you mentioned, but they couldn't ruin the game for me. Just one place where I was really angry is throwing grenades in windows while saving Barney, but grenade launcher really helped me with that situation) Edit: one big bug I recall when car was flipped from magnet. it has some real issues because game was just stuck in there.
Never played any flat screen versions and just played the Half Life 2 mods and they're amazing. Although Alyx has the great graphics, interactions and physics, HL2 and Episode 2 in particular are magnificent. The plot and locations are so much more varied than Alyx. I don't get motion sickness and the boat and car sections were fantastic as well.
I started with the Gmod version of half life 2 VR and hated it but when I found out one for the actual game existed it really smoothed out the problems I had with the Gmod half life 2 VR. It was a one click install and the mod was made with VR in mind. The menu made it easy to have total control of the game. My current settings make the vehicle section fun to play. I wish it had steering wheel support though. That would've be a cool experience. But the mod for me is perfect as is but can be even better. This might be a sin but I as a person who is only older than half life 2 by 2 years, this is the only way I can play half life 2. I've played half life one normally and have no plans of using VR mods because the game feels great the way it's intended, me personally that's how it feels. But half life 2 just feels like I should be in the game itself. With all the years of mouse and keyboard the game would feel stale to me and that's not a rag on the game, for me the game on hard felt too easy and I couldn't finish it. I love the story and enjoy seeing others play but I just couldn't care to play it. The VR mod is what really got me locked in. VR made me play the game properly. It helped me slow down and really admire the work. It made Ravenholm feel terrifying and made the citdel feel huge. It made the sewers Closter phobic and made the vehicle section feel familiar. I was truly there. Time moved so different' I started in the morning and stopped playing it in the night and time for me felt like only an hour passed by.
So well said! I think for me Episode 2 was really the part that clicked for me in VR and would be hard to go back to the normal flatscreen version, VR just works so well in that part. The main campaign I just have such fond memories of and the reason I still revisit it is because of that feel it has. I think flatscreen will always be my preferred way to play it. The work that went into this mod is so impressive. I think I was getting this version confused with the other version which I heard mixed things about and avoided because this is a mostly solid experience. I wish I had played it sooner.
I don't know if I prefer Alyx or HL2 VR. Alyx feels so much more tactile and responsive in the micro details, but HL2 VR is more game than Alyx, if that makes sense. Graphically, HL2 still looks better than most VR games ported to PCVR from other VR platforms, so I really can't complain about that.
One thing that HL2VR really makes clear is that gameplay meant for flatscreens just does NOT work in VR. As an example, in the early canals/sewer section, where you're on the run from the Combine with little ammo and not many weapons, you're normally meant to be constantly running and jumping and sometimes even swimming. In VR, constantly fast movement like that is quite tricky, especially when you have to run and jump in multiple directions. In addition, it can to nausea, even for people that are more resistant to it. Good VR combat (in my opinion) doesn't really so much on moving fast over long distances, and instead, areas can and should be smaller and more intimate-at least in terms of mobility. HL:A did a good job exemplifying this I think. Yes there are large open areas where you fight, but you don't have to run and jump through them while doing so. Because of this area I put the game down and haven't gone back to it yet. I might someday, the mod seemed really good, but I moreso just wanted to see how it played.
ive got strong vr legs and i have loved struggling through it all myself. really start to feel like gordon. half way through episode 2 as of commenting
Can I mix this VR mod with some graphic mods? There is a lot of all sorts of visual enhancements available, textures, effects, shaders, will it work properly and maybe there is already existing solutions for it to press just a few buttons and play HL2 in VR AND modified graphics? Good video btw, you deserve more attention.
Thanks so much! To be honest I'm not sure about graphics mods, I've seen people carry over the VR functionality to Black Mesa that uses a similar source build but I don't know if certain effects would play with the way it displays 3d. Another commenter mentioned that they hope this will eventually work with the RTX remake that is being worked on, that would be super cool if it does.
The 'Black Mesa' mod for HL2VR is using the old 2012 Sourcemod assets instead of the standalone game's, and it is largely just the maps, most of the BMS weapons and entities are absent. Most maps and mods will work, provided they are made for Source 2013 build or older, and don't make code modifications through their own .dll or are reliant on a mod-specific .dll(so anything made for Mapbase for example will not work as it probably relies on Mapbase exclusive functions/entities, also fancier maps for Gmod likely won't work as they rely on its Lua scripting, or Gmod-modified engine limits like shadowcasting light limits or map size). Any custom weapon models will not work either, they would need to be remade.
Thanks! For Half-Life fans I think this is a really special experience but its also just like a really solid and lengthy VR game, I'm definitely going to play again if VR gets support in the RTX remake.
Honestly I kind of really liked the gunplay in HL2VR in comparison to other games. To me, it felt really snappy and streamlined. Except for the revolver. Dumping out the empty casings feels backwards.
Back when it was new, I was one of those "Half-Life haters" who didn't really see the appeal of the game compared to more old-school shooters like Doom and Quake. (TBH to this day I still think Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament are where of flatscreen FPS peaked, but those are multiplayer games) I did play through the whole game back then, but it never clicked with me and I just wanted it to get it over with, it even gave me motion sickness! So back to a few years ago and being now a full VR enthusiast, I was ecstatic to find out Valve was going to release a new VR-only Half-Life game. And even though I didn't like the series, just the fact that they were making a full on AAA VR game was enough to convince me to play it some day. Which led me to eventually playing Half-Life 2 VR mod, and THEN the game finally clicked with me after so many years. Manipulating objects with my hands felt more natural than just clicking on a mouse, same with shooting, reloading now became a mechanic that you had to get good at (I loved using the shotgun), puzzles felt more intuitive, using the gravity gun was a delight, and I never got motion sick, take that, flat version!. So to me, VR made Half-Life 2 way better. It bums me out a bit that the next one is very likely going to be a flat game only. Here's hoping it releases with an optional VR mode at least.
In many ways, VR feels like a step closer to the experience games like Half-Life were always reaching for but couldn't quite deliver when played on a flat screen. (also a big Quake fan here, and a long-time CS addict, I actually bought my Index on profits from selling some old skins).
Highly recommend getting Half Life 2 VR Unleashed for a better experience. It adds two weapon wielding and fine tunes a lot of the settings for better gameplay. I also recommend getting the 4k textures and asset swaps from the workshop i
HL2 is the best VR game to date for me. The challenge of fumbling with the weapons when all the enemies are swarming you is epic. Alyx was smooth and fantastic, but far too easy.
Playing episode one in vr right now. What a profound mod and game. Just wish I could rebind more buttons. The AI texture upscaling mod is worth it imo.
There's a lot of vr games today that don't look much different from this 20 year old gem. I think it holds up bloody well actually. Ive had vr since 2016 and ive seen a lot of turkeys in that time. We have nice new pancake lenses to play these games with now. I had shitty old HTC Vive fresnels /yuk
Close? Pshaww. I thought it was great. Except for the airboat. But whacha gonna do. Lol. My trick for the Airboat and Buggy, were I had a yogaball next to me that I could sit down on and then re-orient. Which probably wouldn't work for everyone.
Did the mod change the graphics in anyway? I feels like the mod has better and more *cinematic* graphics for some weird reason, It just felt a lot more nicely crafted than the normal HL2 experience.
