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2 days ago
Black Mesa’s full Xen chapter and ending is now playable in beta
After fifteen years of development in one form or another, Black Mesa is almost finished. A new public beta build of the Valve-sanctioned Half-Life fan remake unveils the final chapters of Xen, the alien world much-maligned in Half-Life and absent from the initial release of Black Mesa. With this, the game can now be played in full from beginning to end. And damn, their expanded…
2 months ago
As the many hapless scientists now wearing wee aliens as hats (and Valve Software themselves) could tell you, one need be careful with Half-Life's alien dimension of Xen. That's why the gang behind sanctioned remake Black Mesa gang have taken their time remaking those much-reviled end-game levels, initially releasing the game without any Xen then getting back to work on it. They've been gradually expanding…
4 months ago
It’s crab-fighting time: Black Mesa’s Xen beta is diving into the Gonarch’s Lair
It feels like only yesterday that Half-Life remake Black Mesa was a joke. The highest-profile vaporware of the Source modding community. That thing had been milling around since 2005. Nobody thought it would ever actually come out. I remember feeling properly shook when eventually did in 2012, seven years later. Except, it wasn't exactly done. Crowbar Collective have been trying to figure out Xen, Half-Life's…
6 months ago
Black Mesa launches its first three Xen maps into public beta
The long-delayed Xen chapters of Black Mesa - Crowbar Collective's remake of the original Half-Life - feel tantalisingly close now. In a Steam blog post yesterday, the devs warn that "If you want the polished, complete Xen experience, you should wait. It won’t be long!", but if you're ready for your first taste of their re-imagined alien world, you can try it now. The first…
1 year ago
To celebrate Half-Life's twentieth birthday today [more on that later today -continuity ed.], the Black Mesa gang have made a new trailer showing progress on their commercial Half-Life fan remake's final chapters, the alien world of Xen. They also say that they're now planning to add the Xen chapter in 2019, some time from March to the end of June, so that's three-ish years after…
Sometimes, things just take time. When an amateur team remake an FPS classic up to AAA standards in a modern engine in their spare time? Yeah, that'll take a while, but the patience seems to be paying off for fans of Black Mesa. While so so far the ambitious (and Valve-endorsed) Half-Life remake has mostly adhered to the structure of the original, developers Crowbar Collective reckon…
2 years ago
If your Christmas plans include gathering the family around the meat tree and singing songs celebrating the return of our saviour, Gordon Freeman, I have bad news: Black Mesa is delaying the launch of its final chapters. The sanctioned fan-made Half-Life remake had previously planned to launch the remade Xen levels in mid-December but yeah, that's not happening any more. Why? Because they're still not…
So committed is third-party Half-Life remake Black Mesa [official site] to emulation of its much vaunted inspiration that it has now fully embraced ValveTime. Black Mesa was first released as a free mod in 2012, followed by a spit'n'polished paid version two years ago, but still with the notorious jump'n'fail alien world section from Half Life's final act missing. Plan was to rethink rather than…
3 years ago
The Black Mesa [official site] gang have shared a first look at Xen in their Half-Life remake. You might remember that they launched Black Mesa without Half-Life's oft-maligned final chapter, set in the alien world of Xen, because doing it right was taking yonks. You might further remember they're planning to launch Xen in summer 2017. You might... well, I was surprised by this first…
The makers of Black Mesa [official site] have announced plans to add the final section of their Half-Life remake, Xen, in summer 2017. They explain that it's taking so long because they're really fleshing out that alien world. I do admire the confidence to declare you're making Xen bigger, given how unpopular that section is with some players. They might be happier to hear you've…
4 years ago
The alien world of Xen is the biggest part of Half-Life still to come to its fancy remake Black Mesa [official site], but developers Crowbar Collective have been working on plenty more. Over the weekend they released an update heavily expanding the 'Surface Tension' chapter, adding back areas that didn't make the cut before. They've also added dynamic shadows to outdoor areas, revisited and polished-up…
5 years ago
Now that the commercial version of Half-Life fan remake Black Mesa [official site] is out in Early Access form (and pretty great so far), what'll happen to the original free mod? Not that much, really - which is hardly a surprise. Developers Crowbar Collective haven't given up on it, as they said they wouldn't, but expect future updates to be more along the lines of…
If we acknowledge that many jokes have been made about the Half-Life series then may we, you and I, accept that there's no need for us to crack any more and vow never to ever again ever? The commercial version of Black Mesa [official site], the fan-made remake of Valve's seminal Half-Life, arrived on Steam today at £14.99/$19.99. On Steam Early Access, to be precise,…
6 years ago
Halfy birthday, Hap-Life! Well, I guess it's technically the day after your birthday now, but an upgraded version of Source-powered Half-Life tribute Black Mesa still counts as a gift, I think. You might remember that the free labor of time, love, and more time was greenlit a while back, but now it's finally taking the Lab Facility Train Ride of Ultimate Auspiciousness over to Steam.…
7 years ago
When I'd finished the excellent Half-Life remake mod Black Mesa I was a bit discombobulated. I looked at the clock and realised that my allotted ten hour slot for playing it had come up short. I was a full 53 minutes early. What was going on? The only explanation was there was a time slip while I was hopping around being Gordon. I put it…
We now bring you this transmission, directly from alternate universe evil (or are they the good ones?) Bizarro RPS: John: Goodness, what a boring day it's been. Probably the least exciting in recorded history. Jim: Here's an idle musing for you: joy is dead. And so is God. Adam: Wouldn't it be amazing if a spiritual successor to Total Annihilation just made $2 million, a thinly veiled follow-up…
The saga of Steam Greenlight has, thus far, been packed with unexpected surprises, whiplash-inducing twists, and sudden bursts of lava-like sensuality. Unfortunately, hardly any of it has been related to actual, you know, games. Instead, Greenlight itself and its (in some cases, not-so-well-explained) policies have hogged the spotlight, with Valve doing its best to tweak and modify the system as it goes along. Now, though,…
Black Mesa is coming this Friday. THIS FRIDAY. Can you believe it? I still can't believe it. And yet, so it has been written. To whet your appetite for all things Lambda, the Black Mesa Modification Team (really guys? That's your name? You'll be writing yourself into a corner after you finish Xen) have released seven new fancy pants-sized screenshots of iconic moments and locales…
