It's time for another edition of Ask RPS, where we answer reader questions put forward by RPS supporters. Today's question is a nice, warm, fuzzy one, as it's all about the good times we've had playing games in co-op with friends and family.
It comes courtesy of Aerothorn, who asks: What is your favorite co-op gaming memory? (along with the additional clarification that these memories don't need to be confined to designed-for-co-op games, but could also stem from playing a single-player game with a friend. "I used to play Descent with me piloting and my friend gunning!" they said).
So which games make us think of happy times with pals and good company? Come and find out below.
]]>Jokes about Valve’s inability to count to three practically write themselves, but in fairness, the publisher have reportedly reached the mythical number in Counter-Strike 2’s files. The mention of “Left4Dead3” was recently spotted in CS2’s files (thanks, Reddit) which sparked online speculation for a third game in the series. The files state that the “severity” is “high”, the “version” is “2”, but what about the “priority?” Bad news for fans of the run-and-gunning zombie shooter: according to the files, the priority is “none.”
]]>A big batch of maps for Counter-Strike: Source has been leaked, and among it is what’s believed to be an early prototype of what would one day become Left 4 Dead. Mod developer WolfCl0ck has made some adjustments to the map, called Zombie_City, and uploaded it online for people to play. WolfCl0ck claims this map is related to the prototype of Left 4 Dead, back when Turtle Rock was calling the project Terror Strike. You can watch the Zombie City mod in action below.
]]>I’m fairly sure that zombies are the perfect video game enemies. They’re relentless, for one thing, happily chomping their way through anyone who gets in their path. The undead are faceless as well, so you don’t feel too bad about escorting them back to their graves. Yet they can be poignant, dramatic reminders of friends and family that meant a lot to characters too, depending on who the shambling corpse used to be. If I was going to hire any enemy for a game, I’d hire a zombie. Then they’d eat my brain. That’s why I hired them! So to celebrate our very iconic, vitality-challenged friends, I've put together a list of my favourite zombie games.
]]>There was a moment over the E3 weekend where Alice0 pointed out that a lot of people are remaking Left 4 Dead - apart from Valve. I have mentioned this before, but playing L4D2 accounted for about 60% of my time at university. I have a tattoo of the safe house symbol on my ribs (it is terrible).
The Left 4 Dead formula is simple on paper - small team of co-op players vs monster horde, getting from point A to point B with potential incidental side objectives on the way - but is tough to nail. You need to get the mix right. And this year's E3 has revealed a lot of people are rolling up their sleeves to have a go. Let's have a look.
]]>Though Left 4 Dead 2 still exists, and has a reasonably healthy if sodium-infused community, it’s still stuck in its 2009 ways. It's exciting, but it lacks proper personalisation. Back 4 Blood, the spiritual successor from the original-ish developers of L4D, is fully embracing 2021 by letting players and the AI game director throw down some game-changing cards before each battle.
]]>Eight years after its last major content update, Left 4 Dead 2 has mutated all sorts of newness with The Last Stand. Made by fans but released officially by Valve, the huge free update has added a new mini-campaign based on the first game's lighthouse Survival mode map, dozens of new maps for Survival and Scavenge modes, new weapons, and loads of wee tweaks and touches. With Valve saying as recently as this year that they're not making L4D3, The Last Stand may be the co-op shooter's last stand for quite some time.
]]>If you're aching for some new things to do in Left 4 Dead 2, then I have some wonderful news. The game's first official content update in eight years drops on September 24th bringing with it The Last Stand, a campaign based on the first game's lighthouse Survival mode map.
Now, that would be pretty cool in itself, but this update is adding not one, but 20 new Survival arenas, four Scavenge arenas, 30 new achievements, loads of previously-unused voice lines, new melee weapons, animations and hundreds of bug fixes to top it all off.
]]>Left 4 Dead 2 will soon get a content update bringing an old favourite Left 4 Dead map to Valve's co-op zombiethon. The Last Stand is a community-made update that's being officially published by Valve, and fans of the original L4D might recognise its location from Survival Mode.
Catch the teaser trailer below for a short, sweeping view of a creepy lighthouse overlooking a cliffside.
]]>You know how it is. You think you're into videogame soundtracks, then you go and hear someone perform ten of them on a Mongolian string instrument. I recently spent 20 minutes listening to a man do just that, and I think you should too.
Genius Jaavka is the man. The morin khuur is his instrument. Songs from Horizon Zero Dawn (coming to PC this summer), Mortal Kombat, Dota 2 and Fortnite are just some of the ones he treats us to. He's really very good.
]]>I love a spin-off. Angel? Great stuff! Count Duckula? The Better Call Saul of cartoons. Kourtney and Khloé Take Miami? Take me, I’m yours! I could go on and on cutting-and-pasting from this Wikipedia page, but I’ll get to the point. Games also have spin-offs. Often they’ll be forgotten about. Sometimes they’re even disowned. On a few occasions, they’ll take on a life of their own and exist apart from the game that spawned them, never calling, never visiting, only sending a multipack Christmas card. Below are a few stories of surprising spin-offs. The 2D Half-Life 2, the Fortnite that failed, the single-player Counter-Strike that no-one asked for, and more.
