Black Mesa Source nears release

[Mr Bean]

Catch me later I'll buy you a beer

The wait was just long enough for all kinds of crazy bets to be made, but time to cash those in, because the Black Mesa Trailer is good to go and up for viewing! You can download it from a few different places, or watch it on youtube. We hope this gives you a small taste of what the game will be like, and we hope it was worth the extra wait!

We also forgot to include some great Power Up shots by Kim Dahlgren, so be sure and check those out on our media page! This officially concludes our media release, but not future updates! And as stated in the trailer, the days this mod stays in development are truly numbered. Hang tight, because at long last, it is coming.

The trailer is here
Four years of work coming togther, the trailer states a simple 2009 release date. Not when in 2009, but we are under a year at this point which is good to hear.
And the trailer looks good with nice flip fades even if that SMG sounds anemic I look forward to what they can do with the old girl.

[wautd]

The original Half Life is one of the few shooters I've finished more than once. And by the looks of this, I might be finishing it again in the future. Looks great

[Ryan Thunder]

Cool. I'm looking forward to downloading it. Here's hoping they don't make us pay for it over Steam like they did with Gary's mod.

[CaptHawkeye]

You can't wait to buy a game you've already played?

[Ford Prefect]

I'm actually quite impressed by what was shown in the trailer. It seems like a considerable technical challenge to recreate the entirety of Half Life. For example, that tentacle monster that shows up. It just remains to be seen how good it actually is.

[Braedley]

I've been waiting for this for a long time. Maybe not as long as it's been in development, but it's been long enough. I tried replaying the original a little while back, but just couldn't (not that I actually finished it when I first got it). Hopefully, it'll live up to all my expectations, which by the looks of the trailer, it should.

[DesertFly]

I think the thing I'm most impressed with is the way that they're not just straight porting the maps and models (from Half-Life 2, in most cases), but are actually taking the time to rework them.

[Ryan Thunder]

You can't wait to buy a game you've already played?

Haven't played it before, just the most recent Half Life games.

[CaptHawkeye]

You can't wait to buy a game you've already played?

Haven't played it before, just the most recent Half Life games.

Considering Half Life 2, that's pretty much a "yes i've played it before."

[Oskuro]

A chance to replay some excellent content with updated graphics and a fresh approach? Groovy.

[RazorOutlaw]

The original Half Life is one of the few shooters I've finished more than once. And by the looks of this, I might be finishing it again in the future. Looks great

I'm guilty of doing the same thing; granted it got a little more boring as time went on. I'll clarify that I didn't play the game multiple times in a row, I was usually playing other games at the time or I just plain ignored it altogether. I just had a tendency to go back to it eventually either in the form of mods or the original game.

[Chris OFarrell]

Been waiting for this for a lonnnnng time

I can't help but wonder just how much support Valve is going to give the team come release date, how well they'll integrate it into steam and so on. Generally, Valve have been a company that put heavy focus on involving the community, especially after CS became such an absurdly popular moneymaker for them...

I'd also love to see the views of people like Newell on this mod...

[Mr Bean]

The few comments from Valve have been along the lines of "I hope it does well". They know what this is, a giant "hire me" sign written across the sky. Valve have been famous for hiring mod teams in full or even just parts and move people from mods the've hired to some they just acquired to give them the use of a good experienced staff. (Witness moving TF2 folks to the L4D team for the final playtesting phase and per L4D's page they also got a few of the HL people)

So if Black Mesa Source is as good as it looks (For the trailer it looks like they have at least one good animation programmer.) we could see another team being added under Valve's wing.

[2000AD]

You can't wait to buy a game you've already played?

Buy? Isn't this just a mod?

[Ace Pace]

You can't wait to buy a game you've already played?

Buy? Isn't this just a mod?

Yeah. I have no idea what CaptHawkeye is peddling here.

[Mr Bean]

You can't wait to buy a game you've already played?

Buy? Isn't this just a mod?

Yeah. I have no idea what CaptHawkeye is peddling here.

The good Captain never checked the webpage or read the details, he read the op and went off.

For those playing at home, Black Mesa Source is a Mod, a free Mod and the only listed requirement is owning some source based game on steam(HL2, Counter Strike Source, Day of Defeat Source, TF2 and so on) to play it. However they are talking with Valve about making it totally free and initial word is positive on Valve's part.

Part of the old contract of mods is you need the original game to play, since this is a re-do it might be released just requiring a Steam login.

