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First Person Shooters (Games) Entertainment Games

New Left 4 Dead DLC Coming Next Month 55

Posted by Soulskill from the mo-zombies-mo-problems dept.
Valve said yesterday that they're working on a new campaign for Left 4 Dead, and they plan to release it in September. It's called Crash Course, and while it will be free for owners of the PC version, Xbox 360 users will need to purchase it. The new campaign "bridges the gap between the end of the 'No Mercy' campaign and the beginning of 'Death Toll' in the original game, expanding the game universe with new locations, new dialogue from the original cast, and an explosive finale." Crash Course isn't as long as the other campaigns, a deliberate decision by Valve to enable players to finish a Versus-mode game in about 30 minutes. A preview of the new content on Destructoid notes, "Since we've got a shorter campaign, much more has been packed into a smaller space. Lucky players who know where to look can upgrade to second-tier weaponry almost straight away. However, they'll have their work cut out for them, because there's a chance to get swamped by the horde right from the very beginning."
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New Left 4 Dead DLC Coming Next Month More

New Left 4 Dead DLC Coming Next Month

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  • L4D (Score:5, Informative)

    by sopssa ( 1498795 ) * <sopssa@email.com> on Wednesday August 05, 2009 @06:41AM (#28954363) Journal

    Just to note here before the bitching starts, 360 version costs because MS wants it. Good that Valve gives it for free for PC users.

    This sounds nice and comes nicely before Left4Dead2. Also shows that Valve continues to support their existing games, even for free. Same thing as with TF2. Most other companies would just had forgetten about it after release, maybe done a few bug fixes. Or asked $20 per more major update.

    Nice work, and L4D was (and still is) my favourite game on end of last year and this year.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Xest ( 935314 )

      "Just to note here before the bitching starts, 360 version costs because MS wants it."

      Got a source for that?

      There has been plenty of additional free in game content for other games in the past. In fact, even the last L4D DLC was free.

      • Re:L4D (Score:5, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05, 2009 @07:20AM (#28954671)

        Valve, and other publishers, have released free 360 DLC before by eating the cost of testing and certification.

        Microsoft requires all DLC to undergo a certification process they prescribe. It costs money to perform the testing and verification to meet Microsoft's requirements; Valve doesn't have to spend money to release the same content to PCs. This includes - amusingly - handling dependencies, which isn't a problem for Valve because Steam acts as a package manager that ensures everyone has the same platform. The 360 can't do that.

        Valve's Gabe Newell [g4tv.com]:

        On the Xbox it's a lot more complicated because you can't guarantee that people have all of the right content given their DLC model, where some people might have some content and others not, which makes it end of up with this weird, complicated thing where this person has this, and this person has this. Where as on the PC we can assume that people have everything. So, we're trying to get that fixed because they're sort of cramping our ability to push more free content into customer's hands when we aren't sure which free content they have right? And the stuff that you're allowed to require customers to have on the Xbox, it's only 8MB. That's the maximum size you can ever change. So, we do that with the first minor update that we do. We're trying to figure out how to manage that.

        This isn't a problem exclusive to the 360. PS3 certification problems have delayed DLC for Epic; Newell says Valve won't even attempt PS3 DLC until they hire more developers. Hiring developers costs money.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Xest ( 935314 )

          Valve must've known the costs before hand though?

          I understand the certification costs but the reason most people seem uptight over L4D (and why I personally wasn't keen on it after I played it a fair bit) was because it was such a small game to start with, it really felt like little more than an HL2 mod but was priced as a full priced title.

          If re-certification makes creation of content unfeasible, then perhaps Valve should reconsider the idea of releasing low-content games with the promise of providing much

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by Anonymous Coward

            Perhaps Valve should reconsider the idea of releasing low-content games with the promise of providing much content later on and go back to footing the development bill for a full sized game and waiting for the income to roll in on release like pretty much all other companies do.

            I don't know what else to say. There's no good answer to this, other than to tell you to stop patronizing Valve if you so thoroughly disapprove of their business practices.

