The Tragic Backstory (I’m exaggerating, but not by much): Long ago, in the firey depths of Tartar Sauce, one of the first attempts at integrating a compelling story in a first-person shooter released in the form of Half-Life. Between its uses of physics-based platforming and Half-Life 2’s famous pioneering of The Gravity Gun, artistic and creative exploration in games was spreading across all the realm. The bountiful harvest would not last, as developer Valve rested upon it’s laurels of success after failing to release the next episode of Half Life 3 after a leviathan cliffhanger that drove the internet to it’s first experience with the seven stages of grief:

Shock: “How could this happen”!?

Denial: “That’s a mistake, no way this could happen”.

Bargaining: “Maybe we should just wait”.

*Several years later*

Fear: “OMG what if we’re waiting for nothing”!?

Anger: *4Chan rants*

Acceptance: Which is why you’re reading this!

On the bright side, Half-Life Alyx has been doing a decent job of placating VR gamers, so I see this as an absolute win!

Tyler McVicker, Valve News Network creator has recently claimed in a YouTube video that there “isn’t a major development team working on anything, outside of the few pieces of software that are specifically tailored for hardware”. This was in relation to how Half-Life Alyx’s ending seemed to tease a potential new installment in the Half-Life universe coming out.

The lack of focus on games is, according to McVicker, due to a renewed focus on developing games for The Steam Deck. For more on that, check our articles on The Steam Deck’s controller patent, information on the Steam Deck’s features, potential games running on the Steam Deck and more.

While plans for a new first-person shooter in the Half-Life series has been dashed on the rocks of fate, McVicker has confirmed a Half-Life project is in the works. ‘Half-Life: Citadel’ is the currently-known code name for the upcoming project, which will apparently demonstrate the highest Steam Deck’s greatest capabilities.

McVicker went on to say Half-Life Citadel will be a sort of hybrid between FPS and RTS gameplay, with a focus on cooperative gameplay inspired by Left 4 Dead and Alien Swarm. That said, some workers on Half-Life Citadel have been moved to Steam Deck development, so this will likely take a little longer than usual to release.

It’s also worth noting that McVicker isn’t the sole official spokesperson for Valve as a whole, so apologies in advance if Valve says “um actually” tomorrow and makes this blog completely irrelevant!

Product Poems:

Hidden Agenda, stay cute like magenta. Lefty likes Forza.

There was once an AMIIBO from Hyrule. I lied, no, there’s actually two! Though I implied a lie, that plot twist aside, I wish online was in Nioh 2.

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The post Half-Life 3, Half-Life Citadel And All New Announcements! first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Recently, the Modding team Known as SoMNst Released a 37 minute video showing the latest update to their “No VR” mod, an add-on to the critically acclaimed 2020 entry in the legendary “Half-Life”. The mod aims to make the game playable without the need for a VR headset.

Half Life Alyx Released on the 23rd of march, 2020, 13 years after the franchise’s last instalment “Half-Life 2, Episode 2”, which notoriously ended with the shocking death of beloved side character and father of player companion Alyx, Eli Vance. “Half Life: Alyx” itself was a spin off, set before mute theoretical theorist Gordon Freeman was re-inserted into the world by the extra dimensional G-man at the start of Half life 2. The story Follows Alyx Vance as she works to establish a Resistance against The Combine, an interdimensional alien race summoned to earth during the resonance cascade event of the original 1997 Half-Life.

The Half-Life series has always aimed to be on the cutting edge of games technology. The original game, released in 1997, was a huge leap forward for narrative in video games, and especially in the first person shooter genre, with subtle world building and environmental storytelling at the forefront of the experience. Its sequel, released originally in 2004, was a technological marvel, introducing real time physics simulation to the world of gaming, as well as some truly phenomenal facial animations that still help the game look Spectacular today, almost 2 decades later. Alyx continued this trend, being one of the most deep and content rich games for VR to date, with the game dumping the predecessors action tone and instead relying much more on horror to guide the experience.

However this reliance on VR technology has left many unable to experience the game due to the costs of owning such a device. This is where the no VR mod comes in. The mods goal is to remove the need for a VR headset and motion controls. Within the 37 minutes of in-development footage released on September 25th, Mod developers SoMNst show off some of their solutions to make the game work from a more traditional first person perspective. 

