By John Walker on September 4th, 2009 at 9:48 pm.
Valve plans to reveal the latest globules of Left 4 Dead 2 information at this weekends PAX festivities. Having previously shown off New Orleans’ Parish level, and mucky antics in Swamp Fever, Penny Arcade’s gathering will show the world the extra creepy-sounding Dark Carnival.
As if the words “Dark Carnival” don’t conjure enough nightmarish thoughts, the new ‘uncommon common’ announced is the Zombie Clown, which has to be about the most concentrated form of evil imaginable until they reveal the Zombie Tax Auditor. They’ll only appear in the Carnival campaign, apparently, and the fewer places they appear the better. Eek.
There’s also a new Boss Infected joining the gang, The Jockey. It’s a bit vague at the moment, but it seems he’ll be able to physically move an attacked Survivor, whether it’s to drag them into the middle of a crowd of Infected, or indeed to drop them off a cliff. Disappointingly he’s not a four foot horse riding man, but instead a really rather ugly fellow. Poor thing. I imagine he only wants to be loved. And they’re showing some more of the melee weapons to be found: a machete, some stupid crappy deal where you get a baseball bat if you pre-order the game from the right shop (um, Steam?), but rather brilliantly, an electric guitar. I speculate, but I feel fairly certain this will make an excellent twanging sound when used.
There will inevitably be more details over the weekend as the PAX inhabitants spew forth their sights.
04/09/2009 at 21:58 Amqz says:
Zombie clowns… has that been done before?
04/09/2009 at 22:00 lumpi says:
Hah, “The Jockey” sounds crazy! Those guys got ideas, I give them that.
I’m still disappointed with their decision on doing a half-assed (oh-no-you-boycotter-internet-man-it’s-full-assed-not-half!!!!) sequel so quickly, but whatever…
04/09/2009 at 22:02 linfosoma says:
I think that they have worked hard in making this game different.
That said, it is exactly that what I don’t like about this new game. The additions, like the melee gus, the new infecteds, the clowns and worst of all, the music are not my cup of tea.
But I think that Valve did a nice work with L4D, I played it again after two months of Killng Floor and I was surprised with the quality of the game.
Anyway, I really hope they leave this fanchise and contiue to focus on their previous IPs in the future. I want a Portal 2.
04/09/2009 at 22:04 Little Green Man says:
I thought there was a recent post on Offworld with piccies of the Clown and the jockey. Here we are. DON’T CLICK IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE! http://www.offworld.com/2009/09/paxs-dark-carnival-screenshots.html
04/09/2009 at 22:16 haircute says:
I wish they would call it something else besides Dark Carnival. Sounds like some kind of Insane Clown Posse thing and I just don’t want to think about them anytime I’m doing anything.
04/09/2009 at 22:28 Stupoider says:
Looks fantastic. I can’t wait to play this! :)
The Jockey and clown uncommon infected look fantastic, btw.
04/09/2009 at 22:37 abhishek says:
Can someone explain exactly what uncommon infected are supposed to mean? Are they basically like any other common infected except their model appears rarely? Or is there anything actually different about them?
04/09/2009 at 22:41 James says:
Uh-may-zing poster! That is all.
04/09/2009 at 22:44 qrter says:
Those zombie clowns made me groan. Not impressing me here, Valve..
04/09/2009 at 22:45 Phill Cameron says:
All clowns are either sinister or depressing. Sometimes both, never neither.
04/09/2009 at 22:48 Fumarole says:
Zombies + clowns = sheer terror.
04/09/2009 at 22:49 Stupoider says:
Were you expecting zombie teenagers, employed at the park to operate rides, qrter? I welcome the addition of zombie clowns. I can’t see the down side to them.
04/09/2009 at 22:52 Lobster says:
The Uncommon-Common, are regular zombies themed to the campaign, that have a speacial abillity connected to them. The infeced Riot Cops are bullet proof, the CleanSuit ones are immune to fire, the MudMen crawl under the water and mess up your vision when they attack and the Clowns make noise when they are alerted that attracts every nearby infected.
04/09/2009 at 23:01 James G says:
Hmm, now I have Pink songs stuck in my head, and I’m not even a fan of Pink.
04/09/2009 at 23:43 DD says:
I can see that jockey guy adding alot of awsome moments into the game if they carry people away. scary…..
04/09/2009 at 23:46 Serondal says:
you must be this tall, TO DIE! I LOVE THAT!
