Yeah, go to Tools and download the Source SDK 2007.

Goody,Goody gumdrops :D

It'll automatically download and install Source SDK 2007 if you attempt to launch Black Mesa without it. I didn't realize I hadn't installed it on my laptop yet, so instead of giving me some error message it just sorted the matter out itself by prompting to install it as though I went to tools and clicked install. :P

Oh, and for anybody still confused... you don't need to have a single game on Steam. You don't have to have ever played a single Valve or Source Engine game. You don't have to own any version of Half-Life or even know who Gordon Freeman is. In other words, you can play through this, a "remake" (to use the term very loosely) of the original Half-Life, without having ever played or bought anything from Valve or Steam, including any other Half-Life games, absolutely free.

It's nice to be able to compare it to the experience of playing the original Half-Life, but if you've put off playing Half-Life all this time, it's free in an awesome new form. Well, most of the game, anyway.


I have to agree, the soundtrack is really great. I listened to the whole thing while Black Mesa was downloading and installing. I think there were three songs that didn't impress me much, but considering I never really cared for Half-Life's music all that much to begin with, I'd say I'm quite pleased.

All right, first big complaint - soldiers have accuracy and reaction times of gods themselves.

Black Mesa torrent came pretty fast (I installed it already), but the Source SDKs keep trickling down at around 50-150 kbps. Waiting, waiting...

I don't know if it needs both for this game, but Steam is downloading both Source SDK Base 2006 and 2007. I am unsure if I have installed any games that include those already on this laptop, I don't have any Half-life 2 or Portals here yet, but I do have e.g. TeamFortress Classic and TeamFortress 2 (isn't it Source?).

I have the ship which i understand is supposed to use the source engine....Is that enough?

Also, does it need/run the steam client?

Change your server. I'm getting around 2Mb/sec here from the Hamburg server.

I only downloaded 2007 and it worked. It does say paused on 2006 because I think it partially downloaded it as well (needed files).

If it's possible to download SDK 2007 somewhere else it shouldn't require steam but I'm not sure.

Downloading is fine (as i have a steam account). But what i mean is, once downloaded, does it have to run via the steam client/need to have online activation.

Or is it just like GOG, and once downloaded it'll install everything without needing online stuff?

I think you misunderstood. I meant that Black Mesa requires SDK 2007 to play, not necessarily steam. If steam is the only available place to download/install SDK 2007 then indirectly steam is required to play. There's a possiblity it requires steam as well regardless of SDK 2007 but I doubt it, the project is open source. Why would they lock it to steam?

Seems to run fully smooth on ASUS G75 laptop with everything maxxed out (1920x1080, 16x anistorportriosic filtering, 16qxCSAA antialiasing and lots of other terms I don't know what they mean).

Which is not suprising, because the graphics seem more like 2005-level or so as far as I can tell, rather than Crysis 2 level (which I guess was not really expected either). Which is fine, as it still looks quite a lot better than the original, or even the later "Source remakes" of them.

I've not played it beyond the tram ride, maybe trying it more later today. I'd like to test how it runs on older hardware (Thinkpad T400).

Multiplayer :

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2935838

nvm

You don't need the Source SDK 2007 ?