Black Mesa Released 130
ProbablyJoe writes "The long awaited Source engine remake of the Valve's original Half Life has finally been released. The initial release only includes the story up until Xen, but the developers say they'll be adding the rest of the story, along with an online multiplayer Deathmatch mode, soon. The game is available to download for free, and only requires players to install the Source SDK (included with all Source games, or a free download). The highly anticipated release has also caused a huge amount of traffic for any servers hosting the files, with GameFront, GameUpdates, and Black Mesa's own CDN brought down within minutes of the release. The project has also been approved by Steam's Greenlight program, and will hopefully be available through Steam soon, though no timeframe has been given."
BEST GAME EVER (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
We have that. It's called TF2 [teamfortress.com], and it's even free!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So for those that think TF2 is the same as TF Classic with better graphics I urge you to buy TF Classic on Steam, its cheap, the servers are full of people 24/7, and its a fricking blast and a half. Personally I don't care for TF2 at all, but TF Classic is just a hoot.
No, TF2 isn't TFC. It's a completely different game with a lot of differences in design style. After all, they had nine years to decide what they didn't like about QTF and TFC when designing TF2.
The "cartoonish" graphics and differently accented characters are there so that you can recognize a class by silhouette or sound (except disguised Spies).
Other major changes you're likely to notice sooner than later are:
1. The removal of grenades.
2. The fact that you can walk through teammates, but not enemies.
3.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, as for traps, I forgot to mention taunt kills.
Each class has a taunt kill on one or more of its weapons which will kill anyone standing in front of them when they use it.
Weapons that have taunt kills are:
The Scout's Sandman and Atomizer bats have the Bonk taunt, which makes the Scout imitate Babe Ruth's famous called shot. At 5 seconds, it's the longest taunt in the game, but it's also the only silent taunt kill in the game... and a hilarious way to kill Snipers that aren't paying attention.
The Soldier
Re: (Score:3)
Seeing that TFC came out a little after the original Half-Life, I wonder whether there will be a Source port of TFC. Like Fortress Forever but without the bugs and the developers changing the gameplay every week and mistakenly make some classes MUCH stronger than others.
Why wouldn't they just port TF1 rather than TFC if they're going to redo everything anyway?
Then again, both a TF1 or TFC remake would have to compete against the juggernaut that is TF2.
Incidentally, TF2 has one of the problems that you complain about... constantly changing the gameplay. Yet that's what's kept it interesting over the last 5 years: TF2 currently has 10 game modes across 57 official maps (and all sorts of custom maps) and a wide variety of alternate play styles based on being able to swap ou
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah, I tried it a few years ago and hate it. TF2 is retarded. No grenades, everyone's slowed down, the game has achievements, it has this stupid comic book theme to it, etc. They gave in to the kiddie noobs' complaints about TFC. What happened to conc jumping, bunnyhopping, EMPs, etc.? And sentry "sapping" is just stupid. One thing that Fortress Forever got right was adding trimping, conc holding (which only half exists in TFC), and really fast scouts.
I should have been more clear about the gameplay. For i
Re: (Score:3)
I still don't understand what was wrong with the original Half-Life? I'd love to play a fan made episode of Half-Life, but if I want to play Half-Life itself, it works great in Wine.
Is anyone else sick of remakes? Fan made or official, I don't care. Try something new!
Re:BEST GAME EVER (Score:4, Insightful)
I still don't understand what was wrong with the original Half-Life?
The graphics are 14 years old. If you're sick of the remake, just don't play it. It's not like anyone is forcing you to, or even charging you money if you actually do want to. If people want to spend their time upgrading a 14 year old game that they really love because they think it would be even better with modern(ish) graphics, they can. And for the people doing so, it serves as a nice resume builder as well, whereas making their own game would probably not receive nearly so much press and would therefore be far less impressive.
Re: (Score:3)
The graphics are 14 years old.
And? Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring is over 300 years old. Great works of art don't become less beautiful because they are old.
Re: (Score:2)
You might have a point if Girl with a Pearl Earring was a cave drawing.
Re: (Score:3)
The graphics are 14 years old.
And? Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring is over 300 years old. Great works of art don't become less beautiful because they are old.
Video games do. Well, technically they were ugly to begin with, we just didn't notice because it was the best we had (and usually better than what came before). The graphics, mind you, not the gameplay.
Re: (Score:2)
Not to mention they aged because we aren't playing on 640x480 screens anymore - people are rocking laptops with 2880x1800 screen resolutions (or tablets with 2560x1536). Or even just 1080p or 1920x1200. What looked good at VGA tends to look just terrible at the higher resolutions everyone runs at.
