Lance McDonald just debunked the recent alleged leak for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.
22.11.2023 - 11:45 / pcgamer.com / Gabe Newell
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.
That's according to an interview by GameDeveloper, which outlines the horde shooter's rocky start. Faliszek recalls stumbling into his position as project lead almost by accident due to Valve's funky organisational structure where people can drift towards projects they think are interesting. He says an engineer responded to Newell with a casual: "'Well, you should just talk to Chet, Chet's kind of the person.' Like, no one ever told me I'm running [the game]!"
The only problem is, L4D's early prototypes weren't working. The game was originally imagined as an asymmetrical game with a PvP focus—four gun-toting survivors against four special infected. That would later return as the game's Versus mode, where the zombies were far more fragile. Even so, the original playtest was a disaster.
Firstly, the matchmaking system didn't work, prompting a very blunt response from Newell. «Gabe just asked me very seriously, 'why don't I just play Counter-Strike instead? That's working.' And I thought he was joking. Like, ha, ha, ha. But then he made me watch him play it, he made me sit in his office and watch and play it.»
Faliszek does emphasise that it was a pretty good object lesson, rather than a weird flex. "[Newell] says, 'No, seriously, this is every single one of your customers, asking this question right now. What do you tell them?' Like, fuck, good question."
The other problem was that the concept just didn't really work—a common problem in these asymmetrical PvP games. It's hard enough to balance classes when both teams have access to the same ones, let alone when they're playing with an entirely different set of abilities. «One really good player on the infected side could ruin the game for the other team … I thought they would play better with [Newell], and they didn't. It was a mess.»
The experience caused Faliszek to rethink the game's whole structure, though the shift itself was gradual. He calls the phrase «lone wolves die» the «knife that everything in [the game] was cut on.» There was apparently some resistance to this idea, though, especially when it came to how the special infected could screw you over if they snagged you on your lonesome.
«I remember at one point an animator at Valve telling me that we would never ship the Hunter,» a special infected that can pin you down and tear you to shreds. «Nobody will ever put up with something that can just jump on them and take them down, and you have no way to get it off. 'You need to have a quick time event! You need to do something.' And I'm like,
Lance McDonald just debunked the recent alleged leak for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.
Many of you will be aware that Left 4 Dead began as a mod for Counter-Strike called “Terror Strike.” However, it looks as though Valve accidentally released an early version of the former via an update of the latter.
Here’s the very first of RockPaperShotgun’s new weekly news liveblogs. Read more about the thinking behind them in our announcement post, if you dare.
The CEO of PC games giant Valve, Gabe Newell, is set to appear in court in the near future.
Valve's founder Gabe Newell was recentlyordered to ensure his in-court presence to testify in person for the ongoing lawsuit between Wolfire Games and Valve.
Valve boss Gabe Newell has been ordered to appear in court as part of an antitrust lawsuit filed by Wolfire Games.
Valve boss Gabe Newell has been ordered to give an in-person deposition in regard to the ongoing antitrust lawsuit filed by Wolfire Games.
Valve's CEO, Gabe Newell, finds himself compelled to appear in person for a deposition in the antitrust lawsuit filed by Wolfire Games, developers of Overgrowth. Despite Newell's initial plea for a remote deposition due to COVID-19 concerns, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington deemed his evidence insufficient to establish a particularized risk of serious illness.
Valve boss Gabe Newell is headed to court. A court order filed on November 16 (via Gamesindustry.biz) says Newell is required to testify in person in the ongoing antitrust lawsuit between Wolfire Games and Valve so the plaintiffs in the case can «adequately assess» his credibility.
Gabe Newell has been ordered to attend an in-person deposition relating to Overgrowth developer Wolfire Games' antitrust lawsuit against Valve despite his request to do it remotely.
Valve CEO Gabe Newell has been ordered to attend an in-person deposition regarding an antitrust lawsuit filed by Wolfire Games.
As we scythe our way through the PC gaming deals this Black Friday, one thing I've noticed is that honkin' big SSDs are receiving some excellent discounts. While there are great deals to be found on 2TB models and below, we're seeing some heavy price drops on some of the really big NVMe drives too.