Turtle Rock and Valve Announce Left 4 Dead

[Evil Avatar]

Valve and Turtle Rock send along a short Press Release announcing, Left 4 Dead, an upcoming Source-engine multiplayer zombie shooter.

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.
http://www.evilavatar.com/images/thumbs/left4dead_small.jpg

[51|RandoM]

Isn't there a zombie mod of some type out there already? Seem to recall it was fairly popular, maybe they're just capitalizing on the demand.

[Adam Blue]

This has needed to be invented since death was discovered.

[violentp]

There's always room for Zombo.

[Captain Awesome]

Been waiting for this, will definitely be checking it out.

[Schnoogs]

sounds cool....

[Dirty Harry]

this shit could be hot man.

[Esquilax1138]

I'm totally down with some co-op zombie bashing. Valve is really doing some good things for PC gaming.

[agentgray]

I'll translate the release date as being 2008. :D

...and yes, this game needed to be made. They Hunger Source is taking too long.

[Zeal]

Online cooperative play is the future of gaming. I've been sayin' this for years.

[Adam Blue]

I tried some Land of the Dead, and that was horrible. But 51Random is right, where has a game like this been?

Source engine would be cool. Using the wield function to board up houses and what not. Think of a persistant world where you try to survive and you keep things that you collect, and trade with other survivors. You could have your own pad, and eventually a vehicle. But it's not happening.

[J Arcane]

Isn't there a zombie mod of some type out there already? Seem to recall it was fairly popular, maybe they're just capitalizing on the demand.
Brainbread. One of the best damn HL1 mods ever made, in fact.

This announcement pisses me off more than anything. Valve is usually so good about supporting creative mod developers, and the CS team is one of the most sterling examples of that.

This just feels like them ripping off someone elses work.

[The Continental]

Isn't there a zombie mod of some type out there already? Seem to recall it was fairly popular, maybe they're just capitalizing on the demand.

Zombie Survival. It's a mini mod for Garry's Mod. It's basically players against hordes of A.I. zombies, but if a player is killed by the A.I. they turn into a zombie. Rounds go until everyone is dead or a time limit has expired. A lot of the maps are pretty average, but there are also some really fun ones in the bunch that let you barricade doors and things of that nature.

[GrinR]

Online cooperative play is the future of gaming. I've been sayin' this for years.

Maybe you'd like to help me and my friends jump start our site, then?

www.coopplay.com

[GrinR]

I tried some Land of the Dead, and that was horrible. But 51Random is right, where has a game like this been?

Source engine would be cool. Using the wield function to board up houses and what not. Think of a persistant world where you try to survive and you keep things that you collect, and trade with other survivors. You could have your own pad, and eventually a vehicle. But it's not happening.

I'm right there with you. My friends and I would all happily jump on a zombie MOG. We even have some great ideas about how to represent "levels" and how to maintain the core zombie-world mechanic (everyone dies).

[Jenga]

Zombie Survival. It's a mini mod for Garry's Mod. It's basically players against hordes of A.I. zombies, but if a player is killed by the A.I. they turn into a zombie. Rounds go until everyone is dead or a time limit has expired. A lot of the maps are pretty average, but there are also some really fun ones in the bunch that let you barricade doors and things of that nature.Too bad most of the players are assholes who'll shoot your barricade or won't let you enter theirs.


Brainbread. One of the best damn HL1 mods ever made, in fact.

This announcement pisses me off more than anything. Valve is usually so good about supporting creative mod developers, and the CS team is one of the most sterling examples of that.

This just feels like them ripping off someone elses work.We've yet to see the game so I think it's WAAAAAAY to early to pass judgement. And Brainbread is Meh. Got boring way too fast.

[The Continental]

Too bad most of the players are assholes who'll shoot your barricade or won't let you enter theirs.

Play it primarily with friends. Coop with strangers is no good, but we do love us some Zombie Survival and The Hidden. I <3 the coop.

[Draft]

Sounds awesome.

[Adam Blue]

I'll agree with Jenga, I disliked Brainbread quite a bit.

[Voodoo]

Maybe you'd like to help me and my friends jump start our site, then?

www.coopplay.com (http://www.coopplay.com)
CooP Play! FUCK YEAH! It's about damn time a major developer is making a game focused on coop. Awesome!

I will also help you GrinR.