]]>Chet Faliszek, the former Valve fella best known for his work on Left 4 Dead and writing other good words for games, has joined forces with former Riot Games principal technical designer and AI bod Kimberly Voll to found a new studio. Stray Bombay Company is its name (as in Bombay cat), and drawing people closer through play is its game. They haven't announced any specific game yet but do mutter about wanting to make games we can play over and over, where we get on as teams, and where AI shapes the whole thing. They basically described Left 4 Dead, though I wouldn't assume that's exactly what they're making.
]]>Turtle Rock Studios, the mob who created Left 4 Dead, are revisiting their cooperative zombie-shooting days in Back 4 Blood, a name which seems a clear a statement of intent. Expect to shoot a load of zombies together with your pals, though Turtle Rock are keen to stress that they want Back 4 Blood to be more than just Left 4 Dead with a new name. Today's announcement is mighty vague, without even a logo to show for it, but they do hint that it's got some new tricks. No, it's not a battle royale game.
]]>Hooting echoed across the virtual valleys and mesas of the Internet this week after those who pan the digital stream in search of anything ending with "3" got an inkling that former Valve writer Erik Wolpaw had returned to the Half-Life mob after leaving in 2017. And yep, Wolpaw has confirmed to me that he is doing work for Valve these days - because he never really stopped. Apparently he's been contracting for them all along, working on this and that as needed, on top of working for his niece's juice shop (which was not a joke). Looks like the digipanners found Fool's Three.
]]>I’d wager most folk around these parts devoured Left 4 Dead back in the day, just as I did. Valve’s “28 Days Later with your friends” infected my life for a good year, and a bigger, better sequel one year later only strengthened the disease. But as Valve haven’t really been in the business of making games for a good few years - hopefully, that’s about to change - and while it felt like Left 4 Dead was going to change the world back in (oh no) 2008, for a long time nothing filled the rotten hole where my heart used to be.
That is, until Fatshark’s rowdy rat-smash, Vermintide. The four vs the world setup and the UI were highly reminiscent of Left 4 Dead, and what are Gutter Runners and Pack Masters if not reskinned Hunters and Smokers? But there was much more to that game than swapping out zombies for skaven. With both series now/still on their second games, let’s look at how Vermintide ran with the legacy of Left 4 Dead, while managing to forge its own identity.
]]>They lurk, they creep, they skulk and weep. Monsters in videogames can be as simple as a big spiky cyclops ball, or as unsettling as a sobbing woman in a rainy alleyway. This week on the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, the team is talking about their favourites, from flaming skulls to digitally possessed diving suits, and the clever ways in which game monsters inspire heebies, jeebies, creeps and sometimes even willies.
]]>Left 4 Dead and Evolve creators Turtle Rock Studios have announced a new co-op first-person shooter. Ish. A bit. They've announced they're making one. The mysterious game will be fantasy-ish and, y'know, you'll shoot enemies with your pals and oh, it'll be free-to-play. While Evolve switched to free-to-play a year after launching but this new game will be designed as F2P from the start, which should work out better for it - and us. We shouldn't expect this new game until 2018 at the earliest but I'm glad to know they're still doing their co-op thing.
]]>What use are Saturday morning cartoons? Who's even around to see those? Mate, what I need is Monday morning cartoons. Some short fun cartoons around 10 on my first day back at work sounds just the ticket. So come on, let's enjoy the 2016 Saxxy Award finalists and winners. Valve unveiled this year's finest Source engine machinima on Friday night after I'd already flicked a match into the RPS treehouse and walked away growling "See you in hell!" as it exploded behind me (I didn't look, obvs - I felt the heat), which means they're handily here for me today as I sit on the floor amongst ashes.
]]>Turtle Rock are moving on from Evolve, their hunters vs monsters multiplayer game on which development recently ceased. Before starting something new, though, here's a brief return to something old - their Valve-published masterpiece, Left 4 Dead [official site]. Via the Turtle Rock forums, studio co-founder Chris Ashton has uploaded Dam It, a campaign that, in a loose narrative sense, falls in between Dead Air and Blood Harvest. It's not entirely finished, with some features not working correctly, but if you have a copy of the original game, you can download and play it right now.
]]>Happy 20th birthday, Valve! Yesterday. Happy 20th yesterday. Sorry, I only just saw the Facebook notification. On August 24th, 1996, ex-Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington made a beautiful baby who was mighty eye-opening.
In the dreamy game of "What if...?" one curious hypothetical is: what if Valve never existed? There can't be many companies who've had nearly as much impact. Steam (eventually) revolutionised digital distribution, changing the entire landscape of PC gaming. Half-Life was seminal; its mod scene was legendary. That'd be plenty, but Valve have made a load of other really good video games too.
]]>Louis, Francis, Bill, and Zoey, and Ellis, Rochelle, Coach, and Nick have returned, though probably not in the way you'd hope for. The Left 4 Dead survivors have found themselves transported back to Nazi Germany to tackle those dreadful Nazi zombies in Zombie Army Trilogy. A free update last night added the eight survivors to Zombie Army's character lineup for your undead-redeading enjoyment.
To celebrate this merging of zombworlds, the game's on sale on Steam this weekend.
