Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Black Mesa Trailer

By Jim Rossignol on December 1st, 2008 at 8:39 am.

Just in case you missed the comments linked trailer for the Black Mesa Source mod:

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85 Comments »

  1. 01/12/2008 at 08:48 Thirith says:

    Wow… Definitely looking forward to this twice as much now!

  2. 01/12/2008 at 08:49 The Hammer says:

    Oh my word, what a cool trailer. It’s really, really strange to see bits you know from Half Life 1 in Half Life 2 quality graphics, with HDR and everything, and the pacing in that was brilliant. The bit with the cascade itself… woah.

    Really looking forward to this again – the trailer team have done a SUPREMO job.

  3. 01/12/2008 at 08:49 rei says:

    Worth the wait! Particularly impressed by the deformable railing… didn’t think Source could even do that sort of thing.

    There was that bridge in the beginning of episode 2, but as I understood it that was practically pre-rendered.

  4. 01/12/2008 at 08:59 Ian says:

    I’ve been following the progress of this for ages now. I’m not even a huge Half-Life enthusiast, but… oh my!

  5. 01/12/2008 at 09:01 Magic says:

    If it is as good as it looks it will be awsome!
    Whats with XEN? They got screenshots of almost all chapters but XEN. I didn’t like it that much but I’d rather play XEN then some wierd alt-ending.
    Nah, it doesn’t matter that much… its Black Mesa in Source (yay!)

    If they do an alt-ending at least it can’t be worse then XEN :-)

  6. 01/12/2008 at 09:04 Davee says:

    Whoa! Iv’e been interested in this mod for some time now, but really, this looks much better than I thought it would in real-time.

    @rei: Unless they’ve done hell-of-a-lot of new coding for the Source engine, my best bet is that the railing part was just an animated model – but it still looks very well-made.

  7. 01/12/2008 at 09:13 Seniath says:

    I will admit, I yelped during the tentacle scene.

    Man, that sentence could be taken horribly out of context.

  8. 01/12/2008 at 09:17 Poita says:

    Looks better than HL2. Mainly because HL1 was a better game than HL2. HL2 was too calculated and structured with set pieces. HL1 felt more like a world that you had found yourself in.
    Look forward to playing it again.

  9. 01/12/2008 at 09:18 Heliocentric says:

    Fighting off l4d infected through here anyone? Barneys vs boomers.

  10. 01/12/2008 at 09:28 Stijn says:

    Magic: They have stated that they will not show any Xen material prior to release – but it will be there in the mod.

  11. 01/12/2008 at 09:30 Gap Gen says:

    That looks fantastic.

  13. 01/12/2008 at 09:37 Jochen Scheisse says:

    As everyone else already said it looks fantastic, I just want to add: It also sounds fantastic. Brilliant soundtrack, I cannot recall having heard of that before…does someone by chance know what it is?

  14. 01/12/2008 at 09:44 Thirith says:

    I’m pretty sure they’re doing their own music, inspired by the tunes from the original game.

    The voice acting also sounds pretty damn good. (Voice acting is still a wasteland in so many professional releases…)

  15. 01/12/2008 at 09:52 NukeLord says:

    Wow, that looks awesome. The blast pit especially so.

    *drools in anticipation*

  16. 01/12/2008 at 10:17 nabeel says:

    Nothing will replace my beloved HL, but this does look damn nice.

    nabeel

  17. 01/12/2008 at 10:37 cHeal says:

    That’s looks bloody fantastic! Easily the game I am most looking forward to for 2009. I think that Valve should buy it up and sell it retail if it does turn out to be good, as much as I’d prefer to get it for free these guys deserve proper credit, not just the reverence of the internet community.

  18. 01/12/2008 at 10:46 D says:

    Never mind proper credit, give these people money and jobs!

