Fan-made Black Mesa trailer reinvents original Half-Life

by Andrew Yoon { Dec 1st 2008 at 12:45AM }

It's been over ten years since Valve's Half-Life was released on PC, changing FPS gaming forever. In 2009, the fan-made Black Mesa will do more than just revisit the classic Valve game – from the looks of this newly released trailer, Black Mesa will reimagine the game with modern tech and modern production values. (Update: The project was originally called Black Mesa Source, but Valve requested a name change to not as confuse it with an official Valve project.)

The spirit of Black Mesa is true to the original; however, we're stunned by the ambitious goals for this project. The new character models and textures used in this Source Engine-powered mod urge us to give them money. The addition of multiplayer modes, such as co-op, make us think Valve will downright buy the team (if they haven't already!).

Black Mesa won't require Half-Life: Source to play. So long as you have any Source Engine game on your PC, you'll be able to download and play this amazing total conversion when it comes out.

[Thanks, Andrew H.!]

Gallery: Black Mesa Source

Tags: black-mesa, black-mesa-source, half-life, half-life-2, valve

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

J.Goodwin @ Dec 1st 2008 12:49AM

Also like the original Half Life, it's taking forever.

Comet @ Dec 1st 2008 1:31AM

Stay true to the roots.

J.Goodwin @ Dec 1st 2008 9:19AM

Well, to be fair, these guys have valid excuses for not being done yet. Like jobs and school. Valve on the other hand...

Demaar @ Dec 1st 2008 1:11PM

Yeah, definitely can't blame part-time amateurs for taking a while.

Been looking forward to this for ages though. Basically been holding off replaying HL1 since forever.

sjs2626 @ Dec 1st 2008 12:50AM

Who wants to bet that the fans who are making this get hired by Valve?

UltimateQ @ Dec 1st 2008 1:24AM

That would be very cool. It looks entertaining, well built and the trailer was impressive.

sjs2626 @ Dec 1st 2008 4:17PM

It is cool. That trailer looked better than a lot of other AAA games!

AtomicPlayboy @ Dec 1st 2008 7:50PM

More like: who wants to bet that Valve waits until these poor buggers get something running and then buys them out? It's a hell of a lot cheaper to let some amateurs build something and then just pay a fixed price to bring it in-house in the 11th hour than to build it yourself with your paid resources. I'd bet that Valve learned something from CS, Portal, L4D and are employing a streamlined version of that dev/pub model here.

Negativecool @ Dec 1st 2008 12:52AM

Holy shit!

Kudos to the passionate and hard working PC gamer that brings their imagination to fruition.

Marty @ Dec 1st 2008 11:21AM

Completely agree... now where can I download this at?

Negativecool @ Dec 1st 2008 12:55AM

Eh?

For it question the rephrase you must make sense to.

Negativecool @ Dec 1st 2008 12:59AM

Agh! Curse you reply button!

This was supposed to be a smartass reply to sjs2626.

My apologies to everyone for my stupidity.

SecretAgentHam @ Dec 1st 2008 12:56AM

that looked freaking amazing. HOLY crap i'm excited for user generated content.

Tyrus @ Dec 1st 2008 12:57AM

Been excited for this one since it was announced shortly after the release of HL2. It looked great then and it looks better now. The quality of the trailer really pumps my faith that they'll be able to get me as involved in the game world as I've come to expect in the years since HL1.

The Fatass of Kickassness @ Dec 1st 2008 12:58AM

Hot damn that looks amazing. That looks better than games I plan on paying for.

$50 says Valve picks these guys up some time during development.

The Fatass of Kickassness @ Dec 1st 2008 1:00AM

Also, that is some hardcore motion blur. I don't think I've ever seen a Valve game with that much blur... and that's saying something. I'm not complaining, but I'm willing to bet more than a few people won't be able to play this due to motion sickness.

Tyrus @ Dec 1st 2008 1:13AM

On the motion blur:

Most of the Valve game trailers have a lot of motion blur in them, actually. Just check out some of the TF2 gameplay trailers. I bet web video-izing the gameplay footage exaggerates the effect a bit, too.

