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Absolutely Anyone Can Play Black Mesa: Source, Right Now!

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I can’t believe I’m actually finally writing this article – but yes, the long-awaited Black Mesa: Source has just been released, as previously announced at the beginning of this month! Oh lord, call the fire department, because I am on fire.

Absolutely Anyone Can Play Black Mesa: Source, Right Now!

Just in case you’ve been living under some manner of rock or perhaps pebble, Black Mesa is the long-awaited, fan-developed, “Valve-quality” re-imagining, of Valve’s original, quintessential 1998 FPS release: Half-Life, the first game Valve ever made, and the most influential action games ever created.

Black Mesa aims to recreate the entirety of the original game, while extensively updating and re-designing it, according to more sophisticated, refined and modern design standards. Everything has been re-designed, re-made, and completely re-adapted – so consider this an entirely new game on its own.

And just to put things in perspective here… this thing has been in development since November of 2004, and its earliest stages of inceptions took place in September and October… which means that technically, Black Mesa has been in development since before Half-Life 2 was even released. Eep.

What’s the big deal, you ask? Well then, I’d say this is the most highly-anticipated, and by far, the most ambitious free fan-made video game modification, in gaming history.

It’s hard to even call it a mod, as for all intents and purposes, it is simply a free game. Built completely from the ground up; well over 10 hours in length; and it does not require any game in order to run. And this is a game that according to its own developers, aims for the highest echelons and standards of “Valve-quality“.

For that matter, this may be the first really significant Half-Life-related release, since HL2: Episode Two was released 5 years ago, in October of 2007. Sure, this may not have been made by Valve… but I’d say that the guys that made Black Mesa are just as creative, talented, and as passionate as Valve themselves are! And I think that’s more important than an official licensing deal.

Besides, if Gearbox Software managed to make three Half-Life expansions (which, depending on who you ask, might not have been that good in the first place), then I’d say some of the most dedicated and skilled Half-Life enthusiasts out there, can definitely do the franchise justice!

But it seems I got carried away there! For Black Mesa: Source is out. Right. Now.

However, the last 4 chapters of the game, set on the Xen borderworld; as well as the game’s multiplayer deathmatch component, have both not yet been completed, and will therefore be released at a later date. But even those 4 chapters are going to be expanded into a much larger component of the game – so instead of only getting the last quarter of the game, we’re probably gonna get a whole new game on its own. And hopefully Black Mesa: Deathmatch will provide us with a nostalgic, but solid multiplayer experience unlike any other currently on the market.

Until then, we’ve got three quarters of the entirety of the original game, taking place in all of its Earthbound sections and chapters – and that’ll be enough until Xen comes out. And the best part? It is completely and utterly free. That’s right: you’re getting a re-imagined, modern-day rendition of the original Half-Life for free.

You don’t need to actually buy or own anything, because Black Mesa: Source runs on the Source SDK Base 2007, which is automatically and freely provided with every single Steam account. That means anyone (yes, including you there) can play Black Mesa.

You will need the SDK Base ’07 installed in order to run Black Mesa. The good thing is if you don’t have it installed, Steam will automatically download it for you, when you try to run Black Mesa. However, if you want to waste no time in launching the mod, just click here to install the SDK Base.

And of course, you’ll need to download Black Mesa: Source from here. Just pick your download location poison, then get ready to rock.

In layman’s terms: if you have a Steam account, go play Black Mesa: Source. Right now.

They’re waiting for you, Gordon. In the test chamber.

80 Comments

  1. http://www.gamershell.com/download_93608.shtml This torrent worked for me tonight. 2 Hours on cable

  2. Massive and elaborate BM ARG on now: http://forums.blackmesasource.com/showthread.php?t=13735

  3. Stop talking about it, you’re making me wish I could play it right now! 🙁

    I’ve got a ton of studying to do though. This had to come out right as my break ended.

  4. Can we expect a “Vic’s Thoughts” on this one?

  5. Mac users can’t play this as far as I know. That makes me sad. Because I don’t have a Windows PC. =(

  6. Commenter AvatarStep by Step!! How to play!!September 15th 2012 at 3:58pm

    After downloading this game i had problem running this game!!! That is the reason i am posting this!!

    Step by step

    ***no need for original game!!
    install Steam program then make an account!!
    Download the game file from this web site!! 3.7GB?

