Here's one of those long running gaming memes that you forgot about; "Half life 3 confirmed". For the longest time the Internet joked about the possibility of Valve overcoming their fear of the number 3 and finally finishing the story that they left unfinished with 'Half Life 2: Episode 2' back in 2007. It was a little inside joke between fans who tried to draw light from the throbbing pain that inflicts anyone who's presented with a story that has no ending. Everytime Valve so much as sneezed people would report about an imminent release, all the while knowing that the game would never come to fruition.
And how could it? In the beginning, Valve were very much credited as a game developer. Much in the style of the gaming companies that came before it, Valve knew that the best way to make money was to produce and sell quality games, and so they did that to great success. During their time as an active developer, Valve established a reputation for the development of cutting edge tech and software that pushed gaming tech leaps and bounds beyond where it was at. It is with the utmost sincerity that I assert that, without Valve, gaming would not be where it is today. However, I use the past tense appropriately as at some point Valve became aware of a much more profitable way to make their fortunes; by becoming a supplier.
Actually, that's a misnomer, they didn't just become a supplier, they were the supplier. Before Valve, PC games were almost all acquired as disks and downloaded onto a computer, similar to how consoles operate today, but that wouldn't be the case forever. After releasing their first dedicated online video game, 'Counter Strike: Global Offensive', Valve realized that they had an issue with updating the game for all users, and so they began development on a platform that would house all of their online products and unite them online, similar to how Battle.net worked with Diablo. This would allow for Valve to update their games regularly and quickly, allowing them to stay on top of anti-cheat measures and bugfixing. They called their baby; Steam.
During this time, Valve realized that they had a player base worth of individuals with high-speed Internet (around 75%, according to their own polls) and that number would only increase as broadband coverage began expanding worldwide. (An initiative that was being spearheaded by those early Internet providers who would become the titans they are today. I guess it pays to get in on the ground floor.) This showed them that their service had the potential to deliver game content directly to consumers without having to worry about traditional retail channels. As time went by Valve began requiring games to install the Steam client in order to play them, even with retail copies; a practice which, married with the high adoption rate of their quality games, meant that Steam was rapidly becoming a staple on all gamers computers. This was potential that would not go to waste as in 2005, Valve realized that they could retool Steam as a online retailer (Which was a novel concept back then) and started negotiating contracts to sell third party titles on their storefront. Steam began offering small titles from lesser known studios, but their success soon drew in the big boys like Id, Eidos and Capcom.
Throughout the long years of Valve's lifetime, many pretenders have tried to start up their own platform in competition, but until the Epic Store launched last year there were no serious competitors. (Yes, I know Origin and Uplay existed before then, but none served as replacements for Steam. And 'Microsoft Store' still kinda sucks.) This gave Valve the sort of market dominance that is typically illegal by most trade laws, but I guess they found a loophole around that. (Or trade laws are so lethargic that they still haven't caught up to Internet retailers yet, I dunno I ain't a lawyer.) And so for the last 15 years or so Steam has been making Valve money hand-over-fist, giving the former developer no further need to donate resources and talent towards making games, the money just rolled up to their door anyway.
Of course, the consequence of this was that Valve steadily began relenting on their video game development board until they stopped making games altogether. Development talent either shifted focus or moved onto other jobs and the beloved Valve franchises of yester-year (I.e. Half Life, Portal, Left 4 dead) were left by the wayside to gather dust. And yet, Valve were always adamant that this not the end for them. Never once did Valve officially announcement their departure from game development, despite it being bleeding obvious, and they never graciously licensed out any of their IP's to company's who would happily work on them. No, these were their babies and Valve would stick with them. Admittedly, Valve never could relay exactly what it would take to make the conditions 'just right' for them to create a new game, but they always kept the door open for themselves.
One thing that everyone always ensured to make abundantly clear about the future of Valve development, was that they were determined to put their Half-life development efforts behind some sort of brand new tech. (Just as Half-life 2 did with their groundbreaking inhouse physics engine) They didn't want Half-life to become another yearly franchise, chock-full of half baked releases. (Looking at you; Assassin's of Duty) Thier franchise stood for the name of innovation and that was a legacy they would not tarnish. With that in mind, most folk were certain that we would get some sort of Half-Life content in these late 2010's now with the advent of VR, but Valve sure did take their time. Even once commercial VR first started hitting shelves, eyes looked towards Valve for their grand resurgence, but we got nothing for so long that eventually we stopped paying attention. And that, apparently, was our own inattentive faults.
Not content with a mere announcement, Valve went out of their way to put together a brief trailer showing fans what they've been working on, presumably ever since VR Dev kits started being sent out. And the results are... incredibly impressive, honestly. 'Half-Life: Alyx' appears to be transcending the 'fixed movement' restriction that a lot of VR games have and allowing players freedom of movement in an environment that looks both loving rendered and particularly high poly for a VR title. The trailer even began with a little bit of active object physics to tease how the company hasn't forgotten their routes. Truth be told, if the final product turns out as polished as this trailer implies, we could be looking at a genuine VR system seller. (Never thought I'd say that.)
Everything about this trailer positively exudes 'quality' from the tight and fluid animation, clear textures and actual grand scale that appears to have gone into it. The amount of intricacy that goes into the loading of the weapons is impressive enough on it's own. Valve may have finally created the very first fully realized VR game that isn't a adaption of an existing title or is forced to take some sort of compromise in terms of gameplay. This is a game that promises to modernize Half-life, finally give G-man a new skin and push VR gaming into that place that everyone has been waiting for it to get to.
Valve haven't forgotten about their patented 'player first' approach either, with their early information on the title revealing how their game is designed to work for every kind of VR player. That means player's will be able to move using the traditional teleport functionality, the recently-popular shift mode, or the classic traditional movement through an analog's direction. This also bleeds into the room set-up which can be sitting down, standing up and in an open space and the controller style, which can be trigger based or utilize the finger tracking tech exclusive to Valve's own VR system; The Index. (Plus if you've already shelled out for the particularly expensive 'Index', you get 'Half-Life: Alyx for free, which is certainly nice.)
I've been a huge doubter for the VR movement ever since it's inception. There were always a few cool titles that I kept my eye on, but for the most part everything seemed to be little more then tech demos and showcases that weren't worth anyone's attention. (I even wrote an entire blog on that exact subject.) But some otherworldly force must have switched my consciousness in the night because I find myself uncharacteristically excited for this new VR future spearheaded by Valve. I know that seems a bit premature to say seeing as how we've only seen a single trailer, but this is clearly a project that Valve have taken great care in creating and, acknowledging their history for consistently creating high quality games, I believe in this project. I'll be watching this as it pans out like a hawk, but I must admit that a VR headset is looking like my next big purchase... (Not the Valve Index, though. Have you seen how much that thing costs? £1000 for a headset? Pfft! Who'd you think you're fooling? I'll just get the Quest or something...)
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