04/09/2009 at 23:49 GuiSim says:
Meh.. I liked the “seriousness” of the first L4D. It had this awesome ambiance.
I’m not impressed either :-/
04/09/2009 at 23:49 Torgen says:
“the Clowns make noise when they are alerted that attracts every nearby infected.”
When you put on the nose, it grows! HONK!
Squeeze the wheeze, everyone wants to…
04/09/2009 at 23:54 Funky Badger says:
Zombie clowns?
I just shat yself. Thanks oh so very much Valve.
At least there’s no FRIKKIN HEADCRABS this time.
05/09/2009 at 00:18 Lilliput King says:
Hooray for the new boss infected. Add plenty more of those and this may be worth buying.
05/09/2009 at 00:26 DarkNoghri says:
@Serondal
I’m pretty sure it was announced weeks ago that one of the campaigns took place at a carnival. There was almost immediately a forum thread about what to call it + tagline. One of them was almost identical to that if not absolutely identical.
05/09/2009 at 00:35 Thranx says:
the jockey FREAKED me out while I was playing it today. I hadn’t heard of it yet somehow and just freak. I was quite excited.
05/09/2009 at 00:55 DK says:
“When you put on the nose, it grows! HONK!
Squeeze the wheeze, everyone wants to…”
It’s sadly even more ridiculous. They have squeaky clown shoes.
The Shark it has been jumped.
05/09/2009 at 00:59 Andresito says:
“Zombies!!! 7: Send in the clowns” on Left 4 Dead? Cool.
05/09/2009 at 01:14 A Delicate Balance says:
This all sounds like good news. Nov 11th can’t come soon enough!
05/09/2009 at 01:17 l1ddl3monkey says:
Valve obviously have a new “Trying too hard” department.
Zombie clowns… for Christs Sake…
05/09/2009 at 01:24 Robin says:
I heard someone was making a House of the Dead: Overkill mod for L4D.
Oh yeah, it was Valve.
05/09/2009 at 01:37 Arca says:
Re most evil zombie: surely some of those suited guys in the offices during the No Mercy campaign are Lawyers.
05/09/2009 at 01:41 Oak says:
They were mindless, bloodthirsty cannibals. Then they became zombies.
05/09/2009 at 02:30 subedii says:
Meh, people made the exact same comments about the extremely large fat person that vomits all over people. Oh yes very clever Valve, that infantile humour is really going to work here.
It works given the context and the gameplay. I suspect the clowns do as well (Heck, it’s a Carnival after all).
Valve generally don’t just throw crap in for the sake of it, there’s a tonne of testing and evolution of concepts that goes on before anything becomes permanent. Heck, first new infected to be revealed was the charger, and that’s still changing.
05/09/2009 at 03:48 Rinox says:
I want to frame that poster and put it on my wall.
05/09/2009 at 03:56 Vinraith says:
As L4D posters go, the one for “Last Stand” is by far the best IMO. It’s probably the most understated and dry of the lot, and as a result the only one that’s ever gotten a real laugh out of me.
05/09/2009 at 04:05 PleasingFungus says:
At PAX now. (Posting by phone, hence terseness.) Line for L4D2 was too long for me, but watched several (excruciatingly bad) players. Jockey is basically a big headcrab: latch onto scalp, send victim staggering about, rend, tear. Fun!
Saw no clowns, but did see (and play!) Borderlands. Not really sure what I thought of it. Seemed slightly clunky when I played, but playing with strangers/unfamiliarity/gamepad controls are a good excuse. Seemed a bit better when I was watching others, though -
– problem with watching others play –
they never reload.
05/09/2009 at 07:57 jon_hill987 says:
“some stupid crappy deal where you get a baseball bat if you pre-order the game from the right shop ”
This whole “extra content if you buy from here/on platform X” thing is really starting to piss me off.
05/09/2009 at 08:22 Elman says:
Zombie clowns? I guess I’ll waste 40€ on a game expansion, after all!
05/09/2009 at 10:26 Mashakosha says:
@Andresito
Good to see another Zombies!!! player.
As to the L4D2 stuff (my god, staying on topic?) I don’t get why everyone is so arse pained over such a small thing as clown zombies. You know on the PC we have these things called mods? They can get rid of these things that you don’t like. Of course, if you lose the sounds, you also lose the ability to know where they are and thus when a wave of Zs are coming. And if you don’t like the fact that they’re clowns, just wait for someone to re-skin them into something more…acceptable. Like the stay puft marshmallow man!
