By Jim Rossignol on May 16th, 2008 at 6:54 pm.
Brand new Left 4 Dead in-game footage? Blimey. I only just noticed these two clips because I was off talking to people at Nordic Game for most of the week, and it was a fun time. I’ll probably talk more about that over the weekend, because lots of stuff happened. Anyway, after the jump are those two new trailers, which show lots of speedy-looking in-game footage. Perhaps even sped up a little? I can’t tell, my brain is in perceptual neutral.
The “meatgrinder” trailer shows plenty of zombie-death, and some of that vital saving-your-friends stuff. Not sure about that music though – sounds like mid-90s scrolling-shooter title screen track to me.
A good glimpse of the teamplay in this, er, teamplay trailer. You get to see how you can be dragged to your feet and saved by chums during the fight. Nail-biting stuff, or it would be if you weren’t so busy rekilling the undead.
If I can ever get any spare time to work it up I’m going to try and post a detailed preview of Left 4 Dead. I’ve played it a couple of times now and I think the big write-up might be overdue…
I might be missing something, but both of those videos seem to be of the same thing…
report
Yep really are. Typo? Copy & Paste-o?
report
What the hell are you talking about, that tune is awesome
report
Oh you guys are so fussy!
*edits*
report
Bettar.
Gotta say… Looks like a big heap of “meh” to me…
Imma get my FPS fix from Haze instead.
report
Haze? We have a comedian in the house
report
OH NOES IT’S NOT ON PC!!!11 MUST BE BAD!
What’s so funny? It has an intriguing plot, great development team and publisher and awesome networking features. I’ve pre-ordered it and I can’t wait. The concept of Left 4 Dead and the footage I’ve seen have bored me completely.
report
Man, that shotgun really seemed to lack oomph. And if there’s one thing shotguns, zombie games, and especially shotguns IN zombie games need, it’s oomph.
I dunno. It all looked a bit floaty. If you see my meaning.
report
Man I thought I’d be alone in thinking that looks genuinely ‘meh’.
What the hell is the green glow crap and why would they bother, it looks stupid.
report
I’m interested by Haze too, but Left 4 Dead is quite a different proposition. It’s definitely not a narrative FPS in any sense, it’s co-op/competitive multiplayer through and through. This is more Counter-Strike lineage than anything else.
The green glow crap allows you to keep track of your team-mates, and you come to rely on it as things get hectic.
report
Without sound, hard to tell. But it looks a little bit “fast” and “light” if you know what I mean. Missing weigtht and bang… hard to describe…
I heard Haze? Lol :)
report
@Max. Actually I have a 360 and a PS3 as well as a PC. Intriguing plot, you mean the one where they spoilt the story months before it came out, way to go. Work for a company, company is evil, switch over to rebel scum who turn out not to be scum at all but really the good guys. Amazing.
It’s just a very average plot and premise at best, it doesn’t even look nice and shiny and there’s no excuse for that because it’s PS3 only
report
Jim Rossignol said: “I’m interested by Haze too, but Left 4 Dead is quite a different proposition. It’s definitely not a narrative FPS in any sense, it’s co-op multiplayer through and through.”
Haze has both… Narrative and a strong emphasis on accessible multiplayer co-operative play. ;D
But anyway yeah I’m well off-topic so I’ll just be quiet now. Probably.
@ Jonathon
Er, actually the details of the plot are still under wraps. Yes we know you switch sides because of Mantel and their Nectar drug which blinds their soldiers to the horrors of war, but we don’t know exactly how it happens, and I’m intrigued like crazy.
As for looking nice and shiny, I honestly couldn’t give a damn. I’ll play any game with a good, solid story but how many of us played shiny Crysis for any length of time? Sod graphics.
report
I think the problem is everyone is moving a bit too fast. Players and zombies.
I’m sure it will be great fun with people you know swearing a lot, cHeal =P
report
The Haze demo made me wish I had more gamer friends with PS3s. In fact, it dashed away what little hope I had for the human race. It seems that 8 out of the 10 times I’ve jumped into a multiplayer game, there is a moronic deathmatch in progress in the are of the first gunfight. I hope L4D does not prove to be as attractive to such ilk (it probably will).
report
Theres something wrong about standing there and just being punched by zombies until you fall over. I was hoping for a slower more atmospheric and thoughtful online shooter.
