The mod team behind the upcoming Black Mesa have released an official trailer for their upcoming Source Engine total conversion - a re-creation of the original and classic Half-Life.

Black Mesa (formerly Black Mesa: Source) is a Half-Life 2 total conversion remaking VALVe Software's award-winning PC game, Half-Life. Utilizing the Source engine, Black Mesa will reintroduce the player as Doctor Gordon Freeman, along with the original cast of memorable characters and environments seen in Half-Life. Black Mesa was built and founded on the basis that Half-Life: Source was inadequate as the Source engine port of Half-Life, regardless of the intentions of VALVe Software. As such, Black Mesa was founded to fully reconstruct the Half-Life universe utilizing Source to its fullest potential in terms of art detail, level sizes and code features. This total conversion will not require Half-Life: Source to play - only a copy of any Source Engine game installed on Steam.

Today's trailer offers a very slick look at the mod, definitely a cut-above what you would usually expect from a project like this. Check it out right here on AusGamers.

In addition to a complete re-creation of the original Half-Life singleplayer campaign, Black Mesa intends to support full cooperative multiplayer and a deathmatch component. You can find a few more screenshots on our game page or check out the mod's official site for more specifics.

Oh nice!

So glad I bought the orange box. Source mods are awesome!

last edited by Phooks at 14:52:28 01/Dec/08

co op half life would be rawkin...

This looks really awesome. I gets me thinking though, how would they be allowed to distribute this legally? I mean, they're essentially just giving out a game that Valve charges money for. I know Valve really cares about their mod community, and they're fairly laid back, but has anything like this been successfully done before? Most fan-made game remakes that come to mind have all ended with a cease and desist letter.

More than likely they would have asked for and been given permission. It's one of the most high profile mods out there, so there's no way valve doesn't know about them.

valve wont give a s***. Half life was going for 2 bucks or something on steam just the other day.

Half-Life had so many really good/popular mods cs,dod, natural selection etc. Without CS half life would have died a long time ago, valve would be crazy to not help mods along.

I think part of the deal is that anyone who wants to play Black Mesa must purchase at least one source game in order for the game to have access to the source engine. It makes good business sense to let them release a remake if it means more sales. Not a lot more, since most people already have a source game, but hey they were selling HL1 the other day for 99c.
Plus valve are awesome and this will only aid their image.

They'll buy them out a month before they plan to release it and you won't see it for another 2 years

valve wont give a s***. Half life was going for 2 bucks or something on steam just the other day.

Yeah, but other mods have been canned with C&D's for less. Usually the excuse is that they need to protect their IP, as soon as they let one mod get away with it, it may open them up to legally having to allow a lot bigger infringement.

Still, as Frakture said, this mod is definitely high-profile and Valve must be aware of it, so if it hasn't been canned yet, it's probably safe.

They know about it according to wikipedia.

Valve Corporation asked the producers of the mod to remove the "Source" part from the title to avoid confusion on whether it is an official Valve product

Usually the excuse is that they need to protect their IP

Yeah companies often go bats*** crazy over IP even if the game costs next to nothing. Some attitudes are better than others but generally it's good to clear it up before a mod is started! A mod I was working on with a group a while back got axed by Bullfrog's lawyers.

Half-Life had so many really good/popular mods cs,dod, natural selection etc. Without CS half life would have died a long time ago, valve would be crazy to not help mods along.

That wasn't my point. Things like Counter-Strike were original IPs when they came out. They weren't infringing on anything. What I was saying is that Half-Life is still being sold (for more than 98c now), and this group will be giving away their IP for free.

If Valve have already contacted them about, asking nothing more of them than removing the word "Source" from the title, then it seems like they're fine with it, but as Dan said, other mods have been hit with a cease and desist for a lot less. That's all I was saying.

so hang on.

this game is free? if you have ANY steam game?

From the website:

This total conversion will not require Half-Life: Source to play - only a copy of any Source Engine game installed on Steam.

cheers frak!