]]>Turtle Rock and 2K are currently on the receiving end of an Internet Frown due to their approach to DLC and pre-order gubbins in their impending humans vs monsters multiplayer shooter Evolve. They'd pared some pretty major stuff, including playable monsters, off into bonus payments, and as well as their various editions and DLC being simply confusing, there's been concern that the game experience might be harmed by such bestial partitioning.
Turtle Rock now claim otherwise, and that this isn't them cynically holding back finished content in the name of extra moolah.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Of all games, Left 4 Dead and its sequel might well be the ones I miss the most. Sure, I could still play them today if I wanted to, but who would play them with me? They're two of the smartest and most atmospheric cooperative games I've ever played, but I tend to tip my hat at a slightly more approving angle in the direction of the second because it has a wonderful sense of place. It also has improved zombie gore.
]]>A game going gold isn't particularly big news in this age of early access, unless you're someone who worked on it, or you're one of those not-at-all-fatiguing people who just have to start singing Spandau Ballet whenever a certain precious metal is mentioned, but I keep meaning to say something about Evolve. Here's an excuse to: Evolve, the 4v1 team shooter from original Left 4 Dead creators Turtle Rock, is gold. I'm not exactly a frequent flier to multiplayer land, but brief dabbling with Evolve's alpha late last year got me all excited.
]]>Super Time Force launched on Monday, while we were off enjoying the holiday (I sat in a park in St. Albans in torrential rain with a bottle of wine, because reasons), so have a reminder that it's out.
The time-twisting shooty platformer's port from Xbox is fancied-up, as one would hope. Capy Games bunged in a new mode and more levels, renamed it to make a most entertaining acronym, and also teamed up with some other folks who play loose with time, Valve. See, Super Time Force Ultra (what wags!) on Steam also has Zoey from Left 4 Dead and TF2's Pyro and Saxton Hale.
]]>Evolve is the next game from original Left 4 Dead developer Turtle Rock, and that alone should be enough to turn an eye or two or however many you happen to have. I was a giant firebreathing space mutant recently, so I can't judge. I got to go hands-on with Evolve's second batch of Hunters and gameplay options, and I came away with opinions. Powerful ones, beastly thoughts that couldn't be caged by mere words alone. So I made this video for you instead. Watch it below.
]]>2014 would seem to be the year in which the games industry has another crack at making primarily multiplayer shooting games work all over again. There've been a few false starts in the past, but Destiny and Titanfall are some super-big, super-fat attempts at achieveing enormous mass market success from shooters where narrative takes a backseat. Now Evolve joins the ranks of big games looking for a piece of glossy, next-generation COD-seasoned pie, and it comes from Turtle Rock Studios, those former Valve chums who did the heavy lifting on the original Left 4 Dead.
]]>Making Left 4 Dead campaigns is an interesting challenge. You're building levels for a game that decides when and where to attack the player, and you have almost no control over those moments. It means your focus is in creating the world and in making it an interesting space for the players to exist in. You can't guarantee that the cleverly designed chokepoint you made will ever be used as one, but you can make it the prettiest damn corridor the player will ever see. The setting is one of the biggest considerations you have, and then you have to have the talent to pull it off. It's why I think most L4D campaigns take such a long time coming. Dniepr's a Left 4 Dead (1 and 2) campaign that's set in the Ukraine, including Pripyat, and has been three years in development. There's a quite startling pair of trailers below.
]]>We're waiting for you, Valve. In the sweat chamber. Show us what your mad wearable computing tech can do, instead of all this teasing. Latest report is that they've come up with kit which can measure assorted bodily responses, including heart rate, facial expression, brain waves, eye movement, pupil dilation, body temperature and, indeed, sweatability. Based on how you appear to be feeling, the game will alter factors such as difficulty and intensity to suit.
]]>Yesterday, you probably read the first part of my chat with Valve's Erik Wolpaw and Double Fine's Anna Kipnis. If not, it's right here- but FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY. By which I mean until the Internet ceases to exist, which, you know, could happen someday. Anyway, in today's installment, we branch out a bit from yesterday's story-centric beat. Valve's newfound love of wearable computing, virtual reality, heaps behind-the-scenes info on Portal, crowd-sourcing, and more are all on the docket. OK, there wasn't actually any sort of docket involved. I'm not entirely sure why I said that.
]]>It all began one sunny, seemingly inauspicious afternoon in a Starbucks. It also ended there - but, you know, later. Ragged and bone-weary from three days of wading through PAX's diseased hordes, Valve's Erik Wolpaw, Double Fine's Anna Kipnis, and I huddled around one last vestige of civilized humanity: a table. Then we spent nearly an hour talking about this year's sudden upsurge in crazy-interesting videogame stories, because it seemed like the thing to do at the time. It isn't anymore, but - if you'll believe it - it was considered cool back then. Those were the days. Anyway, here's part one. If you behave yourself, you might get part two tomorrow. And maybe a cookie. But probably not.
]]>We are suddenly talking about Left 4 Dead a lot again. Could this be a sign of more substantial things to come? I doubt it, but it's fun to hope for things - so long as you never stop hoping and are incapable of sorrow. Regardless, Payday: The Heist's much-vaunted reproduction of Left 4 Dead's Mercy Hospital is here to cure whatever ails you - assuming, of course, that you are made physically ill by the idea that Payday might eventually cease releasing DLC. Go download it! Or read details. These are your only options.