    While steam is running unzip the game file to default location!!
    click on play after installing is done!!
    it will automatically download The 2007 Source SDK. You need SDK to play!!!
    After SDK installed Go to Library in steam program.
    Find All games from drop down menu!!
    Find Black Mesa and click play!!!

    i think you get “Lost Coast” and Portal Prelude” like this for free!!

    ****The reason i did not find the game was because i was stuck on “TOOLS” in library in the drop down menu!!!

  7. Up to the part with the mega fast black-ops chicks ~
    Man, this is fucking amazing 😀

    Graphical Quality, Sounds, Music, EVERYTHING 😀
    I’d pay $100 Bucks for this if I could.

    Kudos to the Black Mesa team.

  8. It looks absolutely fantastic! When I started Inboud, I just stood there waiting for the scientists and security to keep talking. Love the amount of dialog that is recorded! The amount of detail to both this and the graphics is just…fucking nice!

  9. This… game… is… just simply AMAZING so far!
    It for filled my expectations and surpassed it!! This game is just utterly breath-taking in so many ways!
    There is so much going on and the amount of detail, it’s literally overwhelming, but in a good way!
    I feel so tired right now staying up all night waiting for this to finish downloading but… so… damn hard to stop playing!
    This is truly the greatest mod I’ve ever played, hands down.
    Kudos to the people that spend years working on this, if Valve doesn’t hire every single one of them in the next week I’d be shocked frankly.

  10. how the hell do i launch this game?? there is no ions or executable!!

    i have all bullshit installed!!

    i palyed a for a bit.. too!!

  11. I’m killing myself! Had only 4 hours of sleep :X

  12. It’s fucking amazing! I started Inbound but had to go out and do errands. Will jump back into it right now! Words can’t describe how great it is!

  13. So how is the game? Anyone actually managed to play it?

  14. Should change the title to ‘Absolutely Anyone Can try and download Black Mesa: Source. (Good luck)’

  15. yes. It actually starts! Inbound …..

  16. I’ll be seeding that torrent like a mofo, speeds weren’t too bad when I downloaded it, and they should be better now.

  17. Aye, mate, I found a serious mirror:

    EUROPE GUYS DOWNLOAD HERE: http://www.chip.de/downloads/Black-Mesa_57528457.html

    chip.de is a german huge website, lots of downloads. They mirrored it recently, I downloaded at 1,6MB/s!
    Get it now! :>

  18. I got the two smaller files through gamefront and am dowloading the rest from-

    http://www.shacknews.com/downloadpop?file_id=32999

    30 mins to go…and dropping fast.

  19. The download manager logo is located at http://localhost.

    Am I in 1998?

  20. You’d better not post any Dropbox links related to Black Mesa.

  21. Downloading: 1.5mbps
    Uploading: 8mbps

    pffffffff

  22. Black Mesa twitter and facebook just posted a torrent file at http://www.mediafire.com/?khmzyygg4vetko0.

  23. “Ironically, it seems like Gordon will figuratively be a half-hour late to the party, just like he was in Half-Life.”

    This isn’t ironic. It’s actually the opposite of ironic.

  24. add this tracker to the torrent and it will work:

    upd://tracker(dot)openbittorrent(dot)com:80

    All the other sites aren’t working for me – shacknews starts, but sends nothing.

  25. 1.7 MB/s with the torrent, 47 minutes left. 😀

  26. This is awesome, sh*ts hitting the fan but its still an amazing day!

  27. The time is 8:47 A.M. Current topside temperature is 93 degrees.

    Wow, goose bumps, haha.

    Thanks for the download link Vic, you’re absolutely the best <3
    I told everyone in my house-hold to stop what they're doing on the internet right now so I can download this full speed.

  28. Today is a good day.

  29. This is unbelievable. Now WE are getting pounded with traffic too.

  30. Should of used piratebay lol

  31. WILLIAM HAS TO EAT HIS BEARD!

  32. You guys can download it on shacknew.com I think…

  33. Torrents:
    http://tsukanov.me/BlackMesa.torrent
    http://ryanmaffit.com/bm/BlackMesa_Original.torrent (different)

  34. i’m only be able to play this tomorrow, if the servers stop come back to normal.

  35. no shocker here…I knew it would crash the second the timer hit 0. Just have to wait an hour or two I guess

  36. AND SO THE SERVERS GO DOWN

  37. No kidding lol.moddb not authorized and blackmesa is fubared

  38. Someone post the magnet link to the torrent

  39. To be honest, you can’t play it right now xD

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