Here’s a first look at another new Left 4 Dead 2 campaign, this one set at a spooky abandoned fairground known as Whipsering Oaks. Also confirmed is the welcome presence of a Katana. Chop! You’ll have to wade through the constant noise and artificially-inflated enthusiasm of a Gametrailers TV episode to see it, but at least it also includes Gabe Newell responding to the whole boycott thinger and dropping an enormo-hint about one of Valve’s next games. Also: Chet Faliszek talking about how they’re approaching story this time, and the appeal of merry-go-rounds in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. The video’s below.
Me, I’m just hoping TF2’s recent haberdashery indulgence spreads to L4D1/2. Zombies in hats would be wonderful.
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“But they weren’t even working on those fixes because they were working on this sequel”
What, you mean those fixes that they released already? Ok. I was pretty pissed off when I thought they were going to charge for the initial DLC, but they didn’t and after it was released I was at least content with the fact the game was “complete” in a sense. It was not anywhere near as replayable as they made out though, I can only hope L4D 2 will live up to that hype.
Was playing L4D for 3 hours this afternoon. Still great.
Un-snarky question: those who’ve disowned it; what are you playing instead?
Which “standard” is this? Wouldn’t they have had to provide good post-launch support in more than one game (TF2) for it to be a *standard*?
Valve has turned out some great games, and TF2’s post-launch support has been amazing (even if some of their updates have done more harm than good, at least they show commitment to the game). But let’s not go overboard here. TF2 is the exception to the norm. It is not Valve’s *standard*. They have never done anything like that before, and so far, they have not done it since either.
Ah, since you brought it up, let’s talk about one thing that annoys me about whingers like you. You’ve found something to attack others over, and that is so important to you that you’d never even dream of actually looking into what people are complaining about, because then it might just turn out they have a legitimate complaint, and that would completely ruin your fun, wouldn’t it? Much more fun to play it safe and stay ignorant, and just attack and bash people instead. So far, it has been stated very clearly and calmly in *every* single post on RPS mentioning either L4D or L4D2. But you’d rather be “annoyed” about “boycott whingers” than actually read their *reasons*.
What makes L4D2 different from EA Sports franchises is simple:
EA never had three high-profile employees, in three separate interviews, state that they intended to:
1: Deliver free updates after launch, and
2: That said updates would be delivered at an more frequently than TF2’s updates, and
3: that these updates would contain new types of infected, and
4: that these updates would contain new campaigns for coop and versus, and
5: that these updates would contain new weapons.
The reason why people are upset is that EA has the basic integrity to not promise these things unless they intend to honour that promise.
Valve did not. Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek and Doug Lombardi all, separately and independently stated that they would do these things after launch.
For your EA comparison to hold, we’d pretty much need John Riccitiello or Peter Moore to go out and make the same promises about one of their upcoming sports games.
EA has not done this. And that is how L4D is different from EA’s sports franchises.
EA doesn’t promise much, so when they don’t deliver much, we’re not surprised. Valve made a very clear business decision of promising some very specific things, which they then threw out the window as soon as they’d taken our money.
@Funky Badger: Hmm, I haven’t consciously disowned the game, but I haven’t played for some months. As for what I’m playing instead? Fallout 3, CnC3, GalCiv2, ToMI, Sam&Max season 1, Assassins Creed and a couple of other games. I’ve got plenty to play… :p
There’s no shortage of fun games.
@jalf: “2: That said updates would be delivered at an more frequently than TF2’s updates,” source, please.
Also, Valve did deliver updates, they just forgot 1 or two pieces of content. Just because you weren’t satisfied with the updates delivered doesn’t mean others weren’t.
@stupoider
I don’t think jalf is claiming you should or shouldn’t be satisfied with the new content for the original L4D. He’s just saying he isn’t satisfied, and he’s making note of that fact by not purchasing L4D2.
@ Funky Badger “Un-snarky question: those who’ve disowned it; what are you playing instead?”
TF2, natch.
@MacBeth
No, I didn’t go that deep. I wanted to know the definition, not it’s origins and development.
@DarkNoghri
Now I know how Ben Kenobi felt when Vader turned to the Dark Side…
Americans are SO stupid. Having said that, I have no particular problem with L4D2, but probably won’t buy it simply because I wasn’t all that keen on the first one. I still had fun with it, but the fun always came from playing with fun people, since the core mechanics were pretty simple.
I think people who start using words like “boycott”, “regret” and “hate” in this context need to go outside, as suggested above. Look into the eyes of the duck.
Yes. America bashing is so much smarter and more mature than overreacting to a video game release. It shows a great deal of class, restraint and intellect.