After years of waiting the vaporware Mod that is Black Mesa has finally come into existence. Yes folks, you can download it right now. I’ve still got a couple of hours to go till I can play it (first world problems) but for now I get to stare at the download bar dreaming of the adventure that lies ahead. For those who don’t know, Black Mesa is an almost full rebuild of the original Half Life using the Source Engine. Those of you who were unfortunate enough to play Half Life: Source know why this needed to happen!

It’s not the full Half Life experience, Black Mesa will take you as far as Xen with rest to arrive at a later date. How late? Only time will tale. For now we’ll have to make do with giant tentacles and headcrabs. At the moment it looks like the massive popularity of the Mod is making it particularly difficult to download, however I’ve currently got a good, if not slow, connection  to a Shacknews mirror.  I found a torrent, which unfortunately I cannot post a link to because they are evil. Google Kick Ass Torrents and search for Black Mesa if you dare…

Well done team Black Mesa for finally being able to pull of this long gestating accomplishment. Although I’m still downloading, I can tell from the screenshots that they’ve done a fantastic job. Earlier this week it was also announced that Black Mesa has become on of the first Green Light successes, which means that at some point it will be made available for download on Steam. It’s Gabe approved so what are you waiting for? Download this game!