Road to Oz #1 Review

If there’s something as synonymous with The Wizard of Oz as Dorothy, Toto, and the Wicked Witch of the West, it most assuredly is the yellow brick road. In Road to Oz, Dorothy wanders away from her Kansas farm with a shaggy old man and gets lost when the road inexplicably splits into 16 different paths. The fabled yellow bricks don’t show up, but once the duo set out on one road at random, you can be sure it will lead to another wonderful adventure in the land of Oz.

Eric Shanower adapts the classic L. Frank Baum book with the same grace and care he put into the past four Oz adaptations. The narrative delivery is clear and light, and while certainly geared towards younger readers, anyone would be hard pressed to not enjoy the telling. There are times when the story moves onward without considering the consequence of the characters’ actions, but that could be attributed to the carefree nature of the protagonist, the ever-kindly Dorothy. Shanower uses different dialects for Dorothy, the shaggy man, and another new character named Button-Bright, instantly making them feel unique and full of life. Even Toto’s got some attitude.

Giving this story its fantastical signature look is Skottie Young. His settings are as simple as they are breathtaking. He has mastered the idea of “less is more” and uses it to great effect throughout the book. Just as masterful are his beautifully rendered characters, who laugh and look sad and get angry in the most captivating way. Young’s Dorothy could give any Pixar character a run for most endearing cartoon character ever.

Joshua is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter or IGN, where he is hell-bent on making sure you know his opinion about comic books.

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PAX: Disney Epic Mickey 2 -- Be the Hero You Want to Be

Choice and consequence play major roles in Producer Warren Spector’s design for Epic Mickey 2. This was something downplayed in the original, having what Spector referred to in an interview at PAX as “choice and consequence light,” but with Epic Mickey 2 the goal is to put forward he and his studio’s design manifesto: playstyle matters.

“The key is asking players, ‘How do you succeed? What defines a hero? What makes Mickey a hero for you?,” said Spector, “and then the way this is exactly like every other game I’ve ever done is that I hope you have no idea what I think or what our QA department or design department thinks defines a hero, because the only thing that matters is what you think defines a hero.”

Indeed, during the short demo it became readily apparent the way that you will define what Mickey is to you. For instance you might come upon a point where you have two routes to get to the same place, one involving enemies and the other a rigorous platforming section. The combat route gives you a lot of options: you could wipe out the enemies with thinner, subdue them with paint, or even use your various abilities to distract them and sneak past. The platforming route could be a big challenge if you want to maintain the world, or you could maybe use your thinner to saw a tree in half and make an easier route.

It’s one thing for Epic Mickey 2 to give you multiple ways to get through the story, to play it your way, but what makes it special to Spector is that it records and responds to your previous actions -- something he should be familiar with considering he helped create the original Deus Ex games. Major choices will present themselves throughout the story, such as one moment during the demo where Mickey and Oswald had to choose to either subdue a bunch of enemies with paint or destroy them with thinner. The toons in town wanted them destroyed, but a ghost named Ian appealed to Mickey and Oswald for mercy. Destroy them and the toons in town will help you out. But Ian? Well, that'll be the last you'll hear from him (sparing the nasty enemies will net you a friend that will come back time and again). The point is to make your choices really matter, but without telling you in some sort of Karmatic system that you're doing the right thing. No matter what you'll be getting the good ending since, after all, you are Mickey Mouse, but it's the bits and pieces of the ending that'll change. Spector likens it to the ending of Star Wars: A New Hope, where Luke Skywalker appears with a number of other important characters. No matter what you'll be earning medals, but as for who will be standing on stage with you? That's for you to decide with your actions.

Choices are being monitored, even the ones that are less obvious than the obvious moral dilemmas and those involving multiple characters. Take for instance if you're the type of Mickey who constantly uses thinner to wipe out your enemies and cut out portions of the environment. In this case Epic Mickey 2 will intuitively start throwing more enemies at you because the game's trying to respond to what you are showing you like to do. Even the music starts to respond to your actions, with players who use a lot of paint and play more passively experiencing flutes and a more full soundtrack, while players who use thinner will experience a less lighthearted soundtrack with fewer instruments. The thinking is this, if you're cutting out portions of your visual landscape, why not have the soundtrack respond and present a lessened audio landscape as well? Most people won't even notice this in all likelihood, but it's an awesome bit of flavor that could make your choices stand out a bit more in Epic Mickey 2.

