# Black Mesa: IT'S SO CLOSE I CAN TASTE IT



## LizardKing (Sep 2, 2012)

http://forums.blackmesasource.com/showthread.php?p=480683#post480683 said:
			
		

> We're freaking out over here! It is so exciting to share this news with you!
> 
> 
> You can now Download the Black Mesa Soundtrack, courtesy of our very own Joel Nielsen, at the very generous price of whatever you want! Enjoy and share!
> ...



Yessssssssss. I don't mind waiting for Xen. Xen was poopy anyway.

Now we just need Episode 3 >:[


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## Percy (Sep 2, 2012)

LizardKing said:


> Now we just need Episode 3 >:[


Valve can't count to three though.

Black Mesa does seem like a promising game though. It'd be exciting to see how it ends up.


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## Rheumatism (Sep 2, 2012)

I forgot all about Black Mesa and now it's being released in 12 days?  Ignorance is bliss.


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## Schwimmwagen (Sep 2, 2012)

What is Black Mesa?


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## Rheumatism (Sep 2, 2012)

It's a fan made HD remake of Half-Life 1.


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## BRN (Sep 2, 2012)

Xen was the most... ... honestly, they might as well have just gone straight to the Nihilanth rather than introduce the random long jump mechanic and [grumble grumble]

This looks pretty ace, thanks for sharing, LK


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## Rheumatism (Sep 2, 2012)

I liked the majority of Xen.  Except for this level.







I despise this level.


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## BRN (Sep 2, 2012)

Rheumatism said:


> I liked the majority of Xen.  Except for this level.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



a million claws raking at your face is more agreeable than that level on Hard


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## Anubite (Sep 2, 2012)

Black mesa source is going to be amazing, i cant wait.


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## AshleyAshes (Sep 2, 2012)

The best part about Black Mesa is that they've changed the maps.  The themes and styles are the same, but the layouts arn't identical with just prettier decorations.  In the first Half-Life I every much enjoyed EXPLORING and wondering what was around every corner.  I since learned what'd be behind every corner and that sense of exploration vanished.  I recently played all three HL1 games and found that knowing where everything would be really sucked the fun out of it.  ...Also, the GoldSrc engine has aged rather painfully. D:


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## Ames (Sep 3, 2012)

holy shit this is actually happening

the end must be nigh


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## Unsilenced (Sep 3, 2012)

Rheumatism said:


> It's a fan made HD remake of Half-Life 1.



[yt]NKWpGJ4Xhw8[/yt]


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## Ash (Sep 7, 2012)

I bought hl1 again like a year ago just for this very moment.


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## AshleyAshes (Sep 14, 2012)

Squee, less than two hours before the release.


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## LizardKing (Sep 14, 2012)

YES!






FUCK!

Been trying to get the torrent but the site isn't responding. The black mesa site itself seems down now. GRRR.

Edit: Trying Fileshack, maybe that's faster.

Edit edit: Yup!


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## AshleyAshes (Sep 14, 2012)

LizardKing said:


> YES!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I can't find a mirror that would work.  Even the torrent is dead.  FileShack has it?  FUck yeah. :3  Thanks you rock.


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## Percy (Sep 14, 2012)

LizardKing said:


> YES!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Downloading now. Thanks for the link. c:


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## CannonFodder (Sep 14, 2012)

You guys could wait a couple hours for the masses of people all trying at once to download to calm down.
That's what I'm doing.

Personally what I'm hoping for is that the next episode of Freeman's Mind he halfway through the video makes a fourth wall joke.
I can imagine it going something like-
*switches over to black mesa*
"WHOA! WHAT HAPPENED?  Am I on drugs?  I don't feel like it.  I don't remember taking any.
Sweet lord, it's like someone was making a video from a video game only for a remake to come out and rather than come up with a reason for the change they just did it expecting nobody to notice.
Either that or the crap these aliens are made of is bad for you.  I'm guessing the later cause how much they've been puking up on me can't be good for anyone.
I wonder if there's such a thing as alien detox?"


