Are zombies to blame?

Aug 26, 2008 12:44 GMT  ·  By

I got a little riddle for you all: what's the only Zombie Apocalypse that people (well, gamers) are actually eagerly awaiting to happen? You get ten shogun shells to store in your survival kit if you answered Left 4 Dead.

The rather sad news is that, probably because of an outbreak of zombie infestation which wiped out all data from the last month of work, Valve and Turtle Rock, the developers of the zombie themed shooter, say that they plan to delay its release date from November 4 to November 20. It's actually a small delay by Valve standards but it makes us sadder than that guy in 28 Weeks Later who had to watch his zombified wife destroy a nicely put together effort for reconstructing England.

GameKings is a Dutch gaming site that recently managed to talk to Gabe Newell, Valve co-founder and managing director, and broke the news of the delay. He also said that the game is still set to launch for both the Xbox 360 and the PC via digital download service Steam. The reason for the delay is that the team wants to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the launch of Half-Life, the shooter which created Valve's reputation as a very good game developer.

Left 4 Dead is a survival action game where you take on the role of a survivor in a team of four people who must work together to make sure the zombies do not get them. The Valve developed Source engine powers the game and the action promises to be frantic, with the hordes of infected requiring both a twitchy trigger finger and the intelligence to implement some creative tactics. One of the most interesting elements is that players can jump in and play as the most evolved of the zombies present in game, thereby providing human players with a bigger challenge.