scott155

1590

We're .159% there!

]Black Mesa sure is something, but I'll tell yea, it's not exactly Half-Life...

Played all the way up to Residue Processing yesterday. I'll say it's impressive and has a good fun factor, but it's a lot slower paced than what it's based on and a lot of the weapons are severely nerfed. As an example, in Half-Life, the MP5 was a versatile weapon you'd always feel comfortable using, with a high rate of fire and plenty of ammo. In Black Mesa, it's just a crappy modern FPS weapon, with a decreased ammo and reserve capacity, plus it never seems to hit its intended target. I was down to only 17 bullets by the end of Blast Pit and I found myself killing grunts with the magnum 75% of the time. Oh, and it's firing sounds suck Bullsquid.

 

But I won't complain too much, it is just a free mod after all.

If it REALLY bothers you, you can change the damage (and probably other properties, but damage it the only one I know how to change) and you can change the sound back to the original Half-Life's. It's a lot of work for some small changes, but if it really bothers you, it's an option.

Also, while I don't support switching to Black Mesa this late in the series, I must admit, some of the dialogue would've been comedy gold for Freeman's Mind.

Currently up to We've Got Hostiles (it only finished downloading earlier today). I think this is about as close to Valve quality as modders who don't work at Valve can get really. It's been great so far. I've been making a list of the bugs I've found to post in their bugs section.

The only bug I've seen is when anyone tries to rub the back of their head, their hand goes through their head. Minor, but still.

There was also a bug with the head-crab latch mechanic that made the screen all purple and black (the missing-texture material) until the head-crab was off, but that's not an official feature anyway.

I like how you can pick up bodies and throw them. Using a dead head-crab to smash a window is incredibly satisfying.

Up to the part with the first turret gun. This game feels like how Valve would've done Half-Life, if they'd had that technology back then. Seriously though, the humor seems very Valve-like, the graphics are Valve quality (some even look better than HL2), and they took a hella long time to deliver a kick-ass product. You know, like Valve. Valve needs to hire these guys, pronto, if they haven't already.

I am fucking loving this, and I'm not even in my hazard suit yet.

When entering the labs: Guard: "Man, you cut the ponytail! What a sellout"

And even better:

*Throws boxed lunch at guard" Guard: "Man, you're an asshole when you're drunk!"

Maybe BM would've been better for Freeman's mind after all hahaha

WHY

DOES

NOBODY

FUCKING

SEED

??!?!?!?!?

I'll seed, once I can actually download it. School Wi-Fi is not only slow, but also blocks the download site.

1584

Well, I really hate Steam for the insidious nature of its DRM.

 

It provides apparent convenience which clouds the eyes of most users, so they forget that in return they hand out control over their games to Valve. Nothing on Steam can be done without asking Valve's permission first - to me, that's unacceptable.

 

Steam-free mods I can download at my convenience, then install on any machine I want without begging Valve for consent. The machine does not even need to be online for me to do it.

 

I am not trying to convince or convert anybody into my way of thinking (I know it is not going to happen - I will always be in a minority on that) - just explaining my reasoning behind my previous post...

 

Regards

That actually makes sense. But fret not, I believe the mod will be available Steam-free tomorrow, as they originally planned. I'm also gonna try and get that copy, just because it'll be out first.

Side-note: There's probably some work-arounds to the distasteful bits of Steam, if you want to try and find them. Note that this is not in defense of Steam or trying to convert you to Steam, just providing an alternative if you decide you might like the benefits without the drawbacks. Also I have no idea if they exist or if you've already tried that.

Oh, cr*p... I just hope the team will keep Steam-free version available...

 

Regards

IDK why you'd want the non-steam version, but I also can't see why they wouldn't release it like they would've if it hadn't been green-lit.

BLACK MESA'S BEEN GREEN-LIT!

I figured this would happen, but I'm still exited anyway.

I think Ross should take a 6 month hiatus between every episode, except for the odd numbered episodes after which he'll take 13 months (because who doesn't appreciate a baker's dozen?). I feel as though it's a pretty solid plan.

Ross needs to be put in an alternate time stream where a week will feel like six months. Then he can get rest and we can get a bunch of FM episodes!

Headcrab blood is in fact liquid cheese. Therefore, they must taste like cheese. Poison headcrabs on the other hand... Don't taste like cheese at all.

Poison headcrabs taste like

1572+pi

You don't have to wear a goatee to fend off angry garden gnomes, Freeman, you're just being paranoid.

i wonder what BMS developers have done with the crate smashing room

They felt the Crate Smashing room was not very logical, so it was replaced by the Crate Smashing Research and Development Department, which now takes up the majority of the Black Mesa Crate Smashing Research Facility. They also felt this change better explains Freeman's proficiency in smashing things with a crowbar.

I'll be shocked if this doesn't get on Steam. Also, after listening to their bloopers, I am convinced that the Developer Commentary for this could be hilarious if they add it in a future update (But Xen is more important at the moment).

I loved this Episode! Best one in a while.

My favorite quotes would probably be

"I have the perfect comeback. A Spaz-12."

"These boards look like they have the tensile strength of rice-cake."

and

"TORO, MOTHERFUCKER!"

And of course, the whole bit with the rocket launcher was brilliant.

Short Answer: No.

Long Answer: HEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLL NO. I'm curious to see what FM would've been like in BM:S, but a lot of what makes FM so funny is Freeman mocking some of the level design, which the BM team tried to fix. Ross stated before that nobody watches a machinima about a game as old as Half-Life for the eye-candy. I also agree with Cool, there would be no nostalgia.

Ross plays through and gets an idea of what he wants to say before he records, then he records the in-game footage with the source recorder, and then does voice overs. Ross is something of a perfectionist, so he hardly ever does a line in one take.

Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but if not then I think that's topic closed.

Okay, so BM:S was 30%, but I just checked an now it's 22%. Unless it got so many votes that it broke, and it actually means 122%, this is unacceptable.

 

If you read the comments on the page different people are viewing different numbers. I think Valve's servers may be having issues.

 

This page says it's on 34%: http://www.shrewdlogarithm.com/greenlight.htm

That page also says it's the highest rated WOO!

Okay, so BM:S was 30%, but I just checked an now it's 22%. Unless it got so many votes that it broke, and it actually means 122%, this is unacceptable.

29% done now.

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Also, from Steam's Greenlight page:

How many votes does a game need to get selected?

It's going to change during the first few days/weeks since we don't know what kind of traffic to expect. Part of the drive for this system is the need for customers to help us prioritize which games they want to see made available on Steam. So the specific number of votes doesn't matter as much as relative interest in a game compared with other games in Steam Greenlight.

 

We're going to be reaching out to developers as we see their games getting traction regardless of whether they have achieved a specific number of votes or are sitting 1st or 2nd place at any given time. We are most interested in finding the games that people want, not requiring them to always hit a specific number of votes.

I voted. When I checked it was at 16%, probably more by now.

Indeed it is! 22% and rising. Also I voted again with my second steam account.

I voted as well. GORDON FREEMAN FOR PRESIDENT!!! Politicians lie whenever they talk, so even if Gordon was a politician, he'd never lie.

Oh, and I voted for Black Mesa on the green-light thingy too.

Speaking of which, the Black Mesa mod is on Steam's Greenlight now. You know what to do.

Well, I've done my part! Plus having it on Steam will probably ease the strain on the BM servers, since steam is specifically designed for downloading games. (Feel free to correct me if that's not actually how it works)