Black Mesa Source?

[Erkki]

There's also a Source conversion of Opposing Force in the works: http://www.moddb.com/mods/operation-black-mesa

[DanJW]

I really enjoyed Opposing Force, even if the "Race X" stuff seems to be non-cannon.

[miffy495]

Oh man, Opposing Force was fantastic. I loved that game. Can't wait to see what these guys come up with.

[Wrestlevania]

I agree; Opposing Force was a belter of an expansion and I'd love to play a revitalised version of it.

[Ben X]

Release date!

www.blackmesasource.com

From the forums:

On September 14th you will see the first release of Black Mesa! This will include our re-envisioning of Half-Life all the way up to Lambda Core. We believe this is a great way to provide a complete-feeling 8-10 hour experience with a solid ending, make our fans happy and help us make the best overall game possible.

We are still working hard on Xen and BMDM, but instead of making you wait we are giving you Black Mesa as soon as it's ready!

...

Development on xen is already underway and we hope to have it finished up in a reasonable timeframe. Xen is going to basically be a complete game in its own right, it's not going to be just an epilogue to the game; more of a whole new chapter. It'll be pretty well expanded.

[toblix]

I was really looking forward to this until I heard the voice acting, and now I'm not that excited. From what I've seen it seems like they've made some nice levels, and done a good job on the visuals. The voices, though, just make it seem they didn't «get» Half-Life at all, at least not in anything resembling my own experiences.

[Jake]

I was really looking forward to this until I heard the voice acting, and now I'm not that excited. From what I've seen it seems like they've made some nice levels, and done a good job on the visuals. The voices, though, just make it seem they didn't «get» Half-Life at all, at least not in anything resembling my own experiences.

Yeah the VO was so off putting it made me almost not want to play it at all.

[Ben X]

All the VO I've heard was surprisingly close to the original, although I haven't watched the leaked gameplay footage with sound which seems to be the main source of complaints - apparently the soldier voices are very Duke Nukem? Well, the original VO was all pretty cheesy too, but apparently the devs have said they're going to change a few of the voices and add radio effects on top. It is a shame they can't just use the original sound files and polish them up, but I suppose they wanted to expand on them and couldn't have it be a mix of old and new.

[Thrik]

I was pretty put off by a particular exchange between the soldiers in the leaked gameplay video, but having since compared it to the original it turns out it was always just as bad. I assumed they'd rewritten it or something but that exact conversation is in HL1, cheesy writing and all. The only real difference is a lack of radio static, which I guess they're adding.

Everything else looks absolutely awesome though so I'm optimistic I'll enjoy it!

[TheLastBaron]

I've always been sort of un sure about how I feel about Black Mesa, in that I regularly re-play HL1, it's probably my favorite single player PC game ever, so I don't really care about how pretty it looks. If it's good I'll play Black Mesa, but probably only once and then if I re-play HL1 again I'll just play HL1.

[Frenetic Pony]

I've always been sort of un sure about how I feel about Black Mesa, in that I regularly re-play HL1, it's probably my favorite single player PC game ever, so I don't really care about how pretty it looks. If it's good I'll play Black Mesa, but probably only once and then if I re-play HL1 again I'll just play HL1.

I love how anything looks, because well, i like looking at things Regardless, and in as far as I know, it's updated in more ways than just the graphics (which is why it's taken so long). Apparently the AI, design, audio, story stuff, and even puzzles have attempted to be remade where appropriate. And as someone who also loves HL1 I can see the trepidation there, I can also say that one of the stated reasons for the mod taking so long as that they wanted to try and do as good a job as Valve would have remaking all of this. One can only hope they came even close to achieving such

[Jake]

I was pretty put off by a particular exchange between the soldiers in the leaked gameplay video, but having since compared it to the original it turns out it was always just as bad. I assumed they'd rewritten it or something but that exact conversation is in HL1, cheesy writing and all. The only real difference is a lack of radio static, which I guess they're adding.

Everything else looks absolutely awesome though so I'm optimistic I'll enjoy it!

It sounds like deliberate bad anime dub voice acting which is what I didn't like. I know the common denominator is "bad acting," but there's a specific cadence and style to the voice acting in western dubs of eastern content, and it was wholly baffling to hear it in Black Mesa Source.

[Lork]

Does anybody have a video of that scene in the original Half-Life? In my vague memories of the original, the soldiers still went through the same cheesy dialogue but the voice actors at least tried to take it seriously. It could just be the radio filter or nostalgia covering it up, though.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I'm sure somebody will make a mod that restores all the original voices and sound effects, so you can just install that if you can't stand the new ones.

[toblix]

It would be pretty embarrassing for me if someone puts that original sequence up on Youtube and it turns out it was hammy, schlocky schlock all along, but based on my memory of the game, and the sequel as well, there was never anything funny about the enemy or what they did. The games had a lot of humour, to be sure, but it was always friendly characters that did the joking around and being funny. The enemy wasn't portrayed as dumb, clumsy or incompetent, like, say NOLF or Max Payne,

[Thrik]

This exact same discussion came up on another forum I frequent so I do happen to have the original exchange lying around:

It's pretty hard for me to choose which I prefer because, let's face it, both sound pretty cheesy.

I think the reality is this was a very unremarkable moment in the game where it was kind of weak in the original too, but because it was such a throwaway moment it's not something anyone remembers. In BM:S, on the other hand, it's the first (leaked) media seen in years so everyone is taking every millisecond of it as a guide of what to expect.

