OK, Valve aren't dummies. Those marker pens in the opening section have spawned many dick pic gifs on /r/gaming now
. Has burst through the 'screw you 1%er' stonewalling that proceeded it
(As an aside, it's genuinely the best 'draw on a 2D surface' mechanic I've come across, even though they're super common. They're using some clever smoothing in there I think. It doesn't have the usual wild wobble and contact-distance issues. Plus it just has a nice inky effect and wipe-clear smudginess).
Totally, totally incidental to the actual gameplay. But a nice bit of environment-interaction excess
Have a suitable for work / non spoilery take:
(If I just post pictures from the starting balcony will that be ok? I did spend a long time throwing toilet rolls at pigeons and watching them resettle. I reckon I could hit the postman on a bike too...)
(PPS the throwing mechanic is also, genuinely, the most pleasing one I've encountered to date. They're normally completely errant, requiring you to adjust to some artificial constraint, but this felt surprisingly natural. Every luz of an object went right in the ballpark I was aiming for. Possibly even with suitable heft for different objects, haven't played around enough yet to be sure. Definitely felt like they'd put some time into it anyway. Again these are like the only few mechanics I've nudged into yet, but the polish is promising at least
)
EDIT: Oh and I will keep worrying about spoilers, because the way I see it: 5 years from now the tech to enjoy this will be way more accessible. And it should still be good then
EDIT2: Oo, I remembered my one negative. The sound does seem thinner than HL2 etc. Still all appropriately gnarly, and impactful at points. But just... thinner on the quality front. (This is often where VR games make a payoff to get the frames they need. And on the plus side, the actual visuals, and the auto-quality stuff they're doing on pixel density, makes it look absolutely lush. Vying for best-looking VR game I've played so far, no doubt).