Another year has nearly passed in which gamers have had to accept that Half-Life 3, the long-awaited sequel to Valve’s Half-Life 2, will not see the light of day. While there’s still no update from Valve on the elusive game’s existence, fans have looked to Black Mesa as their ongoing fulfillment of further trips into the world of Half-Life. The fan project, which faithfully has sought to recreate the original Half-Life game from 1998 with more modern graphics, has now released new Black Mesa screenshots, which show the graphical improvements being added into the game.

The Black Mesa team has released the patch notes for the game’s latest update on Steam. Most of the new visual improvements added to the game involve the lighting systems, which will now include dynamic lighting and lens flares. These will also improve the behavior of shadows in the environments and make the Godrays in the game run smoother. The update also fixes a great variety of bugs that previously affected the lighting, NPCs, and Multiplayer components of the game, as well as changing the long jump controls, which are now done by pressing the space bar twice.

The developers have also said that these new changes will help align the final version of the game with their build, which will make implementing the upcoming and highly anticipated Xen levels much simpler and lead to fewer issues for players. While the Xen levels have been delayed to next year, hopefully these new improvements keep Half-Life fans satisfied with their wait. For those new to Black Mesa, the game also happens to be on sale on Steam right now for $4.99.

What do you guys think about the new Black Mesa screenshots? Let us know in the comments below! Be sure to stay tuned for the latest game remake news, such as one fan’s HD remake of a classic Donkey Kong Country 2 level, here on Don’t Feed the Gamers! Follow us on Twitter to see our updates the minute they go live!