14 years of development of the updated iconic Half Life of 1998 are coming to an end. The Black Mesa project, with the ambitious goal of porting the original game to the Source engine while retaining the gameplay, but with a deep rethinking of the level design, was carried out by the Crowbar Collective enthusiast team.
In 2015, the developers presented the first part of the adventures of Gordon Freeman by releasing Black Mesa in early access. Moreover, Valve, which did not notice the project for a long time, allowed the creators to make money on their unique creation through Steam. Until July 9 the game with a 60% discount for 167 rubles. Moreover, buyers will receive the addition of Xen with the world of aliens for free after the release. And it looks like it will happen pretty soon.
As part of testing, three of the six chapters of the other world are available. "The goal of this beta is to collect bugs and feedback across multiple computers," the Black Mesa Project's Steam page says. We have made significant improvements and changes to the Source engine, and we want the game to run as smoothly as possible. If you want to be at the forefront of testing, install the beta. If you want a polished, complete Xen environment, then you should wait. It won't be long!" And although by the standards of Crowbar Collective "soon" may well mean quite a long time, I think this time the developers should be taken literally.
The beta version of Xen already has problems: a significant drop in frame rate in 4K resolution at maximum graphics settings, flaws in procedural animation in water, lack of collisions with some plants and roots in the swamp, and other small problems. Players are encouraged to report bugs to or with data about graphics settings and computer characteristics attached. Linux is not supported yet. Some bugs have already been fixed.
Owners of Black Mesa can take part in beta testing. To do this, you need to select the game in the Steam library, right-click and go to "Properties", then select the "Beta" tab and register for public testing.
After downloading the update, you should start the game and select the 15th chapter. For those who have not yet approached this part, you need to open the developer console: "Settings" - "Keyboard" - "Advanced" - "Enable developer console", and then enter the command "sv_unlockedchapters 19".
Source: 3dnews.ru