#Nerdsunite: A Return to Black Mesa
<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Sean. He has a really rad site called Violent Gamer, and he's here today to talk about some of the latest and greatest in the gaming industry. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT SEAN !!</editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @violent_gamer
It's still alive! That's the big news. Black Mesa Source is a complete modification that is recreating Half Life 1 in the Half Life 2 source engine. The developers have been working on this mod since 2005, often with a dozen or so people working on the mod. Back in 2008 they released a trailer that looked fantastic and showed an expected release date of 2009. They didn't release Black Mesa Source in 2009 and since then most people assumed that mod had died, especially since news and updates for it ended sometime in 2009. Nathan Grayson Rock Paper Shotgun did an interview with the project lead of Black Mesa Source, Carlos Montero, earlier this week and he explained what has happened since then. Most importantly he explained that they are still working on the mod and they are hoping to have something out for it in the near future. Before I go over some of the really interesting parts of that interview let me show you the trailer that got everyone so hyped up for Black Mesa Source back in 2008.
Looks pretty spectacular right? Well they wanted to release the mod back in 2009, but they have had very many difficulties. There has been numerous problems with quality control, meaning parts of the mod were not up to snuff with the level of quality that other parts, so they have spent a long time trying to keep the quality of everything consistently high. They have also had problems with internal communication and dealing with their team of developers who are located all around the globe. In the interview Carlos explains that one of their biggest problems has had to do with balance. They've had to a lot of work trying to make Half Life 1 meet the modern standard and trying to keep make it not too challenging for modern gamers. If you want to see how the Black Mesa Source has been developing they have a nifty Time Line available that shows what has been publicly released for it. On that timeline it is interesting to see where they implemented their media blackout. Since 2009 they felt quite bad about hyping up the game and then not releasing it, so that's why they haven't been hyping it up anymore in anyway. Now that it's nearing release, again, we may start to see a lot more on it.
Black Mesa Source still doesn't have a solid release date and the only thing Carlos was willing to say, with some prodding by Nathan, was that they are working very hard on getting something out to fans soon-ish. The game is entirely custom at this point and had thousands of custom textures, sounds, dialogue and models. Hopefully someday we will see the fruit of their labor. It looks to be a splendid trip back to Black Mesa and Half Life 1. If you would like to read all of it head on over to Violent Gamer. Thanks for checking it out.
Black Mesa Main Website: http://www.blackmesasource.com/
#nerdsunite
click here to follow Sean on the twittah!