By Jim Rossignol on August 21st, 2010 at 4:35 pm.
…who lives and who dies, apparently. As it stands Bill dies in The Passing, and there’s going to be comic that explains how and why that happens. But it turns out that in The Sacrifice, you can – in keeping with the game’s own moment-to-moment decision-making – choose who dies for yourselves. This comes via Kotaku, who point out that in this GameTrailers’ chat with Valve, Mr Faliszek reveals that this next bit of free DLC for Left 4 Dead (and also Left 4 Dead 2, it’ll work with either) enables us to experience what happened in the events of The Passing from the perspective of the original cast. The events of this new expansion will, therefore, allow you to choose which of that original cast winds up dead. The Sacrifice also gives Left 4 Dead 2 owners a version of No Mercy, which seems like a splendid little bonus.
21/08/2010 at 16:40 pagad says:
Huh, I thought Bill was killed off due to the unavailability of his voice actor.
25/08/2010 at 03:58 Michael says:
Why would that matter? They still have the several acted voices, and they could always use someone else that sounds similar. :P
21/08/2010 at 16:48 DrGonzo says:
Nooooooooooo! The Passing just got Spoilered for me. I know I should have played it by now, but what can I say? I’m slow. I don’t suppose there is any point now :(
21/08/2010 at 16:57 DJ Phantoon says:
Rosebud is the sled. Don’t watch Citizen Kane.
Snape kills Dumbledore. Don’t read the last Harry Potter book.
The dad was dead all along. Don’t watch the Sixth Sense.
The Star Wars prequels were terrible. Don’t ever watch the Star Wars prequels.
Kieron Gillen is a man eating cyborg. Never invite him to your house for dinner.
A Japanese RPG is lauded as original if it doesn’t follow angsty teens or angsty young adults. Have higher expectations (of a market that doesn’t deserve it).
Something something Metal Gear something something SNAAAAAAAAKE something something. Metal Gear Solid is hard to follow.
Gordon Freeman continues to say absolutely nothing, ever. Episode 3 will never come out.
Fnord.
For maximum freshness, eat it before it sits in your crisper drawer for three weeks.
And if she hits you in the crotch to announce displeasure, the relationship is over. Save yourself and tell he so while wearing a cup this time.
21/08/2010 at 17:09 Down Rodeo says:
Aside from the Passing being a fun set of maps, of course ;)
21/08/2010 at 17:41 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:
My favourite Penny Arcade strip:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/12/5/
No, really… Y’know what? The lost baron’s daughter is the head of the bloody forest bandits. Now that’s ancient, will you call that a SPOILER? :)))
21/08/2010 at 17:51 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:
Facepalm…I excluded the games name – is QUEST FOR GLORY 1 aka Hero’s Quest :)
22/08/2010 at 09:32 Ninja Dodo says:
As unlikely as it is that someone would be unfamiliar with any of those (and still plan to see them), don’t be that guy…
22/08/2010 at 20:34 Araxiel says:
Soylent Green is made out of humans.
Light/Kira get’s killed by Ryuk.
Darth Vader is Anakin, Lukes father.
There’s a giant, wish granting Alien-Monolith-Thingy inside the Pripyat reactor.
Dr. Eli Vance get’s killed by Advisors.
Bishop is a Cyborg aswell as Annalee Call.
Scar kills Mufasa.
The Dark Ones are not evil and want to talk with Artyom.
The Medic is a Spy.
Sheppard is an evil guy and kills Roach.
The Nazis lost World War 2.
The Vault on planet Pandora is filled with an giant Alien/Demon.
The real bad guy is Abbadon, he guided Shiro to be evil and also the Lich. You kill him and Kormir becomes a new god.
The collectors use the kidnapped humans to produce human-juice to create a giant reaper/skelleton/terminator.
A supercomputer called GLaDOS killed everyone in the entire Enrichment Center.
You’re gonna get the Unreal Tournement Prize.
Father-Mother is only a Father and kidnapped babies.
The person you encounter all the time (Sheik) is in fact princess Zelda. You kill Ganondorf.
God is a female Alien-Thingy called “Minerva”. She and her friends made the Apple of Eden and the Staff and also human. However those “gods” have been wiped out by some solar-flare-thingy. The finale boss is the Pope and it’s a fistfight.
Kane is not dead and never was. He went through the portal to the Scrin’s homeplanet.
Civ4 has no story.
Around the center of the galaxy live the evil Grox. In the center is a small flying saucer which gives 42 Staves of Life. The game has no ending, only an neverending space-stage.
Arthas get’s Frostmourne, kills his father (the king) and becomes evil.
Fiona is Shrek’s true love and the other way around. They have three kids and live happely ever after.
The Aliens are the ones that the crystal skull belongs to.
You can see the cloverfield crash into the sea in the background in the last scene.
There will be N amounts of Finale Fantasies, N is infinite.
Metal Gear is a giant Mecha.
Rick Deckard is also an replicant.
Frodo throws the ring into the lava and loses a finger. Smeargol jumps after the ring, dies. Sauron get’s destroyed. Frodo leaves at the end with the elves.
Harvey becomes two face, Batman hunted.
Only three Samurais survive, the other 4 die.
The parents get transformed back to humans and remember nothing. They go back to the car which is covered with leaves and stuff. Chihiro has still Zeniba’s hair band.
Emperor Zurg is the Father of Buzz Lightyear.
Jack saves Santa from the Boogie Man and Halloween town becomes normal again.
