Black Mesa, a project to re-make the original Half-Life in a modern version of Valve's Source Engine, has finally wrapped development for the final time, after a storied 16-year history.

The game started out life as a mod, which re-created the entire game, albeit without the final Xen levels. After several years, Valve gave the project the green light to become a stand-alone game, with Xen eventually being added and even expanded upon, before the final 'Definitive Edition' version released yesterday.

The Definitive Edition brings the quality of some of the older maps, models and textures up to date, understandable given the project's long development timespan. There have also been changes to enemy placements and balance, giving the game a much more polished feel.

I last played Black Mesa many years ago, so I intend to give it a new playthrough now the project is finally complete. I feel like I've been reporting on Black Mesa for as long as GameFront, then FileFront, has been around, so it really is a red-letter day for the project. 

Although it's not quite the end, as Crowbar Collective has promised to release a few patches for known issues - and you know, I imagine they won't sit around doing anything for every long... Half-Life 2 remaster, anyone?