Black Mesa soundtrack released...

[Executor32]

...and, as per previous statements from the dev team, release of the actual mod is now approximately two weeks away (the 14th, to be exact).

Forum thread (currently down)

Steam Community announcement

Soundtrack

According to the announcement, they're still working on Xen and BMDM, so this first release is only through Lambda Core. Xen sucked anyway, so I am okay with this.

[Wing Commander MAD]

Didn't they say that release was just around the corner a few years back? Cool if it is though, I've not played the orginal since I got a free copy from Sierra (yes it was that long ago) for some customer service problem with the orignial Ground Control. I never bothered with Half-Life Source.

[Zixinus]

Didn't they say that release was just around the corner a few years back? Cool if it is though, I've not played the orginal since I got a free copy from Sierra (yes it was that long ago) for some customer service problem with the orignial Ground Control. I never bothered with Half-Life Source.

Well, the main website now has a countdown... Says 11 days, so maybe on the 13th?

[Sarevok]

This HL2 mod reminds me of DNF. Something tells me it is going to be underwhelming when it comes out. It was cool when Ace Pace told me about a mod to play hl1 campaign in source engine..back in 2005 when i bought a new pc and was looking for game recommendations. ::) Now its going to elicit a meh response:p

I know they are just amateurs working in their free time but its such a long time. The source engine itself is going to be replaced at some point and it would be funny if they were still working on this.

[Executor32]

Black Mesa is now one of the first ten titles to be accepted through Steam's Greenlight program. This means it'll eventually be available through Steam free-to-play, though probably not in time for its release through other channels, which is Friday at 8:47 AM MDT.

[Mr Bean]

Release for Black Mesa Source is in... one hours and fifty odd minutes. Think I'll use this thread for my reactions assuming the website and download links don't get destroyed. Which always seems to happen when we don't get pre-release downloads.

[Mr Bean]

Kinda funny, who knew their website could not stand up to seven million people hitting refresh.
Here's the some what working download link for the 3.8 gig file.

http://release.blackmesasource.com/page ... nager.html#

[Executor32]

Shacknews to the rescue!

[Executor32]

Magnet link for the torrent with working trackers added, per the reddit thread:

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:a9b546b8141c210870ce09c43038a6aee9e0157f&dn=BlackMesa&tr=http://www.gameupdates.org/announce.php ... m/announce

EDIT: Well, poo. The url tag doesn't like the magnet protocol. Copy/paste will have to do, I guess.

[Mr Bean]

If you have the torrent file uses these trackers

udp://tracker.publicbt.com:80
udp://tracker.ccc.de:80
udp://tracker.istole.it:80
udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80

They are actually working as opposed to the one that comes with the file

Here's the shack news all in one file
http://www.shacknews.com/file/32999/bla ... -free-game

Torrent link
https://twitter.com/BlackMesaDevs/statu ... 9252016128

[Executor32]

Beaten on both counts.

[Executor32]

Done, installing and seeding now.

[Mr Bean]

Done, installing and seeding now.

Grumble... grumble...

[Executor32]

My god... it's full of stars!

[Executor32]

Now arriving at Sector C Test Labs and Control Facilities.

[Mr Bean]

Walking the dog, taking care of the functionaries... time to give it a whirl.

[Mr Bean]

Just got to the test chamber...
Oh god it's filled with.... SCIENCE! There are buttons and dials and switches and nobs. Someone who spent a great deal of time in real laboratories spent a great deal of time setting these up. No wonder this took so long there's just so much clutter in every room. There's two scientists working on a project, here's another one sorting files. Here are two jerks being jerks to another.

Black Mesa fills alive, it really shows how far we've come and this is just a frigging mod not a tripple A Game. You can feel the love in every tiny detail like what was once a stale corridor now has a locked door and a window into a lab where science is being done. And hey look it's HL2 nods where we hear about Barney, Dr Eli and here's Dr Kliener. And was that Breen I saw?

