The lost hour of Half-Life
Plus, wait... is VR good now?
Listen to this week’s episode
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Half-Life, Valve updated the original game, released a documentary, and ran a brief PR victory lap. The standout achievement of the anniversary is the excavation of Half-Life Uplink, the original demo that crammed all of the game's big ideas into a 30-60 gauntlet of action. It's the antithesis of Half-Life's artful, but slow start. And it rules. In the back half of the episode, Frushtick and Plante talk about their surprising enjoyment of the Meta Quest 3. But does it have enough games?
Like the show? Leave a review! (Thank you to everyone who left such kind reviews this week!)
Games discussed:
Half-Life, Half-Life Uplink, Assassin’s Creed Nexus, Power Wash Simulator VR
Hardware discussed:
TV discussed:
YouTube discussed:
AEW’s Like a Dragon street fight
This episode’s sponsors:
Factor: Head to factormeals.com/resties50 and use code resties50 to get 50% off.
Have questions for The Besties?
Drop them in the comments! We aren’t able to respond to every question, but we read all of them and answer some in episodes!
Next week on The Besties:
All of the indie games we’ve enjoyed over the past few months, including Jusant
Bonus links:
The Half-Life 25th anniversary documentary
Noclip’s documentary on the making of Black Mesa, the fan remake of Half-Life
The E3 2003 tech demo for Half-Life 2
Frushtick’s review of the Meta Quest 3 on Polygon
All the new Christmas and holiday movies and specials coming out this winter
When the makers of Pokémon Go and Sleep No More tried to reinvent theater
People Make Games roleplayed the end of the world with 4000 people
Persistence persistence persistence:
Has Frush ever been to a ska show?
Hi. I joined the newsletter in order to represent the "towel over the door/curtain while you shower so you don't have to reach outside where it's cold" caucus. Now to finish the episode.