The four stars of Valve's undead packed co-op shooter wage war against custom zombie hordes in brick form, photographic evidence of which can be further explored at the official Left 4 Dead blog. It's your best nerd-value dollar, we swear.

Legoland of the Dead [Left 4 Dead Blog]

And it’s not just the PS3 they’re warming to. The Wii has, last time we checked, sold a ton of units as well. Same story, then?

If we were going for the Wii we'd have to go for a whole new game that's designed for that platform. That's an expensive proposition and riskier than just getting some good PS3 developers on board.

It's something that we're still evaluating, but certainly the install base is the thing that rules all. If there's an opportunity there you've got to take it seriously.

Yup.

On the topic of the PS3… if Valve are suddenly warming to the PS3, what does this mean for the prospect of a PS3 version of Left 4 Dead? It means things are looking up! Well, maybe not up, but at least “50-50”. And a 50% chance is a lot better than a 0% chance.

Valve: Doug Lombardi [CVG]

{OSS} |CiC| Andy <3 amvalvo: Nfreak, turn around
Bob Dole's Woodlen Critters >:3: We're trying to do a spycrab calendar
Bob Dole's Woodlen Critters >:3: SS
{OSS} |CiC| Andy <3 amvalvo: Bob, keep walking back and forth

TF2Newbs promises to donate $1 to the National Spy Crab Fund for every download.

(/rushes to establish National Spy Crab Fund).

Rare Endangered Spy Crab 2009 Calendar [TF2Newbs]

The free MOD pack comes with Age of Chivalry, D.I.P.R.I.P., Insurgency, Synergy, and Zombie Panic.

"Valve has been supporting the MOD community since the company's inception, offering updates to the SDK, holding MOD Expos and being the first to bring a MOD to retail with Counter-Strike in November 2000," said Doug Lombardi, vice president of marketing at Valve. "The debut of these MODs on Steam marks the beginning of a new level of support for the MOD community by putting the leading MODs at the finger tips of over 15 million targeted gamers."

Once the MOD pack, available now, is installed it will appear in the Steam "My Games" list and the MODs will receive automatic updates just like other games on Steam. Also, the MODs support Steamworks, providing stat tracking and tighter integration with the Steam community.

Steam Powered

Left 4 Dead Official Site

LittleBigPlanet: The Very Big Interview [Kikizo]

The whole thing is time limited and may very well not be offered in the country of your choosing. For the lucky bargain hunters, have at it.

Rockstar Games [Steam]

• OS: Windows Vista, XP or 2000
• CPU: 3.0 GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 or AMD64X2 (or higher)
• RAM: 1 GB for XP / 2GB for Vista
• DISC DRIVE: DVD-ROM Drive
• HARD DRIVE: At least 7.5 GB of free space
• VIDEO: Direct X 9 compatible video card (Video card must be 256 MB or more and should be a DirectX 9-compatible with support for pixel shader 2.0)
• SOUND: Direct X9.0c compatible sound card

Time for an upgrade! That, or coming to terms with playing the Xbox 360 version. *shudder*

Left 4 Dead Official System Requirements [HalfLife2.net Forums via Shacknews]

In the short essay I talk about the origins of the word piracy (Daniel Defoe don't you know), and the absurdity of applying todays shrinking ownership rights to a situation closer to that origin. I also call for a sort of Gamers' Bill of Digital Rights. Not that anyone will listen.

If that sort of stuff floats your boat hop on over on the link to check it out. If it doesn't interest you, hop over there to read Tycho's take on my "wavy locks and hard-ass goatee."

The Origin Of The CD-Keys, Part One [Penny Arcade]

GN: The thing is I'm a big fan of the Wii in terms of a lot of the interesting things that it does, and we have absolutely zero Wii games in development. There's always so much more that we'd like to do that we could do. We have a bunch of MMO fans inside of the company that would kill to be working on an MMO....

1UP: ...including you?

GN: Myself included. [Laughs] A Wii MMO! Woo-hoo! We have nobody working on such a beast. Magically, if we could increase ourselves in size, then we can do a lot more of this stuff.

Don't know about magic, Gabe, but we hear cash money works just as well with that sorta stuff.

Gabe Newell Talks about Valve's Plans [1UP]

For The Orange Box, EA did the PS3 version. They're interested in getting a PS3 version done. We just have to figure out where the resources can come from. We don't have the bandwidth. We're doing the 360 and PC version ourselves.

Sure, EA are interested, but if they can't do a better job on the port than they did with The Orange Box, we won't be.