Another aspect of being the hero you want to be involves using your imagination in unprecedented ways. Mickey and Oswald have a number of tools at their disposal, such as an anvil you can use to smack enemies or a TV you can call down to distract them with cartoons. "It's all about you deciding how to use your tools in the context of our little simulation to accomplish things I hope the designers never even intended," said Spector, at which point his QA tester showed me how internally they use the TV and anvil combination to create an impromptu two-step platform to reach places they otherwise wouldn't. "Oh my god," Spector uttered, launching into a whole tirade about how players used explosives in Deus Ex to climb out of the game world. He isn't embarrassed by people figuring out how to break his game, he embraces it. "Stuff that's a bug for most developers is gold for Junction Point," said Spector, "People have already done things that are impossible in this game...and that's great."

"If gamers can really wrap their minds around playing a mouse for 20 hours...the kinds of choices you're making are different, and the kinds of consequences and tone are different from Deus Ex, but the gameplay? If Deus Ex fans don't see the gameplay depth in this game, then they're not paying attention," said Spector. The hope is that Epic Mickey 2 won't simply be perceived as a children's game, but a game for everyone. Something you can play as an adult and enjoy the way so many of us do with Sonic or Mario, and now on our platform of choice since, unlike the first game, it's expanding beyond the Wii market. Whether or not it succeeds in this regard we'll just have to wait and see when Epic Mickey 2 releases November 18th.

Anthony Gallegos is an Editor on IGN's PC team and doesn't believe something cute has to be only for children. You can follow him on Twitter and on IGN.

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Henry Winkler Returns to Arrested Development

"Don't get too close to me. 'Cause I've got an itch you can't believe. I think something laid eggs on me."

Yes, THR is reporting that Henry Winkler will be back for a handful of episodes on the new season of Arrested Development - coming Spring 2013 on Netflix!

Winkler will be reprising his role as Barry Zuckerkorn, the insanely incompetent family lawyer for the Bluths. Winkler even recently tweeted: "I am supposed to be memorizing an Arrested Development scene with Maybe for today … don't tell anyone I was here OK?????"

Winkler also recently tweeted out a picture of himself with actor Scott Baio, who plays attorney Bob Loblaw (of Bob Loblaw's Law Blog), from the set!

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Special Forces: Team X -- An Attempt to Breathe Life into Old Ideas

When it comes to talking about shooters, calling the market "crowded" is an understatement. If you want to make something that can compete with the likes of Call of Duty, Battlefield, Counter-Strike or any other numerous established shooter franchises, it's not enough to make it cheap or even free. Alongside a price point that makes it attractive, you need a hook -- some sort of innovation or series of innovative twists on what's come before -- to stand out.

For Zombie Studios next game Special Forces: Team X, the hook comes from the fact that it's a less-than-serious, third-person, cover-based shooter with a cool take on map design. Sure, cover-based shooters have been partially explored on the Xbox thanks to Gears of War, but virtually not at all on the PC, making it a much easier genre to become a potential competitor in. Combine these mechanics with Special Forces: Team X's sub $20 price tag, and you have what could be an attractive alternative to players looking for a cheap, multiplayer-only option in the genre Gears so firmly established.

Let's just get all of Team X's similarities to Gears of War right out of the way. It puts a similar premium on utilizing cover. Battles don't boil down to who can rush in and get themselves killed the fastest, but who can play methodically, out-flanking the enemy team. Moving between cover is crucial, and Team X gives gives you a very roadie-run-like sprinting ability that lets you press on enemy positions. You can also vault and blind fire from cover and you have recharging health.

Now that that's cleared up, let's focus on how Team X mixes it up, namely by tossing in elements from Call of Duty. Just like COD, Team X gives you loadouts, and you unlock new gear for your loadouts based on your level, which is raised by killing people, completing objectives -- you know the drill by now, right? As you level up you'll unlock new weapons for your two weapon slots, new perks (called Skills in Team X), as well as a host of options for changing your appearance. Weapons can be further customized with attachments, but Zombie has intentionally made it so you only have to worry about a few items and stats, rather than the slew of options that were in their last game, Blacklight: Retribution. The point of this isn't too think too much about how to best min-max your loadouts stats, but to put things on that sound fun and then see if they work. Since it's not a free-to-play but rather a single transaction, you don't have to fret over whether or not you want to pay to rent or buy items, either.

