We’re still waiting on Half-Life 3 after all these years, and it seems like we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives. Luckily, there’s something out there to tide us over until the announcement happens on our deathbed. Probably. It’s called Black Mesa, and it’s an extremely impressive remake of the original Half-Life. After it originally started life as a mod with polished visuals and additional content, Black Mesa made its way onto Steam as via Early Access, with heaps of positive praise from critics and players alike.
But while the remake itself is an impressive feat, one that even overshadowed the official Half-Life: Source release, there’s one caveat — it’s not finished yet. There’s a set of special chapters, known as Black Mesa Xen , meant to neatly wrap up the game. But despite Black Mesa’s 2012 release, the Xen chapters have yet to arrive. Now, it looks like fans will have to wait even longer before they can play the Xen chapters. On Friday, Developer Crowbar Collective shared an announcement on Steam Community that Black Mesa Xen’s release date is pushed back once again.
In its official blog, the team at Crowbar Collective told the fans they were “truly sorry” for getting players’ hopes up with a previous announcement that the chapters would be coming this December.
“We worked very hard to make December,” the statement reads, “but we are not yet ready. As a team, we take FULL responsibility for that. We have an internal deadline we are confident in, and we will be getting everyone more details as we get closer to that date.”
Luckily, Black Mesa fans will still have something to look forward to this December in the form of an update that brings new Source engine features for the upcoming Xen chapters to utilize. Dynamic lighting, ambient lighting and more are just part of the upcoming update. These tweaks should ensure that when the Xen chapters are finally ready, they’ll be the best they can be. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a new date given for when fans can finally expect them. Hopefully, that time is on the horizon, but if a longer wait means a better product, we’re glad to wait as long as we have to.
