Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done - Kotaku Comments

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

OuNin — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 12:19:54 MST

This development is way beyond FUBAR.

OuNin

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

dead_red_eyes — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:59:02 MST

It's going to take FOREVER for this. Ugh.

dead_red_eyes

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Spoony Bard — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:39:33 MST

@McWhertor: Aah. That explains a LOT. Why I never picked up on that is beyond me.

Thanks :)

Spoony Bard

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:30:55 MST

@The Raz (Spoony Bard): IIRC, the Vortigaunts were simply caught in the fracas while trying to escape the Combine in HL1. They're a seemingly benevolent race, but due to a communication breakdown, everyone was just shootin' everyone.

Michael McWhertor

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Spoony Bard — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:30:42 MST

One more thing I never understood - how and why did the Vortigaunts go from enemies to allies? Always confused me.

Spoony Bard

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Spoony Bard — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:29:48 MST

Oh yeah. The original is CLASSIC. The tram ride in the very beginning basically SHOWING you all the places you'll go...a simple yet ingenious idea. And the fact that there is a calm before the storm as you, Mr. average scientist, simply go through the motions of a typical day.

I couldn't write enough about this game. And Opposing Force and even Blue Shift were also entertaining diversions.

My dream would be to see Episode 3, HF: Black Mesa and sourced-out expansions of OF & BS along with Portal 2. But pipe dreams are just that...pipe dreams.

I do think that once the game is done, Valve may want to buy it; as someone said, they have a history of doing that. It's much cheaper than doing it themselves. Plus, everyone on the development team would be stoked!

Spoony Bard

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

blackadvent — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:34:05 MST

Do want. DO WANT.

Half-Life got me hooked onto FPS games. This will make me a fanboy if its done right.

blackadvent

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Lemming — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 02:58:02 MST

I really want to play this, but the dev team do either need some Valve support or to tone down the arrogance a little (just see their forums..) and actually be less secretive about the whole thing. It's just a mod, ffs.

Lemming

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

McKack — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 01:27:21 MST

Black Mesa was thinking with portals... Look where it got them.

McKack

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

yazan — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:17:49 MST

Half Life 1 is the yard stick to which I compare all FPS games .. no FPS single player campaign has ever come close to giving me the same satisfaction as HL ...

@GOLD5: i bought the orange box because i never had the chance to buy the. I think I would buy the Black Mesa remake through Syeam if only just to say that I own it.

Would a bundle containing Black Mesa Source be called ... the Black box ??

yazan

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Dave Silva — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:07:41 MST

@lalahsghost: Where'd you get that information from? There's no info on that on the game's moddb entry.

Dave Silva

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

GOLD5 — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:58:15 MST

This will make a great pack in with HL2 chapter 3 to make it look like $60 is a good deal for a bundle pack which has two thirds old content. (As every critic in the world loudly proclaims.) So it will be HL1 source AKA Black Mesa remake + chapter 3 + counterstrike + maybe blue shift source or day of defeat 2.. No portal2, that will be it's own stand-alone game. For $60 bucks. That being said I do love and own all these games. I just think it seems like every reviewer was paid (a lot) to say that orange box was great deal but it's only a great deal if you don't already own HL2 and chapter 1 on PC. No one calls them on it because they are some of the very best games that exist out there.

GOLD5

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Codexx — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:21:26 MST

Haven't played the original, and have barely begun any combat in HL2(the first, not the episodes) and that was only because it came in the Orange Box. I suppose something like this will get me in gear to play the original. I can see from the comments above, I'm not the only one who doesn't have the motivation, but feels like it makes me less of a gamer for not playing something everybody loves for some reason.

Codexx

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

slikz21 — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:55:36 MST

YES! I cannot wait for this. I just feel bad for the console players who haven't played Half Life 1 yet. You owe it to yourself to play it if you haven't. Any computer today will run it*.

