Black Mesa Source Teaser Trailer

[Tsakali]

Rofl

from randy nonetheless

[MKJ]

i kinda agree with mogul tbh. it has a certain blur games quality to it.

[Ryoki]

Geez guys, take it easy..

http://calmingmanatee.com/

[Mogul]

Eraser, while I do feel a certain amount of sympathy for any developer, paid or not, for the burden that is placed on them to release what they say they will release, the fact is they signed up for the burden, especially when you've carried on the way they have over the last 42 years or however long it's been. The Black Mesa devs have been defended with the "it's free, so don't complain!" mantra while they themselves have played the "this is going to be an amazing product and we're going to hype it AAA style" card simultaneously. From an eager fan, it's difficult to reconcile those two standards by which you hold the developer. That being the case, their gold medal in the bullshit olympics in 2009 and not being able to get their shit together on it for another three years (and on top of that, knowing it's only a fraction, albeit large, of the product) earns them some flame-time, in my book.

More on expectations: When Kotaku, print sources like Computer Gaming World, BBC (ffs), and so on, cover the game over a number of years and it's so high-profile, it comes with expectations that are more powerful than, say, some indie developer on Kickstarter saying they plan to make Bad Dudes 2 or whatever. When you build expectations and fail to deliver on them, there is disappointment, regardless of whether they were going to charge for the game or not.

On top of the expectation is the knowledge that they've had more than one point where they were on the cusp of release and then canceled to start over. That pisses me off. It takes me right back to DNF and Daikatana, and to an extent, even Rage. That kind of shit makes me roll my eyes hard, and then three years after the date passed, I still shake my head in disrespect when I so much as look their way.

edit: All that said, believe it or not, I'm not rooting for them to fail. I hope they succeed and that their game is awesome. But boy have they pulled some shit, and like an emotionally immature teenager, I've not fucking forgotten.

/scowl

[Don Carlos]

Looking forward to trying this

[GONNAFISTYA]

Eraser, while I do feel a certain amount of sympathy for any developer, paid or not, for the burden that is placed on them to release what they say they will release, the fact is they signed up for the burden, especially when you've carried on the way they have over the last 42 years or however long it's been. The Black Mesa devs have been defended with the "it's free, so don't complain!" mantra while they themselves have played the "this is going to be an amazing product and we're going to hype it AAA style" card simultaneously. From an eager fan, it's difficult to reconcile those two standards by which you hold the developer. That being the case, their gold medal in the bullshit olympics in 2009 and not being able to get their shit together on it for another three years (and on top of that, knowing it's only a fraction, albeit large, of the product) earns them some flame-time, in my book.

More on expectations: When Kotaku, print sources like Computer Gaming World, BBC (ffs), and so on, cover the game over a number of years and it's so high-profile, it comes with expectations that are more powerful than, say, some indie developer on Kickstarter saying they plan to make Bad Dudes 2 or whatever. When you build expectations and fail to deliver on them, there is disappointment, regardless of whether they were going to charge for the game or not.

On top of the expectation is the knowledge that they've had more than one point where they were on the cusp of release and then canceled to start over. That pisses me off. It takes me right back to DNF and Daikatana, and to an extent, even Rage. That kind of shit makes me roll my eyes hard, and then three years after the date passed, I still shake my head in disrespect when I so much as look their way.

edit: All that said, believe it or not, I'm not rooting for them to fail. I hope they succeed and that their game is awesome. But boy have they pulled some shit, and like an emotionally immature teenager, I've not fucking forgotten.

/scowl

So you've described the fundamentally dishonest method in which every single "independent developer" used to start a studio and try to soak publishers for $20 million a project?

News Flash: Probably every business on this planet of every type had its management lie their fucking asses off to create hype and get investors. This is why capitalism can ultimately never be fully trusted: it lies, cheats and steals to get what it wants and fuck you if don't like it.

[seremtan]

i'm glad they're only releasing up to Lambda Core

Xen sucked

[Mogul]

You can help make this mod more-easily accessible via Greenlight here.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... d=94128543

[LawL]

Yeah, but can't anything be same gen instead of pushing the envelope?

edit: I mean really. For some reason we expect every new game to break new ground or it's not worth looking at. That is a bit rediculous. Why not tread some ground already layed for a bit. I remember when a new look and/or engine would last a while. Seems gamers have become a bit jaded. Nothing is quite good enough anymore. Whatever happened to just enjoying a game for what it is? Ok enough melodrama.

I think it looks great and will be quite fun.

ridiculous

[Mogul]

It's Greenlit.

[Psyche911]

It's released, .torrent file here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?khmzyygg4vetko0

Just finished the download, haven't installed it yet. Over 42k leechers (up 20k from when I started), so good luck.

[strike]It only requires you have some Source engine game installed through Steam.[/strike]

How the hell do you do a strike-out on this forum?

There is conflicting info, apparently you need the Source SDK installed. The best info seems to be on Reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments ... _trackers/

[Tsakali]

...The best info seems to be on Reddit:

it's the beginning of the end!

[Mogul]

I've played for a couple of hours. Man, I have to say, this game is both frustrating and boring, a weird combination. Despite being excited enough about the game that I had to rein in my expectations (to my surprise), it turns out that, so far, the game isn't really worth those expectations to begin with.

The game frequently tasks you with unnecessary, clumsy movement requirements, and un-intuitive control systems. The point at which the game teaches you how to crouch-jump seems dumb and forced, and then that move shows up subsequently in places that shouldn't require that technique to begin with. Moving up and down ladders has never been more eye-rollingly stupid in a game before. There was one ladder that I encountered where it wouldn't let me off at the bottom, despite there clearly being room. In fact, I felt the game "led" me there by design and then I couldn't even get off the ladder that got me there.

They've added "Source-style puzzles," which pretty much means you have to pick up objects and put them somewhere else to make something happen. That might have been impressive about ten years ago, but it's a snore fest today. Incidentally, the game doesn't lead you to the next checkpoint very well at all. You will find yourself roaming around the halls over and over again, looking for a button to press that unlocks one of the 15 locked doors you passed so far. It's very '90s.

But you say, "Mogul, of COURSE it's '90s. It's a remake of Half-Life, so what did you expect?"

Well, it's not really a remake of Half-Life. They rebuilt the game with the same story, but the levels seem to be largely designed from scratch, with nods given to certain locations from the original. And it took them way too fucking long, which is something I've already talked at length about in this thread. So they've had every opportunity to revise this shit. I think, much like the way Duke Nukem Forever feels like it's having an identity crisis, Black Mesa can't quite decide what era it wants to feel a part of. Hell, even the architecture looks looks like it's from 1998, despite the high-res textures. Considering they built the levels from scratch, it just didn't have to be that way.

I plan on finishing the game, so I might post again with a revised opinion. I really do hope it starts to be less horrible, but so far it's just frustrating and disappointing. Not in a "HL1 was so legendary this will never live up to your sky-high hopes" kind of way -- more of a "this game sucks dick and would get a 65% if it were rated in a publication" kind of way.