But. This is Valve so I trust they’ll keep tweaking after release to make a classic.
report
@Jonathan: STALKER with zombies instead of mutants perhaps?
report
meh, ill wait for Dead Island, that is how a zombie game should be done, none of this hollywood running zombies shit.
i imagine ill end up getting this anyhow if its packed in with episode 3.
report
STALKER had zombies!
report
I think this game has a lot of potential but they are following to much of the valve route. Like they still have no iron sights for weapons which for me is huge thing. I think it add whole level to gun play just like how duck & cover did. But in this game it has none of those. When will valve take gun play to a new level ??
report
CS with zombies?
report
The first tune sounded like it was made for a boss fight. I couldn’t really concentrate on the action because I was constantly expecting a big monster to appear on the right side of the screen and shoot differently colored balls at me while occasionally exposing some glowing weak spot I have to shoot.
Also, I somewhere read that left4dead’s AI will be remarkable. Judging by the gameplay the trailers show, that might be a waste of work.
report
Reply to Cruz
Well surely there’s a happy middle point between the high speed death match of this, and also every shooter ever, and the utter impenetrable soberness of Arma and Flashpoint.
Reply to Jim Rossignol
I thought each map was a scripted scenario. Was this just a lie from P(ropagand)C(entral) Gamer?
report
It should be good fun. I really want to see some footage of the cornfield level, running through the sheafs at night being chased by hordes of zombies = big fun ;)
report
That’s what PC stands for? Boy have I been getting it wrong.
report
Those videos aren’t all that great, considering that they both lack the original audio, and the first is certainly sped up.
From what I’ve seen in other L4D trailers, the game looks rather promising.
report
Honestly, I could care less about this game – but if they wanted my absolute undivided attention and adoration, they should develop a Zombie MMO with the mechanics of Dwarf Fortress.
report
I like the idea behind L4D, but I’m not too sure about the implementation I’ve seen so far – as others have said, it does seem a tad too fast and floaty. I might have to try and find out how they did the green effect though, as I’ve been trying to figure out that sort of outline effect for about 3 years in Source now (off and on anyhow).
We were discussing Haze at work earlier today – we came to the conclusion that it’ll probably end up being a category 4 generic shooter (we’re not sure what category 4 actually means though).
report
It’s fast, but believe me, it’s not floaty. From the limited experience I’ve had with Left 4 Dead, it is really visceral. The shotgun in particular is poetry in motion, removing zombie limbs and heads and spraying the camera with gore. These videos don’t really do it justice.
report
‘removing zombie limbs and heads and spraying the camera with gore.”
ugggh, another one of those games that wants you to think your watching a movie.
note to devs: its not a movie its a game, so please stop with the “movie-like” effects
report
I’m telling you, it’s awesome.
report
I like movie-like games personally.
report
Which suggest the public at large needs to be treated to demo material, not uninteractive videos in order to ‘get’ this game… I expect it’ll be good, but I still think it’d be better with slow hordes of zombies and a reliance on head shots.
report
And some mod will reduce the movement speed a day after the game comes out. If the base is solid and exciting, it can only get better.
report
That music sounds like it was added by GameTrailers to me…
report
It’s not much of a far cry from the HL2 mod Zombie Panic. In general, it looks like more of a mod, expandalone of sorts rather than a whole game.
Of course, if they release it at a cheap price tag, it’s a great project. Full price = meh, though.
report
There’s more, newish (Tuesday) Left4Dead gameplay footage over at IGN, complete with in-game sound. Go take a look.
report
Actually, there *is* a zombie scenario in Armed Assault. It’s quite awesome and very suspenseful.
This is way too fast, in video form at least. I’m holding off judgment until I play the demo.
report
Heard you interviewed on One Life Left during the conference. Book sounds interesting.
report
Okay, the video on IGN is much better. Although there’s still an awfully lazy attitude to ammunition consumption. Hopefully that’s just because they’re demoing it, and mowing down hordes looks much better than running like hell and trying to conserve ammo.
Also both survivors and zombies still move a bit fast for my liking, but that’s just a matter of tweaking a cfg I’m sure.
report
Jeez, I’ve seen low-quality convention footage of L4D that shows off the game way better than this. I think the sound adds a lot, but I still think the art side is weak in some respects. The shotgun animation, for example, is still lacking something. It’s way too static, just look at how 2D it looks as the player view swivels over the background – it lacks depth. An idle animation or two, like what you see in TF2 or DoD, some more weapon sway, would breath some more life into it. I think the Uzi animation could do with some work as well. I’m not saying it’s crap, but I know what the Source engine’s capable of and I think they can do better, certainly for first-person models.
I have to agree it does look sped up compared to what I’ve seen before. The shotgun melee animation is so fast it totally lacks believability which you’d think would be important in an atmospheric survival horror game.
report
It does look too fast, but I don’t think i’ll get too worried until a demo or something. I bet CS looks fast to people who’ve never played it before, but it feels perfect when you’re actually in control. Although of course in L4D the zombies won’t be waiting around corners for seconds at a time planning a flank attack. And it isn’t THIS fast, I know.
report
looks good so far, cant wait for a racoon city mod
report
Wow. I think I saw a preview of this game the last time I read PC Gamer….which was probably about 2 and a half years ago? (That figure is probably entirely wrong). Has it really been that long?