05/09/2009 at 11:25 Vandelay says:
Got to share in Mashakosha’s confusion over the dislike of clown zombies. Personally can’t think of anything more terrifying than being in the pitch black and suddenly shinning my flash light on a clown zombie right in my face. Perhaps those that think it is a bad idea don’t share in my (and many other’s) brown-trouser-time fear of clowns.
Having said that, I think Valve could have done a better job of making these clowns scary. They need a large permanent grin on their faces to really be terrifying.
@PleasingFungus – Do you mean that the Jockey makes the player uncontrollable as he stumbles about, or does it mess up the controls in some way, or am I misunderstanding completely what you mean?
Also, I share in your frustration, PleasingFungus, with watching bad L4D players. Every video that has been released of L4D2 shows some rubbish players and it was the same when we saw footage of Survival mode being played by both journalists and the developers. What makes this particularly annoying is the fact that the difficulty of the game is something I’m particularly concerned about. I’ve pretty much mastered the original (not to be arrogant, it is simply down to playing way too much) and with a half decent squad each of the original campaigns have become pretty dull even on expert. I want them to have made these new campaigns to be a real challenge, or else it will only take a few hours to complete all of them with my L4D experience. Watching the videos that have been released, it is almost impossible to gauge how hard the game will be when they have players that don’t know what they are doing. I want to see videos of people failing when they try to do the tricks that have been created from the first game (e.g. camping in a corner, dashing through the levels.)
05/09/2009 at 11:27 We Fly Spitfires says:
“You must be this tall… TO DIE!”.
Best. Slogan. Ever.
05/09/2009 at 11:38 Fenchurch says:
I have nothing but amused bewilderment for these Kotaku-esque knee jerk opinions people snipe away with;
“Sorry Valve you’re not impressing me.”
Oh well, guess that’s it Valve. Pack up and go home! Internet Guy thinks you “Jumped the shark”! Turn in your keyboards and mice, your track record of non stop accolades and genre defining games simply isn’t enough to withstand the lip curling sneers of contemptuous teenagers. =-P
05/09/2009 at 11:58 Rinox says:
@ Vandelay: you probably already know it, but one of the new special infected in L4D2 was designed pretty much specifically to take the juice out of the camping corners/closet tactic. The ‘spitter’ basically covers a small area in toxic goo that damages the players standing in it. It’s the yellow stuff in this vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10s_k4ntCQs&feature=related
So yeah, that should wreak havoc on the camping tactic. :-)
05/09/2009 at 12:04 Corbeau says:
Got a chance to play L4D2 today (er, technically yesterday) at PAX. The Jockey, which jumps on a survivor and rides him around (with some control resistance from the survivor) is the most disruptive infected in the game. Being able to “drive” the victim away from the rest of the team can be devastating in the middle of a horde attack, and is even worse when paired with ledges. The Spitter doesn’t even come close to causing the amount of havoc that I saw inflicted by the Jockey today.
05/09/2009 at 12:10 Corbeau says:
Also, for the record, I’ve been a member of the L4D2 Boycott group. Yet I was very impressed with the gameplay of L4D2 – the seemingly small tweaks add up to a lot of improvement overall. The (many) different guns, the new special infected, the new campaign maps, and particularly the melee weapons. Seriously, I don’t know how well they’ll work in versus against human players, but the katana was hands-down the most fun weapon in the game (even over the electric guitar, which indeed makes a satisfying twang when impacting zombie skulls). They did a good job integrating melee weapons.
05/09/2009 at 12:33 Rinox says:
@ Corbeau
Thanks for the info!
05/09/2009 at 13:01 Vandelay says:
@Rinox: Yeah, I did know about that, but I’ve not actually seen it in action against corner/closet campers. The only time I’ve seen it in a video is against the rather rubbish players who just flail around without much purpose or teamwork.
In theory it is a good idea, but I imagine if you have the standard front two survivors meleeing the infected, back two shooting strategy picking off any Spitters could be quite easy, depending on their range, the size of the area of effect of their attack, and the size and shape of the Spitter itself.
