Black Mesa Website Starts Mysterious Countdown

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

So Valve shot the dog with their modding fiasco, so they have to make it seem like they still care about the fans. Re-release Half Life. That'll shut those entitled basement dwellers up!

Bravo, Valve. You're almost as bad as EA

Would be true - if Valve would be in any form related to this. They aren't. Like... they aren't involved at all.

Actually if its a Steam release, fan website or not, Valve is involved. Say what you will about their lack of accountability of what gets onto Steam, but someone at Valve had to check a box at some point. They did approve this release, and there is no way in hell they didn't notice it was Half Life.
And don't tell me some PR rep didn't set this up. Its simply too convenient that less than a week after their fuck up, oh look! More Half Life!

 

[Li Mu]

I look forward to seeing Xen in 2018.

You're optimistic. I'm going with 'never'.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

So Valve shot the dog with their modding fiasco, so they have to make it seem like they still care about the fans. Re-release Half Life. That'll shut those entitled basement dwellers up!

Bravo, Valve. You're almost as bad as EA

Would be true - if Valve would be in any form related to this. They aren't. Like... they aren't involved at all.

Actually if its a Steam release, fan website or not, Valve is involved. Say what you will about their lack of accountability of what gets onto Steam, but someone at Valve had to check a box at some point. They did approve this release, and there is no way in hell they didn't notice it was Half Life.
And don't tell me some PR rep didn't set this up. Its simply too convenient that less than a week after their fuck up, oh look! More Half Life!

Do I sense a little bitterness here?
Anyway, valve compared to EA? How did you get to that conclusion? Valve haven't released a game In years!

 

[happyninja42]

So, are any of the people who actually worked on Half-Life 1/2 still working with Valve? I mean it's been what, over a decade since the last game right? Do we even want a new game by an entirely new team? Would that even hold up to the (somewhat unrealistic) expectations of the rabid fanbase?

 

[Bindal]

So Valve shot the dog with their modding fiasco, so they have to make it seem like they still care about the fans. Re-release Half Life. That'll shut those entitled basement dwellers up!

Bravo, Valve. You're almost as bad as EA

Would be true - if Valve would be in any form related to this. They aren't. Like... they aren't involved at all.

Actually if its a Steam release, fan website or not, Valve is involved. Say what you will about their lack of accountability of what gets onto Steam, but someone at Valve had to check a box at some point. They did approve this release, and there is no way in hell they didn't notice it was Half Life.
And don't tell me some PR rep didn't set this up. Its simply too convenient that less than a week after their fuck up, oh look! More Half Life!

A release is set by the developers, NOT by Valve. And such a release is usually planned a few weeks, if not MONTHS prior.
So, no, Valve is not related to the release in any way, shape or form. They're only providing the distribution.
And yes, they know it's a Half-Life Remake. They gave their blessing to it. A few years ago, in fact. The only thing they requested was to remove "Source" from the name (Black Mesa instead of Black Mesa: Source). Otherwise, it is not a game or mod made by Valve or published by Valve.

So, are any of the people who actually worked on Half-Life 1/2 still working with Valve? I mean it's been what, over a decade since the last game right? Do we even want a new game by an entirely new team? Would that even hold up to the (somewhat unrealistic) expectations of the rabid fanbase?

Most of them are. They were also working on Portal 2 and TF2 and still do.

 

[MonsterCrit]

They spent their time adding Multiplayer but no Xen.... seriously. I think I will pass on this.

 

[Bindal]

They spent their time adding Multiplayer but no Xen.... seriously. I think I will pass on this.

I can live without Xen. I am more curious of they finally added good gameplay because in the current mod, the gameplay is just broken in several way (normal jump being COMPLETELY useless, tons of visuals that are just annoying and distracting with no way to turn them off, a lot of weapons coming way too late, Marines were OP as hell, MP5 was pointless...)
Because of that, I never even got around to play further than the beginning of "Blast Pit" before I was too frustated, uninstalled the entire thing and powered though the original Half-Life 1 in one session as that was actually fun.