Also; I agree. The shotgun lacks oomph — but then again we can’t HEAR it. Most of the “oomph” of a gun is from it’s sound. I rememebr when DOD changed it’s Garand sound and instantly every player claimed they had increased it’s power, rather than a simple WAV :)
Also: No muzzleflashs of anykind on the shotgun, yet there’s one on the uzi? Maybe that’s why it feels less “deadly”?
report
The gun play reminds me of CS. While CS is one of my least-favorite online FPS’s, its weapons handling is fantastic. Too bad L4D’s shotgun lacks a suitable amount of “oomph.” FPS games should stop skimping on the shotty’s destructive power; at close range, one should blow a zombie to bits.
Anyway, the last time L4D appeared on RPS, I snidely remarked that “Yakety Sax” should play in the background, given the comically fast movement speeds of the players and zombies. James T took it a step further and actually did it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azkuCfWjwpU
Hopefully the game won’t play as though it’s sped up 1.5 times…
report
I was going to say meh, but after the the yakety sax trailer I am convinced this is made of win.
I am sold.
report
What’s with the door? What happened to your physics engine, Valve?
report
I wish I’d seen that old saxed up trailer before. Holy cow that’s funny. Needs a bit of a cut here and there, but there’s so much unintentional hilarity; like the bit where the player is surrounded, holding two pistols and the zombies appear to be moshing along with the tune.
report
Some of the comments on this thread really make me despair. Due to the obsession Western developers have with realism, both in visual and gameplay terms, we’ve been subject to a perpetual movement towards it as graphics improve. The notion is realism is best, slower is more realistic, therefore slow and realistic is the paragon which we must all aspire to. Thus a huge percentage of FPSs on the market feature elite special forces who can barely beat a crawling toddler in a foot race and who end up hitting Pluto should they so much as flinch when shooting. We’ve lost many of the best elements from early FPSs, such as a sense of the frenetic, movement skill as well as just aim and a cut and thrust to battles rather than just firefights ending before they begin due to the player downing enemies with one bullet.
Someone in this thread bemoaned the lack of iron sights aiming, and that feature is a perfect example of what one loses following the pursuit of realism. FPSs ultimately boil down to the simple acts of moving and shooting. When you bring in iron sights and thus slow the player’s movement to a crawl, you effectively remove half the game and in doing so turn the exercise into an Operation Wolf-style shooting gallery. Though the CoD games certainly have their strengths, the whack-a-mole nature of the combat gets exceedingly tiresome after prolonged play, as your stationary soldier merely knocks down the cardboard cut-out adversaries when they pop up from behind cover.
In this climate, it’s so refreshing to see Valve stick to what they’ve always done, innovating in certain areas of the genre, while retaining a minimalist, fast-paced core which harks right back to the foundations of the genre and thus retains many of the strengths other developers have long since forgotten about. The idea that the game would be better if the zombies were a slow moving mass – as I’ve heard many, many people suggest – is absurd, since it would be essentially a form of non-combat, if one defines combat as a two way battle. It would devolve immediately into the sort of turkey shoot described above, as virtually static players pick off virtually static zombies, a form of ‘combat’ as unexciting as it would be repetitive. The variety of fighting off agile zombies that can attack from countless directions and at varying speeds is surely infinitely more appealing. It’s also infinitely more terrifying, as the threat of sudden, unexpected death that constantly hangs over the player echoes the experience of watching 28 Days Later, easily the most frightening mainstream zombie film. I’m generally all for contrivances in film and games, preferring whatever approach creates the most enjoyable experience over that which makes the enterprise most realistic, but the premise found in most zombie films of lithe 20 somethings being caught by a vegetative group of lobotomised oafs is an unlikelihood too far for this individual to overcome. Whoever suggested fast zombies are a Hollywood staple may wish to think again as well, given that the best undead-centered films of recent times have been British and Spanish, the aforementioned 28 Days and the more recent Rec respectively. Properly fast and properly scary.
