If you haven't played Black Mesa, the unofficial (yet wholly endorsed by Valve) remake of Half-Life, it's definitely worth checking o?ut. For those of us who have played �and enjoyed �it, the tea??m responsible for it is teasing a new game that's currently in the pipeline.

A video uploaded to YouTube by developer Crowbar Collective (thanks, GamesRadar) gives us just 22 seconds of something the studio is working on. All we get is the company logo followed by a colorful symbol?? that leaves us non ??the wiser. And that's it.

If you want to keep up-to-date with what the developer is working on, you're encouraged to sign up to the mailing list. Suffice it to say, it's imposs??ible to know what the project is, but I bet you'll have your own theories.

It's probably not Half-Life 3

It could be a brand-new IP from Crowbar Collective. However, for all we know, i??t could be another remake. Perhaps of the sequel or some other classic FPS. Who knows? Not I, that's the point I'm making.

As for Black Mesa, it was in development for years before it finally came out in an official capacity in 2020. It rebuilds the original Half-Life fro????m the ground up, complete with fresh voice acting.

It also tinkered with the OG a little bit. In order to keep diehard fans on their toes, some parts were tweaked or changed in certain respects. It also improved on the Xen aspect of the game, which some feel was lacking somewhat in Half-Life. Again, worth checking out if you're a fan of the original.

The post Studi??o behind the Half-Life remake Black Mesa teases a new project appeared first on Destructoid.

Gordon's alive...

Friends, Romans, countrymen, I never thought I'd live to see the day. The day when what started as a small fan project to update the classic shooter Half-Life into the (at-the-time) revolutionary Source engine would actually come to fruition, but today is that day! Black Mesa which has been in developmen??t since 2005 has received its 1.0 release. Here is a tr??iumph of fan love and perseverance, when comes such another?

To say I've been waiting for this for a long time would be an understatement. I've been waiting for this since...well since I finished Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and needed more of it in my veins. I still have my copy of the pre-Xen release from back before it came to Steam as a retail release. To put it in perspective, Destructoid has reviewed the game twice in its long road to release.

Surprisingly the game is lau?nching at an MSRP of only $19.99, whi??ch, after so long feels like such a small price to pay.

Black Mesa in its completed state is now available on Steam.

The post After 15 years of hard wor??k, Black Mesa is finally out appeared first on Destructoid.

Peace of mind

The conclusion to Gordon Freeman's story can finally be told. No, not that one against the Co??mbine. The one where he ??fights the Nihilanth. Yes, you already played that 20 years ago. Just listen for a moment, okay?

Black Mesa, the fan-made and Valve-approved Source engine remake of the original Half-Life, is complete. It has been a long time coming, as the project was first announced in 2005. Most of the game launched in 2015 in Steam Early Access, everything up until the point where Freeman leaves Earth. All the Xen stuff was given special attention -- maybe because it feels so different from the rest of Half-Life, maybe because the original never spent m?uch time there i?n the first place.

At long last, Freeman goes to space (or, more accurately, another dimension). Crowbar Collective has updated Black Mesa to include Xen. It's not quite the debut of Xen; these levels have been available in a public beta since August. However, it's the first time Xen has been pushed as an update to everyone who owns Black Mesa.

Despite seeming like the end of the road for Black Mesa, it's still not quite finished. This is the 0.90 update, meaning it's still in Early Access. I??t appears to be content-complete though, as most of the work that's left appears to be related to refinement, polish, and bug-squashing.

Now that Xen is in the mix, Crowbar Collective guesstimates that Black Mesa weighs in around 15 hours. If you're looking to spend some newly-acquired holiday cash, it's $16 (20 percent off) on Steam.

Xen Released - Happy Holiday Sale! [Steam]

The post Xen is out, whic?h means Black Mesa is (basically) finally? complete appeared first on Destructoid.

IT'S HAPPENING!

It looks like Half-Life remake Black Mesa truly is approaching its final release. After giving fans a taste of a technical beta for the "Xen" chapter of the game, developer Crowba??r Collective has announced that a public beta for the finale of its title will be happening on August 1, 2019. Only the first two chapters will be available, but the others will be made available a few weeks later.