]]>Left 4 Dead 2's Cold Stream DLC has been through more tests than a guinea pig that just survived a nuclear blast. As well as the new map, the DLC contains Blood Harvest, Crash Course, Dead Air and Death Toll from the first game, but that's not new news. The fresh meat on this data morsel is the availability of all mutations at all times and Valve promise "other surprises and details" soon. July 24th is the release date. That's the release date for the DLC, by the way, not the guinea pig. The guinea pig is too uncanny to release into the wild so top scientists have sealed it in a lead box which is currently being dropped into a furnace.
]]>Well, this is odd. We've known about an upcoming Payday: The Heist-Left 4 Dead crossover for about a month now, and - as is often the case with these things - it materialized earlier today via YouTube's eyebeaming ethers. ""Have you ever wondered how the Left 4 Dead series began?" the video's description asked, forcing me to realize that I've never actually wondered that. "It started with a heist!" Intrigued, the Internet looked on as Payday's band of mask-loving hooligans shot its way through a very un-zombified version of Left 4 Dead's Mercy Hospital. And then the trailer disappeared.
]]>Seems a trifle odd to be saying this given 2009's foremost angry internet man-generator was the perceived too-soon release of a sequel to Left 4 Dead, but Valve's zombathons seem to me to have been left a little fallow of late. Team Fortress 2's ongoing transformation into QVC, Portal 2's awards-hogging and fever-pitch speculation about Half Life has been the order of the day for the last couple of years. You could - aheh- say that Left 4 Dead has been - aheh - left for dead. Aheh-heh-heh. Just my little joke, there.
Something is suddenly stirring, however (editor's note - I really need more elegant alternatives to 'however' and 'though', which I know full well are often seen to be cludgy writing. Suggestions?), and it comes not from Valve, but from Payday: The Heist devs and recent Starbreeze acquisition Overkill.
]]>The handsome writer clicks on the Steam Store and types the word "zombie" into the search bar. Too many. He reorganises them by game only. Still too many. They're everywhere. Surrounding us. An outbreak. It's only a matter of time before -- wait, what's that groaning? Where is it coming from? He moves to his browser and checks his tabs. That wasn't there before. He starts closing tabs down, isolating the infected tab: move Gmail, get away Reddit Aww, flee Katy Perry vs Aha. Just one more tab sits, keeping the outbreak from spreading. Slowly, uncertainly he clicks the 'x' on the Apple store tab and reveals the source: it's the Contagion GDC trailer.
]]>Dear me, I wasn't paying attention yesterday. Remember that we told you about the excellent trailer for a Left 4 Dead fan-made film, that to my eyes at least look Hollywood scale? The full 10 minute version is now there for you to see. And by "there", I mean, "just below these words". It really is remarkably good.
]]>It's official - I can no longer tell the difference between fan film trailers and Hollywood trailers. The extraordinary snippet of film below is a teaser for a soon-to-be-released fan movie of Left 4 Dead. But I challenge you to spot the joins here. I mean, unless they've a person stood on someone else's shoulders, holding a third man upside down by his trouser legs, it seems like they have a crane. Are you still a fan film if you've got a crane? Surely you're just a film at that point? In other words: wow.
]]>Over the last few years, Valve have been quietly honing the fine art of viral marketing in an online age, and comics have been a big part of that. A cartel of in-house writers and the excellent pencils of Michael Avon Oeming (and others) have created some rather splendid words'n'pictures. Of course, they were merely digital. HOW DARE YOU INSULT OUR EYEBALLS WITH YOUR CRUMMY JPEGS? Why, that's for philistines and people too damned lazy to turn paper pages. This horrendous oversight and offence to everything that some angry guy somewhere probably holds dear is about to be corrected, thanks to a hardback compilation of Valve's various Portal, Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 comics due from august comic publisher Dark Horse later this year.
]]>You know what always goes well? When Valve offers to release something early if only customers do something for them. That's something with a solid history. Leaping onto this unwaveringly endorsed theme once more, Valve have announced plans on the Left 4 Dead blog to release Dead Air from community-co-created Cold Stream DLC pack early if enough people bug test the new campaign for them.
]]>More sites should interview mod-makers, I feel. If one of this week's picks is anything to go by, they can have some interesting things to say. Modding might not usually be quite as huge a process as making a full-on indie game, but as a modder you face your own unique problems, ones we don't always get to hear about. Maybe we should take note of that at RPS. Either way, read on for this week's roundup.
]]>You may have seen some sites reporting yesterday that Michael Louisseize, operator of World Of Minecraft, is creating a Left 4 Dead mod that merges Valve's four-player shooter with Notch's world-taking-over craft-em-up. We have a few more details about it below.
]]>Valve send word that The Sacrifice, the DLC for both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, is now available on Steam.
]]>Welcome to October, via more zombie drama for Friday morning. The Sacrifice, the latest DLC for both Left 4 Dead and its sequel, is arriving on PC on 5th October. Rather looking forward to this one, I have to say.
]]>Quick one: the third and penultimate part of the rather impressive Left 4 Dead gap-filling online comic The Sacrifice has arrived. It's rather gory, gore fans. Also peanut-buttery, peanut butter fans. Francis takes the spotlight this time around, though I maintain that his hair's drawn a bit too long.
