Left 4 Dead

Want to see the brand new map Valve’s created for Left 4 Dead’s free Survival Pack DLC? Thought so! We got Chet Faliszek, the game’s writer, to give us an exclusive guided tour of the new map, “Lighthouse.” Click play below to check it out, then we’ll regroup for further details and impressions from our hands-on session. » Read Full Left 4 Dead preview

Self-shadowed normal mapping. That got you sitting up in your seats didn’t it? Forget zombie hordes for a second, put the intricate and sophisticated animation system to one side, and focus on what’s going to make Left 4 Dead special: self-shadowed normal mapping. What’s self-shadowed normal mapping? We had no idea, so we picked up the phone and asked Valve. » Read Full Left 4 Dead preview

Face it, pirates and ninjas are out and zombies are in. And we have no doubt that one of our most high-anticipated games of this year is Left4Dead, Valve’s post-apocalyptic survival horror shooter. Our initial playtest sent chills down our spine when we first saw it at last year’s Showdown LAN, and the game looked much more refined and polished when we played it at this year’s E3. » Read Full Left 4 Dead preview

Left 4 Dead is a very scary game. Scary enough to turn four grown men (alright, four videogame journalists) into yelping, squealing hysterical wrecks, even when surrounded by the hubub and spot-lit, brash environment of a games show event. The following report details our experiences at this frontline of fear - videogaming's scariest moments, all of which come from Left 4 Dead » Read Full Left 4 Dead preview

Friends, at last: we have a game in which you can kill a man with a medkit. Remember, Left 4 Dead’s hordes aren’t strictly zombies: they’re people with crazy-rabies. One shot will rip a limb clean off, but they can survive a few close-up thwacks. And every weapon and item - including medkits - has a melee attack. Indeed, our latest chance to play four-player co-op led to an emergent minigame we’re calling it Zombie » Read Full Left 4 Dead preview

Jan 11, 2008 Chet Faliszek, Left 4 Dead's writer and one of the funniest parts of the internet since it was all HotBots and AltaVistas, offered advice and information as we played through the new rural map, which culminates in a farmhouse stand-off surrounded by cornfields. Its classic, its cliche, and its five decent-sized stages away from the temporary campsite we started in. Like the other maps, each scenario is broken up into five large stages, punctuated by safe areas where you can » Read Full Left 4 Dead preview

Left 4 Dead is not a zombie game. These are sprinting and screaming people you're killing here. They've contracted a mutated strain of rabies, but it hasn't made them slow or stupid, it's just made them murderously angry. They don't shuffle toward you in hordes; they run towards you in crowds, snarling with rage. You've never seen anything quite like it. And the noise - imagine the sound of a riot, but a riot where everyone's in agony and hates you. You hear it faintly at first, a distant » Read Full Left 4 Dead preview

You've got to raise at least one eyebrow when Valve's buddies at Turtle Rock Studios claim that with Left 4 Dead, they're out to beat Counter-Strike - but that's exactly what they're planning on doing. They're adamant that with their four-way zombie co-op survival horror extravaganza they can supersede the most widely played online shooter on the planet, and having flown to Valve, taken part in the undead slaughter and relished the sort of interdependent gameplay so rarely seen in PC games, we » Read Full Left 4 Dead preview

The creator of terrorist shooter Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Turtle Rock Studios, is working on a brand new multiplayer PC game called Left 4 Dead, due for release in summer 2007. A Counter Strike-esque co-op shooter, Left 4 Dead pits you and three friends against an impressively inventive and relentless horde of mutated nasties, with up to four rival players also able to join the ranks of the zombie menace. The game will use Valve's Source engine, and you can expect Left 4 Dead's gruesome » Read Full Left 4 Dead preview