[Manzy]

Online cooperative play is the future of gaming. I've been sayin' this for years.


The sad thing is that I would expect this to have been implemented once broadband was widely available, but I can only name a few games in the last few years that even had regular co-op.

[Jenga]

The sad thing is that I would expect this to have been implemented once broadband was widely available, but I can only name a few games in the last few years that even had regular co-op.
Wonder why? Because for it to work, you'd have to work with strangers. and most strangers online are complete assholes. That's why it hasn't been really used. Go play ZombieMod for CS:S or play Zombie Panic, I'm willing to bet 80% of the time you'll have to deal with random idiots or complete jackasses. For COOP to work, you have to rely on each other. And that's something I doubt many FPS gamers know how to do.

[GrinR]

Wonder why? Because for it to work, you'd have to work with strangers. and most strangers online are complete assholes. That's why it hasn't been really used. Go play ZombieMod for CS:S or play Zombie Panic, I'm willing to bet 80% of the time you'll have to deal with random idiots or complete jackasses. For COOP to work, you have to rely on each other. And that's something I doubt many FPS gamers know how to do.

... on the PC.

The advent of the 360 "community" - where you relatively rapidly form a group of core gaming friends - changes the expectation entirely from the PC model. In the PC world, you rarely meet someone online for more than that session at worst, or at best you meet someone for one game only. Now, with the 360 friendlist, I play different games with the same people that I met online before.

It's not about the game, it's about the player.

[Voodoo]

... on the PC.

The advent of the 360 "community" - where you relatively rapidly form a group of core gaming friends - changes the expectation entirely from the PC model. In the PC world, you rarely meet someone online for more than that session at worst, or at best you meet someone for one game only. Now, with the 360 friendlist, I play different games with the same people that I met online before.

It's not about the game, it's about the player.
...Hopefully Live Anywhere in Vista will address this. It is one of my major beefs with PC Gaming as well.

[torrefaction]

Maybe you'd like to help me and my friends jump start our site, then?

www.coopplay.com

I'm on this. I've been ranting about coop forever. I think the only thing I rant about more is true immersion (i.e. VR with tactile stimulus.), but that's a long ways off :D.

[ezzkmo]

Sweet! Still waiting on the Zombies ate my Neighbors sequel too.

[Nite_Moogle]

multiplayer + zombies = crazy delicious

[Steve_Erhardt]

I may get flamed for this, but personally I think the Zombie mod leaves a lot to be desired. My kid plays it a lot, but me, I look at it and... M'eh. The maps suck. Horribly. It's a mod, sure, but Jeebus, those maps are just fucking shit. Having to move furniture around by shooting it is stupid too. Not only is it 2006, but Source can obviously handle a more elegant solution that shoving it all around with bullets.

I dunno... maybe for 5 minutes it'd be fun, but really there's nothing impressive there at all. *shrug*

Zombie Panic for Source... now that looks like it could be going concern... I'd like to see that in action.

[KingGorilla]

I thought this was cancelled. Good to hear it is alive...and may release some time before the second coming of Christ, more than can be said for HL Ep2. I love co-op play.

[Pretzel]

Brainbread. One of the best damn HL1 mods ever made, in fact.

This announcement pisses me off more than anything. Valve is usually so good about supporting creative mod developers, and the CS team is one of the most sterling examples of that.

This just feels like them ripping off someone elses work.

That's right, because no one's EVER done a zombie game before. They MUST have stolen it from that mod no one's ever heard of. :rolleyes:

[Pluvious]

Wow.. this is great news! I'm stoked just reading that little tease. If they can get it right, this could be a HUGE HUGE hit.

Wonder if it will be like the MOD "They Hunger"..

Another good thing is it won't require some fancy new computer.. we'll be able to use our current rigs and not have to worry about fighting with the specs and settings..

[Fuzzwah]

Yes, there have been many many many zombie mods for hl1 and hl2 (very few released).

See a big list here (http://www.nomoreroominhell.com/forums/index.cgi?action=threads&id=2494)

[Jenga]

I may get flamed for this, but personally I think the Zombie mod leaves a lot to be desired. My kid plays it a lot, but me, I look at it and... M'eh. The maps suck. Horribly. It's a mod, sure, but Jeebus, those maps are just fucking shit. Having to move furniture around by shooting it is stupid too. Not only is it 2006, but Source can obviously handle a more elegant solution that shoving it all around with bullets.