One really cool thing that Team X does different from its competitors is its map generation. Instead of launching with a few pre-made maps, Team X lets players vote on the map layout before each match. Every map is composed of three segments, and to vote you simply swap out the segments until you find a combination you like. Then, after the timer counts down, Team X counts which map sections got the most votes in which slots and generates the level accordingly. This results in a few things that could make Team X a lot of fun to play. First of all, it's a great way to keep you on your toes, since this means that you can't simply learn a map in its entirety, but instead have to learn the ins and outs of sections, and then understand how they'll play off one another when next to one another. Second, it makes voting on each round feel more exciting, because you're not just picking between two maps that you might not like, you're actively participating in the design of the level -- albeit on a very basic level. Third, it means that Zombie Studios could roll out new map DLC at a fast rate if Team X does well, since the team only has to create single segments at a time rather than entire maps.

Other standout features in Team X could also help differentiate it. For instance you can play traditional modes like team deathmatch and king of the hill with two teams, but Team X also allows as many as four separate teams against one another at a time. Or if you don't like to use grenades as your method for breaking someone out of cover, you can also bring dogs into the fight, sending them at your attackers to kill them or provide a distraction while you flank your enemy.  Even the Skill system in Team X tweaks the standard formula a bit, with some Skills giving area of effect bonuses to your teammates instead of only benefiting you. These group-focused skills are important, too, because they encourage you to stick together -- something particularly important in a cover-centric shooter.

With so many generic shooters or blatant clones releasing in recent years, it's nice to see a studio attempt to innovate on established formulas. Whether or not this will bring success to Special Forces: Team X, though...well that remains to be seen. At least we won't have to wait long, since Team X is slated to release on XBLA and PC before the end of the year.

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Star Wars: First Assault Domain and Trademarks Registered

LucasArt's parent company has registered trademarks and domain names for something titled Star Wars: First Assault.

Originally spotted by Fusible, the domain names include the likes of StarWarsFirstAssault.com while the trademarks apparently pertain to "interactive entertainment software", including video games, for use on both computers and mobile phones.

There's also the standard array of supporting merchandise, including pencil sharpeners. The discovery of the First Assault domain and trademarks echoes what happened when Star Wars 1313 was first uncovered before its E3 announcement. The question becomes, then, whether this title is a new franchise set in the Star Wars universe, or if it builds on a previously known series.

There's not much we can guess from the name alone, though the possibility of it being an aerial combat game along the lines of Star Wars: Rebel Assault shouldn't be ruled out. The name certainly suggests an action packed game that seems unlikely to focus on the Jedi as playable characters, though how this would be differentiated from the bounty hunting exploits promised by Star Wars 1313 remains to be seen.

But there's also a sliver of hope that this may be the long-awaited reappearance of Star Wars: Battlefront III. We heard reports earlier this year that the title was still in development since being canned after the studio behind Timesplitters, Free Radical, closed.

Until LucasArts chooses to reveal more, all we can do is speculate. For all we know it could be another Kinect-based title, but with rumours rife that Star Wars 1313 is in development for next-gen machines, could this perhaps be LucasArts last hurrah on this batch of consoles?

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and was named after a certain famous Jedi. Probably. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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Borderlands 2 Original Soundtrack Details Revealed

Something Else Music Works has announced the Borderlands 2 Original Soundtrack. The album features 23 tracks in all and includes music from composers Jesper Kyd (Assassin’s Creed, Darksiders II) and Cris Velasco & Sascha Dikiciyan (Mass Effect 3), as well as additional music from Gearbox Software’s Raison Varner.

According to Something Else, “the soundtrack fuses multiple music styles which capture the multi-faceted personality and thrilling co-op action of Borderlands 2 as players storm through the world of Pandora and its dynamic art style."

