Good morning, Mr. Freeman
September 14, 2012 1:41 PM Subscribe
Black Mesa, the fan-made total conversion of the original Half-Life game to the Source engine - complete with totally updated graphics - was released today. Launch trailer, wiki, and Reddit thread with updated torrent info (direct download is evidently proving very sluggish).
As long as you don't care about Xen. Basically this is Black Mesa Episode One.
posted by infinitewindow at 1:45 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by infinitewindow at 1:45 PM on September 14, 2012
Xen
Is that where the supposed Highlander sequel took place?
posted by BeeDo at 1:50 PM on September 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
Is that where the supposed Highlander sequel took place?
posted by BeeDo at 1:50 PM on September 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
Awww shit, I thought was actually going to get something done this weekend.
posted by JimmyJames at 1:50 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by JimmyJames at 1:50 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
Ironically, it took so long, the HL2 engine looks incredibly dated. Still, amazing work.
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:51 PM on September 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:51 PM on September 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
Wikipedia: "The team plans to release the Xen levels sometime later; with the current content, they estimate that players will have eight to ten hours of content to complete."
I'll just start playing then. That gives them enough time to finish the rest by the time I'm through.
posted by bicyclefish at 1:51 PM on September 14, 2012 [4 favorites]
I'll just start playing then. That gives them enough time to finish the rest by the time I'm through.
posted by bicyclefish at 1:51 PM on September 14, 2012 [4 favorites]
Care about Xen
It looks like English, but the words make no sense.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:52 PM on September 14, 2012 [5 favorites]
It looks like English, but the words make no sense.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:52 PM on September 14, 2012 [5 favorites]
Xen 4 lyfe!!!!! I thought it was neat, a pretty good exploration (for the time!) of a really different, alien, non-terrestrial space. Maybe it felt a little rough compared to earlier levels, and maybe the level style just isn't that well suited to the game type, but I really liked the ideas and the intent.
posted by Drexen at 1:57 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by Drexen at 1:57 PM on September 14, 2012
Yep, been following the countdown on Rock Paper Shotgun. I plan on grabbing it tonight... Looks like it's going to be very sweet.
In case anyone's wondering (and is finding the Black Mesa site slow or doesn't want to hunt for stuff), it requires "the FREE Source SDK Base 2007 to run." (available via Steam, and is fairly small, IIRC), and is a "3.03 GB download, 8 GB uncompressed." Here are the system requirements.
posted by Zack_Replica at 1:57 PM on September 14, 2012
In case anyone's wondering (and is finding the Black Mesa site slow or doesn't want to hunt for stuff), it requires "the FREE Source SDK Base 2007 to run." (available via Steam, and is fairly small, IIRC), and is a "3.03 GB download, 8 GB uncompressed." Here are the system requirements.
posted by Zack_Replica at 1:57 PM on September 14, 2012
Anyway, yeah, wow! This is like when Duke Nukem Forever or Chinese Democracy came out, except it's actually presumably going to be really good and is based on better source material. I'm downloading it now!
posted by Drexen at 1:58 PM on September 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by Drexen at 1:58 PM on September 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
I like Black Mesa better, but you need Xen to make it all hang together.
posted by Artw at 1:58 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by Artw at 1:58 PM on September 14, 2012
I love fan-made works like this. When people do things like this not for money but as a labor of love, it tends to shine through in every aspect of the game: because they legitimately care (and are not working to meet a planned release schedule) fans generally take the time to get all the small details right. Maybe I'm dating myself, but have anyone ever played Thief 2 and compared it to T2X (the fan-made game)? The quality of the fan-made game actually surpasses the original game it was based on!
posted by wolfdreams01 at 1:58 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by wolfdreams01 at 1:58 PM on September 14, 2012
That walking bollock thing in HD might be a bit much though.
posted by Artw at 1:59 PM on September 14, 2012 [5 favorites]
posted by Artw at 1:59 PM on September 14, 2012 [5 favorites]
Xen was the most mindblowing at the time. There had never been level design like that in an FPS really. There was only that one level in Q3A set in space.
I guess it cold be seen as gimmicky.
posted by Ad hominem at 1:59 PM on September 14, 2012
I guess it cold be seen as gimmicky.
posted by Ad hominem at 1:59 PM on September 14, 2012
In other news, Black Mesa Half-Life 2 Episode 3 will be launched prior to the official Valve version.
posted by ryoshu at 2:02 PM on September 14, 2012 [6 favorites]
posted by ryoshu at 2:02 PM on September 14, 2012 [6 favorites]
It's cool, but it's not what I need. I need HLIII. Nothing else will satisfy except, possibly, the ritual slaughter of Gabe Newell.
posted by Decani at 2:09 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by Decani at 2:09 PM on September 14, 2012
I've never played HL, actually. HL2 was brilliant, and I do hope to get back to some of the extra content there. Right after I finish Dark Souls. hollow laughter trailing away into maniacal sounds of choking on one's own tongue abruptly cut off by a a damp splat; and then an orchestra hit.
posted by seanmpuckett at 2:18 PM on September 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 2:18 PM on September 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
Oh yes. This will be awesome.
posted by Kevin Street at 2:18 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by Kevin Street at 2:18 PM on September 14, 2012
And, I mean, the fact that it's named Gonarch.
posted by adamdschneider at 2:19 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by adamdschneider at 2:19 PM on September 14, 2012
Time... to die...
