It’s been a while we’ve heard any news about the new DLC for Left 4 Dead and Valve has announced that Crash Course will be out September 29 2009. The new DLC will feature two new maps(for both campaign and versus) with all new finale events.
From shacknews:
Following through on its promise to deliver a batch of Left 4 Dead downloadable content by September's end, developer Valve today dated the "Crash Course" add-on for a September 29 release.
The download--free on PC, 560 MS Points ($7) on Xbox 360--brings new maps to the zombie shooter for use in Campaign and Versus. New Survival maps are included as well.
"The primary goal of Crash Course is to deliver a complete Versus mode experience in just 30 minutes, resulting in a streamlined version of the game's existing Versus campaigns," explained the company.
Though Left 4 Dead 2 is due out November 17, the company has pledged to "keep supporting Left 4 Dead 1," with more content apparently coming after Crash Course.
Yes it is true. A sequel to Left 4 Dead was announced during the E3 Microsoft press conference. This is the debut teaser shown. Also shown below is a whole bunch gameplay video from IGN:
June 1, 2009 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2), the sequel to the best-selling and critically-acclaimed co-operative multiplayer thriller.
Coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC, L4D2 promises to set a new benchmark for co-operative action games and become one of 2009's marquee titles.
"A large part of how Left 4 Dead became 2008's top-selling new IP on Xbox 360 and the PC was the custom-tailored gameplay made possible by the AI Director," said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. "With the knowledge gained from creating the original, new technology, and a passionate team, L4D2 will set a new benchmark for cooperative action games."
Set for release on November 17, the title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaw, frying pan, axe, baseball bat, and more.
Introducing the AI Director 2.0, L4D's dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players' performance. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.
Featuring new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original with more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, and maps for Survival mode available at launch.
Supported by a $10+ million marketing campaign, Left 4 Dead has sold over 2.5 million retail copies since it was released in November of 2008. Left 4 Dead 2 is targeted for release on Xbox 360 and the PC on November 17, 2009, and will be launched worldwide with a multi-million dollar marketing campaign across TV, Outdoor, and Online.
"Left 4 Dead was backed by our most aggressive advertising campaign to date, and resulted in a top 5 showing on two platforms during holiday 2008," said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. "Left 4 Dead 2 is a larger game and will be supported with even more consumer and retail advertising programs than the original."
Left 4 Dead 2 will be featured as the cover story on PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazines this month.
Valve has released the first free DLC for Left 4 Dead today. The new update contains two new versus maps, survival mode and a host of fixes(and new achievements too). It also has to be noted that Left 4 Dead is currently being discounted on Steam. You can get it for USD$39.90 now. Change list below:
Survival Mode
- New gameplay Mode
- 16 maps including Last Stand
- Leaderboards
- 7 new achievements
Versus Changes
- 2 new versus campaigns
- Fixed a case where versus team score would continue to be recalculated after the score panel was displayed
- Fixed an issue with recalculating the versus score health bonus for a player when they are rescued from being incapacitated
- Fixed being able to start a swing as an infected, then teleport to the survivors and have the claw swing hit a survivor
- Fixed a case where teleporting to the survivors would not reset the ability timer
- Fixed an exploit where you could load the chamber of a weapon with bullets by holding down the melee key
- Fixed a case where it was not possible to join a game while it was in a finale
- Fixed a rare case where listen servers would speed up the game over time
- Removed convars related to melee fatigue
- Fixed a case where infected players would get a respawn time on their initial spawn into a map
Server Changes
- Made ms_force_dedicated_server not require cheats
- Add a message when queuing a heartbeat
- Simplified setting of game mode
- Removed convars director_no_human_zombies and director_holdout_mode
- Added mp_gamemode [coop,versus,survival]
General
- Added lobby join and leave messages
Hope to get a hands on with survival mode tonight! Interesting to see leaderboards added for survival mode.
In a blog post in the Left 4 Dead blog, Zoid Kirsch from Valve posted that users will have the ability to find third party campaigns and utilise team based versus match making. And I quote:
To support the SDK, we are extending the matchmaking system to allow for third party campaigns. We will be adding extra features so players will be able to find dedicated servers running the campaigns they have installed. They will also be able to see friends playing third party campaigns, and be directed to download them as necessary. Another major feature we are planning to add to the matchmaking system at a future date is team-based Versus matching. This will allow two teams of four to locate each other and compete in a Versus match.
The regular matchmaking is also getting tweaked, no details about it other than watch out for the next blog post. The Left 4 Dead Survival Pack is due out on April 21st and the SDK should follow shortly after.
