Black Mesa News

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

Gearbox Software is most commonly associated with the Borderlands series nowadays, but decades ago it was also responsible for developing Half-Life: Blue Shift. This was a 2001 add-on to Valve's original Half-Life, which told the story of that fateful day at the Black Mesa Research Facility from the perspective of Gordon's security guard pal, Barney Calhoun. Now that FPS game is making the jump into Black Mesa, thanks to a group of modders called the HECU Collective.

The HECU Collective means for Black Mesa: Blue Shift to be exactly what you'd expect: an update of Half-Life: Blue Shift featuring all the enhancements and new features found in the modernised Black Mesa. The original Blue Shift, released several years after Half-Life, added an 'HD texture pack' that gave Half-Life a crisper look, and the leap should be all the more noticeable now, 20 years later.

Blue Shift isn't a long game - in fact, it can be finished in a single sitting - and it's the rare game told from the perspective of a low-level mook. You get to see a lot of the stuff going on behind the scenes in Gordon Freeman's story, and eventually even make a trip to Xen.

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50% OFF on Black Mesa at Steam Lunar New Year Sale

Good day, Scientists of Black Mesa!

We have a huge deal that you don’t want to miss! As part of the Steam Lunar New Year Sale, Black Mesa will be available on Steam at 50% OFF!

So, come aboard the Black Mesa Transit System and get your 50% discount by clicking here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa

Be sure to hop on our Discord server and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more updates and news about Black Mesa.

Don’t let this Steam Lunar New Year Sale pass by, get your 50% OFF on Black Mesa right away!

Please Vote for us for "Outstanding Visual Style"

Well, this is... Outstanding news! We’re honored to be nominated for the “Outstanding Visual Style” Steam Award!

We are blown away to even be in the mix with the other fantastic candidates.

Thank you to all those who nominated us. If we could ask for yet another favor, please vote for Black Mesa in the “Outstanding Visual Style” category! Voting starts today, and ends January 3rd at 9AM PST.

As a small indie developer, we are beyond floored with the amount of support we have had on Steam. The Art, Design, and Programming team worked extremely hard to make our game look great, and we are very proud of what we have accomplished. The “Outstanding Visual Style” award would mean a lot to all of us at Crowbar Collective.

Oh, and we are 50% off for the Steam Winter Sale, too!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/

In other news, we are releasing a patch for the sale that further improves controller support, adds new closed captions, and fixes some game crashes!

Patch Notes:

[h2]Crash Fixes[/h2]

Fixed numerous crashes and memory leaks, including a major 30+ megabyte memory leak when loading maps
Fixed memory leak crash on multiplayer dedicated server
Fixed crash while using “Potato” settings
Added additional fixes to prevent soft lock in "Questionable Ethics"

[h2]Additional Controller Support/Options[/h2]

Added additional controller support for menu (reset key binds if needed)
Added auto aim slider to options menu
Most game settings now take effect without reloading the map
Added "Mouse Acceleration" and "Raw Input" to Options menu

[h2]Closed Captions[/h2]
Added closed captions for:

Croatian
Czech
Georgian
Hungarian
Chinese (simplified)
Chinese (traditional)
Swedish
Polish
Danish
Korean
Dutch
Turkish
Romanian

Cleaned various closed captions and UI text files
Fixed Ukrainian end credits

[h2]Bugs/Fixes[/h2]

Fixed classic irons sight bug that stuck
Changed supply create health to break on one crowbar hit
Fixed chapter title cut off for "Forget About Freeman" on ultra wide

Thank you again for thinking of us. Have a great holiday!

Black Mesa Labor of Love Nomination

Black Mesa has been hugely successful throughout the mod years, throughout the porting to Steam, throughout the development of the Xen levels, and throughout our 16 years of development, all thanks to the overwhelming support of our community. We are extremely proud of what we have built, and it bears repeating that we could not have done it without you.

So we have another favor to ask. If you could vote for Black Mesa as the “Labor of Love Award” we would be honored. We really believe this award embodies the blood, sweat, and tears that we have poured into this game year after year after year, and we hope that being nominated, and potentially winning this award will help bring the game to a new audience.

If you agree, please vote for us, and help us spread the word on social media.

Thank you for your consideration. Have a great Steam sale (and Holiday too)!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/

Discord: https://discord.gg/crowbarcollective
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlackMesaDevs/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlackMesaDevs
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackmesagame/

Re-live the experience of Half-Life with Black Mesa: Definitive Edition out now

Black Mesa: Definitive Edition is the final big update to the re-imagined fan-made Half-Life game, and it's looking pretty awesome. Easily the best way to experience the first part of Half-Life.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2020/11/re-live-the-experience-of-half-life-with-black-mesa-definitive-edition-out-now