(releases a dove into the rain)
posted by boo_radley at 2:20 PM on September 14, 2012 [7 favorites]
(releases a dove into the rain)
posted by boo_radley at 2:20 PM on September 14, 2012 [7 favorites]
I've never played HL, actually.
It's included with just about every Valve deal on Steam and well worth a play through - probably so now even though Black Mesa is (partially) on the scene.
posted by Artw at 2:20 PM on September 14, 2012
It's included with just about every Valve deal on Steam and well worth a play through - probably so now even though Black Mesa is (partially) on the scene.
posted by Artw at 2:20 PM on September 14, 2012
Technical question: How does this compare with Valve's own Half-Life: Source?
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:22 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:22 PM on September 14, 2012
Dang, no Mac support.
posted by danny the boy at 2:22 PM on September 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by danny the boy at 2:22 PM on September 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
Gonarch releases pale white mini-gonarchs. Then it scuttles off and hides in its hole and you have to drop a bunch of explosives on it to kill it.
posted by Artw at 2:25 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by Artw at 2:25 PM on September 14, 2012
It's incredibly cool that this project got Valve's official blessing, and that the staff there were actively cheering these guys on. Any other company would have smacked the team with a lawsuit and takedown notice.
No other big players in the gaming industry appreciate their fans and users like Valve do. I mean, literally nobody else in the industry "gets it" like Valve does.
posted by schmod at 2:25 PM on September 14, 2012 [6 favorites]
No other big players in the gaming industry appreciate their fans and users like Valve do. I mean, literally nobody else in the industry "gets it" like Valve does.
posted by schmod at 2:25 PM on September 14, 2012 [6 favorites]
I saw that Black Mesa got apparently Greenlit to appear on Steam and yeah, that's one of the reasons why I'm enthusiastic about Steam/Valve. Because these people get it.
posted by ersatz at 2:28 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by ersatz at 2:28 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
I know, this question is going to bring about much eye rolling, but don't get it, what is the point? Why recreate a beloved game with an upgraded engine (that is now pretty much as old as the original it was to replace.)
Plus someone should make Blackmesa- Frostbite.
posted by Keith Talent at 2:38 PM on September 14, 2012
Plus someone should make Blackmesa- Frostbite.
posted by Keith Talent at 2:38 PM on September 14, 2012
Technical question: How does this compare with Valve's own Half-Life: Source?
Half-Life: Source reused the art assets from the original Half-Life, so it didn't look much different. There were some new lighting and physics effects, but that's about it.
posted by zsazsa at 2:40 PM on September 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
Half-Life: Source reused the art assets from the original Half-Life, so it didn't look much different. There were some new lighting and physics effects, but that's about it.
posted by zsazsa at 2:40 PM on September 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
Ironically, it took so long, the HL2 engine looks incredibly dated. Still, amazing work.
Or as Rock Paper Shotgun's John Walker put it, "Those Black Mesa guys sure have made a 14 year old game look like an 8 year old game."
But the thing is, Half-Life 2 (or maybe the Lost Coast) is basically my cutoff for when games started looking good enough. I'm completely satisfied with a game that looks as good as Half-Life 2. In fact I prefer it too some of the plastic-y lens-flare-fests made in the Unreal Engine (Bioshock, I wish I weren't lookin' at you).
After Half-Life 2, art direction surpassed graphic engine improvements as the most important way to make your game look better.
posted by straight at 2:43 PM on September 14, 2012 [22 favorites]
Or as Rock Paper Shotgun's John Walker put it, "Those Black Mesa guys sure have made a 14 year old game look like an 8 year old game."
But the thing is, Half-Life 2 (or maybe the Lost Coast) is basically my cutoff for when games started looking good enough. I'm completely satisfied with a game that looks as good as Half-Life 2. In fact I prefer it too some of the plastic-y lens-flare-fests made in the Unreal Engine (Bioshock, I wish I weren't lookin' at you).