Gabe Newell Talks about Valve's Plans [1UP]

1UP confirmed with Gabe and Doug that the updates PC users are currently enjoying, which are coming to the 360 later this year won't be hitting the PS3. Why? Valve simply has no PS3 manpower to speak of. And EA is "not doing ongoing development on The Orange Box" on Sony's box.

It's simple really, if you don't have the people, you can't do the work. The balls is in Electronic Arts' court, as it's responsible for the PlayStation version. We just hope that the boys and girls at EA do right by the few of us who opted for the PS3 SKU — and will think about this kind of stuff in the future.

Team Fortress 2 Updates Not Coming For PlayStation 3 [1UP]

Two readers sent us links to two separate online retailers, both of whom list a PS3 version of Left 4 Dead as being available from November. November the 7th, according to Play.com.

This seemed to confirm the Official PlayStation mag story back in August that EA were working on a port of the Zombie survive-em-up.

We contacted Valve for comment but Doug Lombardi replied, "Currently, there is no PS3 version of L4D in production".

So, unless they plan to knock one up in just over a month, that would seem to be the end of it.

Hmm.

[Game.co.uk] [Play.com]

And yes, that Portal fan mod can sling its hook too. The Commodore 64 remake 'Shotgate' has rendered both games utterly pointless.

Yes, it's a Portal clone for the C64. No, it's not in 3D and - yes - it does look quite like that Flash tribute from last year.

This little fella was made in just 4K of C64 assembler for the Mini Games Comp 2008. If you like the look of it, the programmer is actually selling it in C64 cartridge form in a limited edition run of 20. Buy now to avoid/ensure disappointment.

Shotgate [Quernhorst.de]

Yesterday the OFLC posted a classification notice for LEFT 4 DEAD Game (Nintendo DS).

We had to screen cap this so we could prove to ourselves so that it really happened and they couldn't delete it and start whistling innocently while we ran around, wild-eyed like someone on the Twilight Zone who has realized that it is indeed a cookbook.

We contacted Valve's Doug Lombardi who quickly brushed off the OFLC's clever ruse as "Nonsense".

Just step off, Australian Government. We are on to you.

Left 4 Dead: Nintendo DS [Thanks to Carlos Negron for the tip]

And what a mod - Portal: Prelude is huge, actually bigger than the original game. It has 8 new chapters, 19 test chambers, a new plot and over 400 lines of dialogue (with English and French subtitles!).

You will need Steam, a copy of Portal and possibly some other bits and bobs like Counter Strike Source - the developers have, rather endearingly, forgotten.

This trailer should give a taster of what to expect when the game is released later this month...

Portal: Prelude[www.portalprelude.com thanks to Greg H for the tip]

While the idea seems crazy at first blush Valve's Doug Lombardi has said they're willing to be bought. So we checked in with Lombardi himself this morning and he put our minds at ease, telling us it is purely a rumor, a bit of fiction.

With Google out of the picture, I guess the real question is who exactly would Valve like to buy them.

Google Entering Game Industry Through Valve?

The rumors originate with The Inquirer, which cites well placed sources saying that such a purchase is not only possible, but imminent, as in "any second now". Our take on the rumor? Very iffy. These sort of stories generally don't just pop up one day, though of course Valve's Doug Lombardi has stated that they're willing to be bought. We've contacted Valve for comment and will let you know as soon as we hear back.

Google to buy Valve [The Inquirer]

Fun with text and song! Here's a really nice video the Portal song that's perfect for singalongs. As game blog Aeropause points out, a your/you're type needs-a-fixin'. Make that happen person-who-made-this-awesome-clip!

Excellent work: Portal’s “Still Alive” done with typography [Aeropause]

Blood, mostly. Here, take a napkin, wipe it off ... These are 19 new screenshots of Left 4 Dead that NeoGAF put up earlier this week. Lots of dismemberment and bloodspatter, but I'm not seeing any mid-spew vomit money shots here. The full gallery is on the jump. NeoGAF has them at higher resolution.

New Left 4 Dead Screens [NeoGAF]

Complete news release is on the jump.

CRYSIS WARHEAD COMING TO STEAM

Latest from Legendary Studio Coming to Leading Online Platform

September 12, 2008 - Crytek and Valve today announced an agreement to bring Crysis Warhead® and Crysis® to Steam, a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC games and digital content with over 15 million accounts around the world.

"The millions of gamers logging into Steam every week to play today's best PC games are going to love Crysis Warhead," said Avni Yerli, Managing Director at Crytek. "Crytek Hungary has done a terrific job creating this new experience while optimizing CryEngine 2, and we're looking forward to delivering it and the original Crysis as our first offerings on Steam."

"Crytek is one of the industry's great success stories, emerging new technology and talent," said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. "Crysis is one of today's leading PC franchises and delivering the original and Crysis Warhead via Steam is landmark for the platform."

