Black Mesa: Definitive Edition - 12b - Surface Tension [Hard]

[@Sexy_Nutella]

One of the things that Black Mesa does very well in this chapter is conveying the sense of escalation since the Resonance Cascade. In the previous video, the only alien creatures encountered for the most part are the unorganized Houndeyes, Bullsquids and Headcrabs that are only fighting Gordon in reaction to their new surroundings. As well, the HECU was shown to be in control of most of the surface. In this video ("Act 2"), it can be seen that the aliens are indeed trying to combat Earth's forces for an objective other than survival, as alien grunts, Vortigaunts and Mantas all start arriving in groups and begin coordinating precise strikes against the HECU, who are scrambling to fight an enemy that can teleport in on them unexpectedly. The three maps on display here enforce that sense of escalation by literally transforming the surface into a warzone - the skies are now darkened with smoke, there is significant damage to various buildings, and the HECU have begun sending tanks and APCs against both the Xenian army and Freeman. This thematic design is a great way to transition to the final maps of Surface Tension, where the HECU begun to pull out of Black Mesa because of their significant losses. The rocket launcher really shines in this chapter, as I'm sure was the intention. Again, having a weapon that can take out the HECU's heavy armour enforces that sense of escalation - compare the events of this chapter to "We've Got Hostiles" - while Freeman was forced to return down into the facility due to the overpowering artillery and Osprey in that chapter, in this one he literally shreds everything the HECU throws at him because of his newfound weapon. I really tried to utilize the RPG a lot more than I have before to emphasis this. On the other hand (no pun intended), the Hivehand I always thought was introduced at a weird point in time. Perhaps I just am not using it well, but at this point Freeman already has a bunch of other weapons that deal way more damage to enemies way more quickly. The hornets are feasible when shooting behind cover, or shooting at enemies behind cover, but I always prefer just getting close to them instead because of the Hivehand's low damage. I always thought it would've been better suited in Questionable Ethics.

[@Nosgard]

I agree with..everything you said here. The hivehand would have been better as a "upgraded crowbar" concept..used after you lose all your gear, use it to earn back the guns kinda thing. Great video by the way :D

[@Leo.23232]

Well, I'm not sure if its different in black mesa to the original game, but I found the hivehand to be a useful weapon. The way i'd use it though is unless i'm sniping at long range, I only use the right click, and I just switch to it, fire all 8 shots, then switch to another weapon like the smg for a bit and let it reload itself, then switch back and repeat. Although, I'm not sure it's worth doing in black mesa since the smg was buffed a lot, and it has tons of ammo and a fast reload anyway. Unless they also buffed the hivehand rightclick, but I can't really tell since you never used it on enemies. Maybe you can test what I suggested offscreen and let me know if its any good or not. I've also noticed it seems to be a lot more innacurate and erratic than the original, honestly the weapon should have probably changed to have a higher capacity, at least 12 I'd say. And I would make the non homing the primary fire, which would do really good dps, and also bounce off walls, and the secondary fire the homing which is for long range and killing wildlife.

[@santinodelossantos7152]

There Is a mod called black mesa hazarous course , Its basicly the tutorial of BM , si you want to play it?

[@the_kovic]

Good idea with the Hivehand, never thought of that (I always just ignored it). If you wanna see alien weapons done right, Opposing Force is where it's at imo.

[@matt0198922]

I think the best place would have been right when you do the "experiment" on the first alien grunt in the glass/cryo chamber. Maybe killing him would drop the weapon for you to pick up. At this point, you've only got a few guns back (having gone through Residue Processing) with low ammo for each gun. This would have been the perfect time, with all the corners and hallways and in-fighting and guards with their backs turned to use a weapon that has infinite ammo and can home in on enemies around corners.

[@jatabo1574]

The Hive Hand animation when you first pick it up is one of the best additions of the remake.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

I laughed my ass off the first time I saw it. Also felt sorry for the poor thing.

[@connorgolsong290]

What are you doing there, Step-Gordon?

[@Sexy_Nutella]

@@connorgolsong290 This made me chuckle, thanks :)

[@Scarletdex8299]

Why have Nihilanth's bioengineers programmed it to feel pain?..

[@not-him-I-swear]

in another line the guard mentions him recording the alien hand fisting. So that’s cursed

[@MaximG.]

2:12 - Iron Man 1 intensifies Also, hivehand in BM is just so damn good! It kinda becomes one of my main weapons once I get it. It's also the best weapon against electro-houndeyes in Xen.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

That was completely unintentional but now I can't unsee the Iron Man 1 callback haha

[@lascha2nd199]

@@Sexy_Nutella Would be weirder if that HEV suit wore by Gordon can shoot missile too.