The full track list is below:

1. Ascent (Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan)
2. Ash (Jesper Kyd)
3. Caverns (Jesper Kyd)
4. Glacial (Jesper Kyd)
5. Crater Lake (Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan)
6. Dam Interior (Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan)
7. Dam Top (Jesper Kyd)
8. Fyrestone (Jesper Kyd)
9. Hyperion (Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan)
10. Ice (Jesper Kyd)
11. Interlude Combat (Jesper Kyd)
12. Interlude Ambient (Jesper Kyd)
13. Lynchwood (Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan)
14. Lynchwood Sheriff Combat (Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan)
15. Main Menu (Jesper Kyd)
16. Jack Final Boss (Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan)
17. Pandora Park (Jesper Kyd)
18. Sanctuary (Jesper Kyd)
19. Bandit Slaughter (Raison Varner)
20. The Fridge (Jesper Kyd)
21. Tundra Express (Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan)
22. Warrior Boss (Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan)
23. Vog Fight (Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan)

The Borderlands 2 Original Soundtrack is currently available for pre-order on Amazon and will hit stores on September 18th, the same day as Borderlands 2. For more on Gearbox’s upcoming sequel, check out our hands-on impressions from E3 and our interview with Gearbox co-founder Randy Pitchford about the game’s downloadable Mechromancer class.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

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Why eSports Are Like Dubstep and Pro Gaming Isn't For Gamers

There’s something in the air at the World Championship Series StarCraft II Oceania Finals at the Australian Technology Park. It is, in fact, the roof of the Australian Technology Park. Or was, rather. 100km/h winds had blown a section of it off the converted locomotive workshop earlier.

But there’s definitely a buzz down here, and it’s not just the iron sheets above us vibrating as they cling to the roof while the gale outside tries to peel them off like a stubborn nether-hair from a bar of soap. People seem excited. Excited about StarCraft II. They’re sitting in clusters fixated on the big screen while a man brings around platters of tiny chicken schnitzels on tiny pieces of toast. The crowd is small today, but it’s a Friday. The show isn’t open to the public until tomorrow, when we’re assured things will get a lot more boisterous. All 600 tickets for the event were snapped up inside of 11 minutes. Tomorrow the crowd of people cheering on a man in a small glass booth playing a video game against another man in a different glass booth will be a lot larger and louder.

Larger. Louder.

There’s very little about this experience that would seem real to your everyday everyman. It barely makes sense to me. I’m watching two people I don’t know battling against one another on a video game I’ve never played. The commentators aren’t called commentators, I can’t quite figure out why everyone is cheering and I don’t actually understand what anybody is talking about.

This must be how my wife feels when I play video games at home. Or perhaps a more potent example would be what my sister feels like when she watches cricket. She doesn’t understand the game and she doesn’t understand the rules.

Two of the expert StarCraft II shoutcasters brought in to provide commentary for the event, Nick ‘Tasteless’ Plott and Dan ‘Artosis’ Stemkoski, laugh when I confirm with them they don’t know anything about cricket.

“No, we don’t!” says Plott. “Basically our jobs are to try and make that as accessible as possible to a viewer like you, for instance. We’re just trying to translate, ‘Okay what’s this guy trying to do? What’s this guy’s dilemma? What’s the other guy’s advantage? We’re there to navigate the viewer through the experience so they can enjoy it.”

Thus far I’m still working on volume. When the commentators start shouting I figure something exciting is happening. Plott and Stemkoski are the commentators I’d know all about if I knew anything about StarCraft. The pair are currently based in South Korea.

“

[In South Korea] if I say I’m a StarCraft commentator that doesn’t require an explanation.

“Out there,” says Plott, “if I say I’m a StarCraft commentator that doesn’t require an explanation. If I say I’m a pro-gamer that doesn’t require an explanation. They did a poll a few years ago where they asked young Korean boys, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ and the number one response was professional gamer.”

“We live in this world where it one of the most watched things on TV, completely culturally accepted. It’s not a taboo, it’s not weird and there’s an ecosystem there that supports it.”

Peter Neate is 31. He’s from Brisbane. For three years, however, Peter Neate lived in South Korea and everyone called him Legionnaire.

After qualifying for the first World Cyber Games main event in 2001 Neate found himself in South Korea.

“I went overseas to Seoul in Korea and I was the only Australian to win a match,” says Neate. “They set up a show match afterwards and I was the only one to win versus a Korean pro-gamer. They offered me [a chance] to stay, just out of the blue. I really did not expect it and I didn’t really understand just how big professional gaming was in Korea at the time, so I turned it down.”