The Charger may also be good against the camping strategy, but really need to see it properly in action. I’ve got a feeling that his damage may not be too high and is more about splitting the survivors up (same with the Jockey.) This is something that is probably needed. This was left to the Smoker in the original, which was fairly easy to counteract, as even with the patched in initial meleeing invulnerability the tongue was easy to knock off. A good Smoker attack often seemed to be down to a mistake on the Survivors side rather than a well played Smoker.
05/09/2009 at 14:43 Valve burguers says:
¡nice mod!
05/09/2009 at 21:57 Mike says:
Really can’t comprehend the baseball bat thing. And the uncommon commons are a bit… I mean, mud men and clowns with squeaky shoes that attract zombies? It’s a bit too humourous I think. But the rest looks amazing.
05/09/2009 at 23:50 Alex says:
At least with the stupid pre-purchase unlock thing, the server will let anyone pick it up as long as one person with the unlock is connected.
06/09/2009 at 00:22 Shnyker says:
Hm, baseball bat, well I have nothing AGAINST preordering, so, there. Zombie clowns are actually the first good arguement for boycotting this though.
06/09/2009 at 01:22 PennyWise says:
I miss the “seriousness” of the first one as well. Too much tongue-in-cheekiness self-referentialism going on. Saving Private Ryan vs Inglourious Basterds sort of thing.
06/09/2009 at 01:48 subedii says:
@ Corbeau: So are you still a member of the group?
@ Pennywise: Personally I never took the first one seriously. I mean come on, Four survivors keep getting rescued after an epic road trip through zombieland only to crash each time. Meanwhile across all this they’re being hunted by a guy with a 50ft prehensile tongue (how does that fit in his head anywa), a humongous fat man intent who chases them purely so he can vomit all over them, and the human pinball.
Even the first game had a tonne of self-referential humour, not the least of which was all the graffiti you saw scrawled across the gameworld and safehouses.
06/09/2009 at 11:46 Corbeau says:
@ subedii
Yes, I am still a member of the boycott group, and I will remain so until Valve releases Crash Course.
@ Vandelay
The Charger is indeed there to break up clumps rather than cause damage directly. If you get bulled aside in a charge, you really do go flying dozens of feet – but the charger himself goes down pretty quickly once he’s grabbed someone (the main difference from, say, a hunter pounce is that meleeing the Charger doesn’t seem to make him drop the survivor that he’s curbstomping). Clumping up, while perhaps not obsolete, carries very real risks in L4D2.
06/09/2009 at 14:50 qrter says:
You seem to be under the assumption that I think Valve will read any comment made by me, let alone care about it. That makes you sound a lot more delusional than you thought I was.
06/09/2009 at 15:02 Dracko says:
God forbid someone criticise the GabeN Power Fantasy Foundation.
How the Hell could any of you take the first game seriously?
06/09/2009 at 16:13 Vandelay says:
Cheers for the info, Corbeau.
I think some of these additions will spice up the game quite a bit, but I really hope there is a substantial demo to give a good idea about how these changes will all work. Preferable with a chance to try out these changes in Versus (even if it is just a single map.)
Speaking of Versus, do we know which of these infected are going to be controllable? I’m assuming that the Charger, Spitter and Jockey will all be controllable, but with only 4 players on the team it could become harder to get the right mix of specials if they are completely random. They got it about right before, with you pretty much always having a Smoker, Boomer and two Hunters (with the odd tri-hunter always being a nice surprise if you didn’t rig it.) Perhaps allowing you to select but only allowing one of each could work.
And yes, there was very little seriousness in the first game. It looks like this maintaining the same balance between the silly and the scary. It was always more Dawn of the Dead then 28 Days Later (zombie speed excluded, obviously.)
06/09/2009 at 18:56 Vinraith says:
While calling the first game “serious” is clearly overstating it, there does seem to be (based on the material released thus far) a bit of a tonal difference between the first and second games. L4D2 certainly comes across as sillier, at least so far. Whether one likes that or not is, of course, a matter of personal taste.
06/09/2009 at 23:57 Kabe says:
I see exactly what some of you at getting at in terms of the superficial style, but L4D was never a “serious” game at its core. That’s what makes it so fun. I can’t remember the last game I played online with friends and digital acquaintances that I so often laughed in, and had a genuinely good time.
The fact that L4D takes raw individual skill away from being such a deciding factor in the game made it far more accessible to players who don’t just play to win, and often that type of gamer made the games much more fun and relaxed than other multiplayer (particularly FPS) games I’ve played over the years.
