Ben and Tao climb out of their vent to revel in nostalgia and relive the glory of 1998 first person shooter, Half-Life, as they talk through the newly released Valve endorsed fan remake, Black Mesa. They whip out their (non-existent) PhDs, lament loading screens, rave about the longevity of really great graphics, analyse the value of remakes, and marvel at the scale and ambition of this timeless, pioneering and cinematic FPS. Minor spoilers, but come on, we’re a decade later…!
Content Warning: PEGI 12. Mild language. Extended clip of man torn apart and eaten alive.
Clarifications:
According to LinkedIn, the Crowbar Collective has 13 employees.
Alien: Isolation is a 2014 survival horror video game developed by Creative Assembly. Ben has now played it, and reviewed it on pixelvision.net!
Black Mesa left early access and got its official Steam release in March 2020.
Audio extracts:
‘Stranger Things’ theme
Spaced S02E04 - ‘Help’
‘Welcome to the Suck’ from Jarhead, by Thomas Newman
A Toast to 15 Years tribute song to World of Warcraft Classic.
The Longest Journey OST
E5 Black Mesa