Half-Life: The Core mod

Half-Life: The Core

Half-Life mod | TBD

Story

In the depths of the Black Mesa Research Facility, a rumbling noise. It was not loud, yet seemed louder than mere decibels would suggest in the furtive, creaking hush of the facility's underbelly.

There are those who, when the time comes, take control of their own destinies. The right people in the wrong place.

Maurice Andrews was thrown from his feet by the chaos that followed the Resonance Cascade, tearing and deforming the once familiar facility around his unconscious form. Even at this, Andrews, a low-level engineer could not possibly know the full extent of the incident and upon waking he has only one clear objective: Get to the surface.

Even with the support of other survivors met along the way, however, nothing could prepare him for the adventure ahead, the heavy handed presence of the military of the creatures whose existence they were sent to cover up...

Gameplay

Half-Life: The Core is a classic retelling of the events surrounding the Resonance Cascade disaster from a new perspective; that of Engineer Maurice Andrews. Without using bolted-on engine modifications, Half-Life: The Core will provide a grand single-player experience featuring intense action, complex puzzles and believable narrative through all-new locations in Black Mesa with remarkable visual fidelity, pacing and humour.

Requirements

Any PC capable of running the original Half-Life game will be able to run Half-Life: The Core, however due to the increased resolution for the textures as well as the ambitious scale of some of the areas, slight framerate drops may be noticeable on older or budget systems. We employ advanced optimisation techniques to minimise this, and most players will not exprience any framerate loss.

The Developers

Almost entirely created by just two people, Half-Life: The Core is the endeavour of Andy Morris & James Archibald, with coding from TWHL's Penguinboy - developer of the Sledge Editor Hammer alternative. They try to be friendly and approachable and will answer any questions or comments left on articles or media. On ModDB, their usernames are monster_urby & Archie_SnC.

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The Cutting Room - Part 2

Dec 1 2023 News 8 comments

The Cutting Room - Part 2

It has been almost 5 years to the day since the first article in what I am charitably calling "The Cutting Room series." I figure after a year of near total silence on The Core's mod page, why not post an article. What better way to make up for a lack of updates than to show off a bunch of content you won't be seeing in the mod's final release?

As much as they seem like a bad thing, cuts are good. They keep us from constantly moving the goalposts and burning ourselves out on things that needn't be worried about. Cuts can also help to improve what we do keep. Big ideas that would take up a considerable amount of development and the player's time can be scaled back and folded into existing parts of the mod, streamlining things a little more.

Consider that when I announce: We're cutting an entire chapter... I promise this is a good thing, bear with me.

As with everything he applies himself to, Archie had gone above and beyond with his plans for a late game chapter in the mod. New textures, new entity coding, two entirely new, fully voiced characters (think Griggs and Sheckley from Episode 2) and his usual phenomenal attention to detail with his brushwork. I won't go into details regarding the story and gameplay involved in the chapter as this is one instance of recycling what we already have. The entity coding which was completed has already been repurposed and the dynamic of the two new characters wasn't too dissimilar to Urby and Archie's existing self-insert characters. The comedic aspect of the mod is alive and well.

We have also been reworking our primary antagonist. There are already images of this new character model floating around on the Internet... I forget where exactly. However his previous look (pictured below) is long gone. Originally based on Scottish actor David Bratchpiece, with his blessing, Commander Logan now sports a more combat hardened look which better suits the phenomenal voice performance by Michael Tsarouhas (Black Mesa, Insurgency). We are keeping his involvement in the plot largely under wraps, but you will be seeing and hearing a lot from Commander Logan as you progress through the campaign.

And that's all folks! Development of Half-Life: The Core is slowly ramping up again now that I am done with work for Slipgate Ironworks/3D Realms for the time being. (Be sure to keep an eye on Phantom Fury in the near future :D). Although we are in no way deserving of your vote for Upcoming Mod of the Year once again, we would certainly be grateful for any votes that come our way.

Onwards then, to 2024. Let's see what the world has in store for the next 12 months. With luck you'll be hearing from us again much sooner than that.

All the best, and Happy Holidays
Urby

Half-Life: The Core mod