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!
Here at Loot-Ninja, we are firm believers in the EOP policy. That’s Equal Opportunity PWNAGE.
The following Chat Log was sent in by one of Loot-Ninja’s astute readers, AVTWVIOC.
Chat Log:
br0kenrabbit: hi
Greg_ValveOLS: good evening
br0kenrabbit: What’s ip?
br0kenrabbit: up?
Greg_ValveOLS: my name is greg a member of the valve online Support team
br0kenrabbit: On MSN?
Greg_ValveOLS: yes
br0kenrabbit: Why?
Greg_ValveOLS: we logged multiple ips from your account and need to
verifi your information
br0kenrabbit: My information?
Greg_ValveOLS: we believe someone may have stolen your account …. you
havent shared youre account infomation with anyone have you?
br0kenrabbit: No. I don’t even have it written down.
Hit the jump for more
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.
Valve isn’t one to shy away from the modding community. To kick it up a notch, they’ve updated the Source Engine SDK with the original source files for ten maps from Team Fortress 2. You can play around with the original assets from Lumberyard, Ravine, Badlands, Dustbowl, Granary, Gravelpit, 2Fort, Badwater, Goldrush, and Hydro.
This is great for the map creation and tweaking community on the PC. You now have the tools to see exactly what Valve did when creating the maps. Get downloading and make some more awesome shit.
At E3 while checking out Left 4 Dead 2, I had a chance to talk to a few of the game’s developers at Valve. Amongst questions about the game, I snuck in a bit asking why Valve won’t develop for the PS3. It’s not because they’re a small studio, it’s because the PS3 is too complex. Game designer Tom Leonard had this to say:
The PC and the 360 are just more straightforward. We can focus on what we want to do, which is make game experiences, instead of sweating bullets over obscure architectural decisions they make with their platform. [...] I didn’t come into this business in the 90s because of some technical fetish. I came in because I wanted to give people experiences that made them have fun.
That’s not to say the PS3 doesn’t have some fun games, but Valve chooses to take the route of less resistance. And with Sony saying the PS3 is intentionally hard to to develop for, Valve might have a point. But I think they’re choosing the Xbox 360 because of the similar architecture and coding as PC gaming, which is their bread and butter. Either way, don’t expect Valve games to grace your PS3 anytime soon.
Acronyms all over the place here, but it’s well worth it. Valve announced that upcoming the upcoming Survival Pack for Left 4 Dead will be completely FREE on both the Xbox 360 and PC. If you just wet your pants, I’ll let you change.
Ok, now that your pants are dry, it’s time to hear what’s inside. The free DLC will include a new multiplayer game mode, Survival, as well as two complete campaigns for Versus Mode (Death Toll and Dead Air).
I’ve gotten away from L4D recently with other games calling my name, but this DLC will certainly bring me back. What about you? I don’t want to hear any excuses, it’s free.
It’s amazing to me how simple some games appear to be, but are filled with so much enjoyment that I want to play the game all day; Left 4 Dead is one of these few games. On the surface the game seems like another zombie shooter where you run around and attempt not to die. However, when you look deeper… well that’s really all it is. But it’s not the overall idea of the game, the originality of the game, or the streamlined effects of the game; it’s how the game as a whole is actually played. The co-op feature is what drives Left 4 Dead, and what, in my opinion, makes the game a home run.
The graphics aren’t anything too crazy; lots of zombies and dark maps, basic guns, lots of empty rooms. The story is interesting because it’s not really a story, it’s supposed to be portrayed as a movie where you play the four characters. The story is basic; survive from the beginning to your escape vessel; fun (thumbs up). Further, there are four different stories, which you can play in any order, and they are each a little different, and a little harder than the others. Now the graphics might not be anything to shake a stick at, but the music and sound effects, at times, are. The game works very well with a surround sound system, and the music tones, and slight cries allow you to know which zombies are around you. For instance, if a witch is nearby (and you do not want to mess with her), you can hear her crying, and figure out which direction she is in, therefore which direction you should go. Each of the special infected characters has a distinct sound, or music, which allows you to prepare and watch out for them.
Coming Soon!
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