I’ve said this plenty of times but this stigma of VR is a REALLY REALLY weird one, especially since I keep seeing it. There are so many arcades and whatnot you can try VR where it’s just tethered in place. So many VR experiences are designed such that you can absolutely play them sitting down in a chair. The idea you need a “holodeck room” breaks down the second you look into it all.

Not only that, but the Quest can play VR games, and it’s running a phone processor. You don’t need top of the line hardware, just enough to run a normal video game, which I’m willing to bet if you’re a pc gamer, you literally have more than enough.

I beat Alyx on a $250 headset and a laptop with an underclocked 1060. In my shitty 800 sq ft apartment’s dining room. And it was still an absolutely phenomenal experience. Was it top of the line? No. But it was still plenty playable. These days my pc is in my bedroom and I just hook it up and play in the empty space in front of my bed. You absolutely CAN sink thousands of dollars and a dedicated space into it if you really want to. But it’s hardly a requirement.

I’ve been gaming primarily on Xbox since the 360. After Microsoft bought and closed Tango though? I literally vowed to never buy another Xbox product again. I can’t even remember the last time I booted my Series X

I mean, I played most of my library in that space. I ‘S’ ranked plenty of Beat Saber maps on Hard. Played Space Pirate Trainer a few times. The Lab. Phasmophobia. Etc. You can genuinely easily play most VR games seated if you really wanted to, even if it’s not as nice as having standing room

Eh, I literally played Alyx on a gaming laptop with a 1060 in front of my dining room table in no more than a 3x3 cube with a $300 headset. That is not a very high barrier to entry for existing pc gamers at least. A Steam Deck exclusive may fare a little better since it’s a self contained console, but I doubt it would do that much better if VR was enough to discourage people tbh

Very doubtful tbh. You can look at HL: Alyx as an example. It sold well I’m sure, but not Nintendo level. As much as people like to belly ache about VR being too hard to get into, it’s truly no more expensive than a Steam Deck if you actually bother to take more than 2 seconds to legitimately look into it.

I played Alyx on a mobile 1060 and a $300 headset and while it wasn’t top of the line, it was still perfectly playable. I imagine most gamers these days have at least that, but Alyx absolutely did not sell like hot cakes. And I doubt the Steam Deck would either, even for HL3.

I mean they just announced the Xbox Ally today at a presentation, so it certainly doesn’t seem like it

Rumors I’ve seen are they are going all in on the physics. Like, every object in the game has material properties like flammability that will react differently in the environment. Some rumors about some procedural generation tech being involved as well, but not to what extent it’s being used

I’ve been hanging on the new release emails waiting for months without a peep. I’ll honestly be shocked if I see it eventually at this point

Hope whenever tf HL3 eventually comes out (hopeful I know) they cns emulate his style well at least. That super sleek industrial look is a bit part of the style of both Dishonored and HL that I love

Microsoft not shooting themselves in the foot every chance they get challenge (impossible)

I mean that’s assuming they reduce the price accordingly. Which I bet they won’t. At that point, just give me the backup in the box personally

I use it to play the Wii Shop Channel theme when I open the Play Store

I’m sorry I made you have to re-download Tasker again now

Modern Samsung is aping Apple design but noticeably worse in all their products, and it’s honestly turning me off from them. They had a unique identity, and now it feels like they’re throwing that all away. I genuinely hate it.

They’re doing both. A steam Controller 2, and a new controller for their standalone VR headset. And yes, rumors are it’ll be untethered like the Quest

Curious to see how this plays out. I was planning on upgrading my Note 20 to an S25 Ultra next year, but I keep hearing inconsistent things about this chip and now I’m hesitant.

Just a few months ago early leaks seemed to indicate it was a battery hog, now it’s apparently not. But now some phones are apparently overheating with it, but maybe adequate cooling solutions will make this a non-issue.

I dunno, just scared we might have another early 800s chipset on our hands.

