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Oh, Snap – Black Mesa: Source Gameplay Footage Leaked! [UPDATED]

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[UPDATE 3: We now have a full 1080p re-upload of the On A Rail video. Check it out!]

[UPDATE 2: The ValveTime gameplay video has just been forcefully taken down by the BM:S team, and Raminator has issued an informative statement concerning the takedown here.]

[UPDATE: BM:S level design lead Daniel “Raminator” Junek has commented on the On A Rail video leak. He says the video was a rough cut for a gameplay video in the BM:S media campaign; and that the mod build depicted is 4-5 weeks old, and that most of the content (including the music) is near-final. He also states that they’ll be moving forward more quickly with their upcoming plans.]

As if the whole Source 2 thing wasn’t enough, here’s more earth-shattering stuff for you guys!

Oh, Snap – Black Mesa: Source Gameplay Footage Leaked! [UPDATED]

Two months after announcing a new media campaign leading up to their upcoming release, the Black Mesa: Source team have gone quiet yet again. Well, it appears that the silence has been broken in a very… interesting way.

Our friends over at ValveTime have stumbled onto an awesome find: exclusive footage of Black Mesa: Source’s On A Rail chapte– But wait… what is this?

Stop the presses, for we here at LambdaGen also have a pretty impressive find ourselves: a 5-minute video of gameplay from BM: Source’s Surface Tension chapter. This is a double feature, alright – let’s take a look at both videos!

Just a few things to take into consideration:

  • The footage we have comes from a fairly old and now outdated mod development build. Sorry for the mediocre video quality!
  • The footage ValveTime has came from a mod build approximately 4-5 weeks old. Most of the content and assets are near-final, and not much will change from that video to the actual mod itself.
  • The ironsight feature you see in the ValveTime footage is actually the .357 Magnum revolver’s Zoom feature, which the BM:S team have made available in the singleplayer mode as well. So no, these guys didn’t add ironsights – relax!
  • The slightly exaggerated viewbob is also something which was in early versions of Half-Life 1, but was ultimately patched out.
  • Not too pleased about the voice acting. While I do understand that the BM:S team wants to carry on that classic B-movie cheese feel that Half-Life itself exhibited, the scripted story dialogue from the Army soldiers just comes off as overly forced and needlessly melodramatic.
  • It alsoruins the very point of that original sequence – which was to show that the government troops are just a handful of rednecks and punks. Instead, in the BM:S version of the scene, we get to hear a bunch of gruff, mundane dialogue from stereotypical military commando types, and that tells us absolutely nothing about who these guys are exactly.
  • In addition, the government soldiers should have the classic, distinctive radio filter applied to their lines. I understand that it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but Half-Life 1 did it just fine.
  • The music is… well, it simply is. I’m desperately hoping that it’s just an early placeholder of some sort, because it sounds pretty bad, not to mention monotonous and generic, when compared to Kelly Bailey’s sound work on Half-Life 1.

54 Comments

  1. so,vic, is there anything about this mod that you think is positive?

    • Of course.

      • would you like to enlighten us with what you think exactly is good with this mod?

        • Oh, I’m obviously looking forward to play the mod when it comes out – who isn’t? My thoughts have been presented in the article above, in the subsequent article concerning community feedback, and in our previous BM:S coverage. Aside from that, you’re free to scroll up or scroll down, and find out what I think. Or you can wait for when we can actually play the thing and properly discuss it.

  2. In regards to discussion about the music, I don’t know why they’ve replaced the original score with a completely different and (in my opinion) out of place one, but the copyright thing sounds probable. You can just replace them with the corresponding music files from HL Source if you have it, which is what I’m going to do. Another thing, those who said they want it on sale, but are willing to pay whatever price- it’s a Source mod, and it’s legally obliged to be free. No matter what. It’s on their website. One thing that is definitely out of place is the change to sprinting and strafe leaning. This is still Half Life 1, mind you, not a generic modern FPS. Fuckers.