After Half-Life 2, art direction surpassed graphic engine improvements as the most important way to make your game look better.
posted by straight at 2:43 PM on September 14, 2012 [22 favorites]
Yeah, that's the thing - around 2002-2003, 3D graphics reached a point where art teams no longer had to make major concessions in the name of technology. New games have better poly counts, more effects, better water, etc, etc, but when you go back to the old stuff, it's not like looking at a Playstation game where characters' hands are clubs with lines to denote fingers and their entire bodies have maybe eight joints.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:51 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:51 PM on September 14, 2012
This is just idle speculation on a random tangent, but "Behold! Gonarch!" above made me think that Valve is probably the only gaming company that could pull off a good and proper Venture Bros videogame.
posted by davejay at 2:52 PM on September 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by davejay at 2:52 PM on September 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
Since there are a lot of gamers in this thread perhaps it is time to mention the long awaited Obsidian Entertainment (Chris Avellone, Tim Cain, Josh Sawyer, etc) Kickstarter, Project Eternity. They have all my moneys.
posted by Justinian at 2:53 PM on September 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 2:53 PM on September 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
Oh, Jesus. You had to post that on payday.
It's okay, I can live on ramen next week....
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:55 PM on September 14, 2012
It's okay, I can live on ramen next week....
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:55 PM on September 14, 2012
(Even if it is going to play like friggin' Baldur's Gate god dammit Avellone just make an adventure game already)
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:56 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:56 PM on September 14, 2012
I am really very excited about this.
PLEASE be good.
And HL2 is one of those games that just never feels very dated to me. I don't know what it is, but it always looks and feels quite awesome every time I play it. The HL2 universe simply feels like a real place filled with compelling characters.
posted by SpacemanStix at 2:57 PM on September 14, 2012
PLEASE be good.
And HL2 is one of those games that just never feels very dated to me. I don't know what it is, but it always looks and feels quite awesome every time I play it. The HL2 universe simply feels like a real place filled with compelling characters.
posted by SpacemanStix at 2:57 PM on September 14, 2012
I've just played about half an hour of this. I could provide details about why it's great, but in short just go download it if you have any love for the HL games at all. It's worth it.
posted by vanar sena at 3:00 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by vanar sena at 3:00 PM on September 14, 2012
Is [Xen] where the supposed Highlander sequel took place?
No, that was Zeist.
OH HOLY JESUS WHERE DID THIS NECKBEARD AND THREE WOLF MOON SHIRT COME FROM
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 3:08 PM on September 14, 2012 [9 favorites]
No, that was Zeist.
OH HOLY JESUS WHERE DID THIS NECKBEARD AND THREE WOLF MOON SHIRT COME FROM
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 3:08 PM on September 14, 2012 [9 favorites]
Thinkgeek, I guess?
posted by boo_radley at 3:10 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by boo_radley at 3:10 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
Moammar Gadhafi, and Saddam Hussein
Highlander On ice
posted by Artw at 3:14 PM on September 14, 2012
Highlander On ice
posted by Artw at 3:14 PM on September 14, 2012
Technical question: How does this compare with Valve's own Half-Life: Source?
Half-Life: Source is a bit of a dud. It's just a straight port of the game to the new engine, with the exact same art assets. The lighting effects are a tad better, the water looks a lot better, there's some minor use of ragdoll bodies, and that's about it. The "Half-Life HD Pack" that came with the Blue Shift expansion is generally a lot better. High-def (for 1999) character models, better sound effects, etc.
Totally trying Black Mesa as soon as I can. I can't believe they finally finished it.
posted by neckro23 at 3:20 PM on September 14, 2012
Half-Life: Source is a bit of a dud. It's just a straight port of the game to the new engine, with the exact same art assets. The lighting effects are a tad better, the water looks a lot better, there's some minor use of ragdoll bodies, and that's about it. The "Half-Life HD Pack" that came with the Blue Shift expansion is generally a lot better. High-def (for 1999) character models, better sound effects, etc.
Totally trying Black Mesa as soon as I can. I can't believe they finally finished it.
posted by neckro23 at 3:20 PM on September 14, 2012
So would you guys say this is a good way to experience Half-Life for the first time? I've been through all of the iterations of Half-Life 2, and I've always wanted to go back and play the original. Should I start here?
posted by Buckt at 3:30 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by Buckt at 3:30 PM on September 14, 2012
Buckt: "So would you guys say this is a good way to experience Half-Life for the first time?"
Personally, I think it is. I never quite finished Half Life 1, since I had to stop playing about two-thirds in and never quite got back into it despite a couple of solid attempts. This is different in details (which will become apparent even before Freeman puts on the HEV suit for the first time), but overall close enough that it feels like I'm playing the same game.
posted by vanar sena at 3:37 PM on September 14, 2012
Personally, I think it is. I never quite finished Half Life 1, since I had to stop playing about two-thirds in and never quite got back into it despite a couple of solid attempts. This is different in details (which will become apparent even before Freeman puts on the HEV suit for the first time), but overall close enough that it feels like I'm playing the same game.
posted by vanar sena at 3:37 PM on September 14, 2012
Yeah, the original Halflife is great but is very ugly now.
posted by Sebmojo at 3:47 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by Sebmojo at 3:47 PM on September 14, 2012
Since there are a lot of gamers in this thread perhaps it is time to mention the long awaited Obsidian Entertainment (Chris Avellone, Tim Cain, Josh Sawyer, etc) Kickstarter, Project Eternity. They have all my moneys.
