Time to put your tinfoil hats back on, cause Half-Life rumors are back on the menu.
Valve made the news yesterday when it officially announced its own VR headset and kit, the Index. It was first revealed a month ago, and as of now, it’s finally here, available for pre-orders. Don’t get too excited though, because the price may break your heart; a full Valve Index kit with all the bells and whistles will cost you a whopping $999 US dollars.
The price is pretty steep, but what’s even weirder is the Index announcement comes at nearly the same time as Facebook and Oculus’ newest VR headsets, the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S. These new headsets are much cheaper than Valve’s offering, costing only $399 each AND coming without the need for base stations, making them much more portable.
However, in typical Valve fashion, you get a certain kind of premium, as the Index looks to be – spec-wise speaking – the new top dog of VR kits. To sweeten the deal even further, Valve has announced not ONE (Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead), not TWO (Half-Life 2, Portal 2, Left 4 Dead 2) but THREE big VR games to come for the Index. I know what you’re thinking, but I won’t go so far as to say it (I’ll leave that up to you).
Take everything written next with a huge grain of salt. A piece from UploadVR last year wrote about the Index before it was even released, stating that this new VR headset from Valve will be home to a new Half-Life VR game. It did manage to get down most of the things about the Index correct, like the included Knuckles controllers as well as some pictures of the early prototype of the device that looked like it in its earlier stages.
Not buying it yet? You look at the wording Valve has given on one of the supposed big three VR games which is set to be released this year, and it says “flagship”. Either it’s an entirely new IP made for the Index, or an existing one – probably one whose sequel was being waited on for more than a decade now.
HALF-LIFE 3 CONFI-!!