[@metatrontf]

13:23 I love this part so much. With the way you played it, to me Gordon just led the guard to the elevator whilst saying "Hey, you wanna see this weird thing I found?" and Gordon's just looking at it, and when he looks back at the guard the guard's already looking at it, too. Because of all the voice lines the guard has for the hive hand, the scenario itself plays out so humorously in my head. God, I love this game so much.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

The voicelines are so hilarious. "It's always the quiet ones..." is the one that gets me

[@thatsnowperson]

that room full of explosives always scare me

[@Sexy_Nutella]

The HL1 version was more terrifying, because the explosion sound if you tripped a mine in that game was freaking loud :(

[@vadimsharanda1052]

I was even more confused, than scared, because of how many military-grade explosives were packed there. Seriously, what were they really doing at Black Mesa? Was Freeman working in our mirror reflexion of Nihilant's tower? Because why else do you need so many heavy weapons on site, if you are not going to invade alternate dimension and murder everything in your path from the very start?

[@thatsnowperson]

@@vadimsharanda1052 i thought it was some tripmines and blew them up, i died instantly and the amount of explosions were so many, the screen even flashes after the explosions stop, oh and i wondered why this dead barney had smoke coming out of his back

[@connorgolsong290]

@@thatsnowperson In HL1, it's literally rigged to a fucking Nuclear Missile. That's why the screen goes white when you set off the tripmines. The nuke goes off. Why? Because the HECU said fuck it.

[@uglies7056]

@@Sexy_Nutella no HL1 more easy as a pie. And damn, that music is very loud

[@thealandude9146]

4:00 that was fucking clever,I would've never thought of using it like that

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Same actually. I only found out during recording, and was curious if it would work.

[@pizzazzindoofus]

TAU CANNON SUPREMACY (until the gluon gun is introduced ofc uwu)

[@kabeam5643]

@@pizzazzindoofus tau cannon > gluon gun fight me

[@Kabirdix]

It was really cool, but isn't one of the Tau Cannon's gimmicks that it would hit the target through the boxes anyway, even without the crack

[@kabeam5643]

@@Kabirdix yeah you can see it shoot through a wall when the security guard uses it, already showing its gimmick

[@acemagalor2519]

2:30 And here we see Gordon’s audition for the Olympics 100 meter sprint 11:00 And now his audition for Acrobatics

[@Sexy_Nutella]

That Hazard Course training/annual Decathlon really paid off, eh?

[@KyJIaK71rus]

More to Trivia: *3:51 - "In HL1, the same vehicle encountered in this section is an M2A3 Bradley". Moreover, all M2A3 was changed to LAV in BM, and in particular this vehicle in HL1 was equipped with a missile launcher; from this comes the next fact; *In HL1 it is possible to use your RPG's laser designator to guide back M2A3's own missiles to destroy it. *6:32 - in original game this was second sniper encounter, the first one was in 'On A Rail' (it was restored in 'On A Rail Uncut' mod); *13:58 - in HL1 there was not tranport tunnel, but storage, also there were steam pipes that could be damaged by explosions and steam could make some damage to player; *18:10 - in original game player could use switch to turn light inside the armory.

[@mikekomarinski]

I keep forgetting that the hive gun is also living creature.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Poor Hivehands, they spend their entire time either just laying on the ground, or being picked up, fisted and forced to spew hornets until their user dies, at which point they are forever attached to the hand :(

[@mikekomarinski]

@@Sexy_Nutella I feel 4 them.🙁

[@koroplays3200]

I love how you just look at the Hive Hand with disgust and go out of your way not to touch it.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Part of it was to show off the Guard's reaction to it!

[@honest_cake]

Mad respect to you for using that catwalk to get overhead shots during the first fight. I always look at it after 10 minutes of Whack-a-mole-ing and think "I wonder if anyone could actually use that thing during combat?" Haha, great video!

[@Benzerman2007]

He knew he needs to use the high ground hehe

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Wouldn't blame you, it is quite counter-intuitive to use that catwalk because to be completely honest, that entire first tank fight is poorly designed, or at least very buggy. The tank will always know where the player is, and taking any of the other manhole exits to try to outflank the HECU just results in the player sustaining a lot of damage given the lack of any substantial cover. You pretty much have to stay behind that destroyed wall and cheese the fight by shooting it from cover. Also, the tank's main cannon is too weak and the .50 cal way too damaging haha. Thanks for the comment :)

[@honest_cake]

@@Sexy_Nutella A G R E E D! For such a great looking/varied arena it's still one of my least favourite sections of the chapter due to the combat. But hey, glad you made it look 300% more fun than it actually is haha!