It's effect
Re: (Score:2)
Next up? Can we get Blue Shift? Opposing Force? :D
This is going to make me go install those again, I guarantee it.
Re: (Score:1)
Blue shift?
Play Azure Sheep if you want to see things from a bluesuit POV.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm way behind of games but actually tried Half-Life 2 not long ago and was duly impressed. Then tried Half-Life to get the full story - but Half-Life does feel really icky to play today.
I think it makes a lot of sense to take puzzle elements and story from Half-Life and bring everything up to the same quality level as Half-Life 2. And while graphics and sound are a big part of it, it's not all. The surroundings in Half-Life 1 are much more static in some way, it's less immersive.
Re: (Score:2)
you'll see problems with people who can't play the original HL because of weird incompatibility issues related to its age
That's funny. Just the other day people were saying that the big problem with Linux as a platform was constant breakage of backwards compatibility. But Half-Life works perfectly on Wine to this day.
Re: (Score:2)
It works fine on windows too.
Re: (Score:1)
Why do you think he's taking them?
Please (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
They need to preserve the glitch where your crowbar gets stuck in animation and hits the enemy a million times a second.
...Black Mesa? (Score:5, Funny)
That was a joke.
Ha ha.
Fat chance.
(Anyway, this cake is great....)
Re:...Black Mesa? (Score:5, Funny)
Would you?
He would probably say something along the lines of:
"..."
Re: (Score:1)
He and Chelle would be amazing on a date, wouldn't they?
I guess they'd communicate by jumping or something?
Re: (Score:3)
Hmm. A quiet internalizer who solves problems with a crowbar, and a mute with a minor case of serious brain damage?
I'm sensing a substory here...
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sensing badly written erotic fanfiction, that then will be made into a book avoiding copyright mess by changing the characters name, will be a huge success among frustrated housewives and then movies.
Re: (Score:2)
I was thinking more along the lines of an abusive relationship, myself. Since I have to go explaining it now :P
eg Gordon brains Chelle with the crowbar.
Re: (Score:2)
"50 shades of crowbar"
The least subtle title ever conceived.
Re: (Score:1)
I'm sensing badly written erotic fanfiction, that then will be made into a book avoiding copyright mess by changing the characters name, will be a huge success among frustrated housewives and then movies.
If that happens, I will gladly welcome the Combine invasion.
Re: (Score:2)
Both Gordon and Chelle communicate through their actions. Make of that what you will.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not shit other people came up with.
It's a quote right out of Portal 2.
Re: (Score:2)
Eh? This was in dialog, in the middle somewhere. Not in the credits.
Re: (Score:2)
Eh? This was in dialog, in the middle somewhere. Not in the credits.
No, it's in the Portal 1 end credits song Still Alive, and it's the only place in the game Black Mesa is mentioned by GLaDOS.
Re: (Score:2)
Must have gotten confused. At least it IS mentioned in Portal 2, by Clive [youtube.com]. Could have been further off!
Re: (Score:2)
your life must be so boring.
In pieces (Score:5, Funny)
The initial release only includes the story up until Xen, but the developers say they'll be adding the rest of the story, along with an online multiplayer Deathmatch mode, soon.
More episodic releases in the Half Life universe? NOOOOO!!!
Re: (Score:2)
I think I read somewhere that they were going to improve the upon the original version's Xen chapter... which would explain why they are delaying it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Soon means within three years. Black Mesa time is almost worse than Valve time
Re: (Score:2)
Well, Xen isn't that much in HL1. DM, meh.
Xen (Score:2)
But I'm not complaining, no one liked Xen anyway. Thank you, guys!
Re: (Score:2)
I liked Xen :)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder what happens at the end of this one without Xen levels. Does it say "To be continued"? I didn't like Xen levels, but I want to replay the whole HL1 game with this Black Mesa including its lame Xen levels. I will wait until Black Mesa is finished and worked out its bugs.
Godammit. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
I know I'm starting to feel the need for an early Friday already.
Re: (Score:1)
Actually, this is not correct. The release date was released only a month ago. The development took eight years, but it's not like you could plan ahead like for a solar eclipse.
Re: (Score:2)
Currently sharing at 140mbit. Now, if I could only get more than 20mbit down, it'd be awesome.
Another mirror (Score:5, Informative)
Over here: http://ftp.acc.umu.se/mirror/misc/BlackMesa/ [acc.umu.se]
Mostly used to hosting linux distributions, but this looks like someone might care to download too. Go ahead and eat a few gigabit/s for us. :)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
7.2gb installed.
