We think of video game sequels as something that can outdo the original in most ways, be more of the same, or even hit fans with the heavy hammer of disappointment. That, however, ignores the rare but very real case of sequels that don't necessarily suck but that will baffle fans with their nigh-inexplicable new design choices. We shouldn't forget this class of sequel, it does at least a great job of providing fun to anyone learning about just how absolutely bizarre these games can get.

[caption id="attachment_398483" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Silent Hill: Book Of Memories

Remember how the Silent Hill series managed to make players feel scared and uneasy even when no enemy was on screen? Well, nobody had time for that when they were reinventing the square for the PlayStation Vita with Silent Hill: Book Of Memories.

This one isn't a psychological horror game and barely even a survival horror game. It's a weird attempt at making an isometric action title in the vein of the awesome Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light but in the world of Silent Hill.

Heck, you don’t even have one of the simplest staples of psychological horror that the series had done so well up until this point—like the feeling of loneliness and isolation—as this one is a co-op adventure featuring up to four players. Wild stuff.

[caption id="attachment_398490" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image by Nintendo[/caption]

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Remember when the original The Legend Of Zelda changed gaming by taking a cue from the top-down perspective of RPGs and re-purposing it for action adventures?  You don't? Well, neither do I because I was too young to play it back then, but that's what the legend of The Legend of Zelda says.

Zelda 2 is definitely not a bad game (if you're looking for a bad Zelda side-scroller, google Zelda CD-I games), but it’s still pretty weird that Nintendo did away with the revolutionary design they’d come up with in the first one to make a more conservative 2D side-scroller. Nintendo already had Mario dominating that field, and there was no shortage of similar side-scrollers from other companies. Luckily, it didn't take Nintendo long to both go back to their revolutionary formula and then try new stuff that further propelled the series into legendary status.

[caption id="attachment_398485" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image by Konami[/caption]

Bomberman Act: Zero

This one was absolutely terrible and also marked an awful tonal shift for a beloved cutesy series that definitely didn't need one. I probably wouldn't have put it on the list because this isn't about straight-up bad sequels, but I like how its poster looks just like Oppenheimer's, so that's some extra bonus points for weirdness.

If you're looking for a wacky fun Bomberman game, then you're much better off playing Saturn Bomberman.

[caption id="attachment_398478" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image by Valve[/caption]

Half-Life 2: Survivor

Remember how the original Half-Life and its sequel each changed the FPS landscape of its time, due to smart gameplay mechanics that forced players to use their brains? Welp, Half-Life 2: Survivor is a bizarre, mostly on-rails arcade version of Half-Life 2 that only came out in Japan.

Do you see that massively busy interface? That's not one of those spoofs of HUD glut that you see all over the Internet—that's the real deal. The reason why anyone would come up with such an antithesis to what made Half-Life 2 great is a mystery, but I'd be lying if I said that I wouldn't spend a few dollars at the arcade to try this mess.

[caption id="attachment_398461" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image by Naughty Dog[/caption]

Jak 2

Ever wondered why the original Jak & Daxter had players happily hopping from platform to platform and then Jak 2 was all about gunning down enemies and driving flying vehicles? Sure, Naughty Dog had also previously equipped Crash with a Bazooka for the third game in the Crash Bandicoot series, but Crash's Bazooka only fired Wumpa fruit, not lethal rounds. What the hell happened there?

Well, it turns out that the sequel to Naughty Dog’s once happy-go-lucky platformer became a shooter because Naughty Dog saw the entire gaming landscape change with the arrival of gritty titles such as Killzone, God Of War, and, most importantly, Grand Theft Auto 3. The team made all the changes to the original that they could to accommodate gameplay elements that played similarly to Rockstar's mega-hit, and the series was never the same again.

In Naughty Dog's defense, however, I have to admit that Jak 2 was pretty damn good.

[caption id="attachment_398509" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image by Nintendo[/caption]

Star Fox Adventures

This is the game that sent the Star Fox series into dormancy and made the titular Fox more recognizable as a top-tier Super Smash Bros. character than as the main character of his own series. Its mistake? It decided to get Fox out of his ship and give him some ground-based missions.

This isn't a new kind of 3D game. This is Zelda with the exception that Zelda games are usually great, and this one is just okay. Star Fox Adventures marks one of the very rare moments in gaming when they would've been much better off just doing an on-rails shooter than a sprawling 3D adventure.

[caption id="attachment_398471" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image by Capcom[/caption]

Dino Crisis 3

Dino Crisis has always been an odd Resident Evil clone, but the rule is that you can only send your series to space after around the 8th entry. Picking space as the setting for your mundane terrestrial series in the third entry is too much—especially when it's a game about pre-historic stuff, the historical opposite of space stuff, I guess. Even Exoprimal feels more grounded than this Chimera.

Also, the first two games in the series came out for the original PlayStation, whereas Dino Crisis 3 landed on Xbox as an exclusive, which might have gotten Xbox fans to believe it has always been in space, thus making it all the more hilariously weird.

[caption id="attachment_398467" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image By Bethesda[/caption]

DOOM RPG

Remember when Doom fans didn't like Doom 3 because it was slower, darker, and spookier? Well, there's an even weirder, blacker sheep in this series: Doom RPG.

For some bonkers reason, Id looked at the "meh" reaction DOOM 3 got and decided to further reduce the amount of action and make a game that was more Final Fantasy than Doom. To Id's credit, however, Doom RPG is pretty decent and was even pretty revolutionary in the mobile gaming scene, as it provided a fully-fledged campaign two years before the iPhone made mobile gaming go big. Did any of the things that you just read entice you to wait for an HD remaster? Well, good luck with that, since Id lost Doom RPG's source code.

[caption id="attachment_398464" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image by Maxis[/caption]

Darkspore

Remember Spore? At some point, it was totally going to be the best game ever made! Sadly, the most fun anyone ever ended up getting out of it came from the game’s extremely advanced creature creator—mostly because they got to create beings that looked awfully phallic.

The people at Maxis looked at the game's lukewarm reception and came to the natural conclusion anyone in the ‘00s would’ve arrived at: it just wasn’t gritty enough. To solve this, they came up with Darkspore, a game that ditched everything from the original except for the creature creator, and then made a gritty action game about a badass creature that went on to battle other gritty, less phallic creatures.

Darkspore wasn’t even bad, but I can’t help but laugh at the very obvious high-speed course correction that was at play here.

The post Here are some of the most bizarre games from otherwise popular franchises appeared first on Destructoid.

It's so easy to modify Half-Life 2 that it's no wonder Valve's 2004 magnum opus is still part of the gaming scene. However, if you just want the game to look prettier, you can soon run it through Nvidia's RTX Remix tech.

Over on the Nvidia GeForce YouTube channel, you can see a teaser for a revamped version of the iconic Half-Life 2. Side-by-side comparisons show what the OG release looks like when compared to the upcoming remastered version.

https://youtu.be/aM_gzfAMdNs

The Half-Life 2 RTX Remix project actually comes to us via the modding community itself. The description under the trailer says it's being helmed by "four of Half-Life 2’s top mod teams, now known as Orbifold Studios." Currently, there doesn't appear to be a release date for it.

Ooh, it's so shiny!

The original Half-Life 2 (now fast approaching its 19th birthday) still holds up today. However, a "remixed" version of the classic FPS could bring a visual boost that could breathe new life into it.

The fan-made project will boast full ray tracing for that added dose of lighting goodness, DLSS 3 for graphical upscaling, and a bunch of other tech things that sound fancy.

Nvidia released its RTX Remix as a way for modders to give that certain je ne sais quoi to games that support such modern visual technologies. However, we've also seen it been used to pretty up even older games, like the original Tomb Raider.

You can check out more details on the upcoming Half-Life 2 RTX Remix project by going to Nvidia's website.

The post Half-Life 2 will look shiny thanks to RTX Remix appeared first on Destructoid.

Look, we all want a third installment in Valve's iconic Half-Life series. But the sad truth is, it's almost certainly never going to happen. As such, we're stuck with the first two (as well as the VR game Alyx). But that's a good thing, because Half-Life 1 and 2 are exemplary first-person shooters. So loved is the series, that fans continue to tweak and mod Half-Life and Half-Life 2 to their own ends.

Take Team Vestige over on ModDB (via PCGamesN), which has taken the legendary sci-fi FPS and turned it into a horror experience. Called "Disrepair," this mod for Half-Life 2 sees the player slip into the hazard suit of a Combine worker who's been sent to investigate and photograph the radioactive anomalies that have cropped up around the Black Mesa facility.

https://youtu.be/QX-DsNWBp6g

What ensues is a short but creepy experience, not too dissimilar to the likes of Slender: The Eight Pages. The player is tasked with photographing several pieces of artifacts around the infected building, while ominous sounds drill into their ears. It also has a slight SCP vibe about it, in that internet-urban-myth kind of way. You can see YouTube user Farawaygaming diving into "Despair" above.

Take that, Ravenholm!

When you think of Half-Life, you probably don't think of the word "horror." While the games do have their more unsettling moments (the Ravenholm section in HL2 springs to mind), it's not a franchise known for scares.

That's why this Half-Life 2 mod, and others like it, are so interesting. They take something that has a very distinctive aesthetic about it and turn it into something that's fairly unsettling. With the tunnel vision-style lighting, black and white graphics, and the eerie tones of this darker side of Black Mesa, Team Vestige is just one of many reasons people keep returning to the Half-Life games after all these years.

