left 4 dead
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Yahtzee travels to America, visits Valve
We all know that Yahtzee -- of Zero Punctuation fame -- has a bit of a skewed view on American culture. So perhaps it's fortuitous that Valve invited him to fly out to Washington to visit their studio, fire guns, and witness the wonder that is modern American airport security.No video this time, folks. Yahtzee takes it all in through the ancient medium of travelogue, with a few pictures mixed in for good measure. Still, the tone is undeniably his, and you can practically hear the dulcet rhythms of his accented vulgarity. Check out the piece for some new tidbits on Valve's survival horror title Left 4 Dead, as well as some keen insight into the team's design process.
Video: Shaky Left 4 Dead zombownage
Video footage has surfaced from the showdownLAN of the upcoming PC and Xbox 360 zombie vs. human shooter, Left 4 Dead. Brought to us by Turtle Rock Studios and Valve, who made a little ditty called Counter-Strike. The video above shows four survivors fighting off a bunch of the Infected. Gameplay looks fast, furious, and bloody. Not shown in the video are the "Super Infected' which are more formidable than the fodder shown above. We'll be sure to keep a keen eye on this as more details emerge.[Via Joystiq]
Today's most interesting shaky cam footage: Left 4 Dead at showdownLAN
Footage from showdownLAN has surfaced on showing off a public playtest of Left 4 Dead, an ambitious zombie-centric -esque team game from Turtle Rock Studios (Counter-Strike) and Valve. Four survivors take on waves of the Infected (think 28 Days Later) and four Super Infected as they make their way to a helicopter landing point.Shown in the clip is footage from four player-controlled survivors. Though the Super Infected can also be player-controlled, we don't have any video of that in action. There is, however, a moment where you can spot The Smoker strangling a survivor with its tongue. The video is grainy and shaky at times, but it's the best we've got on this so-far reclusive game.Left 4 Dead 411 has impressions from people who attended showdownLAN, as well as a gallery of the event. The game is due out this summer for PC and this winter for Xbox 360. Video embedded after the break.
Left 4 Dead: co-op zombie slaying action [update 2]
Let's talk about great game conventions. Let's see, there's guns. Everyone likes those. Zombies, gotta love zombies. What else? Ooh, co-op. There's nothing like good co-op. Turtle Rock Studios, the team behind the AI bots in Counter-Strike, looks to combine all of these things in one glorious package with their latest offering, Left 4 Dead. Left 4 Dead puts players in the middle of a contemporary setting in which an incredibly virulent strain of rabies has overtaken the general populace. So, we're not dealing with zombies per se, but definitely crazed people with a penchant for biting their neighbors. Players will create a group of four different survivors, each with different personalities and backgrounds, and fight for survival. Players will cooperate in a survival horror setting, blasting their way through several different "campaigns" which are essentially a series of connected maps that end in a final standoff as players wait for rescue. But here's the twist: the enemies (the "infected") are playable as well. Whereas the human survivors have the same basic weapons and skills, the infected are divided into classes. Some enemies can vomit blood to attract other infected, others can reel in survivors with a long tongue, and the "tank" class can even power through concrete walls. Finally, Turtle Rock claims that their next gen AI technology will allow human players to drop in and out of the game without affecting the overall experience or restarting the scenario.The idea of playing an online enabled, co-op survival horror game with playable enemies is positively dreamy (though not exactly original). If all that wasn't enough, the game is expected to hit the 360 by the end of 2007. Looks like we might have one more to put up on the big board.[Via Xboxygen] Update: Replaced crappy not moving image with awesome trailer. Thanks for spotting this, Mike.Update 2: Turtle Rock implemented bots into CS. They didn't create the game.