Finally, the notion that extra speed will result in lessened tactical potential is again mistaken. The term ‘tactical shooter’ has always been a horrendous misnomer, as anyone who has experience of a high-level Quake team deathmatch or CTF contest will confirm (the writer of this very news post may be able to able to provide testimony on this point). Tactics in a fast-paced game may be more difficult to spot for the uninitiated, but make no mistake they are there in abundance and in unquestionably equal measure to that found in much heralded ‘tactical’ games such as Counter-strike and Red Orchestra. Extra speed generally just results in additional skill requirements, so while you’ll still have to watch your teammates backs while they’re reloading and you’ll still have to be attentive to medkit management among other considerations, you’ll have to do it at a pace that requires an impressive level of concentration and organisation, while your hand-eye coordination will be tested in a way it wouldn’t be were the horde to be the shufflers so many seem to desire.
report
Reply to THERAILMCCOY
Thats an awful round about way to say “I’ve never heard of Serious Sam, Halo, Time Splitters, Hellgate, Unreal Tournament, Painkiller and most console shooters” I really don’t see what you meant by the whole genre going down realism avenue. Apart from S.T.A.L.K.E.R, self confessed soldier sims and the three or four team tactics games, shooters just don’t aim for realism.
We’re not criticising it’s speed in terms of realism but rather the fact theres no tension. Likewise the iron sights which force you to slow for an accurate shot which makes you feel vulnerable and forces you to use blockades to buy you a few seconds. Fast zombies may very well be scary, but they’re a different kind of scary requiring different sets of skills. I personally prefer the slow build up and pressure cooker feel created by slow moving walls of rotten flesh.
Also, 28 Days Later is overrated. Zombies? Fine. Soldiers who turn into sex crazed rapists after 3 weeks, assuming civilian evacuation took a week, and happily try to have sex with a worryingly young girl? Not so much fine. Now if thats what really happened after a girly free month, I would currently be serving 3 consecutive life sentences. Probably including treason.
report
It’s rather a strawman to respond to my description of a trend with a few examples that are exceptions to the rule, including one which isn’t even that and is in fact an affirmation of my contention with Halo, given the geriatric agility of the protagonist and the inaccuracy of the weapons, being a classic example of the general trend towards slower and more realistic (or the common perception of what realism amounts to). If I was to list the games with a strong emphasis on realism or those strongly inspired by the movement in that direction we’d be here until Christmas. As a more brief illumination of this fact, just compare 10 random games from this year with 10 from before the millennium and note the differences in player agility and stamina, weapon accuracy (and how it is affected by stance), enemy visibility, and enemy health, to name but a few major aspects of shooters which have changed significantly with negative consequences for skill depth, skill range, variety, consistency, fairness, interactivity and combat depth, among others. This isn’t dogma, since I’m not suggesting that games should be totally unrealistic in every case, but is instead a suggestion that developers think more carefully before implementing features, rather than just chucking them in because they’re supposedly more realistic or part of a wider trend.
How can you be sure at this early stage that there’s no tension? Valve claim that this is achieved by their AI director which varies the pace and intensity of encounters, and given their track record in terms of general game design, but more specifically atmosphere sustenance and pacing, I’m inclined to believe them. Creation of tension is all about peaks and troughs, fear of the unknown and unexpected, the lulls between battles contemplating what’s to come and the fear during them that you may not be able to hold off against such a varied onslaught. While I acknowledge that holding off a slow moving mass could provoke apprehension, the uniformity of it would quickly become obvious, and thus the player would be swiftly inured to such a one-dimensional approach to fomenting tension.
Iron sights can create interesting trade-offs, but there are plenty of interesting choices that can be created without removing a massive chunk of the game in the form of movement. My other objections to that aiming model centre on a dislike for weapons defaulting to random and inaccurate in an unaimed state, effectively lowering interactivity due to the computer determining whether a player is accurate rather than the player’s skill and the simple annoyance of the ‘press mouse2 to aim properly’ system, which makes combat feels needlessly repetitive, unresponsive and stilted. That sensation would only be magnified in a fast-paced game which is wave-based. Furthermore the secondary fire melee system looks fantastic, adds an additional skill and creates more interesting tactical possibilities than iron sights.
On 28 Days Later we’ll agree to disagree. I thought the ending was a little bit jarring too, but not ruinously so.
report
I’m glad the zombies run instead of shuffle around like clueless idiots. Indeed, fast-moving zombies serve the whole AI “Director” concept nicely: moments of frantic fighting and zombie dodging followed by moments of regrouping and assessment. Shaking up the pacing, as the Director aims to do, would be more difficult if the zombies were a slow-moving mass.
But the overall movements seem “off,” as in the timing doesn’t match up or the game is played on some fast setting.
report
EDITS: The world and his dog (2 people!) posted in the time it took me…
“Also, 28 Days Later is overrated. Zombies? Fine. Soldiers who turn into sex crazed rapists after 3 weeks, assuming civilian evacuation took a week, and happily try to have sex with a worryingly young girl? Not so much fine.”
First off – yeah the ending wasn’t what it should have been. But then as far as they knew the world was basically over. Ignore that (and the sequel) and you have one of the few decent Zombie films out there.
