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I loved the first Half-Life, so the chance to revisit it in Black Mesa [Steam, Official Site] was too enticing to pass up, sadly though you may want to hold off for now.

Note: Black Mesa isn’t yet finished and it’s in Early Access, as it’s missing the final chapter “Xen” of the Half-Life experience. People are quite torn on that part of the game as it is, so you may still enjoy it without it.

When you first dive in, you will be struck by how well they have managed to capture the feel of the original Half-Life, a lot of it is the same, but it looks so much better.

With better textures and better lighting, it is a much better looking game that could get people interested in Half-Life that may be put off by the ageing original Valve-built version. Sadly, for us, that’s where the fun stops right now.

It is a very unstable! It has crashed multiple times for me making actually playing and testing it a real pain. It crashes every single time in the same spot, which is at the very start when you’re going to enter the test chamber.

I’ve looked over the Steam forum for it, and it appears quite a number of people are also having issues with the Linux version. Some people have managed to get past that section, but there’s other crashes, texture issues and lighting issues.

If you want to skip that section, you can enable the developer console in the options, and then press "`" to bring up the console and enter in this command:
sv_unlockedchapters 5
That will essentially skip that entire part, but where's the fun in that?

If you’re wanting to pick it up, I would advise waiting a while until the Linux version is not only more stable, but to also wait for the game's main story to be complete for the full experience.

I will keep an eye on it, and let you know when the issues are solved. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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31 comments
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Xpander Nov 9, 2016
cap your framerate to 120 and it wont crash.. ofc you need to start a new game, old save doesnt work even if you cap framerate after that.

weird, but i havent had any crashes after this
[email protected] Nov 9, 2016
Works fine for me. Arch.
dubigrasu Nov 9, 2016
Finished the game few days ago with a single crash (somewhere mid-game), guess I was lucky :)
Xicronic Nov 9, 2016
It initially didn't launch for me, but after deleting libstdc++.so.6 from bin it runs like a dream. I've put 3 hours into it so far and only got 1 crash that I couldn't reproduce.
i7-2600, RX 480, padoka ppa


Last edited by Xicronic on 9 November 2016 at 4:18 pm UTC
micha Nov 9, 2016
Worked super well for me at the time they released it for Linux. Did only play it back then and only for ~2 hours though..
edo Nov 9, 2016
works great on manjaro, some little shasow issues but only that


Last edited by edo on 9 November 2016 at 4:49 pm UTC
chäeMil Nov 9, 2016
For me it works just fine: Ubuntu 16.10, nVidia GTX 970 (latest beta drivers) at 3440x1440 resolution everything maxed out.
scaine Nov 9, 2016
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I've been lucky too - nearly 4 hours in, just at the canal crossing at the bottom of the huge elevator, but I've not had a single crash/issue. Very stable so far. Specs follow for reference:

robvv Nov 9, 2016
Have completed it on my OpenSUSE system, however I did have a repeated crash very early on in the game. Managed to spam-save my way through it!
Nasra Nov 9, 2016
No problem for me.
Xubuntu 16.04
GTX 970
FX 8350
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