The High Definition Pack is also available via Steam. Since then, access to Valve's back catalog for free after registering a previously owned copy of Half-Life has been discontinued, and Blue Shift must now be bought either alone, as part of the Half-Life 1 Anthology, or as part of the Valve Complete Pack. Anyone who owned an old copy of Half-Life, or the Half-Life 2 Silver or Gold packages (thus, having access to the back catalog) could download it for free. On August 24, 2005, Blue Shift became available for download via the Steam content delivery program. Blue Shift reviews were very poor in comparison to other games in the series. Aside from the High Definition Pack, the only new content was a character named Rosenberg, a Black Mesa scientist who has his own unique character model and played a major role in the story, and alternate scientist and security guard models wearing civilian attire. The game offers some new levels and areas of Black Mesa previously unseen in a relatively short new campaign, but no new weapons or enemies, as Opposing Force offered. Gearbox then turned the project into a stand-alone product unlike Opposing Force, it does not require the original Half-Life.Īlthough fans of Half-Life were eager to play more of their beloved game, many complained that Blue Shift did not measure up to the high standards set by the Opposing Force expansion. Due to Sega pulling the plug on the Dreamcast, and the subsequent abandonment of the platform by nearly every major publisher, this version was cancelled only weeks away from release (the Dreamcast Half-Life port has since been leaked onto the Internet, with both Half-Life and Blue Shift fully playable). Blue Shift release includes a full, stand-alone version of Opposing Force, but the international edition has the multiplayer-only Opposing Force CTF.īlue Shift started out first as an exclusive part of the Half-Life Sega Dreamcast port. ![]() The pack includes updated 3D characters, weapon and item models, often increasing the polygon count 10-fold over the 1998 originals. The Blue Shift package offers the Half-Life High Definition Pack as an option at the time of install. Originally, anyone with access to the back catalog, whether through an old copy of Half-Life or the Silver or Gold packs of Half-Life 2, could download Blue Shift for free, but this has since been discontinued.Ī fan remake is currently in the works that will see the whole game remade in the Source engine currently titled Guard Duty. As Barney, the player attempts to escape the alien invasion caused by the resonance cascade and the ensuing military cover-up.īlue Shift has now been released via Steam for USD $4.99. ![]() Like Gearbox's other expansions, Half-Life: Opposing Force and Half-Life: Decay, Blue Shift returns to the setting and timeline of the original story, but with a different player character: the ubiquitous Black Mesa Research Facility security guard Barney Calhoun. Seems like they went full ♥♥♥♥♥♥ with Half-Life 1.Half-Life: Blue Shift, commonly referred to as Blue Shift, is the second stand-alone expansion pack for Half-Life, developed by Gearbox Software and was released on June 12, 2001. Their Source engine games still have surround sound in Windows, but last time I played them in Linux they were limited to stereo. "smooth" and punchy sounding, it's like audio you hear from dry-rotted paper speakers in an old car.Īnyway, they basically did the same thing to their Linux ports of Source games. I know that HL1 was made in the days of 22kHz audio so quality isn't going to be just super, but even newer games like TF2 and Portal 2 have harsh audio. ![]() Valve probably bought the most cost-effective license for MSS and would hate to spend a penny more on something like FMOD. In a world where everyone is using Wwise and FMOD, which are both awesome, Valve is using. Now I'm just shooting my mouth off here, but the poor sound guy, with his nice little studio room, creates the audio with his large 9 speaker setup and expensive production equipment, and then Valve uses some antiquated audio middleware to make the audio work in their games, which completely butcher the dynamic range of the audio. Someone probably implements changes at their rolley-movey desk, they test with their headphones and as long as there is sound then it's all good. I don't think that Valve really cares much for sound considering how harsh (compressed) everything sounds in their games. ![]() Looks like they majorly fudged the sound in an update: I booted HL1 today and noticed that surround sound was no longer working.
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