Realistically, this is the final step before a proper launch. Once Crowbar Collective is able to defeat bugs that users report, it should be smooth sailing for an official launch. I can't believe I'm actually typing this, but Black Mesa is likely going to release in 2019. At least something Half-Life related will be coming out in the near future.

If you still haven't picked up Black Mesa, the Steam Summer Sale c??urrently has the game at 60% off. For a cool $7.99, you can get in on a really good reimagining of Gordon Freeman's inaugural adventure and see what all the fuss is with Valve's once legendary series. Now if only we could get this team working on Half-Life 3, maybe we can finally get the conclusion we've been waiting nearly two?? decades for.

Black Mesa's o??riginal Xen campaign is getting a public beta in August [PC Gamer]

The post Black Mesa’s Xen levels will enter public beta next month appeared first on Destructoid.

Final release 'won't be long'

I think it has been roughly 4,000 years since Black Mesa, the fan-made Source engine remake of Half-Life, released and it still isn't quite finished. We're getting closer, though, and the game's latest beta gives us a taste of the finale. At long last, parts of the hotly anticipated "Xen" chapter of Half-Life are now in playable f?orm. While they haven't been incorporated into the main game yet, owners can opt into a technical beta and take a test run of Gordon Freeman's journey ??to lands beyond our own planet.

A post on the Black Mesa Steam page reads, "The purpose of this beta is to collect bugs and feedback on a range of different computers. We have made ??significant improvements and changes to the Source engine, and we want the game to run as smoothly as possible. If you want to be on the bleeding edge of testing, opt into this beta. If you want the poli?shed, complete Xen experience, you should wait. It won't be long!"

I've actually written about Xen in Black Mesa twice now, so I'm shocked that it's finally coming to fruition. It's not that I doubted developer Crowbar Collective would actually finish its remake, but I figured something would happen similar to Valve and we'd never get our conclusion. At least someone is showing love and dedication to the Half-Life series, a passion that I hope r??ubs off on its original creators.

If you own Black Mesa on Steam (it is currently on sale for $7.99), you can launch the beta by right-clicking on the game from Steam's launcher, clicking properties, and moving to the Betas tab. From there, click the new public beta from the drop down tab and Steam will proceed to download these new levels. You'll need t??o start a new game, but you can jump straight to chapter 15 instead of playing through everything.

Xen Technical Beta [Steam Community]

The post Black Mesa’s new beta includes some of the long awaited Xen chapter appeared first on Destructoid.

Long time coming

Valve is never making another Half-Life game. Okay? We've all come to terms with that, right? So, here's the next best thing??.

In honor of Half-Life's 20th anniversary, Black Mesa developer Crowbar Collective has released the first ever video of the Xen chapters. It looks pretty fantastic! The original Half-Life didn't really spend much time on Xen, so this will hopefully be a proper vi?sit?.

This fabled alien universe is getting closer. Crowbar Collective says that the Xen chapters should release sometime in the second quarter of 2019. Granted, don't bet the farm on that happening. Xen has been oft delayed in the past, a??nd it wouldn't be unexpected for another delay to pop up.

But it's a??ll out of our hands. And Crowbar Collective's hands. Xen will be released unto the world exactly when The Nihilanth wants and not a second earlier.

The post Black Mesa’s Xen level looks so dang good appeared first on Destructoid.

There is no end to Gordon Freeman's journey

It has been two years since the fan made remake of Half-Life, Black Mesa, hit Steam Early Access. Fans have been promised that the Xen chapter of the game would be coming for nearly as long as Black Mesa has been on sale. In a not so surprising development, Xen will not be making a 2017 appearance.

Taking to the Steam fourms, developer Crowbar Collective regrettably announced the decision to push back the release of the final version of the game. "We are truly sorry for getting everyone's hopes up and then delaying... again," the post reads. "We worked very hard to make December, but we are not yet ready. As a team, we take FULL res?ponsibility for that...Simply put, Xen has proven to be an enormous undertaking, and while we are managing it to the best of our ability, it is proving to take longer than we? estimated."

