Topic: Left 4 Dead announced

[idolminds]

Turtle Rock and Valve Announce Left 4 Dead

Co-operative Multiplayer Action From the Makers of Counter-Strike

November 20, 2006 - Turtle Rock Studios and Valve today announce Left 4 Dead, a co-operative multiplayer action game from the makers of Counter-Strike.

"By leveraging its industry-leading AI technology and years of Counter-Strike development experience, Turtle Rock is building upon the elements that make Counter-Strike successful and applying them to Left 4 Dead," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. "What Counter-Strike did for multiplayer action games, Left 4 Dead will do for co-op games."

Left 4 Dead is built atop the most advanced version of the Source Engine and introduces version 2 of Turtle Rock's artificial intelligence (A.I.) technology.

Left 4 Dead will debut on the PC in 2007

Quote from PC Gamer UK:

Left 4 Dead feels like one of those games that was always about to happen. It's you and your friends versus a city of rabid mutant zombies." Left 4 Dead will hurl four survivor players into a mad world of apocalyptic horror and crazy dead people, asking them to complete objectives while facing a motley zombie horde including scary running zombies, horrible tongue-flicking smokey zombies, jumping leaping hunting zombies, fat hideous bubbling zombies and even huge hulking tanking zombies. But that's not all: the horde will be controlled by an AI 'director' and additional players can leap in to control undead avatars at any point. No screenshots are available as yet.

4 player online zombie blasting co-op? This could be some fun shit as long as they are hordes of zombies and not "one here, one there" type stuff.

[PyroMenace]

Whoa, that sounds amazingly fun. I can't wait for this.

[iPPi]

I like the sound of this.

[beo]

yum.

and i know a lot of you don't share my sentiments, but the CS team is working on this? suh-weet.

[idolminds]

Uh...kind of. Turtle Rock worked on Condition Zero as well as made a several of the CS:S maps.

Heres scans of the mag article. Supposedly screenshots within...but these huge-ass images are still loading.

http://www.refugeecamp.co.uk/Files/l4d/page1.jpg
http://www.refugeecamp.co.uk/Files/l4d/page2.jpg
http://www.refugeecamp.co.uk/Files/l4d/page3.jpg
http://www.refugeecamp.co.uk/Files/l4d/page4.jpg
http://www.refugeecamp.co.uk/Files/l4d/page5.jpg
http://www.refugeecamp.co.uk/Files/l4d/page6.jpg

[Quemaqua]

Sounds fucking awesome.  But given that it's Valve, I guess it's Steam-only, so... I guess I'll never get to play it.  Shame.

[Xessive]

Hmm, something to look forward to!

[scottws]

Turtle Rock is building upon the elements that make Counter-Strike successful and applying them to Left 4 Dead.

Count me out.

[Xessive]

Count me out.

Ditto. I hate counter-strike. It was awesome back in the beta days just coz it was new and unique (plus it was actually a bit more tactical). After the version 1.0 it just turned into a 'Quake with real guns' frenzy, and I lost all interest.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, that one line pretty much insures I don't need to worry about missing this.  Yay.

[scottws]

Ditto. I hate counter-strike. It was awesome back in the beta days just coz it was new and unique (plus it was actually a bit more tactical). After the version 1.0 it just turned into a 'Quake with real guns' frenzy, and I lost all interest.

Exactly.  Before I converted my former roommates into Wolf fanatics like me, they played CS 1.5 and 1.6.  I watched them play and they played this map called iceworld that didn't even have an objective.  It was just team DM.

[Xessive]

Exactly.  Before I converted my former roommates into Wolf fanatics like me, they played CS 1.5 and 1.6.  I watched them play and they played this map called iceworld that didn't even have an objective.  It was just team DM.

That's one thing I loved about RTCW:ET, the varied multiplayer and objectives! I don't mind Team DM every once in a while, but I prefer having rounds with objectives. That why I loved Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon multiplayer (Well, I loved R6 way more than GR, but more people had and enjoyed GR where I live so we all had good times). Usually I'm either a scout (light and fast) or a sniper monkey (hang out and cover the boys as they move in, too much fun ). Damn, now I really feel like some tactical gaming!

[poomcgoo]

I love cs.  I don't get why everybody hates it so much.  So what if it isn't realistic, it's fucking fun.

