Black Mesa (Zero Punctuation) 

Do we have an updated timeframe for the media player in the site being overhauled, or is it largely being played by ear? I understand that you're doing all you can to make the website experience better for mobile users, so I'm absolutely not criticising, I'm just wondering.

@@jayl9110 I'm trying to find that out myself. We had an ad-tech issue with it last week when I was supposed to test it, and now we've got the pandemic to deal with which is slowing things down a bit. Sorry, checking with them every day to get that sorted.

@@theescapist don't apologise. I'm just thankful you're all able to keep making stuff to ease the boredom of lockdown & do so while staying safe yourselves.

C'mon Yahtzee where's Doom Eternal?

@@dankelteufel193 you are not speaking to yahtzee, this is brett their social media guy

Dr. Steinman didn't like this comment.

I'd say the Wellington boot was at least more fashionable and better looking than just... green. The Xen levels in Black Mesa are phenomenal in my opinion. Compared to... whatever the hell Valve made in 1998.

And shiny, oh god how nice and shiny they are... with awesome background music. That's always a good fit to Wellington boots, isn't it?

@@griffingamer8624 yeah, a better analogy would be that instead of the green wellington they put 2 combat boots on the suited man. Still didn't quite fit the style, but at least wasn't a fashion disaster

He might look silly, but he can kick the shit out of you.

As far as I can tell, the only "preanimated" segments are just Gordon Freeman standing up from being unconscious. Or what happens if you refuse the G-man at the end.

An excellent point and one that adds some reasonable validity to the project and remakes in general. Younger generation will at SOME point run into an old classic and pass it by simply because it looks dated. I'm in my 30's so it has not happen a lot for me, but it does happen from time to time which is a shame :)

@@ohilevoeauca789 And even that was just a camera entity on an invisible platform set to scroll along with the military guys walking. Gordan Freeman as a model in the campaign doesn's exist at all.

Same here, I've never played the original because it existed back when I didn't. I really enjoyed black mesa and was surprised at how well done the level design was, although a huge chunk of the game was just me going in circles trying to find my way, I'm probably going to get a lot of shit for saying this, but I wish it had an objective pointer or some sort of map. Also most of the time it is really quiet with no music or dialog, this is probably just me being accustomed to modern games but the game did feel lonely and quiet from time to time.

If you haven't played it, Half-Life 2 is like that as well with a way richer story.

Probably jumping the gun since I personally never finished Xen, but isn't the point of you going there to stop the alien invasion? Why do people say it doesn't make sense?

@@Capt_Dango Because it makes sense, and they just like to complain. There is a reason they took their time and even donsulted with the original developers.

Capt Dango It makes perfect sense narratively, that's why Valve did it in '98. The problem is in the actual playing of it; while the story is reaching its culmination, the gameplay - the actual thing you're doing - is instead starting from scratch in a completely different genre.

The problem with Xen is that it's just not very good. Narratively, it's fine: you fight the aliens, then the humans, then the humans and aliens together, then after the humans bugger off, you go kill the alien leader to stop the invasion. However, it was clearly done in a rushed manner and doesn't match the quality of the rest of the game. Black Mesa's vision of Xen is *hauntingly* beautiful. It's a visual and aesthetic treat, and it carries on the narrative in a minimalistic way that has you combing through the remnants left behind by the original research expedition before they all started getting eaten. It is a bit long; I'll give Yahtzee that. It's also a bit too pleased with itself over its own puzzle elements, none of which have any bearing on the finale. The battle with the Nihilanth, though, is perhaps the juiciest and most unexpected treat of them all. It's a little visually busy for my tastes, but really feels like a boss fight. It earns a nearly-perfect A.

Because of narrative they can't trash it, but gameplay of the section is borderline unsalvageable so they'd hardly want to keep it. Best that could be hoped for is somehow making it a tad less unenjoyable to play, though first person precision platforming is in itself a very difficult gameplay element to make work.

He spoke too soon.

>Number of office suicides since coronavirus shut-downs: 1

its not meant to be a full remake lie BM i think

@@scottfriske9186 That's a community-made half life 3 game, not a remake of any existing games.

@@r.pizzamonkey7379 And it's not even the only fanmade HL3 game, Boreal Alyph is in development right now as well.