The post Slenderman meets SCP in this Half-Life 2 horror mod appeared first on Destructoid.

Ah, Half-Life 2. For many, Valve's follow-up to the influential 1998 FPS is the developer's magnum opus. It still holds up today and is often held aloft as one of the greatest shooters of all time. Much of it comes down to its tight combat, intriguing story, and dystopian setting.

But what was life like for the people of City 17 before the Combine came and wrecked everything? Before the famed Seven-Hour War would see humanity become enslaved? Well, that's what YouTuber Radiation Hazard wondered. In a recent video of theirs (and using beta footage from the game), they showed what Half-Life 2 looked like long before Gordon Freeman came into the picture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi_KQ725AAI

The result is what you would expect. With no war and no Combine, the city and its surroundings are as they should be. No damaged structures. No wreckage. No enslaved humans.

Maybe we'll go to Ravenholm now

Even Ravenholm (where the game turns into a horror experience) looks positively tranquil before everything went to shit. True, Radiation Hazard's video only shows the mining town in the daylight, but it's still a stark contrast to see this abandoned and dilapidated locale actually looking habitable.

However, it still feels a little bit...eerie. Maybe it's the fact that Half-Life 2's setting is largely industrial, including almost brutalist buildings, or the fact that even in a non-Combine inhabited city, there are still no people milling about, but it still looks quite oppressive.

It kind of shows Valve's skills in being able to invoke a mood. Even without the carnage, corpses, and graffiti, Half-Life 2 still looks like a place that one probably wouldn't want to visit. Which makes sense. The game probably wouldn't feel right if Freeman had to defend an idyllic fishing village from the Combine.

The post Half-Life 2 before the Combine showed up looks strangely eerie appeared first on Destructoid.

Although not much into development these days, there was a time when Valve made some fantastic games. Right from the word "go" - with the release of Half-Life in 1998 - Gabe Newell and his team became an overnight success. As such, the first entry in the adventures of the silent scientist Gordon Freeman continues to be talked about a quarter of a century later.

For example, there's been some curiosity over the inspiration for some of Half-Life's NPCs, specifically the scientists who aid Freeman. One that typically sticks out is the older physicist with the mustache and white, "mad scientist" hairstyle.

[caption id="attachment_393794" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image via Sketchfab.[/caption]

Naturally, many people assumed this Half-Life character was based off Albert Einstein. They're both somewhat into science, after all, so it made sense. However, that doesn't appear to be the case.

The founding father...of Black Mesa?

In a report from TheGamer, it turns out that the labcoat-wearing NPC with the white 'do was not inspired by the world's most famous scientist.

According to Chuck Jones, the 3D artist who designed Gordon Freeman, this particular character was actually based off George Washington. "The one you mentioned that looked like Einstein? I think I got the inspiration from George Washington (weird haircut)—not sure why," Jones told TheGamer.

Additionally, G-Man—the mysterious government agent who follows the player throughout the facility—was inspired by the Cigarette Man from X-Files. The show was at its most popular back in the '90s, so it's not surprising that it would come under Valve and Half-Life's radar.

It's interesting how a theoretical physicist with a white haircut was not actually based off Albert Einstein. It begs the question of whether fans will start referring to him as "George" instead.

The post One of Half-Life’s most famous scientists isn’t based on Einstein after all appeared first on Destructoid.

And it won't cost you an arm or a leg

What happens when you combine the world's most popular toy brand with one of the most influential first-person shooters of all time? That's right, you get LEGO Half-Life 2. If you ever wondered what it'd be like to take on the Combine or seek the Vortigaunt's help as one of the Danish company's little plastic figures, wonder no more.

The mod is available on the Steam workshop (thanks, PCGamesN) and comes from user Not Dave or Daniel. It's described as a "full conversion" project that basically swaps out major Half-Life 2 characters for LEGO figurines. It seems the modder is aiming to eventually replace all the characters in the game, but the images so far show that a few have already been done.

[caption id="attachment_391138" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image via Not Dave or Daniel/Steam.[/caption]

Fans of HL2 will recognize the LEGO facsimiles of Dr. Kleiner, Alyx Vance, Father Grigori, and even the mute protagonist himself, Gordon Freeman. The mod is available to download for free now, and it sounds like there are going to be some updates in the future.

So are we gonna talk about..?

Look, it's nearly impossible to talk about Half-Life without mentioning the whereabouts of the long-awaited third entry. It's been 16 years since Episode Two, and it's safe to assume that a new game in the series is not happening. In fact, back in 2017, ex-Valve writer Marc Laidlaw basically gave away what was likely to be the plot of Half-Life 3, perhaps in an attempt to appease fans who were still waiting.

It's just not coming. We have to accept that. But at least the games that are out are still getting a lot of love. Between the ray tracing version of Half-Life and this LEGO mod, Black Mesa and its inhabitants remain in the gaming consciousness.

The post Half-Life 2 and LEGO meet at last appeared first on Destructoid.

A demo is out now

It seems almost impossible at this stage for there to ever be a third Half-Life game. It's just been so long, and chances are that a threequel would struggle to live up to the hype. However, there are still new ways to get your Gordon Freeman kicks. For example, modder PinkyDev is working on a modification that turns Valve's iconic FPS into a roguelike shooter.

Called Codename: Loop, the demo for the project has just been released, so you can try it out before it releases fully. There's also a video over on ModDB that shows the Half-Life fan project in action. With a new top-down, isometric look, you once again control the mute scientist as he battles his way through invading Xen aliens. While PinkyDev says the plot is not yet written, the general story will involve G-Man confining Freeman to "an ever-changing loop" to test his skills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ8cZGctdaU

When it will actually release cannot be said at this stage. Also, the reason why it doesn't have Half-Life in the title is because, as the modder says, it stops it from getting confused with other fan-made or official games on Steam. Oh, that's the other thing. This mod will be coming to Steam. According to a report from PCGamesN, Codename: Loop was given the blessing of Valve, which says a lot about the developer's dedication toward the modding community.

While the first game, originally released in 1998, had a huge impact on the FPS genre, 2004's Half-Life 2 pretty much surpassed it. The sequel is easily one of the best games Valve has ever made, but that doesn't detract from the OG's influence. Loop joins the likes of the unofficial remake Black Mesa in a small yet respectable list of fan games that continue the HL legacy.

Half-Life remade as a roguelike, approved by Valve, and playable now [PCGamesN]

The post Half-Life becomes a roguelike, thanks to modder appeared first on Destructoid.

Rise and shine, Valve fans. Rise and shine.

People love Valve games as much as the company seems to hate making them. Valve has changed not just gaming but how we buy games, and has one of the most fervent followings in the history of video game companies. We just know everyone will agree with everything we have to say here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVDFJRM6F9k

10. Aperture Desk Job

Valve likes to make up for games that never come out by just releasing other games that nobody even knew were in the making. That's the story of Aperture Desk Job, a small but hilarious experience meant to introduce people to the then-new Steam Deck.

Once again, Desk Job puts players in the first-person perspective, but there's a twist. We no longer play as a silent hero, but rather as one silent employee of the company responsible for the portal gun and other less interesting things. What do players have to do? Uncover a huge conspiracy and prevent the company from opening a portal that will bring aliens to our world? Nope, we have to test the toilets. Only Valve would put players through such a cheeky task, but damn, do they pull it off. It's unlikely anyone will forget this hilarious little treat.

Strengths: It provides fun additions to the whole Portal lore. Also, it's free.

Weaknesses: It's not the complete Valve experience that players have so desperately been waiting for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2W0N3uKXmo

9. Half-Life: Alyx

While not exactly a game that came out of nowhere, Alyx came out shortly after its reveal, so it also counts as a nice treat. A nice, beautiful, engrossing blockbuster treat.

Alyx shows Valve at its most economically adventurous, a company risking it all to make a AAA experience for the much trickier VR gaming market. Alyx invites players not just to see City 17 but to experience it like never before. Alyx takes place a short while before the events of Half-Life 2, and makes the best possible use of the interaction capabilities provided by VR to make City 17 as darkly engrossing as anything we've ever seen in a game.

Strengths: Finally, an authentic AAA VR experience. SPOILERS: it presents itself as a prequel but also plants some interesting seeds for the future of the series.

Weaknesses: Some repetitive puzzles. Not everyone can afford VR. Only a relatively low percentage of the gaming population will get to experience it, which may also affect investment in future projects of this kind and size.

[caption id="attachment_198925" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image by Valve[/caption]

8. Dota 2

The original Dota may have kickstarted the MOBA craze, but it was Dota 2 that perfected it. Tired of the classic's look and of League Of Legends' "simpler" gameplay? Then step it up and join this beautifully unforgiving arena.

Dota 2 made Dota go from the most ancient-looking MOBA to the most beautiful of the bunch. It's not just surface-level stuff, though, as mechanics such as "denying" add numerous layers that make Dota 2 by far the most challenging MOBA in existence. If there's one fair complaint to be made about this game, it's that it might prove too demanding for people trying to get into it without previous MOBA experience.

Strengths: A massive update of the classic Dota. It's not League Of Legends.

Weaknesses: Might prove too challenging for more casual MOBA fans. It can get just as toxic as League Of Legends.

[caption id="attachment_237727" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image by Valve[/caption]

7. Left 4 Dead 2

we feel safe ranking L4D2 instead of the original because no one will call it an inferior sequel. L4D2 ate the entirety of the original Left 4 Dead and features its entire campaign. That's especially good considering how the original L4D showed the world that four-player co-op shooting games rock. On top of all the hopefully-friendly banter, L4D2 showers players with amounts of quality zombie action never seen before — or since.