[Xessive]

I love cs.  I don't get why everybody hates it so much.  So what if it isn't realistic, it's fucking fun.

It's the 'unrealistic' aspects of it that make me dislike it, I mean I love Unreal and Quake. I think the part that bugs me is that it's pseudo-realistic. It gives off the impression of realism and tactical gameplay but it sidewinds me, it's absolute madness. Plus CS kinda discriminates against the impoverished players; if you can't afford armour or a decent gun you're pretty much at huge disadvantage. Though I have had a few lucky kills with a nothing more than a silenced pistol. I admit the game used to be fun back in the day, but 4 years later and people are just getting into it like it just came out, and I had already moved on to MOHAA. Now MOHAA was fun!

In contrast I loved the Hostile Intent mod. It was a lot more like R6 style gameplay, slower pace, think before you throw yourself into a situation, and a shotgun to the chest would kill you!

[scottws]

That's one thing I loved about RTCW:ET, the varied multiplayer and objectives! I don't mind Team DM every once in a while, but I prefer having rounds with objectives. That why I loved Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon multiplayer (Well, I loved R6 way more than GR, but more people had and enjoyed GR where I live so we all had good times). Usually I'm either a scout (light and fast) or a sniper monkey (hang out and cover the boys as they move in, too much fun ). Damn, now I really feel like some tactical gaming!

Yeah, I'm the same way.  I'm much more interested in completing objectives.  I don't mind the one life per round thing that CS and COD do (versus the respawning in Wolf and BF), but it's too easy for it to degenerate into just team DM play instead of trying for the objectives.

[PyroMenace]

Alright your all complaining about CS... this isnt CS, this a new game that doesnt sound anything like CS. Its going to be made by a team that contributed to CS. I will admit that I never did get into CS either because it was just straight team deathmatch that just bored me... but your all just dismissing something just because it has a vague link to a game with a simple design that doesnt really have any bad implications on said dev team. I agree, fuck CS, but I'll be all about something with a new premise that sounds a hell of a lot better than CS.

[Xessive]

Alright your all complaining about CS... this isnt CS, this a new game that doesnt sound anything like CS. Its going to be made by a team that contributed to CS. I will admit that I never did get into CS either because it was just straight team deathmatch that just bored me... but your all just dismissing something just because it has a vague link to a game with a simple design that doesnt really have any bad implications on said dev team. I agree, fuck CS, but I'll be all about something with a new premise that sounds a hell of a lot better than CS.

Haha I wasn't ripping on this game I was just sidetracked by all the CS talk The idea of this game is still intriguing, so I'll definitely check it out when it comes out or there's a demo.

[Quemaqua]

Did you not read the quote?

Turtle Rock is building upon the elements that make Counter-Strike successful and applying them to Left 4 Dead.

I mean, that makes it sound like they're using CS as a base.  Doesn't it?  I don't know... maybe I'm just not as excited about this as I should be.  But again... Steam.  So I'm out either way.

[PyroMenace]

Elements of counterstrike? What is elements of counterstrike? Its team death match with realistic guns. Theres no secret ingredient like they make it sound. They make themselves sound like they are multiplayer gods, like someone else wouldnt have come up with it anyway. And they did, it was called Action Quake, CS just refined it. It became so popular just because of how simple it is. So what are they building on? I guess they are gonna put in realistic guns and damage... because thats the only "elements" they can work with since the premise for this is completely different.

[scottws]

Does it matter though?  I hated Counter-Strike.  Every part of it.  The purchasing weapons, the AWP, the leaping around, the cheating... those are all elements of Counter-Strike too.

I'd prefer it if they said, "In no way is this game anything like Counter-Strike at all.  In fact, if you hate Counter-Strike, you'll love this!"  But no.  That's not what they said.

[Xessive]

Does it matter though?  I hated Counter-Strike.  Every part of it.  The purchasing weapons, the AWP, the leaping around, the cheating... those are all elements of Counter-Strike too.

I'd prefer it if they said, "In no way is this game anything like Counter-Strike at all.  In fact, if you hate Counter-Strike, you'll love this!"  But no.  That's not what they said.

Haha if they said that I'd definitely be way more interested. Right now it just seems like they want to cash in on the abnormal success of CS.