 

[MonsterCrit]

They spent their time adding Multiplayer but no Xen.... seriously. I think I will pass on this.

I can live without Xen. I am more curious of they finally added good gameplay because in the current mod, the gameplay is just broken in several way (normal jump being COMPLETELY useless, tons of visuals that are just annoying and distracting with no way to turn them off, a lot of weapons coming way too late, Marines were OP as hell, MP5 was pointless...)
Because of that, I never even got around to play further than the beginning of "Blast Pit" before I was too frustated, uninstalled the entire thing and powered though the original Half-Life 1 in one session as that was actually fun.

Huh? How odd. I found it to be almost dissapointingly easy compared to the original. The areas seem a bit smaller and many of the challenges. Less nightmarish. And for comparisson I replayed the original after Black Mesa... nope Original was Harder... hell the Black ops ai was even stupider than the original.

 

[flying_whimsy]

Hmm, so by retail that means they are going to sell it. So rather than finish the mod by putting zen in it, they've been retooling it for a retail release? An unfinished retail release?

I'd rather they had just finished the damn thing and remade blue shift or something.

 

[Devieus]

So Valve shot the dog with their modding fiasco, so they have to make it seem like they still care about the fans. Re-release Half Life. That'll shut those entitled basement dwellers up!

Bravo, Valve. You're almost as bad as EA

They planned on making a retail version of Black Mesa long before the paid modding. As for Valve's input, Black Mesa got some help from them, helping with tools and whatever support they need.

 

[Bindal]

They spent their time adding Multiplayer but no Xen.... seriously. I think I will pass on this.

I can live without Xen. I am more curious of they finally added good gameplay because in the current mod, the gameplay is just broken in several way (normal jump being COMPLETELY useless, tons of visuals that are just annoying and distracting with no way to turn them off, a lot of weapons coming way too late, Marines were OP as hell, MP5 was pointless...)
Because of that, I never even got around to play further than the beginning of "Blast Pit" before I was too frustated, uninstalled the entire thing and powered though the original Half-Life 1 in one session as that was actually fun.

Huh? How odd. I found it to be almost dissapointingly easy compared to the original. The areas seem a bit smaller and many of the challenges. Less nightmarish. And for comparisson I replayed the original after Black Mesa... nope Original was Harder... hell the Black ops ai was even stupider than the original.

Where did I say that I found Black Mesa hard? I said "broken" because of tons of unneeded changes and additions, that were just annoying and didn't have to be there. With the exception of Marine-AI (which was broken because it was too hard - 0.4 second reaction time on unalerted. 0.1 on alerted. With the biggest aimbot in history), none of these changes were making the thing harder. There were a few really cheap things (like hiding an explosive crate in the middle of the first pile of crates you have to smash after getting the crowbar - which, btw, comes WAAAY to late. Who thought it was a good idea to have the player rely on one braindead guard to get past all those zombies? That stretches that part to 10 minutes when with crowbar at the proper placement, it takes just a bit more than one.)

 

[Janaschi]

They spent their time adding Multiplayer but no Xen.... seriously. I think I will pass on this.

I can live without Xen. I am more curious of they finally added good gameplay because in the current mod, the gameplay is just broken in several way (normal jump being COMPLETELY useless, tons of visuals that are just annoying and distracting with no way to turn them off, a lot of weapons coming way too late, Marines were OP as hell, MP5 was pointless...)
Because of that, I never even got around to play further than the beginning of "Blast Pit" before I was too frustated, uninstalled the entire thing and powered though the original Half-Life 1 in one session as that was actually fun.

Huh? How odd. I found it to be almost dissapointingly easy compared to the original. The areas seem a bit smaller and many of the challenges. Less nightmarish. And for comparisson I replayed the original after Black Mesa... nope Original was Harder... hell the Black ops ai was even stupider than the original.