[@standardzombie3454]

8:19 I'm not sure if it's unnoticed or something but I'm pretty sure the Osprey Heliplane would realistically fall from flying from that point of angle. 😅

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Yeah that was a pretty awkward flyby haha

[@guestpwl]

“OH SHIT, ITS FREEMAN!” *proceeds to crash a 300 million dollar heli-plane into a mad scientist*

[@capsuleofdoom6942]

My mental health is not doing that well but with you and interacting with your community helps thank you.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

No problem - glad I can help. I hope you feel better soon. I'll definitely keep these videos coming.

[@เลิฟ-ล8ฬ]

1:03 Gordon hasn't eaten in 2 days and neither have you

[@rhodnill5906]

I like when you combat the Abram tanks and the APCs, (Not sure of the spelling). It is where the BM team shines of their development of the game, It can move and also hard to deal with.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

They are a lot deadlier in Black Mesa, though I have to say they both could use some more health. The Abrams and LAV-25 both get destroyed in 3 rockets, which is nothing compared to the Apache helicopter. I always love blowing the turret off the tanks though haha

[@vadimsharanda1052]

@@Sexy_Nutella Honestly, they should have probably switched their healthbars. Three hits from RPG will damage helicopter enough to put it out of the fight. They were already dangerous enough due to maneuverability, while tanks - in game mechanics - look more like "area denial units", forcing player to either find his way around them or to use some kind of guerilla tactic. Another possible option - a couple of Apache's attacking Freeman simultaneously, like it was done it HL-2 during Nova Prospect. Yes, gunships were not that tough in terms of health, but I have cursed them time and time again on "hard" exactly because of how good they were capable to support each other and deny me any reliable cover.

[@likopinina6803]

thank you for showing the Hivehand to the guard, I love his comments! The one I got was "if I find a camera you're so doing that again!" xd

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Yeah, all of his comments are funnt haha. Another one I love is "It's always the quiet ones..."

[@prankstereddy]

I was refreshing the feed for new upload. We in luck

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Glad I can deliver!

[@s-man5647]

you really do a good job of conveying to the viewer a sense of exploration and surprise, even though I'm sure you have a scrip in your head of where to go! That said, maybe tweak a little to do a scan of the room so we can admire the environmental art a little? Not sure if that wouldn't escalate the recording time though :P

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Thanks for the feedback! If you don't mind me asking, were there specific sections in the video where you felt I could scan the rooms more than I did? I do try to balance looking at everything and maintaining a good pace for the video, so I typically gloss over posters and the such. Though I do try to take in scenery and the such. I'll try to be more conscious of this for the next video.

[@s-man5647]

@@Sexy_Nutella 20:50 where you go through a door and look right (but not left!) before moving forward. Years of listening to Captain Price tell me to watch my corners are sounding alarm bells in my head right now haha. I guess in real life you wouldn't have to turn your whole head around because of peripheral vision, so technically realistic. Still really bugs me tho.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

@@s-man5647 Ah, I see. I try my best to look left and right but yeah, I knew there was a wall there so I didn't bother.

[@mikekomarinski]

Want a cigarette? Not U the hand.😂🤣

[@Sexy_Nutella]

His other lines are just as good, there's one where he wasn't sure if Gordon is a genius for figuring out how to equip it, or a pervert for thinking that is the only option hahaha

[@mikekomarinski]

@@Sexy_Nutella yeah.😅

[@TrollfaceGaming-ye9xv]

I like how cigarrete dropped by HECU sergeants heals Gordon for 1 HP. Does that mean Gordon likes smoking?

[@Infamous_Val_05]

I love the way you interact with the environment of the game

[@Sexy_Nutella]

I'm glad :) I plan out all my mouse movements when I'm exploring.

[@Cruor34]

Playing Half Life back in 1998, and then playing Black Mesa now, my thoughts then and just now were if the military invested as much effort as they put into getting me as the did into fighting the aliens the invasion wouldn't have gotten anywhere, random teleporting or not.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

yeah haha, they really pulled out all the stops for Freeman eh?

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

8:17 ohai there Ospreys, wonder if those are Shepard and the boys?

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Perhaps! I don't recall when exactly they were deployed into Black Mesa, but I remember that Shepard eventually comes across a Garg strapped to the Dam at the start of this chapter.

