>>412370501
The base HL2 pulse rifle reload animation didn't really make any sense. You don't pick up the little circle things, the ammo pickup model was the entire round clip thing on the end of the gun. Problem is the gun only lets you carry three pellet things total for balance reasons so you can't have it work like it did in Alyx.
Really the entire pulse rifle was practically unfinished even in the base game so I think they just had to do their best imagining how it was supposed to work in VR. In HL2 it's not even a full 3D model.