Black Mesa Releasing Sept. 14th

defaultluser said:
If the world worked like that, we'd start with the best, and work our way downwards.

You know it doesn't work that way. Old movies (and even some newer ones) are shot on shitty 35mm film and then stored in shitty vaults where they still age and give you all the best in film grain. You can BARELY get 4k resolution out of those cheap 35mm when they were new, let-alone twenty years later.

It takes us years to work-up to the next big step in digital resolution and fidelity. For something that started in DVD, capturing those in 1080p, let-alone 4k requires remastering (removing all the crap, while not blurring the living shit out of the movie).

The costs of these remasters goes down every year, but they are never free. They do the remaster when the cost of doing it is exceeded by expected sales. If they gave it away for free to consumers, the only remasters that would ever happen are trash films you see on TV all the time (they would be paid for by the networks).

But of course the networks would never release those movies they paid to remaster to you on disc for free. Printing discs costs money, even in your dreamworld.

The home digital movie revolution means you end-up paying for the restoration, if you want to add some less-popular movies to your collection. Because that technology is constantly advancing.

It may well work that way in the future when everything is digital and is shot in 8k, but we're not even close to that yet. So maybe you can be more accepting of the cost of advancements being paid for by consumers like you that are SLOWLY moving us toward a "best first, pay once" solution you're dreaming of here
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Get this: I'm not saying everyone should get everything for free, which you seem to be arguing against, which is a terrible strawman. I'm merely suggesting that instead of early adopters subsidizing newcomers getting a better a version, it should be the other way around. Newcomers should subsidize early adopters upgrade to the better version.
Say I got a game's collectors edition for $80. Instead of me and the guy who never paid anything both having to pay $20 for the remastered version now. Newcomers should pay $25 and I should be able to upgrade for $10. That would be a fair system.

There is a difference between completely free and early adopters getting a discount.
 
M76 said:
Get this: I'm not saying everyone should get everything for free, which you seem to be arguing against, which is a terrible strawman. I'm merely suggesting that instead of early adopters subsidizing newcomers getting a better a version, it should be the other way around. Newcomers should subsidize early adopters upgrade to the better version.
Say I got a game's collectors edition for $80. Instead of me and the guy who never paid anything both having to pay $20 for the remastered version now. Newcomers should pay $25 and I should be able to upgrade for $10. That would be a fair system.

There is a difference between completely free and early adopters getting a discount.
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but it can't work like that because of depreciation...Half Life came out in 1998...so if you paid $60 in 1998 you can't expect a remaster to cost the same price as 20 years ago...value goes down so there's no way of making things equal
 
I recall installing the mod in its early days. It was great but it took forever for the final release and then they decided to change for it while still being incomplete. That was a big no-no for me, but now at long last it seem its finally complete and it really looks great so I think I'll give it a try.
 
M76 said:
You say I have a choice, but my lack of purchase won't make this injustice go away.

And it does make financial sense, some started to realize that. I suspect a lot more owners of skyrim purchased the special edition because it was offered for a lower price to those who had the original on steam. I'd certainly have skipped that if not for the significant discount.
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You're right that your lack of purchase won't change anything (from the developers perspective). I still don't see it as an injustice, just a logical business decision.

Also, as for your example of Skyrim, two things of note. Firstly, Skyrim: SE was free if you owned the original and all DLC (on PC). I don't know about any discounts if you didn't own the DLC. On the consoles, however, as far as I know there was no discounts to speak of. If you wanted to upgrade from last generation to this generation, you repurchased the game. Being that the consoles more than likely make up a majority of the games sales, I see this as throwing a bone to the notably more vocal PC community. Also, Skyrim SE wasn't a remake. It's hardly even a remaster. It's a re-release with a couple of quick and easy mods tossed in to justify the act of getting as many people to double dip as possible. In fact, I find it a little odd that you find this trend an injustice, but then praise Skyrim, which has probably been recycled more than any other game on the market, and done so typically at a full $60 MSRP, all despite the fact that it's various incantations are some of the lazier re-releases on the market. Of all the games that should be condemned for lazy, overpriced rehashes, Skyrim is without a doubt the worst offender.
 
the fact that a different developer is releasing Black Mesa removes all comparisons to most other remasters/remakes done by the same studio that made the original...so there is no double dipping of profits
 
polonyc2 said:
the fact that a different developer is releasing Black Mesa removes all comparisons to most other remasters/remakes done by the same studio that made the original...so there is no double dipping of profits
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That's what I don't understand with M76's outrage. This is being made by a different developer altogether. Why should they give away their work and time for free. Would anyone fix a customers computer but not charge because they didn't make the software?
 