Hey, they now have my monies too! I hope it's wordier than New Vegas, I know the first version will be buggy before a patch rolls in and I'm sure that the game will range from interesting to brilliant. They have so much goodwill from me that I pledged before even watching the video.
posted by ersatz at 3:49 PM on September 14, 2012
Hey, they now have my monies too! I hope it's wordier than New Vegas, I know the first version will be buggy before a patch rolls in and I'm sure that the game will range from interesting to brilliant. They have so much goodwill from me that I pledged before even watching the video.
posted by ersatz at 3:49 PM on September 14, 2012
Holy cow, they gathered $500K in a few hours and $25K came in while I was watching the video! I'll stop derailing the thread and download Black Mesa.
posted by ersatz at 3:57 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by ersatz at 3:57 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
Whoa.
Now, can we get a kickstarter going for Freespace III, so we can completely clean up the damage that Interplay did?
posted by schmod at 4:24 PM on September 14, 2012
Now, can we get a kickstarter going for Freespace III, so we can completely clean up the damage that Interplay did?
posted by schmod at 4:24 PM on September 14, 2012
Can we get a kickstarter going for Freespace III
Retrovirus
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 4:42 PM on September 14, 2012
Retrovirus
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 4:42 PM on September 14, 2012
A remake of a game from 1998 released in an engine from 2004. Welcome to the future ladies and gents.
posted by codacorolla at 4:43 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by codacorolla at 4:43 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
It's not the future til someone rewrites it in HTML5.
posted by Monochrome at 4:46 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by Monochrome at 4:46 PM on September 14, 2012
*checks App Store for the fiftieth time to see if Baldur's Gate is available*
posted by Ritchie at 4:54 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by Ritchie at 4:54 PM on September 14, 2012
Highlander On ice
posted by Artw at 6:14 PM on September 14
Highlander On ice, the Slippening.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 4:55 PM on September 14, 2012 [5 favorites]
PC Games are crazy now. I haven't had a top notch gaming PC in a long long time. If it wasn't for youtube I would have no idea what modern PC games look like. Battlefield 3: Armored Kill is, at least on youtube, within spitting distance of photorealistic.
posted by Ad hominem at 5:01 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by Ad hominem at 5:01 PM on September 14, 2012
Can we get a kickstarter going for Freespace III
Retrovirus
I think you thought he said Descent IV (unless you want to pretend III never happened, which would be wrong). Maybe you meant to link to Diaspora: Shattered Armistice, the Battlestar Galactica campaign done in the freeware Freespace 2 engine?
posted by straight at 5:01 PM on September 14, 2012
Retrovirus
I think you thought he said Descent IV (unless you want to pretend III never happened, which would be wrong). Maybe you meant to link to Diaspora: Shattered Armistice, the Battlestar Galactica campaign done in the freeware Freespace 2 engine?
posted by straight at 5:01 PM on September 14, 2012
Xen was the most mindblowing at the time. There had never been level design like that in an FPS really.
If you're referring to low grav/vertical design, there was always Descent. And if that isn't FPS enough for you, there was the level Ziggurat Vertigo, a secret level in the original Quake. That level completely blew my mind at the time.
posted by Tikirific at 5:43 PM on September 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
If you're referring to low grav/vertical design, there was always Descent. And if that isn't FPS enough for you, there was the level Ziggurat Vertigo, a secret level in the original Quake. That level completely blew my mind at the time.
posted by Tikirific at 5:43 PM on September 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
I hope it's wordier than New Vegas
According to Wikipedia, Fallout: New Vegas holds the world record for most lines of dialogue in a single-player ARPG. I'm not sure how "wordy" you want it.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:54 PM on September 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
According to Wikipedia, Fallout: New Vegas holds the world record for most lines of dialogue in a single-player ARPG. I'm not sure how "wordy" you want it.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:54 PM on September 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
If you're referring to low grav/vertical design, there was always Descent. And if that isn't FPS enough for you, there was the level Ziggurat Vertigo, a secret level in the original Quake. That level completely blew my mind at the time.
The first time I ever played that level, I had left a copy of the Ramones' "All the Stuff (and more)" in the CD drive. Floating around that level to Joey Ramone singing "Glad to see you go go go go goodbye!" was somewhat surreal.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:56 PM on September 14, 2012 [4 favorites]
The first time I ever played that level, I had left a copy of the Ramones' "All the Stuff (and more)" in the CD drive. Floating around that level to Joey Ramone singing "Glad to see you go go go go goodbye!" was somewhat surreal.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:56 PM on September 14, 2012 [4 favorites]
Does anyone know why they're releasing this game now outside of Steam when there was such a big push to get it greenlit? I couldn't see anything on their site about it. Not that I mind of course, just surprised by their apparent two pronged release strategy.
posted by adamt at 6:03 PM on September 14, 2012
posted by adamt at 6:03 PM on September 14, 2012
Can we get a kickstarter going for Freespace III
The creator of Wing Commander is working on a new series, so that might scratch that itch.