[@MynameJeff32134]

​@@Sexy_Nutella(I'm sorry for the late reply) Shephard and his team (Goose-7) got deployed sometime during Office Complex/We've Got Hostiles, but due to his Oprey getting shot down by the Manta Ray, he was unconcious for more than a day. He woke up sometime during Surface Tension (Appro. When Gordon got to the booby-trapped warehouse/Topside Armory) and by the time H.E.C.U started their withdrawal.

[@MynameJeff32134]

No. Shephard got deployed sometime during Office Complex/We've Got Hostiles, but due to his Osprey getting shot down, he woke up sometime during Surface Tension. (I'm sorry for the late reply)

[@Mintor94]

4:04 something funky is going on with Tau Cannon's cable

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Haha, might have to do with the fact that the tubing is a jigglebone I believe

[@TheCoolEevee]

@@Sexy_Nutella Say what now?

[@Sexy_Nutella]

@@TheCoolEevee That's the term I use for certain weapons in Source games that flop around in the player's hand. The fish melee weapon in TF2 (Holy Mackerel) has a similar physics effect

[@Vantud391]

Great Reflection 7:45

[@fennbob996]

Incredible, both the game and your video. There's something so pure and honed to this game, honestly don't feel the same about other games. Take it you experience something similar having played through so many times before? Plus having seen the progress from Half-Life 1998 up to now?

[@Sexy_Nutella]

I agree. I've been thinking about what makes these games so special, and I think it's to do with how the level is designed. Compared to games nowadays, each map is quite tiny in comparison, but the way that the devs are able to populate such unconventional locations with carefully scripted sequences and interesting encounters is part of what I think makes the game ageless. That, and Black Mesa is a faithful representation of the old days when games weren't mostly about the commercial aspect, but rather labours of love. With Black Mesa you get a self-contained but satisfying 10-15 hour adventure where, like you said, it's just pure game. No restrictions, no paywalls, no DLC. Just you, your crowbar, and a story and environment that seems incredibly dynamic given it's carefully constructed setpieces and levels.

[@fennbob996]

@@Sexy_Nutella couldn’t have said it better myself 😃. Can’t wait to see how they do “Operation Black Mesa” or “Guard Shift” now, if those are still in the pipeline. Be amazing if Tripmine stuck to the roots as much as Crowbar did with Black Mesa. Exciting times for good old single-player gaming 😃

[@crockstonyt]

15:20 the sounds of the bullets hitting the truck sound like a catchy beat

[@DoomieGruntVentures]

"You want a cigarette? ...no not you, the hand."

[@Flipdagoose]

The smartest people in the world... Decided to put all of their UNORDINARY amount of explosives.... in one. fucking. building.

[@doge151alt_account]

10:53 the perfect music for a insane minefield

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Indeed. Quite fitting for its high-stress environment.

[@aleksandarvil5718]

13:40 Hivehand: *_“Gordon-SENPAAAAAAAIIIIII !!!”_*

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Hahahaha

[@cheezemonkeyeater]

10:53 - this moment. I always wonder what the hell the military were thinking setting up all those trip mines in an area full of high explosives - including a friggin' nuclear warhead! Like, seriously, if you want to blow up Black Mesa, why not be proactive about it? And if you didn't want to blow up the base, WHY PLANT ALL THOSE TRIP MINES RIGHT THERE!?

[@Vhie05]

You'd think tripmines along the entrances would be enough but the H.E.C.U. went screw it let's put a Mission Impossible laser maze in here no wonder Adrian is the only competent guy in the H.E.C.U.

[@ibanez2010]

I had SO much effing trouble at 15:00. That dog damned tank kept shooting my RPG's in mid-air - half of the time blowing up in my face! I didn't take the guard with me like you did, which looks like it would have helped.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Yeah man, I know exactly what you mean. I also had rockets blow up in my face when tanks or the LAVs shoot their turret right at it. Super annoying. For some reason, if you do bring the guard, the LAV solely focuses on him unless you move up to the destroyed truck. You can easily cheese the fight by just staying back at the concrete barricades I was at initially.

[@Eliotime3000]

The hivehand in Black Mesa is SO OP that even I can wipe-off the ENTIRE GRUNG GANG in that stage.

[@koroplays3200]

That TOW Launcher is so cool.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Yeah, though I wish the sound (and the RPG sound) was more boomy

[@mikekomarinski]

I just 💙 how a homemade laser cannon can easily vaporize a military grade tank.😅

[@mikekomarinski]

@@KawaiiFemBoi But it looks like it's homemade.

