My “Trigger Happy” column In this week’s Georgia Straight is a look at Bellevue, Washington developer Valve, the publisher of such games franchises as Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Left 4 Dead.

Doug Lombardi was informing and interesting as he explained how he thinks the company has been so successful in the business. I mean, if you look at the games they’ve released, Valve hasn’t ever shipped a stinker.

The developer and publisher Valve has made itself one of the video-game industry’s success stories by doing the opposite of what might have been expected of it.

Also this week is my review of Left 4 Dead 2, which expands on what I revealed after spending the day playing the game with the likes of designer Kim Swift.