Secondly – THERAILMCCOY made a decent post & I have to say I agree with most of the points.
A “slow moving wall of rotten flesh” isn’t scary to me. As it get’s nearer it’s less about panic, and more about the excitement of “how long can I leave it before I turn and run up the street to get another 5minutes of un-interupted shooting”. Fast zombies on the other hand, at least in HL2, had me running around in circles like a headless chicken shouting obcenities at the screen.
Anyway – the trailers would be better with in-game sound. I’d like to see a video of a couple of people actually playing it (both the survivors & the zombie teams) to see how people actually react. The idea is great, im just not overly convinced it’ll meet expectations.
report
Hey guys, I run a fansite for Left 4 Dead that has more information if you’re interested: Left 4 Dead 411.
A bunch of new videos have come out this week, and I think this one from GameVideos is the best: http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/18853.
report
I’ll say what I’ve been saying ever since I first found out about this game (which was on RPS, come to think of it):
“Holy s*** that looks intense!”
report
Hmm, the video above on gamevideos.com shows things off a bit better.
Still looks a bit faster than I’d like, pretty much CS+Zombies. But then there are a pretty hefty chunk of people that play CS, so that could be exactly the style they are aiming for :)
report
My theory is that, in general, zombie fiction is appealing because it always–at least partly–centers around ordinary people. I think this makes it frightening because it’s essentially the idea of survival distilled: fight and flight. Ordinary, vulnerable people (like you) struggling against an elemental force of violence.
So I think the problem with the speed in Left4Dead (or the videos, at least), is that it’s fundamentally at odds with how most people unconsciously relate to zombie fiction. As soon you give any of the protagonists extra-normal ability (speed, durability, etc), they’re no longer as vulnerable as you are, and the appeal of the genre is lost.
That said, everyone at Valve is stupidly talented, and there’s no reason not to think this game will be fantastic in its own way. It’ll just be fantastic because it’s a Valve FPS, not because it’s a particularly thoughtful approach to the source material.
report
running zombies = impossible
zombie are by definition, a slow moving mass that can only be stopped by destroying the brain, ie. headshots
i will forget this game and await a proper (max brooks inspired) zombie game, fuck the hollywood zombies.
PS. how much does Valve have to do with this game, last i hear it was Turtle Rock that was bought by Valve, which is not Valve developed. Besides what has has Valve really done but ruin the CS/DOD license?
report
born2expire, you know you WILL play this game as soon as you see how good it is! :)
THERAILMCCOY – Your my new forum Hero, never before has someones arguement been so well written, makes a change to the usual people talking arse about something they have not even played yet!
As for L4D this is the game I have always been waiting for, a CS Clan Player myself I’ve been waiting for a team based shooter to grab my atention for a while now, and this is it! It has FAST ‘Infected in it and a load of guns and a team small enough to to house my close gaming buddies, what else could I ask for!?
report
Chaps it’s a game about shooting zombies.
report
Um. It’s probably for the best they didn’t include sound for most of those videos, because apparently the devs think that being brutally savaged by a pack of bloodthirsty zombies sounds like someone emptying a bottle of merlot on the floor.
Also the glow thing is a pretty poor idea I think. First impression I got was that it was far too difficult to tell team members from zombs, because everyone was wearing toilet-cubicle grey. Compare with Mirror’s Edge, where everything’s colour-coordinated. The glow effect just seems unimaginative and clunky.
Oh, and it looks a bit too fast for my liking.
report
I think a lot of people are forgetting that key element: It’s a game about shooting zombies. There’s a 4 on 4 mode. There’s thousands upon thousands of mindless zombies. Making them slower will be easily moddable. What’s the issue?
report
Bobsy: It’s so you can see them through walls and thinsg.
report
No, its a game about shooting ‘Infected’ is it not? I feel they are very different things, Zombie is something dead and depicted as being slow and dumb. These are ‘Infected’ and are seen to be fast and agresive much like the classic british film 28 Days Later.
Either way, its going to be a top game!
report
I agree in part with what THERAILMCCOY said; I do think faster Zombies is more frenetic, more thrilling, I don’t necessarily think iron-sights need to be relied on to achieve tension, especially since it’s geared around fast-paced action. They just don’t fit that playstyle.
But I do think the general animations and movement in that vid are too fast. You need to keep an element of believability for the zombies to have any ‘fear factor’ at all. Part of it is that on a basic level they can swarm and kill you, but another part is obviously that they are monstruous and horrific. You cannot get away from the fact that their physical representation is designed to tap into a player’s psyche and make the experience more vivid, more (sur)real. So why do they go and spoil it all with Benny Hill animations?
