GamesRadar - PC Previews

Left 4 Dead (Left 4 Dead)

Aug 19, 2008

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. ...

Left 4 Dead gets dissected (Left 4 Dead)

Jul 23, 2008

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. ...

Left 4 Dead's seven scariest moments (Left 4 Dead)

May 1, 2008

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 ...

Left 4 Dead (Left 4 Dead)

Mar 17, 2008

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 ...

Left 4 Dead (Left 4 Dead)

Jan 11, 2008

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 ...

Left 4 Dead - hands-on (Left 4 Dead)

May 18, 2007

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 ...

Left 4 Dead - hands-on (Left 4 Dead)

Apr 26, 2007

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 ...

Left 4 Dead - first details (Left 4 Dead)

Nov 21, 2006

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 ...

Legendary - hands-on (Legendary)

Mar 13, 2008

Poor, poor Charles Deckard. As the unenviable thief duped into opening Pandora’s Box, he’s now the unlucky bastard caught between a plague of mythical hell-beasts and two ancient, warring factions that wish to control them. A battle unlike any other is now upon us all. Minotaurs, werewolves and golems: oh my! In our last hands-on with Legendary (formerly Legendary: The Box), we bravely fought bloodthirsty griffins in the streets of ...

Legendary: The Box - hands-on (Legendary)

Nov 14, 2007

According to legends of the ancient Greeks, who gave the West everything from Aristotle to organized orgies, Zeus decided to give mankind the first woman, Pandora. It was meant to be a punishment to us all for stealing fire from the gods. But we're glad Mr. Lightning bolts gave us Pandora and her box of evils. If he didn't, we wouldn't have Legendary: The Box to look forward to. You'll start off as Charles Decker, an art thief who unwittingly winds up opening Pandora 's Box in the New York ...

Legendary: The Box (Legendary)

Jul 19, 2007

The premise behind Legendary: The Box is so simple that we're beating our heads against the wall for not thinking of it first. Take the balls-to-the-wall rush of Call of Duty, mix it with mythological creatures like golems, griffons and werewolves, then pump it full of chunky rock guitar riffs that pound through the speakers like a summer blockbuster. If that setup doesn't pique your interest, then move along to your $20 budget checkers game and make room for some real gamers starving for a ...

Legends of Norrath: Oathbound - first look (Legends of Norrath: Oathbound)

Oct 10, 2007

Oct 10, 2007 Sony has an interesting idea with their new card game, Legends of Norrath: Oathbound. The game is deeply embedded into EverQuest I and II, while at the same time it's a completely independent game with its own rules, players and, well, cards. To keep it tied to EQ there are certain "loot cards," found in booster packs, that give your EQ characters real virtual world items. And while playing EQ, Oathbound players have a chance of finding boosters from slain monsters. You can also ...

LEGO Batman - updated impressions (LEGO Batman: The Videogame)

Feb 21, 2008

We've been seeing a lot of LEGO Batman recently, mostly in the form of new screens, but it wasn't until this week's Game Developer's Conference that we got to see the plasticized caped crusader in action. And we saw a lot, from the suits and gadgets that Batman and Robin will use to fight crime, to the missions where you'll take control of some of their arch-nemeses and go toe-to-toe against Gotham's finest. And although we can't yet say how it ...

LEGO Batman: The Videogame (LEGO Batman: The Videogame)

Feb 14, 2008

Few franchises are as ripe for a LEGO once-over as Batman. Unlike his fellow comic book chums, Bruce Wayne is a truly self-made hero. Born with no Kryptonian spoon in his mouth and avoiding radioactive daddy-long-legs, his strength stems from determination and smarts. The gazillion bucks inherited from slain Papa Wayne didn’t hurt either. No surprise then, that the self-made man and the make-it-yourself brick sensation meld together so ...

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures)

Apr 1, 2008

The decision to immortalise the wise-cracking hero in LEGO form is clear: the Indiana Jones films are almost as iconic as Star Wars, and their cheeky humour runs parallel with the tongue-in-cheek approach of the recent LEGO games. With the building blocks already in place from the Star Wars games, it hasn’t been too difficult for Traveller’s Tales to whip the engine into shape and recreate the original three films in a style fit for ...

LEGO Indiana Jones - first look (LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures)

Feb 21, 2008

If you thought last week’s trailer for the fourth Indiana Jones film felt a little flat with its combo of CG locales and one very old Harrison Ford, then you’d be happy to hear that you can trust LEGO Indiana Jones as a better outlet for your nostalgia. Developed by Traveller’s Tales - the team behind LEGO Star Wars - Indy will traverse locales from each of the first three films, while embracing youngsters who aren’t ...

LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy hands-on (Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy)

Aug 17, 2006

Hands-on time with LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy only confirms what you already knew: If this adorable game does not make you smile, you have no soul. Of course, cute ain't everything, and that's the real reason why our time traipsing through Episodes IV (A New Hope) and V (The Empire Strikes Back ) in a preview version of this Xbox 360 action/adventure was so satisfying. Not only is the game almost huggable (all these warm-fuzzy screens are taken from the Xbox 360 version), it's a ...

Lego Star Wars II hands-on (Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy)

Jul 13, 2006

A rebel ship disappears from orbit, sucked into the belly of an Imperial Star Destroyer. Rebels hold their breath and take up defensive positions as a door is breached. Stormtroopers flood in. Shots are fired. Cute plastic heads clatter to the floor and slowly blink out of existence. Beginning with the first scene of A New Hope, Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy finally gives fans what they really want: the chance to play through Lego versions of the first three films. We've finally had ...

Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy - first look (Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy)

May 18, 2006

Our first real glimpse of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy was of Luke Skywalker running over pedestrians in a landspeeder. As he thoughtlessly careened around the streets of Mos Eisley, any Lego people who got in his way were reduced to flailing their limbs while lying helplessly on their backs. No wonder those goons in the cantina don't like him. While it still features plenty of the adorable lightsaber-swinging, puzzle-solving, multiple-character-controlling action that made the ...

Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy)

Mar 17, 2006

Lego Star Wars didn't so much secure the support of a wide audience as capture, for entirely separate reasons, the hearts of two. Children warmed to its unpatronising approach and to adults it provided an antidote to George Lucas' wavering prequels. For its successor - at first glance a project with everything to gain - the use of Episodes IV to VI as source material is, in the eyes of adults at least, of significant concern. Will innocent parody earn the same appreciation when applied to ...