Left 4 Dead May Get Machinima Maker Post Launch

Valve's Doug Lombardi sat down with us this week to talk on a bunch of topics including the decisions behind the creation of zombie thrill-killer Left 4 Dead and why Microsoft hasn't given up on Games for Windows Live and just moved to Steam. We also learn that Left 4 Dead, which includes 20 maps stretched over four "movies", will likely get a movie viewer down the line that will allow gamers to watch their entire game session as a movie after a playing through a chapter.

Check out our three-parter after the jump.

Mass Effect Monkey Killers Unite!

"I Love the World" of Video Gaming

If you're getting dominated in TF2, ganked in AoC, pwned in Halo 3; feeling blue after finishing MGS4 or down in the dumps because your 360 RRoD'd — or if you're just feeling awesome and want to feel even better about this crazy habit we have, which forces us to sit inside for hours on a perfectly good day otherwise, then just watch this video that ThatsMrOffDutyNinjasent us, and sing along.

This is a parody of the Discovery Channel's "I Love the World" promo, and that's the original soundtrack to which Gamers Prodigy brilliantly matched the game footage. It's fabulously hilarious and sentimental at the same time. For me, at least.

There's at least one cameo here that's in your wheelhouse ... boom-de-yada, boom-de-yada, boom-de-yada ... Everyone give the commenter to your left a big hug.

"I Love the World" Video Game Edition [hosted by CollegeHumor, created by Gamers Prodigy]

Half-Life's G-Man Gets Even More Frightening

Rooster Teeth has a trailer out for the sequel to Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles. Check it:

Now, clearly, these are production values in the upper 1 percentile, and we'd expect no less of Rooster Teeth, and I'm not gonna hate on it. But can I ask a question? How come any elected-office character in a military-genre movie has to have a condescending Southern accent?

It's like a British friend of mine once said about the stereotype of his accent: "If I am in a Star Wars movie, then I command the Death Star."

That said, I can't wait to see (and hear) where this is headed.

RVB: Reconstruction {Rooster Teeth, embedded video courtesy of Slackerchan at Gametrailers]

Dead Fantasy II: Return Of Video Game Girls Kicking The Crap Out Of Each Other

If you thought the first episode of Dead Fantasy was spectacular, you simply aren't prepared for the fan service orgasm of part two. The story so far: Tifa, Rikku and Yuna from various Final Fantasy releases are inexplicably trading blows with Hitomi, Ayane and Kasumi of Dead Or Alive fame. In the new episode of Mounty Oum's epic kick-fest—he also did Haloid—the girls go at while sprinting down the side of a massive tower, dramatic fireballs are thrown and franchise guest appearances abound. There's even a bit where someone runs on lava. It's that terribly good.

You'll notice that near the end of this 11-minute fan film, Oum teases Dead Fantasy is "to be continued." He says five more episodes are in the works, so expect a heaping helping of lady kicks in the future.

Thanks for the heads up, Dara!

WoW MMOvie Featuring Indiana Pwns

MMOvie: Installment 1 [Voig.com]

Gordon Freeman's Bro Returns In Full-Life Consequences 2

Previously, on Half-Life 2: Full Life Consequences, Gordon Freeman's bro John walked really fast and blew up the house of zombie ghosts and shot the last boss in the eye but Gordon Freeman was stepped on. In the latest installment, "What Has Tobe Done", John Freeman gets an e-mail and drives his motorcycle there and fires a rocket launcher at the boss's weak spot. Kaboom!! Wow. We thanks Kyle for setting us up the clip really fast.

Zero Punctuation Plus A Touching Love Story

Zero Punctuation [the escapist]

What If Halo Had More Blood?

Zero Punctuation Experiments with Machinima... Badly

While I love Croshaw's latest review, this one of The Witcher, I wasn't so delighted with the bit of comedy machinima slapped on to the end. It was, I hope, just an experiment and one we won't see more of anytime soon. Fortunately The Review of The Witcher has a wonderful punchline and mentions washing gimps, so I'll forgive him his indulgence.

Zero Punctuation: The Witcher [The Escapist Magazine]

If you long for the days when Fred Astaire and Grace Kelly took to the stage, dancing and singing amongst...dancers and singers...AND you happen to love the PS3 sensation Resistance: Fall of Man, then these photos are for you. Created with the help of 40 volunteers and Resistance's screen-grabbing tool, this is something really special. More pics:

Since the death of Yimo and the shattering of the Orb of Visions, the Horde and the Alliance have accepted an unstable peace agreement. However, old hatreds stand in the way of cooperation and at the same time, chaos erupts as the Lich King finally takes action.

Holy Hell, That's a Long Machinima: BloodSpell

I may have been drunk when I suggested it last night, but it's a good question. OK, maybe it isn't, but I'm still going to ask it.

Why hasn't Bungie created a tool that allows for easy exporting of in-game Halo 3 videos? Currently you can shuffle around the data that helps recreate the video, but you still need to own the game to watch a replay and the only way you can create a playable video is by capturing it yourself. I'm sure this isn't news to anyone with a copy of the game.

Wouldn't it be nice though, if they came up with some sort of tool that allowed you to take that data, run it through an engine and export it as a video file? Granted I am a technological idiot when it comes to video... and lots of other things... but this seems like it would be useful.

I started thinking about this again this morning while talking to MTV's Stephen Totilo about the upcoming Spike TV Game Awards nominations. (Stay with me here). He had asked what nominees I had selected for breakthrough technology and mentioned he liked Bungie's Saved Films tech. While I agree it's a very important new element to Halo 3 and all games, I feel like it's a bit broken.

I mean you can do that in Skate, you can do that in Tony Hawk Proving Ground. Why not Halo 3?

Keeping the data in the game creates a hurdle for those who want to use it beyond their Xbox 360. Think of the Machinima applications. Much more importantly, think of how much more prevalent vid caps would be if you could get them onto YouTube with a click of a button.

Of course this all stems from my frustration at not being able to pull a vid of me teabagging Brian Lam for you to see from my saved films from last night.

Crecente's Saved Films

A Lonely Pyro

That Was Daniel

Combine Nation: Episode One

Several people have written in to let us know that Lit Fuse Films' newest machinima is up - called Combine Nation, Zachariah Scott (the writer and director) tells us to "think Cops-meets the office meets half-life 2, and you'll have a pretty good picture of what to expect with 'COMBINE NATION'." Lit Fuse was behind the epic War of the Servers and That Was Dennis, which Fahey described as "one of the neatest little bits of machinima I've come across in a long time."

There's plenty of other stuff on the Lit Fuse site if Combine Nation doesn't strike your fancy. The higher quality versions of Combine Nation and everything else can be found over there.

Combine Nation: Episode One [Lit Fuse Films]