With Valve throwing its hat into the virtual reality ring with Vive, the company talks about the possibility of a VR Half-Life...
NewsThe status of Half-Life 2: Episode Three is one of the big mysteries in modern gaming. Where is it? What state is it in? Why, nearly eight years after it was originally scheduled for release, has nothing been seen of it?
True to form, Valve remains tight-lipped. Instead, the company's been showing off its Vive VR Headset - a joint venture with HTC to create a rival to Oculus Rift and Sony Morpheus. This naturally begs the question: does this mean we might get a virtual reality-based Half-Life in the near future?
Kotaku recently asked Valve programmer Jeep Barnett exactly this, and his response was quite exciting: the studio's been experimenting with some of Half-Life's characters and locations with its VR tech, just to "see how it fits":
"So yeah," Barnett said, "we'll grab some headcrabs, we'll grab the machine guns from Half-Life, the rocket launcher - all those different fun things - and see how they play in VR. But right now, it's a tool for exploring the different kind of game designs we want to do."
As for whether these experiments will result in a commercially-released, VR Half-Life, Barnett was rather more vague.
"We're not saying, 'no,'" Barnett said. "But we don't know what the right thing is [yet]. Our most precious resource is time, and we don't have enough time for people to do everything [...] So we have to figure out what's the best fit, what plays to the strengths of VR."
Eight years has now passed since the release of Half-Life 2's previous episode. We'd argue it's high time Gordon Freeman made his return, whether it's VR compatible or not.
More on this as it comes in.
