Half-Life

[Steo]

I didn't know that's what Black Mesa was, though I have seen you mention this a lot a while back.

[PluMGMK]

Since (as I mentioned here) I've started replaying the original Half-Life, I thought it might be a good time to bump this thread…

About a year ago I came across some interesting videos on the original Half-Life's story and gameplay. I'd say they're worth a watch for anyone into the series, or considering getting into it…

[Crash267]

here's some half life cut content Mr. friendlyAccording to the book Raising the Bar, Valve's Ken Birdwell had a friend whose 12-year-old brother, Ted Backman, used to draw. Ken had always liked his work, so while searching for a concept artist several years later, he asked Backman to provide a couple of sketches for possible monsters. He presented sketches of several very inappropriate monsters to him and Gabe Newell, managing director, the kind of material Birdwell did not expect. Among them was "Mr. Friendly" full uncensored history: https://half-life.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Friendly

[PluMGMK]

OK, now that, I was not aware of…

Btw, the Combine OverWiki might be a better source than the Half-Life Fandom wiki you just linked (although I don't think there's any difference in this particular article).

[Hunchman801]

Oh, yet another Wikia offshoot? Even as of today, I keep discovering new ones!

[PluMGMK]

Yeah, the Combine Overwiki started on Wikia, and when they decided to move away they weren't allowed to remove the old one. So the old one became the "Half-Life Wiki" instead…

[Crash267]

OK, now that, I was not aware of…

Btw, the Combine OverWiki might be a better source than the Half-Life Fandom wiki you just linked (although I don't think there's any difference in this particular article).

Oh ok good to hear but I think the information is reliable from all the interviews and questions about that interesting monster the answers and info line up like the concept art being made by a 12 year old

[PluMGMK]

If anyone here plays Black Mesa, you may be interested to know that there is now a reliable fix for the random crashes in the Interloper chapter where mind-controlled Vortigaunts appear: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2890432063

[dr_st]

Heh, I still have to play the original Half-Life and all the Expansions/Sequels.

TBH, not sure I'll ever get to it. It looks way too dated... But maybe I'll give it a chance.

The mistake was that I started playing it early on (got the Adrenaline Pack), but my PC was underpowered, and my general FPS skills were mediocre, so I had a bad experience, and quit in the middle.

Later I understood that part of my complaints about the game were due to my difficulties to adjust from a keyboard only FPS play (which was OK in the DOS era) to a proper mouse+keyboard control scheme. Still, I found much more enjoyable games and never came back.

[PluMGMK]

Well, if you can't get past the dated appearance, there is Black Mesa after all

[Chacanger]

I played quite a few Half Life games such as...

• Half Life

• Opposing Force (Also played the shareware version when it was new)

• Blue Shift

• Counter Strike (The original one)

• Half Life 2

• Half Life 2 Episode 1

(I was going to play Half Life 2 Episode 2 when episode 3 came out but I think we all know what happened there.).

I also played some other related oddities like...

• Team Fortress Classic

• Ricochet

• Wanted

• Absolute Redemption

The graphics never really put me off and I could still immerse myself in it; I enjoyed the first game more than the second game due to the amount of content, and it was before FPS games started moving too far away from the Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Heretic, Quake style of game play.

[PluMGMK]

Valve have released a 25th-anniversary update on Steam for the original Half-Life. I haven't tried it out but it sounds awesome! It even seems to have at least one gameplay change inspired by Black Mesa… That said, the list of bugfixes says nothing about at least two that I can think of (Though the latter one I linked can be fixed by hex-editing… )

EDIT: Oh yeah, and it's free for the next two days, so be sure to grab it on Steam if you don't already have it!

[dr_st]

EDIT: Oh yeah, and it's free for the next two days, so be sure to grab it on Steam if you don't already have it!

Grabbed it, thanks. I am pretty satisfied with having both Steam and Uplay accounts and not paying a single cent for any of their digital games (only installing freebies and sometimes connecting it to activation codes of physical copies I own).

[PluMGMK]

Nice, well played! Glad to be of assistance!

[Reese Riverson]

Oh the 25-Anniversary update? I'm going to have to check that out. I already own the game but I'll let friends know about it being free to get if they don't own it already.

Though wow, Black Mesa inspired them to change part of the gameplay? Dude, isn't cool how your fans can inspire the developers like that? How many game companies actually would do something like that.

[dr_st]

To celebrate the 25th anniversary, there is also a development documentary on Youtube now. I believe fans of the game would enjoy it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbZ3HzvFEto

[PluMGMK]

Yes, that's already on my to-watch list

Though wow, Black Mesa inspired them to change part of the gameplay? Dude, isn't cool how your fans can inspire the developers like that? How many game companies actually would do something like that.

At least, that's my best explanation for the change in the satchel charge controls! It's funny about how they're restoring the old models and menu background and stuff "for nostalgia", and yet they're screwing up people's muscle memory on actual gameplay…

[Reese Riverson]

At least, that's my best explanation for the change in the satchel charge controls! It's funny about how they're restoring the old models and menu background and stuff "for nostalgia", and yet they're screwing up people's muscle memory on actual gameplay…

I wouldn't mind them doing things like that as long as they give you the option to revert to using the older controls. I know games like Grim Fandango, when it was remastered, they gave you the ability to pick the new controls or use the old tank controls.

Which if they didn't provide the option, I guess someone's bound to make a mod to bring the old controls back.

[PluMGMK]

Well, I guess… There's gonna be an SDK update soon… But "soon" for things like that often turns into "never"

[PluMGMK]

From the sound of this announcement, it seems the Black Mesa devs have finally fixed the null-pointer dereference I found about a year ago https://steamcommunity.com/games/362890 ... 9341158312 (the reason it took so long was that they were updating their deployment system, which makes sense I guess…)

(double-post, sorry – but the last one was ages ago )

UPDATE 3 April: Finally got around to doing a bit of static analysis – and it looks like they've done nothing of the sort! Well, I guess playing the game is the only way to know for sure…