That's Half-Life: Alyx as an old-fashioned run n' gun. Sounds tasty.)Ī few UI effects are missing, sure, and there are some strange visual artefacts - but it works. (Pancake, as I understand, is a term VR spaces have come up with to describe non-VR gaming. Using prettied-up viewmodels from artist Jun Choi and animations ported over from Half-Life 2's MMod, Pancake Base lets you play Alyx like it were any other Half-Life. Instead, the developer has traded them out for Gordon Freeman's sturdier, time-tested first-person arms. Unlike an earlier attempt at VR-free Alyx, this mod doesn't try to simulate floating virtual hands on a keyboard and mouse. Goutrial (the indie developer and YouTuber who purportedly put the whole thing together) posted a brief clip of Half-Life: Alyx that looked a little closer to its older predecessors - an alternate world where Half-Life's long-awaited return didn't require shelling out for expensive plastic headsets. But this weekend, one modder brought that dream closer to reality by quietly releasing Pancake Base, a mod that aims to make Alyx play just like its older siblings by giving our leading lady the sturdy, first-person arms of Half-Life 2's Gordon Freeman. To be fair, I get it - that the first Half-Life game in a decade would be restricted to expensive tech felt a little demoralising. Since the moment Half-Life: Alyx launched in VR, folks have been trying to detach it from its headset requirements.