It's finally here! Black Mesa [Steam, Official Site] is now officially available for Linux in beta form. It looks really great!
Note: It's worth noting this game is not finished and it's in Early Access.
I actually only finished Half-Life in the last few years (when it came to Linux) and loved it. I still haven't put more than a few single hours into Half-Life 2 as it just doesn't hook me in, so Black Mesa is probably ideal for me.
I'm pretty excited to try this one out! Might be what I need to finally push me to actually just play through Half-Life 2.
I think it's really amazing that Valve not only allow such fan creations, but often encourage them and support the developers doing it.
Highlights of the new version:
- Linux client beta!
- Added the ZECU - Zombie Marines
- Translations - Added Russian closed captions!
- Added new security Joop model
- Workshop publish tool is working again
- General workshop improvements (all workshop items must now be VPKed to work)
- VOIP works in multiplayer
About Black Mesa
Black Mesa is the award winning fan-made re-imagining of Gordon Freeman's landmark journey through the Black Mesa Research Facility. Relive Half-Life, Valve Software's revolutionary debut, and experience the game that raised the bar for the entire game industry all over again!
Nostalgia has never felt so fresh - Expect tremendously detailed environments, old-school tough-as-nails combat, and a gripping story with memorable characters. The all-new soundtrack, voice acting, choreography and dialogue create a more expansive and immersive experience than ever before!
Heavily updated single player experience - The over 10 hour single player experience has greatly improved from the mod release; new visuals, new voice over, updated gameplay encounters, stability changes and more. Xen is not part of the Early Access release, but will included as a free update when it is ready.
Black Mesa Multiplayer - Fight with or against your friends, in two game modes across 10 iconic maps from the Half-Life universe including Bounce, Gasworks, Stalkyard, Undertow and Crossfire! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
ElectricPrism Oct 28, 2016
Half Life was the very first PC game that got my into programming, there used to be game development CDs bundled with Half Life Demos. Such a different time.
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No Xen levels yet? That sounds like a positive feature rather than missing content. :P
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Quoting: melkemindSo, just to be clear, you're saying Half Life 3 confirmed? :)
No, not at all. Do not get the wrong idea; at least in no less than 5 years time. :-) Black Mesa is in development for a long time; it was a free (of charge) Half-Life 2/Source Engine mod. However, it lacked the last Half-Life chapter Xen, and in still does. So, forums are full of jokes about missing Xen chapter for Black Mesa; even HL3 would be released earlier... :-P Well, Freeman's Mind is completed, The Freeman Chronicles is about to be released, hack even Prospekt has Xen parts; so the jokes are not pointless. :-)
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Quoting: TheGZeusI think the Half-Life games aged like milk, and are so linear and scripted, I don't see how people play them more than once. I liked HL2 the first time I played it (save the horrid vehicle sections), but the second time was exactly the same. Same linear path you get shoved down. Same solutions to the same problems.
I remember thinking found secrets the first time, only to discover that there's basically no secrets save the ammo and health marked with lambdas.
Scales from my eyes, I'll take the Doom games any day.
1 and 2 have ludicrously stupid stories, but the gameplay is more varied and fun. 2016 has a good story that stays out of the way.
Hell, I'll take Quake 1.
Played through HL1 three times (twice on a Windows machine, once - including Blue Shift and Opposing Force on Linux), and HL2 at least twice. Go figure!
Doom!? Jeez. It's fun. Finished it several times, too. But varied? And the most intelligent Doom enemy gets beaten by a barnacle. Easily.
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ElectricPrism Oct 29, 2016
Quoting: melkemindSo, just to be clear, you're saying Half Life 3 confirmed? :)
Half Life 1 + Half Life 2 = Half Life 3. Half Life 3 confirmed.
Last edited by ElectricPrism on 29 October 2016 at 8:37 am UTC
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Quoting: Tuxeehow does the AI being primitive keep the gameplay from being varied?Quoting: TheGZeusI think the Half-Life games aged like milk, and are so linear and scripted, I don't see how people play them more than once. I liked HL2 the first time I played it (save the horrid vehicle sections), but the second time was exactly the same. Same linear path you get shoved down. Same solutions to the same problems.
I remember thinking found secrets the first time, only to discover that there's basically no secrets save the ammo and health marked with lambdas.
Scales from my eyes, I'll take the Doom games any day.
1 and 2 have ludicrously stupid stories, but the gameplay is more varied and fun. 2016 has a good story that stays out of the way.
Hell, I'll take Quake 1.
Played through HL1 three times (twice on a Windows machine, once - including Blue Shift and Opposing Force on Linux), and HL2 at least twice. Go figure!
Doom!? Jeez. It's fun. Finished it several times, too. But varied? And the most intelligent Doom enemy gets beaten by a barnacle. Easily.
There are more ways to approach the levels than Half-Life. To quote Jim Sterling "Here are some guns and hundreds of demons" the rest is up to you, and the level layouts are fare more varied and can be approached in many ways from many directions with many weapons.
Same reason I'll even take Quake over HL.
You've played through them a few times? I lost count for Doom in the 90s.
The fan mods for Doom are free, as well, and don't screw up the difficulty.
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Quoting: rea987Most of id Tech games such as Quake, Quake II and even Half-Life (GoldSrc), as well as many other games use Pak files.or wads, like the old DOOM-games
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Does anyone have weird crash problems with that game? Mine keeps crashing right before entering the test chamber in 'Anomalous Materials'. Console always tells about a segfault but that's it. From the Steam Forums I read that the bundled libstdc++6.so seems to be a big part of the problem, but for me that doesn't fix it. Also the plethora of posts about the buggy Linux version, I would stay away from the game for now until the Linux port is more stable. (And Xen is still missing :D )
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