So what will be happening in December, then? Black Mesa will receive a massive update the?? will prep the game for the inevitable conclusion. "The good news is that we will be releasing a large update in December to test all of th??e new features that have been developed for Xen. We have changed a number of things within the Source Engine, and we want to make sure they all work on the myriad of PCs out there."

This update will include things like?? lens flare effects, dynamic lighting, texture blending, and new shadow maps. That might sound superfluous, but having Xen look graphically impressive along with being completely redesigned to not suck like the original should make for a fittin??g end to this saga.

I find it kind of ironic how Black Mesa is almost mirroring the actual Half-Life in terms of fan anticipation and disappointment. Despite Half-Life 2: Episode Two releasing 10 years ago, people are still eager to get a Half-Life 3. Every time we seem to be building up to a reveal through some ARG, Valve then adds a pointless feature to Steam. Unlike Valve, however, Crowbar Collective has been paying attention to its game, so I still have faith that we'll see the inevitable c??onclusion.

Bad News, Good News [Steam Community]

The post Black Mesa’s Xen chapter gets delayed yet again appeared first on Destructoid.

Any time now, Mr. Freeman

The development path of the fan made Half-Life remake, Black Mesa, has been rock??y. Being greenlit on Steam years before actually appearing on the service, Crowbar Collective, the dev team behind the game, has been promising to add the infamous "Xen" levels from the original title for almost as long as the mod has been in existence. While they are still dedicated to doing that, it looks like we won't be getting them during their originally planned summer window.

According to a post on the Steam community forums, Black Mesa's final content update should arrive sometime in December. The devs shared some screenshots of their work in progress a??nd made note of a few updates coming to the game today.

Most of that is relegated to better lighting and some color correction to unify all of the different chapters of the game, so its not the most exciting read. Its still wonderful that Valve has allowed this game to exist when so many other companies are insistent on shutting down fan projects. Hopefully for Crowbar, ??they can finally put an end cap on their tribute to one of gaming's most inf??luential titles.

Summer Media Update [Steam Community]

The post Black Mesa suffers another delay, Xen to be ?added in December appeared first on Destructoid.

These folks know what they're doing

The last time we spoke about Black Mesa, the fan-made Half-Life remake, it had to do with Xen. This time, we're also talking about Xen. And next time, I'm willing to bet, we'll still be going on about Xen.

Today's news is a progress update on the not-fondly-remembered alien setting. Black Mesa is beloved for not just being a point-for-point recreation of Valve's iconic game, but instead for re-imagining the original spirit of Half-Life while also striving to rethink elements when the situation calls for it. Needless to say, it's going to be real interesting to see Xen through the lens of Crowbar Collective.

"Currently our specific focus is on gameplay: crafting a fun and cohesive experience from start to finish," reads a developer post. "We want our version of Xen to feel like it really belongs with the rest of the game in terms of mechanics, cohesion and progression. But we also want to push the boundaries and explore this unique and varied setting; to build an experience that feels both fresh and familiar to players from all walks of Half-Life veterancy. While our Xen is certainly going to be gorgeous, we are first and foremost really committed to making sure ??that the gameplay works on every level."

It's looking nice, though I don't know ?if that was ever in qu??estion.

"We will have more media for the community in the coming months, as well as more detailed updates as to how we are progressing. Right now we are up against a tough deadline [summer 2017], but we are committed and excited to work towards it and to finally unveil the definitive Black Mesa experience for everyone to enjoy."

Xen Holiday Screenshot [Steam]

The post This Xen teaser for Black ??Mesa is a promising start appeared first on Destructoid.

Everyone's favorite

Fan project Half-Life remake Black Mesa is mostly done at this point, but still on Steam Early Access. That??'s because it's missing the game's final chapter, the one that never went over well in the first place: Xen.

In an update on the Black Mesa Steam page, developer Crowbar Collective has announced that it's aiming to add Xen in summer of 2017. With this, it seems as if the Half-Life remake will be complete, a?pproximately 1??3 years after it began.

Xen has always been a contentious setting, and Crowbar Collective is trying to reverse that mindset with a re-imagining. "We want to do Xen the justice it deserves, and have it be the definitive climax to the Half-Life 1 story. To do this we have completely redesigned and expanded the Xen levels to what we think Valve would have done without the limitations of the time," Crowbar said. It also noted that the l?evels will be "substantially bigger" and that there will be more of them.

