Left 4 Dead, coop zombie game by valve

Align

<div class="IPBDescription">Yes, 4, not for.</div><!--coloro:orange--><span style="color:orange"><!--/coloro-->PCGamer magazine scans removed to avoid legal trouble. Here's a link to the site where I (Marik_Steele) first read about it: <a href="http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21179" target="_blank">http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21179</a><!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
Enjoy.

DiscoZombie

awesome =p

I just rewatched <i>28 Days Later</i> this weekend, and also have been wondering why there aren't more co-op games in the world...

competition is nice and all, but why do game makers assume you don't want to team up with people to kill zombies and whatnot?

I hear Dawn of War has good co-op...

Sub_zer0

Looks awsome can't wait

KungFuDiscoMonkey

Looks interesting.

Epidemic

"dead survivor" lol

Quaunaut

I wonder if there will be a server option to turn off talking to people on the other team via text.

...it'd be nice to create a nice claustrophobia. Also, what if voice chat worked in a radius? You talk to loud everyone can here, you can say things under your breath, yelling "ish!" into your mic. It could be awesome.

Lanfear

Zombie co-op games are always fun, and since it will be on the source engine it should be fairly pretty right boys? (Or maybe I should say gross.)

Sub_zer0

Any oen remember zombie panic? I havnt heard any thing from them in a while

Caboose

<!--quoteo(post=1579096:date=Nov 20 2006, 12:05 PM:name=Lanfear)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Lanfear @ Nov 20 2006, 12:05 PM) [snapback]1579096[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
it should be fairly pretty right boys? (Or maybe I should say gross.)
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They are one in the same!

TychoCelchuuu

Sounds pretty neato. Can't wait for the free weekend in 4 years when this comes out.

Dirty_Harry_Potter

<!--quoteo(post=1579082:date=Nov 20 2006, 07:15 PM:name=DiscoZombie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DiscoZombie @ Nov 20 2006, 07:15 PM) [snapback]1579082[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
I hear Dawn of War has good co-op...
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Only co-op DoW has is playing teams in multiplayer afaik:P, however, an upcoming Warhammer Fantasy RTS called "Warhammer: Mark of Chaos" (well it's out now in Americaland..) has some kind of online campaign and apparently something they call "Co-op matches" (which I suspect is really just a regular match playing in teams :X)

Geminosity

If it has coop then it'll probably be good, though the lovely story-telling of the article makes it sound really good and looking at the characters it looks like I won't have any trouble deciding who to go :3

Iced_Eagle

<!--quoteo(post=1579128:date=Nov 20 2006, 03:14 PM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TychoCelchuuu @ Nov 20 2006, 03:14 PM) [snapback]1579128[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
Sounds pretty neato. Can't wait for the free weekend in 4 years when this comes out.
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I played this 3 weeks ago when I was at Valve, and it's in the balancing and polishing stages.

Coolest freakin' MP game ever made!!!!

Underwhelmed

Hey, look, it's NS without the RTS component! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />

Align

<!--quoteo(post=1579141:date=Nov 20 2006, 10:50 PM:name=Geminosity)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Geminosity @ Nov 20 2006, 10:50 PM) [snapback]1579141[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
If it has coop then it'll probably be good, though the lovely story-telling of the article makes it sound really good and looking at the characters it looks like I won't have any trouble deciding who to go :3
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Yeah, you'll totally go for the guy on the left with the big beard, right?

Iced_Eagle

It's random, you don't get to pick which character you are (at least in the build I played).

TychoCelchuuu

<!--quoteo(post=1579154:date=Nov 20 2006, 02:17 PM:name=Iced_Eagle)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Iced_Eagle @ Nov 20 2006, 02:17 PM) [snapback]1579154[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
It's random, you don't get to pick which character you are (at least in the build I played).
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Which was clearly final, or at least close to final <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />

pardzh

Wow that looks awesome.

<b>Edit:</b> Upon finishing reading the article, I was also struck by some similarities to NS. The Zombie side of the game sounds excellent, I can't wait to coordinate some hit-and-run's on straggling Survivors.

ZiGGY

this topic makes no sense since the actual article was edited out :/

Marik_Steele

<!--quoteo(post=1579211:date=Nov 20 2006, 09:27 PM:name=ZiGGY)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ZiGGY @ Nov 20 2006, 09:27 PM) [snapback]1579211[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
this topic makes no sense since the actual article was edited out :/
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Good point, I should've linked something else instead of assuming everyone would know about it by now.
Here's where I first learned of it: <a href="http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21179" target="_blank">http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21179</a>

I'll edit it into the original post.

