Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G32_q_3es8E&list=PLC9AAC96BF8865E60&index=0&feature=plcp

Youtube page with lots of development videos and interesting information:
http://www.youtube.com/user/blackmesasourcemedia

Website currently in countdown mode: http://www.blackmesasource.com/

So for those not in the know, if you jumped through the right pre-order hoops for Half Life 2 back in the day, you were promised a copy of something called "Half Life: Source." Without any media to go by, people's imaginations stormed up the possibility of Half Life 1 done in HL2's then-impressive graphical style. The results were off by a longshot. Half Life: Source was essentially just Half Life 1 with ragdolls and nice-looking water (I've heard it's gotten additions, but I don't know how much).

Once mod kits for HL2 went out, several HL1 re-make projects went up. Some of these projects joined forces, and went almost totally dark, popping up now and then with completely overhauled graphics and sounds each time. Since the graphics were getting better and better, the programmers had to rebuild the game as not just a re-make, but a from-the-ground-up project. They even had to ditch old VA sound files, because the primitive recordings and voice acting sounded odd when spoken by much more realistic-looking characters.

After around 8 years in development, the developers of Black Mesa are now getting ready to release a working build of the mod (around 5 days at the time of me posting this). The released build will have around 8-10 hours of gameplay, and will conclude when Gordon enters the Xen world. The developers plan to release a full build of the game later. I'm personally interested, yet cautiously optimistic.

EDIT: The site's back up, and the game is available.

SoldierHawk wrote:

I'm looking forward to this, but also waiting for Steam. On another note, can I say how awesome it is that Valve doesn't only NOT sue these guys (looking at you EA, for killing that amazing and beautiful LOtR mod for Skyrim) but actually hosts it and distributes it on their DD platform? Valve, you rock so hard.

Valve seems like PR geniuses. They know they'll have people that will always be rabidly devoted them through basic things like not having some fucking legal team sitting on their hands, waiting to get some action on a few kids who want to update their games. I remember when I first saw the announcement of Valve doing trademark/copyright claims. I figured the worst, but all they asked was take the "Source" out of Black Mesa: Source. It's just nice to see a dev/pub that doesn't seem hostile towards its customer base (them being an exception makes me sad for the industry).

EDIT: Playing through now. I just got to the point where the military shows up, and the game is really good. I was expecting a simple technical touch-up, but these guys have gone out of their way to make new dialogue, animations, models, and have tried to link the stories of HL1 and HL2. This is really damned impressive, and fun.

It brings back the spirit of the original in that I still fucking hate that silo monster.