From what I can tell, I think the mod was built on the most recent version of HL2 so it's possible it was cleaned up since the launch version but seeing it in a headset really does just transform the experience.
Man I hope that RTX project turns out well, it would be wild to play in VR. Lighting is like the #1 thing that helps sell VR immersion for me and that last teaser they put out a couple month ago looks so dang good.
It goes both ways. VR to non VR and none VR to VR. HL2 is designed for KB/M and is really fast paced for that purpose. Unfortunately that's too fast for VR. The opposite is true for HL Alyx in none VR. Valve limited the amount of enemies and slowed their speed significantly for VR.
Ive install this mod, didnt really wanna play it for the same reason you mention, didnt wanted to mess memory I made with this game in my childhood. Finaly played it in one session. This was an amazing experience ♥ really glad I finaly did it. Most likely gonna play it once a year now. Really enjoyed Alyx, almost as much i enjoyed Half life 2 back then. Really one of the greatest VR experience on the market. I must play at least 20hours a week with a VR but in Sim Racing game, Rare are the game that make me enjoy gaming anymore. But Half Life 2 and Alyx are really top tier in term of world building in VR. Ravenhold was really something else with a VR, ofc its prob the omst famous area in the series for good reason, beeing chase by those headcrab and those silly zombie that run way to fast was terrifying, couple part in Alyx fealt really scary and I think thats a reason why we remember those game that much. First time seeing your channel Really great video and wish you the best. Stay safe out there and keep far from those head crab :) ♥
I've played through hl2 and the episodes in vr and the only problem I've ever had was throwing things like grenades. I wish I knew about the auto grenade toss option. Other than tha, I had no problem with movement or the two handed weapons. Maybe I would have had a problem with ladders but I chose the climb option that matches hl2.
I'm about halfway through Ravenholm. I've gotten nausea before in VR flight sims, or have always had to use snap turning in FPS games to avoid it as well. I don't know if it's because I upgraded to a Quest 3, or that my RTX 3080 is running HL2VR at quite a high framerate (thanks to its older graphics, and honestly they still hold up well IMO) but I haven't had any nausea with HL2VR with smooth turning or the airboat sequence. I actually found the airboat to be about as controllable in VR as it was back in 2004 on PC, which honestly was never That great lol. I found the mounted gun on the airboat to be SIGNIFICANTLY easier to use however, I don't think I've ever downed the hunter chopper that fast before. I still haven't finished Half-Life: Alyx (just about to enter the Antlion tunnels), but I think its design philosophy is definitely different than that of HL2's, as you touched on in your other video. I personally have been having a blast in HL2VR with its fast pace, although Alyx is still a fantastic game with great polish, albeit feeling a little "clunkier", in the sense that Counter-Strike is clunky compared to Quake arenas. Looking forward to more videos, good presentation and voice narration.
This is why I'd be so curious to see Valve take learnings from this and Alyx to push things forward on another attempt. I think they are so committed to the best possible experience in VR for the vast majority of players and they have such a wild pool of talent working there, that I think they might be able to work out solutions to some of the more advanced features of HL2VR that might turn off less experienced players (which lets be really honest, is probably the majority of the VR audience at this point with people headset purchases slowly trickling up).
@@bonezzVR just wanted to add on your bit about immersion (even though a lot of us VR enthusiasts say basically the same thing): I remember after I downed the hunter chopper and I was doing the mini-puzzle on top of the dam to get the airboat onto white forest, that I stopped and looked around. I had been to this place so many times before, it's the same game with the same graphics, but it was the first time I was really IN that location (even though physically I was not). It's VR's biggest superpower IMO
@@bonezzVR No, this was my first time HL2VR. Just played a bit, encountered a bunch of manhacks and went through the water puzzle. Can already say that it's a great mod. It's clear the encounters weren't made with VR in mind, but so far the game holds up really well. And the inspiration taken from Alyx is terrific.
@@chirpingcanoe3295 The fact that it holds up this well after 20 years is a testament to what they did. It's even crazier that it holds up this well in VR, but yeah, I wonder what Valve could do, building something this expansive tailored specifically to VR.
@@bonezzVR Yeah, it's quite an achievement. Seeing how well the original game integrates with their VR technology is really quite a feat. I hope there's more to come, be it from Valve, another game developer, or maybe from the modding community like you've shown in other videos.
@@chirpingcanoe3295 I can't remember who said it but it's true that modded experiences are like the best kept secret of VR gaming, at least if you are looking for game of this scale. Some promising looking games coming out soonish though.
I've played more half life 2 vr than alyx. To the point where I prefer it. The encounter design is just much better than alyx. I think the fact that the game is not restrained makes it much better for me. Everything is fast, there aren't just 2 or 3 enemies to fight and the game doesn't hold your hand. It takes skill to play the game well, with your body, your hands, your reflexes and muscle memory. It's a vr game that doesn't have guardrails for people and that's what I want out of vr. I don't want AAA games in vr made for people who are new to vr. Let me drive a boat, let me sprint and jump, let me hold two handed weapons. There is a learning curve to VR, I prefer HL2vr because it wasn't designed with any of those vr gimmicks or new players in mind. It's a full experience not hampered by design decisions that often limit what we can do in vr games.
i tried this game a couple of months ago but deleted it. the game made me sick, but mainly because of how hot the location i was playing was. im going to try to replay it, and hopefully give actual feedback
this is genuinely a work of art. its actually incredible how well the game translates into the vr. every moment was fun, even if frustrating. the immersion is crazy too. this game is so good and i will absolutely be playing the episodes. perfect way to replay for the 20th anniversary
Thanks so much! For me personally, I think the original version is worth experiencing as it was intended first but if you are pretty comfortable VR both ways are valid. You might actually enjoy it more these days in VR because it is an older game but still feels fresh for VR.
I have to very much disagree of vr being more complicated than mouse and keyboard when it comes to playthrough. From my experience in 20 plus years of m/k and 3 years of Quest 2. The only disadvantage of vr motion controllers are delays but other than that everything else is much better due to freedom of control as well as aiming does not stuck in the center of view. The shaky hand part isn't that really a big of a deal in a shooter.
Way back when the Oculus DK2 came out, you could just play HL2, Ep1, and Ep2 in VR with a controller. And Valve had it set up on the VR branch so that the arm and gun were a little bit disconnected from the head, it was like some of these modern games like Bodycam, where there's some leeway for the gun to move before it turns the player. I played through all of it twice, and it was to this day the best VR and best gaming experience I've ever had.
I still think motion controls for VR are a mistake, you're never gonna replicate real tactility so you're always going to get that immersion breaking reminder of the real world. I think we could have made VR work with conventional controls.
I'm so glad someone said this. So many comments passionately defend one side or the other of that argument and I'm fascinated by it. So abundantly clear how early VR is as a medium.
Is there a way to fix the motion sickness issue? Is there a particular setting or patch that could be beneficial? It's one of the only VR games that I've had to take my headset off within
Pretty great. The graphics are a little dated, but for a 20 year old port it's pretty reasonable. Would be nice to get Half-life 2 in the Alyx Engine. Why don't they make that and/or some official Alyx DLC? Please Valve! That would be awesome. At least the community has been putting out some top A+ quality mods and level packs for Alyx.
Its great but the scale is off to me. I feel too short whatever I do with the settings. natural height always makes other NPCs too short regardless of the scale setting.
