GT TV and Eurogamer Preview L4D - 3/1/08

Left 4 Dead was featured on the latest episode of Gametrailers TV, and Eurogamer.net has posted a new preview, interview, and 6 screenshots. The Eurogamer article is split up into two parts, a preview of L4D and an interview with Valve's VP of marketing Doug Lombardi. The preview is a fun read, and talks about the difficulty:

Valve makes no apology for kicking us off on the easiest of the four difficulty settings, and takes an almost gleeful delight that we still suck at it. It knows only too well that we'll initially screw up, wander off, and get ambushed. Valve's ubiquitous VP of marketing Doug Lombardi and "Mr Awesome" Chet Falizsek wander past now and then, smiling ruefully to themselves as they spot our rubbish tactics a mile off. But everyone does it, so that's okay. As we progress, it's more than evident that the game revels in presenting a tough challenge - particularly for those foolish enough to reject the notion of team play. If you decide to play the renegade zombie killer who strays from the herd, expect the AI director to rain zombie death. Even a couple of hours of in, there's a real sense that this was a game where you'll enjoy the learning curve, rather than get frustrated with it.

Eurogamer is the first to mention the possible name of the hardest difficulty, with Doug Lombardi saying "on the insane level only the best people finish one out of three times." If that stays true, the difficulty modes are Normal, Hard, Expert, Insane. We hope that the 33% survival rate is brought down as soon as Valve has some time to work on the harder difficulty modes. Another piece is that "you pick which of the amusing character skins you want to occupy." This should make more than a few fans happy. Eurogamer ends their preview with the following impressions:

Given we were only able to sample a small portion of Left 4 Dead, the possibilities of what lies in store when the game arrives in September position it as one of our most wanted games of the year, just as it was last year when we thought it would be out then. The quality isn't going to fade. It's one of the few online-only games that we can foresee spending stupid amounts of time playing with our friends, and if I get to blow Tom up in an elevator it'll be sweet vengeance for all the times he kicked me off rooftops in Crackdown. I hate him.

Last night at 1AM EST Gametrailers TV debuted their latest episode dedicated to Valve. They hinted at CS2, Portal 2, and Episode 3 (despite the number, L4D is the one non-sequel in the bunch). The show featured an interview with project lead Mike Booth, quoted as saying Zoey is like "Alyx's hot little sister".

The above is a screen capture at 16:35 of the show, which is a nicely shot Tank feature with the Tank running across the streets tossing a car around. Right afterwards, at 16:53, the Witch is shown going from kneeling to standing up to running off which is some of the first clear Witch footage we've seen. Over half of the footage seems to be older Gametrailers.com features, but mixed in are newer stuff so it's definitely worth the time to head over and watch the episode.

New footage and 6 new screenshots, featuring a couple warehouse shots, a look at a new part of the Cornfield level (hilltop bridge), and a shot of Zoey fighting off the fence-jumping horde with a rifle on her back. We have added the video and screenshots to our Left 4 Dead media gallery, and on top of all that community member TheDark12 has posted the eighth chapter of his ongoing L4D story, so check it out.