“I did a bit of research after that; I started playing a lot more. The next year, WCG came around again, I qualified, I went to Korea, I extended my Visa out for the full three months and I just went around trying to play as much as I could. We got very fortunate, I was there with another Australian... we got picked up by a sponsor a couple of days before our Visas were to expire.

“We were sponsored for three months and we played non-stop. At the end of the three months there was a big tournament – 512 players I believe – in Korea and I went through to the top eight where I got noticed by one of the professional teams. I became friends with them and they asked me to join so I leaped at the opportunity. From that time on I spent three years playing professionally in Korea.”

Neate out of retirement for another crack.

Neate illustrates just how hardcore South Koreans are about eSports.

“Back then they had an event down in Busan, the second largest city in Korea,” he says. “They did a custom built stadium, on the beach; they brought the players in on rafts, up onto the beach.”

“There were 90,000 spectators. So if you think about that, it’s like an AFL Grand Final. That many people were turning up just to watch a computer game.

That’s Australian Rules football, for non-antipodeans.

“It’s amazing,” Neate continues. “It’s really hard for people who haven’t seen anything like it to understand how big it is. In Korea, it is considered a sport; it’s a real sport, it’s the fourth biggest sport in Korea after soccer, baseball and basketball I believe.”

Neate retired after three years, conceding many players stay in the scene for longer.

“It’s a full-time job over there, so a lot of Koreans stick with it for a lot longer,” he says. “For me it was long enough. I’d done everything I’d wanted, my brother was getting married and I’d never actually met his fiancé because I’d been over there for so long. I’d had a lot fun, I’d travelled around everywhere and I just felt it was time to move on and get back to normal life.”

Normal is probably not a term you’d apply to the life of fellow finalist Andrew Pender. Pender has a nickname for his nickname, but that’s not what makes his life so fascinating. No, it’s because Andrew ‘mOOnGLaDe’ Pender, or GLaDe, quit his job to play StarCraft II eight to 12 hours a day in the lead up to this tournament.

Pender’s first real-time strategy game was the original StarCraft.

“As that went on Brood War came out and I continued to play during high school and I stumbled across pro gaming on the Internet, and I thought that was an amazing thing at the time,” he says. “That was the thing I wanted to be as a kid. Pro-gaming; it sounded so amazing.”

Dream job(?)

“From there after StarCraft I jumped into WarCraft III as fast as I could and started competitive playing there in the hopes that one day I could be a pro gamer, but at the time it was only a hobby. For six years I was competitive playing WarCraft III and I managed to travel around the world for it and do rather well, nothing too amazing, and then StarCraft II was on the horizon so I quit WarCraft III, worked for a couple of years until StarCraft II came out and then pretty much put all my time into StarCraft II and tried my best to go pro gamer with it.

“Basically from there I started to do very well and I joined a pretty good team and I managed to travel around the world with a salary and make some money and some fame and do pretty well. For the last two years I’ve just been travelling around the world for StarCraft II.”

The prospect of being paid to play games might be a tempting one for many. It sounds like the perfect job for someone who loves games. However, one of the more interesting things is how few games pro gamers actually play.

“If you’re a pro gamer you’re probably only playing StarCraft,” says Plott.

Stemkoski agrees; he spends his free gaming time playing StarCraft too.

“Yeah, it’s definitely mostly StarCraft,” he says. “I find that I’m so involved in StarCraft, I enjoy it so much that I find if I have some free time I don’t necessarily want to pick up a PlayStation controller. I want to go and play some more StarCraft. There’s a reason why this is the biggest eSport; it’s because it’s the best game.”

Pender tends to avoid other games too.

“

I used to play many, many games before I became a professional gamer. Once you become a professional gamer it’s a lot harder to just jump on another game.

“I used to be a gamer, he says. “I used to play a lot more other games; I used to play many, many games before I became a professional gamer. Once you become a professional gamer it’s a lot harder to just jump on another game.”

“In the back of your mind you’re worried that it’s going to affect your StarCraft, or your mouse movements or whatever. But that’s not really the main reason I don’t play many other games. Currently I don’t have time for it, and when I do have time for it I kinda don’t want to be in front of the computer, more than anything. I like to do physical things. Anything but be on a computer.

