I have one big regret about my Rocketbirds Revolution! interview. It was the perfect chance to unpack a pervasive problem with a thoughtful and interested developer. I blew it because I was low on time and didn’t realize he’d be so interested in the issue. This article makes amends for that failure: today I explain a usability problem called interference.

Cooperative FPS games are the darlings of the genre right now, but they’re popping up so fast that it’s getting hard to tell them apart. However, in a subgenre mostly defined by players reviving each other after tactical mishaps, Left 4 Dead is still the only game where you’ll drop your comrade mid-revival so you can shoot through him. You know, because of all the zombies.

Valve’s upcoming sequel to that game was present on the PAX show floor, and Ricardo Ariza was kindly fielding questions instead of just hitting zombies with guitars. He’s one of the two character sculptors working on the sequel’s 35 man team and was just chock full of information.

In the wake of fan outrage that Valve could be so audacious as to release Left 4 Dead sequel a year after the first game hit, the company has announced that a new movie will soon be up for download. Titled Crash Course, the new content will bridge the gap between the first two movies, [...]

In a move you’d expect from the Umbrella Corporation, Valve is trying to merge two zombie concepts into one multi-headed brain-devouring chimera. Marketing VP Doug Lombardi told totalvideogames.com that Valve was “trying to work out the details” to make it possible for fans of the first game to play alongside their sequel-adopting counterparts. This decision [...]

Where otaku write crossover fan fiction, gamers write mods and make custom maps; though there’s usually less yaoi in the latter. Enthusiast Outatime has been working on an adaptation of Resident Evil 3‘s environments in Left 4 Dead (via Evil Avatar). The enterprising mapper hopes to build Raccoon City and its Police Department, clock tower, [...]

It’s not often that a news update sounds more like it came from a cell phone than from Valve, but a considerable amount of news has emerged regarding the upcoming Left 4 Dead downloadable content. The content was originally billed as expanding the competitive multiplayer options to all four movies available in core game (up from the two movies available in the retail game) and adding campaign development tools and a new gameplay mode called survival.

Since the original announcement, however, Valve has revealed exactly what survival mode will include. The mode will apparently deliver a straightforward action scenario where players will be attacked by endless waves of zombies with the goal of lasting as long as possible. More interestingly, however, the developer announced that all this content will be free.

After the gamer backlash to Twisted Pixel’s announcement that it would be selling bonus levels for The Maw, it seems like Valve made the correct PR choice to make the content free. This is especially true in light of the fact that addition of versus gameplay to two existing movies feels more like filling in missing content, regardless of the logistical realities of producing that content.

That said, if Valve were to add another movie as downloadable content, we’d be happy to pay (let’s see…$60 divided by four movies…) $15 for it.

…Please?

Left 4 Dead is more exciting on paper than it is in practice, but the actual game is undiminished for it. It promises an endlessly replayable cooperative multiplayer experience with roguelike procedurally generated content and delivers a brief, intense, FPS game that stays intense even as you become familiar with it. Perhaps not exactly as advertised, but good stuff nonetheless.