After spending some solid time with Left 4 Dead 2, it’s quite apparent that this game is nothing to boycott. In fact, those doing so are really depriving themselves of an extremely improved version of Left 4 Dead. I’d go as far as to say that Left 4 Dead should be boycotted, not the sequel game. Valve has improved upon the original Left 4 Dead tenfold, but is it worth the price tag?
If you have gotten your hands on Left 4 Dead 2 and have played just smidgen of the Dark Carnival campaign, you have probably heard of the band Midnight Riders. I don’t know if it’s THE Midnight Riders or just Midnight Riders, but the point is, the band is mentioned throughout the campaign as one of Ellis’ favorites. He goes on and on with his lengthy diatribes while he’s getting eatin’ up by zombies about how awesome the band is. Hell, you even get to take on a zombie climax event on one of their stages with pyrotechnics and everything!
I was recently popping around on the internet and saw a new website for the Midnight Riders seen here. The site is actually owned by Valve Corporation and is one of their 198 domains. The site is legit. We don’t know in what context yet, but it is legit. When you head on over to the site you can see that down below the riders we are given the menacing message “Coming Soon”. Is this Left 4 Dead 2 DLC already in the making? Are we going to be able to play as the Midnight Riders through the campaign? Will this be a whole new set of campaigns telling the story of the Midnight Riders and their escape to freedom? We will find out soon, and we will keep you informed at Loot Ninja.
I’m personally hoping that at least there will be a sequence of getting on the band’s tour bus only to find zombie groupies wanting to have sex with you. That would be awesome! Hey, don’t judge me! Things still work down there even if they are flesh eating zombies. I got some flesh……IN MY PANTS!
There’s a ton of big new releases today for your shopping needs. Assassin’s Creed 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Tony Hawk Ride, God of War Collection, and LittleBigPlanet for PSP highlight the show. Are you buying any the big names today? I’m definitely grabbing Left 4 Dead 2 and the God of War Collection this week. Assassin’s Creed 2 is on my “must-buy” list, but it’s going to have to wait a couple weeks until I have more time.
What about you? Which games are you picking up this week or adding to your Christmas list? Who wants to shoot zombies with me on 360?
Slice and dice machete action
Valve may have pumped the hype on it’s new upcoming game Left 4 Dead 2. Pre-ordering the game allowed us to play the demo about a week ahead of releasing it to the public. As previously reported, we waited all day on Tuesday for the game to be available. The time kept getting pushed back and people were getting anxious and pissed off. Though outwardly it could be seen as a bad move on Valve’s part, the buzz was going around and people were talking. The delays pretty much fueled the human desire to want it more.
After waiting for over 24 hours Valve finally unlocked the Left 4 Dead 2 demo at around 8:00 pm EST. After restarting Steam and waiting another 20 minutes for the game to decrypt, I was finally able to play. The demo consist of two maps from “The Parish” campaign, set in the New Orleans French Quarter. It was daytime and having been to New Orleans several times, the setting was very realistic. It even had the old corner bar with a jukebox that played Jonathan Coultan – Re-Your brains. It didn’t take long for the zombies to find us and the fun to begin. The regular horde zombies come in a wide variety and when you shoot them, they really blow apart. Lot’s of blood, guts and gore, if you shoot one in the back, you can even see their backbone.
Left 4 Dead 2 Cricket Bat
Where the hell is my Left 4 Dead2 demo?
For unknown reasons, the PC version of the Left 4 Dead 2 demo remains locked on Steam. I pre-ordered this game so I could get an exclusive cricket bat and an early look at the demo. We were told that we would get to play the demo at 2:00 pm on Tuesday Oct. 27th, then the time moved to 4:00 pm, then to 11:00 pm and then 2 am. So I set my alarm to get up at 2 am and I now learn that the demo won’t be available until later today at 4:00 pm EST. The worst part of all this, the XBox version was available at the first time posted. They got their download codes and were playing and streaming on Justin.TV all night. I’m happy for them but it sure sucks for me.
The kids love boycotts. Everyone gets together and refuses to buy a product that most people will know and love. It’s all kinds of fun. In the video game world, speaking with your wallet is the best way to get your point across to a developer and these boycotts have been popping up more often than usual this year. First it was Left 4 Dead 2, which was abandoned after some major damage control from Valve. Now, it’s the PC version of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 because of the dedicated server fiasco.
It’s that time of the year again – the big holiday push of games. On the top of my radar (aside from Dragon Age) is Left 4 Dead 2, and much like last years Left 4 Dead, Valve is giving those who pre-ordered the game early access to the demo on October 27th, at least for PC owners. Xbox Gold members can check the game out on November 3rd, and Silver members on the 10th of November.
The demo shows off the Parish level, the new boss infected, and a number of new weapons – so it should be a decent way to gauge if the new features are worthy of a new numeral slapped on the end of the games name.
Left 4 Dead 2 launches on November 17th on Steam and November 20th in stores – and those two dates can’t come soon enough.
Liked the original Left 4 Dead but thought it was missing something? Iconic zombie killing weapons like a fire axe or baseball bat? How about a larger variety in weapons? No? What about a shopping mall?
The final two campaigns of Left 4 Dead 2 have been “leaked” by a Taiwanese site, and if the above poster is any indication, Dead Center takes place in a shopping mall. The other campaign, Hard Rain, looks like it takes place in an industrial complex and there may be some sort of precipitation involved.
At any rate, a mall campaign is exactly what I wanted to play in the original game – is there really anything more awesome than killing zombies in a mall?
While Valve may be moving the franchise forward with Left 4 Dead 2, they certainly are making sure that the original game gets some love as well, announcing that the second DLC pack for the game will be released (probably) sometime in September. The new content will feature a new campaign, “Crash Course”, which bridges together the No Mercy and Death Toll campaigns. The campaign is being designed around delivering a full “versus mode experience” within thirty minutes – a nice change of pace from the current campaigns, which can take somewhere along the lines of an hour to complete, depending on the amount of rage quitting. The update also promises other small changes like item spawn balancing (whatever that means) and team wide infected recharge timers for special abilities. There will also be new voice lines for the four survivors to ensure that voice bind spamming stays fresh and varied throughout the new content.
I’m interested to see if Valve takes their new L4D2 philosophy on this new content (ie. more “gauntlet” events rather than the “hold out” type in the game now), or if this is just a bone Gabe Newell and the crew are throwing to the angered mass of nerds threatening to boycott the new game. I actually have access to a time machine and have gone forward in time to November, and oddly enough every single person in the boycott group will end up buying Left 4 Dead 2 once they see all their friends playing it. Strange how that works out, really.
Personally, I’m a big fan of the “Boycott the Boycott” group, since I will be very happy to shoot zombies on Left 4 Dead 2’s release day, thank you very much.
Update: Thanks ILikePopCans for pointing out that the PC version gets this update for free, while the 360 version is seven bucks.
Coming Soon!
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