Items tagged with Valve
VR gaming is growing in popularity after being seemingly stagnant for a few years. Now, HP has debuted a new VR solution called the Reverb G2, and its hailed as a "no-compromise VR headset" that was developed in collaboration with Valve and Microsoft. The headset is designed to be used for multiple tasks, including design, training, and gaming. HP says that the Reverb G2 is equipped with lenses and speakers that were designed by Valve to offer the highest quality resolution and fully immersive spatial audio. The headset uses mura-free, 2.89-inch 2160 x 2160 resolution LCD panels for each eye with a full RGB subpixel stripe. The panels have 9.3 million pixels, 2.5 times more pixels than the Oculus...
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Gamers all around the world were extremely excited when Half-Life: Alyx was announced. After many years, fans were able to get back into the Half-Life universe. The game has been updated recently to include Steam Workshop support along with a beta release of community development tools. One of the best things about the update for fans is that it brings a native version of the game for the Linux, and optional support for Vulkan on Windows. To enable Vulkan on Windows, go to the main menu, then Options > Performance > Advanced (gear icon) > Rendering API, and choosing Vulkan. While support for Linux is welcome, the big news is that the tools in the Steam Workshop update allow players to...
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Valve has confirmed a major source code leak earlier this week involving two of its most popular competitive multiplayer games, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2. Players of the games have been concerned that the code leak for the popular and active games would allow hackers to find ways to develop remote code execution attacks or other exploits for the games. Valve has issued a statement that says players shouldn't be concerned about Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but hasn't said anything about Team Fortress 2. Valve's statement said it had reviewed the leaked code and believed that it was a reposting of a limited CS:GO engine code depot that was provided to partners and...
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Half-Life: Alyx has only been out for a few days, but many are already claiming that the game is a masterpiece. Many have argued that it is one of the best VR games to date. Unfortunately, many gamers will not be able to experience the game because it is currently only available for VR headsets. But where there is a will, there is a way. Gamers have already found a way to play Half-Life: Alyx with a keyboard and mouse instead of a VR headset. Tyler McVicker, the founder of the Valve News Network, found a few commands that allowed him to play the game without a headset. McVicker was able to enable several weapons and shoot with his mouse. He was thrilled with his findings and remarked, “I...
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Those who have been waiting for a fresh Half-Life fix can now have it, though only if they own a compatible virtual reality headset. Valve's latest addition to the Half-Life world, Half-Life: Alyx, was designed from the ground-up for VR (and getting rave reviews), so it is not a game fans of the franchise can simply fire up and play on a flat-screen monitor. For now, anyway—it is only a matter of time before modders do their thing, and Valve is aware of this. Game designer Robin Walker, best known for co-developing the Team Fortress mod for Quake before later going on to co-create several Valve games, including Half-Life: Alyx, believes it is only a matter of time before someone mods the...
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Today is the big day; Half-Life: Alyx has been released. We had no idea that Valve was even working on the game until late last year, and once it was announced, the gamers around the globe lost their collective minds. Rather than being a traditional first-person shooter that is controlled using a mouse and keyboard like Half-Life and Half-Life 2 that came before it, Half-Life: Alyx leaps into the realm of virtual reality (VR). Hardware Requirements Being a VR-only game, the hardware requirements (to run the game as the devs intended it) are steep for this latest installment in the franchise, which arrives nearly 16 years after Half-Life 2 was released to the public. For starters,...
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Fans of virtual reality (VR) and the Half-Life franchise have been excited since the next game in the franchise was announced last year, Half-Life: Alyx. The game launches on March 23rd, but many fans have been worried because the required VR hardware to play the game has been out of stock. That will change on Monday, March 9th when the Valve Index VR system will be in stock again. Valve notes that demand for the Index VR system has been high and it expects the available stock on Monday to sell out quickly. Valve is planning to continue to take orders after all the available units are sold. It will fulfill the purchases in the order they were received as more stock becomes available. Valve says...
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The clock is ticking down towards the release of Half-Life: Alyx (March 23rd for those keeping count), and hype surrounding the game is growing. Long-time Half-Life fans became even more excited earlier this week when Valve dropped three new videos totaling around 10 minutes showing actual gameplay footage. Now we're learning that Half-Life: Alyx won't be the end for the Half-Life franchise. Instead, we can look at it as a rebirth or sorts. In an interview with Game Informer, Valve developer Robin Walker gave some insight both into why Half-Life: Alyx is exclusively a VR title and what will come next in the franchise. "Half-Life's set of mechanics was a surprisingly natural fit...