  19. 01/12/2008 at 10:58 muscrat says:

    most anticipated shooter of 09 ;)

  20. 01/12/2008 at 10:59 Dan says:

    Wowowowow

  21. 01/12/2008 at 11:02 MeestaNob! says:

    I agree, it would be nice if this was approved and polished by Valve, then released as the official updated version.

  22. 01/12/2008 at 11:03 Naurgul says:

    It’s really really good. I just hope they can keep their promise for 2009. Speaking of delays, where’s my Episode Three, Valve?

  23. 01/12/2008 at 11:12 Larington says:

    WOW!

  24. 01/12/2008 at 11:22 Paul Moloney says:

    Stuff like this is the reason I consider myself a PC gamer.

    P.

  25. 01/12/2008 at 11:23 Irish Al says:

    @Magic

    They don’t have Xen because Xen is the red-headed stepchild of HL1 – hidden in the cellar and everyone likes to pretend it didn’t happen.

  26. 01/12/2008 at 11:24 rabbitsoup says:

    well that looks better in motion than i ever expected. brilliant job. jets hope it gets released before someone hires the whole team

  27. 01/12/2008 at 11:25 Crane says:

    This… this looks better than HL2, actually.
    Whoa.

    I’ve been waiting for this for a while, but I didn’t expect something THIS impressive.

  28. 01/12/2008 at 11:30 Andy says:

    Er, oh my days. I’m slightly speechless. For some reason I feel like this will be a lot more fun than HL2!

  29. 01/12/2008 at 11:35 Nimic says:

    Anyone want to put some odds on these guys being hired by Valve in the (near) future?

  30. 01/12/2008 at 11:41 diebroken says:

    Woohoo, yes! HL1 over Hl2 any day – I didn’t really like the whole Rebels vs. Empire angle that HL2 leant towards. Whereas in HL1 it’s just you (mostly) against either alien monsters and black ops./marines.

    I’ll never foget that scene where you first get the crossbow, it still gives me the shakes! But of course not as much as the dreaded Tentacles! :)

    Hell yeah! (awww, 2009…)

  31. 01/12/2008 at 11:48 GLOWi says:

    @Magic. There won’t be any XEN footage until release, stated developers. They don’t want to spoil it probably.

  32. 01/12/2008 at 12:01 Saflo says:

    I am more excited about this than any official release I can think of.

  33. 01/12/2008 at 12:09 Frans Coehoorn says:

    Nimic, I think they will. It won’t suprise me if these guys will join Valve so they can develop Episode 3/4 or something. This is awesome!!!

    Is it for free or…?

  34. 01/12/2008 at 12:22 Feet says:

    Awesome. I have very high hopes.

  35. 01/12/2008 at 12:36 Colthor says:

    Wow, that looks great.

    I’ve been replaying Half-Life. Graphics have came a long way in ten years. And protagonists now move much slower.

  36. 01/12/2008 at 12:46 BooleanBob says:

    Niiiice.

  37. 01/12/2008 at 12:54 Chaz says:

    Oh wow, knocked for six! Seems like I’ve been waiting forever for that mod, but it looks like the wait will be well worth it.

    All it will take now is an apperance from Duke Nukem Forever and my socks will be well and truely blown off.

  38. 01/12/2008 at 12:57 Leelad says:

    HOLY CRAP!!

    I’ve been slating this as another dead mod for about a year, I’m eat my words and keyboard. That looked amazing.
    The bit with the bangy noisy tenticle thing was insane!!

    Looking forward to this AGAIN now!!

  39. 01/12/2008 at 13:06 SwiftRanger says:

    Looks and sounds ace until that machine gun, that’s just nothing like the HL1 version.

  40. 01/12/2008 at 13:18 bob says:

    Great trailer and great soundtrack indeed. The music is done by Joel Nielsen afaik.

    http://www.joelnielsen.com/

    Hope they manage to release in 2009. Would be great if Valve adopted this into their line-up of “officially supported” (i.e. steam-distributed) mods (like they did with Insurgency, Age of Chivalry, etc.). It seems like it (or they) might have earned it.