The follow up to Crysis, one of the highest rated PC games of last year, Crysis Warhead will take players through the parallel story of Sergeant Michael 'Psycho' Sykes as he embarks on an intense, explosive adventure on the other side of the island. With waves of more challenging human and alien enemies to navigate through, players will once again be outfitted with the revolutionary Nanosuit and an arsenal of new weapons and vehicles to help Psycho complete his critical mission.Crysis Warhead will also come with Crysis Wars®, a tailor-made experience for multiplayer gamers, featuring three diverse match types and 21 maps.

Crysis Warhead and Crysis will be available for pre-purchase via Steam starting this weekend, and expected to be released in mid September. Both games are published by EA Partners. For more details, please visit www.steamgames.com and www.crysiswarhead.com.

As for content, Newell told VideoGamer, "I don't know what the date is for release [of the demo] though. I think it's going to contain the first part of one of the campaigns. I think it'll probably be Hospital but I'm not sure."

Left 4 Dead is due to hit the shops at the end of November, but there is no word if the demo will be out first or will appear later to try and mop up any stragglers.

Newell confirms Left 4 Dead demo details [VideoGamer]

The game opens on the game's four characters at ground zero two weeks after the rise of the zombies. Left 4 Dead will have a short introduction, created by the team behind the Team Fortress 2 cut-scenes, but that will be the only cut scene gamers will see in Left 4 Dead.

Instead the story will be told through the game's more than 8,000 lines of dialog and the occasional messages scrawled on the walls of the game's maps, said Valve's Chet Faliszek.

And the games plentiful dialog (Half-Life 2 only had 2,500 lines) isn't meant to be experienced the first time through, or even the fiftieth. The dialog is selected by the specific situation, so it could be weeks or months before a gamer stumbles upon a particular line which might shed a bit more light on the character's back stories.

The team decided to not include cut-scenes because Left 4 Dead is a game meant to be played over and over again and they believed the cut-scenes would quickly become tiresome.

"We didn't want to have the game game gummed up with a story line," Faliszek said. "We wanted to keep it really clean and tight. A zombie apocalypse."

"It's about killing zombies, not some fable on the reconstruction of humanity."

The fact that a map will be replayed so many times also gives the developers a bit more license for how they get the story across. They can allow gamers to pull their own experience out of the game, instead of pushing a story at them.

"You're going to play a map 50 to 100 times so we can be more subtle," he said.

After launch, once players have had plenty of time with the four scenarios of five maps each, the developers will likely release new scenarios, Faliszek said. Valve just wants to make sure anything they release and sell for the game will have real value.

"We don't want to give you horse armor," he said.

Poorly-spelled platforming classics Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus are now on the Steam network for a measly $9.99 a pop, with an "Oddworld Pack" featuring both games for $14.99.

For the first week, Steam subscribers can buy either or both titles at a special 10% discount. Which is nice.

www.steamgames.com

[Gamekings, thanks Ben!]

Believe it or not, we actually wasted breath asking this very question to Valve's Doug Lombardi at Games Convention.

"All I can say is 'stay tuned'", he said with a smile, noting that we weren't the first to inquire about the missing visual gag. As Valve is wont to do, Lombardi didn't elaborate, but it sounds like the finalized written earlier is more of a "finalized." We hope this long national nightmare of squandered puns on Left 4 Dead box art will soon be over.

There were only a few noticeable changes in the Games Convention build. It was our first look at the updated models and skins for the four playable characters, each given a new coat of paint to help further distinguish them from the hordes of undead.

But it was the new touches of detail — and the promise of more Left 4 Dead — that sparked our interest once again.

Taking a page from the book of Portal (and Half-Life 2, really), Doug Lombardi from Valve told us that Left 4 Dead would feature subtle hints fleshing out the game's back story. Graffiti and scratches peppered the walls of the zombie filled city, with messages to and from survivors scrawled upon the walls of the game's safe rooms.

Since we don't know much about the who, what, when, where and how of the zombie apocalypse the game is set against, we look forward to rooting out the details.

And like Team Fortress 2, Valve plans to feed Left 4 Dead players with regular updates. New scenarios are definitely in the works as future downloadable content through Steam, but new monster types and new weapons sound like a distinct possibility.

But we'll save our fervor for Left 4 Dead's bonus content for later. For now, we just want the game.

Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi got that piece of business out of the way just before our latest Left 4 Dead demo, saying that the developer wanted to build up a massive update for Xbox 360 users before delivering. Given that Valve is being forced to charge for the update, they wanted to ensure that 360 owners were getting their money's worth.

