Black Mesa Source coming 2009

Best not to pay attention to a project like this. If it ever comes out, then hoo-ray. If not, well, it's a mod not a professional project so what can you do?
 
I thought there was just recently an update saying they 'promise' it will be done before the end of 2009, even though they know that's coming up very soon. Not looking for a source right now though.

lol...ok it is now summer 2011, what happened to that promise :p
 
I like this kind of thread necromancy. It's pretty telling to read the posts, see the time period, see the expectations and then see where we're actually at now.

lol...I agree...reading a thread from a few years back dealing with a game that still has not been released is funny...would have been great to see some posts from 2007 or earlier and people's expectations

I've given up on this after 2009 when they promised that it would be released before the end of the year...how could it be almost ready in 2009 and now 2 years later it's still in development hell?...are they doing a complete rebuild?...why?...no one cares if it's DX11 or DX9 anymore, just release the game
 
You know, I have this admission to make. I never finished Half Life 1. I played about half of it, got Half Life 2, tried to go back, and just couldn't. Especially when I figured "oh well, Black Mesa will be out in a couple years, might as well wait for that..."

Hopefully someday it gets released :/
 
I haven't made games before, but as someone who takes pleasure in making things, it is FAR more fun to make things than to iron out the quirks or bugs into a presentable format. That's just me though.
 
Hmm... yeah, kindof looks like the only things they've worked on for BlackMesa in the last year and a half are the Wiki and the sound-track (which I thought was done a long time ago). :p

http://wiki.blackmesasource.com/History_of_the_Mod

2011
■ January 3, 2011: Black Mesa is awarded with the 4th place in Wired's annual Vaporware of the Year article. This time, the mod is featured side by side with Valve's Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Like happened previously -- despite some inaccuracies in the article -- the developers take that recognition as an honor [11].

■ March 9, 2011: Joel Nielsen, the soundtrack composer, revealed in his personal twitter that Black Mesa Soundtrack was finished [12] .

At least it appears that someone from the team was still alive in early 2011 to update the wiki - that's a good sign! :D
 
You know, I have this admission to make. I never finished Half Life 1. I played about half of it, got Half Life 2, tried to go back, and just couldn't. Especially when I figured "oh well, Black Mesa will be out in a couple years, might as well wait for that..."

Hopefully someday it gets released :/

Uff da. Go play a graphically enhanced version of HL1.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I was like wtf? I thought that was some new slang for eff dat.

I have a lot of other games though that I'd like to play first (only finished half of Planescape for example, so I have to replay that).

Speaking of Source mods, I've been kind of disappointed overall. I felt like the mods for Half Life 1 were a lot better, such as: CS, Day of Defeat, Natural Selection. There's been some really good mods for Source too, but they never seemed to be as complete as the HL1 mods.
 
holy thread resurrection, batman!

i figured there was finally an update. guess not.
thanks alot, person that bumped this back up. oh well, dont really care about this proj anymore, they missed their opportunity.
 
You know, I have this admission to make. I never finished Half Life 1. I played about half of it, got Half Life 2, tried to go back, and just couldn't. Especially when I figured "oh well, Black Mesa will be out in a couple years, might as well wait for that..."

Hopefully someday it gets released :/

I only recently played HL1 (Last year) and then the rest of the current half lifes straight after...I found HL1 by far funner, longer and in some place more of a challenge.
 
I could have told you this game would never be released back in 2006 (and did, in several forum threads). If a mod takes more than 18-24 months to initial release, it's a sure sign of internal strife/turnover/loss of data, or worst of all: a loss of interest.

If these people had the game "almost done" in 2009, they should have released an open beta and worked the bugs out with a large test user base. Nothing inspires real work fixing bugs like hanging your laundry out for everyone to see.

I've completely given-up on them, so I'm astounded that so many people have not. It's not like this is some legendary company that produced a megahit like Duke Nukem 3D and then went into hiding for a decade - it's just some no-name mod team with a remake idea that clicks with nostalgic gamers in their 30s.

The saddest part was, when it was first announced, I went totally fanboy over this project. I SO wanted this to be released. It took 2 years of no real updates to convince me that it was doomed.
 
Last edited:
I love how their forums are very active, and have people treating it just like this forum. It's really confusing.
 
I could have told you this game would never be released back in 2006 (and did, in several forum threads). If a mod takes more than 18-24 months to initial release, it's a sure sign of internal strife/turnover/loss of data, or worst of all: a loss of interest.

If these people had the game "almost done" in 2009, they should have released an open beta and worked the bugs out with a large test user base. Nothing inspires real work fixing bugs like hanging your laundry out for everyone to see.

I've completely given-up on them, so I'm astounded that so many people have not. It's not like this is some legendary company that produced a megahit like Duke Nukem 3D and then went into hiding for a decade - it's just some no-name mod team with a remake idea that clicks with nostalgic gamers in their 30s.

The saddest part was, when it was first announced, I went totally fanboy over this project. I SO wanted this to be released. It took 2 years of no real updates to convince me that it was doomed.