Left 4 Dead 2 is yet another top game in a Valve franchise that might inexplicably never get a 3rd entry. That sucks because it's already so good that we just need new campaigns. Come on, those are probably not as hard to make as a new Portal or Half-Life game.

Strengths: The most fun 4-player co-op experience you can have. Don't agree? Fine, you can play any of the hundreds of similar games that exist because of L4D2.

Weaknesses: Accidentally responsible for the swarm of zombie media that took over after 2009.

[caption id="attachment_370730" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image by Valve[/caption]

6. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

CSGO is the Valve-made sequel to the original Counter-Strike, the Half-Life mod that changed competitive gaming forever. This triumph combined graphics superior to those of the otherwise maligned Counter-Strike: Source with a more refined version of the original's gameplay.

We ask purists not to get mad at this choice. The original CS could very well have occupied this spot instead of CSGO, but it wasn't originally developed by Valve.

Strengths: The tightest and most important competitive shooter in history.

Weaknesses: The community can get very toxic and its cosmetics market fuels some shady gambling operations.

[caption id="attachment_367706" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot via teamfortress YouTube Channel[/caption]

5. Team Fortress 2

Ever heard of "The Seinfeld Effect"? It's that feeling of disappointment some go through when they watch Seinfeld after having watched dozens of sitcoms inspired by Seinfeld. Why isn't the show as funny as everyone said it would be? Well, it's just as fun, it's just not new anymore, and many newer shows might have improved upon some of its aspects.

Why did we write an entire paragraph that has nothing to do with games? Because Team Fortress 2 doesn't suffer from that effect. Even though it completely redefined and reinvigorated the class-based shooter over ten years ago, it's yet to feel anything other than fresh by anyone getting into it. So long as they avoid the bot-filled servers, that is.

Strengths: Probably the most fun class-based shooter in existence. It gave birth to Overwatch and, perhaps more importantly, who knows, Battleborn. 

Weaknesses: Playing it nowadays could be challenging as many servers are swarming with troll bots.

[caption id="attachment_195772" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image by Valve[/caption]

4. Portal 2

We know Portal 2 ranks atop most of the Internet's Valve best-of rankings, but please hear us out.

When it comes to gameplay, yes, the additions Valve brought in for Portal 2 make it a better game than the first one. Still, what cemented the first game as a masterpiece was its meticulous balance between gameplay and story. We're not saying the writing in Portal 2 is bad. It's great, actually.

The problem lies with the character progression of GLaDOS, which features some unnecessary retcons that kill the wickedly vile essence the character had in the original game. Other than that, yeah, it's an all-time great.

Strengths: Bigger and better than the first gameplay-wise.

Weaknesses: Some plot retcons cheapen the (still great) experience.

3. Half-Life

Half-Life shows Valve at its most brilliantly counterintuitive. It changed everyone's perception of what a shooter should be. It taught kids and adults alike that cerebral action in a more carefully planned out campaign can provide just as much fun as mindlessly shooting enemies.

It also revolutionized video game storytelling. Half-Life began the trend of ditching conventional cutscenes to instead just show everything happening in front of the player. This approach makes players feel like they're right there in the middle of the action in a way that even Hollywood blockbusters fail to achieve.

Strengths: more inventive gameplay than you'd expect from a shooter. Way more of a narrative than you'd expect from a shooter.

Weaknesses: many fans point to the final segments in the world of Xen as a less-accomplished part of the game, but we actually welcome the attempt at something even weirder than the rest of the game.

[caption id="attachment_271509" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image by Valve[/caption]

2. Portal

If Half-Life made the world better by showing that first-person shooters needn't be all about shooting, then Portal further improved it by showing that first-person games don't even need to be shooters. How did Portal pull off such a feat? It's simple, the game just introduced never-before-seen mind-blowingly revolutionary instant-travel mechanics that blew all of our minds and elevated the bar when it comes to gameplay.

And just as important as the whole "impossibly cool tech" is the story that resides at its heart. Games tend to struggle with comedy. This one excels not just at it, but even at implementing great comedy in an unbelievably bleak sci-fi setting.

Strengths: Some of the best writing we've ever seen — yes, even outside of games. Revolutionary mechanics paired with meticulous level design. The most fun villain in the history of video games.

Weaknesses: One could call it short, but it's definitely a Short King.

https://youtu.be/4ddJ1OKV63Q

1. Half-Life 2 

Saying that Half-Life 2 changed the world would be doing it a disservice. Hell, the game's first E3 tech demo was enough to do that.

Physics manipulation as a serious gameplay element, realistic facial animations, the best graphics of its time, HDR, and one of the most engrossing campaigns in the history of video games. Half-Life 2 was everything. Was there ever really any doubt? In fairness, there could have been. Did you know even Half-Life's own father, Gabe Newell, doesn't rank Half-Life 2 atop his Valve ranking?

GabeN admits frustration over many of the decisions the team made during development, but, as people who merely experienced the end product, it's hard to not just ask "What the hell are you talking about, man?".

Strengths: It elevated the storytelling and worldbuilding of the original game. It showed that physics manipulation rocks, which means it's somewhat responsible for all the cool things we can do in Tears Of The Kingdom. Its online Deathmatch mode is very fun and incredibly underrated.

Weaknesses: The story still yearns for a conclusion (wink wink).

The post Top 10 best games developed by Valve, ranked appeared first on Destructoid.

Ray-sonance cascade

If you’ve been holding off on replaying Half-Life until it gussies itself up a bit and Black Mesa doesn’t feel quite the same, you can now apply some simulated photons to it. Programmer Sultim Tsyrendashiev, the creator of similar mods for Doom, Quake, and Serious Sam, has released a literal glow-up with their Half-Life 1 Ray Traced mod. The mod does exactly what it say on the box by adding path traced illumination and reflections.

Hey, you know what? I started up Half-Life a few weeks ago for a tandem playthrough of it and Black Mesa, so this is the perfect time for me to give it a try. I had left off on the early chapter Office Complex. Installation of the mod is extremely simple, and it launches from a separate executable. Once inside, it was a few quick tweaks to the options, and I was off to the fancily lit races.

[embed]https://youtu.be/LQCZTxzW6A0[/embed]

The mod gives the option to toggle the lighting effects with a single button (you’re stuck with the reflections, however.) Doing so demonstrates that the lighting engine hasn’t simply been overhauled, but some of the fixtures have been changed and light sources added. While some changes are more dramatic than others, I enjoy the effect and find that it didn’t take too much from the feel of the game.

I generally think that ray tracing is a colossal, over-hyped bit of tech designed to speed the planned obsolescence of graphics hardware. Developers have been so good at artistically emulating light and reflection that there are games with ray tracing where the most significant impact of turning it on seems to just be that the framerate drops. Visual differences are negligible, but the performance impact is severe.

But!

I also find that applying modern lighting effects to games where graphical techniques were too primitive to have convincing lighting does give new life to the game. A lot of our brain’s ability to recognize depth and space comes from light and shadow. So while the textures and models remain unchanged, the improved lighting makes for a more convincing image.

Regardless, playing around with old game engines and experiencing familiar games with altered visuals is a lot of fun. And that’s whether you think the added effects are a needed improvement or not.

The Half-Life 1 Ray Traced mod is available for free from the creator’s Github. However, you will need a copy of the original Half-Life (not Half-Life: Source) to stick it into.

The post This mod lets you slather fancy ray tracing all over your Half-Life appeared first on Destructoid.

Check out these Halloween pumpkins with a nerdy twist

I'm not much of a pumpkin-carver myself, but one of the my favorite Halloween activities is seeing everyone post their cool jack-o'-lanterns online. It's all of the fun of a time-honored tradition with none of the work or mess, so that's a win-win in my book. While there are some pretty impressive carvings out there, obviously the best ones are the gaming-themed gourds, and there are plenty of them out there. This year, I scoured Reddit in search of the best pumpkins so you don't have to, and I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with the selection this year.

Cult of the Lamb

Starting off strong with one of my favorite games of the year, this pumpkin features the titular character of Cult of the Lamb, the adorably twisted roguelike/management sim. This carving is complete with bleeding eyes and his little hat, but the best part is that the back of the pumpkin is carved with the symbols of all four heretic prophets. Major points for the attention to detail!

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/yfezqe/worship_lamb/

Pac-Man

Pac-Man is one of the most well-loved games of all time, so it's only natural it would pop up on this list more than once. This jack-o'-lantern in particular features one of the game's four ghosts, and has the bottom of the pumpkin carved out to make the little guy look like he's floating. I have no idea how they managed to suspend the light inside, but it looks awesome.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/y997bq/pacman_ghost_made_for_a_work_pumpkin_contest/

Resident Evil Village

It wouldn't be Halloween with a Resident Evil-themed pumpkin, and this one features the giantess that broke the internet: Lady Dimitrescu. I'm honestly surprised at how well her likeness transferred onto a seasonal fruit, but sure enough, it's unmistakably her. Couldn't miss her with that cleavage and that hat.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/yfrezr/lady_dimitrescu_pumpkin_i_carved_this_year/

Fallout

This next one isn't so much a pumpkin carving as it is a pumpkin painting, but it's definitely in the spirit of things, so I'm including it. A Fallout fan painted his pumpkin so that it depicted the Vault Boy in his classic thumbs up pose, and he even has the matching t-shirt to boot. A painted design looks like a great alternative for someone who doesn't want to spend half the night mopping up pumpkin guts, so I might have to follow suit next year.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/y6j8wx/vault_boy_pumpkin_i_painted/

Portal

Okay, this Portal pumpkin has to be my favorite of the year. Not only is it from one of my favorite game series of all time, but this turret pumpkin carving has to be one of the most creative jack-o'-lantern designs I've ever seen. The creator actually 3D printed all of the plastic pieces featured (and provided the plans for anyone who wants to replicate it), and actually posted a video of the build. This is a triumph, huge success.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/yfzhl8/i_made_my_pumpkin_into_a_portal_turret_for/

The Legend of Zelda

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/y5xoxe/i_carved_link_into_a_pumpkin/

It's great to see another classic game series represented, and this pumpkin was carved with all of the elegance the series deserves. It may be a bit simple compared to some of the other jack-o'-lanterns on this list, but it's got to be one of the cleanest. The simple, cartoony depiction of Breath of the Wild Link is so well carved, I can't imagine how much time it took to refine.