According to Wikipedia, Fallout: New Vegas holds the world record for most lines of dialogue in a single-player ARPG. I'm not sure how "wordy" you want it.
I'm honestly surprised unless this includes the expansions. I had the feeling that most of the time in the vanilla game the dialogue was up to 3 double lines. I loved Old World Blues though.
posted by ersatz at 6:49 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
The creator of Wing Commander is working on a new series, so that might scratch that itch.
According to Wikipedia, Fallout: New Vegas holds the world record for most lines of dialogue in a single-player ARPG. I'm not sure how "wordy" you want it.
I'm honestly surprised unless this includes the expansions. I had the feeling that most of the time in the vanilla game the dialogue was up to 3 double lines. I loved Old World Blues though.
posted by ersatz at 6:49 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
Well, note the "A" in "ARPG". That stands for "action". Saying you have the most dialogue in an action RPG is a low bar.
posted by Justinian at 6:51 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Justinian at 6:51 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
Does anyone know why they're releasing this game now outside of Steam when there was such a big push to get it greenlit?
If I'd been working on something that long with that many naysayers proclaiming I'd never finish it, I'd for sure release it as soon as it was done, Steam or no Steam.
Like Minecraft, they don't exactly need Steam to promote this thing when the whole internet is already talking about it.
posted by straight at 7:10 PM on September 14, 2012
If I'd been working on something that long with that many naysayers proclaiming I'd never finish it, I'd for sure release it as soon as it was done, Steam or no Steam.
Like Minecraft, they don't exactly need Steam to promote this thing when the whole internet is already talking about it.
posted by straight at 7:10 PM on September 14, 2012
homunculus: "Do you get to marry a turret?"
Only if you find it.
posted by boo_radley at 9:03 PM on September 14, 2012
Only if you find it.
posted by boo_radley at 9:03 PM on September 14, 2012
Does anyone know why they're releasing this game now outside of Steam when there was such a big push to get it greenlit?
They weren't greenlit on Steam until after they'd announced a release date, IIRC. And given the protracted history of the project I think they'd have been laughed off of Greenlight if they'd submitted without having a firm relase date already.
posted by Uncle Ira at 9:05 PM on September 14, 2012
They weren't greenlit on Steam until after they'd announced a release date, IIRC. And given the protracted history of the project I think they'd have been laughed off of Greenlight if they'd submitted without having a firm relase date already.
posted by Uncle Ira at 9:05 PM on September 14, 2012
Does anyone know why they're releasing this game now outside of Steam when there was such a big push to get it greenlit?
The release date was announced before Greenlight opened, and backing out on the release date would be a pretty bad move.
posted by ymgve at 9:06 PM on September 14, 2012
The release date was announced before Greenlight opened, and backing out on the release date would be a pretty bad move.
posted by ymgve at 9:06 PM on September 14, 2012
a few hours into it and all the genius of the original is still intact.
I think the biggest accomplishments of HL are due to the restrained sense of violence and pacing of the games. The first hour, you barely get a gun at all... nowadays there's all of ten seconds in any FPS before you start blasting people's heads off with shotguns.
RESTRAINT = genius.
I'm so happy this mod finally came out.
posted by phylum sinter at 9:07 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
I think the biggest accomplishments of HL are due to the restrained sense of violence and pacing of the games. The first hour, you barely get a gun at all... nowadays there's all of ten seconds in any FPS before you start blasting people's heads off with shotguns.
RESTRAINT = genius.
I'm so happy this mod finally came out.
posted by phylum sinter at 9:07 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
I'm like a scientist and stuff, but I never identified with Freeman and the story and rails didn't really do much for me. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of dystopian futures but HL doesn't get deep enough into it.
Like ArtW, I really want a proper remake of Deus Ex; but I suspect that's mostly nostalgia talking. To this day I still fondly remember modding an uber handgun and getting through most of the game with just that (and the nano sword).
The STALKER series was great for stuff like that, had incredible atmosphere, and was a sandbox. Believable ballistics for people who are into that but they also tried to explore human/group ecosystems but it was still really rudimentary. Still ok looking games and stable/less re-spawn-annoy-ey with advanced patches. Huge mod community, too.
I need to spend more time at mefightclub, don't I?
posted by porpoise at 9:18 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
Like ArtW, I really want a proper remake of Deus Ex; but I suspect that's mostly nostalgia talking. To this day I still fondly remember modding an uber handgun and getting through most of the game with just that (and the nano sword).
The STALKER series was great for stuff like that, had incredible atmosphere, and was a sandbox. Believable ballistics for people who are into that but they also tried to explore human/group ecosystems but it was still really rudimentary. Still ok looking games and stable/less re-spawn-annoy-ey with advanced patches. Huge mod community, too.