[@sgtvarenuha_viii_leg]

It's railgun actually, not a laser. Still, destroying tank with crowbar - this is a Freeman-style.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Well, the Tau Cannon is an experimental prototype, it certainly isn't a pushover in terms of damage output :) probably penetrated the armor on that APC

[@Leo.23232]

@@Sexy_Nutella Considering it can go straight through walls, that seems likely.

[@vadimsharanda1052]

@@sgtvarenuha_viii_leg One can wonder what made all those rumors of Freeman walking through entire Black Mesa only with his trusty, deadly, brutal crowbar) Probably a moment when he was out of ammo and was beating his opponent with said crowbar. And then some guard arrives and sees dozens of dismembered bodies, piles of gore and crazed guy, caving in the skull of the last alien grunt.

[@Vhie05]

Jackson saying he want to get his hands on the guy responsible while talking to the guy who literally pushed the Xen crystal cart a day ago gets me everytime

[@lyokianhitchhiker]

I feel it worth pointing out that pretty much the only cut thing from HL1 that hasn’t been brought back in some capacity was the artillery piece in the dam, the Manta platforming, & Nihilanth's teleport balls.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

The leeches and Xen cannon as well I believe

[@lyokianhitchhiker]

@@Sexy_Nutella the latter was in a fan add-on. I was referring to the stuff that there aren’t even those for.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Ah, gotcha :)

[@lyokianhitchhiker]

@@Sexy_Nutella I would bring back the Manta riding, but I can’t displacement.

[@killerrabbit0134]

Perfect, I was waiting for this video :D

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Hope it was worth the wait!

[@killerrabbit0134]

@@Sexy_Nutella Worth it !!!! The video is incredible

[@vodkavecz]

Yeah, that poor hivehand. The animation and the guard's comment is golden. But just as the snarks and the tripmines this weapon is too gimmicky to be useful. Considering your other options. If only there was a chapter where you need to sneak past a guard post with a lot of enemy, and gunshots would alert them, so your only options are the crowbar, crossbow, snarks and the hivehand. That could've been cool. Anyways, nice work on barely getting any damage. Poor health and energy packs not getting much use :D

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Thanks! Yeah the Hivehand is pretty niche to be honest, and I find the other weapons much more efficient.

[@vadimsharanda1052]

I think Valve understood that too and fixed the issue in HL-2, because of how they give Freeman his gravity gun, than drop him into Ravenholm without any meaningful ammo resupply. My first walkthrough was nightmarish, because I wasted most of ammo during parts when I was supposed to use sawblades and traps (and my brains instead of trigger finger), so later on it was mostly... "Run! God, oh God, just run! Don't stop, don't look back! This place is Hell!" But if you play that part knowing how to act, everything is solvable.

[@phat-Rat]

I know it would be a pain in the ass, but you should make a full playthrough with all of the videos put together. I love your videos on black mesa they're entertaining as hell.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

I delete the videos off my drive after it gets onto KZbin, so it'd take a lot of time for me to redownload them off KZbin and recompile into a several hours long single video. I think my time is better off making new videos! But thanks for the comment and the support, I'm glad you're enjoying this playthrough :)

[@phat-Rat]

@@Sexy_Nutella ahh that's alright. I can't wait for the next part. Surface tension is my favorite mission. Interested in seeing how xen plays out in the future as well. I look forward to it!

[@Sexy_Nutella]

@@phat-Rat It's uploading right now, should be up in the next 3-4 hours if all goes well :)

[@phat-Rat]

@@Sexy_Nutella Well alright!! Will keep an eye out, thanks for the update.

[@erikpng]

8:44 I'm surprised he made it here. I mean, he doesn't seem to have any weapons does he?

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Maybe he was there before the HECU set up shop.

[@frozensagittarius7455]

Bro you literally play with 9000 IQ!

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Thanks, glad you think so, as I am trying to emulate Freeman and what his thought process might've been like :)

[@taboret3280]

Finally, new video.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Hope you like it!

[@MegaMan.exe20XX]

13:33 ♂️ Fisting is 300 Bucks ♂️

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Lmao

[@smolpp1708]

The Hivehand didn't have its time to shine😔. Black Mesa completely killed the hivegun's versatility. Back then, it's very useful for taking out enemies without getting spotted.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

It does seem kind of weak now, the homing hornets don't really track well around corners it seems haha

[@abnormality3345]

I like how @Sexy Nutella reacts in this episode. He/She tries to save most of the NPCs but with all the panic and escalation they are unable to. Plus, the part at 13:23 is fucking gold.