Sid

Sven better get his ###### in gear. :/

Petco

<!--quoteo(post=1579082:date=Nov 20 2006, 10:15 AM:name=DiscoZombie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DiscoZombie @ Nov 20 2006, 10:15 AM) [snapback]1579082[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
awesome =p

I just rewatched <i>28 Days Later</i> this weekend, and also have been wondering why there aren't more co-op games in the world...

competition is nice and all, but why do game makers assume you don't want to team up with people to kill zombies and whatnot?

I hear Dawn of War has good co-op...
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Zombie co-op games are always fun, and since it will be on the source engine it should be fairly pretty right boys? (Or maybe I should say gross.)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I've played a couple of co op games, includes zombies. I've played the sven coop version of resident evil(mod of a mod), brain bread(hl mod), zombie panic(hl mod), counterstrike version of zombie panic, the specialist version of a zombie game and one on the console is resident evil online(Chat system is horrible). I've played starcraft, and WC3 maps which features zombies and co op.

As you can see, it's mainly mods of half life, or mods of half life mods, custom maps of WC3/SC, and just one official actual zombie game that isn't a mod of anything. I really don't know what else has zombie co op.

It gets rather old quickly, it's kind of the same stuff, camp in one place, hold left click (or whatever), run around and get more ammo then repeat.

[WHO]Them

That game <strike>is</strike> looks hella fun.

Iced_Eagle

Psh, you and your self-pimpage <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />

Talesin

Eh, had fun with both Zombie Panic, and Brainbread. More the former than the latter, but hey.

Seriously, it seems like there are no really good storyline co-op games out there. I mean, there's the Gauntlet series (which could be considered a zombie at this point, except that the horse is now <i>liquid</i>), and... well, the only story-driven co-op I remember before that is System Shock 2, with the MP patch. And maybe Secret of Mana.

Here's hoping it has a 'story mode', and not just waves of zombies in a randomly generated slaughterfest. :b

Align

That was mentioned in the (now deleted) article - making a storyline for a 2-player game is nothing like doing one for singleplayer. In singleplayer you at least have an idea of where the player might be at a given time, but with 2 players...

Also, that replacement link doesn't actually contain anything :/

UltimaGecko

My concern is the running-ness of the zombies and the crazy, not-really-zombies monsters. I mean, they're all well and good, I'm sure they make it into a unique experience...but I hope there's just some kind of single-player option to plop yourself in a city and start blasting until you get to safety. It appears my lifetime video game goals are nearing fruition:

A life-like (well, as real as is 'possible') zombie infestation scenario where you're trying to escape/survive as long as possible. When they get to persistent or saved games that let you do it in real-time or something like that, I will be content. In fact, some kind of GTA-SA thing like the one VC mod, except with more scrounging for food/barricading yourself/more voracious zombies. A mix between Dead Rising (infinity mode kind of food need as well), Resident Evil, GTA and this would be good.

My other desire is a realistic medieval combat simulator. Mount and Blade is pretty close - just needs like ...a Wii-mote controlled sword. Heck, some of the mods even get the jousting tournament thingy (not as in-depth as I'd like, but hey, it's a start).


Anyway, I'm wondering how much of this city you actually get to go through. Just from CS:S or DoD:S maps...they're not really <i>that</i> big. It just seems like this is something that'd have to be Sven Co-op-ish, going between level transitions and whatnot. Still a great engine on which to have zombies exploding all over the place and good atmosphere.


Usually I'm disgruntled at the aspect of replacing words with numbers (or letters with numbers). My universities online course aid is called Desire2Learn and it annoys me to no end. Drivethreer is no better (That'd be, blech, Driv3r). At least here it's got some kind of useful context 4 Left Dead; Dead - 4 Left, Dead 4 Left; even the generic Left for Dead that it states. At least it evokes the feeling of utter doom.

ubermensch

From the (otherwise useless) forums Stelle redirected us to :

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Additional info found in PC Gamer magazine (UK) today:

Quote:
"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.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

This could be amazing. LANing this, or playing with a good group of buddies in ventrilo, what more could one ever ask from a gaming experience?

Sub_zer0

Any idea of release date?

Lanfear

Yes, release date is sometime around next end of the century. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />

Sub_zer0

wouldn't suprise me somehow.... I'd say q4 next year at a guess..