“I do love exercising. I do a lot of boxing; not so much the getting hit in the head, but the training for it I really enjoy.”

There are other misconceptions about pro gaming.

Though probably not ones shared by these rabid fans.

“I think that the biggest misconception about pro gamers and especially about this industry as a whole is that it’s a bunch of geeks or nerds or something like that,” says Stemkoski. “We have such a diverse line-up of humans that play this game and complete professionally at it.”

“We had people that worked at McDonalds, we had people that were bodybuilders, we had people that play basketball, just every type of person. There are dog catchers that turned into professional video game players. This is not something like some of these other sports where, ‘Well, you have to be born this tall to do this’. No, anyone can do it.”

So where to now for eSport? Speaking to GamesIndustry International at Gamescom Riot Games co-founder Brandon Beck believes that the popularity of eSports could grow to the point where video games are actually played at the Olympics.

“We don't have our sights set on replacing soccer right now, but we definitely think that eSports has a place as a large, important, mainstream competitive activity,” he said. “I fundamentally believe that eSports will be an Olympic event in my lifetime.”

Plott and Stemkoski stop a few miles short of anything as monstrously optimistic as this, but both agree eSports are on the rise.

First, you win the StarCraft. Then you get the power. Then you get the women.

“It’s gonna take some more time,” says Stemkoski. “Some places are starting to catch up, like China and Germany, and to a lesser extent Sweden. These places are starting to get more and more there. You need to get the word out, you need a lot of tournaments, and the more that you have the more people will see it and the more it’ll be in the news.”

Plott picks up from Stemkoski.

“The way I would look at it is, are you familiar with dubstep?” he asks. “So like, dubstep started out in the UK and it’s actually been around for a long period of time now. Imagine the UK is to dubstep what South Korea is to eSports.”

“

Imagine the UK is to dubstep what South Korea is to eSports.

“They had the right club scene, they had the right attitude; progressive, electronic music was taking over there. Nowadays everybody knows what dubstep is right, but it just took time for it to catch on. If you imagine video games as music, I feel like eventually there’s just gonna be a point in time where this is kinda a genre of gaming that’s just gonna take over everywhere.

“I mean, two years ago this was so niche outside of South Korea it was mind-boggling how long it took me to explain to anybody how big my job was. Now I’ve ping-ponged all over the globe, we’re going to Germany right after this, and I would say I don’t know whether it’s going to be two years, five years or 10 years, it’s gonna be a genre of gaming. “

Looking at just how heavily the likes of Black Ops II are becoming geared towards the competitive player, I’m inclined to agree. It’s not going to matter if you or I are interested or not. Enough people are.

I leave to find the foul weather has knocked over a tree just outside the building. If a tree falls in the park and everyone is inside watching two men play StarCraft II, does it make a sound?

Apparently not.

While veteran Peter Neate’s tournament was ended early, Andrew Pender came in as runner-up in the Australian National championship and was the overall winner of the Oceania Finals the following day. He and his fellow finalist will advance to the StarCraft II World Championship Series Global Final at the Battle.net World Championship in Shanghai, China in November.

Luke is Games Editor at IGN AU. You can chat to him about games, cars and other stuff on IGN here or find him and the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.

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Left 4 Dead 2: Cold Stream Review

You know that feeling when you jump into a pool that’s heated to the perfect temperature? Swimming around feels like something you should have been doing your entire life, and it’s just plain wonderful. Cold Stream, Left 4 Dead 2’s new community-created map turned official DLC, is much less like its frigid namesake and much more like a soothing warm-water swim. It feels just about right.

You know Left 4 Dead 2. You know how great it is. You still shoot hundreds of zombies, co-op style, on your way through a series of maps to get to a safe point where you can rest and reload. Special zombies like the Spitter and the Hunter are still around to screw with your plans, Tanks will still ambush you at the worst possible moments, and setting off car alarms still draws the horde to the location of your oh-so-tasty brains.

So, you’ll likely still have a great time with Cold Stream. It’s a competently put together new campaign, and definitely scratches that new Left 4 Dead itch. But, there’s just something missing. It lacks the usual magic that Valve games tend to attain. I’ve been struggling to put my finger on exactly what it is, but it’s honestly fairly difficult to say.