So, how much? The price isn't final, but Valve is hoping to go as low as possible, aiming for a ten dollar price tag. Not too shabby. Sorry, PS3 owners, no word on when or if Valve will be giving you the same Team Fortress 2 updates.

The Sandvich is the Heavy’s first unlockable. It tastes as good as it looks and heals 120 health. Like in real life, the decision to eat a Sandvich must not be taken lightly; The Heavy is completely vulnerable during the four second eating process, and his loud, happy sounds of vigorous chewing will draw enemies like tiny ant cowards to a picnic. OF DEATH. On the bright side, the Heavy’s Sandvich supply is unlimited, so his only real concern is being caught short while enjoying this delicious edible device. The Sandvich is a great tool for a Heavy defending an area, as it gives him the ability to replenish health between enemy waves without having to abandon his post. Similarly, an offensive Heavy without a Medic can step back from the front line and grab a quick snack before resuming his rampage. Beware, however: the Heavy must set aside his shotgun to take the Sandvich, and enemy Snipers are much more dangerous for a Heavy wielding only a minigun.

Hit the jump to see the Sandvich in action. Be warned, it's gruesome.

Updated Heavy Achievements [Official Site, thanks reader Bcoolbyte]

Natascha [Steam]

The "Heavy Update" promo site also shows off the names, but not the details, of the Heavy's new Achievements. Those details may be under wraps until Team Fortress 2's new mode is revealed. We're hoping it has something to do with eating, as the Heavy has at least four gastronomically themed Achievements — Don't Touch Sandvich, Borscht Belt, Icing On The Cake and Konspicuous Konsumption.

The Killing Gloves of Boxing [Steam]

The developer is dolling out details on the Heavy Update throughout the week, with today's news drip focusing on a new officially released community map. Steel, a capture map, was created by Jamie "Fishbus" Manson. It will join a new map for the Payload game mode and five new maps for the unnamed new game mode.

Details on how the Heavy will be updated in TF2 haven't been revealed yet, but the goal, according to the game's official blog, was to "make the Heavy more viable when he has no Medic to pair with." Sounds, well, heavy.

Team Fortress 2: A Heavy Update [Steam]

Valve today announced that Left 4 Dead will be playable on the PC by the public at the upcoming Leipzig Games Convention, Festival du Jeu Video and PC Gamer Showdown. Better still, the Xbox 360 version will be unveiled at Penny Arcade Expo where it will also be playable. I'm told Valve will have two 4-person games set up at their booth. If I were you I'd head straight to Valve when the PAX doors open to try and avoid lines.

I'm already pretty jazzed about the PC version, so I can't wait to see how the game has translated over to the Xbox 360 version. It's a pretty sweet surprise that the worldwide debut of the console game will be at a public event.

August 12, 2008 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced a series of live demonstrations of Left 4 Dead at upcoming industry events the world over.
Left 4 Dead is the new survival co-op action game from Valve that blends the social entertainment experience of multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress with the dramatic, narrative experience made popular in single player action game classics such as the Half-Life series of games.

The PC version of the game will be playable by the press and public at a series of upcoming events including Leipzig Games Convention, (Germany), Festival du Jeu Video (France), and PC Gamer Showdown (UK). The worldwide debut of the Xbox 360 version will be at the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle, WA. Members of the development team will be on hand at each event to provide information and give away some Left 4 Dead memorabilia.

"The shared experience of Left 4 Dead is unlike that of any other action game," said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. "That's what we've experienced playing the game, and from showing the game to the press and our partners. It sounds cliché, but in many ways you have to play this one to truly appreciate what we're attempting. So, to give gamers a chance to sample this new type of experience first hand, we're taking Left 4 Dead on the road."

Left 4 Dead is due for release on the PC and Xbox 360 this November, and earned numerous awards at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, CA, including 1up.com, Gamespot.com and Maximum PC's Best PC Game, as well as Best Multiplayer Game from Kotaku, IGN, G4TV, the official E3 Judges, and more.

For more information, please visit www.l4d.com

The so called "Thor Bat" (?) can be seen in NSFW action in the clip after the jump.

We're told the custom weapon comes in four colors — blue, red, yellow and "realistic." We'll leave that up to your imagination.

Thanks, CyborgMatt. Thanks a lot.

Oh, and thanks to xcloudx for the updated video embed. We're beating the TinyPic servers with a massive rubber dong in retaliation.

Meet the Cow [machinima.com, via Ubercharged.net]

There is no PS3 version of Left 4 Dead currently in production.

Hey, maybe there will be one day! But that day is not today.

Left 4 Dead on the PS3? [IGN Thanks, Duong!]