*Hopefully...

slikz21

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

darkcloud8 — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:30:02 MST

Valve seriously just needs to send them their check. I can't wait for this.

darkcloud8

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

lalahsghost — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:56:39 MST

@MICHAEL MCWHERTOR: Barney's Tales is coming out Dec 31st - Get excited about that for a while :)

lalahsghost

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Rohit_N — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:28:12 MST

I really hope some people aren't planning to play this because they missed out on the original. Play that one first.

And I don't get the big deal about the long development. This isn't some single-player map pack with terrible enemy placement or balance. This isn't some crappy multi-player mod trying to become the next Counter-Strike. This is a mod *recreating* (not simply porting) the 1998 game that gave rise to Half-Life 2, and the rest of the Orange Box.

Rohit_N

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

2NinjasTapedTogether — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 19:56:18 MST

I was just playing through the first bits of HL2 on the Orange Box today when I realized... I don't think I ever finished the original game. My PC crapped out on me when I was a couple levels away from the end and I never learned what happened.

If I can find my disc, I should boot it up tomorrow... If not... Well, there's gotta be a speedrun or something online.

2NinjasTapedTogether

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

TemplaerDude — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 19:50:50 MST

It'll never be finished. I got tired of waiting for this mod about a year and a half ago, and it's still nowhere near finished.

TemplaerDude

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

DarkTetsuya — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 19:49:07 MST

"If you don't, it's quite understandable, as the game has been in development since just after the announcement of fire and the wheel."

Actually I think you're thinking of Duke Nukem (taking) Forever. This looks neat, though.

DarkTetsuya

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Jonn — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 19:40:39 MST

>At this point, I'd really just appreciate it Valve would just cut them a check to fund proper, uninterrupted development or bring them on board.<

YES. Then it's included in the Grey Box or whatever is next.

Jonn

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

red — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 19:16:52 MST

most fan mods go this way. its tradition. announce big shit, then wash away after a few years. the team find they have less time and believe the people waiting loyally for them to release for years on end after they promised the world over and over again OWE them an indefinite break for all their hard work (that produced nothing playable).

the only ones that succeed are those that start small and have a hook that grabs everyone in its early stages, which leads to permanent interest and offers of help building on the core idea. this is a complete rework of an entire retail game in a modern engine, unfinanced, with no multiplayer alphas or betas for everyone to wow over.

personally, ive always believed if you cant deliver, dont even talk about it.

red

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

DJ-of-E — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 19:07:54 MST

It's expected this HL Origin Mod will be delayed. Anyone who played the original knows how epically large the game was (not to mention easy to get lost in the process). It may be a good significant amount of time before this team finishes. Thought, it would be nice to fight against vortogons instead of having them being your allies.

DJ-of-E

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Absent Blue — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:58:10 MST

@kodec: Yeah, Valve is cool, they like their mod community although this is a first for them.

Most mods based on existing IPs do get shut down; numerous Alien and/or Predator mods have gotten a C&D from Fox. The most infamous-- IMO-- would be the Chrono Trigger remake which looked badass.

There's the more likely possibility that Valve will let it be released, see the fan reaction then hire up the core team after a year and put them to work and charge for the mod. It's what they did with Counter Strike, Portal and Garry's Mod after all. They're mainly composed of ex-id software and ex-Microsoft employees along with modders. Something old and something new, if you will.

Absent Blue

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

VeeKaChu — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:55:30 MST

My father was a rocket scientist, and if he were still alive he would tell you how lame this all is. I can hear him now; "If you nerds had a pair, you'd get out of your parents' basements and get real jobs in quantum psysics."