Perhaps it’s the lack of new voice work for the campaign. The map’s creators very cleverly put together old dialogue to estimate more or less what it would sound like, but it’s just not the same.

Perhaps it’s the slightly uneven difficulty. In Valve-designed maps, you constantly feel one step ahead of death. The zombies bear down on you, and you barely survive each encounter. Those moments exist in Cold Stream, but they’re definitely not common. And when they come, they come with fury. There’s a moment early in the campaign where you’re forced to fight your way down a raging deluge of water, all the while fighting off zombies. It sounds thrilling, but instead it’s far too chaotic and far too difficult.

Perhaps, even, it’s notable lack of witches. It seems like a not-so-huge deal at first glance, but I really missed the moments of turning a corner and finding myself face-to-face with one of the terrifying she-devils. The air seems lacking in tension without her cries echoing in the distance.

None of this is to say that Cold Stream isn’t very good. In fact, quite the opposite. It’s still Left 4 Dead 2, and shooting, chopping, and chainsawing your way through is still just as much fun as ever. The new four-map set is varied, well-designed, and definitely gets the job done. It’s just not up to the level of the game’s other campaigns.

For the Left 4 Dead veterans, however, the true value of the DLC lies in the re-release of four campaigns from the original game. Crash Course, Death Toll, Dead Air, and Blood Harvest are back, along with Zoey, Louis, Bill, and Francis. I know right? I missed those guys too. Plus, you get to play with the new toys that Left 4 Dead 2 introduced, like melee weapons and the ever-useless defibrillator, all in an attempt to survive the new Special Infected that seem to have invaded the old areas. Fresh!

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What You Won't See in Assassin's Creed III

In December 2010, Ubisoft created a video that represented its ambitions for Assassin's Creed III - something known as target footage. Creative Director Alex Hutchinson insists that developers should always aim for exactly what they intend to ship, never over-estimating their capabilities or falling short of their own expectations. Hutchinson presented the Assassin's Creed III target gameplay render during his GDC Europe Keynote, and it was almost indistinguishable from what we've all seen from the near-finished game. In just a few short minutes, it establishes traversal and combat animation routines, the hunting mechanics, jumping through trees and climbing any cliff. But it isn't exactly Assassin's Creed III; a lot has changed along the way.

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For a while we took the bow out of the game

"Some of the notable cuts from that footage include the idea of scalping," Hutchinson explained. It was something that was "historically defensible", but in the context of gameplay it was too gruesome and didn't serve much purpose for the character. For a while the bow was taken out of the game, too, because it wasn't historically supported enough to give Ubisoft the confidence to include it. Additional research eventually gave Assassin's Creed III's development team enough evidence to include it. There was originally a hook-blade as well, an extension of one of Ezio's tools, which you'd throw it at enemies to pull them toward you. "People on the team kept saying 'Get over here!' every time they used it," said Hutchinson. He took it out of the game, but a version of the device stayed in Assassin's Creed III -- you can hook enemies to yank them up tree branches.

Philadelphia was prototyped for Assassin's Creed III, but ultimately cut because "it just wasn't very much fun." Hutchinson said Philadelphia is "very, very flat, it's very, very rigid. The streets were too wide." It also would have represented the first "planned city" in the series -- Philadelphia was built on a grid, unlike the more unpredictable nature of past settings. Instead, Philly is a town you'll visit in cutscenes rather than suffer through in gameplay.

When it came to creating a main character, Hutchinson wanted a hero that could hang with Altair and Ezio. "I believe, even as someone who didn't work on [Assassin's Creed II], that Ezio is one of the best characters in games." Connor, therefore, had to be as iconic as Ezio and Altair. He was always intended to be Native American -- "We didn't want to make Mel Gibson from The Patriot fighting for America, nor did we want someone fighting for king and country -- but he wasn't always the guy we know now.

Early concepts deliberately went to artistic extremes. The "full on eagle outfit was never going to fly," Hutchinson said. In that particular image, Connor was decked out in wide-spreading feathers and had an an animal head for a hat. Ubisoft concepted him in all sorts of animal skins as well as minimalist robes before ultimately settling on subtle cultural twists on a classic white robe.

Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He’s also quite Canadian. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

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