Where did I say that I found Black Mesa hard? I said "broken" because of tons of unneeded changes and additions, that were just annoying and didn't have to be there. With the exception of Marine-AI (which was broken because it was too hard - 0.4 second reaction time on unalerted. 0.1 on alerted. With the biggest aimbot in history), none of these changes were making the thing harder. There were a few really cheap things (like hiding an explosive crate in the middle of the first pile of crates you have to smash after getting the crowbar - which, btw, comes WAAAY to late. Who thought it was a good idea to have the player rely on one braindead guard to get past all those zombies? That stretches that part to 10 minutes when with crowbar at the proper placement, it takes just a bit more than one.)

You let the invincible guard actually escort you the entire way? Why? Up until the crowbar, there are no sections within that chapter that disallows you from simply running from the headcrab zombies. Would have bored me to tears to follow that poor-shot guard the entire way - lmao.

 

[Bindal]

You let the invincible guard actually escort you the entire way? Why? Up until the crowbar, there are no sections within that chapter that disallows you from simply running from the headcrab zombies. Would have bored me to tears to follow that poor-shot guard the entire way - lmao.

Unless you constantly run into two or three of them, blocking the way and trying to find a flare to burn them (while they still attack you) is just as slow.
Again, if they would just given you a crowbar where you got it back in Half-Life, that wouldn't be a problem. I actually tried it once and gave myself a crowbar with console commands. Suddenly the entire section was a MILLION times better.

 

[Lunar Templar]

so, a count down .... to likely nothing.

cause this is HL3 we're likely talking about, why would they finish it at this point.

 

[K12]

It's kind of annoying that they've spent their time making a sellable version of something that was already done rather than finish actually finish it.

Oh well, maybe it'll be something more than that but I tend to doubt it.

 

[Bindal]

so, a count down .... to likely nothing.

cause this is HL3 we're likely talking about, why would they finish it at this point.

It's not Half-Life 3, it's Black Mesa. A mod. The countdown is on www.bmrf.us - which is confirmed to be a website related to the Black Mesa mod.

It's kind of annoying that they've spent their time making a sellable version of something that was already done rather than finish actually finish it.

Oh well, maybe it'll be something more than that but I tend to doubt it.

How about reading the entire news post? It'S said that it will also contain the Multiplayer (which, quite frankly, I don't care about). And it is confirmed that the retail version is going to be visually more polished than the mod version. Or something like that.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Meh, the fact that the game crashed for me everytime I died plus the fact that the Xen chapters still aren't released makes me want to ignore BM and just focus on Half Life.

 

[Lunar Templar]

so, a count down .... to likely nothing.

cause this is HL3 we're likely talking about, why would they finish it at this point.

It's not Half-Life 3, it's Black Mesa. A mod. The countdown is on www.bmrf.us - which is confirmed to be a website related to the Black Mesa mod.

so it's what? an HD rebuild of HL1 then?

 

[Bindal]

so, a count down .... to likely nothing.

cause this is HL3 we're likely talking about, why would they finish it at this point.

It's not Half-Life 3, it's Black Mesa. A mod. The countdown is on www.bmrf.us - which is confirmed to be a website related to the Black Mesa mod.

so it's what? an HD rebuild of HL1 then?

How about you use Google and look up "a mod" is? And then what "Black Mesa" is in relation to it? Or, even better, read the news post as it already gives a brief but spot-on description of it IN THE VERY FIRST SENTENCE?

 

[Willy Rogers]

All I have to say is that once the money starts rolling in, they best get chopping on the xen portion. It's one thing when it's a free mod with very few staff members, but Black Mesa will always feel like an incomplete game without a complete ending. On the other hand, they ARE reworking the entire xen section to make it more playable and fun so that would take some time, I just hope once the income flows in they might be able to increase their workspeed by hiring some folk.