[CaptHawkeye]

Whoops. Regardless, it being free makes it a more attractive proposition. It's just too bad Half Life 2 is already 4 years old, and Source is already showing its age. My attraction to linear corridor-stroller FPS games has diminished so much I probably won't even be able to make myself play it for free.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

Everyone loves to say that Source is "showing its age", but I have yet to see anyone point out in what way its age is being shown. Left 4 Dead looks and runs absolutely fantastic, and more than stacks up to other new FPS games on the market graphically. The proof is in the pudding, and so far Source has proven it can still deliver games that look and run as good as any other engine, DX10 support or not.

[Alyeska]

Everyone loves to say that Source is "showing its age", but I have yet to see anyone point out in what way its age is being shown. Left 4 Dead looks and runs absolutely fantastic, and more than stacks up to other new FPS games on the market graphically. The proof is in the pudding, and so far Source has proven it can still deliver games that look and run as good as any other engine, DX10 support or not.

When I see Source games, I see that the details aren't quite as sharp, the bump mapping not quite as intensive. But this is compared to only a handful of games. There are a few games out there that can really be called better then source. By and large source still looks gorgeous. Better yet, it runs great on any gaming system out there. A 4 year old gaming machine with no upgrades can still play even the newest source game. Valve was smart with their engine. Make it look good, but more importantly make it playable by the largest possible audience. Valve made a wonderful blend of playability and technology. Crysis, eat your heart out.

[Zixinus]

I recall that Source was also developed with changes in technology kept in mind.

And really, what can't Source do that any more "modern" engine can? DX10? About how much percent of the gaming community has Vista?

A good engine does not equal a good game. It helps, but the fact is, that you can make a terrific game on a Quake engine and you can still make something that sucks on the Cry engine. The soul of the game is within the quality of production (and debugging, as STALKER demonstrated) and design, not the technical detail.

Of course, the mainstream crowd won't care about that.

[salm]

I recall that Source was also developed with changes in technology kept in mind.

And really, what can't Source do that any more "modern" engine can?

- no real time shadows
- no daylight system
- can´t use geometry from external 3D apps as level geometry
- the bsp system is a bitch
- no modern occlusion culling
- no WYSIWYG editor
- no good (as in modern) editor at all
- shity, annoying, long winded process of compiling and importing textures and custom models
- the terrain editor is a joke compared to modern ones
- the source code is apparently extremely badly written
- long level compilation times (sometimes days as opposed to none or nearly none in modern engines)
- lower max polygons
- models may only have up to 12000 (i think) polys or the compiler will hang
- You actually have to build separate physics boxes for imported models


I´m sure there´s more.
That said, Source is a fun engine to work with for certain things. Other things are overly complicated and plain annoying. It simply can´t compare to modern engines like the Cry Engine 2, ID Tech 5 or even low budget Engines like Unity 3D.
The reason why Episode 2 looks better than Crysis is that Valve has extremely good level designers who know how to make a nice scene whereas Crysis relies more on technical superiority instead of artistic brilliance.

[Oskuro]

The reason why Episode 2 looks better than Crysis is that Valve has extremely good level designers who know how to make a nice scene whereas Crysis relies more on technical superiority instead of artistic brilliance.

Wich is the important part. I agree that games such as GoW have awesome graphics, but after an hour of playing through them, you get used to it, and the awesomenes turns into normalcy. If level and game design aren't solid, there ain't much left to the game.

[salm]

The reason why Episode 2 looks better than Crysis is that Valve has extremely good level designers who know how to make a nice scene whereas Crysis relies more on technical superiority instead of artistic brilliance.

Wich is the important part. I agree that games such as GoW have awesome graphics, but after an hour of playing through them, you get used to it, and the awesomenes turns into normalcy. If level and game design aren't solid, there ain't much left to the game.

The thing is that the potential behind modern game engines is a lot higher. If you give the same developer team better software you will get a better product. The most crucial point here in my oppinion is the speed in which you can realize certain things. Some things can be done within seconds in modern engines which take minutes, hours or even days in Source.

[Ryan Thunder]

The reason why Episode 2 looks better than Crysis is that Valve has extremely good level designers who know how to make a nice scene whereas Crysis relies more on technical superiority instead of artistic brilliance.

Oh? I'd like to see what they could do with the Cry-engine, then...

[Zixinus]

The reason why Episode 2 looks better than Crysis is that Valve has extremely good level designers who know how to make a nice scene whereas Crysis relies more on technical superiority instead of artistic brilliance.

Which is actually a very important point. I still say that Anachronox still looks better than several modern games simply because they have far more interesting places, areas and things to look at. Anachronox was done with a modified Quake engine.