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.

With the amazing news that Mario will be introduced to a new platform, there has been some not so amazing news for VR fans. Miyamoto thinks that Mario does not really fit in with virtual reality. Personally it has been my dream to see lie through Mario’s eyes.

Miyamoto made an amazing surprise appearance at Apple iPhone 7’s conference to announce this brilliant news. This will be the first time ever for Mario to make his appearance on a mobile game for iOS. However, even though Nintendo are embracing phones for a new platform for these classic games to continue on. It seems Miyamoto is less enthusiastic about Mario and other Nintendo characters to step in to the virtual reality world.

Miyamoto then went on and told USA Today that:

“I would agree that adapting Mario to new platforms is a key to keeping him relevant,” “But we want families to play together, and virtual reality doesn’t really fit well there. We also like people playing for a long time, and it’s hard to do that in VR.”

The post Shigeru Miyamoto Thinks VR ‘Doesn’t Really Fit’ Mario. first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Advanced Micro Device’s new graphics card range promises the delivery of Extreme 4K Performance.

E3 2015 went one step closer to making VR a virtual mainstream reality in the coming months with some incredibly well thought out pieces of tech kit. With Facebook’s seemingly incredibly well timed $2 billion acquisition of Brendon Iribe’s start up in 2013 beginning to stretch it’s wings in preparation to take flight into what is fast turning out to be an endless supply of creative development. Many teething issues have also been ironed out with some extra help from the social media giant inclusive of the vomit inducing motion sickness felt in early prototypes. A need for instantaneous motion adjustment to match the speed of the human eye can only be bought another step closer in Rift’s latest partnership announcement at E3 & Twitter with chip stalwart AMD. Confidently claiming to be the “most advanced GPU ever, and the numbers are mind bogglingly epic.

The technology is being extoled to achieve 60 percent more memory bandwidth whilst supporting 4K gaming and a whopping 4GB’s of RAM, the highest eveVirr achieved on planet earth. It has also shrunk considerably making it more accessible and easier to manage when greeted by the ever-enthusiastic PC mod scene. The card’s inception aims to bring 4K gaming to those who can afford it driving 4K-like resolutions to 1080p screens at 60 frames per second. As well as full 5K support to high end consumers.

So what does this mean for the new consumer look Rift, which will replace it’s highly publicised predecessor the DK2? The benefits of such a powerful card are duplicitous, allowing developer’s on the platform to have access to the resources they require to create a genuinely immersive experience. Whilst also tuning up a consumers PC graphics to the point where it can give you a true definition of the creative vision of the studios involved in producing the game.

The varied uses of Oculus Rift’s genuinely unique power are only just starting to become apparent, buoyed by E3’s continued ability to inspire and excite the list is genuinely exciting. From allowing experts in fields such as nuclear power to train in a safe environment, to curing phobias, or perhaps even interactive theatre such as the Sundance institutes Perspective Chapter 1: The Party, which allows an immersive storyline following a young shy school girl at a college party, from two differing perspectives.

Personally being a long-standing lover of the sheer simplicity yet ultimate frustration of point and click games, such as Toshimitsu Takagi’s classic Crimson Room, which can be played here. I for one am well and truly on the jumping on the bandwagon, which also sounds like a fun VR idea.

The post AMD’S Radeon R9 Series aims to bring the fury to VR first appeared on Get2Gaming.

An exciting day for the virtual reality scene, as Oculus hosted its video briefing today, and with it unveiled the final version of the Oculus Rift consumer model, as well as a few trailers of upcoming games for the Oculus Rift.

Insomniac Games, the developer behind the brilliant Ratchet & Clank, showed of its teaser trailer of the upcoming Edge of Nowhere:

Playful showed a sneak peak of some game footage from the platform game Lucky’s Tale:

The role-playing Chronos was another trailer that was released during the conference, this time from the guys over in Gunfire Games studio:

Eve: Valkyrie was the final game to be shown off by the producers at CCP Games:

The post WATCH: Game Trailers From The Oculus VR Conference first appeared on Get2Gaming.

REPORT

VR could be more about film than game, Oculus says…

“We’ve said from the beginning we’re big gamers, and we started Oculus to deliver consumer VR and revolutionize games,” Oculus VR’s vice president for product Nate Mitchell told the L.A. Times in an interview at CES 2015. “But it may well end up being that VR is more about film than games. We don’t know what the killer app is.”

The Oculus Rift first received it’s initial funding on Kickstarter, when it was pitched as “the first truly immersive virtual reality headset for video games,”. Although, the Oculus VR has said that the piece could end up serving films more than games.

In November 2014, Oculus said that the consumer model of the headset is “months, not years” away, and that it shall cost between $200 and $400. When you think about it, that’s an exceedingly good price for a model so ground breaking and we’re all very intrigued to try it out!

A few new companies managed to show off their own virtual reality devices at CES 2015 and some were better than others, but it appears that the Oculus Rift Crescent Bay device with all new 3D audio was the clear winner of the event, that gave the ultimate virtual reality experience. You can check out the best (and the worst) of the event HERE.

The post Report – Oculus Says That VR Could Be More About Film Than Game first appeared on Get2Gaming.