Did they perhaps recompress the 7z archive to shave off that ~ 800mb then?
Re: (Score:2)
It's what is in the official torrent. My torrent client says 3146.1 MB.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
+1 Thoughtful
Your (non-Slashdot) karma just got noticeably better.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
They do have a torrent, just they hosted the tracker on GameUpdates which pretty much crumbled under the weight. Why they didn't use one of the many public open high-capacity trackers I do not know.
Re: (Score:2)
It is beyond reason why they set a private flag.
DHT would handle it just perfectly, but now a torrent is brought down because trackers can't cope.
Re:Seems like a perfect application for BitTorrent (Score:5, Informative)
There's a torrent link on the official Black Mesa site, it points to:
http://www.mediafire.com/?khmzyygg4vetko0 [mediafire.com]
I'm downloading it now, Black Mesa team says "Please seed!"
Re: (Score:3)
First Diaspora and now Black Mesa... (Score:2)
Projects I honestly thought would ever see release. It's been a good past 10 days or so for fan made games.
Is Steam itself required? (Score:2)
and only requires players to install the Source SDK (included with all Source games, or a free download)
I followed the link for the free download only to find a link to steam://run/211 [steam]. Can I install the SDK without also installing Steam?
Re: (Score:2)
I know steam is scary and confusing but I believe in you!
:D Just trying to minimise my drive usage, is all.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Source is the game engine Steam is integrated with. Why does it surprise you that a game (or mod) made in it requires Steam?
Besides which, Steam has been running for 9 years and is making money hand over fist, I doubt it's going to disappear anytime soon.
Re: (Score:2)
Never say never. Plus, having all your games locked to a single account means that if the account is marked as bad (stolen/hacked, or otherwise considered damaged) you could lose access to all your games you basically rented, should Steam Support not solve things. Why invest in a platform where you can't easily walk away and keep your games if things go sour?
I would much prefer
Re: (Score:2)
Unfortunately, no. Not, at least, through any official method (there might be some unofficial workarounds, but those probably technically fall under the realm of "cracks", so use/Google them at your own risk). They needed the SDK installed because that gives the Source engine to modders for free (otherwise it would require a probably rather expensive license to be used standalone).
Re: (Score:2)
It works fine, if you have Steam installed and didn't prevent it from registering itself as a URL handler for that protocol.
Re: (Score:3)
You've got a strange definition of malware/spyware.
Re: (Score:2)
Asshole, go look up what spyware and malware are. Now go look up what a content distribution platform is. Note how they are not the same thing?
As well, this is Valve's engine. It's not like it's some third party engine only available in steam - it's by the creators of steam and they can do what the fuck with the engine they wish.
Re: (Score:2)
Go ahead and look at my history. Shilling? Really?
Says the bitch who hides behind AC.
Re: (Score:2)
Die in a fire, little troll.
Re:Comparison to HL2 port from Valve? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
This is a remake, not a port like Valve did.
No Mac support? (Score:2)
I realize :
* this was a lot of work
* it's free
* mac isn't a gaming platform
* I shouldn't complain
But I somehow thought that Black Mesa would run natively on mac since it uses Source. I've been very happy playing Portal/Counter Strike/Half Life 2 on my mac.
Screw it, I might get a PC just to play Half Life again...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks!
I already tried bootcamp once, and the install didn't work because of weird partitions. :D
Now that I have a better motivation, I installed WinXP and :
Black Mesa is simply glorious!
Re: (Score:2)
Valve hasn't made the Source SDK work on Mac yet. So it's not Black Mesa's fault that it can't run on Mac.
I find it likely that, even if Valve mysteriously doesn't want to make the actual SDK work on OS X (including porting over their toolchains), they'll give the BM:S guys enough access to compile it, much like how Epic ported a few fan-made UT3 mods over to PS3 before the PS3 mod SDK was released. Valve is going to be pushing BM out over Steam soon (see Greenlight); this might actually be why it isn't alr
Question about Mods & Source engine compatibil (Score:2)
I have a Mac and previously bought a copy of Half Life 2 along with Portal and some other stuff in a pack. Previously I was able to download some mods that weren't made specifically for Windows or Mac and they played just fine.
How exactly is Black Mesa different from those mods? I understand that it would need to be ported to Linux or Macs so... why was it packaged as an executable and not a cross-platform type mod?
I've never played the original Half Life so was kind of looking forward to this release. D'o