Black Mesa Source HL1 Remake. Free.

I wish I had more time to play this game. I'm around 4 hours in since its release last Friday, but so far it is absolutely amazing. Besides a few stand-outs, shooters for the last few years have all been rather generic as BMS makes glaringly obvious. I understand the fun of online shooters, but when it comes to single player, I haven't really loved a FPS since Metro 2033 or BioShock 2.

BMS is a completely free remake of the original Half Life game, easily one of the most widely known and revered shooters of all time featuring the iconic Gordon Freeman and his crowbar. Half Life was released in 1998 and was immediately a hit. I never owned it at the time, but I did play through it at friend's houses. The sequel, Half Life 2, was released in 2004. I did not get it until the release of the Orange Box which included HL2, HL2 Episode 1 and Episode 2, as well as the acclaimed Portal and Team Fortress 2 games. HL2 really blew me away and it stands as one of my favorite shooters of all time.

Back to the Black Mesa Source mod, a dedicated team of individuals spent years recreating HL1 using the HL2 engine, as well as making new sound effects, music, everything. It's truely a work of art. Not only that, but these fine gentlemen are offering the game completely free of chrage! You can also get the sound track for free from their website.

To get Black Mesa Source for yourself, just go here: http://release.blackmesasource.com

After my time spent in the game thusfar, I am truely amazed at the quality and effort the creators put into it. The attention to detail is just amazing. The engine being used, Source 2007 (available free on Steam, and required to play the game), doesn't necessarily allow for ultra high pixel pushing capabilities. It's no Frostbite or CryEngine, and my graphics cards aren't breaking the slightest sweat trying to run it. That said, the game looks great. Objects may be slightly blockier than many modern titles, but at the same time there's so much detail that it doesn't really show. They also made the textures rather high quality, so everything looks nice and sharp.

All I can say is there's no reason to not play this game. Even if you don't like shooters you should play this game. It's free, and many people rated HL1 as the best shooter of all time - a little piece of history that any gamer should partake in.

Build Your own Thin PC

I've built a fair few PCs, including several small form factor builds, but never have I done an all-in-one thin PC (think iMac design). With the Thin-Mini-ITX standard, it's now possible to build your own!

I just went through this build process over at Tom's Hardware and I find it extremely interesting. Check it out for yourself!

http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/604-do-it-yourself-all-in-one-thin-mini-itx.html