That's a tough one. If it were me, I would play the first time the way it was intended without VR. This might be my bias but I don't think the "feel" of playing Half-Life gets translated perfectly into VR. It's still a really great time in VR, but there is just some magic to what Valve did with the game originally, and it still mechanically feels great to play, even if it isn't cutting edge by today's standards. Please come back and tell me what you think of it, I wish I could play it for the first time again.
@@bonezzVRmostly controls, I had no idea how to equip a gun at all or how to shoot it, also I lagged a little. Possibly because I was playing with my old oculus quest
Thanks for watching! It's so interesting to read all the comments and see how split everyone's opinions are. Glad everyone is having these conversations. I'm looking at doing some "quick look" style videos to get more videos out between these bigger pieces. Let me know if you would like to see any games in that format!
Can you make people aware that all these games got VR mod
portal 2
Half-Life
Half-Life 2 (and sequels)
Deep Rock Galactic
Minecraft
Jedi Academy
Risk of Rain 2
Gamecube emulator (Dolphin VR)
Metal: Hellsinger
Valheim
All modern Resident Evil games/remakes (except 4 which should be coming out soon)
Dark Souls Remastered
Cyberpunk 2077
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Ghost Runner
Elden Ring
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Horizon: Zero Dawn
No One Lives Forever 2
Stray
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered
Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales
Grounded
Red Dead Redemption 2 (Old version)
GTA V (Old version)
RDR2 (Old version)
Mafia Trilogy Remake (Old version)
Left 4 Dead 2
Life is Strange: Before The Storm - Dawn VR
Alien: Isolation - MotherVR
The Stanley Parable - StanleyVR
Valheim - VHVR
Risk of Rain 2 - Drbibop
The Outer Wilds - Nomai VR
Deep Rock Galactic - VRG
Firewatch - TwoForksVR
GTFO - VR plugin
Dead By Daylight (Private Server)
Hogwarts Legacy
Mirror 2: Project X
Satisfactory
It Takes Two
STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order
Stray
Squad
Astroneer
Borderlands 3
Mordhau
Ready Or Not
SCUM
Conan Exiles
The Isle
Tekken 7
eFootball 2023
Poppy Playtime
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
OUTRIDERS
Dragon Ball FighterZ
Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach
Grounded
Days Gone
Remnant From The Ashes
State of Decay 2
Ghostrunner
Code Vein
Little Nightmares
Back 4 Blood
Brick Rigs
Bright Memory: Infinite
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
What Remains of Edith Finch
Life is Strange 2
Foxhole
ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN
GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE-
The Callisto Protocol
Medieval Dynasty
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Remnant II
ENDER LILIES
Little Nightmares II
Tales of Arise
死寂（Deathly Stillness）
One-armed cook
Hydroneer
ABZÛ
FPS Chess
Aliens: Fireteam Elite
GEARS 5
PAYDAY 3
Tropico 6
The Ascent
Gas Station Simulator
Atomic Heart
Dark Deception
Ground Branch
Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet
Vampyr
Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles
Hi-Fi RUSH
Tribes of Midgard
Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade
Hatred
Witch It
Sword and Fairy 7
Omega Strikers
Biomutant
The Day Before
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated
Scarlet Nexus
Subverse
We Happy Few
Dark and Light
Choo-Choo Charles
Gotham Knights
Terminator Resistance
Octopath Traveler
Torchlight 3
Spyro Reignited Trilogy
Darksiders III
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Life is Strange: True Colors
Session: Skate Sim
Operation: Harsh Doorstop
High On Life
BPM: Bullets Per Minute
Marauders
Ruiner
Chernobylite Enhanced Edition
POSTAL 4: No Regerts
Xuan-Yuan Sword VII
Maneater
Darksiders Genesis
Empires of the Undergrowth
Tiny Tina's Wonderland
MechWarrior 5
SOULCALIBUR VI
Orcs Must Die! 3
Kena: Bridge Of Spirits
Marvel's Midnight Suns
Call of Cthulhu
Scorn
The Forgotten City
Psychonauts 2
Destroy All Humans!
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2
Slender: The Arrival
Torchlight: Infinite
The Beast Inside
Six Days in Fallujah
The Vagrant
Space Hulk: Deathwing - Enhanced Edition
Aliens: Dark Descent
Minecraft Dungeons
Tower of Fantasy
Ride 4
Octopath Traveler II
Azur Lane: Crosswave
Wandering Sword
Fernbus Simulator
Visage
Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey
Predecessor
Gears Tactics
DRAGON QUEST® XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age
+ hl2 and most games have to be played sitted....
Dude. if you haven't already, you should try the JKXR VR port for the Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy games. In my opinion it's one of the best VR Star Wars experiences you can have right now, those games were already damn good back then but HOLY SHIT VR elevates them to new heights
@@Nelekmaar Whoa those are titles I have not heard in a while! Definitely need to check out Jedi Academy, good recommendation!
@@gomersimpson777ram Are you talking about the HL2 mod? You can definitely play the mod standing, you don't need to be seated. I think it might even be difficult to play seated tbh.
First time I used the smg in vr, I was like "well, never using this again"..... then I realized I could use second hand to bring it up to iron sights, and lean around corners, it brought a smile to my face that I haven't had playing a fps since cod 1.
I am blessed with very good VR legs so a lot of the gripes you had, in particular to motion, didn't really effect me. I do also agree the vehicle segments are kinda wonky. Overall though it is a jaw dropping experience. It is such a treat to experience a game close to my heart in VR!
Honestly that last point was my biggest take away. I think for a lot of games like this immersion was always the goal and VR just takes a step further towards it. Getting to revisit our favorites like this really is special. I have a 20 minute clip of me just walking around the first c17 area outside the train station because I was beside myself.
You wont catch me navigating ravenholm in VR Nuh-uh☝️↔️
6:57 I gave up throwing the grenade, so I just armed a grenade, dropped it at my feet, switched to the gravity gun and shot it into the window lol.
Points for creativity.
I don't know if you'll appreciate me telling you this after having figured out this creative workaround, but the grenades actually have an alt-fire mode for precision throws that we added specifically because of these window throws :D It's accessible with the secondary fire button.
@@fholger Oh shit did you work on the mod? Yeah, I remember seeing the dotted line in a screenshot on the steam page but couldn't figure it out or forgot about it. My way is cooler anyways lol.
@@fholger Congratulations on the killer mod! This must have been an immense amount of work. Rumor has it you are working with the RTX team too👀🙏. I mentioned it in another comment thread, while the accessibility features just aren't for me, I think the stuff you all added should become standard practice for VR projects regardless if they are native to VR or not. A lot of the general discussion so far in the comments has been about the need for more large scale projects like this that are accessible for newer users to help grow the community.
@@bonezzVR Thanks. I agree that the alt-fire throw may not be the most amazing feel in VR, unfortunately this is a situation where we are limited by the flat game choices and typical volunteer modding constraints. VR throwing, as natural as it may appear, is very imprecise by nature and just cannot handle the kind of accuracy that these window throws require. In a native VR game you'd never design this mechanic in the first place, but since we are dealing with what's present from the flat game, our options were somewhat limited. If we had the necessary time and resources, we could perhaps have altered the level design in ways to make the throws more forgiving, or implement a cunning aim assist to make those throws succeed without you noticing the assist. But ultimately, the aimed throw was just simpler to do for us.
