I'm gonna talk more about Black Mesa.

"But Mouse," I can already hear you saying, "you said you were done! You said no more Black Mesa for now! And then you just vanished off the face of the earth for another couple months, and now you're only coming back to keep talking about the same thing?"

...Yes. Yes I am, because...

The Xen Chapters are here!

Well, okay, they're not quite here. They're just in the public beta, which means there's probably still bugs and stuff, but they're available to the public, and they look absolutely stunning! I mean, look at this that you're greeted with right off the bat.

...These flying manta creatures...

... The picturesque view of these floating islands...

And don't forget the dead bodies wearing the exact same kind of suit as I am, dotted about the landscape as a foreboding warning of my own impending fate! What lovely images, am I right?

Seriously, though, I can't get enough of this scenery. Look at this cave alcove!

And this big floaty island with a magical healing waterfall! It looks like something out of a fantasy story!

(Don't mind the gore spatters on my hands and gun. I got jumped by a pack of houndeyes.)

We're also greeted pretty quickly by a slew of new mechanics! Like these jump platforms, indicating where you're supposed to use the Long Jump Module!

(As a side note, I learned that the LJM prevents fall damage, too! Which is awesome! The gravity in Xen is lighter, too, so your jumps carry you farther, which could be problematic, should you miss your jump and go plummeting off a cliff somewhere...)

And using a winch to pull a suspended island closer to use as a jump platform.

Weird alien teleporter power sources... It moves, too, like it's living.

These stupid zappy things that hang from the ceiling and electrocute you if you get too close... (Okay, this one's not actually new, it was in HL, but these things drive me nuts and HD graphics don't change that, so I'm going to complain about them here. They're annoying and I don't like them. (Or, well, I don't like them as much as I can dislike something in this game... which isn't much, if we're being honest, here.)

Magic blue crystals that recharge your suit power...

And these big supply cache things!

And that's already my 20 picture limit! At what was probably twenty minutes of playtime into the first of, what... Five chapters? I'm gonna have so much fun with this.

If it's any consolation to you guys, though, these probably aren't going to be long analytical chapters regarding the story of the game, but more just like this one. Me just putting up screenshots and going "Look at this! Now look at this! Isn't is pretty? Oh, oh, now look at this one!" because this is my first time playing these chapters and I'm playing them on my new laptop and I am Very Excited at how everything looks. It's just so pretty!

But anyway, you can probably expect a lot more of these chapters (again) in the near future. :D