]]>But which safehouseman? Or safehousewoman? That's your problem, bucko. Your problem to solve as you play the latest DLC for Left 4 Dead on October 5. Or! As you play the latest DLC for Left 4 Dead 2 on October 5. Yes, yes, they're doing that. All is fair in love and released-slightly-too-soon-zombie-sequels.
]]>That rather confusing title being a reference to the second part of The Sacrifice, the continuity-plugging comic which describes the events that lead up to recent L4D2 DLC The Passing. We posted about the first part here, and now we're posting about this one here. It's a 40-page tale of the original Left 4 Deaders, soldiers, and vampires. Sorta. Once again, Michael Avon Oeming takes to the pencils for this big old chunk of survivor chatter. This one includes backstory, and tragedy.
]]>The first part of the previously announced Left 4 Dead comic is out. It's coming out in four weekly parts, leading up to the release of the actual The Sacrifice pack. It's also a hefty creature. The first part is over forty-pages, so the whole thing should be getting on for 160 and actually includes details to the background of the plague itself. It's also drawn my Michael Avon Oeming, who's a fantastic visual storyteller and worth looking at generally. I especially like the BLAM! apocalypse. If you want to investigate further, I'll suggest the first Powers trade. Anyway, you can read the first part of The Sacrifice here. Go! do so!
]]>...who lives and who dies, apparently. As it stands Bill dies in The Passing, and there's going to be comic that explains how and why that happens. But it turns out that in The Sacrifice, you can - in keeping with the game's own moment-to-moment decision-making - choose who dies for yourselves. This comes via Kotaku, who point out that in this GameTrailers' chat with Valve, Mr Faliszek reveals that this next bit of free DLC for Left 4 Dead (and also Left 4 Dead 2, it'll work with either) enables us to experience what happened in the events of The Passing from the perspective of the original cast. The events of this new expansion will, therefore, allow you to choose which of that original cast winds up dead. The Sacrifice also gives Left 4 Dead 2 owners a version of No Mercy, which seems like a splendid little bonus.
]]>I thought about doing an "Is this Left 4 Dead 3?" gag-headline to follow-up Kieron's GIMPery, but then I realised the entire internet would probably come and burn my house down.
This'll still be a little contentious, probably - the release of fan campaign (fanpaign?) I Hate Mountains is being heralded as "the first day anyone has played L4D1 in over half a year." That's what a guy on Moddb says anyway, the big joker.
]]>Where were we? Sorry about the delay. I’ve been in France, making awful jokes about floating skulls to Chris Avellone. He didn’t punch me, miraculously, but I remain mortified. The Passing, then. I’m going to keep away from spoiler stuff in this post, bar stating the pretty-much-obvious that you don’t get to control the L41 survivors in any way.
]]>This should be one long piece, but I've been distracted by going to France and arguing with Kieron about routing in fascinating but incredibly complicated boardgames. Figured I should deal with the spoileriffic stuff while it's fresh, though. Conclusion tomorrow, chums.
The Passing: the long-awaited conflluence between Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. There's only one way to describe it.
Uh-oh.
]]>As much as we pretend to loathe one another, the RPS-members do talk to one another. Earlier today, our standard chat broke into something resembling an actual discussion. John, sitting silently by, suggested this chat about Left 4 Dead's lack of a Director Mode is the sort of thing we should post on the site. So we did. Blame John. Always blame John.
Quinns: The only thing I think I care about is whether they're going to put in a full blown Director mode. Which I doubt they ever will.
]]>The Left 4 Dead blog has some info on the "mutations" (ie game mode variants) that are being introduced with The Passing:
Our first Mutation is Realism Versus.
For this Mutation, Survivors have all the Realism changes working against them, no glows on items or survivors, tougher zombies, instant kill witches, etc. The Infected have all those changes working for them. This makes the Jockey one of the most powerful Specials for his ability to steer a Survivor out of view. You will want to make sure you have a working microphone so your teammates can hear your screams for help. This Mutation is only available in Versus.
Trailer posted below. Francis hates stuff, obv. Reckon I might be re-deading some zombies later...
]]>Free Left 4 Dead 2 DLC The Passing is out tomorrow. It's got lashings of content, including new infected and new weapons. But here's the really interesting bit:
]]>With news of worlds colliding over at the L4D blog, we learn that The Passing is out "next week". Time for those mysteries to give themselves us. And time to dust off those zombie-whacking skills. Thwotch!
]]>Whoops, we missed this last week - frenziedly frenetic footage of the upcoming L4D2-meets-L4D1 DLC The Passing. Alas, team L4D don't show up in these videos, Valve's Chet Faliszek claiming they still want to keep a lid on exactly how that's going to work, but at least it's a chance to eyeball some of the new uncommon Common Infected (including one that tries to run away but drops health packs when you kill it - sounds like Golden Axe's imp thingies) and the shape and mood of one of the levels. The finale of the second video looks appropriately claustrophobic and OH GOD GET IT OFF ME, so no doubt L4D2 believers will not be left unhappy on the obscene violence front. What of the non-believers, still licking their wounds about the sequel-too-soon outrage? Well, right at the end of the second video, Chet lets slip that we're due a comic that explains the current fate of the first game's survivors, and, and! new DLC for L4D1. Too little too late, some will cry, but hey- it's still something, sometime.