Can't wait to hear him talk about it. I was flabbergasted that Valve actually made a fucking game

RU-vid videos for the escapist run like a week or two behind IIRC, their site have the most up to date, wouldn't be surprised if it showed up on this channel in the next two weeks.

@@Peluceus Yeah Black Mesa finally released out of early access just before this video was uploaded to the Escapist website.

alldayagain valve just made artifact

@@alldayagain I was flabbergasted enough that I bought a new PC and a headset to play it, and wasn't let down!

Too late! Escapist is already putting him through that hell!

This is the dream goal for Project Borealis.

@@Bred0nSch00lV2 but valve is already making the Next Half-Life...and Epistle 3's ending is HL: Alyx's ending so it's already irrelevant

@@naturesquad9174 I hope Valve are making a Half Life 3 because I think it's safe to call it the games industry's most prominent example of vapourware. 😄 Also unofficial games as awesome as they can be are developed at a snail's pace as they are hobbyist projects. Still Project Borealis could be really awesome, I loved their physics demo.

HELLO GORDON!!

Hissss!!!

Guess they spent all that time early accessed because ITS NOT SHUTTING DOWN AHH AAAHH

Wow, how so? Did valve reference some of their ideas in half-life Alyx?

@@kait3n10 Sort of, but It might just be that Black Mesa did a really good job with explaining the lore of xen in ways that are hard to miss, because in half-life its easy to kill a vortigaunt in xen before you realize that they're passive without alien controllers and Black Mesa has sections where they help you out.

@@supercammy98 Oh definitely! They did a great job at humanizing the vorts in xen. I'm wondering though how Valve has acknowledged BM's ideas.. so far I haven't seen any statements from Valve about BM, especially xen.

@@kait3n10 if you play HL:alyx it has "xen" areas that look ripped right out of BM.

@Kaiten 10 There's also the fact that Alyx has a pet Snark that looks like it was taken straight out of BM. It just seems like too much of a coincidence that both the Snark and the Xen areas look exactly the same as they do in BM.

I mean, we can only confirm he's ever been in a vagina ONCE. Technically speaking

@@kylejscheffler He might not have actually gone down at all, since artificial insemination exists.

Or Kess just did all the work.

*than

@@kylejscheffler Twice, technically, cuz he did come out of one.

I mean, go watch Freeman's Mind if you need something to binge.

@@raelimperialaerosolkid They're released to the public, you just have to watch it on their website with a slightly sub-par video player, which really isn't actually that bad.

Goddamn, I'm old as hell

what's up ya geezer?

@@LuizAlexPhoenix im not THAT old. Im a zoomer lmao

Well...The first screenshots from Black Mesa in MoDDB was 2005.

@@LuizAlexPhoenix Ah bummer, I wondered what those gnarly pains were. I should totally tell my body to not have a cow, man! I don't have a fringe to put through the hole in the back of my cap anymore anyway.

Personally, I think the Zen level works for it. The entire game up to that point had talked about interdimensional travel, and how all the creatures you've face have come from this parallel world that you have no idea about, but gradually see more and more poking through. Actually going to Zen itself is actually a rather big pay off, as once you've fought through all of the soldiers trying to stop you, and the aliens that have poked through dimensions onto earth, I doubt there's really much more that could have been done. As Yahtzee said, when the game was in Early access, and stopped abruptly at the point of going into the portal, it felt just that. Abrupt and unfinished. So if the game is all the worse by not having Zen, then having it's inclusion still improves the game, particularly in that fact that it is a sort of pay off. That all this game it's been you trying to survive the mayhem of interdimensional traveling aliens suddenly showing up, and you getting to finally do the interdimensional traveling yourself.

AGrayPhantom it was dense and hard in that classic videogame way and i loved it. the atmosphere and healing pools 😩👌

SkyHighGam3r I assume it being the tits is a good thing right?

@@jiraffe9600 Shit yeah, who doesn't love tits? lol

@@retropulse03 gay dudes

@@themaskedmysadaean8885 Nah man, even most gay dudes loved titties at one point. It's the #1 source of breast-milk, and babies love that shit.