I need to spend more time at mefightclub, don't I?
posted by porpoise at 9:18 PM on September 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
straight: "Maybe you meant to link to Diaspora: Shattered Armistice, the Battlestar Galactica campaign done in the freeware Freespace 2 engine?"
what. what. what. what. what.
brb.
posted by schmod at 10:10 PM on September 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
what. what. what. what. what.
brb.
posted by schmod at 10:10 PM on September 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
You'll always remember the first time you crowbar a scientist.
"With my brains and your brawn we'll make an excellent team!"
posted by Kevin Street at 10:13 PM on September 14, 2012
"With my brains and your brawn we'll make an excellent team!"
posted by Kevin Street at 10:13 PM on September 14, 2012
There's a hilarious conversation you can overhear at the beginning with a scientist defending his decision to put loads of time and effort into replicating someone else's work so that modern people can properly appreciate its genius.
posted by Sebmojo at 5:07 AM on September 15, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by Sebmojo at 5:07 AM on September 15, 2012 [4 favorites]
This is a triumph. I'm loving every second of it.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:16 AM on September 15, 2012
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:16 AM on September 15, 2012
I am enjoying it. Except for the platforming. Gordon is not very good at jumping. It frustrates me. He needs to jump just a bit higher.
posted by One Hand Slowclapping at 7:43 AM on September 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by One Hand Slowclapping at 7:43 AM on September 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
Why do we all have to wear these ridiculous ties?!
posted by cmetom at 11:23 AM on September 15, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by cmetom at 11:23 AM on September 15, 2012 [3 favorites]
I definitely liked the dialogue - I think they added more than the original?
Though I guess I must really be picking up on my feminist beliefs, because I was pretty damn offended when the female scientist in that one room asked "what is the extension for tech support?" ... I mean, sure it could have just been random, but for some reason I took it as a dig at "dumb women don't know computers" kinda thing (even though I hope that's not what was really meant, but... gaaaaaah see? I'm just overanalyzing and guessing and it's such a minor thing). That said, man, this is great stuff!
posted by symbioid at 3:07 PM on September 15, 2012
Though I guess I must really be picking up on my feminist beliefs, because I was pretty damn offended when the female scientist in that one room asked "what is the extension for tech support?" ... I mean, sure it could have just been random, but for some reason I took it as a dig at "dumb women don't know computers" kinda thing (even though I hope that's not what was really meant, but... gaaaaaah see? I'm just overanalyzing and guessing and it's such a minor thing). That said, man, this is great stuff!
posted by symbioid at 3:07 PM on September 15, 2012
symboid: The tech support scene could infer that much of the staff are new; in the original manual for Half-Life, Freeman was described as a post-graduate snapped up by Black Mesa on account of his thesis paper.
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:24 PM on September 15, 2012
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:24 PM on September 15, 2012
I was pretty damn offended when the female scientist in that one room asked "what is the extension for tech support?" [...] even though I hope that's not what was really meant, but... gaaaaaah see? I'm just overanalyzing and guessing and it's such a minor thing).
But big things are just many, many minor things. And yeah, it bugged me too, and no, it doesn't really matter if it was intended or not.
And, more generally, though they did a great job with the rest of the added dialogue (is that ponytail line when Gordon arrives in the original? Maybe I just missed it back then, but either way, I laughed out loud), they were pretty limited by the source material. I mean, damn... the stereotypical sniffy polysyllabic scientist thing seems so much more jarring in a modern-style game. In the original, they could get away with it, because... wow! characters! saying real dialogue! in a shooter!... but, through the whole opening sequence, I couldn't stop thinking, NO ONE SPEAKS THIS WAY, AND DOZENS OF PEOPLE CERTAINLY DO NOT SPEAK THIS WAY AT THE SAME TIME. KINDLY SHUT UP.
The initial horror of the accident's aftermath was ramped up just enough to surprise, though. Strongest part so far.
posted by Mike Smith at 3:41 PM on September 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
But big things are just many, many minor things. And yeah, it bugged me too, and no, it doesn't really matter if it was intended or not.
And, more generally, though they did a great job with the rest of the added dialogue (is that ponytail line when Gordon arrives in the original? Maybe I just missed it back then, but either way, I laughed out loud), they were pretty limited by the source material. I mean, damn... the stereotypical sniffy polysyllabic scientist thing seems so much more jarring in a modern-style game. In the original, they could get away with it, because... wow! characters! saying real dialogue! in a shooter!... but, through the whole opening sequence, I couldn't stop thinking, NO ONE SPEAKS THIS WAY, AND DOZENS OF PEOPLE CERTAINLY DO NOT SPEAK THIS WAY AT THE SAME TIME. KINDLY SHUT UP.
The initial horror of the accident's aftermath was ramped up just enough to surprise, though. Strongest part so far.
posted by Mike Smith at 3:41 PM on September 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
the stereotypical sniffy polysyllabic scientist thing ...
