Black Mesa

Whenever we're tired or ill or having a bad day, we just watch that trailer above and remember that Black Mesa is on the way. Then life is good again. Why is it such a big deal? Well if the idea of the original Half-Life completely overhauled and rebuilt to a Half-Life 2 standard doesn't have you making a variety of embarrassing messes in the trouser area, then frankly you're beyond help.

Like many classic games of yesteryear, Half-Life is in the unfortunate position of being brilliantly designed but having aged very badly. Not even Valve's official Source engine remake is up to the job of enticing today's nostalgia-free gamer. With that in mind, the Black Mesa team are reworking everything in a total conversion mod. Graphics, physics, environmental effects, soundtrack, they're all getting modernised to the standard to which we have become accustomed, and the screens and tunes that have been released on the team's site already make this look scarily professional.

Of course, a lot of fan games get stomped to death by the legal department of whichever company owns the official IP, but Valve being Valve we've got a feeling this one will probably make it through unscathed. In fact Valve being Valve, they'll probabaly hire these guys and release Black Mesa as part of whatever coloured box HL2: Episode 3 comes in.