I'm going back in at that level to see if I can kill all the headcrab zombies by luring them into the room with the barnacles, one by one.

I'm now 9 hours into Alyx, by far my longest play sessions. I haven't used my headset a great deal recently and I have been experiencing the real life vs VR strangeness again. I was going to bed the other night and I could see the blue grid from the play space boundaries when I shut my eyes. And last night I got into bed and thought I was wearing the gravity gloves and went to take them off.

The game is stunning. The sound and visuals of the environments are amazing, and there are some proper scary moments.

My most sensorily confused moment came in (ironically) A Chair in a Room: Greenwater, when I tried to sit on a virtual chair. Very uncomfortable. Incidentally, I recommend Greenwater too, if you don't have it already; not perfect and a bit long in the tooth, but well-told, intriguing and scary as hell.

I went back to the start of Is or Will Be and retreated to the Barnacle room over and over again to kill all the headcrabs, saving my bullets just for the headcrab zombies. Just as well when I came across the Combine soldiers later in the level.

Can you do screengrabs?

I took a few by accident, but they're not very edifying. When I go back in later this afternoon, I'll take some sexier ones.

Haha, that sounds dangerous. Did you fall flat on your arse? :D VR can have some bizarre effects. I've nearly fallen over bending down and trying to stabilise myself on a nearby wall. There's a bar in Alyx and I really wanted to take a seat and pour myself a drink.

I do have A Chair in a Room but I haven't got very far. I found it a little frustrating, partly the Index controllers trying to emulate the Vive controllers. When Alyx is done I will try it again.

Have you got to chapter 7 yet? :O Oh my god that is some tense crazy shit going on! I had to take a break at one point and lots of swearing!

I haven't found the game particularly difficult. The enemies are pretty predictable (combine are mostly shoot, pause, shoot), head crabs are less jumpy and slower that they used to be, and J*** **********.

Screenshots really don't do it justice.

Hmm, I tried uploading two more but that don't seem to have worked on my phone.

Found toilet paper! Out of stock in the shops, but at least I can get it in VR :D

Lovely.

I think screenshots in VR are a little like taking a picture of the Grand Canyon - it just loses the scale that you experience when you are there.

Here's some more anyway.

Some of the game seems a bit - janatorial?

That's dystopias for you.

Yes, I found exactly the same. And the best screenies would be when you're arse deep in combat, when taking a screenie is the last thing on your mind.

Gotta say I prefer the fictional ones.