I dunno... maybe for 5 minutes it'd be fun, but really there's nothing impressive there at all. *shrug*

Zombie Panic for Source... now that looks like it could be going concern... I'd like to see that in action.
Zombie Panic is more or less a mix of hide and seek and tag. Not only that, the players are assholes too. You pick up ammo that the map generates occasionally. More often than not, you'll see people run straight to the ammo leaving nothing for the poor newbies. You basically have to rely on whoever got the ammo to be nice and share.

[Captain Awesome]

Additional info found in PC Gamer magazine (UK) today:

"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.

[Jenga]

Additional info found in PC Gamer magazine (UK) today:
That...sounds awfully a lot like Zombie Master.

http://www.zombiemaster.org/index.php

[Zeal]

We are just now approaching the point where internet bandwith is capable of allowing large scale, synchronized, cooperative interaction.

A good example would be Gears of War. The online co-op mode is probably the funnest thing in ages, although it can still only support two simultaneously linked players.

MMORPGs are not along the lines of what I'm talking about either. The bandwith pipeline for such games is extremely limited and it shows. One thing you'll notice in these games is overused and jerky animations especially, which all comes back to a very small bandwith pipeline.

A new era of online gaming will be reached once online games move and feel as though they're running on LANs.

EDIT: This is why the original Halo had such amazing animation and smoothness while online (using XBC), which is due ironically to the fact that the game only had LAN netcode. In other words, an unlimited bandwith pipeline between each player and the host.

As yes, it's also why it took something like a T3+ connection to host so few players.

Halo 3 will only be able to obtain the same smoothness with dedicated servers.

[Pluvious]

Zeal,
Keep an eye on Huxley coming out next year. Online FPS/RPG.

[UnderHero5]

Maybe you'd like to help me and my friends jump start our site, then?

www.coopplay.com
That site is a great idea. Especially if it gets popular.
Might I suggest adding a "coop mods" section. A few off the top of my head are, of course, Sven Coop, Brain Bread and (if they count as mods) the various Doom source ports have amazing co-op play (jDoom, for example).

To stay on topic... Left 4 Dead sounds sweet. If it's 30 bucks or lower it will likely be a definite buy.

[cp#]

Just give me TF2.

[Shifteh]

.. on the PC.

The advent of the 360 "community" - where you relatively rapidly form a group of core gaming friends - changes the expectation entirely from the PC model.
Are you trying to tell me that the 360 invented the idea of an online community?

Jesus Christ, there hasn't been a mutliplayer FPS released for the PC that hasn't almost instantly had a community. I played in the "Pyro" community for Quake Team Fortress, I was in a community of Vancouverite Gamers for Counter-Strike, I was in a "Fair-Play" community for Day of Defeat, I was a part of the "The Opera" community, I'm still a part of the Close Combat community, I was a part of the Homeworld community, the Rainbow 6 community.. I could go on but I think that says what I want it to.

You can say the 360 has helped you find a community, but it's never been a problem for anyone I've met.

[GrinR]

Are you trying to tell me that the 360 invented the idea of an online community?

Jesus Christ, there hasn't been a mutliplayer FPS released for the PC that hasn't almost instantly had a community. I played in the "Pyro" community for Quake Team Fortress, I was in a community of Vancouverite Gamers for Counter-Strike, I was in a "Fair-Play" community for Day of Defeat, I was a part of the "The Opera" community, I'm still a part of the Close Combat community, I was a part of the Homeworld community, the Rainbow 6 community.. I could go on but I think that says what I want it to.

You can say the 360 has helped you find a community, but it's never been a problem for anyone I've met.

I believe you just illustrated my point. You were members of game communities, whereas the participants of those specific games likely didn't crossover very much. My point is that I have found that people I met playing The Outfit were also people I would play Test Drive and GRAW with - not because we were playing the game online, but because we could easily see each other playing these games and already knew we played well together. That's a gaming community, not just a game community, and that's what the 360 innovated with the Live functionality.

[GrinR]

That site is a great idea. Especially if it gets popular.
Might I suggest adding a "coop mods" section. A few off the top of my head are, of course, Sven Coop, Brain Bread and (if they count as mods) the various Doom source ports have amazing co-op play (jDoom, for example).

