Topic: What Half-Life 1 source should have been.

[Pugnate]

This might have been posted earlier, I am not sure:

http://www.blackmesasource.com/

Anyway looks hella cool, especially since I never finished HL1. I always wanted to, and was disappointed to find that HL1: source wasn't a total conversion in the HL2 engine.

[idolminds]

Yeah, it looks neat. Too bad its going to take ages for them to release it.

[Quemaqua]

Also, Valve will probably shut them down at some point.  Add to that the fact that HL1 isn't nearly as fun now as it was then, and... meh.  I reinstalled the game not too long ago, and while I did have some fun reliving parts of the experience, on the whole I was actually a bit surprised at the fact that it didn't do much for me.

[Pugnate]

Why would they work on this so hard if there was a possibility of them getting shut down? That's pretty stupid of them, unless they got into some sort of an agreement.

[Quemaqua]

Why would all the other game-remake attempts work so hard if there was a possibility of them getting shut down?  I don't know anything of substance.  If Valve gave it the OK, then great, but how many game remakes have actually gotten away with it in recent times?  Not nearly so many as those who were asked to cease and desist.

Though it does happen sometimes.  See my U5Lazarus thread.

[idolminds]

Valve knows about them. This project was pretty much born from HL:Source, where Valve said it wasn't a total remake and they would leave that to the modders.

[ren]

yeah, what idol said. Valve knows about this and is ok with it. This thing has been in development for years, I wish they'd just release one level at a time or something so I can play.

[Quemaqua]

Maybe Valve isn't shutting it down because it's got a DNF-style probability of release?  Heh, in any event, it's cool that they're cool with it.  Though it also sort of sucks that they didn't totally remake the thing with HL:Source since "leaving that to the modders" sounds a bit like a cop out.

[Pugnate]

Well if everything pans out in an ideal fashion, perhaps this would be awesome and faithful enough for Valve to consider putting it on Steam?

[idolminds]

Who knows...they did it with Garrys Mod.

And while I agree with Que that "let the modders do it" is a bit of a copout, I think its the only way to really do it. Was there really a market there for Valve themselves to spend time recreating the game? You said it yourself, replaying HL1 now isn't really that fun.

[Quemaqua]

That's true, but at the same time they sure fucking push HL:Source enough via ads and shit.  They could have at least like... I don't know.. made a real product out of it instead of doing basically nothing.

[Pugnate]

Yea I'd say it was false advertising.

[Quemaqua]

I don't know that it's *false*.  I mean, they haven't claimed it to be anything other than HL1 on the Source engine.  It's more what that implies.  Why bother doing that at all when the original game runs just fucking fine on XP with the latest patches and stuff?  You'd expect the port to a new engine to do *something*, and in the end, all it does is put in prettier water that looks horrendously out of place with the rest of the graphics.  I don't think it's false advertising, really, it's just... stupid and worthless?

[Xessive]

I just hope this comes out some time soon.

[Pugnate]

I don't know that it's *false*.  I mean, they haven't claimed it to be anything other than HL1 on the Source engine.  It's more what that implies.  Why bother doing that at all when the original game runs just fucking fine on XP with the latest patches and stuff?  You'd expect the port to a new engine to do *something*, and in the end, all it does is put in prettier water that looks horrendously out of place with the rest of the graphics.  I don't think it's false advertising, really, it's just... stupid and worthless?

Yea I was actually thinking that as I hit "Post". They never advertised any major changes, so it can't be "false advertising". But you've said it perfectly well. While they didn't advertise any changes, it was just the implication that had my hopes up. I actually remember Xessive assumed the same, and when I told him that it wasn't the case, his reaction was the same as mine.

At the time I had thought I'd coast through Half-Life 1 in a shiny new engine, before starting HL2.

edit:

And yes... why redo the water? Well I guess it is because it is easy.

[Xessive]

Yes, I recall that was the case. Although it was more wishful thinking than anything else. I was just really hoping that they would basically make it all HL2 style. They didn't even alter the models. Argh!

Anyway, the Black Mesa mod is taking a curious direction because they're not merely translating HL into the new engine, they're making it how they believe HL should be ( at least that's what I understood from their description).