Left 4 Dead

[Grovyle]

Valve is doing a new game which will be released in 18th November 2008, which is about an Biohazardous infection in the city, the infected are called simply "The Infected", partialy inspired by the movie "28 Days Left".

It will have:
Single Player (You're a survivor with 3 more guys)
Multi Player: Will have co-op and versus mode

The AI and Director (Wikipedia):

AI and the Director

The artificial intelligence of Left 4 Dead features a dynamic system for game dramatics, pacing, and difficulty called the "Director". Instead of set spawn points for enemies, the Director places enemies in varying positions and numbers based upon each player's current situation, status, skill and location, creating a new experience each playthrough.[4] The Director also creates mood and tension with emotional cues such as visual effects, dynamic music and character communication.[5]

Gameplay (Wikipedia) (Don't sorry Source lovers, this HAS Source engine too :banana:):

Left 4 Dead is played in first-person perspective, where up to four players take control of the four main characters of the game; the "Survivors". If four human players are not available to play, the Survivors can also be AI-controlled bots. They play through the levels fighting off the Infected, which are humans who have been infected with a mysterious disease.

The game is focused on cooperation and team play; colored outlines are visible through walls to help players stick together and coordinate their movement, and Survivors can be knocked down by the Infected and only helped up by another player. If a teammate is downed after being helped up twice, without tending to his wounds in between, the player is out and must wait 60 seconds before respawning.[3]

Certain "Boss Infected" also command special attacks, such as a Hunter's pin, which requires assistance from a teammate to get out of. Survivors can also share first-aid kits and help each other heal. Left 4 Dead has full friendly fire that cannot be switched off, increasing the need for caution around other Survivors.[4]

The Survivors communicate by automated voice commands that are accessed by quick menus, and some will also sound off automatically when doing such things as reloading or spotting Infected. Over 1000 unique lines have been recorded for each Survivor.[4] Additional communication of player actions is conveyed through character lights. Also, weapon-mounted flashlights and muzzle flashes help the players in determining whether their companions are shooting, performing melee attacks, reloading or moving. Due to control issues and to the fact that players will invariably be using a LIVE headset, the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead will omit the quick phrases feature. [5]

The game is experienced through four scenarios that take place in various urban and rural locales, such as a hospital, an airport and a murky countryside. Each scenario is divided into several shorter sections marked by safehouse checkpoints, where players can heal, re-arm, calm their nerves, save their progress and retrieve players who were killed.[6] The levels are neither linear nor completely open-ended or free-roaming. There are a number of alternate routes to follow with more supplies and alternate objectives.[7] At the end of each scenario, the players must defend a position from an onslaught of Infected until rescue arrives.[4] Each scenario lasts between 45 and 75 minutes.[8]

CHARACTERS (Wikipedia):

The Survivors

There are four playable human characters in the game (hence the "4" in the title).[11] Each player is randomly assigned a character upon joining the server and each character has the same abilities and may use the same weapons.[4]

Louis is a young businessman in a shirt and tie. Francis is a tattoo-covered biker. Zoey is a young woman from a wealthy family. Bill is an older Green Beret Vietnam veteran.

Survivors are armed with various firearms divided into two tiers. The first tier is available for everyone to select from when the scenario starts, in addition to the one or two Springfield Armory GI .45 pistols[12] all Survivors always carry. Weapons in the second tier can be found throughout the maps and at the end of the scenario, just before the final fight. The second tier, in addition to having a wider variety of weapons, also provides weapons that fulfill the same role as first tier weapons but are inherently better, such as replacing the Uzi submachine gun with the M16A3 assault rifle. In addition to firearms, Survivors can also carry a Molotov cocktail or a pipe bomb.[13] The pistols are the only weapon that Survivors can use when they are knocked down by the Infected. All weapons and any other item the Survivor holds can be used to make a close range melee attack.[7] This attack can push targets back to make space, push fellow Survivors or to gain time to reload. A one hit kill can be performed by a bash if the Infected is unaware of the attacking Survivor. In addition to these weapons, machine guns can be found mounted in defensible positions in some areas of the game.

[edit] The Infected

The Infected are Left 4 Dead's foe of the Survivors, and they are partly inspired by the infected from the 2002 film 28 Days Later.[14] The Infected, as opposed to the slow, shuffling zombies associated with Night of the Living Dead or Half-Life, are fast and agile, creating quite a formidable foe. They can be dealt with easily on their own, but in great numbers are difficult to defeat. In addition, there are five mutated Infected who have their own special mutant abilities and are more powerful than the regular Infected.

    * The Boomer is a hugely obese Infected that can spew projectile vomit at the Survivors, blinding them and attracting swarms of nearby Infected to them. Boomers blow up when they die, spraying nearby Survivors with blood that also attracts the Infected.
    * The Hunter is an agile Infected who can climb walls and jump over rooftops, similar to I Am Legend Infected and Half-Life 2's Fast Zombie. Crouching for some time gives the Hunter access to a powerful pounce attack that pins a Survivor down until the Hunter is knocked off.
    * The Smoker has a long, whip-like tongue that can strangle Survivors and drag them away from their team mates, similar to Half-Life's Barnacle and Resident Evil's Licker. When in danger, it can leave a haze of black smoke, distorting the Survivors' vision.
    * The Tank, a huge, muscular but noisy Infected, is capable of throwing large items - such as cars - or blocks of concrete. The Tank can take a large amount of damage before dying and can deal a lot of damage. Also, the tank has a "Frustration Meter" which means that control will be taken away from a human player if the Tank does not engage the survivors for a certain time.
    * The Witch is the only mutant Infected that cannot be played by human players and appears in all difficulty modes.[15] They are normally passive and can be avoided by careful players, but flashlight beams, physical contact, and loud sounds such as gunfire or car alarms in their vicinity rouses them. Witches can strike a Survivor down in one hit and can take a large amount of damage.