Some team members have indeed moved on to the RTX project, but I'm not personally involved. I joined the Flat2VR Studios, instead, where we are actually trying to get flat games ported in an official capacity :)
I was lucky enough to have had this VR mod be my first playthrough of the game. I played a little bit a bit before the mod released, but it was only about to the vehicle segments. The moment I got to ravenholm and saw that trapped zombie go up in flames was the moment I knew that I had a real golden ticket, so to speak: One of, if not the most influential games ever made, ported over, very impressively, may I add, to one of my favorite mediums, and being able to experience it mostly blind, was an incredible journey for me.
I really envy people just experiencing it all for the first time.
@@bonezzVR I did the same thing. It was awesome. Not a lick of motion sickness either, because I had already gotten my VR legs from Vertigo 2 and Half Life: Alyx. I also played the episodes -- insanely awesome experience. Alyx looks way better, but 2 played way better
Half Life 2 being probably my favorite game of all time, I envy those like you who get to experience it for the first time with such a great mod. I truly believe this is a great way to play the game for the first time.
its going to be my first time as well. just got a quest 3 and never played half life. getting it thru steam winter sale along side alyx
I played it in 2005 on the original Xbox at 20fps and absolutely loved it outside of the fps. Almost 20 years later I got to experience it at 6x the framerate and full world scale and motion controls. Incredible experience.
Lol, that was my first experience with the game too. loved it even though I didn't know it was on the worst port at the time.
I also just played through the whole series in VR, to get ready for Half Life 3. I really liked it. It's better than 99% of VR games.
I'm still personally sorting out if it's because HL2 was just that good originally or if this kind of game just works well in VR. You can definitely tell in some of the combat sequences that it was never intended to be in VR. HLX maybe someday😪
@@bonezzVR it is idiotims that you spended so many time in video about problems, its do not feel so bad to spend on it half video
but giving people bad perspective
what are you doing
I completely disagree, showing that you haven't tried other proper vr games.
Every fps works well in vr. I just want Rainbow Six Siege and Apex Legend in vr
@@toututu2993 I've tried lots of proper VR games. Most of them suck compared to this one.
@@toututu2993 Have you not played Breachers?
yes, Alyx feels like some extended tutorial for the actual game - HL2VR. With all limitation Valve has put adding training wheels for the new users instead of just creating an ultimate VR game.
I think they were learning what works. Alyx was kind of the first really big game made specifically for VR and you can only do so much internal testing to see how players respond. Unfortunately a lot of more advanced game still make the average player motion-sick and while we might have our VR legs, its pretty clear that parts of HLVR will make most people dizzy.
HL2VR was one of the selling points for me even getting a headset in the first place, but just seeing your footage of the vehicle sections made me remember why I took a break and never went back to it. It's definitely worth another try though
Split in the comments is why I make videos like this. So interesting to see everyone's opinions because they are all so vastly different.
Very well said. As someone that has 100% in the games, replayed them nearly 15 times, constantly refreshed Steam User Forums HL2:Episode 2 threads for HL3 news and leaks, and nearly 4,000 hours in Garry's Mod.. Words CANNOT describe the VR mod and how it transcended anything I have ever consumed in media. Literally brought tears to my eyes in moments. It was truly breath taking...
HL2 Vr is the best vr shooter I've ever played! Everything just feels right
I tried it and is pretty buggy so nah is not close to being the best vr games
@declanrex9435 Agree, it's much more fun to play than even HL:Alyx
Maybe there was an update to the mod when I played it a few weeks ago but I was able to press a button to bring up a throwing arc which made throwing grenades a lot easier. Not the normal way you throw things in VR, but considering this game's physics engine wasn't made for VR, it seems like a good addition to the mod.
man im so glad i found your channel. this is some quality content.
I really appreciate that! Keeps me pushing through all the late nights.
When it comes to movements, the smallest bending of the knees goes a long way. Next time you use stairs in VR, give a little high-step jog to trick your brain and you may be surprised.
And when I say little, you don't even need to lift your feet off the ground
I love doing little hops as my character lands high jumps, or the knee trick for ladders!
My wife laughs at me when I musicman jog in place when running away from stuff. I prefer locomotion, but still almost fall over when I start hovering like a floating god at full speed, then stop suddenly with no momentum.
I was sick of beat saber and other infinitely replayable or arcade style games for vr and looked for anything in my steam library with vr support or mods, when lo and behold I saw a little game I happened to get when I purchased the portal via the orange box, and oh my god it was probably the best video game experience I've ever had
I love the display setting you chose for this, it takes up the entire phone! So much better than default.
🙏 One of the reasons I do it! At least for all my pcvr stuff I plan to capture like this if it is possible, I'm looking at covering quest stuff in the future and I need to figure out if it is possible with that still.
I love every Half-Life's VR Mods. 😁 I've finished HL Alyx with all achievements. HL 2 with all two episodes. And now I'm playing Black Mesa VR. Of course, all in VR. 🤩
Half Life 2 was my favourite game of all time up until two years ago. Half Life 2 VR is now my favourite game of all time and I can say hand on heart it will never ever be topped!
Yes , I agree with your opening statement. This was my ONE GAME, apart from Elite a long long time ago on an 8 bit far away.... great content Bonezz.
Episode 1 is fucking built for VR. Please anyone that reads this play the first 30 minutes. Having dog put you in the Van and throw you across that gap is so fun in vr lmao literally roller coaster
I grew up sailing, so the only time I really get sick from VR is if it lags and I get like sub 30 fps. Which my rig is pretty good, so it's almost never. I'm also just an insane VALVe fan since I could reach the keyboard. I also last played this mod during a time where it was still receiving bigger updates. I played when they finally added hand animations to every weapon, and workshop mods were getting stable.
I have spent thousands of hours playing Source games and even making maps for them, and so for me, I was very used to the physics and just had to get used to them in a VR setting. It didn't take long. There was minimal jank, because I just simply know how to get around even non-VR Source jank. It's basically instinct for me. Even the vehicles were easy for me to get used to and navigate with like a charm. But that's purely from having no life, lol.
However, I think a lot of your points are totally valid and I can one hundred percent see how this game would make even some experienced VR goers puke their stomachs out, or just get frustrated. I also agree with both points about Alyx. As a veteran VR player, I think it was a bit limiting. However, I also thought that wasn't ever a bad thing. It's easily the most accessible VR shooter out there, and is highly enjoyable to both novice and veteran players.
The only thing I can really bring myself to disagree with is your point about accessibility issues. You really should have tweaked them. There are many related to the vehicles that while I haven't tried myself, figure would greatly help some people better enjoy and play those segments especially.
VR isn't and might never be a 'one size fits all' kind of thing. So, you HAVE to give people options to sift through sometimes. Especially when it's a mod for a game that isn't even meant to be played in VR. Alyx demonstrates this a shitload, with the amount of accessibility options it has. I think while it's normal in lots of non-VR games to just go with the default and expect it to be of reasonable quality... it's a lot less realistic to expect that the default will be good for you in VR games. Even though it would be awesome if we could do that.
Also, I'd like to point out that this mod is FAR from finished. They have plans to redo assets (they're actually helping make the HL2 RTX project right now), add details to the map (and use some mapping magic to fix certain things like the juttery stairs) and some other stuff too. They released this version of it simply because you CAN play through it the whole way. We haven't reached peak HL2 VR just yet, which is extremely exciting to see.
