Half-Life: Alyx

If you've been wondering about the development of Half-Life: Alyx and how Valve managed to bring their classic to the land of VR, then look no further than the developer commentary.

Valve folks decided to use the lockdown period to further improve the already impressive physics and environment interaction in Half-Life: Alyx by adding liquid shaders to bottles.

Valve's launch of Half-Life: Alyx is already proving itself as a genius move for wider VR adoption, but GabeN and Co had to make a few sacrifices along the way.

Valve pushed the boundaries of practical physics usage in games once again with the release of Half-Life: Alyx. Some used the system productively, others to draw the literal first thing that came to their mind. Some also used boxes to foil headcrabs' attempts.

It now looks like Half-Life: Alyx could be doing for VR adoption what it did for the FPS genre with the first instalment in the franchise. At the time of writing, there's said to be more than 300,000 preorders, almost half of which are Valve Index owners.

Valve have officially confirmed the pre-load date for their highly anticipated VR title Half-Life: Alyx. Steam users will be able to start downloading the game on Friday, 20 March 2020.

Valve initially had the fans worried with the new gameplay footage from Half-Life: Alyx since the first of the three new gameplay videos featured teleportation locomotion movement. However, these were designed to showcase three different motion modes.

Just as we started seeing complaints popping up over Valve's vague 'March release' promise for Half-Life: Alyx, GabeN and Co came through and set the date for 23 March 2020. So, you still have time to get that VR headset.

Valve's development of their upcoming and highly anticipated VR title Half-Life: Alyx most definitely didn't lack in the manpower department, as the dev revealed that it's actually the single biggest development team they've had.

Valve already showcased the potential of VR with Half-Life: Alyx gameplay reveal but we didn't have much idea about the system's restriction until the developers held an AMA on Reddit. As a consequence, the iconic Barnacles will be altered along with jumping.