Oh, and he also would say that it helps to look just like Gordon Freeman a'la...
[www.veekachu.com]

(^^ real rocket scientist dad, circa 1963 ^^)

VeeKaChu

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

soot — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:54:52 MST

@kodec:

Actually, Valve has had a very hands-off attitude toward Black Mesa since it went public. I believe Gabe Newell once made a remark about the modding community and said something to the effect of "It'll only be a matter of time before someone remakes Half-Life on the new [Source] engine", which is what's happening now. Valve employees will occasionally make positive comments about the game's progress on the Steam forums, and there has even been some discussion about the possibility of the modding team talking with them about having Black Mesa being released over Steam for free when its done (We'll see about that).

I think Valve's always been great to their community like that. You can only help your customer base grow by encouraging that sort of thing, not by pushing your legal team to have it killed before its even off the ground. I can't wait to play it when its done (Whenever that is).

soot

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

elevenoverzero — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:49:46 MST

@lordofsword:

CoD4 is running on a proprietory engine. But yeah, the rest is truth.

elevenoverzero

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

GeeCee — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:45:49 MST

@kodec: Nah, Valve is cool.

I'm really eager to play this. However, given that apparently it takes TWENTY YEARS to make a Source mod, I'm not holding my breath.

GeeCee

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

kodec — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:37:23 MST

The surprise could be the entire project getting shut down by Valve à la Microsoft and Halogen...

kodec

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

lordofsword — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:30:03 MST

@SS_Ymer: that's because valve developed those, and valve are a studio that has to pay its employees. even if they started as mods, once valve bought them, they had to make back the money spent on them somehow. although i do think a lot of valve's games until recently (especially dod source and Ep1) are nothing more than mods - reusing a lot of HL2 content, just replacing the models and weapons to fit the different setting. they never really felt like a separate, unique game in the way TF2 does, or in the way cod4 feels totally different to UT3 (both running on UE3)

lordofsword

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Maximus9 — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:27:24 MST

I was just going to ask....didn't Valve already release Half Life Source a few years back? Fangeh - so no graphic upgrades like this mod has?

Maximus9

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Dave Silva — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:26:49 MST

Pretty.

I just beat HL1 recently and am playing through Blue Shift just now.

Man, a Blue Shift port would be AWESOME...

Dave Silva

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Fangeh — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:21:40 MST

@Ed-the-Third:

They ported HL1 over to the source engine, which meant some of the same physics of HL2, fancy water, and shiny helmets. Those were the only real differences, though.

Fangeh

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Kirbytheslayer: In-Kirby XMB — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:18:16 MST

@Erwin211: It's just a simple white Half-Life Symbol on the front center of a Black T-Shirt.

Kirbytheslayer: In-Kirby XMB

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

SS Ymer — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:13:02 MST

@SS_Ymer: (I swear I typed "teh" accidentally. I suppose I've just reliven some of the Internet's humble beginnings? Go figure...)

@IAMDUDE70: Stop dissing Maiken

SS Ymer

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

SS Ymer — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:11:44 MST

@elevenoverzero: You mean like Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress and Garry's Mod? Valve even started selling CS in stores when it was still "just a mod" and available free on teh Internet.

SS Ymer

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Ulquiorra Schiffer — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:10:19 MST

@Maiken: It's a mod. It isn't a standalone game.

Ulquiorra Schiffer

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Ed-the-Third — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:52:08 MST

I thought Valve already did something like this, around the time they released HL2.

Ed-the-Third

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

elevenoverzero — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:45:59 MST

@Maiken:

You know what a mod actually is, right?

elevenoverzero

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

RRRansom — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:43:49 MST

Valve should just bring this team in to make Mesa Source one of the games for Orange Box 2: The Boxxining.

Also comes with Counter-Strike 3 and Portal 2. And maybe the next episode of HL2, but that would delay the whole package to 2010.

RRRansom

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Erwin — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:36:28 MST

@nolifedopestar: @Roflcopter_Down: @Kirbytheslayer: Just Kirbytheslayer: I have no idea which I should use. I'm just going to check all of these out and see which works for me. By the way, what's on the shirt?