            I can't complain about L4D, but I paid for it what I thought

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Xest ( 935314 )

              I don't disagree with your point and I did indeed cancel my L4D2 pre-order because I do no longer have faith that Valve will provide value for money and as you say, I certainly wont be buying this DLC.

              Regarding reviews though, the problem is they're not worth the bytes to download to your browser, some great games get slated, whilst crap games get high ratings. Part of it is of course subjectivity, but most reviews seem to be more about whose paid their protection money to the reviewing protection racket. I

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Ksempac ( 934247 )
        I don't know anything about Left 4 Dead, but it is a known fact that MS can fix prices for at least some of the DLC : i know the (awesome) Castle Crashers' team wanted their DLC free, but MS decided people should pay for it. Here is a proof : http://devblog.thebehemoth.com/?p=516 [thebehemoth.com] . The team even offered some MS points to counter this for their most loyal fans : http://devblog.thebehemoth.com/?p=1095 [thebehemoth.com]

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Serzen ( 675979 )
        The last DLC for L4D was sponsored by, if I recall correctly, Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell or whatever it was called. The funding for the DLC was provided that way.

    • Also shows that Valve continues to support their existing games

      As someone whose last favorite game is Duke Nukem, I can see the appeal of that.

    • That and (Score:2, Troll)

      by Sycraft-fu ( 314770 )

      Consoles cost money to develop for. That is how they make their profits. The hardware is sold at a minimal profit at most, and often break even or a loss. Money is made on game sales. Each copy sold pays a licensing fee. Now I don't know all the details for DLC licensing, but I do know it has to at least be certified, which isn't free. That's also why console titles tend to cost more. For the developers and publishers to make the same amount per copy sold, they must charge more per unit.

      The basic rule of ga

    • shows that Valve continues to support their existing games, even for free.

      You mean Valve continues to finish the game and provide the updates and content that were promised and paid for at the time of the initial purchase.

      • So some things were delayed, but it's not like you had to pay any additional money for them.

        • I didn't pay any additional money, no but my point is that I've already payed that money. The original release was woefully short - four levels not all of them playable in all modes...etc.

          I paid for a what would eventually be a full-sized game under the impression that they would continue developing it and release the content as it's available. To me this is the best way of doing things - I get something to play early on rather than waiting for the whole thing to be finished and then get the rest of the c

  • There are already HQ Custom campagins (Score:5, Informative)

    by dalmiroy2k ( 768278 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2009 @07:06AM (#28954557)

    There are a few Custom Campaigns that you should try, both for single and multiplayer.
    The first one, Death Aboard, looks like as if it was made by Valve itself. It's really polished and has probably the best final level.
    The second one, Dam It!, it's only one large level but it provides adequate challenges.
    There is also a "Dawn of the Dead (2004) remake" custom campaign coming soon

    Death Aboard.
    http://www.l4dmods.com/index.php?option=com_joomloads&view=package&Itemid=2&packageId=156 [l4dmods.com]
    Dam it!
    http://www.l4dmods.com/index.php?option=com_joomloads&view=package&Itemid=2&packageId=329 [l4dmods.com]

    Full list
    http://www.l4dmods.com/index.php?option=com_joomloads&view=packages&Itemid=2&category_id=24&orderCol=1&orderType=1&page=2 [l4dmods.com]

    • After about 3 months of ignoring L4D I tried the Dam it! mod and had a really great time. Not only was it refreshing to try a new campaign (especially one with no loading screens) but I actually found it SCARY since I didn't know what to expect around the corner. It really reminded me how much I like this game when I haven't done the maps to death. I might even reconsider buying L4D2 after all thanks to this reminder; I thought I'd just gotten tired of the premise but apparently not!

    • Behold!

      Left 4 Dead in 4kb: Left 4k Dead [mojang.com]!

      pretty cool spin-off for 4 kilobytes ;)

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by icsx ( 1107185 )
      None of these are made by actual fucking professional level designers. The custom campaigns, especially the first ones are usually full of shit with few exceptions that you just listed. I'm amazed that almost after a year since the game was released, there has been only ONE actual content update, the new survival map lighthouse. If this game would have been CS Source or TF2, there would have been lots of downloadable content aka NEW MAPS.

