Black Mesa is what happens when Half-Life players run out of new content so they have to remake the first game to have something to hold them over. This fan-made remake was first started back in 2004 and was finally released in 2012 with the promise from the developer Crowbar Collective that there would be updates related to the “Xen” levels from the actual Half-Life.

Unfortunately, it seems that the fan remake is following in the original’s footsteps since the Black Mesa development team has been continuously postponing the release of these Xen levels with the most recent promise being an expected date of sometime this Summer. Once the Summer media update arrived on the Steam Community Forums however, it was revealed that the Xen content would not arrive until December. One of the developers from Crowbar Collective says,

“Unfortunately, as some of you may have already predicted, we are going to need to push back our planned release of Xen to later this year, in December. We know that this is not what anyone would want to hear, but after taking a long and hard look at what we want to achieve, we have decided that this is for the best…that said, we consider December to be a do-or-die deadline.”

Players should keep in mind that this team is made up of Half-Life fans who have a good record of keeping their promises and that the delays are most likely because these are normal people with other commitments. The Black Mesa project was released for free and is a project made from love, so cut them some slack eh? The Summer media update did however show off some beautiful screenshots of the upcoming Xen levels that show just how much love and attention to detail is going into this work. Check them out below:

What do you think of the screenshots? Are you patiently awaiting the new Black Mesa Xen levels? Let us know in the comment section below and then go follow DFTG on Twitter to stay updated on all the latest gaming news 24/7! Did you know that there are new balance changes on the horizon for Team Fortress 2? Read all about it here!