Left 4 Dead

978 Zombie Games, Movies, Books & Comics, All In One PlaceThis poster, by Freaking Awesome, contains the title of 978 pieces of zombie fiction, arranged, Left 4 Dead-style, in the shape of a flesh-biter's hand. Can you spot the video games among them?


It's not hard. They're mostly in one spot, and while it won't be comprehensive, they've done a pretty good job, including games from series like OneChanbara alongside more well-known franchises like Resident Evil.


You can find purchasing info at the link below, if you're interested.


Zombie Poster [FA]


978 Zombie Games, Movies, Books & Comics, All In One Place


Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead's 'The Sacrifice' Comic Series Goes LiveValve's sequel-spanning digital comic that explains just what happened to Left 4 Dead's original Survivors, dubbed "The Sacrifice," is yours for the reading. How do things go so horribly wrong between the original game and "The Passing"? Well, Tanks.


Part one of "The Sacrifice," part of Valve's new cross-game story arc plans, offers us plenty of blood and guts, plus a peek at a few new characters. I won't spoil it, just read it yourself, if you're a Left 4 Dead fan.


The digital comic version of "The Sacrifice" runs once a week until October 5, when "The Sacrifice" DLC will be released for Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 on PC, Xbox 360 and Mac.


The Sacrifice [L4D.com]


Portal

You may think that both Portal and Left 4 Dead are recent games, developed for contemporary game machines. Nope. Both are actually remakes of games from the 1980s!



Or, that's what these great fake ads would have you believe, which get both the hammy acting and grainy VHS-o-rama effect down perfectly.



Retro Game Ad Discovery [Gamervision]


Left 4 Dead

What Was Valve Working On Before Left 4 Dead?Before Valve roped the gang at Turtle Rock to come on over and make Left 4 Dead, the Half-Life developer was working on something else. Something with...fairies.


Yup. Not aliens, or cops, or super-soldiers, or valiant knights, or space marines. A game about fairies. Valve's Erik Johnson tells PC Gamer that the game, a "weird prototype" of a thing "based on movement and mouse gestures", never got close to being a serious project (and was likely one of many prototypes kicking around the offices), but was still useful for what it did and didn't do right.


"That was a useful failure to us," adds Valve boss Gabe Newell, "because it was so clearly dumb that it made us say, ‘OK, what are we actually good at that we can do instead?'"


They could do Left 4 Dead. So did Left 4 Dead. And we're all better off because of it.


Valve were making a fairy RPG before Left 4 Dead [PC Gamer]


Team Fortress 2

Using sparse backgrounds, 3DS Max and the power of C&C Music Factory, Lionhead animator James Benson has for the last month been taking some of Valve's best characters and breathing a little extra life into them.



In the clip above, Left 4 Dead's Zoey breaks free from the confines of a first-person perspective and figures out a way to bring down a Tank without wasting bullets, while in the clip below, Team Fortress 2's Engineer figures out a way to go left to right (groove) and work you all night, before finally letting the music take control.



Those two are just to get you started; to see the rest (the dance clips are part of a bigger project), head to Benson's YouTube page.


Left 4 Dead

What's Next For Left 4 Dead 2?Valve will be injecting life into Left 4 Dead 2 in the form of featured community maps for the PC. The developer says it plans to begin hosting bi-weekly community campaigns on its own servers, starting with "Two Evil Eyes."


Valve's Chet Faliszek writes on the official Left 4 Dead blog that the company will provide official dedicated server support for select fan-made maps, making it easier for players of the PC version to get their hands on some fresher content. And while that's great, what about the company's plans for giving Left 4 Dead players new content developed by Valve itself?


We'll have to wait until next week, when Valve will address the (very) late downloadable content for the original Left 4 Dead, future plans for Left 4 Dead 2 and the still-missing Mac version of the zombie shooter.


Next Friday, August 20th, we'll know, thanks to Spike's GameTrailers TV.


Here's Looking at You [L4D Blog]


Left 4 Dead

How Fast Should We Play Games?My obsessive-compulsive tics suggest less of a "personality" disorder and more of a "She's probably just crazy" disorder.


I systematically eat fries and small candies two at a time as if programmed from birth, regularly disinfect my DS despite being the only who uses it, and, about every two minutes, check to make sure no one is behind me.


It also took me three years to read the Lord of the Rings trilogy – not because I lack the mental competence to read quickly, but because I refused to miss any details and frequently paused to imagine myself in the middle of the action. Tolkien gave me a masterpiece. I wanted to make it last.


I do the same with many video games, spending weeks, even months playing through story and character-driven titles. Hey, I paid good money for these games and the developers spent a lot of time creating these worlds for my enjoyment. I want to get the full experience.


How Fast Should We Play Games?


Similarly, hunting down all of the logs in Bioshock, Dead Space, and Batman: Arkham Asylum not only extends gameplay, but provides a much more extensive understanding of these virtual worlds and the characters inhabiting them. Same with the interoffice messages in F.E.A.R., the funny scribbles on the walls in Left4Dead, and the manuscript pages in Alan Wake.


