TheGhostOfSin:

shadowcypher:
"Besides 4 hours isn't really that unbeleaveable, I've seen it done in 1 hour."

It's very unbelievable, the original HL is at least 20 hours of gameplay.
From the very start, an hour in, you'd probably be around the bit where things are going wrong...

HL is about the same length as HL2, which Valve regards as 30hours of gameplay. Done in 20 yes, done in 4 or less, no...

Yes, less than 4 hours is impossible...

Try to think before you post.

That playthrough has gigantic chunks cut out, the player passing through walls, moving a lot faster than is usually possible and opening doors that cannot be opened from where he is.

Jdopus:

TheGhostOfSin:

shadowcypher:
"Besides 4 hours isn't really that unbeleaveable, I've seen it done in 1 hour."

It's very unbelievable, the original HL is at least 20 hours of gameplay.
From the very start, an hour in, you'd probably be around the bit where things are going wrong...

HL is about the same length as HL2, which Valve regards as 30hours of gameplay. Done in 20 yes, done in 4 or less, no...

Yes, less than 4 hours is impossible...

Try to think before you post.

That playthrough has gigantic chunks cut out, the player passing through walls, moving a lot faster than is usually possible and opening doors that cannot be opened from where he is.

I didn't watch it all, but I couldn't find the one I remember being done in a hour without cheating. The half hour one was suggested to me by a friend.

I just found H-L very short, it isn't my fault.

ANTI-SANTA:

curlycrouton:

ANTI-SANTA:
I only played the begining of the original because mine was a cracked copy. Hope they port it to the 360 coz my pc is no where near powerful enough to run that

I believe it's a mod, so no, it won't be ported to 360.

Think about it man, Valve wouldn't go through all that time and effort just make a patch that completely over haules the graphics of the original game. I dont think ANYONE still has their orignal copy of the game. So no, it wouldn't be a patch it would be a complete remake. So it might be ported after all :)

Valve didn't make it.
http://www.blackmesasource.com/team.html

stompy:

Liverandbacon:
Also, for all those who haven't understood this yet: This is a modification for Half Life 2. It is not a patch, DLC, or retail game. It is not made by Valve. It is a free download if you own HL2 on PC (used to require Counter Strike Source, but I think that is no longer the case.

I'd just like to point this out: you don't need Half Life 2, just something that uses the Source engine. Something like CounterStrike: Source should work fine, even if you don't have Half Life 2.

I haven't checked their website for a long while, I just remembered that it used to require Half-Life 2 because it used some game data from it. That'll teach me to actually get up to date knowledge, and not assume that things have stayed the same. I stopped looking at their website, because I got that sinking feeling I get with a lot of TCs that it would end up with the rest of the scrapped vaporware TCs almost completed. On a side note: I really wish that mod projects that die would give their data files (models, textures, maps, etc) out to the public. They don't need them anymore, and so much great work goes to waste.

I was too young to had played the first half life when it came out so im super fucking psyched to play this janx

will valve stop this? i mean if it is really copy-paste with better graphics for free, why even BOTHER buying the original, or the source version, when they can have the free black mesa?

Eldritch Warlord:

Bob_F_It:
Downside? I've already played it.

Upside? Old shooters suck (it's true, even if they were the best thing ever "back in the day").

Half Life it the basis of all modern first person shooters that have come out since it. It isn't an old school shooter, it's just an old modern shooter.

So long as they stick very close to the original story, this will be a glorious game. I would say you have to go into this game with the thought that you aren't playing a nice new game, your just using this as an excuse to play Half Life again, or for the first time for all you infidels. Thankfully Half Life was and likely will be a good enough game to play over and over again.

TheGhostOfSin:
Is it just a remake of Half-Life or does it have the expansions?

I ask as I made my way through the game in less than 4 hours on my first play through.

No, you played Blue Shift.

I hope they redo the expansions too as they were a great addition to the story.

I3uster:
Will Valve stop that gmae's development? I mean, if it is really copy & paste with better graphics for free, why even bother buying the original, or the source version, when they can have the Black Mesa?[sic]

Because it's a mod. And all of the stuff is created from scratch based on the original stuff. The only thing(s) copied are some audio and the game engine. I imagine it won't imact sales much due to the fact that the original game is over 10 years old and probably has had its heyday in sales.

Liverandbacon:
On a side note: I really wish that mod projects that die would give their data files (models, textures, maps, etc) out to the public. They don't need them anymore, and so much great work goes to waste.

That's a great idea. Yeh, I agree with you.

Dude, I heard about this a while back, but I didn't know it was coming out this soon. Awesome!