Development (Wiki... you know):

Development on Left 4 Dead started in mid-2005.[16] Valve aimed to create a horror film-inspired game that merges single player games' character-driven narrative structure with multiplayer games' social interaction and high replayability.[5] The game was first revealed in the Christmas 2006 publication of PC Gamer UK with a six-page article describing a playthrough at Valve's headquarters. A teaser was released with The Orange Box. The game was first playable at the Showdown 2007 LAN in San Jose and at QuakeCon 2007.[17] Turtle Rock Studios announced Left 4 Dead on November 20 2006,[18] and was acquired by Valve Corporation on January 10, 2008 because of the game and long-standing relationship between the companies.[19] [20] Certain Affinity announced in February 2008 that they are assisting with the Xbox 360 version of the game. The game opened up to pre-purchasing on Valve's Steam system on October 15 2008.[21]

Left 4 Dead uses the latest version of Valve's Source engine, with improvements such as multi-core processor support and physics-based animation to more realistically portray hair and clothing, and to improve physics interaction with enemies when shot or shoved in different body parts. Animation was also improved to allow characters to lean realistically when moving in curved paths. Rendering and artificial intelligence were scaled up to allow for greater number of enemies who can navigate the world in better ways, such as climbing, jumping or breaking obstacles. Lighting has been enhanced with new self-shadowing normal mapping and advanced shadow rendering that is important to convey information about the environment and player actions.[22][5] Wet surfaces and fog are used to create mood.[23][24]

Many kinds of post processing cinematic visual effects inspired by horror movies have been added to the game. There is dynamic color correction that accentuates details based on importance, contrast and sharpening to focus attention on critical areas, film grain to expose details or imply details in dark areas, and vignetting to evoke tension and a horror-film look.[5]

A demo will be available for Windows and Xbox 360 users on November 11, and on November 6 for customers who have pre-ordered.[25]

This will be released for PC and XBOX 360. But remember, the game is on Steam!

BEST OF ALL: All Left 4 Dead content is FULLY COMPATIBLE with Garry's Mod!!! So no shitty addons needed!


Release Date: 18th November 2008, Steam

Topic to be updated

[Omri]

I saw the poster about the game in CS 1.6, to be honest I thought "Hmm that poster is new" but I just went past it and played further .

[Shadow009]

Been waiting for this game for months! Can't wait to play the demo
Btw, opening 5 minutes - http://kotaku.com/5073454/run-or-shoot-both

[Grovyle]

Oh by the way the official website... wait I can't tell the link can I? It isn't a game server or thing...

[Rossâ„¢]

Been waiting for this game for months also... I want to know why this is not going to be on PS2 though...



By: Moe Ross

[Cross]

Been waiting for this game for months also... I want to know why this is not going to be on PS2 though...

PS2 is way to old, i wanna know why this will be released on PC 4 months after the console release.

[Shadow009]

i wanna know why this will be released on PC 4 months after the console release.

/facepalm

It's gonna be realsed the same day...

[Grovyle]

Guys, Left 4 Dead will be released to the platforms that ValvE is planning in the same day, November 18th of this year.

[Cr4ig0]

the screenshots - awesome
the trailer - awesome
the idea - a bit of a rip off of Zombie Panic!: Source but still awesome
and if you listen carefully on the trailers then you should here the classic hl2 zombie "yabba my icing!" sounds as well as some new more scary ones... if my pc can run it then i will be saving up

[Cross]

/facepalm

It's gonna be realsed the same day...

Ma bad,i was talking about End War, ye Left 4 Dead will be released same day.

/facepalm uhhh uhh          little kid.

[Grovyle]

the screenshots - awesome
the trailer - awesome
the idea - a bit of a rip off of Zombie Panic!: Source but still awesome
and if you listen carefully on the trailers then you should here the classic hl2 zombie "yabba my icing!" sounds as well as some new more scary ones... if my pc can run it then i will be saving up

If you have a 1337 processor you can run it...

Also L4D isnt a ripoff of ZP:S XD

[Shadow009]

Also L4D isnt a ripoff of ZP:S XD

It technically is. ZP:S(Zombies ofc) + HL2(<inserts here>) + CS:S(Weapons) = L4D

[Shadow009]

Bur-ump.
Pre-order'ers get the demo early. Today to be exact. You lucky bastards :p Can't wait 'till the 11th, the day we get the demo D:

[Celtic Corpse]

I'm buying it/DL'ing it.
Sounds cool.
I'd took Bill 

[Shadow009]

Bur-Ump.
Demo comes out for all tomorrow :DD