I have a confession to make. The video you see above is my first peek of Left 4 Dead, Valve Software’s upcoming survival horror FPS. To keep the engine from looking dated, Valve added several post-processing effects like color correction, film grain, and vignetting. And as you can see, the Source engine is looking alive and well despite being four years old.

Watch more Left 4 Dead videos after the jump.

As you can see, the zombies of Left 4 Dead is nothing like your slow, shambling Resident Evil types. Indeed, this game is shaping up to be a killer. Left 4 Dead is expected to be launched on November 18th for the Xbox 360 and PC.

Post from: EveryJoe

Left 4 Dead looks like a killer

Our resident retro gaming nerd Joel recently showed us a hilarious video that just begs to be shared. It’s a clip of Max Payne from Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. It’s actually a good idea to use the second Max Payne because Finnish writer Sami Järvi’s lookalike has this permanent constipated look that doesn’t go with the dancing.

Post from: EveryJoe

So Max Payne can dance

You gotta love your PC-exclusive FPS. Aside from superior controls, longevity, and gameplay, the graphics are just topnotch. From the looks of things (pun intended), S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky surpasses the sweet visuals of its predecessor. Want proof? Just watch the video above for a comparison.

My biggest gripe about its predecessor (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl) is the total absence of vehicles out of the box. Game owners had to wait for the mod to shorten those long and boring walks. From what I’ve read about Clear Sky, the single player campaign still doesn’t have the much-desired feature. If you want to drive around Clear Sky’s huge world, you have to duke it out in multiplayer. I expect a mod to unlock this for single player, but that means we have to wait again despite this supposed “Fast Travel” system.

The good news is that all this purdy eye candy is said to run at the same system specs required by Shadow of Chernobyl. Is this true? Perhaps. Now that the prequel supports DirectX10, I wonder how it would look when running in Windows XP.

Post from: EveryJoe

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky almost looks real

The new trailer for Call of Duty: World at War is out. If you pay attention, you can get hints as to what the game’s going to be like:

• The shooter is again set in World War II (groan);
• Players can now use flamethrowers to burn their foes to a crisp;
• Interestingly, snipers can climb trees.

This sequel is being developed by Treyarch. As a result, it probably won’t be as “good” as the installments made by Infinity Ward, the franchise’s original creator. Not that the other non-IW games are terrible, mind you. They’re quite good, but are more of rental material. Is World at War merely rental material? Let’s wait and see.

Post from: EveryJoe

New Call of Duty video shows yet-to-come features

Notice anything odd about the clip? I did. Cliffy B. is looking buff and decides to show it off. So he finally got rid of the geek look. Yes, it took him years to do so even if he was making truckloads of money for the longest time.

The guys over at Game Videos decided to make an analysis video to go with the gameplay footage. It’s really helpful if you’ve never played Gears of War before, or are utterly indifferent clueless when it comes to the names of each vehicle, weapon, or alien in the game.

This video was obviously taken from an Xbox 360 (see the context-sensitive button controls?). The clip also gave us more proof that the dual analog sticks control scheme are terrible for shooters. See how the player couldn’t get a bead on the flying thingies (the Game Video guys said they’re called “Reavers”) that flew around?

Source: Joystiq

Post from: EveryJoe

Watch first Gears of War 2 gameplay video

Haggard looks very human, with his gestures and all. From what we can judge from the trailer, Bad Company (the group) seems to be a collection of misfits/antiheroes that’s fighting somewhere in Europe—at least that’s what Haggard said. Many of the things the private said seem to be confidential with the cuts and all.

Would the game have that seemingly-humorous tone when we do get to play it? It’s hard to say. What we can confirm is that since it’s a Battlefield game, there’s multiplayer. Surprisingly, there’s a single-player campaign thrown in the mix, so I’m very curious to see how it all adds up.

Post from: EveryJoe

New Battlefield trailer takes antihero approach

This one’s pretty good. I love the way the Spiker looked, and when the veteran picked it up, the weapon seemed really heavy. Have I mentioned that the video had that “documentary” vibe that gave off some convincing drama? Watch the second video after the jump.

The second one reeks of cheese, though. Have you ever seen a documentary that doesn’t use any sort of light or night vision for its cameras? According to the veteran in this clip, the damage done to a particular tree was made by a plasma rifle, but you can’t even see the hit very well. Turning off the lights in the spot where the trees are felt rather forced, and calling the Halo protagonist by his complete name twice didn’t feel natural.

Post from: EveryJoe

Microsoft should be paying me for this: more Halo 3 ads

Could this be the reason the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. lacks support?

Way to go THQ. Since patches don’t bring in the cash, might as well forget supporting the old game you’re still accountable for and try to rip off more people by making a prequel.

Post from: EveryJoe

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. gets a prequel but still suffers from patch support