Overall though, this is a fantastic video. Enjoyed it and the comment section a lot.
My hang-up with accessibility options was that while yes they are there and could have eased some of my frustrations, they are solutions to problems I don't usually have in VR and they are not how I WANT to play the game. I do agree that including them was a great move by the mod devs and I think other VR devs should take note.
Someone commented that HL:Alyx is the best VR experience but HL2VR is the best VR game and that has really stuck with me because I think it hits on how I feel overall. This is a highly personal take, but I, like many others, play VR for that immersive experience. Not to say HL2VR doesn't have moments where it is really immersive, but for me, when you start to use some of those accessibility options, it really starts to take me out of that and feels more and more like a game than really existing in that virtual space. On the flip side, Alyx feels like they were unapologetically focused on maintaining immersion, to the point that they were willing to cut anything that took from that experience.
As I mentioned in the video, I don't think these are necessarily problems with the mod; they did their best to bring a 20-year-old game built before VR was even feasible into reality and did it really well. This is honestly the best of the VR mods for older titles as far as I'm concerned but I can't help but wonder what the evolution of this and Alyx looks like.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video thanks so much for watching and joining in the conversation! The best part of making these has been all the great chats coming out of them, and I'm even more happy that everyone is being mostly civil and having good-faith conversations about this stuff. I think it's really important for the medium to grow.
Also as a side note seeing this with the full RTX remake would warrant another video from me. On my note about immersion, I think lighting is such an overlooked element in VR that can really have a transformative effect (and selfishly as a HL fan I just can't wait to see it).
if they're able to port over the enhanced assets from the RTX remix and add those other improvements you mentioned then this will end up simultaneously being one of the best looking, most fun, and most story rich VR games out there. i think peak HL2 VR might just be peak gaming in general.
I really loved playing HL2 VR Mod. Half Life 2 is my all time favorite video game.
I have been blessed with excellent VR legs, I never get motion sick outside of select instances (Such as the entire world moving around me without my input)
I find ease in moving with continuous movement compared to teleport.
Love this vid. I like this mod a lot, even if there are minor/major gripes. Like the vehicles, I dislike those sections
7:05 you can use alt fire to have the game throw the gernade for you, it will show a line of where it will go.
Maybe I'm being too much of a purist but doesn't that feel like it takes away from the biggest draw of VR?
@@bonezzVR well, it’s still there if you need it.
crazy how little subs you have. this is quality content, i love it
Really appreciate it!
Those MODs where alongside the best VR experiences I had. They gave me exactly what I missed in HL Alyx... intense combat sections. Textures from those games are showing it's age and VR makes that even more apparent. But it didn't bothered me at all. Even playing HL1 in VR without texture filtering (like when I first played with software rendering) is an amazing experience. Seeing those low res assets in front of you is beautifull. I'm immune to motion sickness so platforming and vehicles were just as awesome. Makes you wonder how good could it be if it were made by Valve themselves.
You can throw grenades precisely where you want by pushing the alt fire button. It will show you the trajectory too.
Nah doesn't that feel like it defeats the purpose of VR tho? I avoided the auto pickup and reload features, I wanted to know what raw VR version of this was like. I guess an argument could be made for the customization. You CAN make it whatever you need it to be for the best experience.
@@bonezzVR I don't have a big play area, so I don't do anything that requires swinging your arms around. I'd break everything in my room.
@@djp1234 Fair haha. I have nice dent in my microphone stand from making my Underdogs video. I went full send.
@@bonezzVR I don't know how you can complain about the weapon reloading and grenade throwing when there are literally options in the game to fix it and you chose not to use them
@@18thealien I mean, I did specifically say in my video that those options are available...
My point is that, personally, it feels like using those options takes away from the experience that I and many others want out of VR to use them, especially when there are plenty of games where these things are not issues.
Im playing hl2 for the first time and in vr. There are some sections that frustrate me because i am overwhelmed with enemies and my weapons are unwieldy. I finally just gave in and used the lazer pointer.
Thank you for the beautiful video. Love your voice, the soundtrack and pacing. Looking forward to playing HL2VR myself as well
Glad you enjoyed it! Come back and let me know what you think.
I like your take and agree with most everything! As a small VR dev, I am so impressed with what they did with this mod. I absolutely love it, even the ones that made you and others uncomfortable. However…I am in VR every day for work and fun, so I have some pretty sturdy VR legs. Can’t wait to see where tech goes from here, and hopefully the games we make will inspire tech to implement new features, which will inspire us to make better games and so on!
I think there is a niche of advanced users desperate for more complex games, but the reality is, that's such a small subset of an already small community. I've got pretty solid VR legs myself. Sometimes, experiences I think are incredible and worth trying, end up making new players dizzy and turn them off of VR. I think talking about VR, at least for the time being requires us to acknowledge some of the drawbacks so that devs like yourself CAN look for solutions in gameplay or headset manufacturers can look for ways to better the play experience. We all want the community to grow but just one look at the comment section in any of my videos makes it clear just how split everyone is.
@@bonezzVR can’t really say much about what is coming, but know that comfort/ease and new VR players are very much in mind as well as options for advanced players. The platform will never grow if it’s only aimed at advanced VR players. As much as I love boneworks and other advanced games, I LOVE alyx and how simple it is. Still replay it like twice a year from beginning to end. Things need to advance while not alienating new-to-Vr players.
This, 1000% this.
When I got a PSVR2, the first game I played with it was HL:Alyx. The second were the VR mods. I hated the boat and car parts, but I chose the 3rd person camera options for those sections. I like the variety in HL2 more, both regards to weapons and enemies. At first I was kinda shocked at how fast I was moving, but I got used to it eventually, and grew to enjoy the speed.
my two issues with it were the hands constantly grabbing things because of the index controller grips being the capacitive touch on the handles. and the vehicle sections.
I think if someone remade the game in source 2, they could take a page from half life alyx and have the vehicle modes change to being using a vehicle that drive on train tracks. that way the motion can be a smooth and steady speed, and also free up your hands for using weapons. pretty much all the sections of the long travel vehicle modes could be recreated as being just off of the train tracks. which is something i thought they could have done better in half life alyx. you get on trains but it never feels like you're in control of the train in any way. a section where you take control of a train, and have to fight off a aircraft would have been a good mid game boss.
Half-Life VR Mod is a must-play, but not a game you should play first when getting into VR, but definitely something you must keep in your bucket list once you do own a vr headset and got a vr ready setup.
Have you played the unleashed mod? Dual wielding gravity guns in vr is truly an experience
That seems like it could be a game of it's own.😆
The vehicle sections didn't make me very queasy lol. I loved Half Life 2 VR.
Did you like it more than Alyx?
@@bonezzVR Easily, alyx feels like an 8 hour long tutorial for the actual real game that hl2vr is
@@bonezzVR I feel like, with the episodes, it was a much more complete and story-driven experience than Alyx. Alyx is still really good though.
@@blueechodragon99 I can see that. HL2 as a game absolutely feels more like a grand journey but I do appreciate how grounded Alyx is. Really felt like you made the trek on foot yourself.
agreed also the controls were great imo and vehicle section was rlly fun
Replaying this in VR was such a treat for me. It's led back to my second playthrough of Alyx which I've yet to start.