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## AshleyAshes (Sep 14, 2012)

CanonFodder, no one cares about your crazy talk that involves playing Black Mesa later rather than sooner.  D:

The only time to play Black Mesa is now or as soon to now as possible!


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## LizardKing (Sep 14, 2012)

There's a torrent out for it now, but not seeing any real improvement over the Shack link at the moment. A friend of mine says he's already got it downloaded through the torrent though, so YMMV.

Edit:


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## AshleyAshes (Sep 14, 2012)

I found a differnet link from germany and abandoned SHackNews, cause the Shack download kept getting slower and slower and slower.  22% left and 11mins remaining.

http://www.chip.de/downloads/Black-Mesa_57528457.html

OH GOD I CAN'T WAIT. :3


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## CannonFodder (Sep 14, 2012)

I do have a question for when I download it later though.
How do I install it?


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## LizardKing (Sep 14, 2012)

CannonFodder said:


> I do have a question for when I download it later though.
> How do I install it?



Open read.me in Notepad.



AshleyAshes said:


> I found a differnet link from germany and abandoned SHackNews, cause the Shack download kept getting slower and slower and slower.  22% left and 11mins remaining.
> 
> http://www.chip.de/downloads/Black-Mesa_57528457.html
> 
> OH GOD I CAN'T WAIT. :3



1MB/s is basically saturating my connection, so I literally cannot download this any faster. About 40 minutes to go.


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## AshleyAshes (Sep 14, 2012)

I have it, squee, I have it. :3 :3 :3

Installing and going to relive the experience from 12 years ago.  Wee.


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## First-rate Temerian Sword (Sep 14, 2012)

What so special about it?


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## Greyscale (Sep 14, 2012)

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!


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## First-rate Temerian Sword (Sep 14, 2012)

Greyscale said:


> Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!



Well, that explained it all.


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## Smelge (Sep 14, 2012)

Fuck


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## Rheumatism (Sep 14, 2012)

Yeah ya got pretty much everyone trying to download it right now.  I'll wait a week or so then I'll get it.


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## Smelge (Sep 14, 2012)

Rheumatism said:


> Yeah ya got pretty much everyone trying to download it right now.  I'll wait a week or so then I'll get it.



No, thats a pretty good indication of my internet there.


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## Rheumatism (Sep 14, 2012)

Figured I give it a try myself.






Getting around the same speed as you.  This is going to be a long ass wait.


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## Smelge (Sep 14, 2012)

No, no worries. It bombed at 22.4Mb. Guess I'm not getting Black mesa.


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## Luca (Sep 14, 2012)

I can't wait to try out those vending machine physics!


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## Greyscale (Sep 14, 2012)

The link Ashes posted worked best for me.

I was getting between 2 and 3 mbps, and it only took me about 20 minutes to download the whole thing. ^^


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## Unsilenced (Sep 14, 2012)

Welp. Guess I'm not getting anything done this weekend.


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## Rheumatism (Sep 14, 2012)

Sweet there it goes.


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## 8BitFur (Sep 14, 2012)

First-rate Temerian Sword said:


> What so special about it?


The fact that we've waited 8 years and suffered through numerous pranks from the developers, and now it's finally here :-D


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## Rheumatism (Sep 14, 2012)

It's going to finish in a couple minutes for me.  If the game runs decent on my computer I'll post some screenshots of it a little later.


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## Rheumatism (Sep 14, 2012)

Damn this game takes a long time to install.