—
As a sidenote, there are many reasons why slower-paced, more ‘realistic’ multiplayer is adopted more and more. First off, because your life is more valuable, it promotes teamwork and strategy, which in turn promotes in-game communication and out-of-game discussion of tactics, and the forging of competitive and casual clans, which in turn promotes a community, which in turn keeps the game being played for longer and more sales.
—
And I have to disagree with your comment:
In this climate, it’s so refreshing to see Valve stick to what they’ve always done, innovating in certain areas of the genre
With the exception of the Half-Life series and TF2, Valve have mostly bought out the things that really shook up genres (think sales and titles). Team Fortress Classic was a reimagination of Quake CTF (even TF2 borrows heavily from TFC’s maps). Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat were successful mods long before Valve had anything to do with them and Portal was an excellent working game concept that has been taken from strength to strength. But none of these were originally Valve ideas, not even Left for Dead!
If you look at the sorts of things Valve have done to these games you could argue there are many mistakes. In CS:Source Valve turned Militia into an HDR chugfest, forgoing performance for looks, in addition to releasing some abysmal new maps. They added ‘crits’ to the Team Fortress genre, and now unachievable, achievement-locked weapons. They mixed up the DoD weapons for DoD:S, making them ludicrously innaccurate and virtually unmanageable, plus added a bunch of superfluous scratchy cinemetic fluff.
Give credit for what Valve are good at, sure, but don’t be under any illusions that much of what they have is down to reiteration, not necessarily innovation, and that they haven’t always respected the strengths of the games that came before. They are mostly clever at spotting good ideas relatively early thus harnessing creative talent and pairing it with expertise, and spending long enough on a project to make it better than standard, including a QA process rivalled by none.
report
it’s apparantly a mutant form of rabies, therefore they aren’t dead, thus running is permitted!
report
So when is this thing coming out?
report
That last video posted in the comments (http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/18853) really helps to bring back my expectancy level for the game. I’ve been psyched about it ever since it was announced, but I have a way of letting all the negative shitstorm around something get to me. That video showed something of what it’s like playing it, the tension, etc.
report
Its being released sometime in Q3 – it is Valve though…
report
Blimey, sir! I can’t get the video loading!
*ok, watched it now, everything needs change, diversity. CS crackheads tend to disagree though. Will it last long enough to make a visible impact?
report
I don’t mind that the zombies (whatever) are fast, only that it looks like they stand around when you’re shooting them, as in the video that Monkfish posted. I hope that’s just an AI problem they’ve yet to fix.
I love that bit at the end of the Gamevideos trailer where they all have to get into the safe room.
report
about 28 Days Later: anyone who was a bit put off by the talky bits but enjoyed the rest should check out 27 Days Later, it’s a fan edit of the original, cutting some of the scenes in the second half. It’s done really well (you can’t spot the joins) and might be the movie you were hoping for.
http://fanedit.org/wpTF/?p=31
report
Wow, a lot of sticks up a lot of asses here. THERAILMCCOY is a good lad though!
I think it looks severly amusing and intense, it’s going to be a blast to play with friends.
Also, Radiant needs to be quoted for truth:
“Chaps it’s a game about shooting zombies.”
Word.
report
All I can say is that it doesn’t look like any zombie film i’ve ever seen. I’d have thought a studio that’s involved with the team that made Ravenholme could have come up with something much better.
Just looks like a game of CS played with bots.
report
People’s perception of what they feel zombies should be like interfering with their expectations for this game I feel
report
So, basically, people like railmccoy and me who mainlined quake and UT games for a decade don’t like slower, less accurate games because it makes us feel crippled. And you need fast enemies if you’re fast yourself otherwise it’s boring – imagine dropping a Q3 character into Resi 4, it’d be a walkover.
Secondly, zombies just aren’t scary in themselves any more. The concept is overused, and these days it doesn’t mean communism (scary) but consumerism (“Check it out I bought a Wii! Yeah!”). Check out Shawn of the Dead or google for zombie plush toys… these days, zombies are cute. At best, they’re just something you can shoot or disembowel utterly guilt-free, making them excellent FPS opponents, but the only way to make them actually scary is to have them jump out at you.
Fast infected makes sense.
report
The virus is not even transmitted by attacks. They had to use running zombies or it would be the easiest game ever.
Zombies = Communism? NO WAI! OMG ZOMBIE PHILOSOPHY FIGHT!
The Zombie concept stands for mindless conformism. While that could stand for Communism, it could also stand for mindless capitalist consumerism. The original Dawn of the Dead was not about Communism!
report
“People’s perception of what they feel zombies should be like interfering with their expectations for this game I feel”
Which is only natural, surely?
