Valve's latest: Left 4 Dead

[Asher]

Anyone else following this? Valve's upcoming PC / 360 game...it's a "co-operative survival horror" game -- with some unique twists.

This interview video gives a good overview: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/33953.html

Due out September 30, 2008.

[lord of the mark]

given the thread title, how many thought this was about the state of PC gaming?

[DrSpike]

There are quite a few games that look like they have potential over the rest of this year.

But I don't really take interest in any game until late previews/early reviews start to come in.

[UnOrthOdOx]

Haven't heard of it. Survival horror is really not my kind of game.

Which is really rather shocking when you consider...

Anyway, can't watch from work, what's unique, if anything? Another zombie masher?

[Asher]

The co-operative nature of it, the dynamic difficulty, the AI arbiter type thing that changes it up each time you play, etc

[DrSpike]

Yeah yeah, at this stage all games make claims like that.

[Asher]

At this stage? It's a few months from release. It's playable on show floors.

[snoopy369]

4.5 months is more than a 'few'... not to quibble

Does "Dynamic Difficulty" make anyone else think "Oblivion"

[Asher]

It's not level based.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Asher
At this stage? It's a few months from release. It's playable on show floors.

It's over 4 months from release. At this stage it's hard to separate the claims about dynamic this and that from pure crap.

Look back at what was being claimed about say, Army of Two, 4 months before release. Then compare with after release.

The game looks interesting, I'll give you that. But at this stage the stuff about co-operative play and dynamic difficulty just don't amount to much. If this was a Wii game you'd be sitting there making cracks about how Nintendo was hyping up its shovelware.

[Asher]

If this was a Wii game you'd be sitting there making cracks about how Nintendo was hyping up its shovelware.

Except the developer has a proven track record?

I don't recall any grand claims about Army of Two four months before its release. I do recall grand claims when Gears of War came out, well over a year before it's released.

When a game like Left 4 Dead is 4 months before its release, its got 3 months left of actual development. At this point they're usually feature-complete, content-complete and this is just an optimization/fine-tuning process.

So I've no doubt the features they're talking about will be in the game. Whether it'll be good we can't tell for sure, but it'll be there.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Asher

So I've no doubt the features they're talking about will be in the game. Whether it'll be good we can't tell for sure

Which was the point.

[Asher]

I didn't realize you were stating the obvious and framing it as something insightful.

[DrSpike]

I didn't realise you would misinterpret such a clear position as attempting to be very insightful.

[Krill]

It ought to have slightly lass than 3 months of actual developement, major stuff should be going through lockdown starting in about a month...if not sooner.