• Black Mesa's Xen level has been delayed again, but you can see some new screens
    50 replies, posted
[url]http://www.pcgamer.com/black-mesas-xen-level-has-been-delayed-again-but-you-can-see-some-new-screens[/url]
I'd hope it was more than one level.
I believe the devs have said their Xen is going to be about as long as the pre-xen game, or close to it.
I have no problem with that at all, take whatever time is needed, I for one do not want Xen rushed out the door. I'm one of the odd crowd that liked Xen in the original Half-Life. So a December release would be an awesome Christmas present to the fans. Black Mesa is an amazing feat in itself, so the fact that the devs are not hurrying with this portion of the game and are carefully crafting and polishing it makes me very curious and excited for what we're going to get. I like the range of purples & blues in the screens, looks like my Guardians of the Galaxy 2 poster in that regard.
why do you remake a game, only for it to look worse? [t]http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/8672783/e6aca5c89dc8a93a761e04113d2a87498f29ab11.jpg[/t] say it's higher poly all you want, but it's still uglier. at least half-life 1 has an art style.
[QUOTE=Rusty100;52384047]why do you remake a game, only for it to look worse? [t]http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/8672783/e6aca5c89dc8a93a761e04113d2a87498f29ab11.jpg[/t] say it's higher poly all you want, but it's still uglier. at least half-life 1 has an art style.[/QUOTE] And what art style was that? Square? It was a great game, but its art is definitely not something I think about when I look back at it. Atmosphere, sure. Art though? Not so much.
[QUOTE=Rusty100;52384047]why do you remake a game, only for it to look worse? [t]http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/8672783/e6aca5c89dc8a93a761e04113d2a87498f29ab11.jpg[/t] say it's higher poly all you want, but it's still uglier. at least half-life 1 has an art style.[/QUOTE] have you even played the game?
[QUOTE=FlamingBlizza;52384070]have you even played the game?[/QUOTE] I have, it's really ugly. [QUOTE=TreasoN.avi;52384068]And what art style was that? Square? [/QUOTE] One that was consistent, had art directors, was polished, etc. The lighting looks very bad, the textures are very ugly, and the models are wildly inconsistent. Like look at these two things together. [t]http://i.imgur.com/TZv26j5.png[/t] There's no unification and it just makes for an ugly mismatch of a game. The left could even be goldsrc. I get they're not pros but at the end of the day it doesn't look good at all, which was meant to be the purpose of recreating half life.
[QUOTE=Rusty100;52384047]why do you remake a game, only for it to look worse? say it's higher poly all you want, but it's still uglier. at least half-life 1 has an art style.[/QUOTE] That wasn't an art style. That was called professional developers working at the upper limits of what computers could do in the 90's. This is a group effort done initially by volunteer work.
[QUOTE=Rusty100;52384047]why do you remake a game, only for it to look worse? [t]http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/8672783/e6aca5c89dc8a93a761e04113d2a87498f29ab11.jpg[/t] say it's higher poly all you want, but it's still uglier. at least half-life 1 has an art style.[/QUOTE] [thumb]http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/half-life/images/e/e6/Black_Mesa_dam.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100319161033&path-prefix=en[/thumb] :incredible: The only art style Half-Life has is coincidental, or causal since any game has an "art style" even if it has no pattern to it. I don't disagree that your screenshot looks a little uninspired but when I was playing BM I never noticed that its art style was shit like you're describing it, have you played it?
[QUOTE=Rusty100;52384047]why do you remake a game, only for it to look worse? say it's higher poly all you want, but it's still uglier. at least half-life 1 has an art style.[/QUOTE] holy rose tinted nostalgia glasses. the game looks like ass.
[QUOTE=milktree;52384277]holy rose tinted nostalgia glasses. the game looks like ass.[/QUOTE] agree to disagree, there's a beauty in it's simplicity. that said, it also looks great for it's age. black mesa doesn't look good for it's age.
[QUOTE=Rusty100;52384310]agree to disagree, there's a beauty in it's simplicity. that said, it also looks great for it's age. black mesa doesn't look good for it's age.[/QUOTE] It's source engine, you honestly have to compare it to 2004 video games.
[t]http://cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1369/1369335.jpg[/t] [t]http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/rBRU5av2hKKUXmWMNdT3nC.jpg[/t] Half Life is a great game. But it looks like [I]trash [/I]compared to Black Mesa.
Now I wonder which one will get finished first,Freeman's Mind 2 or this.
Hmm. It doesn't look bad by any means, but it doesn't exactly remind me of Xen either. It looks more like the typical seafloor- or underwater cave-inspired sci-fi set you'd expect to find in Star Trek. Wasn't Xen more red and organic-looking? I don't recall there actually being grey rocks in the game. Still, looking forward to it.
[QUOTE=Furioso;52384478][t]http://cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1369/1369335.jpg[/t] [t]http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/rBRU5av2hKKUXmWMNdT3nC.jpg[/t] Half Life is a great game. But it looks like [I]trash [/I]compared to Black Mesa.[/QUOTE] xen in hl1 looks like a genuinely alien world. very little about it is recognisable. wheras the black mesa xen looks like a cave you could find on earth. in fact i've seen real actual caves that look weirder and more alien than that bm xen. it doesn't have the bizarreness of hl1 xen which i feel was the point of it.
IIRC the reason for the new look is because organic environments are extremely difficult in Source. That said, I think they should have kept the color scheme and a few other things. I agree it does look too generic.