It takes moxie to vastly expand Xen, especially when you know that the alien world is what most everyone never l?iked about the game in the first place. Either we'll ge??t a much more bearable Xen, or much more of the same Xen (which would probably be a bummer). Still, Crowbar's going for it, and that's admirable.

As for the rest of the game -- the stuff that's generally beloved -- there's a decent opportunity to check it out. Steam has discounted the price of Black Mesa from $20 to $8 for a Halloween event. The biggest abomination, The Nihilanth, isn't in it quite yet, but t??here are still plenty of monsters for Freeman to shoot.?? And they look better now.

Xen Timeline [Steam]

The post Xen will be added to Black Mesa in summer 2017 appeared first on Destructoid.

Zen-distilled stories

To fans of weird deadpan comedy poetry: I'd like to extend my humblest apologies for the hiatus. I'd like to say I was celebrating th?e 10th episode by taking some time off, but the reality is that I have just been super busy on weekends with games to review. Chris Carter is a slave driver. To non-fans: too bad, suckers, it's back!

In this series, we take a look at the stories that gathered the most attention of the past week, and distill each one down to? its essence. Here are the topics that the surly D. Takeshi Nakamura takes on this week:

• What did you think of the Splatoon Global Testfire?
• Early Access Review: Black Mesa
• Rumour: Guillermo del Toro's production company creating Fallout 4 trailer
• Castlevania's IGA back with 'dream game' Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
• Review: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
• PS4 hacked and games pirated in Brazil
• Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster on PS4 looks better than ever, but has major ??problems

The post Game News Haikus: Bl??oodst?ained, Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, and more appeared first on Destructoid.

Half as good as you remember

Half-Life was like a magic trick. It was a game you could show to people who weren't gamers and they'd get into it, a gateway drug. A real game (not some glorified puzzle book like Myst) that had the cinematic flair and presentation to suck all sorts of people into it. It was that train ride at the start of the game, casting Gor?don Freeman as a dude with an interesting, but ultimately mundane job.

It was how you didn't get a gun in your hand until almost an hour deep into the game. It was the semi-believable lab environment that relied on you looking around for?? clues and direction in the world, finding vents and trying to worm your way through a building given over to chaos. These ideas are old hat now, but in 1998 they were all groundbreaking.

For all my praise, I never actually finished it. I petered out on the game about two thirds of the way in because, well, Counter-Strike. I was a teenage boy who just discovered the joys of online multiplayer and I dove headfirst into the swimming pool of guns, hostages, bombs, and constant unending smack talk that made Counter-Strike what it was. Then Day of Defeat came out and I lost a year or more of my life storming beaches and saying “Bren gun” more times than anybody should ever have cause to and never quite got back to the New Mexico laboratory and Freeman's adventures. I left the colorful, weird, just askew of reality world of Half-Life to go shoot people in muddy brown and g??ray maps. In the years since that decision always made me feel a little ashamed.

Black Mesa (PC)
Developer: Crowbar Collective
Publisher: Crowbar Collective
Released: May 5, 2015
MSRP: $19.99

Now that I've had a chance to replay the original (selectively edited) Half-Life through the incredible reproduction effort of Black Mesa (which had its first part released roughly three y?ears ago), I'm not sure that choice was so wrong. In the end I think I broke even. Half-Life was a monumental gam??e that will always be rightfully remembered as a masterpiece for its time, but its probably not as fun as you remember it (headshots on the other hand are, and forever will be, a timeless source of joy).

First thing's first, the Crowbar Collective has done an astounding job of dragging Half-Life into the modern age. This is not a mere port like Half-Life Source which used all the same assets as the original with a bit of spit and polish added in the form of a higher resolution and some dynamic lighting. Black Mesa is a remake, built from the ground up to fully realize the vision of what Half-Life could be on modern machines.

More than a straight remake, the Crowbar Collective has played with the nuts and bolts of the game. Black Mesa rebuilds, trims, and expands different parts of the original for a smoother experience, while still staying true to what fundamentally made Half-Life what it was. There are new puzzles to work through, new and expanded areas to explore, and the availability of ammo and supplie?s has been bumped and nudged by a team that has spent ages agonizing over the pacing of the game.

