Tag: half life

Black Mesa Xen Half Life

Black Mesa Project Teases Final Area: The Xen

The popular Half-Life Fan Remake, Black Mesa, is finally releasing the last zone in the game: The Xen. Well, they released a teaser, at least.

If you’re a fan of Half-Life, you probably have heard about Black Mesa. It began as a mod for the Source 2 engine, porting the 1998 first-person shooter Half-Life into a more modern format. The project gained popularity and was eventually accepted by Valve themselves, releasing as its own game on Steam in 2015 under Crowbar Interactive.

The game has been in active development since. One of the most notable missing features was the existence of the final world, the Xen. Instead, the game ended right at the moment of teleportation to the alien environment.

Now the developers have released a new teaser trailer dedicated to their implementation of the Xen.

The reveal was in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the original Half-Life’s release, November 19, 1998. Before this, the developers had only shown concept art for the Xen. They also note that the area isn’t ready yet, but they’re targeting for a release in Q2 of 2019.

You can find it for $20 on Steam now, if you don’t want to wait. I’m just glad to finally see the giant testicle crab in HD.

Saturday 11-25-17: Namco Bandai’s Egg, Black Mesa Delays

Let me start off by apologizing. It was a busy few days and I may have missed a few posts. My bad, I’ll keep that to a minimum. While I don’t normally make weekend posts, this is to make up for missing Friday. Here’s whats new:

  • Bandai Namco confuses me with an egg
  • Black Mesa is being delayed more
  • Destiny 2 is changing their XP Grind

Bandai Namco’s Microwaved Egg
The Japanese publisher is causing some confusion when they put up a webpage. The only thing of notice on this page is a stylized microwave that, when clicked, will cook for a moment, open up, and reveal an egg. The screen then says “_ days left” with however many days until December 4th (today it says “9 days left”). What does this mean? I have no clue. It is counting down to something, but if it’s in reference to a game series, it’s not one I know. You can check out the website here.

Black Mesa Delay
The popular remake of the original Half-Life, Black Mesa, was originally supposed to update to include the Xen this December. In an announcement on the Steam Community, they tell us that the Xen will not be coming in that update. They apologize for having to delay further. They will, however, be releasing an engine update in its place. Mostly lighting based, this update will improve the graphical aspects of the game. More details about Xen will come with that update. You can see the details here.

Destiny 2’s XP Changes
Fans were upset when it was discovered that repeating events would yield a diminishing return on XP. Since you can get Bright Engrams either with XP or real-world money, people feared that this action was in an effort to encourage more microtransactions. Bungie has recently made a statement saying that they were concerned about how repeatable events would impact the internal economy. They have removed the diminishing system in place and said that they will be watching how XP is made for now so that it can be fair and balanced while still being enjoyable. You can read the full post here.


Thanks for your understanding, I’ll be back on Monday to bring you the rest of the weekend’s news. Be sure to check back then. Otherwise, have a great night!

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