Black Mesa Download Madness Hits The Half-Life Gamer Universe
Today the gaming world was reintroduced to one of their most beloved places to do battle with a total conversion remaking of Half-Life 2 by development group Valve Software. After seven full years in development, this release has been not just given away for free on its own, but given away with a full soundtrack as well. This is the fulfilled promise of the Source engine port of Half-Life as made by the developers all those years ago – if you thought Half-Life: Source was awesome, you're going to have a heart attack today.
This download was made available earlier today through several portals, the most official of these being the [Black Mesa Source Download Page] as provided by Valve. This page will be your one and only location where tried and true – and trusted – sources for the build can be found. As the game modification is given away for free, you will see some advertisements here and there on the webpage, but the final product will be just as ad-free as your original game was and always has been.
That same page shows you the Black Mesa Trailer that you see here above. This trailer was released earlier this month for those that've been following the project for several years – and it's gotten rave reviews in and of itself. Here with this new product, you'll see above as well, the game mechanics have remained largely the same (to gamers' glee) while the storyline and overall scale of the game have been exploded with greatness.
You'll now be playing as Doctor Gordon Freeman right alongside the original cast of environments and characters you've grown fond of from the original Half-Life. What you've got here instead of the same product is one made much more visually fantastic and immersive. This full reconstruction of Half-Life uses Source to what the developers describe as its "fullest potential" with enlarged level sizes, art detail, and code features galore.
You've also got new maps entirely, new models, new voice actors – save some key heroes, and textures. And again, there's a whole new soundtrack as well that you can also download for free – be sure to donate to the team though if you're feeling especially appreciative.
The download of this game does have some requirements, those being:
• A copy of any Source Engine game (as seen here).
• Minimum System Requirements
Software : Windows XP, Vista, or 7
Processor : Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, or AMD processor.
RAM : 1GB (1024 MB)
Graphics Card : Shader Model 2.0 capable, ATI 9600, NVidia 6600 or better.
Sound : DirectX 8.1 compatible.
HDD : 8 GB (Not including the Free Source SDK, installed separately)
• Ideal System Requirements
Software : Windows XP, Vista, or 7
Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz or AMD equivalent.
RAM : 1 GB (1024 MB)
Graphics Card : Shader Model 3.0 capable, ATI X1600, NVidia 7600 or better.
Sound : DirectX 9.0c compatible.
HDD : 8 GB (Not including the Free Source SDK, installed separately)
Fun Fact: the Xbox360 controller is supported for this game – use it!
If you have a Mac, you're out of luck. It's not likely that any builds other than what's listed above will be supported, but we'll certainly keep you up to date on any developments in the future regarding furtherances of this build. They've got Portal on the Mac, maybe we can dream!
