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Podcast 17’s Let’s Play of Black Mesa: Source

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Podcast 17’s Let’s Play of Black Mesa: Source

Things have been a little quiet here – and I am sorry for that! Rest assured that I have been doing far more than simply playing Black Mesa during this time – together with my colleagues Mimaz and David, I am working on both an in-depth essay/review of BM:S, as well as a comprehensive video comparison between the original Half-Life and Black Mesa. And as Gabe Newell once said, these things take time (on a related note, work continues on that review of CS:GO, despite all the more important stuff getting in the way).

However, I won’t leave you guys hanging in the interim. As a matter of fact, I’d recommend you check out Podcast 17’s Let’s Play series of Black Mesa, on YouTube. While I am a part of the podcast staff, I haven’t participated in its creation, but I’ve got to say that it’s probably one of the best Let’s Plays of BM that I’ve seen thus far, since release. William has been a part of this community for a very long time, and is very much a Half-Life historian of sorts – and so, his commentary is constructive, positive, insightful and most importantly, very entertaining. He also demonstrates a lot of unique dialogue and environmental detail that I hadn’t actually picked up on.

Oh, and yes – as he had promised to do when Black Mesa is released, William is actually going to eat part of his beard, and he will do so on the next live episode: #206. I won’t be eating any of my facial hair – no, I’m saving that for when Gunman Chronicles 2 gets released. That’s a bet I can never possibly lose… unless someone at Valve somehow has a grudge on me. But apparently, they do visit once in a while, so let’s hope I’ve not sealed my doom (or rather, the doom of my facial hair) just now.

But if you’re looking for something to tide you over until I tell you all about our thoughts on the mod, then I highly recommend you read CVG’s review, Eurogamer’s, as well as BeefJack’s. They are all quite well-written, balanced, and insightful. And again, rest assured that our review is also on the way, and should drop relatively soon (yes, really)!

16 Comments

  1. Oh noes, more HL3 rumors…
    Apparently a “source” told this Greek website that HL3 will be open-world, including quests and stuff. Please God no.

    Original, translated:
    http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=el&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.journaldugamer.com%2F2012%2F09%2F17%2Fhalf-life-3-open-world%2F

    IGN article:
    http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/09/20/is-half-life-3-open-world-and-coming-after-2013

    • I hate to say it.

      But I kinda, just a little, like the idea of open world Half-Life.

      Would love to see how Valve would blend the 2 genres.

      • As long as the game can achieve standards as high as the previous of the series, why not?
        I think it could blend very well with the arctic areas.

        • Open-world really isn’t Valve’s thing, I don’t want this to be a failed experiment.
          Quests? Fetch quests? That’s some of the most boring filler in RPG’s.
          Also, Valve is good at creating a sense of this huge world where everything depends on you while making sure you can’t actually do anything wrong, and keeping a strictly linear path. I wish there was a bit more freedom, but the formula has worked.
          An open world would be good for the Arctic environments, yes, but I still think Valve could make it seem open while keeping you on their path. I’d like that approach better.

          And finally, the article says Skyrim influenced Valve. If I want an open world game inspired by Skyrim, I will go and play Skyrim.

        • Arctic open world?

          Yeah that would be exciting.
          “hey gordon , there’s some snow overthere!”

          runs for 30minutes. “Gordon , I think we went the wrong way”

          Runs for another 30 minutes completely snowblind.

  2. Oh, I was actually already following it!
    This is great, because I watched the entire previous Let’s Play of Podcast17’s Half-Life series and it’s great to see the same guy back playing Black Mesa!
    Seeing his reactions and opinions on the changes and new areas they’ve added, that were quite the same as my outlook on, is awesome.
    I was glad he wasn’t criticizing the living hell out of the game and I quote from him “Will go down as one of the greatest mods of all time”, because frankly, that’s how I felt and everyone else, even with its down-sides.

  3. The mod is REALLY good. I have to keep myself from drooling every time I load it up.

    It’s interesting that ValveTime themselves spent more time in their review focusing on nitpicks, many of which are highly questionable since most people I’ve seen like the very things VT criticized.

    And yes, right now their review has 277 likes and 952 dislikes. There is a just God out there folks!

  4. Wrong. Wrong. All Wrong. Where are the catchphrases? The pandering to the audience? The Face-Cams? How come they aren’t advertising shirts every 5 minutes?

  5. Who’s commenting on the ‘Let’s Play’ series, out of curiosity?

  6. How can you recommend a podcast commentated by some little ungrateful prick who acts like a ten year old when he couldn’t get to see Xen in the initial Teleport sequence. Cursing the creators for ruining his game. Pretty low standards boys.

    • As you have just proven, everyone is entitled to their opinion no matter how they express it.

    • Bad-mouthing isn’t a nice act either. I think we tend to scrutinize and disparage other people, in particular over the Internet, while neglecting our potential to be courteous and positive.

      OT: Black Mesa looks absolutely fantastic! I am finding it difficult not to watch the rest of this LP so that I can experience it for myself for the first time.

  7. Oh, now I see what you were talking about. Interesting. Looking forward to the review!

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