]]>Crivens - and here were we all thinking the first L4D2 DLC would involve fictional hoary old rockers the Midnight Riders. In fact, Valve are doing something gosh-wow-what? different.
First DLC The Passing arrives in Spring. It features four very familiar faces. Clue: it's not Zippy, George, Bungle and Geoffrey.
There will be much rejoicing. Except by people who don't do that sort of thing.
]]>Obviously you're salivating about the release of Left 4 Dead 2 today, but if you can't wait to get home and play the much-ballyhooed thing, there's a look at the splendid new Left 4 Dead game below. Waitagoshdarnminute - that ain't L4D2...
]]>Ill-timed because 1) it came out over Halloween and we're only just posting about it. That is, of course, because none of RPS have ever demonstrated any kind of fear about anything, hence we do not recognise Halloween as a OH GOD WHAT WAS THAT I'M GONNA DIE I'M GONNA DIE... Oh, it's just a yogurt pot. Cough. And 2) Because I've heard a rumour there might some sort of sequel to Left 4 Dead due any day now. Anyone heard anything about that? Nonetheless, you probably couldn't wish for a more delectably violent stopgap than this vast and lavish tribute to Dawn of the Dead - a super-spiffy Left 4 Dead 1 mod replete with zombie-infested shopping mall...
]]>Yaaaaarrrrrr - Crash Course, aka L4D1:DLC2, as Valve themselves succinctly put it, has just gone live. It's a new map, new storyline stuff and, in theory, a full Versus argy-bargy contained within a mere half hour. And all for free, not that this seems to placate the vengeful. Exit and restart Steam and it should download and install itself for you. If you don't already own Left 4 Dead (and aren't planning on picking up L4D2 instead on 20th November), there's also a celebratory 50%-off sale on from now until October 1st.
]]>September 29th. Yep, that's the latest bit of DLC (free on PC) for Left 4 Dead, which is a new campaign set between the events of No Mercy and Death Toll, with support for both survival and versus modes. Valve says: "While containing both Survival maps and a Co-operative Campaign, the primary goal of Crash Course is to deliver a complete Versus mode experience in just 30 minutes, resulting in a streamlined version of the game's existing Versus campaigns. A recharge timer for infected teammates has also been added, and item spawn behavior has changed for more balanced gameplay." There will also be a L4D2 demo from Valve on October 27th, accordingly to reports from Tokyo Games Show.
]]>A Left 4 Dead mod that, well, adds the Teletubbies as enemies. There's not really much more that can be added to that. It's created by flameknight7, and can be downloaded from here. Watch the video, as displayed on our tummies, below.
]]>Some rather big Left 4 Dead news. This September will see the release of some brand new free DLC for the original game. Called Crash Course, it's designed to link the end of No Mercy to the beginning of Death Toll, primarily intended to be played as a Versus map that will apparently take half an hour to play through. Valve also say the new free content will be set in new locations, feature new dialogue from the cast, and have what they call "an explosive finale". More details and the new poster below.
]]>It's a little alarming that the game I most want to play during Britain's sunniest month since 1209AD involves skulking in the dark in the company of several hundred super-pale people: curse you, Valve, for releasing Left 4 Dead's new, Alamo-tastic Survival mode now. It's been my staple gaming diet for the last couple of evenings - and it's very much renewed my interest in a game I'd otherwise grown a leeeeeeetle tired of. Here's why.
]]>Left 4 Dead will update with Survival Mode if you restart Steam, and it's reportedly rather brutal. Dead Air and Death Toll are also now playable in Versus mode (which I think is actually more interesting than the new mode, but hey, that's just me.) Anyone playing? How long have you managed to stay alive? I'll try and post some more useful thoughts when I get a proper game of it.
]]>The downloadable add-on "Survival Mode" for L4D is apparently out sometime this week, and Valve were kind enough to detail it on their L4D blog, last week. I was off being clever somewhere and so didn't notice it until this morning. Anyway, it says that "given the extreme pace of Survival Mode, the number of zombies killed in a single round often outnumbers an entire campaign." It also plots spawn-wave frequency against survival time to create the graph you see above. This, I suspect, is the science of game design. Full thing here.
]]>This is a short, cute cartoon, gently spoofing the idiosyncrasies of Left 4 Dead. It'll let you know who's most likely to be turned zombie in an apocalypse, who might survive, and other useful tips. It's by =Golden-Silver (Stefan Martello), on his Deviant Art page, and worth a glance. Thanks to Yngvild for the tip-off.
]]>The matter's settled. The DLC for Left 4 Dead will be absomolutely free on PC and 360. Valve have proclaimed the good news about the L4D Survival Pack, which we describe in words here. Quite how Valve have managed to get something out on 360 without forcing the masses to tithe to the Redmond Beasts we don't know, but that's not our problem anyway.
]]>Edit: reader research suggests this is free - see comments - but still no official response from Valve. We'll let you know, but assume it is free!
]]>Ah, look to the streets. Hordes shambling the streets, looking for last minute bargains. Why, it's almost enough to make you want to write some kind of satire where the consumers become monsters of some kind. But what kind of monsters?
For the eleventh game of Christmas, my true blog gave to me...
]]>Give a modder a first-person shooter, and he can mod for a year. Give a modder a co-operative first-person shooter about a zombie apocalypse and he can mod forever.