At risk of sounding biased, I'm friends with a number of people working (or who have worked) on BM:S and they're far bigger Half-Life nuts than I or anyone else around is likely to be. They've gone to outrageous lengths to preserve the original feel and this voice thing — which as far as I'm aware they've already tried to address by bringing back the original radio static, etc — probably isn't an omen of the whole game being a waste of time.

[Thrik]

Give it a thumbs up on Steam Greenlight, lads:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=94128543&ExtraParams%5B0%5D=&method=filedetails&controller=sharedfiles&insideModal=0&requirelogin=1

[TheLastBaron]

What do I vote for it? I wouldn't pay for it if it were on Steam, isn't it a free mod? I don't really get Greenlight, is this the kind of thing that's supposed to be on it?

[Thrik]

It's a standalone game based on the Source Engine, so you don't need any existing Source games to run it, just the (free) SDK. It'll be free, but it won't actually be on Steam if it isn't approved via Greenlight — such is the beauty of Valve's new system.

[Jake]

This exact same discussion came up on another forum I frequent so I do happen to have the original exchange lying around:

It's pretty hard for me to choose which I prefer because, let's face it, both sound pretty cheesy.

I think the reality is this was a very unremarkable moment in the game where it was kind of weak in the original too, but because it was such a throwaway moment it's not something anyone remembers. In BM:S, on the other hand, it's the first (leaked) media seen in years so everyone is taking every millisecond of it as a guide of what to expect.

At risk of sounding biased, I'm friends with a number of people working (or who have worked) on BM:S and they're far bigger Half-Life nuts than I or anyone else around is likely to be. They've gone to outrageous lengths to preserve the original feel and this voice thing — which as far as I'm aware they've already tried to address by bringing back the original radio static, etc — probably isn't an omen of the whole game being a waste of time.

Hands down the original performance. It's cheesy but it fits. The new stuff just sounds like garbage. It sounds like it's stylized to be bad, which goes against my perceived point of the mod. Shouldn't the fidelity of the voice work be raised along with the graphics? They got so excited about how their voice work would be stellar early in production. It sounds like they didn't hit the mark and are now being defensive apologists about it. The visuals look great, the music and sound effects sound great, why the heck would the voices be justifiable in any way as the exception, or as an homage to shitty '90s voice work? (That also falls apart simply because their voices in the new game sound like anime voices, which have nothing to do with anything in the Half Life aesthetic.)

[Gormongous]

(That also falls apart simply because their voices in the new game sound like anime voices, which have nothing to do with anything in the Half Life aesthetic.)

I think it's just a symptom of bad direction in general. The clips have way too much padding and silence, the VAs seem to be unaware of what lines precede and follow, and the tone jumps all over the place. It seems to be a classic case of putting your friend alone in a room with no training or direction and just using the "liveliest" takes to stitch together a voice track. It's cheap as hell and easy to excuse, which is why the American anime licensing industry made do with it long enough for "anime voices" to become a thing, but like FUNimation and friends finally did, it's worth noting how much quality voice acting elevates the fidelity and immersion of a media experience, in a way visual spectacle never could.

Case in point:

[/url]

[Thrik]

I imagine that getting decent voice acting is more difficult than everything else when you have no budget. I'm no fan of the voices and was one of the first to start grumbling about it when the video leaked, but I can't say I think the original exchange is very good either — if it were me I'd probably have just axed the whole thing as it sounds out of place in comparison to essentially everything else in HL1. In fact, the voices used in the original exchange don't really match the voices the marines use the rest of the time.

Fortunately the remainder of the marine voice acting is limited to grunts and outbursts, so hopefully it won't be something that becomes offputting. As for the scientists and Barney (Is there anyone else who actually talks in HL1?), I just hope they got those right. It's particularly important in those cases as, of course, they reappeared in HL2.

It's also refreshing to know that we'll be able to put the original voices and/or sound effects back in if we really want to. Should they drop the ball on the front I'm sure someone will put together a mod that sorts it out — just a shame all the original audio files are in the worst compression imaginable.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Christ, it's Half Life, you'd think they could find SOMEONE who could say a few lines properly. There's a million out of work actors who would love to get some work -- even if it's for free -- and there's a ton of websites for getting in touch with them, too. There's really no excuse for poor voice acting. A good director can get a good performance out of just about anybody, so it's likely that whoever was in charge of the VO just doesn't have the ear for it.

[brkl]

I dunno if there are tons of capable voice directors looking to work for nothing.

[Thrik]

Considering how even many of the games I buy on a store shelf often have voice acting no better if not worse than BM:S's effort, I'm not entirely sure that's true. There're plenty of people out there who do the kind of thing in the BM:S video, though.

I'd like to hear how the other marines sound though, anyone seen any footage of that yet? This particular exchange was written badly in the first place as the dialogue is shit, so I'll be interested to see how they've coped with the relatively easy other stuff the marines have to say.

Also I keep calling them marines and I have no idea if that's even accurate. Just another reason to play HL1 for the first time in over a decade!

[Korax]

Hey, this released yesterday!

I'm not finding the voice acting as grating as some people here, though it is definitely a little weird. I think the team did a really great job of taking the general shape and feel of the Black Mesa areas and making them a bit more realistic and detailed. Almost any area is immediately recognizable as a thing from Half-Life, while at the same time being different enough to not just feel like I'm running through HL again for the millionth time.

One of my favorite things is how the blood splatter decals also hit the first-person weapon models, so if you're using the crowbar or a gun at close enough range, it ends up covered in slime (or bullsquid spit, in the case of this screenshot):