When you're interviewing Valve's self-proclaimed 'Mr Awesome', you expect some pretty forthright opinions - and not a small bit of excitement. So CVG is pleased to report that the studio's amiable Chet Faliszek offered both in abundance when we caught up with him last month.
In this Q&A;, the Valve linchpin discusses the future for Left 4 Dead - and the prospects for the DLC that's coming around the corner.
In addition, he gives us his views on industry issues - and doesn't shy away from that most controversial of subjects, PS3 development...
Would you say FPS is Valve's core style of game now? Left 4 Dead is something we all play at Valve. I'm playing Modern Warfare 2 now, so in my free time I play FPS. I mean, who isn't playing that game? We really like FPS, but there might be other stuff as well. We never pigeonhole ourselves in that way. What we like to play does feed what we work on, and we go from there.
Put briefly, what's the new Left 4 Dead DLC all about? At the moment we're promoting the DLC for Left 4 Dead 2 called The Passing, which we first showed off last year. It features characters from the first game.
But we've also got DLC coming for Left 4 Dead 1, following on from [The Passing] that tells you how the Left 4 Dead 1 survivors got there.
The whole of Left 4 Dead leaves you in a little bit of a mystery as to some of what happens - not least when you kind of see a little bit of the tail-end of the Left 4 Dead 1 story, as you get on your way to [L4D2 campaign] Dark Carnival.
With that, we actually have a comic book coming out between the two DLCs, which will help us give a little bit more of a back story to explain what's happening in the world.
Why did you decide to make DLC for an older game like the original Left 4 Dead? Wouldn't most developers and their publishers concentrate on their newest product? We said we'd be doing this last summer, and I don't think anyone believed us... We've always thought of it as the Left 4 Dead world, and having new characters and expanding that world and point of view.
I'm a big fan of the idea that once fiction is created, gamers have it in their head and it's real. I go back to when David Bowie created characters like Major Tom - he made [Major Tom's] world feel like it was real, and each song gave another version of it.
To me, that was really cool. We wanted to do that in Left 4 Dead: There are all these things going on in this world and its stories that feel real to players, so let's have them interact with one another.
Look at the Dead Rising guys, with the Frank West fiction and the bees. That fiction doesn't quite gel exactly, because Frank West showed up in a campaign - it doesn't fully make sense. We want to make all those rules [of plotline] are real to us because they're already real to the players.
Is the stuff you're working on for L4D more focused on the multiplayer? We've just recently released some stuff on the PC that will help the single-player and we have some other updates coming out as well. It will all get rolled into the DLC update [on 360]. In fact, you can have those updates whether or not you get the DLC.
With that, we're always looking at improving how these games work. So that if you're playing alone or with one or two of your friends, you'll have a better experience.
What are your early thoughts on Project Natal? I'm lazy. So I'm a little scared about something that's going to make me move. But we've had a looked at Natal behind closed doors and it's really cool.
It's bizarre: I expected it to be more smoke and mirrors. It's not. I expected to turn something on, or stand in the right place. I didn't have to do anything - it just worked. I think we all know that making things just work like that is 90 per cent of the battle. It's going to be really interesting.
Peter Molyneux's Milo is undeniably impressive - and a whole lot of time and effort has gone into it. But is it realistic to think most developers will bother putting in that investment into Natal? Hopefully we've gotten past the point of mini-games. I'm sick of 'that' [waves arm around]. I'm sorry - your readers won't be able to see that. [Leans into microphone] I'm making a bad movement with my hand. That's not a game for me anymore.
Let's get some real interaction going. We have these technologies now that let us interact in different, really exciting ways. It's developers' job to do something with it. Impress me. Don't just make shi*tty games I wouldn't want to play if I had to use a joystick. Hopefully we'll start seeing something like that happen.
If you create your own Natal game, can CVG take it that it won't feature too many party, ponies and babies? [Laughs]. We'll see. You won't have to make the arm movement of sawing off a zombie's head in some tiresome mini-game. I can promise you that.
What of PS3's motion controller? Have you a look at it? The new stuff? I've had my head down working on the [Left 4 Dead] DLC. I haven't gotten to see that yet.
Another technology that Sony seems to be pushing ahead with is 3D. Do you think it can become a real mass-market thing? We keep maturing on the way we're allowing gamers to interact with our worlds. What form the most popular ideas take will be interesting - whether it's instinctive experience like Natal or still a distractive one.
Ultimately, it comes down to games. There's always a game that does it and you go: "Oh, it feels right now." We'll have to wait and see what it is for 3D.
How about PS3 generally? Valve obviously has some interesting history there... This all gets back to [something] we've been trying to clarify. So people know we were going to come out this Fall on the PS3. We mean it - I wasn't lying.
I have a PS3 at home, I play PS3 games. We like the PS3. Down the road, sure you'll see stuff coming out from us. We just thought that the Orange Box didn't put our best foot forward with that community. We don't want to do something like that again on the PS3. We want to give PS3 owners the best possible experience.
With Left 4 Dead 2, we're updating it on the PC and we're updating on 360. We want to be able to do that on PS3 as well. Some of it is about learning from us and us getting better. Before we can go onto the PS3, we want to make sure we're better at [developing] for it.
What about E3? Will you have a big presence there this year? [Slurs] I-dunno! We kept a really good secret last year - nobody got to us, man! I'm not going to talk about it to the likes of you! [Laughs]
What about the show in general? Do you have your fingers crossed for an old-style E3 after it went quiet for a few years? I hope so, it's fun. I kind of miss not having it. GDC's coming up, and that's fun in a different kind of way. But E3's this gaudy, kind of over-the-top event. It's just fun to have.
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