Mysterious countdown clock appears for Black Mesa

Black Mesa

The Black Mesa Research Facility website is now hosting a mysterious countdown clock against a backdrop of wavering color bars, static, beeps, and a few glimpses of Half-Life's notorious G-Man. The clock appeared sometime yesterday—linked by the Black Mesa mod site—and represents the number of days, hours, and minutes until the clock runs out and... something happens, we presume.

It appears the timer will end on May 5, an important anniversary for Gordon Freeman as it marks the date of his formal acceptance of his job at the BMRF, according to the Half-Life wiki.

The countdown could signify a number of things. It could be the announcement of Black Mesa's appearance on Steam, as was promised quite some time ago. It could be a teaser, or trailer (or a teaser for a trailer, as that sometimes happens) for the next portion of Black Mesa, since the original game left off with Gordon's entrance to the dimension of Xen. Maybe it's the release of the Xen portion itself.

Or, it could be an announcement Half-Life 3, because everything could be an announcement for Half-Life 3. Right? We'll find out on May 5 when we rise and shine.

Thanks to r/HalfLife.

Black Mesa

Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

Latest in FPS
Fragpunk
Somebody finally figured out casual Counter-Strike
Image for
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s getting a new roguelite wave defense mode that sounds a whole lot like a souped-up take on Killing Floor
Destiny 2: Season of Plunder promo image.
'We made one big mistake': Destiny 2 developer reveals how a small team dedicated to player retention led to a 20 hour server outage and character rollback
Soldiers
Atomfall review
A monster made of glowing skulls has a brinrevolver aimed at it in Abyssus.
Wield a brinerevolver as a brinehunter in Abyssus, the briniest ‘brinepunk’ shooter this side of the Mariana Trench
A mascot character from The Finals winks at the camera while brandishing a minigun.
The Finals new season is here, toting permanent team deathmatch and a giant minigun
Latest in News
Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer still - woman in the front seat of a car, looking out the back window while holding a wad of cash
The specter of a GTA 6 delay haunts the games industry: 'Some companies are going to tank' if they guess wrong, says analyst
Image for
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s getting a new roguelite wave defense mode that sounds a whole lot like a souped-up take on Killing Floor
Battle Brothers
Nearly 2 years after its last update, the excellent Battle Brothers gets 'a bucket load of fixes' and free new content
Western outlaws with masks and guns
'Players don't explore': former Grand Theft Auto 6 and Red Dead Online designer lays out the perils of 'open world fatigue'
Person battling bizarre four-eyed monster with stylish UI elements surrounding them
Persona and Metaphor: ReFantazio's UI designer is open to accessibility options for players who find the stylish menus overstimulating: 'That is something we understand we'll need to work on and provide in the future'
Split Fiction screenshot
Split Fiction is reportedly at the center of a bidding war for its movie rights