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A copy of Half-Life: Alyx comes free with a purchase of HTC’s Vive Cosmos Elite, its newest SteamVR headset (via Upload VR).
HTC and Valve have a historic relationship, and this new partnership honours their collaboration and drums up hype for the upcoming return to City 17. Evolving from the original Cosmos hardware, the Cosmos Elite offers two SteamVR 1.0 base stations and two of the original Vive controllers, as well as SteamVR tracking support instead of six camera inside-out tracking. The headset will also come with a code for Half-Life: Alyx, though those in China, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, India, Malaysia, Singapore or Ukraine are not eligible for the bundle.
The Cosmos Elite plus Half-Life: Alyx is available now, priced at $899. If you’ve not gotten your Valve Index ordered yet, it might be a smart bet to grab a Cosmos Elite. The Valve Index also comes with a copy of Half-Life: Alyx, improved SteamVR 2.0 base stations, and the unique Valve Index controllers, but shipping is extremely delayed. New orders are not expected to go out until after eight weeks from now, and the Cosmos Elite offers most of what the Index has with a small price slash.
“Half-Life means a lot to us, and it's been incredibly rewarding to refamiliarize ourselves with its characters, setting, and mechanics,” revealed Valve in a recent interview. “There are Half-Life: Alyx team members who have been at Valve since Half-Life 2, and quite a few who go back to the original Half-Life.” The developer claims Alyx will be “return to this world, not the end of it,” and though the new VR game is a spin-off set before Half Life 2: Episode Two, perhaps a Half-Life 3 isn’t so fanciful after all.
Half Life: Alyx is set to launch on PC VR platforms on March 23, 2020.