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The excitement surrounding Half-Life: Alyx is starting to ramp up as we get closer to the game's March 23rd release date. For those that haven't been keeping abreast of the game's development, it's a virtual reality-only title that takes place before the events in Half-Life 2. Valve today is giving us another look at what to expect with Half-Life: Alyx courtesy of three new gameplay videos. All of the things that you've come to expect from the Half-Life franchise are seen in the videos including those annoying head crabs, health stations, and various puzzles that you'll find along your journey. In the first video seen above, you start off on a subway car where you encounter...
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The launch date for Half-Life: Alyx is now set in stone. Valve announced today that the virtual reality-only title will officially launch on March 23rd, which is sticking with the developer's previous statements that the game would be available in March 2020. Hype for Half-Life: Alyx has been building, as this is the first installment franchise in over a decade. While everyone has been reading tea leaves, wishing on a shooting star, and hopping on one foot for the inevitable release of Half-Life 3, Half-Life: Alyx is no doubt the next best thing. Half-Life: Alyx, available March 23, 2020 https://t.co/NCOLWqSp3e pic.twitter.com/Q04EZwNfBt— Valve (@valvesoftware) February 13, 2020...
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It has been somewhat of a wild week for Steam. A week ago Sunday, Valve's digital distribution platform broke a concurrent user record that had stood for over two years, with 18,801,944 users. The previous record was 18.5 million users. Then this past Sunday, Steam saw 19,107,803 people hop onto the service, setting the record for the second time in a week. The new record came at 14:10 GMT. Out of those users, just over 6 million people were playing in a game, as opposed to simply being signed into the service. That's a lot of gamers, and it raises the question, why is Steam suddenly setting concurrent user records? Source: SteamDB.info Part of the reason is players flocking to Counter-Strike:...
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Half-Life: Alyx is one of the most highly anticipated PC games for the H1 2020, and with good reason. Although it isn't the mythical Half-Life 3, it's the next besting thing, serving as a prequel of sorts to the groundbreaking shooter Half-Life 2. All of the excitement surrounding the latest entry in the Half-Life saga coupled with the fact that it’s a virtual reality-only title has led to a huge uptick in interest for the requisite hardware needed to run the game. According to tracking firm SuperData, sales of Valve's Index VR headset more than doubled from Q3 2019 to Q4 2019, climbing from 46,000 units to 103,000 units. Sales might have also been spurred by the fact that each Index...
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Valve has done something that anyone thinking about playing Half-Life: Alyx will want to take advantage of before getting into the new VR game. Valve has announced that ahead of the launch of Half-Life: Alyx, it is making the entire Half-Life series free to play on Steam for everyone. The Half-Life franchise is one of the most popular and beloved in all of video games. To play the games, you'll need a Steam account and to install the Steam software on your PC or Mac; both are offered at no cost. As for why Valve is offering the games for free, Half-Life: Alyx slots into the events in the series and will have some characters we are all familiar with. Valve has said Alyx is set before the events...
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In an announcement seemingly out of left field, Google recently disclosed that it is working to bring the Steam client to its popular Chrome OS platform. This of course would give the millions of Chromebooks access to another popular library of games, as well as possibly game-streaming. This news was revealed in an interview that Android Police conducted with Chrome OS Product Development Director Kan Liu last week at CES. The development will be made possible by the fact that Chrome OS is built using Linux as a foundation, and the Steam of course supports Linux. Running the Steam client in a Linux environment is currently possible with Chromebooks, but it is not an "official" solution...
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You voted (or your fellow gamers did, anyway), and the tallies are in for 2019's Steam Awards. The biggest category is Game of the Year, and proving that PC gamers like a good challenge, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice brought home the honor. It was also a top seller in 2019, which is not surprising, with the most recent reviews being "overwhelmingly positive." The Game of the Year category is just one of several that Steam gamers voted on for 2019. Interestingly enough, Grand Theft Auto V brought home an award as well, for Labor of Love. It's a fitting category, given that GTA V ported over to PC nearly five years ago, on April 14, 2015. More recently, Rockstar Games has been giving Grand Theft Auto...