    • Sprinting works far better now, and viewbob while strafing is a Half-Life 1 feature. Chillax, and play some more HL1! As for the music – I don’t know if the copyright had anything to do with their decision to replace the entire score, but in any case, I too will be replacing the music with HL:S’s soundtrack.

  3. I just wnat episode 3, for DØG’s cake!

  4. BREAKING NEWS: Software is going to be added to Steam on September 5th! http://store.steampowered.com/news/8584/

  5. I’m waiting for Black Mesa Source 2.

  6. I personally like the music. And as for the voices not having the radio effect, I actually have a problem with that in HL1: in real life wouldn’t you hear their actual voices instead of the radio? I don’t like talking about realism in games, but you have to admit it is weird to be right next to the soldiers (like when they are carrying you to the garbage compactor), and hear the radio effect with their talking.

  7. I hope they they let us disable the view lean on strafe and the anaglyph 3D damage indicator. Too much COD Modern Crysis Black Ops…

  8. Guys,
    You can find a download of the 1080p version in the BM:S forums. It looks better to me.
    http://forums.blackmesasource.com/showthread.php?t=12099&page=12

  9. I’m confused: the video at valve time comes from a pretty old build… 4 / 5 weeks old?

  10. I honestly thought the Music was good. Sounds like something From the Dues Ex games. Anyone wanna tell me why they think its bad?

  11. >the mod build depicted is 4-5 weeks old,

    So does this mean the footage itself is 4 weeks old or that this is one of the first builds of BMS 4 weeks after they started working on it?

  12. That looked pretty damn good if you ask me… I hope we get more info and footage soon!

  13. Has anyone else recognized that they have cut the TNT trap, i loved this part, maybe it was left out for a better trailer? Vic what do you think?

    • No, that’s definitely the full On A Rail level progression – nothing was edited out from the video. But yes, indeed; it does appear as though the TNT laser trap has been cut from BM:S. Dayum.

  14. Hi Vic, it´s a great work that you do in this site. Thanks for sharing it.

    I understand, too, why people criticize and it´s important for improving.

    In this case, it appears that the game achieves 99% of their objectives and that is difficult to do, even in paid games. But, of course, people will have the right to point what they don´t like, anyway, even if it is only 1% of the game that is not as perfect as it could be.
    Thanks again, Vic, for this Site.

  15. IT IS GOOD DAY TO BE VALVE FAN!

  16. Countrary to other people, i find it perfect, the voice acting. It´s supposed to be dramatic and gives some tension to the scene. Otherwise it would be too boring.

    And yes, they worked 8 years on it, for the love of doing it for the community. So little details are only details, i think.

    • Sure, but it seems almost forced… as in overly dramatic. Again, I do acknowledge the fact that this is a zero-budget mod recreating a game which has always had this sort of goofy voice acting, but I can also understand why they’re getting this kind of criticism.

  17. I think people are disliking the gameplay because it appears too easy while Half Life soldiers were hard to kill.
    But Black Mesa also will have the Hard mode, so there is no reason to feel anxious about it.

    Also the player is in a suicide mode in this video, which also take from the enjoyment of using tactics to kill them without going Rambo about it.
    It´s awesome, in fact.

  18. Jesus Christ, so much good news and releases in the last weeks.

  19. Very busy week, Vic.

  20. Oh yeah, I already saw that new leak about an hour ago and downloaded the HD version.
    How do you all feel about Iron Sights?
    Yet, I was still very impressed, looks bloody amazing.

  21. Is there anyway to get a better quality version of the first video? It’s two blurry and looks like it was taken by a potato camera. Apart from that I’m kinda mhe about it. It just doesn’t look very enjoyable sadly. It’s all look and no meat, maybe it’s just the video however I have a bad feeling about this. Also before you pull the “But it’s free” thing, I’m just saying if it isn’t enjoyable it isn’t enjoyable even if it’s free.

  22. At 7:09 EST their Facebook page posted:

    “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! The Great Oz has spoken!”

  23. cool can you make topic for the future of steam on windows 8?

  24. woah, interesting news this week.I don’t know if all of you saw this gameplay video so I drop it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnn8yPY7Qgs

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