However, many GameStop customers I encountered during my time as a retail register monkey did not feel the same way. I remember one guy buying Shadow of the Colossus off my recommendation, then returning it six hours later saying, "It was okay I guess, but way too short." My boss stepped in after I accused the customer of probably watching Memento with the sound off.


Obviously you can't instruct people on how to enjoy art. Everyone sees it differently. But with many of today's video games proving to be incredible storytelling vessels, how much of our time should we give them?


Many games contain hidden story information that takes time to be sought out. That's evident in Borderlands. "The most interesting story in the game, to me, was the Patricia Tannis logs," Borderlands' creative director with great hair, Mikey Neumann, when I asked about his game's best-kept secrets, the stuff that made the game worth taking in a little more slowly. "From the moment she steals a dead man's more-comfortable chair to the death of Chimay and onward to her break up and reconciliation with the tape recorder, she told a great story on the edges of a totally crazy game. Then the level designers went off and hid all the echo recordings really well. Bastards."


How Fast Should We Play Games?


Even waiting through ending credits often rewards patient players with epilogue scenes. Ico is one example of having post-credits content that fills a pretty important plot hole.


Despite all of the extras and side-quests provided in many titles, some people still speed through them. Is this the result of impatient gamers in an instant-gratification world or the fault of developers for not making games on which people want to spend time?


Perhaps some of it is due to developers becoming victims of their own creativity. The more you offer a gamer, the more they're going to expect.


For the most part, games on early consoles were more focused on challenging the player's dexterity as opposed to telling a story, i.e. Contra, Mega Man, and Battletoads. The goal was to get from beginning to end swiftly and skillfully while racking up as many points as possible. Players rarely cared about game length, because length wasn't figured into quality – if it was a good game, it was a good game. If it was bad, it was bad. You never hear anyone complain that Super Mario Bros. 3 was too short.


It's a different mindset to consider yourself responsible not only for skill, but for everything your character does. In the Uncharted series, story practically takes precedence over gameplay, giving us the perfect example of a video game rivaling a motion picture. This further proves that games are no longer simply about creating a challenge; they're about creating a whole new, immersive universe. This transition from simple to expansive should alter the way we play – it's the difference of seeing your game as a toy and seeing it as a piece of fiction you can get lost in.


How Fast Should We Play Games?


I always joke that true gamers see on their map where they're supposed to go, and then go the opposite way. Be it RPG, FPS, RTS, or any other genre, attention to detail and a desire to absorb everything a game has to offer is a commendable mentality – not to mention a great way to get the most bang for your buck.


Two of my favorite achievements/trophies of all time are from Prince of Persia 4 for locating the Assassin and Titanic viewpoints. These awards are not given for skill, but for simply taking time to gaze upon the breathtaking scenery. I consider this a great reminder that no matter how good or bad the game, I should always take time to stop and smell the virtual roses.


Lisa Foiles is best known as the former star of Nickelodeon's award-winning comedy show, All That. She currently works as a graphic designer and writes for her game site, Save Point. For more info, visit Lisa's official website.


Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead Gets A Large, Heavy StatueTo go with Team Fortress 2's Heavy, due out later this year, collectible company Gamingheads will be relasing another Valve-inspired statue. Only this one's a zombie.


It's Left 4 Dead 2's formidable Tank, and while you can't make much out in this frustratingly blurry teaser shot, what you can see looks suitably detailed (and decomposed).


Preorders will kick off on July 30, and while no further details have been revealed, TF2's Heavy had a price tag that said "$250".


Left 4 Dead

Sword Allies Unite for Left 4 Dead's Next MutationThe latest playlist in Left 4 Dead 2's mutation mode breaks out the katanas - "Four Swordsmen of the Apocalypse" is easy to figure out from the title alone: swords only, versus the horde.


The Left 4 Dead blog says the mode pits survivors against "near continuous streams of Special Infected ready to be sliced and diced." And look, it still cuts a tomato like this!


The update teases next week's change - something called "Hard Eight." Is that a spiteful response to the last poll, which found the Hard Rain boat wait as the least favorite finale of the game? Who knows.


Week 12 [Left 4 Dead Blog]


Left 4 Dead

Disneyland attraction "Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye" has been recreated by a modder in zombie first-person-shooter Left 4 Dead 2.


The name? You guessed it, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Zombies. It does feature zombies, but the walk through in the video does not.


It's part of a modded map pack for the game and as a map itself, it doesn't look like it would be that exciting to play as it's linear. However, as a work of digital art, it is extremely impressive. The map has been lovely created with acute level of detail. Some parts of this map actually look better than the real deal. Some don't, but those are the breaks.


Temple of the Forbidden Eye is a favorite of mine. Honestly, I enjoy standing in line for it as much as the attraction itself! It opened at Disneyland in 1995 and even features John Rhys-Davies as Sallah.


Co-op shooter Left 4 Dead 2 was developed by Valve and released in November 2009.


Indiana Jones and the Temple of Zombies [L4DMaps via BoingBoing]


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