Left 4 Dead Delayed until November

Left 4 Dead is being released in November even though it was originally scheduled, albeit unofficially, for a summer release date. It ain't good news, as the zombie survival epic from Valve is at the top of my list of things to play on the PC that involve shooting and a bit of scary things (it really seems that scary games are all the rage these days, with imminent releases of games like Alone in the Dark, the new Silent Hill or Dead Space).

The reason for the release delay is that the developers would like to do a simultaneous release for both the gaming platforms on which the game debuts, the PC and the Xbox 360. Initially, Valve only developed a PC version of Left 4 Dead, a game that is based on a mod for Counterstrike, but then an Xbox 360 version was also shoved in the development pipeline. Rather than do a staggered release, Valve decided that it should push back the release date to November, to make sure that both versions were great when launch day comes.

Doug Lombardi, of Valve, said: "So the game is pretty much playable all the way through right now and as we've done with most of our games, we get to a point where, it's playable all the way through, there are some issues that we need to work on, and we try to add more time to the schedule to have as many people as possible play the game, to make sure that it's approachable to players of all skills."

Left 4 Dead pits 4 survivors of a zombie holocaust against hordes upon hordes of the undead, as they navigate through buildings and open space in a quest to reach a safe zone from where they can be picked up. The game relies heavily on team play and cooperation, as none of the characters can stand against the zombies alone. The novelty in Valve's approach to the theme is that some players will get to play the zombies, or more accurately some of the more developed zombies, pitting their wits and the abilities different zombie types have against the human survivors.