Mr_Powers:

TheGhostOfSin:
Is it just a remake of Half-Life or does it have the expansions?

I ask as I made my way through the game in less than 4 hours on my first play through.

No, you played Blue Shift.

No, I played Half Life Game of the Year Edition

No, I played Half Life Game of the Year Edition

Well if that is so then, Wow, are you a speedrunner or something?

I will say this however, Half-Life can't be truly enjoyed in such a short period of time. In order to get full enjoyment out of it you still have to take your sweet ass time and explore and look into every corner of every map.

I was hyped for this 2 YEARS AGO!

Half-Life is pretty short when you know what your doing/aren't dieing so much from those damn instadeath puzzles or radiation pools.

Anarchemitis:
I imagine it won't imact sales much due to the fact that the original game is over 10 years old and probably has had its heyday in sales.

I wouldn't be surprised if Half Life is still selling well. I bought it because, having played The Orange Box, I wanted to play the original Half Life, and it wouldn't be too much of a stretch if other were the same.

Halflife probably sold well when they put it on sale for 90 Cents.

TsunamiWombat:
Halflife probably sold well when they put it on sale for 90 Cents.

God, I loved that deal... for $AU1.50, I was able to get one of the most influential FPS games. Win!

I3uster:
will valve stop this? i mean if it is really copy-paste with better graphics for free, why even BOTHER buying the original, or the source version, when they can have the free black mesa?

Valve won't stop it; they're fully aware of the mod, and all they made them do was change the name from "Black Mesa Source" to simply "Black Mesa." Why? Well, Half-Life has already pretty much made them all of the money that it's going to, the release of such a high-profile, high quality mod will probably help move some of their Source games (which are needed to play it), and the positive publicity aspect certainly can't be ignored.

whyarecarrots:

MattyDienhoff:

The expansions aren't considered canon because they're the work of a different developer and contain quite a few inconsistencies with the original game's storyline. Marc Laidlaw, the series' writer, confirmed that Valve don't consider the expansions canon.

Which I think might actually explain what the corridor that is shown in Ep2 (in Judith's transmission and by the Gman) actually is:

Spoiler: Click to View

That does happen to Black Mesa in Half Life, when you've navigated your way through the missile storage past all the untouchable trip mines and you go underground. This coincides (time wise) with the sewer section in Opposing Force.

OneHP:

That does happen to Black Mesa in Half Life, when you've navigated your way through the missile storage past all the untouchable trip mines and you go underground. This coincides (time wise) with the sewer section in Opposing Force.

Yes, but opposing force is not recognised as canon by Valve, and thus the whole nuking thing won;t have happened. Even if the two games may coincide timewise if opposing force didn't occur as far as Valve is concerned, then it's unimportant.

So it means that I'm going to get an awesome version of HL for free? Excuberance! Now I actually might play through the entire game.

whyarecarrots:

OneHP:

That does happen to Black Mesa in Half Life, when you've navigated your way through the missile storage past all the untouchable trip mines and you go underground. This coincides (time wise) with the sewer section in Opposing Force.

Yes, but opposing force is not recognised as canon by Valve, and thus the whole nuking thing won;t have happened. Even if the two games may coincide timewise if opposing force didn't occur as far as Valve is concerned, then it's unimportant.

I've just said that the nuking thing does happen in the original Half-Life so it doesn't matter if OpFor is canon or not.

Interesting business model Valve appear to have going for themselves:

Take an eternity to release their own sequels, even when they are broken up into 'episodes'.
Frustrate their consumers so that some of them band together and create mods for free (as the license does not permit resale).
Shine the 'dim light at the end of a very long tunnel' that is the Steam distribution system - effectively, promising an outlet for said games.
Hint at a rumor of a carrot to motivate these hobbyists to pseudo-professional status - i.e. give the creators of the best mods jobs at Valve...

At least they're not having to sleep with Gabe Newell.

honestly can't say i'm too exited, i've heard half-life is amazing and i'd love to play it but after playing half-life 2 I've lost all faith in the series, people keep saying it's amazing but it's actually not that good. Everyone raves it as an exellent puzzle shooter but it's hardly a puzzle game and it doesn't incorporate shooting with puzzles so the definition is misleading. Also it is boring and repetitive, can't speak for the first one or the sequels but half-life 2 has practically no story development and isn't that fun to play so I can't bring myself to play hte others.
Maybe it's that I didn't play the first so I wasn't riding off the nostalgea factor but it's actually not as good as people think, physics were nice and the gravity gun was fun but not practical so I ended up not using it. The rest off the game plays out like generic fps #3 while taking short brakes to derail our enjoyment with retardidly simple puzzles.