I relate to what you mean about returning to an early access game, for me that was Rust. I almost felt betrayed by the major changes of Rust, I played the hell of it in Alpha, when it was one map, and you could memorize, and make communities with random Russian or Portuguese players. But when it switch to Beta and onwards it was a completely different game, and lost a lot the fun for me. I haven't opened it in years.

Can you turn on a mounting mechanic?

All sarcasm aside, auto-crouchjump is actually on by default, so I'm not even sure how Yahtzee had the problem to begin with

To be fair, I don't think Yahtzee spends much time in the options menu. He claims you can't look up in his Conduit review but you can if you tweak the outrageously detailed and customizable control settings. Yeah, the game's still laughable and his other criticisms still stand but those control settings were the best and most fleshed out part of the game, it even let you map button combinations.

@@TARINunit9 It was probably patched that way after release. Kind of in the same way that they patch off tutorial pop-ups in Doom Eternal. Don't stop the game to tell me the enemies weaknesses, just show a message that there is a tutorial and I'll look at it if I start having problems killing it.

@@TARINunit9 the auto crouch doesn't always work, I've had to manually crouch many times, it's better than nothing tho

Yahtzee is just a Valve tsundere. Not a sentence I expected to type today.

@@poke548 Unless you're talking Portal 1

I THOUGHT WHAT WE HAD WAS SPECIAAAAAAAAL!

Prince of Persia Sands of Time: *rewinds time to before he knew Yahtzee*

DS is his Mistress

Yeah well, Portal is his Soulmate don’t forget

Undertale is his favorite mistress.

And Co-op of those two females characters

I had never had this issue. It was fairly obvious where to go for me.

As in... playing both games on two separate computers simultaneously? This actually sounds like a neat RU-vid series idea.

TheAndrew0085 yepp. And what can be classier than going on the hunt in alien landscapes in tweed suit and Wellington boots?

Go. Fulfil your destiny.

SUBJECT: Lauri Korkeaniemi

@@h4724-q6j *Another scientist leans over and whispers:* "Hey, how do you pronounce that?"

Someone pay this man his 100 bits so we can get his review

ayyyyy

Ayyyyyyyyyyy

ayyyyyyyy

Slick

I'm right there with you. I enjoy the new one, but doesn't really capture the oppression and hostility original Xen had going for it. I liken it to those final chapters of System Shock 2, almost.

Vincent you're not alone! i really enjoyed Xen (and not just for the healing pools 😩👌). the atmosphere was fantastic and truly made me feel lost in an alien world. also the dense difficult iconic of classic games helped with that too lol

GET OUT!!!

No

BJ! We need you defending us with the MG42! *cocks shotgun* what did you say?!

how dare you HDTF is legendary

Hunt Down the Freeman is the pinnacle of human achievement.

Um... all of these are out already?

@@Dan0RG I mean I cant wait until yahtz reviews them

Didn't the jump pack only work because of the low gravity in zen?

@@MrTimmy132 the long jump was fun in the tutorial, so it worked before xen

@@azzzanadra Yeah, but if it had been given earlier, everyone else would have complained because it didn't line up with the original.

Obviously it’s a payoff narratively, Half-Life has a great story. He was saying it wasn’t a satisfying payoff mechanically.

@@mr.cup6yearsago211 The head crabs are push overs with melee attacks but when you're in a bind they are scary and fun to fight. The soldiers are spongey and their weapons are impactful and when you are equipped they are fun to fight. The aliens are goofy and tankey and their weapons are gimmicky and weak, they are not fun to fight, so it sucks that even though we travel to another dimension we spend the whole back half of the game fighting them. Valve: Oh, what's that? The Aliens suck? Well now the aliens are all just the soldiers and we're calling them the combine. Better? Much.

@@BenjaminSteber I don’t understand what this comment is trying to say, genuinely.

@@mr.cup6yearsago211 I just haphazardly revisited this comment. I too have no idea what I was trying to say. Assume I was drunk and you, like Gordon Freeman, got stuck in a vent.

@@BenjaminSteber lol, fair enough!

Excuse spelling and xen not zen mb

I think he was drugged while writting this stuff, either that or we're seeing early signs of dementia.

@@sujimayne You have left way too many comments about this and now you just look like a fanboy.

The issue is not the story, but the gameplay.