Action scenes are frantic and aggressive, with plenty of ammo doled out to deal with the additional enemies and larger set-pieces provided by Black Mesa. But when the action slows down and Gordon is guided towards evasion and caution, supplies dip to an almost survival horror level of scarcity. The push and pull of tension and action, going from a rat in the walls to a one-man army was one of the most intriguing things about Half-Life, and Black Mesa nails it better than the original.

Some areas like the On A Rail sequence that infamously overstayed its welcome in the original, benefit from editing. Sometimes more isn't always better and Black Mesa makes some smart cuts getting rid of the flu?ffier and more frustrating aspects of the original. All of the edits are an improvement to the game. In fact, I'd say they could have probably brandished? the razor around a bit more.

Maybe we were just more tolerant of rampant amounts of bullshit back in 1998. Or, I suspect our memories of Half-Life benefit from a healthy helping of nostalgia and a lofty appreciation for everything that game did for modern game design. Half-Life basically wrote the book on immersive storytelling, first perso?n exploration and strategically minded A.I for enemies, it had to be fun, right?

Kind of?

There are great times to be had in Black Mesa. When the game works, you can easily tell why Half-Life is so highly regarded as a classic. But then there is a looming dark side; a great number of hours when the game stubbornly refuses to be fun. The overly long underwater sequences that have you searching about in the darkness for some nook or cranny you missed as the last of your oxygen bubbles out of your lungs. The obnoxious clunkiness of trying to just MOVE around on physic??s enabled debris, let alone when the game demands you try to make a specific jump or escape from a screen rattling auto-turret under those conditio??ns. The arbitrary insta-kill traps and monsters that force you back into loading screens and more than a couple “gotcha” moments that you couldn't hope to avoid without active precognitive abilities.

Even with careful editing and a mind towards evening out the pace of the original, Black Mesa still traffics in an almost unconscionable amount of backtracking and finagling. There were several sequences where the solution to the predicament I was in was so awkward and stilted that I was sure I was doing it wrong. Of particular disdain was a protracted sequence set in a waste disposal facility that merged all the “joys” of water exploration, insta-death traps, pinpoint jumping between moving conveyor belts and confusing map design into a single ultra dense black-hole of anti-fun so terribly dark and spirit crushing that I'm still not sure I fully escape??d from it.

Maybe I'm being tough on it, but I remember Half-Life being smarter. I remember liking its world and characters better. Maybe it's age or maybe games have just moved on, but this time around I was more exasperated than amused by the shenanigans of the Lambda research team. The game has one joke -- you wander up to some poi?ndexter in a lab coat, he says something silly/smug/abrasive, then immediately runs headlong into bullets/fire/devouring jaws (whatever option would make what he said seem more ironic).

I like to imagine F?reeman giving the leftover blood smear a knowing ??smirk each time. Granted, it's a funny goof the first two or three times it comes up, but when you're nine hours deep into the game and Professor Egghead is still predictably blundering into the crossfire, the dismemberment gets a little rote.

I think its interesting that almost all of my criticism for Black Mesa is directly related to content from the original Half-Life. Every other effort is fantastic. This game looks great, especially considering its roots as a community driven mod. The soundtrack of original compositions is fucking banging. Every edit and change they made to the game was for the better. It almost makes me wish Black Mesa wasn't a remake-with-cuts of Half-Life. I wonder if the team would have been better served making their own thing, or maybe a “inspired by the events of Half-Life” complete re-i??magining of?? the original game.

The way I see it, there are two potential audiences for Black Mesa. There are the players who missed the original in its heyday because they were too young, or didn't have a PC, or thought Freeman's goatee on the box art made him look like a barista stooge, but love Valve's other games and want to check out the legendary classic that started it all. Then, you also have the true-blue fans of the original, the generation that cut their teeth on Half-Life and remember it as a wonderful and mind expanding experience who would love to recapture the joy of thos??e heady days.

I'm in the slightly uncomfortable position of telling both of those camps that they can probably take a pass on Black Mesa, even though I truly respect the work that the Crowbar Collect??i?ve team has done with it.

