Shacknews had a little hands-on time with Left 4 Dead this past week to give the latest build of the game a spin. They finally ran into the belle of the Infected ball, the Witch.
The preview goes on to discuss the marked improvements in the lighting and sound since they last tested the game back in January. But the most interesting aspect of their latest preview came in the discussions on the "crescendo" events.
These events, also named "mini-finales" are places in the map where your team needs to fend off waves of enemies before you're able to progress further. One such crescendo event took place outside of a warehouse where sandbags were stacked and mounted machine guns were placed.[break="more crescendo, the director AI"]Another event that was mentioned, but not played by the staff was one where "players must fend off the infected inside of a slowly ascending and fully destructible freight elevator, accompanied by a slow-ticking floor indicator to amp up the tension."
The latest build of the Director AI has been advanced to the point that item placement is now determined by the system, at least to a degree. Valve's Chet Faliszek had this to say about the Director.
Left 4 Dead is slated for release some time in November.
When you first encounter her, Left 4 Dead's fifth and unplayable boss infected is a peculiar sight. The notion of a plainly-dressed and raven-haired young woman sitting in the middle of an urban sidewalk might even be plausible, had the city not been teeming with the hungry dead. But perhaps most unsettling is the quiet weeping; the witch is most often heard before she's seen.I'm glad to hear that the Witch is still as creepy as ever before you even make visual contact with her.
The preview goes on to discuss the marked improvements in the lighting and sound since they last tested the game back in January. But the most interesting aspect of their latest preview came in the discussions on the "crescendo" events.
These events, also named "mini-finales" are places in the map where your team needs to fend off waves of enemies before you're able to progress further. One such crescendo event took place outside of a warehouse where sandbags were stacked and mounted machine guns were placed.[break="more crescendo, the director AI"]Another event that was mentioned, but not played by the staff was one where "players must fend off the infected inside of a slowly ascending and fully destructible freight elevator, accompanied by a slow-ticking floor indicator to amp up the tension."
The latest build of the Director AI has been advanced to the point that item placement is now determined by the system, at least to a degree. Valve's Chet Faliszek had this to say about the Director.
We're always tweaking [the director], but it always had the good effect of seeing people playing through twice — they're so trained to think that what happened last time will happen to them this time, and that always comes back and bites them. It's always around the third or fourth time that they realize that you can't really count on the action happening that way. We've actually gone so far, in the newer version, where the director determines what the placement of items are, so they're spread out a little more randomly. It's meant for replayability, so that you can never rely on these sorts of events.So as to not give everything away from their two page preview for Left 4 Dead, I implore you to read up on their impressions.
Left 4 Dead is slated for release some time in November.