[@AndersonMallony-EricCF]

The way he look at the guard and he's already looking at the hive and probably thinking "wth is this thing"

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Glad you appreciate this playstyle :) Love that hivehand moment too haha

[@michaelp785]

I'm playing Black Mesa for the first time, and I'm only on "We've got Hostiles", but I came here to see what Surface Tension would be all about and... 9:50 That's it isn't it? The legendary missile storage warehouse I've heard so much about. I read about it on TV Tropes, but my god. Their descriptions didn't do it justice. This area will probably be the most nerve racking thing I'll ever do. Also, I have to genuinely ask, since I'll be facing HECU solders for the first time, are they as hard to fight as I've heard/seen? They do seem pretty tough, but I'm playing on Normal not Hard. I'm just curious, as I heard their AI got an upgrade, but I don't know how true that is, since I never played the original Half-Life.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Yup, that's the big tripmine room. It is undeniably nerve-wracking the first time through, good luck ;) I will say HL1's version is way scarier because the explosion noise in that game if you trip a mine is ear-splittingly loud compared to Black Mesa. The HECU are indeed more difficult to fight than their HL1 counterparts. I wouldn't say their AI got an upgrade, they just move a LOT more and it's in general harder to get a bead on them. They don't do as well at long range though, so you can usually beat them relatively easily if you stay back and shoot from a distance (though this is harder because you don't have the Magnum yet).

[@michaelp785]

@@Sexy_Nutella I see. Thank you!

[@omarandresorellano4142]

La verdad me gusta ver *Sufrace Tensión* siempre fue mi favorito.......buena jugada *Sexy Nutella*👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

¡Es mi favorito también! Gracias por las amables palabras :)

[@m16-a2]

7/10 needs more headcrabs going to Brazil

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Will be plenty of headcrabs going to Brazil in Xen ;)

[@m16-a2]

@@Sexy_Nutella YAY

[@DAS_k1ishEe]

You found a fun route through the Abrams Yard. The Problem with that level is, as soon as you stick your head out another hole, the AI immediatly knows where you are. Approaching this level any other way gets just tiresome. They definitely have to improve it.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

I agree. They must have intended for it to actually work if you utilize the different manholes - perhaps they never could get it to work in the end.

[@WastedPotentiaI1]

Hive hand is both a lot worse and a lot better then in the original, can't tell why.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

It's not really useful except a handful of situations in this game. Any other weapon can do its job better, the homing ability just isn't as good as HL1's

[@SomeGrunt_On_Youtube]

6:35 This gaurd might have a deformed torso maybe due to the fact that his legs supposed to be torn apart Edit: so now i think that this is just a mistake the dveelopers made, where they reused the security officer that gets gibbed by a laser in unforseen consequences. Which might be why his torso looks weird Also the guards don’t have a texture or model for having their legs missing

[@Dr.Oofers]

Wait really?

[@SomeGrunt_On_Youtube]

@@Dr.Oofers yeah, the same happened with the gaurd in unforseen consequences

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Not too sure about that, you can see the shadow of his torso underneath the ground. I always thought it was a bug lol

[@erwinrommy3412]

Finally New Release Video of black Mesa I like It

[@OliverSalzburg]

Really nice

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@luckylarry71]

The Hivehand used to have it's merits in the Xen chapters, back when traditional munitions were really hard to come by, or at least hard to spot, as opposed to being teleported directly from earth in canisters and even hilariously signalled by flares shooting out of them. It's not my subjective observation - the mod has littered the whole chapter with ammo. Furthermore, as a weapon, the Hivehand kinda suffers from the same issue that most weapons in Opposing Force did - you literally had too much to play with and more often than not, the player had several good options to approach most situation. A solution like this does improve replayability, but doesn't help to feel the weight of those encounters. In this chapter, once you reach the security checkpoint it never felt really rewarding or meaningful, as the game already provided you with abundance of ammo on your way to it. Subbed to you, because I'm certain once Operation: Black Mesa comes out, this will be the channel to experience it in a most satisfactory and immersive way conceivable.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

I agree with the weapon selection in OpFor. I've played it much less than I have the other Half-Life games but I distinctly remember there being weapon categories up to 7 as opposed to the 5 in Half-Life. I was frankly overwhelmed by all the weapons I could use lol. I am looking forward to OBM as well, though I will probably play through it myself first before uploading any videos on it, as I always do :)

[@luckylarry71]

