It's been a while since I've played beyond the opening section and it'll be interesting to see what the panel make of it now. It's entirely possible for us to acknowledge an important game's legacy while still saying there's little entertainment to be had here now (as with me & the first Max Payne).
I'm looking forward to playing it again though, Xen notwithstanding.
Despite loving Half-Life I have never finished it! Way back when the game first game out I managed to get all the way to Xen to the point where you fall into the pit and then my game crashed. I remember reloading a few times which did no good and then I gave up but from what I have heard that was the final boss anyway so not to bothered. After that I was lured away by Counter-Strike which took over my life for a few years...
Whilst BMS is free on release day providing you have the SDK Source 2007 installed, the guys behind the mod/remake have put the game on Greenlight for an official Steam release. It will still be free, so why not vote for it!
Excited to see this finally being available to the masses, have a look for Chris Narchi in the credits, a good mate of mine who put over four years of work on and off into the project. He was surprised that they've kept at it after all these years.
It'll be released on their website www.blackmesasource.com for free via FTP and torrents. It'll be on Steam soon via Greenlight, not sure when. For free!
It's a standalone mod of the source SDK 2007 tool which is free in Steam, no need for HL2 etc.