To the dismay of many Half-Life fans, Half-Life 2: Episode 3 did not make an appearance at this year's E3. In its place was the surprising announcement for Left 4 Dead 2, a sequel to the original that came out less than a year ago. Many Valve supporters were upset by this announcement, arguing that Left 4 Dead 2 should have been the downloadable content Valve promised for the first game. However, Doug Lombardi and Chet Faliszek of Valve clarified L4D2's status as a full-blown sequel in an interview with ShackNews:
Yeah. At the end of the day, this is going to be a bigger game than Left 4 Dead. It's five campaigns versus four, all five are playable in Versus mode, Survival mode out of the box, the new multiplayer game mode. Plus over 20 new weapons and items. It's a full sequel."
When I first saw the trailer, I wasn't feeling as pessimistic as the other Valve fans. The idea of a Left 4 Dead game chronicling the story of four new survivors in New Orleans is a pretty cool premise to me. For me, it gives a greater universal feel to the Left 4 Dead games. It's also important to mention that there are melee weapons in the sequel: axes, chanisaws, frying pans and more. Check out the trailer for yourself and see what you think.
One of the most exciting components for this sequel is the AI Director 2.0 that will have full control over weather effects. So while you may have noticed the sunny atmosphere in the trailer, all that will change to the AI director's will when you're in-game. I'm also excited about the prospect of a lot of new weapons and new special infected.
While I am disappointed that HL2: Episode 3 did not get shown at this year's E3, I'm confident we'll be hearing about the game sometime this summer. And we have to trust Valve on this, because while Valve's development process is usually long and delay-ridden, their games always turn out to be the best in the market.
Here's a Left 4 Dead 2 gameplay video to hold you for now:
It has been expected for Microsoft to reveal some kind of motion-sensing controller at this E3, but nothing could have prepared us for Project Natal. Project Natal was revealed yesterday, and it appears to be a full-fledged motion-detecting camera that--wait for it--turns your entire body into a controller. Having been a longtime Nintendo fan, I am sad to say that Nintendo has officially just lost this console war. Watch this demonstration video and you'll understand why the Wiimote is pretty much a joke now.
I still have some faith in Nintendo though. The Red Steel 2 demo looks pretty sweet and we should be hearing about a new Zelda/Mario in the next few days. Lets cross our fingers!
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