Yes, one of the first fruits of the Left 4 Dead modding scene has revealed itself, and it's a doozy. Fancy slaying deadheads by the metric crapton in a Dawn of the Dead-esque shopping mall?
It's actually a remake of a map for the old Half-Life 2 mod No More Room In Hell, but there's hardly anything more appropriate for Valve's top-notch zomb 'em up. In fact, it's the kind of setting I'd guess Valve have considered themselves, and it's vaguely amazing there wasn't a mall in the initial L4D release. As the architecture for this Crossroads Mall map exists already, hopefully we should have it very soon. A beta's due by Christmas, in fact. Until then, there's a video beneath the cut.
]]>You know what's quite good? That Left 4 Dead game. I quite like it. Also, you know who's a nice guy? That Chet Faliszek - you know, the one that isn't Erik Wolpaw (he loves it when people say that!) off of Old Man Murray. Apparently he had something to do with Left 4 Dead. I imagine he wrote a joke for it or something. There's probably a joke in it somewhere.
Eurogamer are having a live chitchat with him today at 5pm. You'll be able to submit questions and everything.
]]>You'd have thought with RPS' extensive Left 4 Dead coverage, we'd have written all pallid, unattractive men could stand to hammer about zombies tearing flesh. And normally you'd be right. But you forgot about the most potent power-up. Money. Lots of Money. And if there's one thing that RPS is good at, it's selling our God-given-lack-of talent for a few tiny coins to spend on crisps. Hence Alec and I have bent to the will of our evil corporate paymasters and reviewed it for them. Now, who reviewed it for IGN and who reviewed it for Eurogamer? Guess, before clicking...
]]>We had said, amongst ourselves, that we probably had enough Left 4 Dead coverage today already. This one's just far too epic not to report, though. Via Castle Crecente, it's Left 4 Dead played happily in Team Fortress 2 maps:
]]>This is an ode to a strange, huddled creature. A crying, singing, tangle of ragged limbs and ferocious eyes. Terrifyingly deadly, and yet so distressingly vulnerable. Left 4 Dead’s Witch is unparalleled for me amongst all of gaming’s enemies, more frightening and fascinating than any before. She is pure fear.
]]>Left 4 Dead has gone live. Anyone who pre-ordered and pre-loaded should find it's ready to roll. Everyone else should be frantically downloading to catch up.
]]>Left 4 Dead has gone gold. Hurrah! A short story, slightly lengthened by letting you know that those who have pre-ordered the game via Steam will be able to begin pre-loading it now, so it'll be all but ready to go on the 18th November, from 8.01 am GMT (12.01 am EST).
]]>The Until-launch Demo's up for non-preorder users, apparently. Re-start Steam to get it if you can't see it.
]]>So far you'll have seen details of two of Left 4 Dead's four campaigns, No Mercy and Blood Harvest. Today we have a world exclusive first look at a third campaign, Dead Air. What follows is a detailed photo "essay" (using that term loosely) of our experience in the campaign - reveling and revealing details from its quiet beginnings to its climactic conclusion (i.e. SPOILERZ). It's a terrifying journey through a town complex to reach the airport and escape the city. It starts in a shattered commercial greenhouse with a plane going overhead. The team decides to set out and try to get picked up by the military craft...
]]>A couple of interesting hacks have appeared for the Left 4 Dead demo. People have found a way to get at the splitscreen mode, intended only for the 360 version, and more interestingly, how to play as the Infected.
It's important to note that the latter isn't a way to get Versus mode in the demo - instead it's a very choppy console-command-led method that sort of lets you at least experience what it's like to play as the Infected, albeit in a way that is nothing like the game proper.
]]>Yes yes yes, you said the RPS coverage of Left 4 Dead has so far been the greatest games writing you've ever had the good fortune to read, but why haven't you been able to see an enormous selection of screenshots from the first two campaigns of the game? We heard your cries, and here they are. See below.
]]>Those who have pre-ordered Left 4 Dead will hopefully have noticed that the demo's actually gone live. We only just managed it, as jetlag is preventing me noticing anything other than the taste of tea and Hobnobs. The demo is one and a half maps of NO MERCY - worth noting that the saferoom where it ends is one that's been added for the demo - the full version of that level is a lot bigger. You can play single-player or co-op, but there's no access to the versus mode. And everyone else gets a shot on November 11th.
However, it's not entirely a smooth launch.
]]>Our second day playing Valve's zombie shooter was based around the main multiplayer mode in the game. "Versus" pits two teams of four against each other, alternately playing through the sections of the campaign maps. One side tries to reach the end of the stage as survivors, whilst the other, playing as the boss infected, try to stop them. Then they swap. Our initial hands-on impressions follow.
]]>We have killed so many zombies in a single day that it seems improbable, even impossible: over 11,000. We are, of course, playing Left 4 Dead. Beneath the cut we have the first-impressions of each of the four RPS editors. It's been a long, noisy day of gaming. When we close our eyes, all we can see are burning zombies.
]]>You may remember that back in May, RPS was the first place in the world to announce Valve's new addition to Steam, Steam Cloud. Today Valve have declared that it's finished, and ready to go live.