I started playing this a bit. Gotta say, for how long it took this to come out I was expecting something a bit better than HL2-level graphics and textures.

Still, it'll be fun to play through HL again.
 
defaultluser said:
You know it doesn't work that way. Old movies (and even some newer ones) are shot on shitty 35mm film and then stored in shitty vaults where they still age and give you all the best in film grain. You can BARELY get 4k resolution out of those cheap 35mm when they were new, let-alone twenty years later.
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This statement hurts my brain. But, this isn't a film discussion forum.
 
polonyc2 said:
Black Mesa update

Xen is now on its final art/polish pass!!...Xen will go through a technical beta followed by an open beta before hitting Steam in its final form...

https://steamcommunity.com/games/362890/announcements/detail/1621769923071245761
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I really am confused... I haven't played the original Half Life in quite a while but wasn't the whole Xen part compared to the other parts of the game relatively short? I remember the ballsack boss, the platform jumping around, and then the Nihelanth. I don't get why it has taken what feels like years to finish the last small section of the game.
 
zamardii12 said:
I really am confused... I haven't played the original Half Life in quite a while but wasn't the whole Xen part compared to the other parts of the game relatively short? I remember the ballsack boss, the platform jumping around, and then the Nihelanth. I don't get why it has taken what feels like years to finish the last small section of the game.
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it's a total rebuild, not a simple remake...plus they keep adding new graphics features...

https://steamcommunity.com/games/362890/announcements/detail/1453963283488180339

https://steamcommunity.com/games/362890/announcements/detail/1594703306631918308

 
Viper87227 said:
This is looking really good, but I'm going to sit tight until it's fully released. I want to do a complete playthrough and I'd rather not have issues.
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same here...mainly because I want to play the complete game from start to finish...it's been so long since I've played the original Half Life (or the Black Mesa version minus Xen) that outside of the graphics I'm probably not going to even notice the gameplay changes
 
I lost interest in this years ago. But maybe I'll check it out if its ever released
 
Makes me wish I bought a copy for a few bucks when it was on sale a few months back. Maybe I'll bite on the next one since they are close to having everything done.
 
Wow, this is still going on? Too bad now the gfx looks outdated.

I really hope they have a secret project with valve that is making it up to date in like half-life 3 engine
 
polonyc2 said:
and counting...maybe they'll actually release the full game before 2019 is over...
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I get what they wanted to do, but, it's just Xen, and, they're being a bit too OCD about it.

I've forgotten all about it, and have no interest in playing it now, because of how long it's been. They're doing great work, but it's just taking too long.
 
I bought this so many years ago, waiting until it was done to play it... one day... one day
 
scojer said:
I get what they wanted to do, but, it's just Xen, and, they're being a bit too OCD about it.

I've forgotten all about it, and have no interest in playing it now, because of how long it's been. They're doing great work, but it's just taking too long.
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I think the thing about recent videogame communities is this constant state of looking at everything in a vacuum. The aren't looking at games as a body of work. Instead, a fix. In both cases these are products, sure. However, I think it's this odd thing to think of it in this bubble of "7 years." As though it's not going to have a longer life than that?

The thing is, if it's good. None of that matters.
 
The Final Major Update for Black Mesa has been Released

We are happy to announce that we are releasing our final big update to Black Mesa as a free 'Definitive Edition' update. Since March, we have worked to polish the game in terms of both art and design...

Highlights of the Definitive Edition
-Massive polish and art updates throughout the game
-Complete lighting and gameplay pass to the chapter “Power Up”
-Complete redesign of second “On A Rail” map (map B)
-Significant optimizations across the whole game that will improve performance on low to mid range PCs
-Outdoor art passes for “We’ve Got Hostiles”, “On A Rail”, “Questionable Ethics”, “Surface Tension”, and “Forget About Freeman”

https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/362890/view/2895214724133808811
 
For all of the complaints and long development, I really think they did a great job. I'm only a bit into Zen but I love the added map areas.
 
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I was getting some big framerate fluctuations in Zen, big open areas. Was able to manage this by capping the framerate at 60. Perhaps they have smoothed these out with the optimizations. Great game regardless, highly recommended.
 
(I might be wrong) I believe it's HL1 redone in modern(~ish) Source engine. That ans minor tweaks to the game, and the final chapter being fleshed out to a full level instead of a 5 minute run.
 
I played this for the first time at the tail end of last year - freakin' loved it!
 
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