Half-Life, Pac-Man, and Chess

What's better than a jack-o'-lantern? Four jack-o'-lanterns! An entire family carved their pumpkins together to depict their favorite games, featuring the Half-Life logo, a depiction of Pac-Man chasing a ghost, and what was going to be a chess board, the poster clarified in the comments, but ended up being a cool-looking geometric design. There's also a little mini pumpkin in the mix, and while I don't think the owl is a nod to any game in particular, it is absolutely adorable.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/yf9s3h/check_out_my_familys_pumpkins_mine_is_the/

Minecraft and Among Us

Pretty much all of the Halloween pumpkin carvings on this list look like they could have been done by a professional, but these pumpkins actually were -- the Minecraft and Among Us pumpkins are part of an event called Carved at the Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge, California. The meticulously detailed jack-o'-lanterns are some of the best I've ever seen, and I understand why people would pay money to see gardens full of pumpkins like these.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/yb8ny8/gaming_pumpkins_carved_descanso_gardens/

Luigi's Mansion

Luigi's Mansion is a perfect game to represent on a Halloween pumpkin, because what could be more Halloween-y than a big spooky house full of ghosts. Not only does the front have a classically-terrified Luigi mid-scream, but also features a boo carved into the back, which illuminates the wall behind with its spooky silhouette. Great idea, even better execution!

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/yfmzvn/my_jack_olantern_this_year/

Well, that's our list of the best gaming Halloween pumpkins of the year. Are there any we missed? Do you carve your own gaming jack-o'-lanterns? What's your favorite game you'd want to see carved into the side of a gourd? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Here are the best gaming-themed pumpkin carvings this Halloween appeared first on Destructoid.

A new adventure from some of the community's best modders

Valve's catalog has been modded again and again, and has even given birth to iconic titles like Garry's Mod and The Stanley Parable. Now the modding community is taking on the studio's most recent release, Half-Life: Alyx, to build on the game's world and characters and deliver a whole new narrative adventure. It's called Half-Life Alyx: Leviathan, and we got a full eight-minute gameplay demo during today's PC Gaming Show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WE1qf3Z_-s

We got a look at some close encounters, tense shootouts, and even a brief cameo by the ever-iconic Gordon Freeman. Leviathan looks indistinguishable from the real Half-Life: Alyx experience, and it looks like it's shaping up to be a must-play for anyone with a VR headset.

The project was created by modders FMPONE and Corey Laddo, and is set to release sometime in 2022 on Steam.

The post Ambitious Half-Life: Alyx mod Leviathan brings a whole new adventure appeared first on Destructoid.

And we're right there with him

It's been over eleven years since Portal 2 was released, and it looks like the fans aren't the only ones who are clamoring for Valve to start on a follow-up to one of its most beloved games ever. Erik Wolpow, co-writer of both of the Portal games, as well as plenty of other famous Valve titles like Left 4 Dead and Half-Life: Alyx, went on the Kiwi Talkz Podcast this week and urged Valve to start work on Portal 3, as originally reported by VGC.

His exact words were: "I am not getting any younger. We are reaching the point where it’s crazy to think [that we’re] literally going to be too old to work on Portal 3, so we should just do it.”

First off, I think Wolpow is hilarious, and I think from this interview it's really easy to tell that he wrote the Portal games. I also think it's cool that he wants to come back, because it shows how much he really enjoyed working on those games. His comments also show that while he may have been instrumental in creating the game series we know and love, his wish for another sequel alone isn't enough to get the ball rolling at the studio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzkVD94yAmA

Wolpow goes on to discuss that a lot of fans are wondering what the team over at Valve is actually working on, but assures us it's not all for nothing.

"As much as it seems like Valve often [is] just a bunch of people sitting around sipping gin and tonics by a pool, everybody’s working," he said. "They’re working all the time, it’s just you don’t always see the [result], it doesn’t always end up coming out, or it comes out years later, it gets turned into something else. So everybody is accounted for, I guess is what I’m saying."

This constant shifting and changing of plans is a classic tale of game development, and Valve has enough of that sweet Steam money to keep the lights on while they try to figure out their next move.

I'm with Wolpow — if they ever want to make another Portal game, they need to do it soon, and they need to do it with him and the rest of the original dev team while they still can. I get the feeling that any other attempt won't be as successful.

The post Original Portal co-writer urges Valve to start making Portal 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

Be still my Atomic Heart

Atomic Heart stirred up a lot of interest when it was initially announced back in 2017. It looks like it has a really unique Soviet-retro-future aesthetic, but will pull inspiration from classics like BioShock and Half-Life. I've kind of kept this game in the back of my mind since I saw that first trailer, but with updates being so few and far between, it had sort of started fading out of my mind. That was until I saw that the game just got a release window.

The game's publisher Mundfish just released a new story trailer, which of course gives us an ever bigger look into what the game will actually be -- which includes bombastic action, intense set pieces, some body horror, and lots and lots of robots. I'm hesitant to trust game trailers these days, if this one is an accurate representation of what Atomic Heart really is... I think it looks amazing. I don't want to speak too soon, but I think it has the makings to be a GOTY contender. In the midst of an oversaturated genre, its worldbuilding and aesthetics are imaginative in a way I haven't seen from games much recently, and desperately miss. Of course, we'll just have to wait and see if they follow through on a promising trailer, but I'm certainly rooting for them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4VENshiOkw

The end of the trailer gives us the info for a release window, and they take their sweet time building the anticipation of revealing that Atomic Heart is coming out sometime this year. We also got a message that says "#######BER," so we know that they're planning to release sometime within the last four months of the year. Especially with the uncertainty of development during the pandemic, this was a smart move so they don't have to delay later, if that kind of thing would be necessary down the line.

The post BioShock-inspired shooter Atomic Heart gets a new trailer, release window appeared first on Destructoid.

Valve CEO thought it was great 'to be back doing single-player games' with Half-Life: Alyx

In a wide-ranging interview with Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, TVNZ's 1 News asked if there were any new Valve games "coming out soon" – to which he laughed and responded, "I'm sure there are."

"Yes, we definitely have games in development that we're going to be announcing," he elaborated, adding that "it's fun to ship games." Newell brought up last year's Half-Life: Alyx, a game that felt like a collective sigh of relief for anxious fans longing for something, anything. "Alyx was great; to be back doing single-player games, that created a lot of momentum inside of the company to do more of that."

On the topic of never-ending calls for Half-Life 3, Portal 3, and the number three in general, Newell said "the nice thing is, by not answering those questions, I avoid the community coming up with new, equally difficult-to-answer questions." (He was also asked about code-name "Citadel," but was coy as usual.)

I feel like we've heard this all before due to the way Valve works on its own time while fans dig for clues before they're finalized, but maybe – just maybe – things are different in a post-Half-Life: Alyx world.

As for Newell, he's residing in New Zealand and hopes to stay "for the foreseeable future." He also spoke about the country, Dota 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Valve Index, and what he's been playing lately.

'Realistic possibility' $48m esports tournament could be held in NZ, says gaming tycoon Gabe Newell [1 News | TVNZ via VGC]

The post Gabe Newell says it’s ‘fun to ship games’ and Valve ‘definitely’ has announcements to make appeared first on Destructoid.

Escapism was the real MVP for me this year

2020 royally sucked ass for many people and for a lot of obvious reasons. Quality escapism has never been more important to me than it has been this past year. Simply taking my mind off things through video games is a luxury and I'm more thankful for the people that create them than ever before in my life. TL;DR: Thank fuck for video games for making this year more bearable.

With the past year in the rear-view mirror, I'm excited to kick off this decade with my personalized top ten games from 2020. If there's one standout aspect within the realm of video games this year – even with the shiny new console hardware – it's simply how many older games can still be great with a fresh new look or reimagined approach.

Keep in mind, I did miss out on some notable releases, including The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Doom Eternal, and Hades. This is unfortunate, considering all of these games are racking up numerous awards from other outlets, but it'll make my ever-growing backlog all the more exciting.

Black Mesa was technically released almost a decade ago (2012 to be exact); however, the game officially released earlier this year in March, fully complete and with a reimagined Xen to celebrate the occasion.

Xen was arguably the weakest segment for the original Half-Life, and Crowbar Collective's take on this alien world is a vast improvement. New additions such as the HEV suit head crab zombies and completely redesigned areas turn what was once a chore to go through in the original into an exciting last stretch in this fantastic remake.

