“Half-Life: Alyx”, “Paper Beast”… VR to the rescue of reality

Video games are good for your health. Eat it! WHO says it. Or rather the World Health Organization teams up with video game publishers to maintain the social bond between the players and spread its health messages as much as possible, which can be summed up as: "Stay at home and play Animal Crossing !" " The Nintendo game has indeed established itself as the best remedy for containment, but all the video game news is actually revealed at the moment, with also the cathartic madness of Doom Eternal , the nostalgia effect of Final Fantasy VII Remake , and virtual reality. If technology has not (yet) imposed itself on gamers, it has made it possible to open up the horizons of gameplays, experiences, and more literally - finally virtually - to push the walls, to leave home. Without certificate.

"Half-Life: Alyx", the long-awaited VR masterpiece

If virtual reality already had its share of original experiences ( Beat Saber, Rez Infinite, Astro Bot, No Man's Sky VR …), he lacked his blockbuster, his masterpiece, his "killer app" as they say the Ricans. And Half-Life: Alyx was. The game does not land out of nowhere either, since it belongs to the Half-Life franchise, well known to FPS and PC players. For more than ten years, they have been waiting for Half-Life 3 , who has become an Arlesian video game player, and now the publisher Valve announces last November that Alyx , not a sequel, but a prequel, which is more reserved for VR . Mhm ...

A trailer for Half-Life: Alyx gameplay!

Valve specifies that the series is back, and that this episode will not be the last https://t.co/F10RI5NZR6 pic.twitter.com/6rlh0xxxTK

A simple recreation before the return of the king? It was bad knowing Valve which offers with Half-Life: Alyx the best of VR and FPS, by giving not only to see and to shoot, but especially to feel. Interaction, yet the essence of video games, has never been so aptly named as it is here. But you need to be equipped with a sturdy skinny PC and a virtual headset for Windows, whether it's the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality or Valve Index - for which Alyx is the most optimized and even offered. And the PSVR? Not yet, maybe on PS5. We will have to wait to find out if Half-Life: Alyx and the game of a small revolution or a great democratization.

Hand washing to avoid catching # COVID2019. At least there is no shortage of toilet paper in #HalfLifeAlyx pic.twitter.com/kel0pOVgg1

This Math teacher records VR lessons in Half-Life: Alyx
A genius the guy if with that the students do not follow the course I do not understand ahah! #HalfLifeAlyx pic.twitter.com/9t4pEUJ06x

“Paper Beast”, another world is possible

Well, what if I made a little rhythm game in VR? Except that a bug in the matrix soon immerses you in a world of big data, data and algorithms where an ecosystem has developed apart. Digital desert as far as the eye can see, cloud figures falling from the sky, paper creatures ... The player, wearing a PSVR helmet and PS Move, may seem lost in this "another world", but that's exactly what Eric Chahi wants , the French creator of this Paper Beast , but also of games like H eart of Darkness, From Dust and the cult… Another World .

Paper Beast will be available on PlayStation VR 👉 https://t.co/MYZZd3tOet

Its creator, Eric Chahi, tells you more about this surreal universe 👉 https://t.co/D9AiRhMnLI pic.twitter.com/5OBqvVLpel

Between the game of puzzles and the game of exploration, Paper Beast invites above all to a change of scenery, to contemplation, and to the discovery of a world which obeys its own rules. It is beautiful, poetic, almost anthropological, but also very short (a handful of hours), and it will therefore be necessary to test the "sandbox" mode to hope to hold several weeks of confinement.

"The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners", surviving the apocalypse at home

If one thing is certain with VR, it is that it lends itself well to horror games, with Resident Evil 7 , Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul , Until Dawn: Rush of Blood , The Inpatient or Transference. It didn't take long for the genre's franchises to appropriate it, with for example The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners released in January on Oculus, Steam and Vive (and soon on PSVR).

And we're officially d̶e̶a̶d̶ live! Play now and tag us in your favorite moments https://t.co/xJ9Ld9fu7W#VR #TWDSS #TWD pic.twitter.com/rZP6xOOPye

If you are lacking in the series (the comics are over, the final of season 10 postponed), the game of Skydance Interactive offers a good alternative with its zombie apocalypse in New Orleans to live closer. Race, climbing, infiltration, management of endurance and hunger, handling of weapons, hand-to-hand combat ... The title exploits the possibilities of VR as well as possible, and would almost take the course of survival. Gender in the event of an epidemic. (sic) You will understand, to save the world, and its skin, the best is to stay at home - and play video games.

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• Virtual reality
• Video games
• Containment
• Coronavirus
• Culture