xkcd

by **Zeroignite** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 4:52 am UTC

I first read about this a couple of years ago, and my response was a sort of "hmm, I really hope this gets released".
Now, after seeing the trailer, my response is "WANT. NOW."

by **Zorlin** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 6:39 pm UTC

So they've officially canned the 2009 release date and it appears the game will be landing in Q1 of 2010. The way they have been talking about it seems to indicate that it's damn close, and they're play-testing it every so often according to the Steam page.

by **Mungo0** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:01 pm UTC

Zorlin wrote:So they've officially canned the 2009 release date and it appears the game will be landing in Q1 of 2010. The way they have been talking about it seems to indicate that it's damn close, and they're play-testing it every so often according to the Steam page.

Aw, what a shame. I was looking forward to playing it, mainly for the fact that it has subtitles. I tried playing HL:S, but gave up after a few minutes after I realised that there was no subs for the game, which is really annoying for me, especially when you consider that I'm deaf.

Well, all we can do really is wait and see, can't we? Nothing we can do about it now.

by **Zorlin** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:57 pm UTC

Mungo0 wrote:Aw, what a shame. I was looking forward to playing it, mainly for the fact that it has subtitles. I tried playing HL:S, but gave up after a few minutes after I realised that there was no subs for the game, which is really annoying for me, especially when you consider that I'm deaf.

Well, all we can do really is wait and see, can't we? Nothing we can do about it now.

If they don't have subtitles, I'll contact the team and see if they'll let me make them and get it rolled into a patch. I'm pretty sure they'll have thought of it, but you bring up a damn good point.

by **Mungo0** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 8:39 pm UTC

Zorlin wrote:If they don't have subtitles, I'll contact the team and see if they'll let me make them and get it rolled into a patch. I'm pretty sure they'll have thought of it, but you bring up a damn good point.

No need to worry, I've already posted on their forums, and the people over there have confirmed that there will be subtitles. Yay.

I still kinda want to play the original game though, but there haven't been any subtitles released for HL:S. I think so anyway.

by **LTK** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 6:40 pm UTC

Zorlin wrote:So they've officially canned the 2009 release date and it appears the game will be landing in Q1 of 2010. The way they have been talking about it seems to indicate that it's damn close, and they're play-testing it every so often according to the Steam page.

If it's official, where did they announce it? The front page still says they're shooting for 2009, but right now that does seem unlikely. Unless they're planning on a shocking last-minute New Year's Eve release, now that would be impressive.

by **thecommabandit** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:37 pm UTC

LTK wrote:The front page still says they're shooting for 2009, but right now that does seem unlikely. Unless they're planning on a shocking last-minute New Year's Eve release, now that would be impressive.

Or a lovely Christmas present!

by **SoapyHobo** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 11:19 pm UTC

LTK wrote:If it's official, where did they announce it?

here

by **LTK** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 11:29 pm UTC

Hmm, I wonder why they're being vague about it on the front page, then? Well, at least they're keeping true to Valve's publishing ways.

by **Zorlin** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:46 pm UTC

LTK wrote:Hmm, I wonder why they're being vague about it on the front page, then? Well, at least they're keeping true to Valve's publishing ways.

Valve time seems to apply to them too.

Dillxn got banned for constantly hinting at the 2009 date being correct, and it's suspected he may know more than others, but a release in 2009 is unlikely.

My theory is that they simply couldn't guarantee they'd make the deadline so they made an announcement to soften the potential blow. Who knows? They might still surprise us at Christmas or New Year's, but again, unlikely.

by **LTK** » Thu Dec 24, 2009 5:02 pm UTC

Nah, after I posted that they redacted the 'scheduled for 2009' part. They've just posted a new video showing off the gibs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-7YNZ3pjWQ

by **psion** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 4:09 pm UTC

They've just put up a wiki... http://wiki.blackmesasource.com/index.php/Main_Page
Nonetheless, still no game or release date.

by **Felstaff** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 2:55 pm UTC

Pandercolour wrote:You know this is never going to be released

You know what? FINE. YOU WIN. I'm accepting defeat. This mod is never going to be released. I hope you're happy, user who hasn't been online in over 2 years.