... fits exactly in the B-Movie Horror From Space genre that Half-Life captures so well.
posted by straight at 8:07 PM on September 15, 2012
... fits exactly in the B-Movie Horror From Space genre that Half-Life captures so well.
posted by straight at 8:07 PM on September 15, 2012
Except for the platforming. Gordon is not very good at jumping. It frustrates me. He needs to jump just a bit higher.
One Hand Slowclapping, you need to master the "crouch jump", essentially crouching in mid-jump so that his feet will be high enough to land on something. It doesn't increase how high you're jumping as much as it increases how high your feet are going. For those slightly taller obstacles.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 3:32 AM on September 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
One Hand Slowclapping, you need to master the "crouch jump", essentially crouching in mid-jump so that his feet will be high enough to land on something. It doesn't increase how high you're jumping as much as it increases how high your feet are going. For those slightly taller obstacles.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 3:32 AM on September 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
symboid: I don't think there were any female scientists at Black Mesa in the original, so I was mostly happy to see women added at all. I didn't get the "tech support" dialogue line, yet, as far as I noticed.
I'm only partway through it (just started encountering Marines), and off the top of my head, here's some things I noticed so far that were new: Eli now specifically talk about getting his family and mentions Dr Kleiner by name, the ponytail line, female scientists as well as more faces for the male, flares, the crowbar appears at a different point, a headcrab in the microwave in the break room (near the lockers/HEV room).
Overall, my god, it's so pretty! They did a bang-up job on this.
posted by rmd1023 at 7:47 AM on September 16, 2012
I'm only partway through it (just started encountering Marines), and off the top of my head, here's some things I noticed so far that were new: Eli now specifically talk about getting his family and mentions Dr Kleiner by name, the ponytail line, female scientists as well as more faces for the male, flares, the crowbar appears at a different point, a headcrab in the microwave in the break room (near the lockers/HEV room).
Overall, my god, it's so pretty! They did a bang-up job on this.
posted by rmd1023 at 7:47 AM on September 16, 2012
Brilliant stuff so far (I'm up to the "Power Up" chapter). The level and art design is awesome, the dialog and little touches are extremely well done. The only thing I don't like is the new marine voices -- to me they sound like someone doing a bad Solid Snake impression through an overdrive pedal -- but I guess I can fix that with a little sound-file swapping. I might see if I can re-institute the HEV-suit startup speech and the orignal MP5 sound as well...
posted by Drexen at 8:06 AM on September 16, 2012
posted by Drexen at 8:06 AM on September 16, 2012
There's a bunch of .cfg tweaks you can do quite easily to fix the jumping, slow down the marine reactions a tad and bump up the mp5 damage. I put them in the my documents/my games/
Jumping
auto crouch-jump (alias and bind script)
Auto crouch-jump script for you.
- hit space to jump normally
- press and hold jump key to crouch-jump
Copy paste this to your autoexec.cfg file inside cfg folder (steamapps\sourcemods\BMS)
bind "space" "+crouchjump"
alias +crouchjump "+jump; wait 5; duckON"
alias -crouchjump "wait 5; duckOFF; -jump"
alias duckON "+duck"
alias duckOFF "-duck"
//fix jump from crouch state
bind "ctrl" "+normalduck"
bind "c" "+normalduck"
alias +normalduck "+duck; alias duckON; alias duckOFF"
alias -normalduck "-duck; alias duckON +duck; alias duckOFF -duck"
PS: change "ctrl" or "c" to your liking.
Damage
In the old Half Life skill.cfg file, the SMG and the Pistol had different damage ratings; SMG did 5 per bullet, and the Pistol did 8. In Black Mesa, this line in skill.cfg handles both weapons:
sk_plr_dmg_9mm
It's set to 6, a compromise, which actually makes the SMG a bit more powerful per bullet, but somewhat nerfs the pistol. I've reset this to 8, likely only a psychological change, but I tend to depend on the pistol anyway and don't use the SMG. With that said, as has been mentioned before, as long as you remember to burst the SMG it actually does MORE damage in BM than it did in GoldSrc; I can only guess the inaccuracy-spread when continuously firing the weapon is a wider cone, making the damage spread out more.
Interestingly enough, if I'm reading the config right, the Marine's SMG's only do 4 damage a bullet and 3 damage a pellet (compared to 6 and 6), making the Marine's ability to suck your life right out of your face a bit more interesting as well. sk_npc_dmg_9mm and sk_npc_dmg_buckshot can be manually nerf'd if you wish.
Some other options you can tweak include:
sk_npc_head to "3" to triple damage of headshots, as recommended before. This matches Half-Life GoldSrc.
sk_npc_arm and sk_npc_leg to 1 from .8, to match Half-Life and penalize you less for winging the soldiers.
In fact, just about all of the file can be tweaked to give you massive health, huge ammo piles, whatever you want. Of course, the further you deviate in this file the farther you are from the intended experience by the devs, so it's personal choice how far you actually go.