Everything from the tiny sticker noting that this seat was reserved for the disabled and pregnant mothers on the tram or the extra HEV charging stations on the wall (That are empty) makes everything stand out.

[Alyeska]

So, apparently Hound Eyes are addicted to TV. I found one sitting in front of a TV just like a 4 year old kid might do, like 5 feet away. Making cute little noises to himself while he watched a screen full of static.

[Mr Bean]

Okay further thoughts now that I've made it to "On a Rail" which is about the halfway point since Xen is not in this release.

This is amazing for a mod for three key reasons

1. It's Half-Life HD but it's not
2. Game play improvements
3. Storyline/Character improvements


1. It's Half-Life HD but it's not
Black Mesa is what we expected Half-Life Source to be like Day of Defeat and Counter-Strike source were, graphical and engine overhauls to take advantage of modern features in a fourteen year old game. But the kids at Black Mesa went above and beyond. This is not simply a HD texture pack. What they done is gone through and re-done the entire Black Mesa Research Facility from the literal ground up.

Sector C test labs have a very clean and sterile design with lots of whites and blues and lots of science equipment and computers laying around. Before and after the accident you can find lots of stuff in progress laying around. The only difference is after the accident most of the lights are out, there are headcrabs everywhere and lots of stuff is on fire. By contrast once you work your way into the industrial and office areas during "Office Complex" you'll find a mix of yellow lights and beige everywhere like any cubical farm. But then you escape that and hit the tunnels and service areas and find nothing but taped up wires and tools. You find hasty repairs and if you look lots of little touches like a spot where clearly a guard had taken down four zombies only to be crushed by a falling piece of debris. The point is if you played the Portal games you'll recognize the method of storytelling via enviorment. As we go back into the older areas of Black Mesa they feel older and the equipment is noticeably cruder.

Last I can not stress this enough, the corridors the same but a vast amount of detail has gone into making everything looking like this is a real working place, you can find bathrooms in sensible locations, there are ways now to get from crazy room to crazy room and nearly every room looks like it makes some degree of sense. Except the box smashing room, the one where you jump from box over a giant pit which still makes zero sense in Black Mesa even if it is prettier.

2. Game play improvements
I could talk about iron sights, better weapon control more interesting firefights but I'll note two things before I start praising. One guns come later than they do in Black Mesa than they do in HL1 and grenade throwing is garbage, be prepared to kill yourself as you seem to throw grenades randomly and they bounce like they are made of rubber except when they hit certain objects and stop dead. But yes lots of old HL1 mechanics return but improved, marines seem no smarter but they are deadlier and more aggressive even if they are just as blind to explosive barrels as before. But headcrabs are just as annoying, zombies just as shambling and jump scary however two great updates. The Marines have a medic with every squad who will heal his fellows and drops a medkit when killed and bull-squids goo is now glow in the dark which is a neat change when they start spitting and you get this giant glowing goo pile headed for your head that really stands out. Gunplay is better than HL1 if more deadly even on normal mode. You'll be using your magnum a lot which ammo is plentiful as every 5th guard body carries one. Also follower AI is massively better, if you so much as bump against one they leap to get out of your way instantly. You don't have to be fiddly with the scientists as the instant your within fifteen feet of a door they can open they announce something along the lines of "Oh hey I can open that for you Freeman!" and when you hit a stopping point for their usefulness it makes sense because there is some physical obstruction they can not overcome but you can because hazard suit.

3. Storyline/Character improvements
I mentioned before the follower AI is smarter, they are also more verbose. This mod did not have triple A voice talent but they did have it seems like six people and they tried their best. And they did manage to get some good stuff in. One example, there's a bit in HL1 where you in the old game come across a guard who's dieing and gives you a task or two to make it to Lambda but then sits there and bleeds quietly and otherwise does nothing. In Black Mesa that same guard starts the same way but once you come back to him you find he's dragged himself to the controls for the tram saving you the step in the first game where you had to double back up to this control room twice to get the tram in position. Instead in Black Mesa he's standing by and tells you goodbye in a pretty sad way for this person who's name we don't even know. He's not the only one, lots of the little nameless scientists you meet who give you tasks have several more lines to give a bit more background and a bit more weight to your actions.