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Everyone who was into PC gaming back in the late 90s played Half-Life; it was such a revolutionary game that it still has fans today. Fans of the franchise have been clamoring for Valve to make Half-Life 3, but that has yet to happen. What Valve is doing is creating a VR game based on the franchise called Half-Life: Alyx. It's not the Half-Life we wanted, but it's the Half-Life that we are getting. Yesterday as the decade came to a close, we heard from an iconic character in the franchise who has remained silent for 12 years. These latest words from the G-Man come with the assumption that he will appear in Half-Life: Alyx. pic.twitter.com/2NtUlrx4XI — Mike Shapiro (@mikeshapiroland) December...
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Gamers love it when Steam has a sale because they can stock up on plenty of titles at steep discounts. The annual Steam Winter Sale 2019 is underway right now, and gamers will want to hop over and partake. There are some top tier games with hefty discounts, including the long-anticipated Red Dead Redemption 2. Discounts are high with some popular titles listed at 75% off their normal price. The game discounts are good through January 2nd at 10 pm, so you have plenty of time to get those gift cards and Christmas cash gathered up. Some of the coolest games on discount that we see include: Red Dead Redemption 2 - 20% off at $47.99 Dark Souls III - 75% off at $14.99 Fallout 4 (the good Fallout) -...
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Half-Life fans who have grown very tired of Valve not giving the followup to the last game in the franchise all these years later are likely aware of Black Mesa: Xen. This fan-made remake of Half-Life has long been in development, and many have been anticipating the completion of the game. Black Mesa: Xen has now been completed and is available for fans to play in public beta form. The game, being in beta, has several known issues, so gameplay may not go as smoothly as fans hope at times. In addition, gamers will need to purchase the Black Mesa game for $19.99 to be able to download the beta. Once Black Mesa: Xen is purchased and installed, players will need to opt into the beta to be able to...
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Earlier this week, we first got wind of Half-Life: Alyx, the latest entry into the Half-Life saga. The original Half-Life -- which was a first-person shooter blockbuster, helping to revolutionize the genre -- blazed onto the scene back in 1998, and was followed up by Half-Life 2 in 2004. Half-Life: Alyx is what Valve calls a full-length, virtual reality addition to the Half-Life world. So, make no mistake, this won't be a glorified tech demo or some simple side excursion to divert your attention for a few minutes. Valve is hoping to sucks fans into the gameplay experience the same way the original and its sequel did. According to Valve, Half-Life: Alyx is set in-between the events of Half-Life...
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Late last month, we talked about the Steam Library update that had brought all the new features that were previously offered to beta users only to the masses. The update also brought with is the debut of Remote Play Together for everyone. That feature was very cool, and gamers who want to enjoy playing remotely with friends need a game of three that supports remote play. Steam is having a Remote Play Together sale that it is billing as a new Multi-Player Feature and Sale Event. All of the games offered on discounts in the sale support remote play, and some are discounted heavily. Some of the coolest games in the sale are listed below: 4+ Player Games: Super Blood Hockey - 70% off at $4.49 Goat...
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Put the pitchforks down, folks, we are only kidding about Half Life 3. Well maybe, anyway...we can hope, right? There might actually be another Half-Life game in the wings, though. That is, if a leaked transcript of an unpublished interview citing a new virtual reality game called Half-Life: Alyx turns out to be true. We're skeptical, but also cautiously hopeful. The online document supposedly contains snippets of an interview between Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley and Valve's Robin Walker, as well an unnamed third person (the document surmises it could possibly be Gabe Newell). "These snippets were leaked by a user going by the name “Midoriyan.” Said user has been confirmed to...
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Valve has announced that starting today, the features of the new Steam Library that were previously offered only to beta users are now available to all. The company is also saying thanks to those who tried the new library during the beta, and it notes that Steam will continue to ship improvements and new features based on feedback and requests it received in the beta. The roll-out of the new Steam Library also brings the Remote Play Together Beta to all Steam users. For those who missed the beta, the Steam Library Update brings with it some substantial changes. One of the most significant changes is a new way for players to look at their library of games. A new landing page for the library is...
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