The first 10 indie titles to be “Greenlit” for worldwide digital distribution as part of the new Steam Greenlight program have been named, and it should come as no surprise that Black Mesa, the Source Engine mod remake of the original Half-Life, has come out at the top of the community’s most wanted list.
You can actually download Black Mesa this very moment from the project’s official website. It’s completely free to play, you just first need to have Source Sdk Base 2007 installed. It’s not available directly through Steam yet, but the plan is for the game to have stat tracking, achievements, and Black Mesa Death Match.
Other games given the community green light include: survival horror Half-Life mod Cry of Fear; first-person adventure game Dream; free-to-play MMO FPS/Strategy game Heroes & Generals; free-roam squad RPG Kenshi; retro point-and-click adventure McPixel; Source Engine survival horror mod No More Room in Hell; sandbox zombie survival game Project Zomboid; first-person sci-fi survival horror thriller Routine; and city building sim/RPG Towns.
I guess the Steam community likes survival horror games and Source mods.
Matt Litten is the full-time editor and owner of VGBlogger.com. He is responsible for maintaining the day to day operation of the site, editing all staff content before it is published, and contributing regular news, reviews, previews and other articles.
Matt landed his first gig in the video game review business writing for the now-defunct website BonusStage.com. After the sad and untimely close of BonusStage, the former staff went on to found VGBlogger.com. After a short stint as US Site Manager for AceGamez, Matt assumed full ownership over VGBlogger, and to this day he is dedicated to making it one of the top video game blogs in all the blogosphere.
Matt is a fair-minded reviewer and lover of games of all platforms and types, big or small, hyped or niche, big-budget or indie. But that doesn't mean he will let poor games slide without a good thrashing when necessary! 
The one thing I hope that configuring the mod to be available directly through Steam reduces some of the extra overhead that the Mod requires. Currently the Mod is over 3GB and then once it is unpacked and installed it is 7GB. But then the actual game doesn’t play until you install the Source SDK which is another 4 GB. 11 GB for a Mod (which is obviously more than just a Mod) is a lot to swallow. Fortunately the Mod looks absolutely fantastic (so far of what I’ve played) so it is worth the space.
The one thing that I hope Valve sorts out with Half-Life 3 (whenever it comes out) is a less obvious level load stumbling block. I can understand this Mod having the same load points as the original Half-Life, but the sudden halt in momentum due to loading up the next section of the game is jarring. Loading levels at a elevator a la Portal/Portal 2, or at the start of a new “movie” in Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 makes sense, but having to wait while a level loads while sitting on a train car during the opening sequence just feels antiquated. Replaying Half-Life 2 a while back I was reminded of just how jarring this aspect of the Source engine is when I was driving the buggy through the tunnel on my way to the coast. Driving into the tunnel at full speed, only to hit a load point, wait a minute or so, and then have the buggy zooming out of the tunnel at full speed without the same sense of direction and speed due to the load (plus add in the bright dynamic lighting as the buggy shot out of the other end of the tunnel) caused a weird sensory overload for a second.
Source is obviously a fantastic and versatile engine, but level streaming is one thing that should be addressed, or make up-coming load points more obvious so that the transition isn’t so jarring.