I’ve clocked up hundreds of hours on L4D, so I’ve played it enough to see the usual retards, arseholes and griefers, but they are part of any online game. Something that’s interesting with L4D is that the Infected in VS mode are essentially a griefing team. As Infected, it is your job to troll the shit out of the survivors, chipping away at their health with surprise attacks and irritating them into making mistakes, until you can finally get them in a position to be wiped out.
That’s a fantastic game mechanic, and although not necessarily original, made VS matches insanely fun to play and let a lot of natural griefers vent some steam (no pun intended), whilst still making themselves useful to the game… letting the sole survivor limp to within 2 metres from the safe room before smoking them back is a troll’s wet dream, but is simultaneously a legitimate objective.
Maybe L4D2 does have a little extra tongue in its cheek, or maybe that’s just the impression we are getting from the limited snippets we are being fed. Who knows? The same basic game mechanics are going to be there, so if you enjoyed the first, then chances are you are going to kick a kick out of this one too.
Something I am sure of, is Valve are one of the few big companies really keeping the PC gaming market strong in recent times. The usefulness of Steam to developers large and small is reason enough for that statement.
But they are more than Steam – given their rather stellar portfolio of titles and experienced developers (Zoid Kirsch of Quake CTF fame is on the L4D multiplayer team, for instance) too, it’d likely be a mistake to bet against them delivering the goods after seeing a few short videos.
This ain’t their first rodeo, and they have a proven track record in understanding what makes games enjoyable.
07/09/2009 at 03:11 Davie says:
Anyone else think the Jockey looks a little bit like a humanoid headcrab? Not a mere coincidence, methinks.
07/09/2009 at 12:45 PHeMoX says:
The graphics suck bad. Valve, do us and yourselves a favor and start making Half-life 3 already. These visuals are so outdated.
The HL2 engine has expired over at least two years ago. Stop pretending it’s still superb.
“This ain’t their first rodeo, and they have a proven track record in understanding what makes games enjoyable.”
Wrong, their most successful games were floating on hypes. True for Left 4 Dead 1 too. Yeah, shooting zombies is fun, but the game is pretty much crap when it comes to it’s gameplay. It’s too short to be worth it’s money actually.
Their track record is starting to look like EA’s.. ripping of their trusty fans. No wonder they’re going to release Left 4 Dead 2 this soon…. heck, they should have made the series episodic and call it HL2: Left 4 Dead Series instead.
07/09/2009 at 17:49 Ace says:
The Source engine is not outdated. It’s an excellent engine that is continually updated.
07/09/2009 at 18:03 Vandelay says:
It certainly doesn’t look as good as many other current engines. Since HL2:EP2, it has been showing its age.
But that doesn’t matter as the games they are making on it are still great. I think PHeMoX is just trying to start some flaming. Anyone that compares Valve with EA is talking nonsense. Valve clearly make games because they love games. That doesn’t mean they don’t care about the money (they are a business) but the amount of attention they put on every small detail shows that they are always trying to make the best gaming experiences they possibly can.
And the “L4D was too short argument” is one that is easily refuted by the tens of thousands of people that played the game for months. Certainly when they finished the Versus mode (I will accept this should have been in at release) there was plenty of content.
07/09/2009 at 19:06 Dominic White says:
Yeah, L4D2 may not look as spectacular as some other stuff available for the PC. Sure, they could make it look better, but they choose not to.
Most people don’t have heavyweight PCs. They have work machines with a bundled standard 3D video setup, or a laptop. Valve are pretty business-savvy, and aim for as wide a market as possible.
The huge success of L4D, and the continiung success of earlier stuff like Counter-Strike lends weight to this theory.
07/09/2009 at 19:36 Kabe says:
PHeMoX: “The graphics suck bad. Valve, do us and yourselves a favor and start making Half-life 3 already. These visuals are so outdated.”
It’s no CryEngine or Tech 5, sure, but the Source engine does run well on just about every gaming PC out there, cheap or otherwise. That can be extremely important for successful multiplayer games.
Maybe you just have an overwhelming lust for shiny things, and that’s fine if it works for you, but you should understand that many others in the community value the scalability and customisation as high or higher than the latest eye-ripping DX10 visuals. Games are much more than just works of graphical eye candy, I hope one day you are able to develop an appreciation for that.
As for your comment about Valve’s games just being hype and comparing the company to EA, I don’t feel that I even need to dignify that kind of silliness with a response.