Some rather big Left 4 Dead news. This September will see the release of some brand new free DLC for the original game. Called Crash Course, it’s designed to link the end of No Mercy to the beginning of Death Toll, primarily intended to be played as a Versus map that will apparently take half an hour to play through. Valve also say the new free content will be set in new locations, feature new dialogue from the cast, and have what they call “an explosive finale”. More details and the new poster below.
The new content will also be playable as Survival maps (maps plural, according to the announcement) and as a Co-op campaign. It is apparently planned to be a “streamlined version of the game’s existing Versus campaigns.” And there’s some new additions to how the game plays, described like this:
“A recharge timer for infected teammates has also been added, and item spawn behavior has changed for more balanced gameplay.”
The announcement continues with Valve boss Gabe Newell adding a few not particularly related thoughts.
“Since the release of Left 4 Dead last November, the design team has been excited about creating new experiences for this world and allowing players to do the same, by releasing much of our internal toolset, like the Survival Pack and Authoring Tools. We’re working with the fans toward the ongoing entertainment value of the product.”
If you look at the poster, you can see a crashed helicopter. This would presumably be the chopper that rescues the four from the roof of Mercy Hospital, and explain how they then end up at a broken bridge in the middle of the woods at the start of Death Toll.
Will this placate the furious masses who are enraged at the forthcoming Left 4 Dead 2 this November? It certainly demonstrates that Valve are continuing to release new content for the original game despite the proximity of the sequel. Hopefully people will be delighted to hear news of brand new free content for the 2008 game. (And not, for instance, conspire that this is created since July to appease angry mobs and other such unlikely theories).
It’s completely free to PC users (while our console brethren are charged $7 for the 360 download). No more details are given at this point, and no more specific release date than “September”. We’ve emailed Valve to see if we can find out more, and will let you know what they say.
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Corion said: “Why did this take them a year?”
It hasn’t. We already have had a very substantial update in April, less then 4 months ago. Sounds like a reasonable quick update, considering they are working on a sequel as well.
A little confused by the length like others. I expect it will be a slightly shorter campaign, although I don’t think it will be only one map. I would guess it will be 2 (quite long) or 3, possibly one of those being a finale.
Hopefully, this will be a pattern they will be replicating with some more updates, so 2 more. I think an additional 3 campaigns, even if they are curtailed, along with the few extra survivor maps that this will bring too is plenty of extra DLC before a full on sequel.
@Flint
I certainly hope they DO make “in between” campaigns for each “gap.” I don’t think it’s likely, and I can’t speak for anyone else, but that’d certainly be sufficient to convince ME that Valve was still Valve.
@PleasingFungus: I’d probably have put it differently, but whoever you quoted is technically correct. This still isn’t what Valve promised. They’re not off the hook just because they’ve now delivered 10% of what they said they’d deliver. ;)
But hey, it’s more L4D content, that’s a hell of a lot better than not getting more L4D content. :p
I for one, am looking forward to playing it.
Why do you bother posting when all of your readers are worthless idiots =[
Heh, maybe i’m overly cynical but didn’t they remove the bridging sections of the campaign missions before the release of L4D? It seems to me that this is just polishing up and releasing those sections finally…. it’s like getting a directors cut of a movie, complete with deleted scenes.
Sweet, more L4D is always good.
On a side note… Gogamer.com is selling L4D2 for 20% off if you pre-order now for the next day or so… so it’s only $40 in the US. Are any other places doing this? Do you think Valve will have a better deal than that?
Meh. I’m bored with L4D.
Where’s HL2 Episode III?
I so much love Valve. I can not wait to buy L4D2. And I am totally not payed to post this. I am just mindless fanboy that would defend anything that is advertised good enough.
@ Duoae: iirc they wanted to use long cutscenes as an intro to each level to connect the campaigns to a whole storyline.
There should be some lines about that in the ingame commentary.
@Duoae
It was my understanding that they’d originally intended to connect the campaigns, but hadn’t ever actually designed the interstitial material that would do so. I think these ARE original work, or at worst work cleaned up from an alpha state, though I may of course be wrong.
Don’t startle the boycotters!
