Gabe Newell, Valve Software’s big cheese, told VideoGamer that Left 4 Dead will have a demo for the Xbox 360 and PC. According to Newell, the demo would “probably” include the Hospital level and would include online cooperative play, in addition to the single player component.

Left 4 Dead is an upcoming multiplayer FPS-cum-survival horror game developed by Valve, and it’s coming out for the Xbox 360 and PC. Unfortunately, Valve’s co-founder could not provide a release date for the demo. If you’re wondering what the Hospital level that Newell is referring to, then watch its video after the jump.

Strangely, the level looks nothing like a hospital. Left 4 Dead is shipping on November 17 for the Xbox 360, and November 20 for the PC.

Image of Left 4 Dead is courtesy of EA.

Post from: EveryJoe

Left 4 Dead demo is coming to Xbox 360, PC

Valve has acquired Turtle Rock Studios, the Orange County-based developer behind Left 4 Dead, a multiplayer coop that uses the Source engine.

The merger of the two companies extends Valve’s development team and provides the company with a new studio in southern California.

Valve and Turtle Rock aren’t exactly strangers since the two have collaborated on several projects, including a number of Counter-Strike: Source maps, Condition Zero, and the Xbox port of Counter-Strike.

“We have been seeing very strong growth with Steam and Source, our content distribution and development platforms, up over 150% over the last 12 months. Given our expectations for Left 4 Dead and our long-standing relationships with members of the Turtle Rock team, this was an easy decision. It also gives us a base from which to expand our development activities in the Los Angeles area,” said Gabe Newell, Valve’s big cheese.

So the merger is a good one. Unfortunately, I don’t see much value in Left 4 Dead, considering that there are tons of awesome Half-Life 2 mods out there. The most recent one that resembles Left 4 Dead is Zombie Panic. Unlike Left 4 Dead (which would likely cost around $39.99), Zombie Panic is free.

Post from: EveryJoe

Valve acquires Turtle Rock

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If the bad news about recent PC ports isn’t enough, then get ready for more. According to 1UP, the PS3 version of Half-Life 2: The Orange Box is having technical problems despite the supposed power that the console has under the hood.

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The most consistent issue seems to be Episode Two’s bad framerate, which bogs down during vehicular sections of the game. On the flipside, the PS3 version of Portal seems to be doing very well.

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Unfortunately, there were no details on Team Fortress 2. 1UP confessed to having server connection issues, so they were unable to spend time with the cartoony multiplayer shooter.

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Interestingly, Valve Software isn’t touching the PS3 version of The Orange Box with a 10-foot pole. Instead, the port was handed off to an internal team at Electronic Arts. It’s not really surprising, since Valve head honcho Gabe Newell thinks the PS3 is “a waste of everybody’s time.”

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Post from: EveryJoe

PS3 version of The Orange Box is “unplayable”

Why, you ask? Aren’t developers supposed to play other companies’ games if they want to make good games of their own? Of course. Just ask any marquee developer, and they’ll tell you that they play other makers’ games.

But when your office is stuck in crunch time because your team is feverishly working on a couple of games that’s scheduled for release in a couple of months, then the decision to ban one of the best shooters ever made is beginning to make a lot of sense.

Valve big kahuna Gabe Newell told CVG that they had to ban Bioshock because they need to work on The Orange Box and Half-Life: Episode Two. Sure, Orange Box may just be a compendium of the original Half-Life 2, Episodes One and Two, and a whole slew of other Valve titles, but one mustn’t forget that it’s coming out in three platforms: the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

The Valve team won’t be waiting long, however. Episode Two and Orange Box are coming out early this October (some say 9^th, others 19^th). To make up for this draconian measure, Gabe said everyone gets a copy of Bioshock.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Valve bans Bioshock in their offices

Gabe told Heise that Microsoft made a terrible mistake releasing DirectX 10 exclusively for Vista and not including XP in the mix. Why? The big kahuna thinks this decision affected the entire industry because only a small percentage of gamers can use DirectX 10.

Finally, we have an industry mover that agrees with everyone else.

The Heise article also revealed that a Valve survey found only one in fifty players that access Steam has a DirectX 10-compatible graphics card and Vista installed.

Count on Microsoft to use sneaky tactics to market their latest product, instead of actually creating a good one that would sell because of its merits.

When you think about it, the house that Bill built also did something similar with the Xbox 360—by pushing it out the door earlier than everyone else, M$ has placed itself at an advantage businesswise. There’s just one problem: the product fails 25 to 33% of the time.

Make no mistake, the 360 is a well-designed console (ahh, those spiffy menus!). On top of this, the games library is arguably the best among the other consoles. However, that 33% might be happier if Microsoft focused on coming out with a product that’s also stable.

Now if Vista were the next best thing since sliced bread, there won’t be any need to make DirectX 10 exclusive to Vista, would there?

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Post from: EveryJoe

Gabe Newell hates Vista