@@Sexy_Nutella Yeah, figured you would and I don't mind giving it a wait too. Just as everyone else who finds the series and it's expansions captivating, I don't mind really. Took a while to see Black Mesa unfold, but it did eventually and lo, "Alyx" came out strongly suggesting, that we haven't seen the last of our silent protagonist yet. Meanwhile, Tripmine Studio slowly and steadily teasing with some very promising images and gifs, while Ross Scott, the legend! keeps on toiling on the his own "show *and* tell" version of the second Half-Life already :D

[@Mintor94]

16:47 something in this room seems to have bugged physics. I often find gibbed corpse there I don't remember killing and I lost the security guard going through it twice or so who also got gigbbed without apparent reason. This time this monitor exploded and flew from there form probably the same reason.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Yeah. I think anytime an NPC gets obstructed by a prop on the ground, they have a tendency to gib. I had the security guard in OaR gib from getting onto the cart

[@ГеннадийБегеев]

👍forever!

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Thanks!

[@cowboy5944]

How do you guys get weapon stains I can't get my game to get them I have it at max settings and latest version.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

You need to type this into the console, or into your autoexec.cfg file (found in the game folder): cl_mdldetailfx_enable 1

[@cowboy5944]

@@Sexy_Nutella oh ok thanks

[@HenrikKoh-sk1mm]

Hive hand moment :D

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Poor thing :(

[@theprancingrat]

man, my dogs are barkin'

[@norisgello2523]

I forget what surface tension means hmm

[@standardzombie3454]

13:00 How did you change or get a different Security Guard with BMCE. For me, the Security Guard I get is somehow a Fat Otis which appears for me. lmao

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Wow I wish I got the Otis skin haha. To be honest, I think my BMCE was bugged the entire playthrough, because I just started a new game to do some screenshots and the NPCs have MUCH more variety than when I first started this series. So perhaps your version is the true intended one?

[@gordonneverdies]

Do you play through the entire game or just record each chapter individually? It seems like you're more than capable but I would imagine the latter is more efficient for getting good recordings. Lol. I can make it through the Earthbound chapters without dying but Xen is going to take a lot of work. You made them look easy on your last playthrough. Great job!

[@Sexy_Nutella]

You got it, I record each individual map of each chapter separately so that I can capture the most interesting elements from each map and show it off the way I want it to, without having to redo my recordings from the beginning. I do like to think that I'm skilled enough to complete the game while taking minimal damage, but I break up my recordings into sections because, to be honest, this game's AI and the level design aren't too friendly with playing the way I do in these videos. They are quite janky and often don't cooperate. For instance, in that first encounter with the tank alone, I must have ran through it 300+ times just so the enemies and the tank are in the positions I want them to be. In the video, it looks seamless with the way I was able to "outflank" it. In actual gameplay it's pretty frustrating as enemies always seem to know exactly where you are. Another reason I like to split up recordings, even down to individual encounters, is to time my actions to the music, which is how I did the big QE lobby battle in the last chapter :)

[@gordonneverdies]

@@Sexy_Nutella Oh yeah you're more than capable. I play a very conservative style (when I can) but hiding and being super careful isn't as fun to watch. Lol. I'm learning rn with Gonarch and Interloper to be faster and more aggressive. You don't have much of a choice compared to the original.

[@DenisTriton]

В самом начале карта очень странная: на предыдущей карте позади должен быть обрыв. Но здесь его нет!

[@killerrabbit0134]

Thanks

[@piztech5168]

13:40 LMAO

[@the_kovic]

Are you using a custom crossbow scope?

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Yup. It is called the "Alternate Crossbow Scope" on the workshop: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2309251960 The base game's scope texture is too low quality for my liking. The one I use hides the blockiness of it to an extent.

[@Bluealien-jv1fz]

0:41 *VINE BOOM*

[@sm2008_]

Mark IV Hazardous Environment Suit is not supposed to have a zoom :/

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Eh, I liked it because it allowed for some cinematic zooms, and let you focus on far away objects.

[@erwinrommy3412]

Anyways the hivehand , it you see security guard just run because the hecu want kill him , and after clear put hivehand and near to security guard the security guard Will react how you put hivehand

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Yep, I show that in the video

[@mauroandresorellano398]

Muy bueno 👍

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Gracias :)

[@Mintor94]

16:44 whoops xD

[@aleksandarvil5718]

13:41 Dwayne Johnson: 🤨🪨🤨🪨🤨🪨🤨

[@AgentStamos]

Is hard difficulty challenging? I Want to play Black Mesa again. Mostly for colelcting the rest of the achivements.

[@Leo.23232]

Well it wasn't in the original game, and it certainly doesn't look very hard based on these videos.

[@AgentStamos]

@@Leo.23232 Well... It takes him about 500 runs so...