We recognize that the site is entirely reliant on the participants, which is why it's mostly my friends (and some of their friends) right now. We wanted to make it more friendly and open (and informative) specifically so people like you could make suggestions as you just did, so we could make new forums to cover the active co-op games.

[Amalor]

Umm Zombies with Valve and CounterStrike team! HELL YEAH!

[hund_]

We recognize that the site is entirely reliant on the participants, which is why it's mostly my friends (and some of their friends) right now. We wanted to make it more friendly and open (and informative) specifically so people like you could make suggestions as you just did, so we could make new forums to cover the active co-op games.
well you just had the skankyist coop whore ever join your site ;)

[Draft]

that description actually sounds kind of lame. If you're going to have "leaping zombies" and fricken "exploding zombies" and oh god a "tank zombie," then you don't actually have zombies, you have normal FPS bad guys that happen to be the walking dead.

I was imagining a slower paced game, like rainbox six style, emphasizing stealth, fortification, scrounging for resources, that sort of thing.

[Spectre-7]

that description actually sounds kind of lame. If you're going to have "leaping zombies" and fricken "exploding zombies" and oh god a "tank zombie," then you don't actually have zombies, you have normal FPS bad guys that happen to be the walking dead.


Actually, I believe you have the Flood.

[Wasson_]

Should be damn good.

[GrinR]

Actually, I believe you have the Flood.

made me lol

[Borys]

Sounds awesome. Here come the 360 whiners whining for a 360 port.

[rjcc]

Sounds awesome. Here come the 360 whiners whining for a 360 port.

speaking of which....this is begging for a 360 port.


also - grinr - I am interested in your ideas, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[GrinR]

also - grinr - I am interested in your ideas, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Which? Zombie MOG? coopplay.com? Or the most likely option: you're making fun of me?

[DeadPixel]

That site is a great idea. Especially if it gets popular.
Might I suggest adding a "coop mods" section. A few off the top of my head are, of course, Sven Coop, Brain Bread and (if they count as mods) the various Doom source ports have amazing co-op play (jDoom, for example).

To stay on topic... Left 4 Dead sounds sweet. If it's 30 bucks or lower it will likely be a definite buy.

Thanks! We're not trying to steal any wind from this site. Just a small community of people who share the same love for co-op games. We've been playing co-op games since the DOS IPX days and want to see more made.

Being a huge fan of Zombies and co-op, this Left 4 Dead game sounds exactly what I want. I hope it lives up to its potential :)

[Lind]

I checked the Valve, Steam and Turtle Rock homepages but cant find any info about this game at all. Nothing. It sounds really cool I want to know more about it.

[Varsity]

That's a gaming community, not just a game community, and that's what the 360 innovated with the Live functionality.
Seeing as nobody has mentioned this yet: Friends/Steam.

[Zombosis]

There's always room for Zombo.


...So the ladies all tell me.
:D

[Mortis]

Sounds good to me!

[51|RandoM]

that description actually sounds kind of lame. If you're going to have "leaping zombies" and fricken "exploding zombies" and oh god a "tank zombie," then you don't actually have zombies, you have normal FPS bad guys that happen to be the walking dead.


Well, the problem with zombies is---they're boring after you've mowed down the first 100 or so.

Just watch your favorite zombie movie. How many real encounters were there in the movie? Probably not more than 10, more likely 5 or so. Try to make a game with only 5-10 encounters---a game that isn't Shadow of the Collosus, obviously. Then try to do it with the exact same enemies every time.

Wouldn't be much fun, imho.

Think about the best zombie game in recent memory, Dead Rising. Which enemies were the most interesting/challenging? Zombies? Hell no, it was the psychopathic humans trapped in the mall. Were the forums filled with posts like, "OMG, I keep getting mobbed by zombies, I can't find a way through it." Nope, they weren't, it was all, "WTF is up with those guys in the Jeep, and whose bright idea was it to have them respawn?"

In short, Zombies are about creeping death, a creeping death that is fairly good at building suspense and terror. Creeping death just doesn't transfer well to the game arena, though. Circle strafe for the win. :p

All those times you're yelling at the guy in the movie to not be an idiot? In a game, you can prevent him from being an idiot which suddenly takes most of the challenge out of a zombie situation.

[Cool AN]

Sounds awesome, coop and zombies? Count me in.

Brainbread was good, but it was rather hard and a lot of the players were assholes once they became zombies.

