Happy Friday and welcome to this week's edition of Replay, WIRED's videogame news roundup. The week's biggest news is clearly the forthcoming reincarnation of gaming's biggest, most dead franchise. That's not all, though. Let's get to it.
That Half-Life You Like Is Coming Back in Style in Valve's New VR ExclusiveRemember Half-Life? You probably do; the legendary absence of a Half-Life 3 is as deep in the mythology of gaming as, y'know, Mario. Well, surprise! There's going to be a new Half-Life game. But it's not going to be HL3. Instead, it's going to be a prequel of sorts. And it's going to be a virtual reality exclusive.
A full-length VR game, compatible with all VR headsets according to Valve (though they hope you'll use your Valve Index gear, I'm sure), Half-Life: Alyx will star Alyx Vance, Half-Life 2's secondary protagonist, during the time between the first and second games in the series. You'll play as Alyx, embodied fully in VR, as you sneak into the alien dystopia of City 17 in search of … something important. We're not sure what. But it's essential to the human rebellion brewing on the ruined Earth of the Half-Life universe. And while it's not Half-Life 3, it seems pretty rad. It'll be out March 2020.