  41. 01/12/2008 at 13:23 Doc says:

    You’re right, SwiftRanger. It looks even better! :P

    Besides, it fits if you also look at the High-Definition pack that came with Blue Shift.

  42. 01/12/2008 at 13:57 Rei Onryou says:

    @50s: Perfect intro for GMan (even though he’s just the HL2 model).

    The tentacle seemed perfect and they’re including positively everything so far. PVC Sex Assassins anyone?

    This is definitely a mod to look forward to. I wonder what Valve will do with it/the team after release…

  43. 01/12/2008 at 14:19 Kadayi says:

    Looking very good, but for pure legal reasons I doubt very much whether Valve will officially adopt it, let alone ‘sell’ it in any form. That they’ve allowed the team to produce it is a minor miracle in a lot of ways. Also as I understand it a heap load of people have been involved in this mod at one time or another with a high rate of churn in terms of personnel, so it’s hard to envisage even if adopted how recompense for peoples contribution could be accurately measured.

  44. 01/12/2008 at 14:25 Cooper says:

    I love that Valve have allowed this to hapen. Too many other studios have shutdown remakes.

    I hope 2009 is the release for Episode 3. Then I’ll have an excuse to play Black mesa Source, HL2, Ep1, Ep2 followed by Ep3. That will be one glorious week with no work getting done…

  45. 01/12/2008 at 14:31 Man Raised By Puffins says:

    I’m generally of the opinion that this mod is as unecessary as that Zack Snyder Dawn of the Dead remake, but blimey do they make a good trailer. Good luck to them on getting this out the door for 2009 too, I have a feeling they’ll need it.

  46. 01/12/2008 at 14:39 ChaosSmurf says:

    The first thing I thought when I was watching this was “Wow, a mod that actually looks like the people behind it have been working for the 3728 years it’s been in development”. It looks seriously brilliant and I can’t wait.

  47. 01/12/2008 at 14:55 Frag.Stag says:

    Watching the tentacle feel its way towards the scientist was so cool.
    Objective: beat HL1 before BMS comes out.

  48. 01/12/2008 at 14:56 Pags says:

    By God am I excited for this.

  49. 01/12/2008 at 15:10 Nero says:

    Looked real good.

  50. 01/12/2008 at 15:11 Don says:

    Most impressive. What’s the betting that some of these guys will end up being employed by Valve? Since Valve could shut them down in an instant, as HL is their IP, and are not known being so cruel as to let them finish the mod then slap them with an injunction, it’s quite possible Valve want them to succeed.

  51. 01/12/2008 at 15:18 Paul Moloney says:

    Judging from the fact that Valve did nothing more than ask them to remove “Source” from the name (hence it’s now monikered just “Black Mesa”), that implies implicit, bordering on explicit, permission.

    I mean, the original is now 10 years old, and selling for 98c; I don’t think Valve are worried that Black Mesa will cause sales of HL1 to plummet. If anything, they’ll probably get a few more sales of HL2 out of it. Win win.

    P.

  52. 01/12/2008 at 15:21 James T says:

    High-def houndeyes, hurrah! Pkow pkow pkow.

    Ah, the way they’ve polished up the Blast Pit is beautiful. It’s all looking very nice. Can’t wait to play Surface Tension. And Questionable Ethics. And… well, lotsa stuff. I’m intrigued as to how they’ll deal with the problem of Xen hoovering cock like a vacuum cleaner in a chicken coop.

    …Sounds like an Aussie on the PA. : P

  53. 01/12/2008 at 16:12 thefanciestofpants says:

    Sweet fancy Moses.

    Valve, give them money!

  55. 01/12/2008 at 16:33 AndrewC says:

    As Colthor says – avatars move sooo much slower these days. They have weight, and walk like they have two legs instead of butter wheels. What little we see in the trailer suggests Freeman is moving slower in this than the original too. If that’s true it would make this much more different than a sexy re-skin. It would change the balance, and change the way it plays. So if he does move slower, and that doesn’t just balls the unchanged gameplay up completely, this could be awesome.