However, it does go long. This new take on Xen, although an overall improvement, lasts a solid chunk of hours your first time through. Combine that with fairly dated visuals by today's standards and lackluster AI at times, and Black Mesa certainly still feels like a game from a decade ago. But, if you've never played the Half-Life games, it's still a damn fine place to start.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the most heartfelt and positive games to come out this miserable year. It was arguably the best kind of escapism that so many people sorely needed.

For me, though, it was the Animal Crossing game I fell off the fastest due to just how many other games grabbed my attention this year. That said, I'll still probably be revisiting my island for many more years to come (you know, between all the months I've forgotten about it and then have to pick weeds all day). At least I'm not the mayor this time!

Photography is a hobby I definitely want to dive into at some point, and Umurangi Generation captures those best moments...of capturing those best moments! However, it also has a gorgeous cel-shaded visual style and soundtrack seemingly right out of Jet Set Radio.

Combine that with unique world-building and environmental storytelling depicting an on-going world crisis with some incredibly memorable photography mechanics (like taking a picture of something massive off in the distance, only to then be terrified of what you just shot after adjusting the exposure), and it's a game I won't soon forget.

Disclosure: I also happen to be a friend of the developer, so take this with a grain of salt if need be, but if cool visuals, good music, and chill photography is up your alley, I don't think it'll disappoint.

The original Final Fantasy VII holds a lot of nostalgia for me in that it's both the first JRPG and Final Fantasy game I ever played. Looking back, I hardly ever replayed it, so when I first played the Remake earlier this year, it gave me goosebumps just seeing that world brought to life and with so much more attention to detail than I could have ever imagined.

The newly remixed soundtrack also has some of the best background music in video games I've ever heard, straight up. Throw in some actual depth to the action-RPG combat in tandem with the Materia system, and I was a pretty happy camper all around...until the ending came along. But even then, I'm still fairly excited (if not morbidly curious) to see where they'll be taking things next.

After over a decade of disappointment, I went into Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 with a fair bit of caution (especially after Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5). Thankfully, that feeling of caution quickly dissipated as I began performing combos, collecting skate letters, and melting into my chair to the sounds of pop-punk. Time slipped away as I played the entirety of both campaigns and I'm still craving more of it.

As much as I'd love to see Visceral Games give the same accurate treatment to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4 (or even the Underground games, for that matter), I can't help but be curious about what they could pull off with their own original take on a game. Basically, Activision should hand the keys to the Tony Hawk series over to Visceral and let them go absolutely hog wild with it.

I managed to squeeze in a full playthrough for Cyberpunk 2077 before 2020 came to an end and although it failed to deliver on last-gen consoles, what's here – when it works – is fantastic. Chris Carter truly said it best in his review that it's just fun to "hang out." Simply exploring Night City, discovering odd jobs, taking in the scenery, and driving funky retro-futuristic vehicles hooked me in the right ways to keep progressing despite the technical hiccups.

If you're still on the fence about playing it: Absolutely wait it out.

I guarantee you once the next-gen versions of Cyberpunk 2077 are available (along with the [insert edition] that includes all the DLC) a year or two from now, it'll be a much more stable and complete experience. Cyberpunk 2077 on last-gen consoles is just not worth the technical hassle and should have just been canceled and billed as a next-gen only experience. Sure, they would have taken a big financial hit without those last-gen sales, but Cyberpunk 2077 would have placed better on my personalized top-ten list! CDPR truly missed out on the Dan recognition factor (and the exciting possibilities that go with that).

Despite only being a roughly two-hour experience, I've sunk probably dozens of hours into replaying the game off and on with different characters, and I'm still in disbelief Streets of Rage 4 is even a reality and that it's this good of a game. For context: Streets of Rage was a series I thought was doomed to forever being re-released in various collections and nothing more.

Thankfully, something or someone at Sega spurred them on to finally give the series another lease on life, and it's goddamn glorious. With new music from the original composer, new mechanics such as a risk/reward system in using special movies and dealing damage to regain health, and a large cast of characters new and old, Streets of Rage 4 is pretty much a perfect follow-up to the original trilogy. Here's hoping we don't have to wait as long for another one.

Until Dawn was a game that flipped my expectations in the best possible ways, so when Supermassive announced The Dark Pictures Anthology, I was all aboard that hype train. Sadly, its debut title, Man of Medan, didn't capture that same magic. It was instead exactly what I expected and fell flat for me in a lot of ways. It showed its cards way too soon, and its horror gimmick was far too predictable.

Little Hope, however, kept me guessing right until the very end and captured my interest the whole way through thanks to the formulas they've done right with character-driven storytelling and choice-driven cinematic horror. Throw in some Silent Hill inspirations (my all-time favorite horror series), and Little Hope ended up being one of my favorite games of the year.

For whatever reason, I never got around to actually playing any of the Souls games. I've always had this mentality of playing games within a series by release order, and lately, playing older games has fallen more and more by the wayside due to constantly keeping up with new releases. So, with the announcement of the Demon's Souls remake, I knew this was the perfect opportunity to dive in and see what I've been missing finally.

My first day could be summarized as constant death and frustration. Most folks would have probably called it a day or played something else entirely. Still, something about Demon's Souls kept me coming back for more, whether it was the gorgeous visuals and atmosphere or simply chasing that feeling of overcoming its many challenges. I can only imagine this is an ancient take by now, but Demon's Souls thrives off not only the challenge it presents but in the reward of seeing more of it.

Each of its worlds continues to become more grotesque and all the more interesting to witness first-hand. No matter how long it took me to progress in a specific world, I would always look forward to seeing more of it. From frantically running across the bridge in Boletaria, to getting lost down in the tunnels of Tunnel City, Demon's Souls made me work for every inch of its incredible atmosphere. Bluepoint did an outstanding job making it all the more beautiful and turning Demon's Souls into a launch title I'll never forget.

In 2017, Marc Laidlaw put up a blog on his personal website titled "Epistle 3" – breaking down what essentially would have been the story for the now-canceled Half-Life 2: Episode 3. At the time, I thought that was the final nail in the coffin of the franchise and that Valve had simply moved on from Half-Life. So, I did the same. Half-Life in my mind was this great but unfinished and dead franchise. I was convinced it was never returning due to an endless list of factors.

So, when Half-Life: Alyx was announced, it felt like a fever dream. I remember the moment I finished watching the announcement trailer: I knew right there and then I had to get my hands (and head) on a VR headset. The technology is great, but I couldn't help but feel anxious about finally playing a new Half-Life. How do you revive a series that ended on a cliffhanger over a decade ago and live up to the mountain of expectations that go with it? Especially for a series that, with each mainline entry, set new standards for first-person shooters.

I went in asking these questions, and by the time I was done with Half-Life: Alyx, I was floored with Valve's answers to them. Literally stepping into Alyx Vance's shoes and experiencing the world of Half-Life within VR can't be done justice without trying it for yourself. Little details like picking up a trashcan lid to block headcrabs from fornicating with your face to just the sheer sense of scale you feel when looking up at everything around you.

But what amazed me even more than the incredible technology was just how well written and thought out Half-Life: Alyx was. Going into why would include way too many spoilers, so I'll just say this: Half-Life: Alyx ends on a note that has me more excited than ever for where Half-Life could be going next, and it completely reignited my fandom for this series. That alone makes it my personal game of the year.

The post Dan Roemer’s personal top 10 games of 2020 appeared first on Destructoid.

Half-Life: Alyx

This year was mostly bad for everyone -- and that's a thing that's usually said very hyperbolically because a couple celebrities died or whatever, but in 2020 it feels appropriate for once -- but it wasn't without its silver linings. We got a new Half-Life game! If you're not fortunate enough to have a relatively high-end PC and a virtual reality setup, this silver lining does not apply to you. What a brutal year.

For those lucky few though, Half-Life: Alyx was worth the wait. (And that itself might be hyperbolic because 13 years is a very long time to wait for a video game.) It's a high-profile showcase of the best VR has to offer. It's also a stunningly good Half-Life game. Swapping protagonists and strapping on a headset didn't force Valve to make any concessions with regard to quality. It only amplified things.

Yes, Alyx gives us a continuation of that sweet sweet Half-Life lore, but its legacy is in how effectively it transports players into City 17. The uneasy trepidation of meeting a Vortigaunt for the first time. The tense and tactile way that you reload Alyx's humble arsenal of guns. Squishing an Antlion Grub canister in a health station and then watching as the pins prick your hands to instantly nurse you back from the brink of death. 

You feel as though you're in Alyx's shoes, and that's exactly what Valve set out to accomplish. Half-Life's world is more magical the more immersed you are. VR makes it all possible by really making you feel the whole game. It also helps that Half-Life: Alyx basically came with assurances that we're getting a Half-Life 3 at some point... if you trust that Valve wouldn't leave us dangling from an unbearable cliffhanger again.

If you know, you know. If you don't, I'm so sorry. That's the gift and the curse of VR. You need to see it to believe it. But if you know, then you understand why Half-Life: Alyx is our 2020 PC Game of the Year.

The post Destructoid’s award for Best PC Game of 2020 goes to… appeared first on Destructoid.

Flip on the ol' Developer Commentary

In-game commentaries are synonymous with Valve, but due to the rough year we've all been through, Half-Life: Alyx wasn't able to launch with the Developer Commentary fans have come to expect.

Almost eight months later – and just in time for game-of-the-year discussions to begin in earnest – Valve has added the commentary feature to Alyx with a free update released today on Steam.