OneHP:

I've just said that the nuking thing does happen in the original Half-Life so it doesn't matter if OpFor is canon or not.

Ahh, so that would explain why setting off the trip mines blows the whole building. Sorry, didn't understand your first point.

Hmm... I'm still going to hope that they go back there regardless :p

Great! Never got to fully experience the game. I was in 2nd grade I think when it first came out, and was never smart enough to get past the first combat situations, and eventually gave up. So in theory, I just need to buy the Orange Box, download this, and I would have the whole series to play?

ANTI-SANTA:
I only played the begining of the original because mine was a cracked copy. Hope they port it to the 360 coz my pc is no where near powerful enough to run that

Same here.

downside, WTF happened to ep. 3. sounds a bit like a pointless expansion to me. never the less. I bet it will be good

GLaDOS V 2.1:
downside, WTF happened to ep. 3. sounds a bit like a pointless expansion to me. never the less. I bet it will be good

For the last time....

This is not Valve.
This is an independent team of modders.
It will not affect Episode 3 at all.
Please read the rest of the thread...

Uncompetative:
Interesting business model Valve appear to have going for themselves:

Take an eternity to release their own sequels, even when they are broken up into 'episodes'.
Frustrate their consumers so that some of them band together and create mods for free (as the license does not permit resale).
Shine the 'dim light at the end of a very long tunnel' that is the Steam distribution system - effectively, promising an outlet for said games.
Hint at a rumor of a carrot to motivate these hobbyists to pseudo-professional status - i.e. give the creators of the best mods jobs at Valve...

I don't know where this comes from, but I pretty much completely disagree with it. I wish more companies would take as long as they need developing games; when was the last time Valve released a sub-par game? Never, as far as I know. The Black Mesa team is doing it for nostalgia, not out of frustration, and of course they're distributing it for free - that's universal with mods. Steam is great, yeah, and hiring the most skilled amateur developers seems like a great way to ensure that you're populating your development team with talent.

Additionally, and this is the main reason I wanted to quote this, when was that picture of Gabe taken? He looks like he's lost weight, especially since that picture of him sitting on the floor eating a sandwich or a pudding or something at some game convention.

OneHP:
That does happen to Black Mesa in Half Life, when you've navigated your way through the missile storage past all the untouchable trip mines and you go underground. This coincides (time wise) with the sewer section in Opposing Force.

Good morning blues:

Uncompetative:
Interesting business model Valve appear to have going for themselves:

Take an eternity to release their own sequels, even when they are broken up into 'episodes'.
Frustrate their consumers so that some of them band together and create mods for free (as the license does not permit resale).
Shine the 'dim light at the end of a very long tunnel' that is the Steam distribution system - effectively, promising an outlet for said games.
Hint at a rumor of a carrot to motivate these hobbyists to pseudo-professional status - i.e. give the creators of the best mods jobs at Valve...

I don't know where this comes from, but I pretty much completely disagree with it. I wish more companies would take as long as they need developing games; when was the last time Valve released a sub-par game? Never, as far as I know. The Black Mesa team is doing it for nostalgia, not out of frustration, and of course they're distributing it for free - that's universal with mods. Steam is great, yeah, and hiring the most skilled amateur developers seems like a great way to ensure that you're populating your development team with talent.

Additionally, and this is the main reason I wanted to quote this, when was that picture of Gabe taken? He looks like he's lost weight, especially since that picture of him sitting on the floor eating a sandwich or a pudding or something at some game convention.

OneHP:
That does happen to Black Mesa in Half Life, when you've navigated your way through the missile storage past all the untouchable trip mines and you go underground. This coincides (time wise) with the sewer section in Opposing Force.

Half-Life and Opposing Force spoilers

Good point there. I may have gotten confused, I thought thought that once you got to the bottom of the elevator you hear/feel a very large explosion. There's also the bit where you first enter the lambda complex and the tunnel collapses due to explosions, nuclear or otherwise, I need to do a replay.

OneHP:
Good point there. I may have gotten confused, I thought thought that once you got to the bottom of the elevator you hear/feel a very large explosion. There's also the bit where you first enter the lambda complex and the tunnel collapses due to explosions, nuclear or otherwise, I need to do a replay.

Yeah, it's probably just been a while since you played it. Those explosions in the Lambda Complex are from the airstrikes ordered when the military cuts their losses and bugs out.

Having played it over the past couple of weeks, though, the good news is that it's still an absolutely great game to play through ten years after its release (even if Xen is an absolutely terrible final act).