  56. 01/12/2008 at 16:46 Not Bernard says:

    Perhaps it was just me, but I always felt that the gap between HL1 and 2 was so great that it’s rather difficult to link them together.

    With the fantabulous new graphics and sound, however, I think it may really feel like the same world.

    I wonder if they’d consider remaking Opposing Force? More GMan!

  57. 01/12/2008 at 17:12 FinchDenton says:

    This is an awesome (INB4 Nova) prospect

  58. 01/12/2008 at 17:17 Dave says:

    I just finished playing Half-Life: Source a week ago. This looks a gazillion times nicer… but I hope the gameplay is tweaked a bit too. I had to cheat to finish it. Running into a couple of soldiers usually meant I’d die or be half-dead, even on easy.

    Games, and what it means to die in games, have really changed in 10 years…

  59. 01/12/2008 at 18:57 AlexW says:

    No, they will not be moving on to Op4.

    No, they will not all be snapped up by Valve (some of them, maybe, but not anywhere near all). Some of them are already in the industry, of course, and some of them probably just did it explicitly intending not to go for a job. Nielsen, for instance, is an unlikely one.

    Yes, you [were entirely entitled to be concerned over how long this has been in development for]

  60. 01/12/2008 at 19:24 Tei says:

    Making a mod to get hired in the industry is a bad idea anyway. You sould make a mod, because YOU LOVE MAKING MODS, if you don’t love making mods, your time is best consumed doing something else. If you make a mod, and you get hired, good, but is not a good idea to use modding for something else than modding.
    /rant

  61. 01/12/2008 at 19:25 Noc says:

    I’m rather more optimistic about this now than I was previously. I’ve been beset by the horrible suspicion that this was becoming yet another zombie mod project that was slowly losing steam far short of completion . . .

    But I’ve been reassured! Huzzah, et cetera.

  62. 01/12/2008 at 19:39 I don't understand this comment system says:

    Some other group has a op4 project going. I would find the link, but I am at work.

    It looks really great…… except for the weapons and did you hear that SMG?

  63. 01/12/2008 at 19:46 Jacques says:

    As towards Tei, making mods is fun, sure, but after a while, it gets tedious, the fan base shrinks and if it takes too long, the game gets abandoned and the mod with it. Modding for the pure sake of modding works for the short term, but almost never in a long timespan. This has been in development for close to three years, and that’s a long time with very little to show for it as you’re doing it.

    If time didn’t cost money and people didn’t have jobs, sure, modding for fun long time would be a viable option, but it doesn’t work out that way, so why not mod and try and get a better job at the same time?

    It’s incredible that the Black Mesa Team has held together this long and accomplished as much as it has.

    As long as they release the mod to the public, for free, given they have the source engine/ a source game installed, I see no problem with them getting benefits out of it, like jobs.

  64. 01/12/2008 at 19:53 Leeks! says:

    That looks slick. So slick, in fact, that it justifies the use of italics to convey the enthusiasm of my opinion.

  65. 01/12/2008 at 21:56 Azazel says:

    oh. my. god.

    I had forgot all about this, and now I can’t fecking wait.

  66. 01/12/2008 at 22:28 Y3k-Bug says:

    @Thirith: The voice acting also sounds pretty damn good.

    It should, its the original sound files from Half Life 1.

  67. 01/12/2008 at 22:34 pepper says:

    <3 half-life, this game has a very special place in my hearth, I know this mod has been in development for years, but i think some of the most talented designers in the mod community are working on it, so its definitely worth the wait!

  68. 01/12/2008 at 22:51 Man Raised By Puffins says:

    @ Y3k-Bug: I believe they actually are re-recording the dialogue. Compare the Barney at the desk in this trailer to the original and it’s fairly clear that they’re aren’t working with the same audio.

