 |
|||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||
Valve is about to officially release its latest gaming title, Left 4 Dead 2, and we decided to check it out. The focus of our article is not so much on game play, but rather how well certain graphics cards perform when using maximum in-game visual settings at a range of resolutions... This time last year Valve launched an unusual gaming title called Left 4 Dead, which was a cooperative first-person shooter that allowed a bunch of players to run around killing zombies. Now exactly a year later we have the sequel, Left 4 Dead 2. This game builds upon the cooperatively focused game-play of the original and uses Valve's proprietary Source engine, the same game engine used by the original.  Also like the original, Left 4 Dead 2 is set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic plague and focuses on four survivors who take on the infected. These survivors must fight their way through levels, mix together with safe houses that act as checkpoints, with the goal of reaching a rescue vehicle at the campaign's finale. The game-play is altered by an artificial intelligence engine dubbed the "Director", that monitors the players' performance and changes the scenario to provide a dynamic challenge for the players as they progress. Many of the games changes, or improvements if you will, do not come from the game engine itself. Rather Valve has just added new types of infected, melee weapons, and a story-arc that connects each of the game's five campaigns together. Given that just 12 months have passed since the release of the original Left 4 Dead game, it is hard to believe that there will be anything really new in the second installment in terms of graphics. While this is not entirely bad news, it will mean that gamers are paying full price for what almost seems like an expansion pack to us, all be it a very big one. Having said all that, the game has attracted an unusually high volume of pre-release controversy from the gaming community. Many die hard Left 4 Dead fans were upset that Valve began working on this new title right away, and felt betrayed that Valve did not deliver on all the downloadable content that they had promised. In the end Valve did promise that despite releasing a new version of Left 4 Dead, they would continue to update the original. Although personally I never got into Left 4 Dead, it does seem like a very fun game and I certainly understand its popularity. Since its release we have used this game to benchmark a range of hardware, namely graphics cards. Therefore, given that we are familiar with the performance of the original and will likely include Left 4 Dead 2 in our list of games used to test future graphics cards, we thought it prudent to introduce it with a performance article. |
|||||
|