This streamlining sounds interesting, a mini campaign in one map? Will have to wait i guess.
How dare Valve release a free expansion for a game that everybody likes? Capitalist bastards.
This was created since July to appease angry mobs!!!
Well colour me impressed. Good news, this. But unfair that they’re charging 7 quid to console users though, isn’t it? I guess this is some kind of microsoft thing that they can’t get round.
Hooray, more free stuff, the angry internet men sound more like spoiled little brats really.
“we expect everything to be free, valve must work for no profit to appease us”
So much hostility, so much trolling, and almost entirely from the side that claims NOT to be angry. It’s fascinating, really.
@Heliocentric
“Don’t startle the boycotters!”
ROFL ;)
Why, Vinraith, how passive-aggressive of you… ;)
According to the commentaries, They’d originally planned cut-scenes/intro-movies before each campaign, but realised they’d slow things down to much so junked them.
More stuff good. Costing monies on XBox, bad :(
To those who said that whining would accomplish nothing – at least we got a little more of what was promised to us by Gabe pre-launch.
I think the most fun I’ve had with L4D (which I still play every week, even if only for a few hours) is all these new user created campaigns. The aforementioned Death Aboard is easily the best of them (on rev 6.1 if I’m not mistaken) and Dam It! is quite enjoyable as well, even if just one big map. There are a few more that are almost ready for prime time (standouts being the brutal Powerstation, the quite enjoyable newly released Heaven can Wait, the darkened simplistic Mortuary, the moonjumping of Jungle Crisis) and some others that are still WIP but have great ideas (Zelda, NightTerror, and quite a few Resident Evil takeoffs just to name a few). I’ve seen more thought and innovation in these user created levels than were in most of the campaigns that we got from Valve and that’s a WONDERFUL thing.
I’m still miffed I was lied to but, as usual with Valve, the community takes up the slack admirably and produces content quicker and sometimes better than Valve themselves can. /rhetorical Does that make up for the unfulfilled promises? /rhetorical I’m still having fun with my purchase, and more fun with their content, so let the good times roll for L4D while they do. Even if I only play with the 3 of my friends that have it, that’s good enough for me.
I might not be as trusting as I used to be and Valve’s brand name is absolutely tarnished in my eyes but, as life seems to do often, I can turn to the Simpsons for clarity. Homer has an idea stolen by Moe the bartender and Moe is making a mint off of his “Flaming Moe” drinks, earlier known as the “Flaming Homer”. His bar/pub is packed whereas before it was only a few drunkards that spent their time and money with him, even if they were there every day and supported him through the hard times. Homer is attempting to express his displeasure by telling Moe he just lost a customer, but Moe can’t hear him over the sound of the constantly ringing cash register and mutlitude of other customers at his now happening joint. Cut to a dejected man alone outside while everyone else is having a great time inside. FIN
@Funky Badger – Sadly I can only be baited for so long before I crack. It’s a character flaw.
@Markoff – The fan boys will never give credit to the boycott for motivating anything. They’ll claim, regardless of circumstances or evidence, that Valve (kind and loving gods that they are) would have done everything they’ll do between now and L4D2’s launch with or without the criticism.
Regardless, this isn’t going to change any minds. The boycotters feel they were promised significantly more than this, the fan boys feel that no one was really promised anything and will buy whatever Valve puts in a box regardless of how they’re treated.
Oh, and that Flaming Moe analogy is spot on for how I feel as well, I’ll have to remember that.
Pills here!!!
@Duoae:
Like people said, they originally intended for cut scenes to connect the campaigns together, playing an intro before each one (like the opening cinematic all ready in the game). This was cut because this forced people to sit through the intro and veteran players quickly got tired of it.
I wish I had gotten to this thread first so I could’ve done something cool like posting “how dare Valve charge for this!”. Oh well, I’ll still get to enjoy new content.
Vinraith may not be the most diplomatic guy, but he’s no more antagonistic than the people he’s responding to. And he’s right, the only reason the boycott even came up was that people started complaining about it. Knowing that there are regulars here who are boycotting. That’s a far sight more trollish than anything Vinraith’s done here.
