Black Mesa Source Countdown

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Pheran

Diamond Member
Apr 26, 2001
5,849
48
91
Apache cliff fight makes me :mad:


I had success hiding behind the boxes at the front left - pop out, fire a rocket, and get the heck back down. Plus you are sitting right next to a box of rockets, so you have infinite ammo. I played on hard, so the chopper would definitely slaughter you in no time if you didn't have cover.
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,603
9
81
I had success hiding behind the boxes at the front left - pop out, fire a rocket, and get the heck back down. Plus you are sitting right next to a box of rockets, so you have infinite ammo. I played on hard, so the chopper would definitely slaughter you in no time if you didn't have cover.

The ones that are in the cave? After dying 20 times hiding behind rocks I had success hiding behind those ammo crates deep in the cave, the chopper bugged out after 5 hits and started shooting into the sky, killed it then :D
 

Crow550

Platinum Member
Oct 4, 2005
2,381
5
81
If you own the original Half-Life, Opposing Force, Blue-Shift and the Decay PC port and want to play it co-op with some friends.

Snag Sven Co-op: www.svencoop.com

They tweaked the entire game adding more Monsters, AI tweaks and visual and audio upgrades.

Really worth checking out. They do have most of Opposing Force finished. (There is a separate Opposing Force co-op mod http://forums.svencoop.com/showthread.php?t=39309&page=2 and Blue-Shift http://zhouy.110mb.com/php/downloads.php which use Blue-Shift unlocked to fix issues: http://old.hl-improvement.com/downloads.php and don't forget the HD models: http://www.fileplanet.com/167145/160000/fileinfo/Half-Life---High-Definition-Pack-for-Steam Decay PC port already has two player co-op: http://decay.half-lifecreations.com/) I think 4.7 is adding Blue-Shift and Decay co-op? http://forums.svencoop.com/showthread.php?t=39309&page=2

Might as well add for Half-Life 2 saga check out Synergy: http://synergymod.net/ and Obsidian Conflict: http://obsidianconflict.net/

Anyways if you loved Black Mesa and are curious to go back to the original. Grab some friends and play it co-op. ;) As it will take some time to tweak Black Mesa for co-op play and Sven has been perfecting it for years now.
 
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nitromullet

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2004
9,031
36
91
Finally got around to finishing this. Awesome from start to finish! Once you get to the end and you realize how much more content HL1 had than most modern games, it starts to make more sense why this mod took as long as it did. Worth the wait too.
 

Geosurface

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2012
5,776
4
0
yea nitro, lots of content back then and also I love how games back then didn't hold your hand quite so much.

You were always, from start to finish, seeing things from Freeman's eyes and no other perspective.

They trusted you to pick up on some mystery (G-Man) without whacking you over the head with it...

they trusted you to figure out some puzzles which, though usually pretty tame, were sometimes not 100% intuitive. No objectives flashing on the screen, no big golden arrow pointing you in the direction of your next objective... no inventory screen or cinematics or huge exposition etc etc...

it's fitting that Half-Life was populated by so many scientists, it felt like it was made by them too. It felt understated, intellectual, stream-lined. When you'd hear scientists talking it resonated like REAL academics and intellectuals actually speak. Even in Black Mesa. Even moreso in Black Mesa.

Just a fantastic game, and a snapshot of a fantastic period in gaming.
 

Crow550

Platinum Member
Oct 4, 2005
2,381
5
81
I was thinking of HL3 or EP3. Whatever it will be and the end of Opposing Force. Would be awesome if the G-Man used Shepard as a backup against Freeman.

Which until the fan remake of Opposing Force gets done. Heh. Check out Opposing Force Redux. Makes it a bit better if you do wanna re-experience Opposing Force and snag the co-op mod and get some friends to join. :D
 

Geosurface

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2012
5,776
4
0
It's a shame they completely flunked on the visual presentation. If you compare the released mod to one of the trailers, it's a night and day difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=lul60ixy_40

Disagree completely.

When I played it, it looked fantastic. What resolution and settings were you playing at? I had everything pretty cranked at 1920x1200.

I think maybe you're just looking at that trailer and seeing how it's filmed in a cinematic style. They put a lot of cinematic camera angles, editing cuts, and a sort of soft bloom or something on everything, but the actual graphics are the same.

I just disagree entirely that they "flunked on the visual presentation" it looked fantastic to me, at least as long as you have a proper sense of perspective about the age of the engine, etc.
 

darkewaffle

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2005
8,152
1
81
BM is harder than I expected. I noticed by default it has auto-aim enabled and sets it to easy difficulty, I kind of wondered why lol; so I turned it off and set it to normal. The enemy infantry has definitely gotten the better of me a few times.

Though it might also be me trying to play it like BF, whereas I think running and gunning is better suited to it.

The one thing I could really do without though is Source engine ladders, those things are absolutely horrible.
 

BudAshes

Lifer
Jul 20, 2003
13,911
3,195
146
Anybody else have trouble with the final battle frame rates? The whole game ran fine until that final battle when I could barely play it got so slow. I even turned down every setting to minimum and the resolution way down and it still was slow.
 

stahlhart

Super Moderator Graphics Cards
Dec 21, 2010
4,273
77
91
Anybody else have trouble with the final battle frame rates? The whole game ran fine until that final battle when I could barely play it got so slow. I even turned down every setting to minimum and the resolution way down and it still was slow.

That was my experience also -- just finished it tonight. I backed off to medium settings and switched off AA, but was able to keep it at native resolution (1920x1200). It was still sluggish, but playable.
 

thm1223

Senior member
Jun 24, 2011
336
0
71
Hey how do you get past the missle silo level its driving me nuts and I'm tired of dying HALP!
 

Martimus

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2007
4,488
152
106
Hey how do you get past the missle silo level its driving me nuts and I'm tired of dying HALP!

Which part are you dying at? There is a youtube video of someone going through the whole game by chapter, if you want to see how they got through it.
 

darkewaffle

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2005
8,152
1
81
Basically the silo has separate branches that you need to reach by climbing the ladders and walking round the railings in the central shaft, if you explore through them you'll be able to return power to them all; iirc there's one branch connected to each 'floor'/set of railings. Once you've completed each branch you can return back to the main control room and "fire".
 

Martimus

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2007
4,488
152
106
I finally finished the game yesterday. I have to say that I am impressed. It is very well done. I hope that the Xen portion is finished in the next couple years.
 

cKGunslinger

Lifer
Nov 29, 1999
16,408
57
91
I finally finished the game yesterday. I have to say that I am impressed. It is very well done. I hope that the Xen portion is finished in the next couple years.

Finally got it installed and playing. Nostalgia factor is great. Platforming is a bit weak - if the only way to jump "on" something is by crouch-jump, why not just make that the default jump behavior?

FPS was at ~280 @ 1920x1080 MAX until I tuned on vsync.

I was extremely disappointed that I picked up a pistol before my crowbar.. :colbert:

And did anyone else getting all huffy when they called you "Mr. Freeman?" I have a PhD, dammit!

Also, I hated the original HL1 Xen level. The entire game seemed to change at that point, and I didn't really like it, so maybe this will end on a high-point.
 
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Geosurface

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2012
5,776
4
0
Xen was great! C'mon now, lair of the Gonarch? that was great.

don't you think the entire game should seem to change when you go to an alien world?