It's a payoff story-wise, but it's absolutely not a payoff gameplay-wise. Xen works for the story, but the gameplay is so radically different it feels like when a game drops you into a mech suit for the final boss when before that, you were sneaking around, slitting throats.

@@kabobawsome If that's what he was talking about (and I really don't get the impression he was) then at least New Xen is better about it. It has a bad case of "Half Life 2 puzzles" but there's much more combat and the combat really does feel like you're behind enemy lines in a hostile sort of base -- just like Black Mesa

I'm so old that I know who Jane Goodall is o.o;

I mean yeah but you should just try and play hl1.

Just get over the graphics it’s a good game I promise

@@hanakoikezawa8322 Yeah. I'd argue it's better than BM from a gameplay standpoint anyway but thats just me.

I mean, I don't see why not! Seems like the whole point of Black Mesa is to be a somewhat more polished and modern version of Half-Life, and I'd imagine they were quite careful to preserve continuity, being huge fans and all. So I figure if you play this in place of the original, and then go to Half-Life 2, it should actually work pretty well.

@@Semudara I mean they put Kleiner in the ams area at the start of the game which he wasn't there in hl1. The story is mostly the same yes but obviously BM Xen takes liberties with how Xen looks which personally im not a fan of but meh. I know Half Life Alyx only just came out but the Xen stuff you see taking over the buildings and what not looks great chz it feels like a hd version of hl1 Xen. BM Xen looks quite different.

What timeline is this

Spoiler: it's Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Probably then it's Doom Eternal, then Half-life, then maybe RE3?

It's good to see that the Army is still pulling their weight and taking their mission of helping the Marines very seriously, and I love though they really showed exactly how unimportant to the story and gameplay the Air Force was, they were removed from the game entirely and their F-16s replaced with Marine Harriers, and not a damn thing changed, and I'd have to say cutting the Air Force in favor of adding the New Mexico National Guard into the story was a smart choice, it gave us some good world building by giving us a taste of what's going on in New Mexico while all this is happening, though I wish they kept the "Army" written on the sides of the AH-64 Apaches, honestly I'm not sure why the Army wasn't backing up the Marines from the start.

Psst...I think he meant modern trends like "Barney forgot his coffee at reception. Retrieve it and he will shoot headcrabs for you"

@@chrismacbean and i dont think he meant that, good talk.

@@RhysClark97 Umm, no shit you think that.

@@chrismacbean you replied first to tell me you think different while presenting no evidence as to why, your input was nothing. That was the joke.

Seriously? He means modern trends like fetch quests. Apologies for using an example rather than the term.

Yeah he's really become a naturalised Australian after immigrating there from Britain

I loved that game. Partially because I really like the faction it's based around, but the gameplay was fun too. I'll leave a like to up the chances this gets seen. Praise be the Omnissiah.

Mechanicus is the perfect game to review. It does some things amazingly well, and does some things amazingly horribly. It's a very awkward gem.

If it ever releases in the first place

Asmodin Not yet. But Yahtzee starts live-streaming at 4 PM Eastern Time, and if you leave a $2 tip, he might respond to you.

Oh ye. It's called Project Lambda

They aren't doing the rest of the game though. It was just a test of some free assets.

Yea. I've seen this too

I thought he already reviewed Half-Life (HRUUH) Alyx.

@@E1craZ4life good use of the dryheave colon

This happened to me, too. I got all the way up to Forget About Freeman maybe 6 months ago, and booted it back up to celebrate the official release. So it wasn't a jump straight into Xen like I was hoping...

@@sophisticatediorama Well, you can go directly to the Xen part trough level select.

@ But without my weapon stash!? D =

I assume it'll just be most of what he said about New Leaf, if he even has enough to say to review it.

He'd have to timeskip if he didn't want to take a month for a proper full-featured review.

Well, if anyone does come up with anymore science named games, I hope one of them is called Megabyte.

He's gonna review animal crossing first

Hope he likes it! I definitely think it was worth the wait.

He has become a true Californian, even in his pronounciation.

me nosay Is that where he lives now?

@@brab5379 Moved to San Fran to be with his girl I believe.

While it's true that 99% of all politicians suck, Republican politicians are on another level of despicable.