Video Games
Valve Accidentally Releases ‘Left 4 Dead’ Prototype for ‘Counter-Strike’
Alongside the 25th Anniversary Update released last week for Half-Life, Valve also gave Counter-Strike a fresh coat of paint with its own update. However, in doing so, Valve also gave Left 4 Dead fans a bit of a present in the form of the first prototype of the co-op zombie shooter that originated as a Counter-Strike mod.
Per X user Gabe Follower, Valve’s update for Counter-Strike, which gave players the ability to “support many of the features from the Half-Life 25th Anniversary update”, also included the earliest form of Left 4 Dead: a mod which was referred to as “Terror Strike” when it was in development.
Gabe Follower went on to say that a user named “The One Epicplayer” was able to port the zombie_city map and did the bot navigation mesh, giving Counter-Strike players the additional treat of being able to see what Turtle Rock Studios had come up with during their brainstorming in the mid 2000s.
The mod goes like this: The terrorist with the bomb must make it to the house and plant the bomb. All the while, they have to deal with zombies (or the Counter Terrorists in this case), which will respawn after being killed. Once the bomb is planted, every zombie will respawn and a horde will come for the terrorists. The terrorist team must endure the horde by killing all of the zombies. The round is won when all zombies are killed while the bomb is planted.
To see the mod in action, check out the video by YouTuber ilovethevopo. And if you’re interested in checking out the mod yourself, you can snag Counter-Strike for dirt cheap right now until November 28th.
Valve accidentally compiled and pushed earliest Left 4 Dead prototype called "Terror Strike" into the latest CS 1.6 update and community figured out how to play it. pic.twitter.com/llVkYCip69
— Gabe Follower (@gabefollower) November 23, 2023
The rumoured cuts at Xbox have come to fruition, with plans to lay off 3,200 employees. In addition, five studios are also set to be let go, with Double Fine and South of Midnight developer Compulsion breaking off to go independent, while Ninja Theory (Senua) and Undead Labs (State of Decay 3) have been sold.
The fifth studio, Marvel’s Blade and Dishonored studio Arkane Lyon, is set to be divested from Xbox Game Studios, though details are still being kept under wraps.
Per Xbox Wire, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma confirmed the layoff and divestment plans at Xbox, but announced no plans for closures or game cancellations.
According to Sharma, Xbox is operating at “margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses.” Sharma acknowledged Xbox’s previous pivots to Game Pass, multi-platform, and a “broader portfolio of content” have resulted in “meaningful value”, but it hasn’t been enough.
“Since 2018, we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio while the number of games created each month across the industry now outpaces the last ten years combined,” she said. “We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios. It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio.”
As a result, Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions “will return to management and transition to independent studios with their IP, catalog, and runway for their next games.” Meanwhile, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs “have entered terms to join new ownership with funding to complete and grow Senua and State of Decay 3.” As for Arkane Lyon, the studio’s management “is beginning required consultation with its Works Council to review potential strategic options.”
The 3,200 cuts will be made throughout Xbox’s financial year across departments, with some areas being more affected than others. This is expected to affect around 20% of the developer’s workforce.
In addition, Bethesda will also undergo “a significant overhaul”, and will pivot to focus on its core franchises: Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein. None of our first party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions.
“These changes are about a bigger future for Xbox, not a smaller one,” says Sharma. “The next decade of gaming will be larger, more global, and more creative than anything we’ve seen before. This year, we’ll invest as much in Xbox as we ever have, but we’ll invest with greater focus, greater discipline, and greater clarity, all in service of making Xbox where the world plays and creates.”