Black Mesa - The game to end all games?

So with much speculation regarding Half life 2 Episode 3, or just Half Life 3, a small group of individuals have decided to take matters into their own hands. How is this possible? Well, this group of talented people have poured their body, soul and probably quite a bit of their income into recreating the game that started it all...

In better graphics that is!

The game that started it all? Yes.. Half Life.

Half Life 1, was released on the 19'th of November 1998... Contrary to popular belief, the game was not released in 1999. Players assume the role of Dr. Gordon Freeman, who has a phd in theoretical sciences. He is a rather highly qualified man, who just seems to push around crates of unknown materials for the Big Wigs. However this time the goodie he pushes into the testing machine is a bit more volatile than the government had suspected. All Zen breaks loose and then Dr. Freeman has to go about attempting to save the research facility from huge arms that bash things, houndeyes (almost like supersonic dogs) and even the army!

Now why is this all so amazing you might ask. Half Life was Valve Corporations debut product. It all lived and died with this one game. Luckily for Valve, Half Life was a major success and received a 96/100 from metacritic. It was so successful that Valve released a sequel and then two more episodes on top of that. However since then, they have gone quiet about any follow ups or anything relating to Half Life despite the many calls from fans to continue the franchise. I mean, how often is it that people actually ask(or beg in this regard) the company to continue making the game.

This, and just the love for the game, and possibly some extra time must have motivated the very talented group at Black Mesa to recreate Half Life 1.

About the Game!

It is superbly created, with the attention to detail almost becoming OCD in places. The thought that has gone behind every nook and cranny is amazing. But possibly the most amazing thing about Black Mesa is that the team did not just take Half Life and remake it map for map, but rather decided to interpret the maps in their own style, while adding a slightly different flavour to the missions. So while playing you sort of have a De Ja Vu feeling about a certain place, or perhaps shout, "Hey, I remember this!". While in other areas the map seems to have changed almost completely. It is as if the Black Mesa team have taken the original clay of the game and moulded it into a statue of liberty! A statue which now knocks on Valve Corporations door, and then leaving a note that it is their move.

Is Black Mesa the game to end all games? Probably not, but in a world of Call of Duty look a likes, and warcrafty type intrusions into the game market, it is very refreshing to be able to play a game that has been so carefully crafted and so timelessly researched.

Go ahead and spoil yourself. The game is available free here. And just follow these instructions and you will be up and running in (a day or so in South Africa due to slow internet)...

Do it! Its worth it!

Half life 2 Episode 3

For all those people who played Half life 1 or Half life 2 would have noticed that they were market changing games. Meaning that Half life 1 was the first game that was a first person shooter to be well received by consumers. When Half life 2 was released there was complete amazement and shock at how deep and interesting the storyline was. The graphics on both those games were completely unheard of at the time and even for a few years afterward.
Half life 2 episode 1 and 2 were released about a year apart. Valve used the Source engine for all of the games.
Although nothing much has been said about Half life 2 Episode 3, there are some things that valve have said to confirm that it is in existence and are working on it.
For instance, When Valve was questioned about Half Life 2 Episode 3 they did not deny that they were working on it.
Also Valve have recently stated that they will be learning Sign Language. They said that they would use this to explain why Dog and Alex can sign to each other and can "talk" to each other while no one else can understand what they are saying. This sounds like a interesting twist to the story.
I am very excited to see this latest installment for myself, and I hope that Valve will release early 2010. If it is anywhere near as awesome as any of the previous episodes I will definitely say well done to Valve.
Here is some concept art of how Half lIfe 2 Episode 3 will look.