Not only that but lots of the ways you complete tasks have been changed, lots of little things have been changed mostly for the better. You get a much better feel for the shear size and scope of Black Mesa Research Facility and how much things have gone to hell when you do run across bits of normalcy or the way things change when the military moves in and starts setting up temporary camps. I saw one clear med tent area inside a server farm room or an ammo depot inside the paint closet with all the paints and racks shoved to one side to make room for the ammo boxes. In HL1 when the military shows up it's just a new enemy to fight, in Black Mesa you can tell when your in a military area as you can see these kinds of temporary camps thrown up. Meanwhile xen creatures have "dead scientists" as their major decoration theme while the surviving guards prefer "dead xenomorphs" to accent their rooms.



So in summary, more that just graphics a complete HD retool, the gameplay is tighter and takes advantage of a few of the game play advancements since 1998 and the story makes more sense on why your going here and why you should care.


*Edit speaking of hound eyes they curl up and go to sleep if you leave them alone long enough.

[Alyeska]

They cut at least a third of the content from On a Rail. None of the missile turrets. Half your time driving the train have disappeared. But they gave me a security guard with a shotgun.

Its also clear this game was designed in stages. Sector C Test Labs have older designs. CRT monitors and what not. But now that I hit a cubicle farm later in the game, its nothing but LCD monitors. Fundamentally the game is well made for a fan project. I just hit Questionable Ethics. And they have made significant changes to the map here.

[Mr Bean]

Beat my head against the wall in Residue Processing because of the conveyor belt crusher section. I checked it in HL and it was easy to zip on by them, now I spent 15 minutes beating my head against those damn crushers.. Or rather those crushers beating my head into pulp as they move literally twice as fast as the HL1 ones do.

*Edit beat it, but it takes split fucking second timing to run at it full speed just as the first one goes high enough to run under while standing then duck for .5 seconds so you can charge another ten feet only to duck again. 43 attempts, maybe I'm just bad but somehow I don't think so.

[Executor32]

You're talking about the two groups of three pistons that come down from the ceiling, right? I got it on the first try, run up to the first piston while it's down and just start sprinting, once it's high enough to clear your head you'll sprint through and clear the group, no need to duck at all. Repeat for the second group of pistons and you're home free.

I just cleared the Ordinance Storage Facility in Surface Tension. I'm glad there aren't any headcrabs this time around; the number of tripmines everywhere is fucking insane. They also changed the hornet gun location a bit: instead of just randomly lying on the floor at the foot of the elevator, now it's next to an alien grunt corpse on the elevator platform. Wait till you get it, the animation when you first pick it up is hilarious.

[Alyeska]

So, its become apparent that they made this release by cutting content. They didn't just forgo Xen. On a Rail and Surface Tension both have significant sections missing with no equivalent new components.

[Mr Bean]

I just cleared the Ordinance Storage Facility in Surface Tension. I'm glad there aren't any headcrabs this time around; the number of tripmines everywhere is fucking insane. They also changed the hornet gun location a bit: instead of just randomly lying on the floor at the foot of the elevator, now it's next to an alien grunt corpse on the elevator platform. Wait till you get it, the animation when you first pick it up is hilarious.

I totally missed it

[Terralthra]

So, its become apparent that they made this release by cutting content. They didn't just forgo Xen. On a Rail and Surface Tension both have significant sections missing with no equivalent new components.

I'm up through We've Got Hostiles, partway through Blast Pit, and noticed some minor cuts here and there, but they largely improve flow, so I haven't really cared over much.

On a Rail always seemed fucking interminable in the original, I'm happy to know it's shorter now. Surface Tension was ok, but a little repetitive, I think.