Left 4 Dead News

Valve 'accidentally' leaks the earliest Left4Dead prototype, and it was a Counter-Strike mod all along

Valve didn't just update Half-Life for the game's recent 25th anniversary. It also spruced up Counter-Strike 1.6 to take advantage of the features and changes added to Valve's 1998 masterpiece. Yet in doing so, Valve seemingly inadvertently opened the door to a fascinating slice of gaming history – the first prototype of Left 4 Dead...
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Left 4 Dead could've had player classes—but the game's co-lead put his foot down: 'no, that is the wrong way to go'

Left 4 Dead has stood the test of time, more or less—and while there hasn't been a peep from the series in years, that's more down to Valve weirdness rather than a sign of a lack of interest from players. Half-Life was galactically successful, and we're all still waiting on a third game. Someday, Gabe, someday...
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Left 4 Dead was "broken," former Valve and Half-Life dev says

Left 4 Dead is one of the greatest - if not the greatest - co-op shooters ever made. From its revolutionary 'Director' AI that personally tailors the ebb and flow of each game around you, to its wonderfully vivid cast of survivors, all characterized by the trademark Valve wit and economy of writing, even today, L4D feels more modern than many of its FPS contemporaries. As Half-Life turns 25 years old, one former Valve developer, whose credits include Portal, Half-Life 2, and CSGO, discusses the creation of Left 4 Dead, explaining how, despite its wonderful, seamless playing experience, beneath the hood it was "such a broken thing."

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Left 4 Dead's first internal playtest was so disastrous, Gabe Newell asked its lead: 'Why don't I just play Counter-Strike instead?' then 'made me watch him play it'

Chet Faliszek, the lead on Left 4 Dead—who is now making his own retro sci-fi version called The Anacrusis—says that Gabe Newell had some pretty strong opinions on the game during its troubled development...
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Turtle Rock's next game may be another Left 4 Dead spiritual successor

Turtle Rock, the team made up of veteran Left 4 Dead developers, specialises in creating co-op shooters. Its first project, Evolve, wasn't the big success it hoped it would be, but the studio bounced back with the excellent Back 4 Blood.

And now, it looks like the studio has begun working on its next project, which, unsurprsingly, is going to be a co-op shooter. As spotted by GamesRadar, Turtle Rock put up a job ad for a senior combat designer.

The role, posted on Greenhouse, has a list of requirements that include love of first-person shooters, co-op and multiplayer games. While the description is careful not to divulge too many details, it does confirm the existence of melee and ranged combat, which admittedly isn't much given Turtle Rock's history, but it at least suggests the studio's next game won't be, say, a medieval ARPG.