If you want to play a great Half-Life game that has aged fairly well, Half-Life 2 and its accompanying chapters are fantastic and Valve practically gives them out every Steam sale. Those games have all the best parts of the original Half-Life, while cutting out most of the chaff that bogs it down. If you didn't play Half-Life back in the day, I can't really imagine someone enjo??ying it as a game. Maybe as an academic curiosity, but not as a play experience.

If you absolutely loved the original, you may very well find something worthwhile in Black Mesa. It really is the singular best way to play Half-Life. That said, you could also find something you don't like. A terrible truth, an awful secret, the knowledge that one of your favorite games is actually kind of a pain in the ass to play.? It might be best to leave those pleasant memories as they are.

There is still more Black Mesa?? to come; the game is in early access and right now the story concludes on a cliffhanger right before the Xen levels, where Freeman is thrust into an alien world of annoying platform jumping and floating alien bastards. The Crowbar Collective is actively working on that final chapter and plans to include it in the full release. Considering that even the most stalwart fans of the original generally concede that “the game was perfect (except for the Xen levels)” I don't think those last levels will really swing my personal opinion on the?? game. I will say this though, I can't wait for whatever the Crowbar Collective does next.

The post Early Access Review: Black Mesa appeared first on Destructoid.

Finally, a way to pay for a mod

Black Mesa, the loving recreation of the original Half-Life, has just entered Steam's Early Access program with a price point of $19.99. There had been a countdown on the website leading up to today, and many speculated that it was going to be the full release of the game, but those people are now severely disappointed. The first half of the mod was released in 2012 for fre??e, and was well received by most everyone.

It's an interesting use of the Early Access program, since most everyone is simply looking forward to the single-player aspect of the game and will want to hold off until it's done. According to the Steam page, the first "~85%" of the game is complete, and the last 15% will t?ake a "considerable time" to get it up to their standards.

Personally, I see this as a nice way to contribute to the development of a game that people may be emotionally invested in, considering it's been in development forever, but I don't see it as a game I need to play b??efore it actually rel??eases.

The post Hal??f-Life re??make Black Mesa now on Steam Early Access appeared first on Destructoid.

Could this mean the full Steam release is at hand?

Something's up over at BMRF.us (Black Mesa Research Facility), the website connected to the still-unfinished Half-Life remake Black Mesa: Source. On January 1, the site began looping an intriguing emergency broadcast system message, the full transcript of which found on reddit /r/Games is as follows:

"The following message is transmitted at the request of local authorities. At 9:47 AM, Mountain Time, a di??saster of unknown type has occurred at the Black Mesa Research Facility causing significant damage and failure to various power and communication systems in the surrounding areas. An immediate evacuation order has been issued for all residents within a 75 mile radius of the facility, and on-site military has been dispatched to provide assistance.

"Make sure to bring an emergency supply of food, water, clothing, first aid kit, flashlights with extra batteries, and battery powered radios. Follow local evacuation routes which have been marked by local authorities and only use one vehicle. Do not return to the warning area until the all clear has been given. If you are not in?? the evacuation zone stay where you are. If you are within the evacuation area and have no transportation locate your nearest police department or military officer. Do not use telephones or cell phones except in the case of emergencies. Stay tuned t?o local news media outlets for further details and information on this situation."

It's an interesting coincidence that this broadcast has come about when it did, as I'd just dedicated my Christmas holiday to playing through the spectacular remake of the classic Valve title. If you're unfamiliar with the project, make sure to have a look at Joshua Derocher's brief, but excellent review of the game. He seemed to like it quite a bit. If you're interested in having a go at it yourself, you can find download links and information here.

While we can safely rule out anything connected to Half-Life 3, I think it's is a safe bet that it may be related to the impending Steam release of the game announced back in 2013. Of course, it could be connected to the multiplayer portion of the game that's been in the works; or, perhaps it's both. Lending credence to the speculation, Black Mesa: Source level designer Craig Mirfin has been spotted posting tweets recently about both the multiplayer aspects of the project as well as commenting on the emergency broadcast message itself.

At this point, this is ??all we have to go on, but as the story continues to develop we'll be sure to keep you up posted.

