Glad someone made a thread to announce that it's finally being released to reminded those of us with short memories. Still think it'll be amazing to play even if it's a few years late.
Really looking forward to this, taking the day off work to play it! Printed out a cover i found online and printed a mini Black Mesa Employment letter to go inside the case (The cover can be found on Google Images 'Black Mesa DVD Cover' and the letter is on the official BM website, top right of the countdown page)
Black Mesa is officially one of the first games to be Greenlit on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/news/8839/
They better deliver this time, this game has been stuck in the bowels of development hell for years Last time I was at neogaf nobody had anything nice to say about these guys, some wanted to rip them a new one Someone proposed they kickstart the project, but then every user there said there was no way they where giving these guys any money
They are doing this off thier own backs and giving it away for free. If they had been getting paid for it, i would have to agree. But they are under no obligation to release it at all really. It's a fan project, not a retail game.
So... Black Mesa is released! I've played it for a few hours, and overall I'm pretty impressed. It's pretty amazing what they were able to achieve, especially considering it's a free project. Granted, the graphics look a little dated by today's standards, but the atmosphere they created is really amazing - a great tribute to the original Half Life. I do think that some of the choices they made in the gameplay are a little questionable - for example, the inability (as far as I can tell) to jump over lasers and mines. Still, overall I'm very happy with it. Give it a shot, if you haven't yet! I'll post some more impressions when I've beaten it.
They've known about it since the project started, and they never had any problem with it. Gabe Newell said it was "inevitable." They did tell them to remove "Source" from the name (it was originally called Black Mesa Source), because they didn't want people thinking it was an official Valve release - which is a bit ridiculous, but whatever. It's going to be on Steam at some point, but not right now.
I put this to download as I left home for work and I think when I return it must be ready. Thrilled to finally get to play this. I have been waiting for this since 2005 and I gave up on this somewhere around 2009.
My suggestion: download the torrent. The torrent takes about 30 minutes. The other download options could take hours.
Yeah the torrent is the way to go. I'm highly impressed with their work, this takes me back to '99. Playing the game under the Source engine just feels right. I'm about four chapters in and there isn't a single gameplay change / design change that I've been disappointed with.
I'm only at the beginning, but I'm really impressed with this mod so far. They really changed the start of the game to be more...intense. To be honest it was scary as fuck for me before I found the crowbar, but that might be because the HL2-style headcrab zombies creep me out.
may have already been mentioned this will be released as native linux once steam goes live on linux platform or GNU/Linux for those who are picky i'll definitely be checking it out oh yeah and as for the headcrab zombies, i got a strange satisfaction from hacking them with the crowbar hope they kept the squelshy sounds lol. also beating them with the wrench was also quite satisfying
Holy hot damn this mod is great. It is incredibly solid, in pretty much every aspect. I am very jealous of some of the coding they did for some pretty sweet effects I have been trying to do for my mod (like gibbing on ragdolls, each gib can spray blood on the wall just from grabbing it and rubbing it up against stuff, so awesome. As well as human and alien blood staining your weapons and gloves). & The amount of detail put into the maps is pretty jaw dropping at times, especially if you have tried your hand at mapping for Source yourself. They also changed many things around while retaining the same feel and look. If you have played HL1 multiple times, you will recognize most areas very well, and enjoy the amazingly detailed look that Source can provide when handled with talent and time. & some of the music tracks are really superb. All in all, a must play. You must know about Jumping and Crouching at the same time to gain extra height, yes? =] Also, some lasers need to be crouched under, obviously. =P But yeah, the normal jump is pretty gimped feeling. I find myself crouch jumping almost every time, even for small obstacles.
They said they'll release both BMM and Xen in a "reasonable amount of time." And yeah, I found the beginning to be really intense too - it was probably my favorite part so far. It has an added sense of realism that really takes the resonance cascade part to a whole new level.
It's an awesome mod, almost finished it. I really like the changes they have made to the levels, makes them far more enjoyable.
Black Mesa is awesome, loving all the new references to the original Half Life... like "Aww man, you cut your ponytail!" haha. The only change I disliked was the first puzzle when you first met the houndeyes (the heat pipe valves puzzle) in the very beggining to remove the ice from the room to progress... it wasn't very obvious in the beggining... also I disliked the explosive boxes, it's really hard to see that they aren't normal boxes in the dark. Got a few suicides crowbar-ing them.