(in fact, my main problem isn’t that they are fast, it’s HOW fast they AND the survivors move)
report
I think we agree about the philosophy. My point was that people *like* mindless capitalist consumerism, because it provides us with awesome stuff like HDTVs, air conditioning and microwavable lasagna. People go to shopping malls to relax. People even like conformism in general; it gives safety in numbers, and provides an identity and a convenient external and easily recognisable enemy.
Therefore zombies aren’t scary.
report
underground airport, if you dont think zombie are scary read “world war Z: an oral history of the zombie war” and it will compeltely change your opinion of zombies. Just the thought of a brainless unstoppable horde of zombies scares the shit outta me. seriously NOTHING will stop a horde of zombies outside of destroying the brain, nothing.
“People’s perception of what they feel zombies should be like interfering with their expectations for this game I feel”
obviously, i wont watch movies with running and smart zombies so why would i play a game with that? I’ll just wait for dead island.
report
So zombies and piracy.
The two things guaranteed to ignite an RPS comment thread.
Pirates of the Caribbean must have touched a lot of bases with you guys.
report
Also why didn’t you shit the bed over Last Stand 2?
Flash games not worthy of your ire?
report
Ha, born2expire, you think you’re king nerd but you’re not! I refuse to play Pac-Man because people can’t eat ghosts.
report
Pac-man isn’t a person, your logic is flawed.
report
And infected aren’t zombies. And none of these things are real.
report
Also, I happen to know that there are pills that can make you see and eat ghosts.
@Gundam Janitor: I know that fast zombies aren’t real, only the real zombies are real. What do you think I am, crazy?
report
A zombie speeds up only when they are within lunging distance of a human. The rest of the time they shamble, or sit there…waiting, always waiting for you to come out. Read the comic: The Walking Dead and tell me zombies are not scary. They slowly move in yes, but from all directions and before you know it there is one behind you, always count on that.
Renaming zombies to the so called infected is an insult to the genre and the fans. Don’t try to tell me they are something completely different, they are a cop-out. They are zombie lite.
I see a game where there are no points for killing insane numbers, where it does not matter how many weapons you have nor what type. Its all about survival. Its about building barricades that you hope will hold. Its about scavenging for resources in a world that has fallen down. Its about blowing off a limb and they still keep coming. I hope that Dead Island is that game.
report
If Walking Dead Zombies were canon, we’d all walk around like this:
http://tonymooreillustration.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=449
report
See, I thought I was a big zombie nut. Not only am I writing up how to secure my apartment complex from a zombie threat (it would actually work really well, depending on the version of the undead), I integrated a stickman zombie assistant into a powerpoint presentation–in a grad-level program. But there are some intense zomb-ites around here.
I know, of the zombies I’ve seen on film, I’d pick Romero’s to actualy have to deal with (pre-Land). “Return of…” zombies? Forget it. Just off yourself and be done with it.
Running zombies & walking zombies serve different purposes. Walking ones are kind of a sad tool for social commentary, a horror thing. Fast ones are more about action. Sort of horror vs. terror, if that makes sense.
report
You know I really don’t remember Valve or Turtle Rock calling them ‘Zombies’ I’m sure they are ‘Infected’ just like the film 28 Days Later.
ZOMBIE:
a. the body of a dead person given the semblance of life, but mute and will-less, by a supernatural force, usually for some evil purpose.
b. the supernatural force itself.
Thats the meaning Zombie, I really think the beings shown in all the footage of this game thus far really are far from being Dead, Mute and Will-less!
report
I find that statement incredulous tbh. Zombies, guns and the killing of said Zombies with said guns, whilst seeking safety tend to be the staple ingredients of pretty much all the Zombie films I’ve seen.
Like CS, but for a lack of rounds, lack of purchase options, lack of bombsite to plant/defend or Hostages to guard/rescue? So not really much like CS at all really then? It’s ok to be down on a game if it’s not your cup of tea, but lazy analogies serve no good purpose but to demonstrate the ignorance of the poster.
I can see the appeal to the slow moving wall of flesh desire some people have, but to carry it out successfully would require the game to have thousands of zombies to convey the necessary sense of threat, and even with todays PCs and Graphics cards that’s just not presently feasible. To do a true survival horror Zombie experience, it’s more about avoiding confrontation that embracing it.
report
“I find that statement incredulous tbh. Zombies, guns and the killing of said Zombies with said guns, whilst seeking safety tend to be the staple ingredients of pretty much all the Zombie films I’ve seen.”
Yes, and people kissing is a staple of a romance film yet Romeo and Juliet had a hell of a lot more than just spit swapping. Where’s the barricades? The OTT gore? The ammo conservation? The makeshift weaponry? The teamwork?