Never played hl2 but I tried this mod a few months ago and was impressed, definitely have to play it someday
I started HL2 first time when it came out. Allthough a great game I never finished it then. I started again every few years but always hit a wall after some time.
Ever since I bought Quest2 and after playing HL Alyx, I started HL2 again in VR and played it finally trough! Just because it is so awesome in VR! I played episode one after that and now I'm in the middle of episode 2.
I love HL2 in VR (and flatscreen). I think the modders did an outstanding job with the conversion of the game and in my opinion is on par with Alyx. I have a chair prepared for the vehicle sections and have absolutely no problem driving them :)
I got up to around sandtraps when I stopped playing the VR version. I do intend to go back but for many of the reasons you mentioned I found much of it more frustrating and less satisfying than flatscreen HL2. However theres likely some sort of skill bias hanging around there since Ive only played a few hours of HL2VR but hundreds and hundreds of flatscreen HL2. Biggest reason I enjoyed the VR version was seeing everything I love dearly in that great new grand perspective.
Big picture I think VR is in an interesting place like early pre WASD pc controls. Opinions vary wildly and there hasn't been an established "best" way yet. I also still think flatscreen is the best way to play HL2, that's how it was intended but, so impressive the work that was done here and how good it mostly translates. I really hope Valve takes another crack at it, they really only push out new Half-Life games when they have some way to legitimately change the way we interact with games, maybe the rumored HLX is that thing.
I'm so excited to play hl2 vr now because all the caveats you said are the things i specifically look for in a vr title pretty much and the watering down of the real control you can have over a game was really my one complaint with half life alyx which don't get me wrong, IS my favorite half life game but it was constantly obvious in half life alyx that the devs were restraining every bit of their games design and difficulty to cater to the new vr users it would bring in so as a veteran the hand holding really hurt the experience for me for what it could be. Half life alyx was never really remotely difficult for me, maybe in one section. THey were very careful to make the enemies not too aggressive, not hit too hard, not too smart because they know how much time it takes for a vr user to get to that point where the dexterity to do these reloads in a high stress situation makes a game not super scary or frustrating. I WANT a vr game to play like a flat game in that regard cuz for me doing a manual reload in vr is about the same as hitting a button on a flat game.
I also don't get any motion sickness at all so this seems right up my alley.
honestly half lifes visuals look good to the point where it isnt bad. They are just perfect not too hyper realistic and not too low poly bad.
I think the textures are where the age really shows, especially looking at it up close in VR
I agree with most of what was said - this is a super fun experience in VR. I will say, the lack of dual wielding bothered me too. The only mod I use is called Half Life VR Unleashed which can be found online and installed easily. It adds left handed weapon functionality so you can dual wield anything. Dual pistols are a BLAST. But yeah there is no way around the fact that vehicle sections suck in VR and will give most players motion sickness at first. Other than that, I found this 20 year old game with a VR MOD plays far better than many modern native VR titles. It's an amazing experience.
VR Protip: to get grenades in sniper windows, arm the grenade and quickly use the gravity gun to place your throw.
I feel like I should add this detail - I have strong "VR Legs" - I can play 99% of VR experiences with no motion sickness. That said, when I got to the airboat section I had motion sickness and a headache within the first minute of driving the thing. I did eventually get used to it and now the vehicle sections don't bother me but yikes those first few times were awful.
haha "this game is so cool!" and freaking hand that dissapears when you grab a prop🤣
I played HL2 two times. And recently have played HL2 VR and maaaan! The same game but another level of immersion! Like I WAS IN THERE, and not just spectated it on a screen. Real adventure. Going under the railway bridge? OH MY GOOSH how cool that was!
There are some issues here and there that you mentioned, but they couldn't ruin the game for me. Just one place where I was really angry is throwing grenades in windows while saving Barney, but grenade launcher really helped me with that situation)
Edit: one big bug I recall when car was flipped from magnet. it has some real issues because game was just stuck in there.
I feel like I had that car flip even in the flatscreen play, it's been a bit since I last did a full run. Oh Source physics, such a specific feeling.
@@bonezzVR 🤣🤣
Never played any flat screen versions and just played the Half Life 2 mods and they're amazing. Although Alyx has the great graphics, interactions and physics, HL2 and Episode 2 in particular are magnificent. The plot and locations are so much more varied than Alyx. I don't get motion sickness and the boat and car sections were fantastic as well.
I started with the Gmod version of half life 2 VR and hated it but when I found out one for the actual game existed it really smoothed out the problems I had with the Gmod half life 2 VR. It was a one click install and the mod was made with VR in mind. The menu made it easy to have total control of the game. My current settings make the vehicle section fun to play. I wish it had steering wheel support though. That would've be a cool experience. But the mod for me is perfect as is but can be even better. This might be a sin but I as a person who is only older than half life 2 by 2 years, this is the only way I can play half life 2. I've played half life one normally and have no plans of using VR mods because the game feels great the way it's intended, me personally that's how it feels. But half life 2 just feels like I should be in the game itself. With all the years of mouse and keyboard the game would feel stale to me and that's not a rag on the game, for me the game on hard felt too easy and I couldn't finish it. I love the story and enjoy seeing others play but I just couldn't care to play it. The VR mod is what really got me locked in. VR made me play the game properly. It helped me slow down and really admire the work. It made Ravenholm feel terrifying and made the citdel feel huge. It made the sewers Closter phobic and made the vehicle section feel familiar. I was truly there. Time moved so different' I started in the morning and stopped playing it in the night and time for me felt like only an hour passed by.
So well said! I think for me Episode 2 was really the part that clicked for me in VR and would be hard to go back to the normal flatscreen version, VR just works so well in that part. The main campaign I just have such fond memories of and the reason I still revisit it is because of that feel it has. I think flatscreen will always be my preferred way to play it. The work that went into this mod is so impressive. I think I was getting this version confused with the other version which I heard mixed things about and avoided because this is a mostly solid experience. I wish I had played it sooner.
I've been playing hl1 in VR. That was a terrifying experience. The headcrabs scared the shit out of me.
Is the HL1 mod just as good? I want to check it out.
@@bonezzVR it's very good.
I don't know if I prefer Alyx or HL2 VR. Alyx feels so much more tactile and responsive in the micro details, but HL2 VR is more game than Alyx, if that makes sense.
Graphically, HL2 still looks better than most VR games ported to PCVR from other VR platforms, so I really can't complain about that.
Oh got through the Strider fight with Magnussons... good work. I finished HL2 / Ep. One & Two completely in VR some days ago.
It was uh, much, much harder in VR lol😆
6:10 I kind of do a little bounce and keep my legs tensed untill I land when I jump in vr and that works well enough for me
One thing that HL2VR really makes clear is that gameplay meant for flatscreens just does NOT work in VR. As an example, in the early canals/sewer section, where you're on the run from the Combine with little ammo and not many weapons, you're normally meant to be constantly running and jumping and sometimes even swimming. In VR, constantly fast movement like that is quite tricky, especially when you have to run and jump in multiple directions. In addition, it can to nausea, even for people that are more resistant to it.
Good VR combat (in my opinion) doesn't really so much on moving fast over long distances, and instead, areas can and should be smaller and more intimate-at least in terms of mobility. HL:A did a good job exemplifying this I think. Yes there are large open areas where you fight, but you don't have to run and jump through them while doing so.