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## Oly (Sep 14, 2012)

Sweet dirtballs, I didn't even know about this!

but I've already downloaded too much stuff this month FFFFUUUUUUU

(only 10gb bandwidth per month and i've already downloaded at least 6GB of shit jsut to myself, whoops :3c )


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## AshleyAshes (Sep 14, 2012)

The changes in the maps are the best.  There's a much stronger 'Survival Horror' feel to Unforseen Consequences and Office Complex.  The combat is interesting too, you can engage in a fire fight from afar, but if you go in, just jamming an MP5 into someone's ribs is fairly effective too.  I actually like how they delayed when you get which weapons, of course it helps that the friendly NPCs are less than stupid for once.  Shame you can't send them places like Half-Life 2 rebels.

I'm up to the start of Power Up and I'm finding the maps are less varied from their originals now, same with Blast Pit, left me having an easy time running through the maps and only occasionally exploring there.  We'll see how that goes later on.

Was anyone else suprised that the CPR scene right after the cascade doesn't seem to end like it did in the original?  Instead it's just an endless loop of CPR that doesn't pay off or end in death.


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## LizardKing (Sep 14, 2012)

Playing through it on hard. I forgot how many times you need to shoot the damn things before they die (excluding magnum headshots). Especially the soldiers. EAT CROWBAR, SCUM.


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## AshleyAshes (Sep 14, 2012)

SECURITY GUARD WITH A SHOTGUN!  OH JOY! :3 :3 :3


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## CannonFodder (Sep 14, 2012)

I still have a hour till it's done downloading. The download speed keeps slowing down, oh well I can wait.


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## Greyscale (Sep 14, 2012)

I don't remember the marines being so tough to kill.

So far they are the hardest enemy i've faced.


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## AshleyAshes (Sep 14, 2012)

Greyscale said:


> I don't remember the marines being so tough to kill.
> 
> So far they are the hardest enemy i've faced.



I found them not too hard to handle so long as you kept your distance or rushed them quickly.  But I played on Easy.

Some of the levels seem trunicated, On A Rail ends sorta suddenly and so does Surface Tension. Not that the levels are bad, but you're like 'Wait, this end part now?  That's not right..."


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## CannonFodder (Sep 14, 2012)

AshleyAshes said:


> Some of the levels seem trunicated, On A Rail ends sorta suddenly and so does Surface Tension. Not that the levels are bad, but you're like 'Wait, this end part now?  That's not right..."


It's true.  They didn't redo the ENTIRE game, but rather than wait another couple years to completely and totally finish the game they went "close enough" and finished it up.

Well I downloaded the game and tried to install it only to have my computer crash.  The extremely short version is I found out what the hell is wrong with my computer, half the windows partition is fragmented.  How did that even happen?


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## Rheumatism (Sep 15, 2012)

Well beat Black Mesa.  That two part helicopter fight, that ambush in the Questionable Ethics chapter, that fighting on the surface with Jets and Helicopters doing battle with alien space ships.  Great fun.

I loved it.  Good thing it ended before Xen.  That long Jump module really didn't work well.


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## Unsilenced (Sep 15, 2012)

Wait, it doesn't go to Xen? 

I am sadface. 

Totally wanted to see an HD nihilanth.


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## Rheumatism (Sep 15, 2012)

Nope, Gordon jumps into the portal and the screen goes dark... to be continued...  

Remember in the original you just had to fight off waves of those floating fat head guys?  Well now they also warp in Alien Slaves, Alien Grunts and Hound Eyes.  They make you work for that Anticlimatic ending.

I can't fucking wait for the Xen release.  These guys should be able to do miracles with it.


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## LizardKing (Sep 15, 2012)

AshleyAshes said:


> I found them not too hard to handle so long as you kept your distance or rushed them quickly.  But I played on Easy.



Wait all this time and then prance through it on easy mode? Shame on you!

I'm sure the soldier AI is based on the source bots though; they have the same quirks when it comes to reaction times and aiming. At least they don't seem to have unlimited grenades any more.


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## BRN (Sep 15, 2012)

LizardKing said:


> unlimited grenades.



augh, my rage.

I played through HL1 on Hard and had fun; is it really worth downloading this mod?


