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Black Mesa, the Half-Life fan-made recreation continues progressing towards finally releasing the delayed Xen levels.

The latest update, posted late last month shows off some rather impressive new stuff coming to the game. Using the system they developed for their Dynamic Lights, they've now included Screenspace Fog. It's light on resources and does look rather good:

They've also improved the AI for the "Alien Grunts" to make them much more unpredictable and challenging. They will "leap onto different platforms, find a way to outflank you, get in your face, and unleash a devastating secondary "hornet hurricane" attack"—scary!

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They also improved the Alien Controller NPC, turning them essentially into "a kind of overlord or mini-boss". The Vortigaunt NPC was improved as well, flashlight shadows are back, Soft Particles are now working and a few other bits.

Lastly, they note about they progress specifically on the Xen levels and it sounds like progress is really good. Sounds like quite a bit of work still ahead though but it does sound exciting.

You can find Black Mesa on Steam. For Linux gamers, you will likely want to opt into the public beta.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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7 comments

dorron Jan 1, 2019
It's time they finish and release it...if they want to keep making changes, they can do it afterwards.

It's absurd how long it's taking them to release this game.
To bad Valve doesn't fund it... Black Mesa needs multi language VO like the original game.
kuhpunkt Jan 1, 2019
Quoting: dorronIt's time they finish and release it...if they want to keep making changes, they can do it afterwards.

It's absurd how long it's taking them to release this game.

Entitled much?
Liam Dawe Jan 1, 2019
Quoting: kuhpunkt
Quoting: dorronIt's time they finish and release it...if they want to keep making changes, they can do it afterwards.

It's absurd how long it's taking them to release this game.

Entitled much?
I think it's more down to how a lot of people still don't get that different people in a team do different things. Artists work on better art, while the programmers get the code for the additional levels sorted and so on. It's surprising how many people think developers posting about new stuff here and then, suddenly think they're not doing all they can to get it released.
dorron Jan 2, 2019
Quoting: kuhpunkt
Quoting: dorronIt's time they finish and release it...if they want to keep making changes, they can do it afterwards.

It's absurd how long it's taking them to release this game.

Entitled much?

Having paid for a product that after so many years is unfinished and buggy entitles all buyers to reclaim either a finished product or a refund, yes.
kuhpunkt Jan 2, 2019
Quoting: dorron
Quoting: kuhpunkt
Quoting: dorronIt's time they finish and release it...if they want to keep making changes, they can do it afterwards.

It's absurd how long it's taking them to release this game.

Entitled much?

Having paid for a product that after so many years is unfinished and buggy entitles all buyers to reclaim either a finished product or a refund, yes.

You bought an early access game, knowing that it could take ages to be finished or not even finished at all. Wanting to make changes later... why should they do that? They just want to release a product that's up to some standards. And they aren't a big game studio.
dpanter Jan 3, 2019
I don't mind it taking a long time to finish. Did you guys play Half-life back in the day? Remember how awesome it was? Remember how much the original ending level sucked? This new Zen level is almost a whole entire game in itself by now. ;)


Last edited by dpanter on 3 January 2019 at 11:28 am UTC
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