Me, I've only changed sk_plr_dmg_9mm to match the old pistol, sk_npc_head _arm, and _leg above, to match the old GoldSrc games.
Reaction times
If you want to increase them, the default values are 0.3 (idle) and 0.1 (active - alert)
Convars are respectively:
ai_reaction_delay_alert
ai_reaction_delay_idle
If you want to increase the reaction delays to something more manageable, do it. I just slightly increased them to give a more realistic approach. (0.75 idle - 0.3 active) it makes a change to make them more manageable. Just put the new values in the skill.cfg like the other ones.
I'm also interested in replacing the marine barks, so post here if you work out how (I'd guess it's pretty straightforward, I think they're all just sound files in the relevant directories.
posted by Sebmojo at 4:17 PM on September 16, 2012 [7 favorites]
Jumping
auto crouch-jump (alias and bind script)
Auto crouch-jump script for you.
- hit space to jump normally
- press and hold jump key to crouch-jump
Copy paste this to your autoexec.cfg file inside cfg folder (steamapps\sourcemods\BMS)
bind "space" "+crouchjump"
alias +crouchjump "+jump; wait 5; duckON"
alias -crouchjump "wait 5; duckOFF; -jump"
alias duckON "+duck"
alias duckOFF "-duck"
//fix jump from crouch state
bind "ctrl" "+normalduck"
bind "c" "+normalduck"
alias +normalduck "+duck; alias duckON; alias duckOFF"
alias -normalduck "-duck; alias duckON +duck; alias duckOFF -duck"
PS: change "ctrl" or "c" to your liking.
Damage
In the old Half Life skill.cfg file, the SMG and the Pistol had different damage ratings; SMG did 5 per bullet, and the Pistol did 8. In Black Mesa, this line in skill.cfg handles both weapons:
sk_plr_dmg_9mm
It's set to 6, a compromise, which actually makes the SMG a bit more powerful per bullet, but somewhat nerfs the pistol. I've reset this to 8, likely only a psychological change, but I tend to depend on the pistol anyway and don't use the SMG. With that said, as has been mentioned before, as long as you remember to burst the SMG it actually does MORE damage in BM than it did in GoldSrc; I can only guess the inaccuracy-spread when continuously firing the weapon is a wider cone, making the damage spread out more.
Interestingly enough, if I'm reading the config right, the Marine's SMG's only do 4 damage a bullet and 3 damage a pellet (compared to 6 and 6), making the Marine's ability to suck your life right out of your face a bit more interesting as well. sk_npc_dmg_9mm and sk_npc_dmg_buckshot can be manually nerf'd if you wish.
Some other options you can tweak include:
sk_npc_head to "3" to triple damage of headshots, as recommended before. This matches Half-Life GoldSrc.
sk_npc_arm and sk_npc_leg to 1 from .8, to match Half-Life and penalize you less for winging the soldiers.
In fact, just about all of the file can be tweaked to give you massive health, huge ammo piles, whatever you want. Of course, the further you deviate in this file the farther you are from the intended experience by the devs, so it's personal choice how far you actually go.
Me, I've only changed sk_plr_dmg_9mm to match the old pistol, sk_npc_head _arm, and _leg above, to match the old GoldSrc games.
Reaction times
If you want to increase them, the default values are 0.3 (idle) and 0.1 (active - alert)
Convars are respectively:
ai_reaction_delay_alert
ai_reaction_delay_idle
If you want to increase the reaction delays to something more manageable, do it. I just slightly increased them to give a more realistic approach. (0.75 idle - 0.3 active) it makes a change to make them more manageable. Just put the new values in the skill.cfg like the other ones.
I'm also interested in replacing the marine barks, so post here if you work out how (I'd guess it's pretty straightforward, I think they're all just sound files in the relevant directories.
posted by Sebmojo at 4:17 PM on September 16, 2012 [7 favorites]
Just started playing this last night. I'm throwing items at guards and scientists, giggling at myself just like how I started off Half Life 2, being a jerk and smashing boxes over people's heads just to hear their annoyed responses.
posted by cyberscythe at 6:43 PM on September 16, 2012
posted by cyberscythe at 6:43 PM on September 16, 2012
Hokay! I threw together a little mod to replace the marine voices with the ones from HL1. It's waiting approval on HL2Files and I might do a little work to expand it later, but for now you should be able to get it from here.
posted by Drexen at 6:42 AM on September 17, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Drexen at 6:42 AM on September 17, 2012 [2 favorites]
I think we need a Kickstarter to remake Earth and Beyond using modern graphics, although I still love the old game.. Also fuck you EA, yeah I still have a grudge.
posted by teclo at 9:02 AM on September 21, 2012
posted by teclo at 9:02 AM on September 21, 2012
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posted by Artw at 1:44 PM on September 14, 2012 [4 favorites]