Thirith on 2/12/2019 at 14:09
I'll have to see if I can get far enough in the game in time for some coop next weekend, but some time soon, definitely!
Thirith on 9/12/2019 at 09:46
Yup, I should now be able to coop in Stormland. Looking forward to meeting up with you in VR, henke!
I've also finished the Professional level in Dirt Rally (a surprise second place!) and decided to call it a day for now. It's a great rally racer, but I've seen enough of those particular courses for now. I've got a bunch of single-player games and short experiences that I want to play, but before long I'll also want to return to Skyrim VR.
Jeshibu on 10/12/2019 at 19:17
Boneworks is out and Thirith's got it.
It looks impressive, but is it fun to play?
Thirith on 10/12/2019 at 19:52
I'll only be able to check it out on Friday or Saturday. Will report back once I have.
Thirith on 13/12/2019 at 17:00
First impression of Boneworks after perhaps 45 minutes with it: it's both impressive and kinda disappointing. It feels like playing a Valve fan project by people who are very talented when it comes to ideas and tech, but who would have a lot to learn from Valve with respect to iteration and polish. The game is leaps and bounds ahead of most VR games in terms of physical interaction, but it doesn't always *feel* particularly good. Lone Echo did a better job of body presence in VR space because it didn't try to do everything, and Red Matter did a better job of making you feel that the object you grabbed was heavy and the lever you pulled offered some resistance. In Boneworks, whenever there's a conflict between your real body and the physics of the virtual world - e.g. you've grabbed something really heavy and cumbersome - the virtual wins, which means that you are made to feel the disconnect more strongly. (E.g. you grab a heavy object and where your in-game hands and the object are in VR lags behind where your hands are in real space.) The game tries to be as immersive as possible and then undermines that by being too realistic, which doesn't really work conceptually or in terms of the engine.
I also get the impression that the aesthetics and writing is clearly modelled on games like Half-Life and Portal but without being as accomplished as those games.
In short, if you're excited about much more extensive interaction with VR space than you usually get, Bodyworks is great, as long as you don't mind somewhat clunky implementation. If you'd rather be somewhat more limited but everything just *works*, then you may want to wait until it's been patched a couple of times - or possibly until Half-Life: Alyx is out. I fall somewhere in between: I like what I've seen so far, but more because of the potential that is obviously there, but in terms of pure enjoyment I would say it feels a bit too much like an ambitious tech experiment wrapped around a middling game.
But this might change, based on what the level design is like. I've only just got past the extensive (and pretty imaginative) tutorial.
Vicarious on 14/12/2019 at 12:33
Quote Posted by Thirith
I also get the impression that the aesthetics and writing is clearly modelled on games like
Half-Life and
PortalI've heard that Stress Level Zero approached Valve with Boneworks as a potential Half-Life game in VR however Valve told them to remove all the connections to the HL universe because they were making HL: Alyx. Boneworks was also supposedly the reason for many changes to HL: Alyx, specifically the addition of physics based interactions which HL: Alyx didn't have for some reason.
So it is very much a Valve fan project. Though it seems that Valve took a lot of things from Boneworks and incorporated them into HL: Alyx.
Thirith on 14/12/2019 at 14:03
Just did an hour of Stormland coop with henke and it's great fun, though perhaps it's a bit too easy to progress through the story mode with a friend. It's always cool to be in the same virtual space with others, in particular if you know them, and the game also holds up, so this is very much recommended to our fellow VRnauts at TTLG. Shame there's no four-player mode!
Jeshibu on 15/12/2019 at 14:53
Quote Posted by Thirith
I like what I've seen so far, but more because of the potential that is obviously there, but in terms of pure enjoyment I would say it feels a bit too much like an ambitious tech experiment wrapped around a middling game.
That's what I was afraid of. I'll give it a skip since I've already bought HL Alyx anyway.
Thirith on 16/12/2019 at 07:50
If you enjoy playing around with systems, it may be worth getting once it's come down in price, but I think that anyone going in expecting a VR Half-Life will be somewhat disappointed.
SubJeff on 16/12/2019 at 10:23
What VR rigs are you guys running? I'd love a go but they seem pretty pricey to me. All except the PS4 VR thing.
Techradar reckon Valves Index is the best, but at that price I'm never getting one. (
https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/the-best-vr-headset)