]]>Ooh, I've got zombie fever. Just watched the penultimate episode of Dead Set, packing to head off to Valve to play Left 4 Dead, and of course that my parents are half zombie. So get yourself in a similar mood with the opening movie of Left 4 Dead, released into the wild today.
]]>Look at us, all excited, packing our bags and fighting over who gets the front seat. RPS is getting ready for its first ever roadtrip! If that road is in the sky. As tomorrow, the four of us are off to Seattle to visit Aunty and Uncle Valve.
]]>Valve are being rather bold about their advertising spend for Left 4 Dead. $10 million, we're told, quite a lot. Don't they know that a gentleman doesn't know how much is in his advertising budget? Anyhow, a lump of this money is being spent on TV spots, which are of course already on the internets. Of course posting adverts is just what they want us to do, so, er, we're doing it ironically.
]]>We have a release date for the Left 4 Dead demo. It's available to all from 11th November, running until the 18th when the full game is released. However, if you want more than a week's free play of a couple of levels from the game, Valve are offering more as a pre-order bribe. Anyone who pre-orders via Steam (or in participating US stores) will get access from 6th Nov, giving you five extra days of four-player zombie destruction.
]]>Christmas is a tough time of year for the dedicated PC gamer. All the best titles madly appear in one giant rush over the last three months, ensuring that no one has enough money to buy all the games they would like to. Someone tell the publishers - somehow this escapes them. But anyhow, the point is, why not, er, spend some of that money a bit earlier. Valve have just announced Left 4 Dead as available for pre-order via Steam.
]]>First post is up, talking about Valve's trials and tribulations with playtesting and finalising their games:
]]>Valve boss Gabe Newell has confirmed that there will be a demo of Left 4 Dead. Speaking to Videogamer.com, he said,
"We will be releasing demos for both the Xbox and for the PC. I don't know what the date is for release on that, though. I think it's going to contain the first part of one of the campaigns. I think it'll probably be Hospital but I'm not sure. That's a decision that Doug Lombardi [Valve marketing guru] is making."
]]>Having spent the weekend co-op gaming at a mini journo-LAN this weekend, I've got the taste for fighting alongside my chums. Left 4 Dead, which I've played a couple of times now, has had a similar effect each time I've experienced it, and the reason is that it's a game which insists that you help each other. Finding games in which working with your friends is essential to victory is actually rather tricky - any number of co-op games are actually just you playing a single player game in which your friends happen to be. In Left 4 Dead you don't just happen to be shooting the same targets, you're pulling each other up from where you've fallen, rescuing injured members from where they are trapped in rubble or locked rooms, or blasting zombie swarms away from a stricken comrade. It's thrilling, because you can really mess up and get someone else killed. The Leipzig trailer appears after the jump.
]]>Evo Gamer have spotted that Valve are currently listing Left 4 Dead as "Available Nov 2008" and, more peculiarly, "free" on Steam. It's obviously a mistake, since the RRP for the game is £35. But it's a nice mistake. The sort of mistake we'd love to see hang around. Until, say, December. Meanwhile, check out L4D's Steam page. Cheers Chris.
]]>Skeptics like me have wondered if Left 4 Dead will hit its November deadline. It's hardly the most radical of ideas - in fact someone suggesting that Valve might release a game on time should more likely be ostracised and pitied. However, screw me then, because Valve are acting with a healthy bravado about the release date. Not only have they announced you can now pre-order the game in your favourite retail outlet, but they've released the cover art for the boxed copy of the game. Click on for the fullsize image.
]]>Two things were delightful about dropping by Valve’s meeting room today. First was the chance to (finally!) get some hands-on time with Left 4 Dead, and the other was that I got to play it with Chet Faliszek, who you may know (should know) as one of the men behind Old Man Murray. Thankfully he was so nice (graciously accepting my stuttering adulation) that I didn’t have the heart to bring up that the start to crate time for Left 4 Dead was literally zero.*
Of course, who cares? It’s an FPS with zombies! So I can live with the crates. The word on the internet, I’ve seen, is similarly unconcerned about crates but deeply unimpressed by the redesigned characters, with people by and large disliking them. I’m going to disagree with this and say I absolutely love them.
]]>Redesigned characters and procedural generation in Valve's upcoming zomcom team FPS, as narrated by Gabe somebody. Never heard of him.
]]>Dear RPS Readers,
Thanks for the interested comments in response to my first post! They have warmed my heart and girded my loins for the rest of the week. Straight after filing my first report I had to dash (well, walk leisurely) across downtown Los Angeles to get to the EA press conference, held at the Orpheum Theatre – a truly gorgeous restored vaudeville theatre where they shot the theatre scenes for Last Action Hero. Which wasn’t as thrilling as accidentally ending up at Union Station (where they filmed the police station scenes for Blade Runner) yesterday, but interesting none the less. In a round about way that sort of sums up EA’s press conference, too. Not hugely thrilling, but unquestionably interesting.
]]>I've a sneaking suspicion that these won't stay up on GameTrailers, so take a look while they're hot. Past the jump there's a whole bunch of shakeycam videos of Left 4 Dead being played, and they show off some of the best stuff in the game. Left 4 Dead, in case you weren't paying attention, is the 4-player co-op zombie shooter multiplayer type thing from Valve. I've played it, it's entirely awesome, and it's scheduled for release on November 4th.
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