Idly flicking through my staple forum of choice this morning, I checked out some of the new posts on the universal Left 4 Dead thread. One simply states “Meh, bad graphics. Half-life 2 engine in 2009? Seriously?” Is that really how some people see gaming? A constant battle of geeky men swinging their penises because their engine can render per-pixel polymetric nasel hair shading? Well of course it isn’t. I think we all know that “gameplay” trumps graphics any day….
The Left 4 Dead blog has an interesting little piece about how they designed the beautiful images of the game. As far as I’m concerned, the game would be much less awesome if it didn’t look as nice as it does. The gameplay is excellent, sure, but it’s all the time where you are waiting to be attacked that needs the benefit of the art direction mentioned in this post. Without compelling scenery I feel the moments of downtime…
I saw her from afar, and I knew it was love. Perhaps it was her shrill tones or the dank dungeon’s drips running down my spine, but I felt myself shiver with grim pleasure and anticipation, and I knew this would be an experience worth screaming about. I wasn’t wrong.
Those loveable rogues at Rock, Paper, Shotgun have an exclusive look at the Dead Air campaign from Left 4 Dead. They have a whole host of images from the various stages of the campaign and they talk up the best bits of each section while taking pot-shots at each others playing abilities, or lack of. For example: Kieron: My favourite thing about Alec’s Witch-problem was that it was a classic example of a negative feedback loop. He wakes one up,…