![\"\"](\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Black-Mesa-Screen-01.jpg\" "\\"Black")
<\/a><\/p>\nDevelopment of the mod seemed to be going ahead at full steam at one stage – and then it suddenly got hit with delays, set-backs and general bad luck. In 2008, the team released a rather impressive trailer toting a 2009 release…which never happened, either.<\/p>\n
The current status of the mod is “ongoing” – with the team taking a very fitting Valve-esque “done when its done” attitude to it, but with valid reason: this isn’t their job; they’re not getting paid to do it, it’s a labour of love.<\/p>\n
Lead Developer, Daniel “Raminator” Junek, took to the official forums not long ago to dish out a few stats on the mod – indicating that Black Mesa is much larger than most of us had thought – even surpassing Half-Life 2 in almost every way.<\/p>\n
“Some statistics I compiled today that might be of interest to a few people,” he posted.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Half-Life 2 contains 68 maps totalling 610 MB; Black Mesa contains 53 totalling 1748 MB<\/li>\n
- Half-Life 2 contains 4412 textures totalling 1015 MB; Black Mesa contains 5084 totalling 3135 MB<\/li>\n
- Half-Life 2 contains 2095 models totalling 409 MB; Black Mesa contains 2166 totalling 461 MB<\/li>\n
- Half-Life 2 contains 5514 sound effects (including NPCs and dialogue) totalling 960 MB, Black Mesa contains 5930 totalling 2305 MB<\/li>\n
- Half-Life 2 contains 1836 choreographed scenes; Black Mesa contains 2245<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
“At the time of posting (31\/12\/2011), Black Mesa is 7884 MB. Using standard WinRAR compression, it packs down to 3682 MB,” he concluded.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Black-Mesa-Screen-02-1024x614.jpg\" "\\"Black")
<\/a><\/p>\nSpeaking about the development status, Raminator said “Progress hasn’t been great, and it has slowed down a bit. That was never a secret. Nevertheless, work is being done, tasks are being completed, and progress is being made.”<\/p>\n
He went on to explain that the reason development has slowed is because there are hundreds of small tasks to do – and only a select few people on the already limited team can do them.<\/p>\n
“We’re tying up loose ends, replacing outdated content, polishing unfinished features\/areas\/assets\/mechanics, fixing bugs, optimising performance\/load times\/memory utilisation, preventing potential crashes, negating exploits, improving consistency in terms of art direction\/gameplay\/pacing, tweaking the difficulty, reworking things that aren’t fun\/intuitive…”<\/p>\n
“The last few percent of the development takes up a disproportionate amount of time because the aim is extremely diffuse. There are hundreds of tiny tasks to attend to, and only a small number of people can do them.”<\/p>\n
“This is all being done by a handful of volunteers in what little free time they have.”<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Black-Mesa-Screen-03-1024x614.jpg\" "\\"Black")
<\/a><\/p>\nYou could argue that 7 years in development is enough to make this the Duke Nukem Forever of the mod community – but despite how many people might feel the mod is no longer a point of relevance, it still remains one of the most anticapated Half-Life-related developments.<\/p>\n
Check out the impressive 2008 trailer below.<\/p>\n
Source: Black Mesa Forums 1<\/a>, 2<\/a><\/h5>\n