  69. 01/12/2008 at 22:52 AlexW says:

    @Y3k: No it’s not. They’re completely different voice actors. They’re very good, but they’re definitely different, and if you check the BM website devblogs you’ll find a fair few entries about the voice acting.

  70. 01/12/2008 at 22:54 Denton says:

    @Y3k-Bug

    The voices are all newly recorded by their voice actors including G-Man. Their guy does sound exactly like Shapiro, though – apparently to the extent that some people can’t even tell! =D

  71. 01/12/2008 at 22:55 Denton says:

    Well, undercut by *everyone*

  72. 01/12/2008 at 23:16 Thiefsie says:

    That’s how you make a trailer.

  73. 01/12/2008 at 23:22 malkav11 says:

    I’m actually a little disappointed by the graphics. It pretty much looks like Half-Life 1 with a few more years of polish. I wanted a HL2-style rendering of the locations and events of HL1.

    Not that it’s not a definite improvement over Half-Life: Source.

  74. 01/12/2008 at 23:22 Tei says:

    @Jacques : hopes the mod (total conversion?) is released soon, looks like very interesting. Good luck!

  75. 01/12/2008 at 23:35 Pags says:

    Malkav11: the memory can be a funny thing. It’s worth going to the Black Mesa website and looking at the comparisons in level design. I couldn’t remember the original Half-Life looking so empty but next to the redesign it’s really quite shocking seeing how much they’ve improved upon it.

  76. 01/12/2008 at 23:35 Jochen Scheisse says:

    Thanks for the link to Nielsen’s site, bob. I really like his stuff, although sadly he doesn’t have the track he used for this trailer online. Still, the other music for BM is also well done, but he mostly leaves out the flashiness of the trailer track, probably because creeping through dark corridors does not go well with fast, agressive music.

  78. 01/12/2008 at 23:50 RichP says:

    HOLY SHIT. Black Mesa is going down as one of the greatest mods of all time.

    Of all the cool stuff in the vid, I’m still most impressed by the movement and pacing of the scientists and lab techs :)

  79. 02/12/2008 at 01:21 Skittles the Bleepin' Pirate says:

    HOOOOOOOOOOLY GOD
    This looks good.

  80. 02/12/2008 at 05:18 malkav11 says:

    You know, after looking at screenshots, I think the trailer just threw me off somehow. Maybe it’s Youtube’s compression at work.

  81. 02/12/2008 at 07:10 Mungrul says:

    One leeetle niggle; that freeze frame of Gordon talking to Barney… isn’t that a cutscene?
    And aren’t cutscenes the antithesis of Half Life?

  82. 02/12/2008 at 08:41 thefanciestofpants says:

    I have a feeling the few cutscene-style things shown in the trailer were pure cinematic license.

    I can’t imagine the BMS team would do away with the always in first-person-ness.

  83. 02/12/2008 at 10:43 aldo_14 says:

    One leeetle niggle; that freeze frame of Gordon talking to Barney… isn’t that a cutscene?
    And aren’t cutscenes the antithesis of Half Life?

    I think beardy-guy was just a random scientist #345 looking over Barneys shoulder.

  84. 03/12/2008 at 11:53 Arnulf says:

    Just came around watching this. It’s really amazing! HL2 was the last FPS I bought (Portal is not really a FPS for me..). I was a bit disappointed with the HL:source port they included back then. But this mod sets everything right again. Incredible!

    Also, thanks Tei, for that youtube link to the old HL trailer. I remember that I was anticipating HL for what I thought was a small eternity. Quake 2 was sooner released than HL. But, boy, was it worth the wait. I gobbled up every screenshot, every short trailer that was available. Downloading huge trailers was a luxury back then in the stone age of the Internet.

    I especially remember that one-eyed panther… thing. So sad that Valve did not incorporate that into the final game. Or… I guess it later evolved into the three-armed slave aliens.

  85. 24/12/2008 at 15:54 Psychopomp says:

    Seeing all those old HL1 scenes with moder. technology sent shivers down my spine…

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