Anyway, awesome news, I like new stuff. I also think it’s worth rereading the exact wording of Valve’s announcement; they say the update contains a co-op campaign and survival maps, but that it’s primary goal is to deliver a 30 minute versus experience. At no point did they say that was all going to be done using the exact same maps. Given Valve’s penchant for vague press releases, I wouldn’t make any assumptions just yet as to how much or how little content this is going to contain. It might be more than we think, it might not.
It’s also interesting that it’s going to be free on the PC but cost money on the 360; I’m in no way particularly fond of sticking it to the console players, but it does show that Valve is willing to use a different pricing model for the two platforms. That raises interesting possibilities regarding the pricing of L4D2.
Good news, but shouldn’t they really be concentrating on the sequel? There was a hilarious AIM at the Thinkposium last year who kept on yelling stuff about Eve Online. Maybe we should air them in public a bit more?
Also the tagline “Crashing will be easiest thing they do today” is unbelievably bad. Change it, please!
I like killing zombies. Who else likes killing zombies?
@jonfitt
Too right. Zombie killing is a good thing, new content is a good thing, I’m sure everyone can agree on that much.
Everyone, give it a rest. Any more posts discussing a fight that people aren’t even having will get deleted. Stop provoking each other.
New content: Yay.
Wishing I actually had some people to play L4D with. I played it like three times (single-player) after buying it on sale, haven’t touched it since.
The Colonel – Hear hear! We won’t stand for cheesy taglines in a game, modeled after (oftentimes cheesy) zombie movies, that itself is knowingly cheesy and doesn’t take itself too seriously. ;)
@invisiblejesus
My understanding is that Microsoft pretty much requires DLC on their console to carry a price. Somehow Valve managed to work around that with the Survival Pack, but presumably they’ve been unable to perform the same magic with this (or possibly that deal was contingent on future DLC carrying a price tag, who knows?).
I agree that while I have no use for FPS’s on consoles it doesn’t seem reasonable that console players should get stuck with a $7 bill for something that’s free for us. They’re already getting hosed/hosing themselves by not having access to community made content.
Oh, and thanks for the support, I’ll be the first to admit I irritate far too easily when I’m being actively baited. I’ll endeavor to keep it in better check.
@Scandalon
One thing I’d really love to see, either retconned into L4D1 or failing that in L4D2 (hell, this is something that’d gurantee I’d buy L4D2, everything else be damned) is better allied AI that’s capable of taking basic orders. Frequently I can only find 2 friends online to play with, and we find ourselves either having to carry an AI or a random stranger. None of us is overwhelmed by either option, but the friendly AI will systematically ruin any strategy one takes because it simply will not stay where you want it to. Something as simple as a “stay here” order would be invaluable, for all that more sophisticated options would be nice.
It jumped back into L4D after a long time away, and I admit it’s a bit annoying how many of the maps have known exploits. And unless you play the game with friends, you either have to go looking for a game where they’re aren’t using exploits or tag along.
@Vinraith: I’m aware of how 360 DLC works, I wasn’t supporting putting the screws to XBoxers. Beyond that I don’t wanna get into it and add to the boycotters vs. non-boycotters flames.
Got deleted being moderate. Eh… I also said something like, “i am excited for this content” so i guess that’ll do.
As an aside, who expects l4d learning in episode 3? Picture it a rush of antlions or something beautifully animating over rough terrain and thus the game can have non linear\wide open maps because the pace generated by the enemies keeps up.
By the way, anyone have any idea what they mean by a “recharge timer for infected teammates”? I don’t follow.
You know, I’d love Valve even more if one of them just came out and flat out said
“You know what, enough of this crap, no more free updates, you buy the game that is what you get, we might do paid DLC – some may think that we’re biting the hand that feeds us, but you know what, I think we’ve been feeding you just as much and you’ve bitten us plenty.
Also, you know what? We know you’ll still buy our games, you know you’ll still buy our games, and we both know why – Because we make good, if not great games – You get more value out of our games than almost anything else on the market, and we still gave you more, and you still complained. So no more.