I suddenly remembered about this, and thought I'd check back on the website to see how it's getting on. Turns out; a.) nothing, as the content is still all flash and no substance, and b.) it appears much of the mod is comprised of people acting pissed off on the forums when people say "why isn't this finished yet?"

by **Goldstein** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 4:46 pm UTC

Oh Felstaff. Imagine my disappointment to discover that you were posting to this thread for any other reason. I must admit, I do wonder what it is they're doing.

I have a folder of shortcuts full of stuff that I've labelled 'Long Term', which I nonetheless flip through pretty regularly. If BMS gets released, I'll post here to let people know.

by **iamevn** » Thu Dec 01, 2011 2:36 am UTC

Saw that this thread got bumped recently and was very disappointed when I checked the site.
Looking at the wiki, there are some fairly recent files uploaded, but I have no idea if that indicates much progress

by **mosc** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 8:16 pm UTC

It's not all bad news. I mean, if they do manage to finally release it someday, it will only be a complete ball of garbage and suck. I mean, look at Duke Nukem Forever! Clearly, long development cycles only help to foster quality and don't lead to a complete cash-in of the garbage laying around in various states of "semi-done" slapped together when released.

Lets list all the mods with this kind of scope that aren't done shall we? Anyone remember Tamriel Rebuilt? The mod that was going to add all of Tamriel to Morrowind? They ported their progress over to oblivion supposedly when it was released and I'm sure any day now they'll... what? Skyrim you say? Fuck.

How about that KOTOR II patch. That game already existed and all the content was supposedly just sitting on the disk already! I'm sure that couldn't take more than a few months of... what? Finally got released after like 6 years and it's utter crap? Damn, I couldn't have seen that coming.

by **userxp** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 11:00 am UTC

Felstaff, in 2008, wrote:(only 18 months 'til episode 3...) .

Spoiler:

by **SecondTalon** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:57 pm UTC

userxp wrote:
Felstaff, in 2008, wrote:(only 18 months 'til episode 3...) .

Spoiler:
:(

Nah, see.. it's just as true now as it was when Felstaff originally wrote it. Like those kitschy signs that say things like "I'll mow the yard.... TOMORROW".

Hilarious.

by **SirBryghtside** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 5:00 pm UTC

There's actually a load of stuff going around about it... so from now, it's probably less than 18 months till HL3/Episode 3/it doesn't even matter.

*waits to be quoted in 18 months time*

by **SlyReaper** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 5:23 pm UTC

At least with long development times comes the guarantee that the eventual game will be polished perfection. Just look at Duke Nuk... oh wait.

by **ProZac** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 6:02 pm UTC

Ha! It's funny, because nothing good can ever come from games with long development times!

by **SecondTalon** » Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:33 pm UTC

So, about that game...

by **SlyReaper** » Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:38 pm UTC

I'm still not getting my hopes up. I remember when they released a trailer in November 2010 claiming a 2010 release date.

by **An Enraged Platypus** » Mon Apr 16, 2012 8:19 pm UTC

Relax, they'll have it out in time for Episode 3.

by **Felstaff** » Mon Apr 16, 2012 8:28 pm UTC

I was just checking Gnosis (lead programmer)'s blog today, as it happens. I noticed it's suddenly gone from standard livewordpress.bloggr blog thing to a professional portfolio showcase site. Which I thought could mean that they were close to releasing it. Also this tweet got my hopes up a while ago.

Still, I believe it's never going to be released.

An Enraged Platypus wrote:Relax, they'll have it out in time for Episode 3.

http://store.steamcommunity.com.ua/app/430/

by **Jorpho** » Wed Apr 18, 2012 3:32 am UTC

No wai! They might still beat The Fool and His Money!

by **SirBryghtside** » Sun May 13, 2012 11:27 am UTC

Couple of new interviews up. Turns out that by trying to remake Half-Life, they virtually became Valve.

by **Felstaff** » Sun May 13, 2012 12:00 pm UTC

I was playing the leaked 2009 Alpha Release 5 for the first time last night, and I have to concur - remaking HL1 with the same proportions and layout as the original makes it look hella bland and stupidly over-sized. The corridors are far too wide and unusual looking. It's sort of like an uncanny valley for set design. The closer the textures look to real life, the more unrealistic it looks. I'm glad they're redesigning every square inch to make it more like a new game whilst retaining the atmosphere you felt the first time you played through it (if you were gaming in 1998).

