Black Mesa News

Black Mesa's Half-Life: Blue Shift mod hits Chapter 2

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".

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2021 Summer Sale - New Developer Update Inbound!

Hello again, fellow scientists!

What’s New?

We’ve been working on a number of small fixes to polish the game and prevent rare bugs. Here is a list of what we have been working on:

[h3]Fixed on the Developer Build:[/h3]
Possible fix for huge FPS drop during the rocket raise in On A Rail
Fixed missing wall stripe near control room in Unforeseen Consequences
Fixed scientist falling speed in Office complex
Fixed a small visual issue with the Tau’s sprint animation
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
Fixed the HEV chargers giving you the wrong charge amount
Fixed female scientists not healing you
Fixed text size during HEV bootup sequence on various resolutions
Added separate label for gamepad options in menu
Added an option to invert the Y axis on controllers
Added sensitivity sliders for X and Y axis on controllers
Added enable/disable for vibration on controllers
Fixed bug with video options when setting presets for quality
Implemented a possible fix for the new UI not working on Linux
Fixed hangs on Linux when pressing Escape button
Updated/fixed translation files based on community feedback

[h3]Issues to Fix/Look Into:[/h3]
Try and replicated the crash in Interloper A
Looking into fixing the “No Free Edicts” issue in Interloper
Looking into fixing rare softlocks in On A Rail (for the tram elevator by the rocket)
Fixing smoke clipping through distant blue haze on Surface Tension cliffside
Fixing some values where RPG crates don’t instantly refill the player’s ammo
Fix missing props in multiplayer maps
Look into fixing the workshop on Linux

The Next Patch Will Break Saves

The Next Patch Will Break Saves. Players caught mid campaign can start a new game at the chapter they left off on, or load a map using the console. Sorry for any future inconvenience! We will warn everyone on our socials before the patch is released!

Steam Summer Sale

Till July 8th at 1pm EST
You can grab Black Mesa at 60% off in the Steam Summer Sale! Please share this memo and help us reach as many scientists as we can.

Community Multiplayer Playdates

Sunday, June 27th at 12 PM EST
The team will be playing multiplayer Sunday, June 27th at 12PM EST. Come join us for some fun.

Saturday, July 3rd at 2 PM EST
We are also planning a playdate for Saturday, July 3rd at 2PM EST (might change due to the U.S. holiday)

Soon™

We have some other Streams and events we would like to do soon, and we’ll be sending out the new patch in the next few months. Other than that, we may be quiet for a while until we can talk about what is next for Crowbar Collective.

Until then, come hang out on our Discord and check out our Twitch to stay in touch!

Discord: https://discord.gg/crowbarcollective
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlackMesaDevs/
Twitter: @BlackMesaDevs
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackmesagame/
https://www.twitch.tv/crowbar_collective

Thanks! And have a great Summer!

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

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.

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Xen Museum Livestream with Composer Joel Nielsen

Big day today, Freeman.

It's been quite a journey for the science team but today is the 4th and final part of our Xen Museum Mod stream!

To thank all those who have been watching, Black Mesa’s composer, Joel Nielsen, will be joining us to talk about the Xen soundtrack, sound design, and much more.

So join us in 2 hours' time at 1:00 PM CST, on our Twitch channel, for our final playthrough.

Don’t forget to join us on Discord and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the latest Black Mesa updates!

Till next time,

The Crowbar Collective team

50% off Black Mesa Sale Final Day!

Ah, there you are Freeman,

You have (1) new message!
You are receiving this notification because of your mandatory subscription to Black Mesa’s alerts.

We would like to remind everyone that today, May 1st, is the final full day to acquire an official copy of Black Mesa at a mitigated cost; 50% off. Kindly take note, this anomaly will end officially on May 2nd.

With our recent Xen Museum Update, our Mod Madness celebration and much more, now is the perfect time to step into the Black Mesa science labs!

Don’t forget to share your progress with us on the following sites:
Discord: https://discord.gg/crowbarcollective
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlackMesaDevs/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlackMesaDevs
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackmesagame/

Till next time!