      They threw us the developers tools - make your own maps but only af

  • waiting for the big one.. (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    left 4 Winchester baby. the z word..don't say it

  • This will probably be an excellent campaign -- hopefully designed with all the experience and flaws of the previous ones in mind -- and I'm really happy about it being released. But I can't help feeling what this really says is "we made a conscious decision to spend as little as possible on Left 4 Dead when we have a sequel coming out, so we made this much smaller map to end our obligation to past promises of content."

  • That's nice and all, but how about fixing the fucking problems with L4D before expanding it and making another one? I'm fucking SICK SICK SICK of players (including smoker tongues, hunter pounces, and boomer barf) being blocked by the smallest obstructions, hunters literally bouncing off of other players when lunging (I once landed and STOOD on someone's head after a pounce without tackling), the unspeakably fucking AWFUL survivor AI that will sit around with it's thumb up the ass while a hunter eats your i

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ledow ( 319597 )

      Avid L4D player... haven't even SEEN most of those, let alone had them affect my gameplay.

      "being blocked by the smallest obstructions"

      Nope. Not really. Standard hitboxes etc. like any other game in it's genre as far as I can tell.

      "hunters literally bouncing off of other players when lunging"

      Er... nope... not unless the survivor hits you or you get some SERIOUS lag.

      "(I once landed and STOOD on someone's head after a pounce without tackling)"

      I'll take your word for it, but I've only ever seen this happen in

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Clay Pigeon -TPF-VS- ( 624050 )

        Ive seen some of gp's problems, but not all of them.

        Valve should fix its shit AND deliver the content missing at launch before trying to stuff a sequel down our throats for 50 bucks.

      • "being blocked by the smallest obstructions"

        Seen that. Spawned, got stuck on a rock. Couldn't move around a corner to tongue someone, until they were out of range.

        "hunters literally bouncing off of other players when lunging"

        Seen that one too. I mentioned it on here in the past - a guy landed on top of me, so I looked up and shot him. :P

        "the unspeakably fucking AWFUL survivor AI that will sit around with it's thumb up the ass while a hunter eats your intestines"

        Indeed. I've seen them jiggle back and forth while you're getting mauled, without meleeing the hunter off you, or shooting it.

        And yet when boomed, they always get the hunter off right away.

        "survivors hanging off of the edge of something when the ground is two feet below them"

        Yes. I've seen people fall 2 feet to their death. One guy got pulled out a window, but did

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kneo24 ( 688412 )

        Troll much? Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I have seen everything the GP talks about except for the narrow tank hit box.

        Small obstructions is fairly obvious. You can't vomit through a chain link fence. It's hard to vomit over cubicles, etc.. As for pouncing, well, you do get stuck on the odd siding on some building, or the extremely narrow drain pipes here and there.

        Hunters sliding off of people or just standing on their head instead of pouncing is fairly common. It tends to

      • By "small obstructions" I mean very minor objects on the ground or protrusions from walls that stick out two inches. I've seen boomer barf stopped by these protrusions even though there was AMPLE space around it to hit the player.

        Nope, I've seen the bouncing off people when pings were all under 100ms and even in LAN games where the highest ping is 8ms.

        Um, you really haven't played with the AI, have you? I've seen hunters pounce players and the AI sits around shooting random little zombies for 10 secon
  • I sold my copy (360) of left4dead immediately after l4d2 was announced. I enjoyed the first one, don't get me wrong, but it didn't take long for me to realize it was severely lacking. Asking $60 for it was akin to highway robbery... The demo was free and it comprised one quarter of the full game. The L4D2 announcement was a bit of a slap in the face, imo. a shooter with 6 guns...two of which are merely more powerful versions of themselves. Is that a joke? Seriously -- how could anyone *not* feel let down b

  • This reminds me of Token from south park

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