So apart from the big and obvious addition of the classic Half-Life Deathmatch map Crossfire, the new update to Black Mesa contains a ton of new features, improvements and bug fixes.
The update changelog, available on the official Black Mesa Forums, gives a full rundown.
Here’s a little snippet of the main new features:
Black Mesa’s version re-imagines the original Crossfire map in Source, adding a ton of new visuals and details, complete with the same infamous nuclear bunker.
The map architecture stays pretty much the same, there’s the big courtyard space full of balconies and weapons, and the open helipad space in-front of the bunker, with the iconic mounted guard towers backing it.
What we liked was the fact that Black Mesa’s version gives an entirely new context and feel to the map by adding an abandoned/decaying facility theme, it’s a lot darker too.
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Black Mesa: Surface Tension Uncut v1.11 Final is out! - Addon/Mod for Black Mesa. Black Mesa: Surface. Mod A Mod: Surface Tension Uncut Beefs Up Black Mesa. Craig Pearson. 8 years ago. 42 When I'd finished the excellent Half-Life remake mod Black Mesa I was a bit discombobulated. I looked at the clock and realised that my allotted ten hour slot for playing it had come up short. A Black Mesa (BM) Skin Mod in the NPCs category, submitted by impetuous97. I don't know if he'll be using this in his Surface Tension Uncut. Jan 07, 2013 This is the absolutely final, full release of Surface Tension Uncut, my little mod which adds the cut sections back to Black Mesa's Surface Tension, seamlessly, at no loss of quality. It gives Surface Tension the fitting climax it deserved.
Black Mesa Surface Tension Uncut Video
Here’s some images, from our previous exclusive first look article. (Click for full-size)
As you can see, there’s a bunch of new weapon models, giving the Gluon Gun, RPG, Crossbow and Shotgun a new look and feel.
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Some screenshots of the new weapon models. (Click for full-size)
The Tau Cannon can also do ‘wallshotting’, which allows you to overcharge and fire the beam through walls in the map. For anyone who remembers the original Half-Life Deathmatch, a match of Crossfire wouldn’t be complete without seeing someone get totally zapped out of the blue by it.
There’s also been a overhaul of the multiplayer player animations and certain characters like the G-Man have proper view models.
Improvements are not just visual. Multiplayer server features got upgraded too. Score is now saved for when a player leaves and then rejoins a match. Teams can also be locked for competitive sessions. Drawing noir comics.
The Black Mesa Steam Workshop got upgraded too, so community content creators will no longer have a mod size limit, opening up a ton of new possibilities.
The update also adds three previously released maps, Chopper, Rail, and Powerto the official map list. Stalkyard got a minor facelift too, with more detailing added.
Shortly after the update going live, it was reported on r/HalfLife that a few maps from the yet-to-be finished Surface Tension chapter can be found in the game files.
We have some more exclusive content to share about the future of Surface Tension in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!
Also, we have 10 copies of Black Mesa to giveaway. We’ll be doing a livestream with the developers at the end of next week.
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Watch the Stream Recording Below:
What are your thought’s on the update? Let us know in the comments below or on our social media.
Surface Tension Definition For Kids
There’s a part of my brain that still feels surprise each and every time I’m reminded that Black Mesa exists, is out, playable and even buyable on Steam. The Half-Life 1 remake in Source was such a piece of vapourware for so long, and such a surprise to both actually see and enjoy when it came out, I can’t help but react that way. Now it’s even getting patched, with 0.3.0 bringing a huge number of fixes, as well as integrating some maps into Surface Tension that were never originally finished. It’s like getting a slice of Half-Life 3, only it actually exists.
One of the best FPS games ever modded to be like one of the best FPS games ever, making one of the best FPS games ever.
Titled Surface Tension: Uncut, the patch adds about an hour of extra gameplay across three new maps and two updated ones. That’s not all that’s changed though, here’s the highlights:
Up to 75% faster load times and fixed “Node graph out of date” on level load.
Subtitles in Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Spanish.
Implemented Cascaded Shadow Mapping (CSM), which adds dynamic shadows to outdoor maps.
AI improvements to various enemies.
Balance tweaks to weapons, improving the crowbar and explosive weapons, plus making reloads friendlier on weapon switching. The Tau was also reworked.
A heap of bug fixes and level tweaks.
Added many new assets (textures, sounds, models, particles), and improved quality of many existing assets as well as updated C3A1A, first map of Forget About Freeman, to use new Xen assets.
Black Mesa Surface Tension Uncut Movie
The team are quick to point out that no, this update does not contain Xen and they’re still working on it. The original mod and Steam release launched without the controversial and downright poor final fifth, with the team saying they wanted to significantly expand and redesign it to be up to par with the rest of the game. The ETA on that has been a long time coming, but much like with the mod itself, it’d be better for them to finish it properly than rush it out.
Black Mesa Surface Tension Uncut Youtube
The full patch notes are over on the forums, while you can grab the game itself is £14.99 / $19.99 / €19.99 on Steam in Early Access.