There are caveats – as Valve admits, the team had to use "closets and blanket forts" instead of its "comfortable high-quality recording studio" due to COVID – but there are over three hours of behind-the-scenes tidbits. The commentary touches on "art, animation, rendering, sound, and more."

Basically, it's perfect for your inevitable next replay – just start a new save with Developer Commentary toggled on. According to Valve, there are subtitles for English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Castilian Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Russian, Polish, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese.

I always appreciate sincere, meaningful commentary tracks, but there's something extra special about the hands-on nature of Valve's narrations. In this case, there are 147 "points of interest" to find.

Commentary Update [Steam]

The post Half-Life: Alyx now has three hours of commentary waiting for you appeared first on Destructoid.

It hits Steam on August 5

The time has finally come for Phantasy Star Online 2 to be free of the Windows launcher and arrive on Steam. When that day arrives (August 5, by the way!), it'll bear some gifts for Steam users.

According to the official PSO2 blog, Sega is rolling out rewards for folks who log in on Steam. All you have to do is log into the game near the release date to grab the Headcrab Emote from Half-Life, as well as a number of booster items. If you finish any quest once on normal or casual difficulty (or higher), you'll get the Pyro's gas mask from Team Fortress 2, as well as the Alyx hairstyle from Half-Life Alyx.

For finishing any quest on hard/hardcore difficulty, you'll get a Wheatley evolution device, as well as a Left 4 Dead frying pan, a Team Fortress 2 minigun and a Half-Life crowbar. Continuing on (haha, this list is actually pretty great), for completing any quest on very hard difficulty or higher, you'll get a Half-Life HEV suit, and completing any quest for times on super hard difficulty will net you an Alyx replica outfit from Half-Life Alyx. Phew!

As a reminder, the game is cross-play and will offer cross-progress with the Steam edition. So you really have nothing to lose if you want to go for broke and grab these items: just know that in typical PSO2 fashion, they'll be "distributed at a later date." Good luck!

PSO2: Steam Launch Rewards [Sega]

The post Phantasy Star Online 2’s Steam launch is offering Half-Life bonuses appeared first on Destructoid.

Developer struggles

Contrary to popular belief, Valve was working on the three-numbered games in those franchises that everyone loves. It wasn't laziness, disinterest, or prioritizing Steam that kept Valve from finishing those games. Instead, it was a problem with the very foundation they were being built upon.

Geoff Keighley's Half-Life: Alyx -- Final Hours documentary released today for $10 on Steam. It's a look back at the past 10 years of Valve, all framed against the recent launch of Alyx and what it took to get that game finished. As promised, there are some interesting nuggets about projects that never came to fruition.

IGN has already watched through the doc and reported on a few canceled games of interest. For instance, at least five Half-Life projects were started and then scrapped between Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Alyx. One of those was formally meant to be Half-Life 3.

The reason Valve never persisted and saw Half-Life 3 through was because the Source 2 engine wasn't finished and development was unworkable without it. However, it's said that Half-Life 3 was going to be a procedurally-generated game where the story beats were preset, but the gameplay would turn out differently because building layouts and enemy placements would always be randomized. Apparently, Valve was aiming for a game that was highly replayable. It sounds novel back in 2013 (which is when Half-Life 3 was in development) but not so much anymore.

It's a similar story with Left 4 Dead 3. This third spin for the cooperative zombie shooter was going to be set in Morocco and would've possibly had horde counts that stretched into hundreds of zombies being on-screen at once. Most interesting, it's said to have been open-world rather than akin to the linear campaign chapters in the first two games. But, just like Half-Life 3, Valve gave up on the third Left 4 Dead because Source 2 wasn't far enough along.

There's more in the documentary and everything is said in greater detail, but there's one teaser that might pique your interest: Valve has been working on a "top secret project"since 2018 and there's no information as to what it might be. Everything always has to be so mysterious with Valve!

Details of Multiple Cancelled Valve Projects Revealed, Including Half-Life 3 [IGN]

The post Half-Life 3 and Left 4 Dead 3 were both scrapped because Source 2 was unfinished appeared first on Destructoid.

Now your VR headset is beer goggles

Half-Life: Alyx is full of a million tiny little touches that make it a splendidly neat VR game. You can wear a bucket on your head and it protects you from Barnacles. There's a fully-functioning piano in a hotel lobby. It's all a bunch of stuff that's easy to miss but makes this world feel authentic.

Valve just released a new Half-Life: Alyx update that comes with an especially important innovation: Booze convincingly sloshes around inside bottles. Visual effects developer Matthew Wilde took to Twitter to show off his pet project, saying that he spent a lot of the past two months at home working on "boozy liquid shader." Here it is in action:

Spent a good chunk of lock-down doing this important work. Boozy liquid shader, now available in the latest update for Half-Life: Alyx pic.twitter.com/Iw9h98pmEg

— Matthew Wilde (@skilful) May 28, 2020

Necessary? Nope. Extremely cool? Yep, definitely.

Considering that Half-Life: Alyx has a whole chapter that takes place in a vodka distillery, this new shader should be noticed by most everyone who returns to City 17. Previously, bottles just had a cloudy look to them, like you could tell they were full but without ever actually seeing the liquid. Don't get too distracted by this new alcoholic aesthetic; that asshole Jeff will find you if you're not willing to break a few bottles.

The post Half-Life: Alyx’s firewater sloshes around real nice now appeared first on Destructoid.

Shephard's sequel

It's been long known that Valve contracted Arkane Studios in the mid-'00s to make a new Half-Life game. However, little was actually known about that project except that it was set in Ravenholm and that Valve canceled production before it was close to finished. Now, thanks to NoClip's most recent documentary, we have a clearer idea of this project that never came to fruition.

PC Gamer broke out all the nitty gritty details shortly after the documentary aired. This new game (which was reportedly going to be Half-Life 2: Episode 4) was considered to be more of a spin-off than anything else. The main reason for this is that it didn't star Gordon Freeman. The protagonist was Half-Life: Opposing Force lead Adrian Shephard.

All of the Half-Life games that were developed outside of Valve have had alternate protagonists, and Arkane's game would've followed suit. Gearbox Software made Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay; they starred Shephard, Barney Calhoun, and Colette Green and Gina Cross, respectively.

Inventive use of tools would've been a main focus of this game. A primary mechanic for both combat and puzzle-solving was a nail gun used for stringing power lines to an active outlet, creating an electricity field for shocking hordes of zombies. A locomotion tool was a leafblower that's outfitted to allow Shephard to double jump. There's also talk of a chainsaw.

Shephard had a sidekick: Father Grigori whom Freeman encounters in Half-Life 2. The priest is experimenting with Ravenholm's undead citizens, taking headcrabs and cooking them down into drug-laced drinks. It, uhh, doesn't end well for Father Grigori. He'd eventually mutate into some sort of monster.

But, it was all for naught. Valve canned the project. Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio says he believes it was because the game would've required at least another year of funding, which was an investment Valve didn't want to make. There's probably truth to that -- but, knowing what we know now, it's tough not to think Valve canceled Arkane's Episode 4 because it had no intention of getting around to an Episode 3.

Arkane's Half-Life spin-off featured Opposing Force's protagonist and his mate, a mutant priest [PC Gamer]

The post Arkane’s canceled Half-Life game didn’t star Gordon Freeman appeared first on Destructoid.

Freeman was kung fu fighting

Ravenholm. We don't go there. But, foolishly, we were going to go back there.

In hindsight, this feels like an extreme case of getting ahead of yourself. Back in 2006, Arkane Studios (before it became a Zenimax subsidiary) was contracted by Valve to make Half-Life 2: Episode 4 which was titled Return to Ravenholm. How young and naive we all were, thinking that Half-Life 2: Episode 3's eventual release was a foregone conclusion.

Today, video game documentary production NoClip released a new eight-second GIF of Return to Ravenholm's gameplay:

(5/7) pic.twitter.com/dCDRD3x71y

— Noclip (@noclipvideo) May 21, 2020

Half-Life diehards will instantly recognize that this prototype footage has a lot to wrap your head around. The zombies look nothing like they did in Half-Life 2 (although this could be a case of placeholder models), they're capable of ripping doors off their hinges, and Gordon Freeman has a "This is Sparta!" kick for blasting the undead straight in the face. I'm left imagining the G-Man lifelessly saying "Very flexible, Mr. Freeman."

This NewClip is promotion for NoClip's upcoming documentary on Arkane. While Arkane is currently best-known as the architect of brilliant games like Dishonored and 2017's Prey, its pre-ZeniMax past is filled with canceled projects. The studio's key players go into depth about all of that when NoClip's documentary airs on Tuesday, May 26. If you need more convincing, here's the trailer (which, conveniently, has more Half-Life footage, including some sort of electro-trap for incinerating zombies).

The post Here’s a GIF of Arkane’s canceled Half-Life 2: Episode 4 and Ravenholm’s door-ripping zombies appeared first on Destructoid.

Can you Handel it?

The internet is incredible but oftentimes predictable. For instance, as soon as I saw a hotel lobby piano in Half-Life: Alyx, I thought "Oh shit, people are gonna play real music on that." And they have. But just because it's predictable doesn't mean that watching them plunk away at virtual ebonies and ivories is any less fascinating.

Not all Alyx players will find themselves capable of playing the Northern Star's piano, and it has nothing to do with musical aptitude. It's really only possible on the Valve Index's controls because they individual finger tracking. Anyone on Oculus Touch or any of the other VR controllers will only be able to mash their fists against the keys. It doesn't sound great.

