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E3: ‘Left 4 Dead 2’ Hands On Thoughts
Reset and I had an opportunity to stop by Valve’s private show room at E3 and get our hands on Left 4 Dead 2, which arrives for the PC and Xbox 360 in November. We got to play the first two sections of the campaign, “The Parish”. Hit the break to see how it measures up to the original.
The visuals have been greatly improved and the controls have been tightened up. One of the first things I noticed was the amount of detail that went into visible damage on the infected. Dismembered infected will continue to pursue you until you put them down for good.
The controls feel much tighter than original. There were a few new features we were able to try out in the demo. One was the introduction of melee weapons. I grabbed a frying pan and Reset grabbed the fire axe. The fire axe was pretty effective at chopping through the infected, but it swings slowly, whereas the frying pan was fast, but didn’t really do any damage. All the guns we were able to use were the same as the original but with redesigned look.
One new feature for the weapons is incendiary ammo. These bullets will light the infected on fire. You will have a very limited amount of incendiary ammo, but it will definitely give you an edge over the infected. A new special infected was introduced in the demo as well, the Charger. It looks an underdeveloped Tank in overalls. This guy is fast. True to his name, he will charge full force at you and knock you to the ground giving the rest of the infected a chance to gang up on you. The Witch now walks around while she is crying making it even more difficult to sneak around her.
Bottom line is L4D2 is fun. They took everything you loved about the original and improved upon it. The new content fits right in and doesn’t feel out of place. I loved every moment of it. Words really can’t do it justice, it is something that just has to be experienced. L4D2 will be hitting stores this year Nov. 17 and I will be counting down the minutes until I get chance to play it again.
Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for his role in 1993’s Jurassic Park, has passed away this week at 78 years old. In a statement shared on Neill’s Instagram page this morning, the actor’s family said that his passing was “sudden and unexpected.”
Neill had been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2022, but stated the following year that he was in remission. The family notes that he “remained cancer free” at the time of his passing.
The family statement reads, “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.
“They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
In addition to his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in the original Jurassic Park and the sequels Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion, Sam Neill left an indelible mark on the horror genre with memorable roles in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, The Omen: The Final Conflict, John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, and sci-fi horror favorite Event Horizon.
Sam Neill’s vast resume in film and television began in the early 1970s and also includes the films Sleeping Dogs, Enigma, The Good Wife, A Cry in the Dark, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Hostage, The Jungle Book, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, The Horse Whisperer, Bicentennial Man, Daybreakers, Escape Plan, and Thor: Ragnarok.
Sam Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.
Steven Spielberg said in a statement to Variety, “I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him.”
Spielberg adds, “Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”
Sam Neill in ‘Event Horizon’
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