Half-Life Alyx: Most computers will not be able to play new game, Steam store details show

Players have plenty of time to get ready, with release date not for months

Valve has revealed a new Half-Life game – its first for more than a decade – but most computers will not be able to play it.

The new game is built in virtual reality and so requires a headset to play at all. But it is also has very taxing hardware requirements, meaning that anyone trying to play will have to have an advanced PC more capable than most own at the moment.

The hardware requirements as well as other details of the game were revealed in the Steam store listing, which went live this week, shortly after the new game was announced.

"Half-Life: Alyx is Valve’s VR return to the Half-Life series," the listing reads. "It’s the story of an impossible fight against a vicious alien race known as the Combine, set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2.

"Playing as Alyx Vance, you are humanity’s only chance for survival."

The same listing includes information about what PC will be required. While most games' minimum requirements have been largely similar in the last years, since VR came somewhat into the mainstream, the new game has new and relatively high specs.

Players need to have at least a quad-core Core i5 chip, at least 12GB of system memory and a GTX 1060 or better. Those are just the minimum specs, and the listing does not indicate what kind of hardware might be required.

Most players on Steam do not have computers that will be able to play the game, as shown by the Steam Hardware Survey, which keeps up-to-date tabs on the sort of hardware people are using to play games on the store. It shows that only about 35 per cent of people have a graphics card that will support the game, and less than half of them have enough RAM.

There is plenty of time for players to get ready. Despite being announced this week, the release date on the Steam store shows the game is not expected out until March 2020.