I don't know how many Half Life fans there are here, but I've been following the years-long development of Black Mesa (the fan-made remake of Half Life in the Half Life 2 engine) for many of those years, and it finally looks like it's going to be released this month. They started in 2004 shortly after Half Life 2 came out. That game also featured a Valve remake of Half Life in the new engine, but it was not well received. (They used original textures, etc.) So the development years slowly trudged by, with the occasional release promise (such as the infamous "coming in 2009" one three years ago, lol), with no game ever appearing and the project approaching nearly Duke Nukem Forever vaporware legend status. To put it in context, that would be like Co8 working on ToEE since a year after it's release and only releasing a modpack now. :dizzy: Basically, despite whatever quality standards the game will have (and I have every reason to believe it will be exceptional), their development, management, and publicity approach has been a model of how not to publish a mod, IMO. At any rate, I'll probably be playing it. Hell, Half Life 2, Episode 3 has been in development almost as long.
Wow, really glad to see this get to its conclusion in the form of first official release! I honestly stopped tracking this project about a year ago when I figured out it was kept being delayed and delayed, so I thought it was to become one of those "never-ever-released-but-overhyped" projects :-D Glad to finally see it get so close to release, and I stand corrected about my original assumptions. My Half-Life 2 copy is already ready to try it out, it should be amazing! - Agetian
I remember following this when it was first was announced, and I was so stoked by the initial screens of Black Mesa Inbound. Eight years later I am not quite as impressed, but it's still pretty fun. Although I swear the crowbar was picked up earlier in the original Half-Life.
You're quite right. They changed that bit a little. There mod gently departs from the original game's design in some other parts as well. Too bad it ends before Xen. They said they wanted to change it since it hadn't stood the test of time. Hell, it was frustrating when HL first came out. Apparently that was also what was holding them back with the release. I've played it and I have to say it replicates HL1 pretty well. I haven't finished it yet but it's surely one of the best and most polished mods I've ever played.
