head to head

Half-Life: Alyx cover artvsPac-Man 256 cover art

Half-Life: AlyxvsPac-Man 256

Half-Life: Alyx leans Execution (Pure Mechanics); Pac-Man 256 leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).

EXECUTION7 /10READS1 /10VARIANCE2 /10OPTIMIZATION3 /10
Half-Life: AlyxPac-Man 256

Axis by axis

Execution7 vs 7

Even - both lean on execution about the same.

Reads1 vs 0

Half-Life: Alyx leans harder on reads: Combine and headcrabs scripted.

Variance2 vs 3

Pac-Man 256 leans harder on variance: power-up and maze-hazard randomness

Optimization3 vs 3

Even - both lean on optimization about the same.

Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.

full breakdown

Half-Life: Alyx

full breakdown

Pac-Man 256