However, those with Index controllers are able to perform a virtual concerto. Let's take a look at some of the best. First, I would like to start with the maestro who took his time to perfect the beat:

Now, let's move into nu-metal. If you think rap to Linkin Park is whiplash, you obviously don't remember Collision Course. (I ordered a frappuccino, where's my fucking frappuccino?) 

Too simple? Okay, here's a virtuoso who took Russ up on his joking request to play "Flight of the Bumblebee!" This operatic orchestral piece was written in 1900 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for The Tale of Tsar Saltan. It is, for lack of better descriptors, chaotic and fast as hell. It's basically a constant run of sixteenth notes up and down the chromatic scale. This is impressive dedication to the in-game gag, even if it takes a six-video split-screen to make it happen.

From one classic masterpiece straight into another. All that glitters is gold: 

Let's cap it off with the song everyone knew would show up on this list. "Still Alive" once used to describe GLaDOS' never-dead state, now describes our chances for more Half-Life and Portal. Huge success.

The post My new lane is watching people play music on Half-Life: Alyx’s piano appeared first on Destructoid.

Valve is back

Every so often we tackle dual reviews, where two authors share their takes on a game and provide a single combined score. What better game to bring that concept back than Half-Life: Alyx, the first new Half-Life game in ages.

Gather around as Chris Carter shares his thoughts with the Valve Index version of the game, while Brett Makedonski plays it on the Oculus Rift.

Half-Life: Alyx (PC [reviewed with a Valve Index and an Oculus Rift])
Developer: Valve
Publisher: Valve
Release: March 23, 2020
MSRP: $59.99

Chris Carter (Valve Index):

I still can't believe I played a new Half-Life game. It took Valve long enough, but we're here. And yes, it does feel like a new Half-Life, thank you very much!

This is 2020: we're past the era where high-profile VR games are assumed tech demos, as some recent big names have shown us. Valve is equally up to the task with Alyx, and gives us one of the most technically impressive VR games to date, especially on a high-end rig. Even something as simple as looking up at the sky through glass in its opening moments will be enough to elicit a jaw-drop from veteran VR players, and of course, those who are coming into the hobby blind. Ha, through the looking glass! I'm going to be super vague here on story details as I'm sure a lot of you have been walking on eggshells around Alyx coverage.

Whether or not you're new to VR, Alyx is extremely accessible with four difficulty settings and three movement options, all of which can be swapped at any time. Even if you go for full locomotion (read: FPS movement with the left analog stick), a clever use of a "jump" teleport mechanic allows you to easily re-orient your setup without having to back out into a main menu. Playing standing the entire time (I need to be able to instantly turn around!), it's one of the most comfortable VR experiences I've had the pleasure of being a part of.

You know what's uncomfortable (in a good way)? How creepy this game can be at times. You're not just fighting the Combine threat (which, to be frank, is a bit old at this point but they'll do), you're navigating droves of Xen creatures like Barnacles, Headcrabs and Zombies. Seeing all of these up-close, right in front of your face, is enough to scar some people for life, and frankly, reinvents them for a new era. I literally don't even look up when I get caught by a Barnacle, preferring to blind-fire my pistol at them: I hate them that much. Out of the 100+ VR games I've played in my lifetime, this is one of the most terrifying worlds I've been a part of.

The story is a mix between things you've seen before and new developments. A [speaking] Alyx is the main star, which is possibly the most new thing on offer, but there's plenty of mostly tasteful fanservicey things sprinkled in. You have to give it to Valve though, it all feels authentic, even minute gameplay choices. Puzzles rule in Half-Life: Alyx, and I'm not even talking about the typical "hand crank" or "button pressing" literal puzzles.

You can grab a giant barrel with two hands and chuck it at something then run away. Or you can stack boxes like that one scene from Home Alone 2 ("solid as a rock!") to get somewhere. All of that, which requires no jostling and no UI, is accomplished by moving your hands around in the VR space, or by naturally grabbing and flicking items toward you with your Gravity Gloves.

So I'm coming at this from a different perspective on the technical side, which is partly why we have two reviews. I own every current major VR headset on the market, and have been playing VR games consistently since 2016. While Valve knocks it out of the park in the story department, they still have work ahead of them when it comes to VR controls. Again, Valve did a great job here, but I have a few hangups.

A lot of current VR designers are getting away from excessive menus, in an effort to keep inventory management more natural. So when you need a pistol, you grab it from your hip. If you need a shotgun, it's on your back, and an SMG is on your chest; that sort of thing. In Alyx, you need to navigate a small "+" shaped menu with a button press to swap between those three aforementioned weapons and your multi-tool (which plugs into stuff and solves puzzles). When you're walking around, it's an annoyance at worst. During the heat of a really intense firefight, it can be a problem and hamstrings fluid combat.

That said, the two-hand system is extremely versatile, and squeezing a grenade with the Index remotes or triggering individual finger movement is wild. There was one moment where I was sticking my hand into a med bay for healing, and using the other hand to grab items in that same room while looking around. That's not something you can typically do in a non-VR game, and Valve did right by the modern VR fantasy. It feels justified as something that needs to be VR. Just a word of warning: if you're using the Index, charge your controllers between sessions! This is a long game (my first run took me 10 and a half hours, with a near 100% completion rate) and those things can run out of juice after a long session.

My Half-Life: Alyx experience can best be described as "joy." Joy found in playing another Half-Life for the first time in...forever, and joy found in natural puzzle solving. This is legit, folks. A 10-12 hour Half-Life might finally be enough for you to spring for a VR headset.

Brett Makedonski (Oculus Rift):

Half-Life: Alyx is a Half-Life game. That's a sentence I was terrified I wouldn't be able to write. I was worried --convinced nearly -- it'd be a glorified tech demo or an impostor wearing a Half-Life mask. As it turns out, a silent man wielding a crowbar is not necessarily criteria for a Half-Life game.

Sidekick extraordinaire Alyx Vance slides into the star role's spotlight like she had been the lead woman all along. Passed the torch (crowbar?) from Gordon Freeman, Alyx leaves her own mark on Half-Life, providing observational commentary and occasionally chatting away on a two-way radio. It's natural and fitting. Valve deserves credit for having the confidence to pull off a protagonist swap, especially considering how strongly and passionately people associate Half-Life with Freeman.

However, Valve's greatest accomplishment with Alyx is that it managed to craft a narrative that's essential to the Half-Life canon. This isn't an inconsequential side-story of different people in a different time. (Remember: It takes place prior to the events of Half-Life 2.) It cleverly interjects itself into existing storylines, filling in gaps and giving new perspectives. Starting with Alyx out to save her father (Eli Vance, the name probably rings a bell) after he's abducted by the Combine, it quickly unravels into a whole bigger thing. Alyx is such an indispensable Half-Life game that I legitimately feel bad for any fans who are without the means to have a virtual reality setup.

It doesn't take long with a helmet strapped to your head to understand why Valve was so insistent that Alyx be a VR game. VR truly elevates Half-Life, bringing the world of City 17 alive in incredible ways. The opening minutes had me fascinated, watching Combine patrol units police the streets. That fascination never waned, whether it was carefully peeking around rafters to look straight up at a barnacle's horrific maw or knocking around the heads of now twice-dead zombies like the psychopath I am.

That immersion, VR's inherent ability to place you inside worlds, is what makes Half-Life: Alyx so special. In the 15 hours it took me to get through the campaign -- I evidently played much slower than Chris -- I never once felt at ease. I had plenty of flashbacks to Resident Evil 7, as I dreaded every upcoming encounter and scrounged for resources that always seemed in perfectly short supply. More appropriately, Alyx constantly conjured memories of Half-Life 2's Ravenholm. We don't go there for a reason. Alyx is a masterclass in unnerving environment, and the whole thing is just so fucking intense.

Virtual reality can be a double-edged sword, even if the pros definitely outweigh the cons. Valve implements an awkward weapon-wheel menu that can lead to unintended weapon swaps. It's frustrating to fail thanks to your own flailing during battle or when a particularly feisty headcrab sends you into a panic, and you switch to the wrong gun and it's out of ammo. Also, the limitations of VR are evident in the design as Half-Life: Alyx rarely sends you into large-scale battles. It'd be too calamitous and disorienting to have bullets flying at you from all directions, so Valve usually confines Combine fights to waves of three. It's still intimidating.

There are also obvious seams where Valve designed Alyx to cater to innovative interactions that VR affords. For instance, a new alien flora is introduced out of nowhere in service of framing a later chapter around using the tracking controls to avoid a hazard. It comes off as neat if not a little gimmicky. Don't worry: The rest of that chapter is superb in every way.

Although I didn't play on the Valve Index, which Alyx was specifically developed for, I didn't notice any real drawbacks to playing on the Oculus Touch controllers. It quickly becomes second nature to use the triggers for the Gravity Gloves to coolly fling things toward you, catch them, and then toss them. You'll do this many times, and you'll eventually feel like a badass when it's effortless and smooth. Oculus Rift with Touch controllers is a perfectly suitable and valid way to play, and that's presumably the case for the other compatible VR headsets.

Half-Life: Alyx is an accomplishment no matter which way you spin it. It's a technical marvel as a generally excellent VR game. It's a narrative triumph in how it brilliantly navigates a new protagonist to add vital pieces of canon. And, it's an incredible adaption of a cherished series to a platform that does nothing but enhance what makes it special. As I took off my headset for the last time, I found myself thinking Valve can't keep us waiting another decade-plus between games. Half-Life: Alyx reinvigorated my love for Half-Life. We can only hope it similarly reinvigorated Valve.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Half-Life: Alyx appeared first on Destructoid.