Did a screenshot comparison. But I'm sure it's changed drastically since then. I know they got rid of the designer working on Questionable Ethics, and the replacement has made it unrecognisably different (in a good way).

by **Technical Ben** » Mon May 14, 2012 10:30 pm UTC

That looks like a good idea.

Strange how the likes of STOL (or even the latest movie) completely ignore it though. I think that's the problem with third person games. All the corridors and rooms need to be 3 times as high to make room for the floating camera. :lol:

by **Jorpho** » Tue May 15, 2012 12:11 am UTC

STOL?

by **Technical Ben** » Tue May 15, 2012 9:34 am UTC

Star Trek Online. I think it's normally just STO (a bit of a typo from me.

). Older games can be excused for having square and large corridors. It was usually the limit to the game engine. Games with third person cameras also seem to suffer from this. I'm not sure if Star Trek online has giant offices and corridors because it's got a 3rd person camera or because it's just got a strange art direction. Most of the windows in the game are larger than houses!

I'm not sure if it would matter too much in HL Source. Most of the screen they posted looked good. But I guess they were static and played differently.

by **Felstaff** » Tue May 15, 2012 11:47 am UTC

Most of the screenshots they show are the 'set-piece' areas; large rooms and wide-open spaces. It's the interconnecting corridors between them where the problem is magnified.

I'm glad that with later screenshots they've been posting, corridors are usually rammed with detritus and much more crawlspace-y/claustrophobic-inducing. Or instead of walls there is thick glass, making it look much more lablike. When you think about it, HL1 relied quite heavily on collapsed corridors to give the impression that the Black Mesa complex you were running around was much more sprawling. However, with every corridor being as wide as a 2-tank garage, having such perfectly-placed cave-ins (where an inch in front of the collapse everything remains spotless) would look just ridiculous using better graphics.

by **Technical Ben** » Tue May 15, 2012 12:22 pm UTC

Yep. The fidelity of modern games engines is amazing. I remember when I first started looking at making 3d graphics as a hobby, they were talking about hundreds of polys with thousands being high. Fast forward 10 years later, and I've not looked at the numbers much, just liked making artwork etc. Then I see the number of polygons Tessellation adds and I don't think I know how to pronounce those numbers!

So everything can be modelled now, and the players get use to seeing games filled with content, and not empty rooms. See the change from Portal to Portal 2. Mind you, stylised gameplay can get away with it. It's just if you try to imitate real life, people expect it to do so.

by **SirBryghtside** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 4:14 pm UTC

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 024&type=1

This is starting to look very, very nice. Hope it means they're nearing completion.

by **The Scyphozoa** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 7:35 pm UTC

What? Holy shit, something actually happened?

Guess I better finish the original sometime then...

by **Koa** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 1:56 am UTC

Not really.

by **Jorpho** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:34 am UTC

I'll believe it when it's out.

by **Will** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 1:47 pm UTC

Yeah, we got another "here's a few screenshots" and another noncommittal "we really think that if the stars align and the moon is in the right phase we'll be able to release it in a couple of months!" That's not anything happening, it's just another media blip which doesn't mean anything, except that the project isn't entirely dead.

In other words:

Jorpho wrote:I'll believe it when it's out.

by **lemmings** » Thu Jul 12, 2012 7:06 am UTC

So far I haven't seen any scenes from Xen, that would be the hardest place to construct art assets for.

by **Ubik** » Sun Sep 02, 2012 8:06 am UTC

Saw a post on another forum and thought I should broadcast the information forward. There is a counter on the front page now, with less than two weeks of time left: http://www.blackmesasource.com Notice that there's a soundtrack link below the counter. The soundtrack is downloadable from there. (You can also pay for it if you feel like donating to the composer.) There is also a forum post with relevant information from the project leader.

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