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## LizardKing (Sep 15, 2012)

SIX said:


> augh, my rage.
> 
> I played through HL1 on Hard and had fun; is it really worth downloading this mod?



If you had fun, then yes absolutely.


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## AshleyAshes (Sep 15, 2012)

LizardKing said:


> I'm sure the soldier AI is based on the source bots though; they have the same quirks when it comes to reaction times and aiming. At least they don't seem to have unlimited grenades any more.



I imagine they're not Source Bots, a bot that replicates a human is entirely different from an NPC, code wise.  They're likely adaptations of the Combine AI and the security guards and scientists are adaptations of the rebel/civilian AI.

Another shotgun Barney in Lambda, but he seemed to die fairly quickly.   There doesn't appear to be any MP5 Barneys.


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## AshleyAshes (Sep 15, 2012)

Double post, but you can eat me.  I finished it on easy and I'll do it again on normal later.  I like the little details the Source engine can add.  Seeing papers, clipboards and styrofoam coffee cups on bloody desks really adds this feeling of 'Things went to hell here in a hurry' and gives it a horrific feel.  The additional rooms and little areas to explore are nice and so are expanded sections.  Like that road way full of cars in the path that lead from the exit from the labs after Questionable Ethics to the dam.  It was just a road between two doors once, but now it has cars blown out, bodies, and marines posted in a security area above along the road.  All of it takes the feeling of 'disaster' and 'all hell broken loose' to the next level.

The cliff side and the damn offer some really impressive visuals.  When I first aproached the dam and saw the entire scene I just had to stop and go 'Oh my god...'.  It was actually BEAUTIFUL.  Not to mention the scale, after you get to the base of the dam, that thing looks twice as big as it did in the original.

But some levels feel cut off, like they rushed to the end.  Surface Tension, where the Marines shoot you out of a vent, they go 'Quiet.  I hear sumthin'' like usual and eventually shoot you out of the vents.  This should drop you into a garage and there's areas well beyond this.  Instead you drop into an area where a garg is for some reason (What the Marines heard me in the vent but not THAT?  It's like 20 feet behind them!) and I was all 'What?  This isn't this part.  Where's the garage!?  And why didn't those marines hear that garg!?'  Suddenly I'm running from the Garg like normal, but wondering where this whole segment of level had vanished to.


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## Rheumatism (Sep 18, 2012)




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## CannonFodder (Sep 18, 2012)

Rheumatism said:


>


"Oh what is this?"
"Choochie choochie coo"
"It looks like someone wants some more pets"


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## LizardKing (Sep 18, 2012)

Rheumatism said:


>



I picked them up then completely forgot to use them. I'd usually use them near the end of Surface Tension, but now that part doesn't exist.

I always liked the animations for the green aquatic gun-monster-thing in Opposing Force. It was adorable.


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## Andy Dingo Wolf (Sep 23, 2012)

Downloading. Can't wait to play tho :3


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## Bread (Sep 23, 2012)

10/10 mod
I just past the part with the rocket launch, can't wait to finish this

I'm really digging the music for these huge action shoot-outs


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## CannonFodder (Sep 23, 2012)

I've played about halfway through already.  It's very good, the only thing that annoys me is the jumping thing.  I turned down gravity to where it's more realistic cause the whole duck jumping thing in the box room where you have to jump all the way across is a bit ridiculous.


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## Aetius (Sep 23, 2012)

I can't wait for Operation Black Mesa (The Opposing Force remake)


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## Rheumatism (Sep 23, 2012)

CannonFodder said:


> the jumping thing.


Definitely it's biggest flaw.


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## Kesteh (Sep 24, 2012)

Yeah. I had to redo the abyss jumping part about 10 times because the jumping mechanics were so bad. 
The moving boxes certainly didn't help as for some reason they completely destroyed my momentum when I hopped. About 5 times I jumped only to move about three inches forward and into the pit.

I'm really not sure why they touched the jumping in the first place.


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