The post Black Mesa-affiliated website broa?dcasts intriguing emergency message appeared first on Destructoid.

Developers now have full access to the Source engine

Having already been long cleared for release on Steam through Greenlight, the team behind Black Mesa has now announced that Valve is allowing this Half-Life remake to be sold on the platfo??rm. That'll be happening soon in addition to a new free version,? which will release shortly afterwards.

"Our decision to sell Black Mesa rests on two key points," writes the team. "One is we believe we can make the game even better by having full access to the Source engine. This l??ets us tackle and fix limitations instead of working around them. The second is because frankly, our team could really use the financial help."

This paid Steam version is said to include "features that the free version simply can not have" and there's plans to open source maps and some game assets. As for finishing Black Mesa, "Xen is still a ways off," according to the developers. "Over the past year, we have spent a HUGE amount of time porting the game to a new engine and fixing hundreds of bugs. The work to port to the new engine was not because of the decision to go retail, this was work that had to be done to get Black Mesa onto Steam and support our future plans."

It's encouraging to see Valve give approval for this, and I like that there will be an easy way for players to compensate the Black Mesa team for its work. If you're worried about the cost, however, know that it's supposed to be "a re?latively low pri?ce."

HAPPY 15??TH BIRTHDAY HALF-LIFE! We here at Black Mesa ha??ve some big news! [Black Mesa Source]

The post Black Mesa to?? ?be sold on Steam alongside free version appeared first on Destructoid.

Half-Life is a great game, but it's been over ten years since its release. What if Half-Life were made in 2007 instead of 1999? Black Mesa is a re-imaging of Half-Life using Source, the engine powering Half-Life 2. Valve has already created an HD remake of Half-Life called Half-Life Source, but that was a simple port over to the new engine. The textures, level design, and models remained the same. Black Mesa is more than a simple remake of the original game. It's a complete re-imaging of the core game with new level design, cha??racter models, textures, voice acting, and gameplay. 

It's an ambitious game that was created by a group of modders and fans over the course of seven years. While the core ideas of the levels are still here, each one has been completely recreated, resulting in an overall larger game. Half-Life was about twelve hours long while Black Mesa is easily over fifteen, and Black Mesa doesn't even yet include the original's final four levels.

High-definition remakes have been done before, but this is a creative recreation of a game. It's more than just sexy textures and layers of post-processing tricking us i??nto thinking an old game is new again.

Black Mesa (PC)
Developer: Black Mesa Modification Team
Release: September 14, 2012
MSRP: Free

I started playing Black Mesa expecting a completely faithful recreation of Half-Life. I was expecting the same level design and puzzles. What I found instead was something that felt very familiar, but it was also very fresh. Now, I know that there are some people out there who might think that it's crazy to try and alter anything to do with Half-Life, but don't run away screaming just yet.

Black Mesa does an amazing job of retelling the story. The levels are the same, you start at the s??ame point, and you end at the same point. If I were to sit down and tell you how I played the game and what I did, it probably wouldn't sound too different, as the same essence is here. It's like watching a remake of a movie. Even if? two people watched different versions of the same movie, they still have the same experience overall.

The above image is a top-down comparison of the the level "Inbound." They both have little crossroads, and some brownish-red stuff, but they look very different. The Source engine is ca??pable of creating much bigger levels than the old engine ever could, and the developers wanted to incorporate that into the new Black Mesa Complex. It feels like a massive place now.

Hallways are longer, rooms are bigger with higher ceilings, and outside areas are vast and expa??nsive. It's not just empty space, either -- areas have been filled with extra rooms, more weapon stashes, and more bad guys to fight. While some things have been expanded on, other have been streamlined such as the level "On a Rail". This level is shorter and it require much less backtracking.

The puzzle solutions are also a little bit different, too. Anyone who was hoping to blast through this because of how well they know Half-Life might have to stop and t??hink for a bit here and there. I'm not going to dive into anything that could spoil the game for you, but I will say that the changes are well done and they fit th?e spirit of the original.