[QUOTE=Rusty100;52384644]xen in hl1 looks like a genuinely alien world. very little about it is recognisable. wheras the black mesa xen looks like a cave you could find on earth. in fact i've seen real actual caves that look weirder and more alien than that bm xen. it doesn't have the bizarreness of hl1 xen which i feel was the point of it.[/QUOTE] That is a fair point. I will agree that HL1 Xen has more originality to it, even if it piggybacks a lot off of Giger. But the level geometry and textures still look like trash in comparison. It's just so dated.
Xen looks like garbage in this honestly, it's just a coral reef on land. Skybox looks nice, but the landscape doesn't have a shred of originality to it, should have stuck with the originals more alien look.
[QUOTE=LoLWaT?;52384711]Actually they've stated that was a deliberate choice. The environments turn more organic and alien the farther you get. [editline]21st June 2017[/editline] IF that's true then it makes sense considering those images come from "Xen A". In the HL thread one of the devs said they won't be showing the "HL1 analogues" before release.[/QUOTE] Yeah, I recall them saying that it's supposed to be progressive rather than abrupt; it would be silly to start comparing an entire portion of the remake (bm xen) based on an early screenshot with improper information to the original version in all its completeness
[QUOTE=Furioso;52384478][t]http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/rBRU5av2hKKUXmWMNdT3nC.jpg[/t][/QUOTE] My biggest problem with the new Xen is exactly this picture, it makes it look like all this is a Dear Esther map. They should have used a different color scheme, more green, yellow and brow... anything but marine blue.
[QUOTE=AntonioR;52384939]My biggest problem with the new Xen is exactly this picture, it makes it look like all this is a Dear Esther map. They should have used a different color scheme, more green, yellow and brow... anything but marine blue.[/QUOTE] There will be several colour schemes through out Xen according to the devs. It isn't going to be all one set of colours If you look at the image, the blue is caused by artificial lights put there by the science teams. So I'm guessing once you get away from the explored areas you'll see that less
[QUOTE=LoLWaT?;52384711]Actually they've stated that was a deliberate choice. The environments turn more organic and alien the farther you get. [/QUOTE] This might be pretty subjective, but I honestly don't think that's an argument in its favor. The sudden shift in tone and the contrast against the "normality" of all the previous game areas is part what made the transition into the Xen part of the game stand out. Given how Xen was not particularly mind-blowing gameplay-wise it makes perfect sense to take plenty of liberties with its recreation, I just find it a bit of a shame that they're not replicating that particular aspect. Xen actually terrified me at first back when I played the original game.
[QUOTE=Furioso;52384478][t]http://cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1369/1369335.jpg[/t] [t]http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/rBRU5av2hKKUXmWMNdT3nC.jpg[/t] Half Life is a great game. But it looks like trash compared to Black Mesa.[/QUOTE] For the record, that HL1 Xen screenshot (which is simply one of the first GIS results for "half-life xen") is very clearly using some shonky-looking mods and was probably taken by someone who thinks FakeFactory improved HL2's visuals. So for the sake of an accurate comparison, I launched up HL1 without any shonky mods and captured some Xen sceneography as how it's supposed to look. [t]http://i.imgur.com/vtEHSBl.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/oB7DIl4.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/DywthVf.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/AyjvYXy.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/qbOhIRD.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/RIPirbt.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/3GxdMDQ.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/hccwEW5.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/Dyx3oB2.jpg[/t]
Since you can see the normal human stuff like crates in those Xen screenshots they seem to be from the early part of Xen. The rest will probably look more out of this world because the scientists in the game haven't gotten that far yet. This is my guess.
There are a couple more images in this post [url]https://steamcommunity.com/games/362890/announcements/detail/2767873904708195662[/url]
[QUOTE=Rusty100;52384080]I have, it's really ugly.[/QUOTE] Now, I'm not 100% sure if there are DRM free releases outside of the mod that isn't up to date, but... [t]https://puu.sh/wqi2E/a92ea15184.png[/t]
[QUOTE=Tuskin;52385296]There are a couple more images in this post [url]https://steamcommunity.com/games/362890/announcements/detail/2767873904708195662[/url][/QUOTE] I need that lighting.
[QUOTE=Marphy Black;52385259]For the record, that HL1 Xen screenshot (which is simply one of the first GIS results for "half-life xen") is very clearly using some shonky-looking mods and was probably taken by someone who thinks FakeFactory improved HL2's visuals. So for the sake of an accurate comparison, I launched up HL1 without any shonky mods and captured some Xen sceneography as how it's supposed to look.[/QUOTE] My comments were in response to Rusty's assertion that Black Mesa looks worse than Half Life. I should have clarified that from the get-go. The only thing noticeably different about my image compared to vanilla HL is the model for the hornet gun. The leggy things and the yellow shy-lights are slightly higher poly, but look pretty much the same. What is the big deal? Did that seriously warrant an allusion to Fakefactory? Your screenshots are pretty because HL's Xen has a unique visual style seldom matched in other media. But it doesn't hide the sharp angles, noticeably repeating textures, blurry skyboxes, ugly water, and ugly particle effects. It looks great for 1998. Hell, it looks good for most of the early 2000s. But it looks like shit for 2017. Black Mesa looks decent [I]now[/I], even if its portrayal of Xen has a different kind of soul than HL. That was my point. Again, I'm saying this because Rusty said Black Mesa looks worse than Half Life, and I think you have to be high on nostalgia to say that.
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