Erwin

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

photoboy — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:34:13 MST

This is the problem with fan made mods, there's usually a lot of exciting activity at the start but after a while things peter out. There were remakes of Dark Forces and Jedi Knight in the works that sadly seem to have died.

I'm not complaining or anything, these guys are doing something for free in their spare time, it's just one can't help feeling down when nothing comes of a very exciting mod. Still, fingers crossed that the Black Mesa mod eventually see a release.

photoboy

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Witzbold — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:31:37 MST

Best fun I had in HL was playing HL again using the Action Half-Life mod.

Goddamn that was some good times diving and shooting at the grunts.

Witzbold

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

dv8godd — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:24:48 MST

Damn that looks good. I just replayed the original a few weeks ago... and yes, it was still fun.

Though seeing those screenshots makes me want to play this even more.

dv8godd

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Kirbytheslayer: In-Kirby XMB — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:20:43 MST

@Erwin211: I know a ton of people have already given advice, but I'll just give another way. If you buy the HL-2 collector's edition for PC, you get a HL-2 Shirt, Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and Counter-Strike, I got it last year for $40, and it works on Vista.

Kirbytheslayer: In-Kirby XMB

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Erwin — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:18:18 MST

@Witzbold: Hell Yes! "Be Quick or Be Dead"! Best crashes to this day.
@nolifedopestar: Thanks.

Erwin

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Grimalkin — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:16:01 MST

@Maiken:

Why would they charge for it? It's not being developed by valve. The best thing they can do is shut the project down, or hire the developers and then charge for it.

Grimalkin

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Roflcopter_Down: Wants you to follow HIM! — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:15:46 MST

@Erwin211: If you buy HF1 via steam (or find your old CD key and register it with steam) it will run with Vista. It still may run if you install the game normally. It's only like $9 on steam now.

Roflcopter_Down: Wants you to follow HIM!

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

gils0n — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:14:13 MST

WOW it looks great! And for the guys above that haven't played it, dust off an old P3 and do what xsteinbachx said...10 bucks. You don't know what you're missing!!

gils0n

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Maiken — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:11:33 MST

Hmm, no doubt Valve will charge people for this.

Maiken

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Witzbold — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:10:42 MST

Will be looking foward to this.

@Erwin211: You sir win just for the fact alone that you know what the Carmaggedon series is. ;D

Witzbold

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

noliferuin (PSN+XBL) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:09:23 MST

@Erwin211: dual boot with windows man, save a whole lot of trouble

noliferuin (PSN+XBL)

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Erwin — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:07:15 MST

This is even cooler than the Goldeneye Source project. I may re-buy HL1 just to play through again. Does anyone know if it will run on Vista (Pre-installed, darn it), I'm currently working on getting Carmaggedon 2 to run well.

Erwin

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Roflcopter_Down: Wants you to follow HIM! — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:01:40 MST

@Roflcopter_Down: By HF I mean HL. Damn you lack of edit feature.

Roflcopter_Down: Wants you to follow HIM!

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

Roflcopter_Down: Wants you to follow HIM! — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:01:15 MST

I recommend you guys play the original HF, it's an incredible game and it still doesn't feel incredibly outdated like some older games do.

Roflcopter_Down: Wants you to follow HIM!

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

liquid_kore — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:56:40 MST

I was young and didn't have a computer when HL1 was a big deal but I have always felt like a huge chunk is missing from my gamer cred because I haven't played it. This would definitely get my ass in gear to actually start playing it.

liquid_kore

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

xsteinbachx — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:54:52 MST

@Armyofjuan

you can play it on any crappy pc with a video card? plus it's only 10 bucks at walmart.

xsteinbachx

Black Mesa Source Still Looking Pretty, Seems Nowhere Near Done

ArmyofJuan — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:52:06 MST

The only thing i don't like about this is that it will probably never see the light of day on the 360. And that just makes me weep as i never did finish the original Half-Life

ArmyofJuan