GamesFPSBlack MesaBarney Calhoun goes to Xen in Black Mesa: Blue Shift’s latest chapter, coming later this monthWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesFPSBlack MesaBarney Calhoun goes to Xen in Black Mesa: Blue Shift’s latest chapter, coming later this monthWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
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Black Mesa: Blue Shift, the fan-made retelling of Barney Calhoun’s pre-Half Life 2 adventures in the Black Mesa research facility (and beyond!), is set to launch its next chapter on November 17.
Like Black Mesa, Blue Shift is being released in chapters corresponding with the storyline of the original. The first four chapters arrived in relatively short order, but it’s been two years since the release of the most recent chapter,Captive Freight, which came out at the end of 2022. Blue Shift developer CitizenFive told PC Gamer that the wait for this chapter has been longer for a simple reason: “Developing a chapter set in Xen is far more complicated than the usual levels.”
“The chapters set on Earth are essentially corridors whereas Xen is a lot of highly detailed natural environments that require a far different pipeline,” CitizenFive explained. “Building the detailed assets that go into each environment, creating collisions for them and optimizing them to ensure good performance within the limitations of Source engine, and working around a number of gameplay considerations (such as hacking in new Xenian enemies without proper code access) is generally very taxing.”
Crowbar Collective faced the same challenges when creating theXen chaptersfor Black Mesa, the rep said. “We’ve had the benefit of figuring out how to create level details with the help of VR which has sped things up somewhat, but it’s still a complex process.”
This new addition, Focal Point—the fifth of eight chapters—sees Barney sent to the alien world of Xen to help calibrate some teleportation equipment. Naturally, the process does not go entirely smoothly. It does look pretty cool, though.
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Focal Point will also include “a lot ofgreat improvements and content” for the previous chapters in Blue Shift, including:
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Black: Mesa: Blue Shift is available onSteam Workshopand fromModDB.
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The Sims begins its 25th anniversary celebration next week with a Behind The Sims episode of news and announcements
Path of Exile 2 numberlord spends 16 straight days killing rare monsters to prove that a stat that makes loot better makes better loot
Palestinian developer raises more than $200,000 to make Dreams on a Pillow, a game about the horrors of the 1948 Nakba
Piranha Games will lay off employees after Mechwarrior 5: Clans ‘performed below projections’
Marvel Rivals’ latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod scene
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