Black Mesa News

• Fixed the HEV chargers giving you the wrong charge amount.
• Fixed female scientists not healing you.
  
• Fixed HEV scientist bodies showing revolver icon on item pickup.
  
• Added enginetools.txt to the bin folder (probably needs to be updated).
  

• Fixed bug with video quality presets.
• Added separate label for gamepad options in menu (scroll down in menu).
  
• Added enable/disable for vibration on controllers.
  
• Added an option to invert the Y axis on controllers.
  
• Added sensitivity sliders for X and Y axis on controllers.
  

• Fixed We Got Hostiles subtitle crash.
  
• Updated/fixed translation files based on community feedback.
  
• Fixed Arabic not being oriented correctly.
  
• Fixed text size during HEV bootup sequence on various resolutions.
  

• Fixing smoke clipping through distant blue haze on Surface Tension cliffside.
  
• Slowed down bunker explosion animation on Surface Tension Cliffside to better portray sense of scale.
  
• Fixed scientist falling speed in Office complex.
  
• Fixed a small visual issue with the Tau’s sprint animation.
  
• Fixed missing wall stripe near control room in Unforeseen Consequences.
  
• Fixed weapons being removed if a satchel or snarks are thrown into portal 9 in Lambda Core.
  
• Adjusted emergency shutters in Lambda Core to prevent players from backtracking where they should not.
  
• Looking into fixing rare softlocks in On A Rail (for the tram elevator by the rocket).
  
• Fixed I/O in Nihilanth chamber that would cause the player to have noclip in endgame.
  
• Update to dm_crossfire skybox art.
  

• Attempted to fix crash in Interloper A (offset spawn in times).
• Possible fix for huge FPS drop during the rocket raise in On A Rail.
  
• Fix for “No Free Edicts” issue in Interloper (timer on Int barrels).
  
• HEV suit pickup still crashing the game in some languages.
  
• Implemented a possible fix for the new UI not working on Linux.
  
• Fixed hangs on Linux when pressing the Escape button.
  
• Possible fix for the workshop on Linux.
  

• Some RPG crates might not give you full RPG ammo.
  
• Some MP maps may be missing minor props.
  
• Chapter titles may be formatted wrong on higher resolutions (fixed on dev side).
  

Black Mesa is a fantastic and very long in the making remake of the first Half-Life, with the only problem with it being that it's missing Gearbox's excellent expansions. The good news is that modding team the HECU Collective are working on bringing Blue Shift to Black Mesa - and it's just released Chapter 2.

Black Mesa: Blue Shift began development following the cancellation of a similar mod in 2015, and just received its first release in March this year - consisting of Blue Shift's first chapter, which is basically just its tram-style intro. Chapter 2: Insecurity doesn't add any combat but allows players to explore Black Mesa and meet several members of the cast, including appearances by the G-Man and Gordon Freeman himself.

Anyone interested can download the mod direct from ModDB or through Steam Workshop. It's free, of course, although you'll need a copy of Black Mesa first. Included in the update along with Chapter 2 is a load of fixes and improvements to Chapter 1: Living Quarters Outbound, including extending the intro's ending by "a few minutes".

Read the rest of the story...

RELATED LINKS:

Black Mesa is better than Half-Life 2, here's why

The new Half-Life: Blue Shift mod for Black Mesa now has a playable intro

A new Half-Life: Blue Shift mod is in the works for Black Mesa

It was 2004. Nvidia's 6800 GPU was the new kid on the block, mechanical drives wept at Doom 3's crushing 2.2GB storage requirements, and the Pentium 4 was still the go-to CPU.

Half-Life 2 had finally lurched from the depths of development hell, overcoming source code leaks and a series of costly delays. After struggling to download patches for the game through some weird program called Steam (it'll never catch on), the community would finally see what Valve had been working on for the past five years.

Half-Life 2 was a revolution in gaming, transporting players to a world that barely seemed possible. We trekked across Antlion-infested highways, battled Hunter Choppers on the narrow walkways of a rickety bridge, and toppled a tyrannical government with the aid of a giant canine robot. The adventure was not just complemented by visual splendour but also some groundbreaking simulated physics. Jetsam and flotsam bobbed up and down in canals, explosive barrels peppered enemies with shrapnel, and Combine soldiers tumbled realistically down stairwells and over railings. The graphics were shiny, the guns were new, and the story was thrilling. And yet, I prefer Black Mesa to Half-Life 2.

Read the rest of the story...

RELATED LINKS:

The new Half-Life: Blue Shift mod for Black Mesa now has a playable intro

A new Half-Life: Blue Shift mod is in the works for Black Mesa

Black Mesa's final big patch is launching as a "free Definitive Edition update"