[rulyblue]

Zombies and Tactics (hopefully.)

Fighting zombies in a stairwell is different than in an open field. You don't just mow them down. Using a sniper rifle is different from an uzi. Rate of fire, clip size, bullet strength and accuracy all come into play. Different areas will require different tactics, while your enemy stays the same. It will be interesting to watch how it develops. And hopefully a board goes up for suggestions/feedback.

[TrackZero]

Can't wait for this, co-op Zombie scenarios, if well done will kick ass.

[Varsity]

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showpost.php?p=2106281&postcount=50
Yes, this is the game I played at Valve like 3 weeks ago ans it's so f*cking cool. Great teamwork in it (we were taking out levels Swat style while covering each others' backs).

The levels are freaking huge and it's pretty much a get from point A to point B. Each level is extremely varied and you never go through the same area twice.

Zombies are tricky to play as because they can't be too overpowered and kill players too easily since it's "once you're dead you're dead".

Now, death is handled a bit differently however. Once you reach 0 hp normally, you are considered "Down" and are stuck on the ground, with 300hp this time, can't move and can only fire your pistol. A teammate needs to come over and revive you. In fact, there are lots of moments where you need to be helped by teammates (by holding +use on them).

For example there are areas where you need to jump from a roof into a window to keep moving. If you miss the jump, you can grab onto the ledge, and you need to get a teammate to successfully make the jump, and then pull you over. It's sweet.

I'll write up more later.

*Edit* Oh, this is pretty much like Zombie Master, but instead of a human player controlling the RTS components, it's run by some overlord AI that judges when, how many, what types of zombies to spawn in based on intensity levels of the player. It takes in your health, hits you get, ammo, etc to judge this... So basically it provides the "perfect" and balanced zombies. Plus, you get to play as 4 sweet zombies which is really tight.

[Sl1pstream]

Seeing as nobody has mentioned this yet: Friends/Steam.

Which allows you to see if those friends are playing Battlefield 2142?

Sure, Steam does he same thing for steam games, but they don't allow you to jump into a non-steam game while Xbox Live is used in each and every game and allows you to meet up with those people while they're in that game, without having to switch Ventrillo channels or even switch to Teamspeak, if they don't like using Ventrillo for whatever reason.

You can't compare Live to anything that's on pc, not even Xfire.

[Voodoo]

You can't compare Live to anything that's on pc, not even Xfire.Not at the time, but thankfully Microsoft is learning from their XBOX.

Live Anywhere (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Anywhere)

[Sl1pstream]

Not at the time, but thankfully Microsoft is learning from their XBOX.

Live Anywhere (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Anywhere)

I know about Live Anywhere but it's the exact same service extended to other Microsoft platforms. There's no reason to compare those services as they're one and the same.

[Voodoo]

I know about Live Anywhere but it's the exact same service extended to other Microsoft platforms. There's no reason to compare those services as they're one and the same.
Hmm, you are assuming I am conflicting with you while I am actually agreeing.

The reason I brought up Live Anywhere is to show that MS is intending to span the Live Service to the PC through Vista. There was a huge positive reaction to this as well from developers who have a very difficult time working with such things at GameSpy to make game lobbies. I can't wait for it to be active as the PC has direly needed this for a very long time.

[GrinR]

Well, the problem with zombies is---they're boring after you've mowed down the first 100 or so.

If you're constantly "mowing them down" you're not playing a very good zombie game. DR has moments where you get to mow em down, literally, but DR has the game mechanic of wear-and-tear so you cannot use any one thing forever.

Yes, it's about creeping doom (and sometimes running doom), and to imagine a good zombie game like DR is simply you vs. zombies is a failure to actually play the game. The zombies are not the enemy in DR, time is. This is the reason some people got bored of DR fast - they went in, killed zombies until they got sick of it, then quit. Nice job skipping the game!

I thought the psychopaths were the most boring part of DR, and the thing that took me out of the game most. I don't want to fight "boss monsters" - I want to get me and my people to safety and survive as long as possible against the obvious death we're all going to get no matter what.

For me, and I suspect a lot of people who liked DR, it was about how you spent your limited time that made the game fun. Do you collect books? Gather food? Melee or guns? Did you master the "special moves"? How many survivors can you save???

The zombies became an environmental challenge, not an active enemy.