Half-Life: Alyx's 1.1 Update Adds New Movement Option

Two days after release, Valve has updated its VR hit Half-Life: Alyx with enhanced movement options. You can now use an analog stick to turn your perspective smoothly, as in most first-person games, a feature the game calls a Continuous Turn. As before the patch, you have the option of using the analog stick to turn in the direction you were already facing by a fixed number of degrees, which the game now calls a Snap Turn. Previously, it was known as a Quick Turn.

In this new setup, you can choose either to keep the Snap Turn or to change it to a Continuous Turn. If you choose the latter option, you can adjust the speed of the turn. You can also fiddle with the distance of the Snap Turn, or choose to turn off controller turning entirely. The patch added some minor improvements, including its detection of quality settings on some PCs. For more on the game's motion settings, check out our guide to Half-Life: Alyx's accessibility options.

In our review, our critic Michael Higham called Half-Life: Alyx a triumph. "Yes, this game is somewhat of a companion piece to mainline Half-Life games, taking place five years before Half-Life 2, but that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Disappointment you may have felt in its 13-year hiatus will feel like water under the bridge, and in a way, have played into just how powerful Half-Life: Alyx turned out to be. The names, the faces, the iconic objects that have become synonymous with Half-Life have their specific place. And if you weren't aware previously, you'll see just how important Alyx Vance--the series' most infallible personality--has been the entire time."

Half-Life: Alyx Update 1.1 Patch Notes

• Improved turning options in Preferences:
  - Added "Continuous Turn", and associated turning speed options.
  - Renamed "Quick turn" to "Snap Turn" to make its functionality clearer.
  - Added option to disable controller turning.
• Improved hand-over-mouth pose usability for Windows MR controllers.
• Improved the resolution of impact decals on enemies.
• Improved automatic detection of default Quality settings for some machine configurations.
• Fixed an issue where some sounds didn't play as intended.
• Fixed an issue where the main menu could become less responsive if you had many save games.
• Fixed several crashes.