Preview by Rob Wright

Valve's newest title Left 4 Dead combines multiplayer cooperative gameplay, first-person shooter action, and lots and lots of zombies for an intense survival horror experience. Tom's Games gets into Left 4 Dead's zombie action.

http://www.tomsgames.com/us/2008/0 [...] d_preview/

this genuineally sounds like a brilliant game, with frankly inspired gameplay, bravo once more Valve
How the hell do you spell genuinely?

ye, it does. however, this is going to require a damn sight more team work than most games, not the sort of thing you can just hop in with a bunch of strangers and play.

You got that right. But it sounds like Valve finally got the survival/horror game right, instead of just mindless running around and shooting.

left 4 dead looks amazing...

anyone played the cod 4 zombie mod? that mod is really fun...

if left 4 dead is anything like the mod... it will completely blow me away

Dang..... at one time, Silent Hill got it's balls busted because of the appearance of the 'not so child looking' small enemies in the game (the ones with knives).
Now, we have a zombie that actually LOOKS like a small child in Left 4 Dead..... and there is not a whisper thus far of outrage. Maybe people are finally realizing that NOTHING is off limits in games.... or have they just missed this controversy waiting to happen?

didn't bioshock have little girls that you could club to death?

Yeah.. it's a good thing most of my clan seems interested in this.. not that we work that well with each other.. constantly tk'ing.. this game sounds great though, and i'll be killin em as an infected for sure.

good for you it has a scaling team damage system, less health your team mates have, less damage your weapons do.

looks amazing, this is one of those games I will buy straight away as soon as its out.

The A.I looks like it may be using the same functions as sin emergence used.

that game had A.I that got tougher and more numerous the better you played and it appears this uses some of those same ideas. i have heard that if you get seperated from the group you get attacked more heavily than the group.

if they are using it i hope they get it right as sin was released with a bug that meant it kept getting harder and harder. also hope that there is some control for servers as to how difficult it is setup as there is usually some people who like insane challenges.

well im hoping that the single player A.I for your team mates works out, cause that's were most games are let down, although i don't foresee my self playing this game in single player very much, I will do before going on-line, to scope out the maps.

The more that I see about this game, the less enthusiastic that I get about it. I was really, really looking forward to this title too. Maybe I was hoping for too much - "Dawn of the Dead" with plenty of atmosphere - a game where using your brain was more important to your survival than you trigger finger. After watching the gameplay video, it looks like a mindless zombie blast-fest. Maybe it will still be fun, but not what I was hoping for I guess.

Are there any decent horror games out right now (for PC)?

what you are after really would not work as a co-op game and appeal to a large amount of people.

this is as far as i can see about seeing if you can stick together as a group and fight your way through hordes of the undead.

Valve make popular games, blasting your way through hordes of zombies with a few people will be that.

Christ - this sounds awesome.

I LOVED that HL 1 mod where you boarded up that house and had to defend it from the massive mob of zombies trying to break in. With about 6 mates it was a real, fun and decent challenge.

This is going to be superb...

Yeah SS - you don't have to remind me that my tastes are not aligned with the lowest common denominator. I could be a one-man anti-focus group : If I like it, don't bother. Actually, my tastes are not as out of whack as they once were, but whatever....

Still - we are talking about Valve - I mean, they have a fairly decent rep for making some pretty compelling storylines. Whatever - I'm sure it will be a fine game, but I will have to wait for the zombie magnum opus of my dreams.