And by CS I rather obviously meant the fact that everyone seems to be running around in circles whilst wearing soap rollerskates on floors of ball bearings and immersion destroying crouching on top of inch thick pieces of scenery to get better shots. So please don’t get all condescending with me when you don’t even posses the basic brain-power to compare and contrast the styles of two different things.
“… but to carry it out successfully would require the game to have thousands of zombies to convey the necessary sense of threat, and even with todays PCs and Graphics cards that’s just not presently feasible.”
Yeah, it’s called Dead Rising and comments like that just go to show how ignorant a poster you are.
The game just looks like co-op Serious Sam. Dozens of face-less, brain-less things running towards your circle strafing gun with a limitless ammo supply. When I see a video that utilises the impressive physics of the Source engine to keep the zombies at bay and some actual co-operative play(I mean, come on. It’s not hard to have a section with someone providing assistance with a sniper rifle whilst someone else rushes from cover to cover, or a vehicle/gunner section. Halo’s been doing basic stuff like that for years) then i’ll get excited. This just looks like a wasted opportunity.
(Also, that shotgun-metal door incident. WHAT? I have never seen anything behave that way in my LIFE. It looked like someone was melting a hole through a balloon)
report
They’re Infected, not Zombies. Zombies are slow, Infected are fast, that really seems like a convention of the genre at this point.
At this point I don’t see any interesting gameplay in L4D. It seems like these critters just run up at you at 20 miles an hour, STOP, and then start wailing on you. The main problem is that it seems to take a minute of uninterrupted wailing before you fall down, and then you’ve got another minute before you’re actually dead. Where’s the tension?
I’m not saying it has to be like Zombie Master, it definitely has some advantages since the infected in L4D will spawn around the corner instead of 5 – 15 nasty as hell HULKS appearing all around you and instantly killing you which can happen with a bad ZM in Zombie Master. But, ZM had a good sense of lethality, of danger. It’s a very difficult game to master, even moreso if the current ZM is a total ballbusting dick.
Left 4 Dead may also have its challenging moments, but it seems like more of a reflex test. It seems to have more in common with an arcade Shoot’Em’Up than an “experiential / immersive” FPS like Half-Life.
report
Christ, this thread is worse than a Trekkie argument. Look, if you want Dawn of the Dead, play Dead Rising. Otherwise, accept this game for what it is and bear in mind that pretty much every game journo who has played it says its brilliant.
report
You guys really need to watch a couple of the dev interviews on L4D. Specially about the player-controlled zombie characters and the AI.
Not to mention the fact that the zombies react to you in several different ways. Some will shamble toward you, some will rush you, some will run away only to show back up again later when you aren’t expecting it with more of their friends! The game gets harder if your doing well and eases up on you if you’re taking a beating, making for a dynamic game experience every time. Every article I’ve read on this game says you can’t play it like a typical fps, your going to get eaten.
report
I think the speed makes sense in the context of infected rather than zombied as others have suggested, I’d also agree with the tactical benefits that a slower speed could not produce.
I found the amount of health you appear to have and your extraordinary strong resolve in reloading a clip whilst being gang-eaten to be the most jarring.
report
Left4Dead – Left 4 videogame journalists screeching like soon-to-be-dead big girl’s blouses during a recent EA trip.
And one of them was from PC Gamer. So, er, there. It’s one of the most exhilarating games I’ve ever played.
report
I guess the problem is – by the sound of it – the videos are shit and don’t show how good it is at all.
report
ohh, just saw this:
“And infected aren’t zombies. And none of these things are real.”
Yeah, no shit, it was a joke.
report
I want to know more about playing as the Infected. Can they cooperate with each other – communicate and see each other through walls and so on?
I’m really hyped about this game but I wish they would stop selling it, it won’t be out till late Q4.
report
@Ginger Yellow
pretty much every game journo who has briefly played a preview version with someone sitting next to them telling them all the awesome stuff they plan to add in later says its brilliant.
Fixed.
Never, ever put your faith in previews, no matter who does them. They almost always read like the original ‘blue skies’ thinking game design doc (you know, before they axed half the content because it didn’t work or they didn’t have time to make it work).
report
To be honest, it’s playing as the Infected which intrigues me most. The gunplay will be fun and co-op games always have potential to be some of the best experiences, but playing as the infected (especially the fancy-shmancy ones) is what I’m interested to see but they’ll undoubtedly leave until much nearer release.
report
*Comment Ninja-ing a dead topic*
Apparently, Haze has been almost universally negatively received, with a 54% on Metacritic. Poor Haze. But… Zombie Cha Cha is starting to look a bit more appealing in comparison, Benny Hill and all.
report