I turn off motion blur in most games I play because it slows things down for me and makes things slightly less playable, even if my fps doesn't dip.

Einhanderkiller @ Dec 1st 2008 1:22AM

Quote from Black Mesa Lead Animator.
"- The trailer was filmed at 1/6th speed and sped up to achieve a higher quality motion blur. But since we're using the Orange Box we do have motion blur in the mod..."

The Fatass of Kickassness @ Dec 1st 2008 1:35AM

"Most of the Valve game trailers have a lot of motion blur in them, actually. Just check out some of the TF2 gameplay trailers. I bet web video-izing the gameplay footage exaggerates the effect a bit, too."

You missed where I said '-and that's saying something'. I am aware that Valve games are chock full of motion blur,

Haggard @ Dec 1st 2008 2:49AM

Just take note from Killzone 2 - More motion blur = best graphics ever!

It's like the bloom of two years ago.

LaughingTarget @ Dec 1st 2008 9:54AM

Motion blur is the retro futurism of the graphics world. 3dfx was making a big deal about it in 1999.

Shadsy @ Dec 1st 2008 12:58AM

This looks better than Half-Life 2.

Dan CiTi @ Dec 1st 2008 4:33PM

It'll be a better game when it comes out too. If they do this right(which seems like the case).

Half-Life 1 is better in a lot of ways than HL2 IMO. Hopefully they put in the gravity gun as an unlockable weapon.

Doug @ Dec 1st 2008 7:48PM

@ Dan CiTi
Maybe an extra special PORTAL GUN?

chispito @ Dec 1st 2008 1:08AM

Looks all right. Co-op will reel me in if anything does. Synergy just doesn't cut it sometimes.

Andre @ Dec 1st 2008 1:11AM

Why is the cockroach from Wall-e at the end of the video?

Ihavepants @ Dec 1st 2008 4:57AM

Because it's one of the cockroaches from Half-Life...

(Unless you're 100% joking).

Einhanderkiller @ Dec 1st 2008 1:18AM

The name of the mod changed to simply Black Mesa, btw. No more Source. People were thinking that the mod was an official Valve product so Valve made them take Source off the end.

Strategy_Panda (the artist formally known as Titanium_Orchid) @ Dec 1st 2008 1:25AM

I'd hit it... two times!

giantenemycrab @ Dec 1st 2008 1:39AM

That was.. Startlingly amazing. This guy should give himself a pat on the back.

Zeus.:God @ Dec 1st 2008 1:51AM

lol...

So many people talking about THE guy, or THE PC gamer... It's not just one guy- it's a team...

CB @ Dec 1st 2008 1:58AM

I'm speechless...

#28 @ Dec 1st 2008 2:01AM

I want to hug everyone involved.

LxgShaka @ Dec 1st 2008 8:13AM

You can't say that while having a Chuck Norris avatar.. you.. lol

Arturo @ Dec 1st 2008 2:03AM

Looks awesome. I look forward to it. :)

David @ Dec 1st 2008 2:25AM

I'd actually pay real money for this. But since it's free, I'd download it and donate.

Haggard @ Dec 1st 2008 9:32AM

Man, that was really good lookin'. A lot of work must have gone into it.

CH3BURASHKA @ Dec 1st 2008 3:10AM

Because I've been shut out of the gaming world for most of my life, I picked up the HalfLife 98 cents promo on Steam. I'm just playing through everything on that vid.

To sum up my thoughts: Fuck yeah.

LxgShaka @ Dec 1st 2008 8:16AM

I did play and finish Half Life 1 back then (and the expansions) but I also bought the .98$ on Steam and am currently (SLOWLY) playing through the story mode..

Though I gotta say... Half-Life: Deathmatch FTW!

Mort85 @ Dec 1st 2008 3:13AM

holy fuckshit

Graham Wellington (formerly tyrone washington, or marsha goldberg) @ Dec 1st 2008 3:13AM

one of my top 5 favorite games and its getting awesomer x100? oh hell yes

RyFar206 @ Dec 1st 2008 3:17AM

I can't believe they are giving this away for free. It is taking longer than many games coming out today to make, and looks like so much effort is going into it. I just hope this comes out before Duke Nukem Forever.