For example, very early on in the game you are given a number of pens and an eraser, and while in VR you are able to write on the windows of protagonist Alyx’s hideout. The mod works around this functionality by snapping the pen to the point on the screen where a gun would be held in a normal FPS and then snapping it to the window on a left click. The Demo Footage illustrates this by using these pens to carefully draw an image of the series Protagonist Gordon Freeman. 

In another instance, A door that would normally require the act of the player physically grabbing it with their VR controller to open, has been replaced with a hand icon that responds to a left click, similar to games like “Amnesia” and “SOMA”. For a more in-depth look, you can watch the entire 37 Minute Video below.

The mod is still in development. No final release date has been stated by any of the developers and the development builds are not currently available to the public. However the footage does look very promising and with any luck it will not be long until you are able to play the game with a mouse and keyboard yourself. Half-Life: Alyx is available right now from Steam.

The post “Half Life: Alyx” No VR mod’s latest Update Looks Promising. first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Fans of Hard-Life 2 will be ecstatic with this piece of news…

Half-Life 2: Remastered Collection is currently in development from a team of mods and the original developer Valve has given the team their consent for the remaster.

If you aren’t aware, the first-person shooter was originally released in 2004 and received acclaim for its advanced physics, animation, sound, AI, graphics, and narrative, receiving 39 Game of the Year awards and is tied with the first Half-Life and Grand Theft Auto V on Metacritic for the best-reviewed PC game.

Half-Life 2: Remaster and Update

The mods, lead by lead developer Flip Victor, have been working on Half-Life 2: Remaster for some time, yet it is only recently that Valve has given them their blessing. The approval and support giving by Valve is a major win for the team as most publishers and developers usually keep a tight rein on their IP and it usually ends with lawsuits being filed and takedown requests of the mods.

The team behind Half-Life 2: Remaster were also behind Half-Life 2: Update, a massive mod that includes completely overhauled visual effects and bug fixes for the game and is completely free for anyone that owns a PC and a copy of Half-Life 2. They have stated Half-Life 2: Remaster will be the next version of Half-Life 2: Update, but it is unclear what that might entail. Nevertheless, it’s fair to say this remaster will truly be something to get the fans hyped again for a game that was released over 15 years ago.

According to @SteamDB, the team that brought us Half-Life 2: Update is working on a further update and remaster of HL2 & the Episodes, with Valve’s consent.

The Half-Life 2: Remastered Collection is coming soon to Steam.https://t.co/5YTjhpS2ud

— Tyler McVicker (@Tyler_McV) July 29, 2021

Valve released a VR first-person shooter game set in between Half-Life and Half-Life 2 last year, titled Half-Life: Alyx, which has received 2 million downloads on Steam by the end of last year. It was their first game in the franchise after 13 years, following from Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

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The post Half-Life 2: Remastered Collection In Development With Orginal Developers Approval first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Half Life 2 Remastered

Numerous bug fixes, improved lighting and seriously enhanced visual detail – Valve’s mod has never looked so pretty!

Half Life 2 now has a 7 GB update, which has utterly swept the game’s visuals and gone LIVE on Steam. These visual effects have generally improved the eleven year old first-person shooter and the remaster is a three year development product from three modders, which is supported and sanctioned by Valve.

“improvements to lighting, special effects, increased world detail, countless bug fixes, and an original Community Commentary mode.” – The Update which came from promotional materials. You can check out the latest trailer to Half Life 2 HERE.

Heading the project is Filip Victor, and he has said, “While developing the update, I needed to make sure that no matter what I did, I was improving Half-Life 2’s world without changing its iconic style, tone, or gameplay.” “My goal is to create something that will draw new players to the Half-Life series, but not alienate long-time fans. Half-Life 2: Update shouldn’t be seen as a mod, but as a true update to what is already there.”

Half Life 2 has also received Community Commentary Mode, as well as brand new visuals. This contains more than 100 in-game audio nodes that, when activated in-game, will progress to discuss the original Half-Life 2’s development.

The post Remastered – Half Life 2 for FREE on Steam first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Our Favourite video game inspired movie posters

Inspired by games, created by fans

It’s apparent that there are some very talented artists out there and, judging by these rather marvellous pieces below, it’s no wonder that there has been such feedback as, “Ahh, I was so looking forward to seeing that!” or “No way! I thought it was real, lol!”. 

Here at G2G, we’ve selected ten of our favourite pieces for you all to gawk at and ponder on the thought of “WHY IS THIS NOT REAL?!”. Although make-believe is much preferred to reality, I say…

The post A Look At Our Favourite Video Game Inspired Movie Posters, Created By Fans first appeared on Get2Gaming.