We're gonna need a bigger crate

Gabe Newell: "You only have two inventory slots in Half-Life: Alyx. But you also have realistic physics."
Me: "Okay then."@valvesoftware @KaciAitchison #HalfLifeAlyx #HalfLife #Valve pic.twitter.com/bOpkv0fNrT

— Andreas Garbe (@Falafelkid) March 24, 2020

This 16-second video completely speaks for itself. This is the sort of innovative spirit and can-do attitude that'll get us through these lean times. This is literal inventory management in a medium that has tried to eliminate any actions that break outside of a physical space -- so we'll bring our compulsive resource-hogging into that physical space. I'm only upset that I didn't think of it first.

The post Half-Life: Alyx but for hoarders appeared first on Destructoid.

It's all about options

It's easy to think of an update that's turning-oriented as boring or insubstantial. But, in virtual reality, the locomotion of your character (and, hopefully, how it keeps you from feeling sick) is super important.

That's the main focus of Half-Life: Alyx's version 1.1 update. You'll be able to turn better and that should go quite a ways as a quality of life improvement. For people who play on the first-person shooter-style continuous motion setting (that is to say not teleporting around), there's a new option for fluid, continuous turns without a snap effect. Likewise, there are different speed settings for continuous turn.

This seemingly doubles as a bug fix of sorts because using continuous motion and disabling quick turn didn't actually work at launch. Now, people will have more options for whatever makes them most comfortable. Again, that's paramount with VR.

Here's the full patch notes from Half-Life: Alyx's version 1.1 update:

Changes:

• Improved turning options in Preferences:
  - Added "Continuous Turn," and associated turning speed options
  - Renamed "Quick turn" to "Snap Turn" to make its functionality clearer
  - Added option to disable controller turning
• Improved hand-over-mouth pose usability for Windows MR controllers
• Improved the resolution of impact decals on enemies
• Improved automatic detection of default quality settings for some machine configurations
• Fixed an issue where some sounds didn't play as intended
• Fixed an issue where the main menu could become less responsive if you had many save games
• Fixed several crashes

Half-Life: Alyx Update 1.1 released [Steam]

The post Half-Life: Alyx’s first update mostly just improves turning appeared first on Destructoid.

One developer expects validation from it

Half-Life: Alyx has been available for approximately 27 hours, and Valve just knows someone's already hard at work modding virtual reality out of it. Valve doesn't explicitly know of any specific modders undertaking that project, mind you. Valve isn't in denial that VR was a contentious choice, and the developer assumes getting rid of it was priority number one for someone out there.

Valve programmer Robin Walker tells Polygon "Personally, I'm not concerned about it at all." Walker is speaking to the confidence he has that VR is integral to the whole Alyx experience. "It will clearly demonstrate to people why we did this in VR. It will be a very crisp way of seeing all the stuff we got for the move into VR. If people play [a modded version that omits VR] and say this is just as good, that will teach me a lot."

There are two schools of thought here, and you can't really be faulted for whichever one you land in. On one hand, Half-Life: Alyx without VR will allow more people to see the story and experience another chapter in Half-Life. On the other, Alyx's pull is that you get to directly interact with the world of Half-Life. You get to eject empty clips from your pistol, reach into your backpack for a fresh one, and manually slide the new rounds in. You get to tangibly manipulate holograms. You get to frantically flail to knock a headcrab off your face.

Now that I've played Half-Life: Alyx (and reviewed it!), I'm firmly in the latter camp. Frankly, Alyx wouldn't be a very good game without VR implementation. It'd be a slow-paced horror action game that's mostly just propped up by a few big story beats. But, Valve is resigned to the inevitable. "I don't want to say I encourage you to do it, but it's going to happen," Walker says before adding "I think people will then hopefully have an even greater understanding of why we decided to build the product in VR than they do now."

Valve believes Half-Life: Alyx will be modded to play without VR [Polygon]

The post Valve knows someone’s already working to remove VR from Half-Life: Alyx appeared first on Destructoid.

No spoilers

Yep, that's a big 'ol picture of Russell: a guy you meet very early in the game.

That's just a spoiler guard though, because most of you probably clicked this because of a puzzle solution.

Ready? Light spoilers ahead (nothing story related):

Midway through chapter 10 you'll come across a ruined indoor construction site with a giant pipe and a control panel that sports two levers. One lever controls the left pile of wood, the right one controls the right pile. Easy enough.

But what you probably didn't notice for upward of 30 minutes (at least, in my case) is that there's a third, unrelated button you can press behind the control panel that lets you manipulate the pipe. Just turn around and look in the left corner for a construction site-looking rectangular apparatus. Press that, free up the pipe, then left both piles of wood.

Head back down the causeway and jump across. Good luck! Look, I even put the image at the very bottom so there's no chance of puzzle spoilers unless you got this far after several warnings.

The post Half-Life Alyx guide: Stuck at the Chapter 10 construction puzzle? Here’s how to solve it appeared first on Destructoid.

Spoilers ahead, you've been warned

Half-Life: Alyx has some very long chapters, especially in the early-going. Long, stressful segments in creepy environments where there's never enough downtime to feel a sense of relief. That's why I welcomed the chapter called "Jeff." I figured it'd be a breezy narrative-based bit, probably meeting a new resistance fighter who'd help my cause, or something like that.

No one has ever been so wrong about something.

Here's the part where I tell you it's nothing but spoilers ahead, and throw down the obligatory buffer image so as to divert any wandering eyes. By the way, does this guy look familiar?

Chapter 7's Jeff is a total sonuvabitch, some kind of hideous monster created by the spore-spewing flora from Xen. He, uh, doesn't have what we'd conventionally call a head. He's like a walking venus fly trap with the temperament of a starved silverback gorilla.

Here's what we're dealing with:

The trick to Jeff (which you'll quickly learn or die figuring out) is that he only reacts to sound. So, you throw vodka bottles around to lure him in different directions, enabling you to flee the opposite way. Anytime he's in your way, just chuck something across the room and he'll flock to it like a moth to light.

However, it's those spores that add a degree of complication. Breathing them in will cause Alyx to cough, which, in turn, causes her to get her head ripped off. That's why you need to hold one of your controllers up to your mouth, effectively preventing Alyx from breathing in the spores. Here's what it looks like:

This can be a pain in the ass. You're left to manage enough actions that you have to mentally keep track of which hand to keep over your mouth. For instance, I'm left-handed so I prefer to throw bottles with my left hand. However, that means my movement is on my right hand, and I can't really get around when it's over my mouth. So I'd keep my left hand over my mouth, move about, and then switch when it's time to toss something to distract Jeff.

There's an easier way. The vodka distillery has half-mask respirators laying around that will do this work for you. This is what they look like:

Pop one of these gas masks on your face and there's no more need to cover your mouth. It makes everything so much easier now that you can give your full attention to navigating around Jeff. You should be warned that they eventually wear off, although it takes a while. If that happens, just grab a new one off the carcass of some poor soul who doesn't need theirs anymore.

Jeff is definitely one of the most tense and memorable encounters in all of Half-Life: Alyx. Getting past him requires a lot of caution, precision, and fortitude. But, if you use the resources available in the environment, you can eliminate one surefire way that Jeff's likely to get you.

The post Half-Life Alyx guide: One essential tip for dealing with Jeff appeared first on Destructoid.

Save up for the laser sights

In Half-Life: Alyx, Valve keeps the inventory management relatively simple.

For more info on how that all works (which involves minor gameplay and non-story spoilers), read on!

Although some VR games do feature advancement inventory management, Half-Life: Alyx keeps things simple. You have three weapons total to choose from (pistol, shotgun, SMG), with one multi-tool sonic screwdriver-like thing that solves all of your problems by plugging into obvious electronic ports.

Alyx also has two semi-hidden inventory slots in her wrists, which are best used to store syringes.

If you want more customization, you can upgrade those three weapons at workbenches scattered around the game. While there are a few upgrades that are unique to each weapon, the common thread you're going to want to unlock first for all of them is the laser sight over the reflex sight. This allows you to more readily aim at weakpoints in the heat of battle without having to fine-tune your aim.

Next up: ammo reservoirs, so you can keep laying fire down against some of the sturdier enemies in the game. The extra ammo for the pistol is a great, cheap first choice. Alternatively, you could go with ammo all the way as your first upgrade. It's totally your call and dependent on your playstyle. Conserving ammo early is very important so extra reserves aren't as imperative, but late-game when you have a ton of ammo storage in your backback, those upgrades can really shine.

So how do you heal? Well you can reach down into your wrist pockets to grab syringes, press the A button (on an Index remote) to ready it, then stab yourself anywhere (your own wrists are the quickest). You can also heal another way so that you can keep those wrists fully stocked.

Occasionally you'll find medical stations during your travels. Many of them can be opened by pulling the red lever in the bottom left hand corner of the station. Just stick your hand on the panel and you'll be healed (up to three red cross symbols). Make sure you heal yourself to max every time you find one. In other words, remember where these stations are, and if you take a hit or two during a skirmish, you can return to them to top up.

Occasionally the station is inoperable. In that case you'll need to find the little test tube that attaches to it (pictured above). They're always in a nearby area for convenience. Just grab it and re-attach it.

The post Half-Life Alyx guide: What upgrades to get first and how to heal appeared first on Destructoid.