HALF-LIFE: ALYX
Chris Livingston:
Whatever tech
wizardry Valve did
under the hood, it allowed me
to play Half-Life: Alyx for
sessions lasting for hours at a
time without headaches. That’s
something I’ve never managed
to do in VR before, as typically
after a half-hour of wearing a
headset I’m ready for a break.
Alyx is also, by far, the best
looking VR game I’ve ever
played, with so many stop-and-
stare moments I lost track.
But Alyx’s true success is in
somehow finding the waning
interest I had in the Half-Life
saga after all these years and
setting it ablaze again. The first
half of the game dragged more
than a little, confining me to
slimy sewers and throwing
headcrabs at my face, but the
second half became a thrilling
adventure as the story finally
began to unfold and I rushed
wide-eyed into its powerful
conclusion. As both a prequel
and a sequel it seemed like it
might be tied too tightly to past
and future events to contain
anything surprising or
contribute much to the saga.
But it cleverly tampered with
events and characters we’ve
known for years to put a new
twist on the old story, one so
satisfying it makes me fervently
hope we don’t have to wait
another decade or more to
continue the tale.
Andy Kelly: I was not expecting
Half-Life: Alyx to be such a
good horror game. The
Combine firefights are fun, but
it’s when you’re in the tunnels
beneath City 17 that the game
becomes really special. Poison
headcrabs were unsettling
enough in Half-Life 2, but being
in a dark room full of them, in
VR, with nothing but a tiny
flashlight to guide your way is
the most my nerves have been
wracked since Alien: Isolation. I
always found headcrabs a bit
annoying in the first two games,
but in VR they’re sensational.
They leap and screech at you,
and you can’t help but flinch
when they do. And your run-in
with Jeff, a terrifying super-
zombie, is one of Half-Life’s
greatest set-pieces.
It’s also a strange sensation
seeing City 17 from such an
intimate perspective. It’s always
been a great setting, but now it
feels infinitely more real and
tactile. If you thought striders
were big in Half-Life 2, wait till
one’s towering over you in
Half-Life: Alyx.James Davenport: It’s
easy to say Microsoft
Flight Simulator’s
greatest trick is that it’s just
Bing maps in an aeroplane
costume, but it’s the flight
simulation wrapper that
grounds a free web application
in reality like no other game.
Flying over your hometown
hits differently from typing its
name into a search bar.
I can’t speak to the depth of
the flying simulation. It’s not
why I keep revisiting Microsoft
Flight Simulator. Like so many
of us, I’m stuck at home waiting
out a pandemic. But in MFS
I’ve charted a course from a
remote Siberian airport to the
Tunguska meteor crater; I’ve
skimmed the top of the Tetons;
I flew to the northern tip of
Iceland, turned on active pause,
and stared out at the edge of
everything. MFS’ to-scale
rendition of Earth is much
more than a bullet point, it’s
the closest I’ve felt to the world
glued to a monitor.
Andy Kelly: Before the
pandemic I travelled a lot, and
with every day I’m stuck at
home I miss it more and more.Which is probably part of the
reason why Microsoft Flight
Simulator landed so perfectly
for me this year. It’s an
astonishing technical
achievement, and the feeling
of picking somewhere in
the world – anywhere – and
near-instantly flying over a
photorealistic representation of
it still rules, even after doing it
a thousand times. Whether it’s
some dramatic landmark like
the Grand Canyon, or just the
small Scottish suburb I grew up
in, it all looks amazing, with
volumetric clouds, cities
lighting up at night, and some
of the prettiest, most realistic
skies I’ve ever seen in a game.
I also love how customisable
the experience is. Sometimes I
like clipping the full yoke and
throttle setup to my desk and
really getting into the
simulation. But it’s just as easy
to plug in an Xbox controller,
stream my PC to the TV, and
play it on the couch. That’s a
remarkable thing to say about a
hardcore flight simulator, but a
good example of how Microsoft
Flight Simulator is more open
and accessible than ever.MICROSOFT FLIGHT
SIMULATOR
BEST
INNOVATION
BEST
VR GAME