I mean after HL:Alyx continued the plot after HL2:E2 slightly, I think someone at Valve also came out and said “We aren’t afraid of Half Life anymore,” which is more of a concrete sign of at least something than we’ve had in years

I ran Alyx with a WMR headset and a mobile 1060. It wasn’t fantastic but it ran well enough that the experience wasn’t diminished. A next gen Deck could easily handle it

Is Portal technically a shooter game?

If anything I’m betting this is for their rumored standalone vr headset they have in development as a Quest competitor

I tried to do this research years ago and my impression was that acer was near bottom of the barrel in reliability these days unfortunately.

That said, it also seems in general that laptop quality and reliability are a total crap shoot, even within the same company.

So your best bet imo is to just find a model that has the specs you like and research the hell out of it before buying.

Please drink verification Coors Light to continue

Unfortunately with HL: Alyx, people are excited about Half Life again. We’re here for at least the next 5 years

Do you have a Samsung phone? You could maybe Try downloading Good Lock and get Nice Catch if so. That tracks things like apps that woke your screen or apps that vibrated your phone. Maybe there’s something in that app that might catch it?

I guarantee they’re panic making this specifically because they need to make back all the money Randy spent on the movie

I’m gonna be real, as just a casual follower of this game, I kinda assumed it already came out a while ago and was just so meh nobody talked about it. I’m shocked it’s still not out yet

Maybe don’t close the studios making your only good games next time? Dunno, just a thought

No subscription on the ring has me at least curious. I’m just trying to figure out what finger to put it on to look the least weird if I do go for it. Maybe I have to become one of those guys that has like 20 rings on at all times so it blends in

Didn’t he also cheat on his wife a while back? What a piece of shit of a human being

A publicly traded company prioritizing consumer satisfaction over short term profits? Learning from their “mistakes” after they still got a shit ton of money for it anyways and probably will if they do it again? I’m not banking on it.

I’m honestly ready to not support Xbox anymore after this. They’ve been non-stop fumbling the ball with game releases this generation. Hi-Fi Rush was the first game that came out that I felt was phenomenal and such a breathe of fresh air, and they just straight killed the studio anyways. Killing studios that make good games is not how you foster a gaming platform people want to be part of.

I have a ton of assorted ones from over the years. Here’s a select few:

• Play the Wii Shop Theme when I open the Play Store
• Turn on Samsung’s built in Protect Battery feature at night, and automatically turn it off when my alarm goes off in the morning
• Open Spotify automatically when I connect to my car’s Bluetooth
• Turn on Silent mode when I get close to work and disconnect from my car, and turn it back off when I reconnect to my car’s Bluetooth
• Set my AoD to Tap to Show when I have no notifications, but change it to Always On when I have notifications from apps I mark important
• Track my earbuds’ battery life via a persistent notification when they’re connected to my phone
• React to double tapping volume up when not playing media to toggle the flashlight, and ditto with the volume down to open the camera
• Clear persistent system notifications that I don’t want or care about that otherwise normally won’t let you clear them or turn them off (take that Google)

This. I used to use Tasker and AutoInput to automatically reboot my phone every night. You can train AutoInput to tap on stuff in a sequence. I had Tasker pull up the Power Menu and AutoInput tap the Restart button. You can probably do similar with the Power Off button there

I don’t know if this will fix it for sure, but you could try to download a VPN app with per-app network blocking (like AdGuard) and fully block Nova from accessing the internet

I’m hoping this means more exposure for Hi-Fi Rush and more odds for a sequel. I loved that game to death

Yeah I don’t remember much from the campaign other than the white phosphorus scene and the literal last scene of the game, but I remember having a total blast with the multiplayer for a while. Definitely felt like a really cool combo of CoD and Battlefield

It feels almost a guarantee they’re gonna do something stupid to ruin it somehow, don’t you worry about that

It’s early access out on Epic Games store right now I believe