Think left for dead 2 is too short? Don’t but it – A quick look at our left for dead stats shows the average player got more than 50 hours gameplay out of it [or whatever]… plenty value.”
Or you know, something along those lines.
Then again maybe it’s just me that wishes Devs and community managers would get a bit more blunt and less apologetic with complainers.
As Yahtzee so eloquently puts it, “Fans are clingy complaining dipshits who will never be grateful for any concession you make. The moment you shut out their shrill tremulous voices the happier you’ll be for it.”
Yay, more L4D content. Especially drop in versus – might fill the hole that survival aimed for, yet completely failed to satisfy.
Here’s hoping they do a “community maps” styles thing with it too, like they did with TF2.
I don’t think its at all implausible to suggest that this is Valve trying to placate their fanbase after being caught aback (much like game journo types were) by the reaction to the L4D2 announcement. I also don’t think if true this is in any way a bad thing. It shows that Valve do understand and care that their reputation helps them sell games and that they have to put work in to maintain that repuation.
Well, if this is any good, then it’ll shut up THIS boycott member. My complaint all along is that they went back on their promise of new campaigns as L4D DLC, so if they fulfill their promise then I can’t really complain can I?
I’ll play this, and in likelihood enjoy it, but it being about half the length of a regular campaign does make me think it was made solely as a response to the sequel backlash.
What? The L4D episodes are supposed to have a logical story behind them?
I though they were just made like action movies independent from each other, I never realized that it was a continuity.
Thats weird.
Also, 30 minutes to finish the new map? It will be only 1 map, not an 5 map episode? I wont spend 7$ for 30 minutes…
this sounds like a thing they put together in 5 minutes with l4d2 left overs in the hope of shutting ppl screaming about the lack of content up
Yay, yay and more yayness! To be honest a versus game that lasts half an hour will fill a niche that L4D needs to fill in its options for the player, gearing itself to a more pick up and play mindset. Cool.
If it’s valve news, it’s good news
CMaster you make a good point. A less cynical version of my own opinion, I suppose.
I would like to voice my dislike that at the same time Valve has been taking groups of journalists to private screenings of the game, buttering them up for positive PR. I also dislike that game journalists seem to either be complicit or oblivious to this apparent conflict of interests.
If I were invited to Valve’s offices and got to hang out for a few days with the hardworking, friendly, passionate folks designing these games, I certainly would have a more difficult time being vocally critical.
That doesn’t mean we don’t need independent, tenacious, heartless critics. We need them more than ever. I think that is why Yahztee is so popular. He provides a carthartic release for consumers who have had to deal with paying $60 for mediocre and terrible games they were recommended by gutless, merciful reviewers.
I want to know how *terrible* a game is, and why I should spend my hard earned money on it anyway despite its many obvious flaws.
Sorry… tangential rant. :\
I think they mentioned in the developer commentary that they originally planned on having the continuity between the movies, but they dropped the idea because it discouraged testers. (“Yaaay, rescue is here, bam, chopper gets shot down, and you start on the next episode”)
It’s been a while since I played through the commentary, but I’m pretty sure they even mentioned they had the cutscene and everything for when you finished No Mercy (iirc, it originally ended with the pilot turning out to be infected)
They preferred to end the campaign on a happy note, with the survivors actually getting rescued.
Don’t know why they changed their minds. (The cynical part of me suggests that perhaps they just needed a quick fix to appease angry L4D customers — and picked up one of the almost-completed ideas they were bouncing around before release.)
You mean like… my dad can beat up your dad?
yutt – all developers show their games pre-release to journalists in private. Valve just sits you in front of the game until you’re done.
However, unlike many companies, Valve has allowed the public to play the same content at both E3 and ComicCon.
The reason the coverage has been positive is because the game is very good. There is no conspiracy.
New content, yay!
On the other hand, I almost don’t care at this point. All I want from Valve is a ginormous patch full of bugfixes. I’m sick and tired of vomiting/exploding on people and not having it connect. Of pouncing through people. The list goes on. Please fix the bugs. Gah.
On the other other hand, I saw this brought up at Shacknews, but not here in my quick scan of the comments: Are those MP5s that Louis and Bill are holding?