Because of this area I put the game down and haven't gone back to it yet. I might someday, the mod seemed really good, but I moreso just wanted to see how it played.
I think the third person mode for the fanboat section works pretty well.
ive got strong vr legs and i have loved struggling through it all myself. really start to feel like gordon. half way through episode 2 as of commenting
Can I mix this VR mod with some graphic mods? There is a lot of all sorts of visual enhancements available, textures, effects, shaders, will it work properly and maybe there is already existing solutions for it to press just a few buttons and play HL2 in VR AND modified graphics? Good video btw, you deserve more attention.
Thanks so much! To be honest I'm not sure about graphics mods, I've seen people carry over the VR functionality to Black Mesa that uses a similar source build but I don't know if certain effects would play with the way it displays 3d. Another commenter mentioned that they hope this will eventually work with the RTX remake that is being worked on, that would be super cool if it does.
The 'Black Mesa' mod for HL2VR is using the old 2012 Sourcemod assets instead of the standalone game's, and it is largely just the maps, most of the BMS weapons and entities are absent.
Most maps and mods will work, provided they are made for Source 2013 build or older, and don't make code modifications through their own .dll or are reliant on a mod-specific .dll(so anything made for Mapbase for example will not work as it probably relies on Mapbase exclusive functions/entities, also fancier maps for Gmod likely won't work as they rely on its Lua scripting, or Gmod-modified engine limits like shadowcasting light limits or map size). Any custom weapon models will not work either, they would need to be remade.
This video makes me regret selling my VR headset. Great vid
Thanks! For Half-Life fans I think this is a really special experience but its also just like a really solid and lengthy VR game, I'm definitely going to play again if VR gets support in the RTX remake.
The first vehicle section in HL2VR is my favorite VR moment of all time
half life 2 vr unleashed
It's just the same game but in VR, it's great
Honestly I kind of really liked the gunplay in HL2VR in comparison to other games. To me, it felt really snappy and streamlined. Except for the revolver. Dumping out the empty casings feels backwards.
its incredible and you are physical object, not a ghost
Oh but the revolver feels so good lol it was my favorite weapon.
Back when it was new, I was one of those "Half-Life haters" who didn't really see the appeal of the game compared to more old-school shooters like Doom and Quake. (TBH to this day I still think Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament are where of flatscreen FPS peaked, but those are multiplayer games) I did play through the whole game back then, but it never clicked with me and I just wanted it to get it over with, it even gave me motion sickness!
So back to a few years ago and being now a full VR enthusiast, I was ecstatic to find out Valve was going to release a new VR-only Half-Life game. And even though I didn't like the series, just the fact that they were making a full on AAA VR game was enough to convince me to play it some day. Which led me to eventually playing Half-Life 2 VR mod, and THEN the game finally clicked with me after so many years.
Manipulating objects with my hands felt more natural than just clicking on a mouse, same with shooting, reloading now became a mechanic that you had to get good at (I loved using the shotgun), puzzles felt more intuitive, using the gravity gun was a delight, and I never got motion sick, take that, flat version!.
So to me, VR made Half-Life 2 way better. It bums me out a bit that the next one is very likely going to be a flat game only. Here's hoping it releases with an optional VR mode at least.
In many ways, VR feels like a step closer to the experience games like Half-Life were always reaching for but couldn't quite deliver when played on a flat screen. (also a big Quake fan here, and a long-time CS addict, I actually bought my Index on profits from selling some old skins).
Highly recommend getting Half Life 2 VR Unleashed for a better experience. It adds two weapon wielding and fine tunes a lot of the settings for better gameplay. I also recommend getting the 4k textures and asset swaps from the workshop i
HL2 Vechicles physic is disaster even without VR so its not that big deal I think. Nice video.
HL2 is the best VR game to date for me. The challenge of fumbling with the weapons when all the enemies are swarming you is epic. Alyx was smooth and fantastic, but far too easy.
Playing episode one in vr right now. What a profound mod and game. Just wish I could rebind more buttons.
The AI texture upscaling mod is worth it imo.
I really hope the new RTX mod is compatible with the VR mod.
There's a lot of vr games today that don't look much different from this 20 year old gem. I think it holds up bloody well actually. Ive had vr since 2016 and ive seen a lot of turkeys in that time. We have nice new pancake lenses to play these games with now. I had shitty old HTC Vive fresnels /yuk
The fresnel lenses on the Index are starting to show their age, not sure how much longer Ill hold out for a Valve refresh.
half life 2 vr rtx would be that greatness??
Not sure if RTX will fix my core problems with it but I really cannot wait to hopefully play that some day.
@@bonezzVR me too
still in my top 5 games ever...gravity gun is too fun. why no one make games like this nowdays??
what i wouldnt give for half life 2 vr with the boneworks/bonelab engine
Close?
Pshaww. I thought it was great.
Except for the airboat. But whacha gonna do. Lol.
My trick for the Airboat and Buggy, were I had a yogaball next to me that I could sit down on and then re-orient. Which probably wouldn't work for everyone.
Did the mod change the graphics in anyway? I feels like the mod has better and more *cinematic* graphics for some weird reason, It just felt a lot more nicely crafted than the normal HL2 experience.
From what I can tell, I think the mod was built on the most recent version of HL2 so it's possible it was cleaned up since the launch version but seeing it in a headset really does just transform the experience.
Playing through it too, super close to Nova Prospekt :)
imagine this with the RTX mod that is coming soon, that would make my computer a bomb
Man I hope that RTX project turns out well, it would be wild to play in VR. Lighting is like the #1 thing that helps sell VR immersion for me and that last teaser they put out a couple month ago looks so dang good.
It goes both ways. VR to non VR and none VR to VR. HL2 is designed for KB/M and is really fast paced for that purpose. Unfortunately that's too fast for VR. The opposite is true for HL Alyx in none VR. Valve limited the amount of enemies and slowed their speed significantly for VR.
I would love to experience Black Mesa by Crowbar Collective in VR. That could be great!
Half-Life is the Halo of PC Gamers
Ive install this mod, didnt really wanna play it for the same reason you mention, didnt wanted to mess memory I made with this game in my childhood. Finaly played it in one session. This was an amazing experience ♥ really glad I finaly did it. Most likely gonna play it once a year now.
Really enjoyed Alyx, almost as much i enjoyed Half life 2 back then. Really one of the greatest VR experience on the market. I must play at least 20hours a week with a VR but in Sim Racing game, Rare are the game that make me enjoy gaming anymore. But Half Life 2 and Alyx are really top tier in term of world building in VR. Ravenhold was really something else with a VR, ofc its prob the omst famous area in the series for good reason, beeing chase by those headcrab and those silly zombie that run way to fast was terrifying, couple part in Alyx fealt really scary and I think thats a reason why we remember those game that much.
First time seeing your channel Really great video and wish you the best. Stay safe out there and keep far from those head crab :) ♥
l4d2 and portal 2 got vr mods and more.........................
I've played through hl2 and the episodes in vr and the only problem I've ever had was throwing things like grenades. I wish I knew about the auto grenade toss option.
Other than tha, I had no problem with movement or the two handed weapons. Maybe I would have had a problem with ladders but I chose the climb option that matches hl2.
