When Valve announced Half-Life: Alyx at the tail-end of 2019, it set off a mad scramble for new tech. I had a laptop, but in order to play the long-awaited quasi follow-up to Half-Life 2, I needed a virtual reality headset.
So I asked for an Oculus Quest for Christmas, and planned to connect it to my laptop using a Link Cable. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get that set-up to work. I also couldn’t find any solution to the issues I was having online, and made a bunch of trips to Best Buy attempting to fix it. Thankfully, Valve offered reviewers the opportunity to play the game with its Index VR headset, which solved that problem.
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The Trials And Tribulations Of Preparing For A New Half-Life
But when the Index arrived, I realized that in order to use it, I needed a mini HDMI port. My laptop didn’t have one. So, in the brief time between the VR set arriving and my review’s due date, I had to scramble to get a replacement laptop that could work with the Index.
Mind you, this was during the first week of Covid lockdowns.
Eventually, I got everything together, played through Alyx, and had a great time. But, as rumors swirl that the announcement of the mythical Half-Life 3 is finally on the horizon, I can’t help but have flashbacks to the stress of preparing for Alyx. When Sony announces a new game I’m excited to play, I think, “Great, a cool game I can play on my PS5.” When Valve announces a new game I’m excited to play, it makes me wonder if I actually have all the hardware I need to get the most out of it.
That’s because Valve, unlike all other triple-A developers, creates games for PC first and foremost. It may bring its games to other platforms, but it’s been almost five years since Half-Life: Alyx launched, and despite PlayStation having a perfectly viable VR platform, Alyx remains a PC exclusive. So I can’t just wait to eventually play Half-Life 3 on PS5, because it will likely never come.
Being a PC first developer means that Valve knows how to take advantage of the PC as a platform. Alyx looked really good, and because it won’t be limited by a VR headset’s display (and because half a decade has passed) Half-Life 3 will look even better. But my PC couldn’t even run Alyx at maximum settings. What the hell am I supposed to do now? Once again, a Half-Life game (which is, at this point, still hypothetical) has me considering a thousand dollar plus purchase just to play it.
Honestly, I should just be able to trade my old laptop in for a new laptop like an iPhone. That would immediately solve my whole problem.
Is The Steam Deck The Solution?
Of course, I could just get a Steam Deck for a fraction of the price it would cost to build a PC or buy a new gaming laptop. But should I really be playing the big new Half-Life game on a handheld? I’m ride-or-die for portable gaming, but there are some games that demand to be played on a bigger display. Playing Half-Life 3 might be the gaming equivalent of needing to make important purchases on a computer instead of a phone.
Then again, this game does not officially exist yet. The G-Man can tease all he wants, and dataminers can datamine, but until we see concrete evidence that Half-Life 3 is launching soon, I don’t really have anything to worry about. Of course, when that announcement happens, I will instantly become very worried. Hopefully I have time to figure this out.
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