I think they actually finished... or at least close to finished. I recall reading somewhere that the game was done but they decided it was boring to play through HL1 now in the new engine with the new graphics. It just felt like a generic shooter. They aren't going to release it until they're happy with how it plays.

I guess that makes sense considering how long ago HL1 was released and how little actual action there is in comparison to the second game. They're probably making the interaction with barney and the scientists more cinematic, making the marines a more aggressive/active force etc.
 
Does anyone else think some how Valve is involved with the prolonged delay?
 
I just love this thread's title.:p

Yah this mod has went from something i was really excited about 3 years ago to..... Well... DNF it will come eventually and be underwhelming after so many years of hype. I remember the trailer they put out last Christmas? or two ago, it looked awesome and then they went quiet.
 
Does anyone else think some how Valve is involved with the prolonged delay?

it does seem strange...the developers of the Black Mesa mod have nothing to do with Valve yet they have become just as bad as them in regards to getting the game out...this might be even worse as all the game files etc are already available...all they are doing is upgrading the textures etc...it should not take this long!!
 
it does seem strange...the developers of the Black Mesa mod have nothing to do with Valve yet they have become just as bad as them in regards to getting the game out...this might be even worse as all the game files etc are already available...all they are doing is upgrading the textures etc...it should not take this long!!

I think they're completely rebuilding and designing the assets from the ground up.
 
I think they're completely rebuilding and designing the assets from the ground up.

Yep, it is a brand new Half Life 1, built off an upgraded HL2 engine. They are just using HL1 as an outline or storyboards, and making it all new. It's not like they just took the Half Life 1 game, and upgraded a few textures :rolleyes:
 
I think of it this way: The game was close enough to being finished that they were confident in setting a 2009 release date. Something happened that made it take 2 years longer with absolutely zero communication about what went wrong. You don't set release dates that are less than 1 year out when you realistically still have years worth of work to do. Unless of course they were just trying to make fans happy by giving a release date to stop the constant hounding. OR, something's up with either Valve being involved, them finding a publisher to sell it, it's not fun enough to release, etc.
 
I think of it this way: The game was close enough to being finished that they were confident in setting a 2009 release date. Something happened that made it take 2 years longer with absolutely zero communication about what went wrong. You don't set release dates that are less than 1 year out when you realistically still have years worth of work to do. Unless of course they were just trying to make fans happy by giving a release date to stop the constant hounding. OR, something's up with either Valve being involved, them finding a publisher to sell it, it's not fun enough to release, etc.

Yep, it's one thing to say in November 2009, the game should be out by the end of the year. Fast forward to summer 2011, and still nothing, and they completely silent on a release date now. Makes me think Valve did get involved possibly, and they are making it an official release sometime ?
 
I think of it this way: The game was close enough to being finished that they were confident in setting a 2009 release date. Something happened that made it take 2 years longer with absolutely zero communication about what went wrong. You don't set release dates that are less than 1 year out when you realistically still have years worth of work to do. Unless of course they were just trying to make fans happy by giving a release date to stop the constant hounding. OR, something's up with either Valve being involved, them finding a publisher to sell it, it's not fun enough to release, etc.

It's a mod. I don't know about you, but I've lost count of how many promising mods just drop off the face off the earth one day and are never completed. Black Mesa Source just looked particularly excellent, it's a shame it never came to fruition.
 
They probably just saw what Microsoft is doing with the original Halo, and realized that they could actually make money off this thing instead of it just being a mod...
 
Great read, thanks. It really explains what's going on.

I suppose I can't say that I totally understand what they're going through but I can to the best of my ability assume that they're just really busy. This does demonstrate though why games have deadlines. But it also demonstrates why sometimes it can be good to break those deadlines. In the end if the mod is totally fucking awesome everyone will be happy so none of this matters.

I heard the title has been changed to Black Mesa: Forever
ohnoyoudidnt.gif
 
Last edited:
I don't really have any respect for BM:S's devs anymore after that first paragraph about how people complain all the time (no fucking shit, welcome to life), and that was the reason that they didn't update the news for TWO FUCKING YEARS. Why could they have not just come out and said that their team members no longer had as much time to focus on the mod, so it was going to be delayed?

Info about bug fixes, release schedules, additions/changes are what keep people interested in a game! Keeping everything private says to people that what you're working on isn't worth showing anyone. I know that's probably not the case, but it's the conclusion that most people draw when the dev doesn't release any updates what-so-ever.
 
I don't really have any respect for BM:S's devs anymore after that first paragraph about how people complain all the time (no fucking shit, welcome to life), and that was the reason that they didn't update the news for TWO FUCKING YEARS. Why could they have not just come out and said that their team members no longer had as much time to focus on the mod, so it was going to be delayed?

Meh, it's a mod, they're doing it for free in their spare time. I can see how it would be frustrating as hell to have nothing but constant bitching and nitpicking every damn thing you release. They don't owe anyone a thing, they're not doing it for money, so why put up with the bullshit?
 
Back
Top