I'm about halfway through Ravenholm. I've gotten nausea before in VR flight sims, or have always had to use snap turning in FPS games to avoid it as well. I don't know if it's because I upgraded to a Quest 3, or that my RTX 3080 is running HL2VR at quite a high framerate (thanks to its older graphics, and honestly they still hold up well IMO) but I haven't had any nausea with HL2VR with smooth turning or the airboat sequence. I actually found the airboat to be about as controllable in VR as it was back in 2004 on PC, which honestly was never That great lol. I found the mounted gun on the airboat to be SIGNIFICANTLY easier to use however, I don't think I've ever downed the hunter chopper that fast before.
I still haven't finished Half-Life: Alyx (just about to enter the Antlion tunnels), but I think its design philosophy is definitely different than that of HL2's, as you touched on in your other video. I personally have been having a blast in HL2VR with its fast pace, although Alyx is still a fantastic game with great polish, albeit feeling a little "clunkier", in the sense that Counter-Strike is clunky compared to Quake arenas.
Looking forward to more videos, good presentation and voice narration.
This is why I'd be so curious to see Valve take learnings from this and Alyx to push things forward on another attempt. I think they are so committed to the best possible experience in VR for the vast majority of players and they have such a wild pool of talent working there, that I think they might be able to work out solutions to some of the more advanced features of HL2VR that might turn off less experienced players (which lets be really honest, is probably the majority of the VR audience at this point with people headset purchases slowly trickling up).
@@bonezzVR just wanted to add on your bit about immersion (even though a lot of us VR enthusiasts say basically the same thing): I remember after I downed the hunter chopper and I was doing the mini-puzzle on top of the dam to get the airboat onto white forest, that I stopped and looked around. I had been to this place so many times before, it's the same game with the same graphics, but it was the first time I was really IN that location (even though physically I was not). It's VR's biggest superpower IMO
Not a comment on how HL2VR has been for me. But a thank you for inspiring me to play it, like, right now.
Have you tried it before?
@@bonezzVR No, this was my first time HL2VR. Just played a bit, encountered a bunch of manhacks and went through the water puzzle.
Can already say that it's a great mod. It's clear the encounters weren't made with VR in mind, but so far the game holds up really well. And the inspiration taken from Alyx is terrific.
@@chirpingcanoe3295 The fact that it holds up this well after 20 years is a testament to what they did. It's even crazier that it holds up this well in VR, but yeah, I wonder what Valve could do, building something this expansive tailored specifically to VR.
@@bonezzVR Yeah, it's quite an achievement. Seeing how well the original game integrates with their VR technology is really quite a feat. I hope there's more to come, be it from Valve, another game developer, or maybe from the modding community like you've shown in other videos.
@@chirpingcanoe3295 I can't remember who said it but it's true that modded experiences are like the best kept secret of VR gaming, at least if you are looking for game of this scale. Some promising looking games coming out soonish though.
I've played more half life 2 vr than alyx. To the point where I prefer it. The encounter design is just much better than alyx. I think the fact that the game is not restrained makes it much better for me. Everything is fast, there aren't just 2 or 3 enemies to fight and the game doesn't hold your hand. It takes skill to play the game well, with your body, your hands, your reflexes and muscle memory. It's a vr game that doesn't have guardrails for people and that's what I want out of vr. I don't want AAA games in vr made for people who are new to vr. Let me drive a boat, let me sprint and jump, let me hold two handed weapons. There is a learning curve to VR, I prefer HL2vr because it wasn't designed with any of those vr gimmicks or new players in mind. It's a full experience not hampered by design decisions that often limit what we can do in vr games.
i tried this game a couple of months ago but deleted it. the game made me sick, but mainly because of how hot the location i was playing was. im going to try to replay it, and hopefully give actual feedback
this is genuinely a work of art. its actually incredible how well the game translates into the vr. every moment was fun, even if frustrating. the immersion is crazy too. this game is so good and i will absolutely be playing the episodes. perfect way to replay for the 20th anniversary
Incredible content ! Would you recommend HL2 VR for someone that has never done it in flatscreen before? :)
Thanks so much! For me personally, I think the original version is worth experiencing as it was intended first but if you are pretty comfortable VR both ways are valid. You might actually enjoy it more these days in VR because it is an older game but still feels fresh for VR.
Half life 2 VR better than Alyx
Like I said so many times, Half-Life: Alyx is a better VR experience, but Half-Life 2: VR is a better game.
Good way to put it.
I have to very much disagree of vr being more complicated than mouse and keyboard when it comes to playthrough. From my experience in 20 plus years of m/k and 3 years of Quest 2. The only disadvantage of vr motion controllers are delays but other than that everything else is much better due to freedom of control as well as aiming does not stuck in the center of view. The shaky hand part isn't that really a big of a deal in a shooter.
Never played half life 2 maybe its time
Way back when the Oculus DK2 came out, you could just play HL2, Ep1, and Ep2 in VR with a controller. And Valve had it set up on the VR branch so that the arm and gun were a little bit disconnected from the head, it was like some of these modern games like Bodycam, where there's some leeway for the gun to move before it turns the player. I played through all of it twice, and it was to this day the best VR and best gaming experience I've ever had.
I still think motion controls for VR are a mistake, you're never gonna replicate real tactility so you're always going to get that immersion breaking reminder of the real world. I think we could have made VR work with conventional controls.
I'm so glad someone said this. So many comments passionately defend one side or the other of that argument and I'm fascinated by it. So abundantly clear how early VR is as a medium.
Is there a way to fix the motion sickness issue? Is there a particular setting or patch that could be beneficial? It's one of the only VR games that I've had to take my headset off within
I was enjoying it until I got stuck on Highway 17. The next map won't load. I can't go further. Shit's broken.
yes
Pretty great. The graphics are a little dated, but for a 20 year old port it's pretty reasonable. Would be nice to get Half-life 2 in the Alyx Engine. Why don't they make that and/or some official Alyx DLC? Please Valve! That would be awesome. At least the community has been putting out some top A+ quality mods and level packs for Alyx.
Gunman Contracts is nuts, cannot wait for the standalone version.
@@bonezzVR Planned Release Date: 2025
He also just got publishing support🙌
Its great but the scale is off to me. I feel too short whatever I do with the settings. natural height always makes other NPCs too short regardless of the scale setting.
Does it have teleport movent? I cant play it if it doesn't. Alyx was great, but it is one of a few vr games that I can play.
Haven't played any of the HL games aside from HL Alyx, would you recommend I play the games for the first time with VR or without?
That's a tough one. If it were me, I would play the first time the way it was intended without VR. This might be my bias but I don't think the "feel" of playing Half-Life gets translated perfectly into VR. It's still a really great time in VR, but there is just some magic to what Valve did with the game originally, and it still mechanically feels great to play, even if it isn't cutting edge by today's standards. Please come back and tell me what you think of it, I wish I could play it for the first time again.
3:53 OMG i hate that... i've completed halflife alyx and i hate them so much!
Did you install mods? It was very difficult for me to play this
No mods, what was the issue you were having?
@@bonezzVRmostly controls, I had no idea how to equip a gun at all or how to shoot it, also I lagged a little. Possibly because I was playing with my old oculus quest
And also your channel grew so much!
@@shamory8919 slowly but surely we are on our way! thanks for being along.
Can I play vr mods on a 4080?
This one should run on just about anything!