Black Mesa (game)

Black Mesa (previously known as Black Mesa: Source) is a modification for Half-Life 2. Black Mesa aims to be a update/retelling of the original Half-Life, done on the Source engine. Black Mesa originated from many users' dissatisfaction with Valve's half-hearted Source port, Half-Life: Source. Half-Life: Source was almost visually identical to the original game's Gold Source engine and made little use of the visual enhancements of the Source engine.

Black Mesa will feature original textures, sounds, voice acting, and music designed specifically for the mod.

This mod is currently under development the release date for the project is set for 2009. Valve Software has stated in news updates over their Steam service that Black Mesa is "what we're looking forward to playing." There are two trailers for Black Mesa, one of which was released on December 1, 2008.

Overview


Black Mesa, which began in November 2004, was born of the discontent fans experienced when playing Half-Life: Source; when considering the living environment Valve created with Half-Life 2 using the Source engine, the original game fell far short of what many players thought could be done with the software, basically being a straight port, except for improved water and lighting effects along with the inclusion of ragdoll physics. According to the developers,


 * "Black Mesa: Source was built and founded on the principle that Half-Life: Source did not do the original title enough credit...[Black Mesa] set out to reconstruct the original title, giving it new environments, models, and abilities."

Black Mesa won the Mod DB "Golden Spanner Award" for the most anticipated Half-Life 2 mod of 2005. Most likely due to the amount of publicity given to an unofficial third-party mod, Valve Corporation privately asked the producers of the mod to remove the "Source" part from the title to avoid confusion on whether it is an official Valve product or not.

Some of the chapters are nearing completion and they have released images of the science personnel, and some Xen aliens. The developers plan to include co-op gameplay, something only the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life offered.

History



 * On November 26, 2006, the Black Mesa website was relaunched with a brand new layout. The launch coincided with a promised media release, including level shots, character models, weapon models and music samples.


 * On December 16, 2006, media release "Stage 2" was released, which featured a revamped website, updated weapon models, revamped and new maps, Gargantua render, an animation movie of the mod's Houndeye and pictures of the Bullsquid.[4]


 * On January 25, 2007, Black Mesa once again won the Mod DB "Golden Spanner Award" for the most anticipated Half-Life 2 mod of 2006. The development team also submitted a teaser video which includes flybys of the Test Chamber, Blast Pit, Residue Processing, Lambda Core, and Surface Tension dam areas.


 * On January 26, 2007, an announcement was made looking for people to serve as voice actors.


 * On May 25, 2007, the Development team announced that they had enough voice actors, and were searching for effects artists.


 * On December 24, 2007, a devblog (developer's blog) was first introduced on the Black Mesa website. Written by developers, it features weekly updates, including development news and tips on using the Valve Hammer Editor.


 * On December 25, 2007, a new media release was submitted. Also most of the older screenshots were released again in a higher resolution.


 * On November 19, 2008, in coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the release of Half-Life, new media was released. A new trailer was said to be released shortly.


 * On November 30, 2008, a new trailer was released, along with a 2009 release date.

Awards and recognition

 * Mod DB - Top Unreleased Mod for 2005
 * Mod DB - Top Unreleased Mod for 2006
 * Mod DB - Honorable mention for Top Unreleased Mod for 2007