[@Sexy_Nutella]

It only takes me that long because I have a certain way I want to show off the game. If you're playing normally hard isn't that bad at all, though the HECU encounters are all pretty unbalanced when compared to the Xen enemies. The early chapters are easy, I'd say Surface Tension is probably the hardest chapter in terms of combat.

[@AgentStamos]

I can tell. Its worth it though.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Glad you think so! :)

[@bagasangga]

how's your weekend?

[@Sexy_Nutella]

It's going to be a long weekend for me, so pretty good :)

[@erikpng]

10:52 What is this song? I wasn't asking for the name of it, I was pointing out how it doesn't fit here.

[@smolpp1708]

Pretty much most of the songs on Black Mesa can't be considered suitable. They sound very hopeless. This music sounds like something out of a stealth show, but the lasers will blow you to kingdom come instead of detecting your presence.

[@Sexy_Nutella]

I personally do like it, though it certainly doesn't sound like a typical Half-Life soundtrack

[@lascha2nd199]

Joel Nielsen - Surface Tension 4

[@AndersonMallony-EricCF]

I found suitable tbh, maybe just too loud.

[@lamelama22]

I really don't like how the tank shells fire really slow moving projectiles that you can dodge & have like a fireball trail behind kinda like a meteor... I know why they did it, but as the game tries to be somewhat realistic, I hated it b/c it's so incredibly fake. Also lol @ at Abrams taking less hits to kill than an Apache... and of course lol at small crates or rocks being indestructible and blocking 20mm or bigger rounds; but that's hard to work around. The main thing that I don't like about the game, compared to the original, is how bad the Marine AI is at times. I think I remember them saying they made it better, but it made the game too hard to play. Same thing for the beehive weapon; having the hornets not be homing really takes away from the game and the alien-ness of them and it made them different than just bigger stronger gun carrying enemies. In part 1, they had an emplacement behind sandbags with machine gun nests, and yet they see you, and just take off running after you across open terrain? Not to mention how they don't notice their teammates dying/shooting/explosions going off literally next to them until you trigger them to wake up. Don't get me wrong, they did an absolutely amazing job, and some of these nits / downsides compared to the original game are based on just how much more advanced the geometry, physics, and animations are; but still... I still really haven't seen a game with enemy AI better than the original Half-Life's. Edit: I always wondered (in storyline) what asshole set up the nuke bomb maze... and how did it end up never going off?

[@Sexy_Nutella]

Yeah, the tank shell is way too slow moving, though like you said (and confirmed by the devs) they did that to balance the fights against them. Though I personally feel that they should make it way faster, given that it's a freaking Abrams - in my view the player is supposed to be terrified of these encounters given the vastly superior firepower. Ditto on the health, they really should've buffed it, I tried changing this in the config file to no avail. The marines are hit and miss - they are formidable sometimes but do act dumb on occasion. However their behavior is similar to the Combine in this regard, so I could let it slide a bit haha. I always thought that the HECU set up the entire bomb maze before activating all the tripmines simultaneously. Not that it explains why they decided to set an elaborate trap for Freeman instead of simply detonating all the bombs once they see him go in.

[@Dr.Oofers]

@@Sexy_Nutella The marine AI might be due to the nav mesh and lack of additional coding to make them smarter and tactical. In HL2, the combine soldiers had special tactics in place to make combat encounters interesting, shot gunners would try and ambush you behind corners; when a soldier reloads, another tries to cover them; they’d try to flank you out of cover or just to get around your cover; snipers would destroy cover to prevent further advancement or to reveal your position, and they’d throw grenades to flush you out of cover. I heard there’s nav mesh problems with some maps, and that the steam pipe update broke a lot of things in most valve games (possibly including the combine AI). Here, I don’t think they inputted any special tactics that the AI applies. So they basically act like GMOD npcs and swarm their enemies like zombies or stand in the open like a bunch of bimbos. Very depressing compared to HL1, but I’m sure someone’s made a mod that makes the grunts much more imposing and competent.

[@crockstonyt]

I know the technical reasons, but I always brushed off their bad AI by assuming most of the soldiers never got proper indoor combat training, if Adrian's time in boot camp is anything to go by.

[@ledoggy9760]

Is this a mod or do the Black Mesa guards just spawn with hats?

[@Sexy_Nutella]

It's a mod called BMCE. I don't think it was working properly when I made this playthrough, hence why they just spawned with hats and nothing else haha

[@kskutty100]

Ya

[@mauroandresorellano398]

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍🤙🤙🤙

[@Questionable10]

13:26