

You will be trapped behind some rubble and must follow dog to the entrance to Ravenholm. Follow Alyx back to the scrap yard entrance where she will run back to the facility to be with her father. Toss objects back and forth with him until the Combine attacks the area with missiles. Then, follow her to an open area where you will play catch with dog. Your first tutorial with the gun has you stack crates to reach Alyx up on a ledge.

Sounds like quite a bit of work still ahead though but it does sound exciting. Lastly, they note about they progress specifically on the Xen levels and it sounds like progress is really good. The Vortigaunt NPC was improved as well, flashlight shadows are back, Soft Particles are now working and a few other bits. They also improved the Alien Controller NPC, turning them essentially into “a kind of overlord or mini-boss”. They will “leap onto different platforms, find a way to outflank you, get in your face, and unleash a devastating secondary “hornet hurricane” attack”-scary! They’ve also improved the AI for the “Alien Grunts” to make them much more unpredictable and challenging. It’s light on resources and does look rather good:

Using the system they developed for their Dynamic Lights, they’ve now included Screenspace Fog. The latest update, posted late last month shows off some rather impressive new stuff coming to the game. Black Mesa, the Half-Life fan-made recreation continues progressing towards finally releasing the delayed Xen levels.
