Left 4 Dead

Ok, I’ve said it before, but it really annoys me the complete lack of news on Half Life 2: Episode 3. It’s becoming Duke Nukem Forever, and we all know what happened with that. Some have even rumoured that developer Valve are secretly working on Half-Life 3 and have scrapped Episode 3. Now although the major cliff hanger that was left in Episode Two may not be resolved by going all sequel mad, this would still please me no end. Yet what doesn’t please me at all, is Valve’s insistence on continued announcements for lesser games like Left 4 Dead and Portal. Now admittedly both these games are very well done, with Portal being particularly special and innovative – but for Christ’s sake – give us some news! Other than ‘we are still working on Episode 3’. How pathetic.

I am hoping we will at least get a trailer or some sort of announcement now that Valve have pledged their support for Playstation 3 and their inclusion of games distribution software Steam on the platform is very interesting indeed. It strikes me as very sneaky how Valve were so vocal about their dislike of the PS3 and now they’ve changed their minds. They’re up to something, and if it’s not Half-Life themed, I’m gonna track down Gabe Newell and beat him over the head with a wet fish.

Why I’m so in love with all things Half-Life can be found HERE.

Valve’s official website

On-line gaming has rarely interested me. Ok, I’m not too shabby at Halo 3 or Call Of Duty 4, but often come away dissatisfied compared to single player gaming. I feel mainly like there’s no real point to it all.

That has now all changed with the arrival of latest shooter Left 4 Dead. Now before you say ‘its just an on-line shooter with a tacked on single player mode’, I will firstly agree with you, and then say one word: VALVE. The celebrated developer behind my favourite game of all time; Half Life 2. Now this uses the same Source graphics engine, which still looks the biz today, but the reason this game just nails it on-line is this: you have to work together. You wont be any good at this game if you go it alone, and neither will you survive very long if your team mates do the same. Yet as each of the four players all learn this quite quickly too, soon you are working together to battle the zombie apocalypse, and unless you protect and heal and lookout for each other – its going to be Game Over very quickly.

There is so much this game gets right. If you die, its not the end, as you are then transported to a safe location, and your team mates are made aware of your location and can come and let you out. If you take a break from the slaughter, then you can get the computer to take over without your team mates being any the wiser – and above all else, it feels like you’re in a movie like 28 Days Later or Land of the Dead – and that is both frightening and f****** brilliant!

Make way online gamers – I’m baaaaaack!