As the great Gold Tooth once said in the modern thriller masterpiece “Predator 2”: s**t happens.

Atomic PC, a gaming site, we’ve quite frankly, never heard of, has got one hell of a scoop: a preview copy of Black Mesa Source itself.

Apparently, one of the texture artists is Atomic PC’s comment troll, Orcone.

I don’t know what a texture artist is doing trolling people, but hey, it’s been a waaaacky day for me. Seriously.

Anyways, Orcone decided to give Atomic PC a preview build! Boy oh boy, are they lucky.

And apparently, they love it! Xen’s totally unfinished, though.

The preview gives us a few small details, but not anything too special.

Of course, there is always a catch.

The Atomic PC folks also posted a huge gallery of images straight from the mod, after being given permission by this texture artist, who apparently did not consult the team on that issue OR giving them the build in the first place. At least that’s what ONE developer said before Raminator, lead level designer, made a pretty official statement:

Orcone asked Carlos if he could take a build of the mod to Atomic, to see if they’d be interested in writing an article about it and hosting a LAN event for it when it was released. He told Carlos that he’d be taking his own computer, that they’d only play the beginning, that the build would be secure and they wouldn’t be taking any screenshots or videos, and that I’d be accompanying him. I can’t say for certain what he told the guys at Atomic, but for whatever reason, it obviously wasn’t the same as what he told us. I don’t think any of the criteria he outlined were met. They were obviously under the impression that Orcone was acting with the team’s authority, but to their credit they took down the screenshots as soon as I emailed them. They’ve been really understanding and we don’t bear them any ill will.

The images were then taken down.

We will not redistribute these images out of respect for the developers’ wishes, but let us say: it looks f***ing stunning.

That is all.