Black Mesa has a lot to live up to, and it does an admirable job. The graphics look great, but the seven years in development make it look somewhat dated. The new voice acting sounds way better than the old digitized voice clips. Excluding a couple of moments where the frame rate dropped down drastically, the ?gameplay is otherwise smooth. At one point late in the game, it's almost unplayable for half a minute. Another annoying thing is the way jumping works: they tried to correct the insane old-school jumping mechanics by replacing it with a different (yet equally insane) method of jumping where you always have to press crouch and jump at the same time in order to get around. 

If you have never played Half-Life, you owe it to yourself to check out Black Mesa. It's a faithful recreation of an amazing game. You'll get the feeling and story of the original, but you won't have to try and play a 13-year-old shooter to do so. If you have played Half-Life before, you should still go play Black Mesa. It's a fresh take on a classic that's the closest thing you'll get to feeling like you're playing Half-Life for the first time again.

No matter what level of experience you have with Half-Life, this is worth playing. It's a bri?lliant tribute to one of the greatest vi??deogames ever made, and it's also a good game in its own right.

The post Review: Black Mesa appeared first on Destructoid.

Black Mesa is now available, I am playing it, and I can tell you that it's awesome. It is an amazing recreation of the original Half-Life with updated graphics and sounds. We'll have a review up soon. In the mea??ntime, here's 30 minutes of?? gameplay and my early impressions.

I went back and played some of Half-Life yesterday so I would have the original fresh in my mind when I started playing Black Mesa. The old game definitely looks dated, and this new visual update greatly enhances the exper??ience. The textures are all very crisp and HD, the lighting is dynamic and modern, and physics have been fully added using the Havok engine.

While the new visuals are nice, the worst thing about the old game i??s the sound. When people talk to you, it sounds like the?y are trapped in a digitized static machine on a planet filled with static monsters. It's pretty bad. Now the dialog is clean and rerecorded. The delivery and inflection matches the original so well that it's uncanny.

The gameplay is updated slightly as well. I would have never noticed if I hadn't gone back and played the old game right before playing the remake. It's just enough subtle tweaking to make the controls feel fresh. Old shooters just have this weird feeling where you feel more like a floating camera and less like you are walking around in the world. Black Mesa feels like a modern game. Don't read into this as they changed everything and made it totally different. It's true to what the game is and it doesn't change how Half-Life plays; it just changes how it feels. I'm guessing tha?t 80% of the people who play this won't even notice any difference in the controls.  

The only flaw?? I've noticed so far is that the loading times can be very slow at points. It's not game breaking, but it is annoying. Hopefully this is something that can be addressed in the future.

You can grab the game for yourself for f??ree right here. Black Mesa has also been Greenlit on Steam, so it mig?ht be available soon from there as well. Stay tuned for a full review early nex?t week!

The post Impressions: Black Mesa is awesome appeared first on Destructoid.

Black Mesa, the long awaited and long delayed Half-Life fan remake done in the Source engine is now freely available on the developer's website. Don't worry, I checked and it's not a link to a Rick Astley video. I can't believe it either. The server is taking a serious hit, so I recommend going to Shack News for now.

Since this mod has really become more than "just a mod," we'll be posting a full re?view of the game and maybe even some early impressions later today that should answer questions some of you ?will have about this ambitious project.

Will it be better than Half-Life or at least a good trip down memory lane? Ti?me to find out!

The post Time to bash some headcrabs: Black Mesa is now avai??lable appeared first on Destructoid.

The President of the United States of America:

"Good evening, men and women of America. At 5:42 PST, today, our elite crew of internet lurkers spotted a post from Black Mesa Source Project Leader Carlos Montero on the mod's official message board. Montero states that the long delayed Half-Life remake, made in Source, will arrive September 14. The soundtrack is available now.

"Many Americans have died since Black Mesa was announced in 2005. It has become the Duke Nukem Forever of its time. After years of terrorizing American citizens through the odd Reddit comment from a developer and mysterious screenshot??, we ??can finally say that we got the bastard!

"God bless Black Mesa and God bless America! Also, this initial release will not contain the final chapters in Xen or multiplayer. WTF? Well, whatever. At least we are gettin?g something. I'm going to go get a Big?? Mac. President out!"

Here's some fo????otage of the game that leaked last month. Can't wait!

The post Black Mesa will come out September 14, world is en??ding appeared first on Destructoid.