Black Mesa Delayed Again, Engine Update in its Place

Unfortunate news comes to us from the indie dev team, Crowbar Interactive. The studio grew to fame when they modified the Source 2 engine to create the original Half-Life game, known as Black Mesa. The mod would eventually be acknowledged and accepted by Steam as its own game. The game is still in development, and according to Adam Engels, the game's prop artist, there will be yet another delay before the next update.

In a Steam Community post, Engels announces that the release of the final zone, Xen, will be delayed for a second time. The area was initially due for release in December. While the area will not be released by then, the good news is that they plan to release an update in its place that implements many of the new engine features that have been developed in preparation for Xen. We should expect to hear more details about the status of Xen around this time as well.

Here are some of the upcoming features:

Lens Flare


Dynamic Lights

 
4 Way Texture Blends


Image Based Ambient Lighting


CSM and Godray Performance


Xen Concept Art


You can read the details about each new feature at the Steam Community post.

Black Mesa is a fantastic recreation of Half-Life, and if you are wanting to play a game that kickstarted Valve as a developer, this is a great way of playing it without sacrificing the visual standard of modern games. Black Mesa will be on sale for 60 percent off on Steam until November 28 for those interested.