if you want to play a 1 to 1 version of half life, the original's still there
Original Xen was trash so if they're making a better version of it, good.
Lemme bring up DIGITAL_SPORT's post so that you can get a better idea of where all that time went into, or where it didn't.
TL;DR: A good chunk of the team following the initial release of the mod felt burnt out and decided to quit, leaving them badly lacking in talent. After Valve asked them if they wanted to go retail in late 2013, it was their "phoenix rising from the ashes moment" and managed to attract some good talent within the community. When people say it took them about ten years to get to this point, it was actually about five.
There are also some obvious technical hurdles, such as Source being a pain in the ass, cramming new graphical features to make it look as good as they envisioned, redesigning the entirety of the levels so they aren't as crappy, etc.
If you never wanted a new spin on Half-Life to begin with, then boy do I have a surprise for you.
I am pretty optimistic about their vision of Xen. I think the longjump module might have a proper use in their version compared to the original.
Only thing that will bother me is the obvious contrast in quality between the surface levels of Earth against the very polished and new Xen.
Who's got the picture of this where the colors were shifted around and it kinda looked like something from the original DOOM games?
TItanfall 3 was announced too I think?
Shortly after the acquisition EA did say a title in the Titanfall franchise was being worked on, but that's all we've heard. We know they're working on the StarWars game for sure though. The are still hiring positions for the TF team, so that can safely be assumed to be progressing as normal. Maybe they'll try and launch it at a non-stupid date this time around.
The final #Blocktober post
https://steamcommunity.com/games/362890/announcements/detail/1707321830272534639
Contains a screenshot from the swamp level, which is almost entirely new
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/8672783/df0b1d66c11ef9325960d14f5d93f119a5ccc1df.jpg
It's not bad but I think it needs more dodgy looking plants, some of those look a bit Earth like.
True that. One of Xen's redeeming factors was completely alien design, something creators of sci-fi movies and games afraid to do. Or lack the budget, I guess.
But personally I can let it slide. As long as they'll make Xen fun to play through, I won't care how Earth like the design will be.
Yeah that's my only reservation too, the new environments are beautiful but they're still Earth-inspired. Xen was weird because it didn't look like anything familiar, it was this weird void with floating chunks of rock and, and the walls were covered in this weird yellow-ish webbing that I could only imagine is some alien plant or moss, even the factory had a cleaner grey webbing on the walls.
One thing that would be a nice touch for Black Mesa- an option to toggle classic Half-Life music tracks on,off,mixed
Im hyped for xen from all these blog posts, Im just a little worried it doesnt quite look as alien and organic.
I guess blurry goldsrc textures make for extremely alien atmosphere, where you cant make out what youre looking at and the mind fills in the blanks.
Some color chaning might also help out. Right now the rock colors they're using are too earth like. use some more unusual rock colors or textures,a nd that would help the feeling. Just chaning the rock colors would make it significantly more alien looking.
That's actually a really good observation, and I agree. Hopefully people take that into consideration after Xen is released and don't swarm message boards saying how horrible it looks or much it doesn't look like the original. I think it looks amazing, and while they're not staying 100% true to the original, I'm fine with that. This is their game.
I'm imagining that they are still holding many cards close.
Regardless of how it looks I have no doubt it'll be fun as hell to play
10 days until Half-Life's 20th anniversary bois. Here's hoping that CC surprises us.
i mean theyre probably not gonna release it but its fun to dream about it right
Hoping for some stuff being fixed with Xen release. These first. Seriously, stacked barrels to check how scientist collides into them
https://youtu.be/1hF1v1cOOHU
2 days until Half-Life's 20th anniversary. CC intends to announce some "big things" on that day to celebrate.
Remember, it's best to not expect Xen. As for those that do...
https://i.imgur.com/pf9TADj.png
I don't see how it's possible to be "disappointed" toward BM team.
you paid for an excellent product and they don't owe you shit. They aren't a big name market leader nor do they have to prove themselves with new titles.
Xen is just a bonus. You sit down and wait.
I wasn't aware the ending counted as a bonus.
You already know how it ends though.
As far as people are concerned, the game is outstanding from the start up to the lambda teleporter. It's good enough.
If it was a bonus, the game wouldn't be Early Access still.
that's meaningless. The real "beta" was the sourcemod version.
I guess movie companies don't need to include the endings to remakes anymore. That'll save them a bunch of money.
It's not meaningless, the dev team doesn't consider the game complete without Xen.
I mean we paid for the product based on their own claims that Xen would be released down the line. We are owed Xen. We paid for it. You're making a weird argument because they ARE making Xen. In a hypothetical scenario in which we didn't get Xen, we would be entirely justified in being angry, but all signs point to Xen being pretty far along so like, it's not even a scenario worth worrying about right now anyway.
Calm down there, dude. The image was in regards to people who expect a Xen update despite the many delays that CC have went through in the past. Don't think of it as an insult to CC as much as it is just a warning for people that expect Xen.
And considering that Black Mesa is a paid product that costs $20, they do kind of owe us a Xen update. I'm willing to be patient for CC's sake, but it's not exactly a free mod anymore.
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