King Arthur and Bedevere get arrested by the Police.
Bill dies.
21/08/2010 at 17:08 Fergus says:
I thought this information was general knowledge already within the L4D community.
21/08/2010 at 17:26 Alexander Norris says:
The Passing would have ended up being much stronger narratively if they’d had randomly picked who died.
21/08/2010 at 17:31 Vandelay says:
I assumed that was how it would work. They said before hand that they was something like 30 different dialogue trees. I presumed that those would be linked to who died. It would have made more sense, given that we are going to be able to choose who will die in this new DLC.
Nice to see they are releasing No Mercy for L4D2, although I would have liked to have seen them all being made playable on the sequel. It’s a real pity, because the original maps would have been wonderful to play as the new infected. The new ones are just too open for a lot of the Specials to be effective in, outside of set moments, which just makes the whole thing a bit too predictable.
Not touched L4D1/2 in months. Not sure whether this will bring me back or not.
21/08/2010 at 17:28 Washipato says:
The passing got spoiled for me in the first line :- (
21/08/2010 at 17:48 TCM says:
Wait, there are people who haven’t played the passing?
It’s been out for the better part of a half year people, for free. If you haven’t played it by now, you probably had no intention to do so in the near future.
21/08/2010 at 18:15 Anonymous says:
This games kill all creativity inside VALVe. COME ON same DLC from another perspective ??? Hope this idiotic team (that develops L4D/L4D2) never touch a single byte from future (hope here) Half-life games.
21/08/2010 at 18:19 Collic says:
It’s a good thing you waited until you had played the DLC before passing judgement, or your comment would come across as knee jerk and uninformed.
22/08/2010 at 12:17 TheLordHimself says:
I see this “Anonymous” person quite a lot across the internet and he/she always seems to be an ass.
21/08/2010 at 18:28 Ubiquitous says:
All or most of L4D’s maps have been ported to L4D2, including no mercy. you just have to go DL em, just search No Mercy 2.
21/08/2010 at 19:21 Gorgeras says:
Valve make nothing but brilliant games. It’s just that the Left4Dead series has so far turned out to be the worst brilliant games ever.
21/08/2010 at 20:18 Bloodloss says:
Incredibly thoughtless and unprofessional to spoil something that is only 3 months old. it doesn’t affect me personally, but I’d be quite miffed if it did.
21/08/2010 at 23:17 SquareWheel says:
“As it stands Bill dies in The Passing”
WHAT? I STILL HAVE YET TO PLAY DAMMIT!
22/08/2010 at 10:02 Ninja Dodo says:
It’s kind of a non-event. It’s not like it happens during the game. You just meet 3 survivors instead of 4. If anything it’s a spoiler for The Sacrifice, except not since you choose who dies there.
Maybe they’ll tweak The Passing to adapt to whoever you killed off in this one.
21/08/2010 at 23:26 Vandelay says:
“COME ON same DLC from another perspective ??? Hope this idiotic team (that develops L4D/L4D2) never touch a single byte from future (hope here) Half-life games.”
You’re being ironic here, right? Cause I don’t think Adrian Shepard and Barney Calhoun think it is such an idiotic idea.
21/08/2010 at 23:27 Vandelay says:
Reply fail!
At least I included the quote, so it makes some kind of sense. It’s in response to Anonymous, a couple of posts up.
21/08/2010 at 23:29 Tei says:
Re: Bill
His name is Robert Paulson
22/08/2010 at 04:38 Nick says:
in death, they have a name.
22/08/2010 at 12:32 Alexander Norris says:
But… the short form of Robert is Bob, not Bill!
22/08/2010 at 12:45 Chris D says:
I think I understand sir! /Cough… fight club…/Cough
21/08/2010 at 23:29 PHeMoX says:
…and that’s the story of how Valve essentially sells one game twice and yet everyone will smile and say thanks for the ‘free stuff’.
Amazing.
22/08/2010 at 01:40 Skinlo says:
Wow, you are so clever. You definitely saw through Valves plan or releasing the same game twice. Give yourself a pat on the back, happy that you haven’t fallen for it, whilst ignoring the fact that its a better game than the first, and that most people prefer 2 to 1.
22/08/2010 at 04:40 Nick says:
huh, I really didn’t enjoy l4d2, which is sad because I wanted to =(
Loved the first one though, but it ran out of steam faster than I had hoped it would. Definitly got my money’s worth though.
22/08/2010 at 14:55 theblazeuk says:
Man, now that you’ve explained that I’m so angry.
I think I’ll go play some Fifa/Pro Evo/Street Fighter/Quake/Command and Conquer/Call of Duty/Gears of War/[insert gaming franchise].
@Phemox
21/08/2010 at 23:48 anon says:
Ha! Nice.
21/08/2010 at 23:52 PseudoKnight says:
Wrong. I haven’t played it because I was waiting for a better computer. Don’t presume to know people’s reasons that they may not have experienced something yet. Just avoid spoiling anything or warn people before hand. It’s common courtesy.
22/08/2010 at 15:01 theblazeuk says:
It is literally not a big deal. You could always use whatever PC you played L4D1/2 on before and play it to find out? It was just one level.
22/08/2010 at 00:06 negativedge says:
I can’t believe you guys care about this “spoiler” at all. Is the “story” of Left 4 Dead really keeping you up at night? Do you know why I play The Passing? Because it’s an interesting map (really–it’s all condensed and vertical and slightly more clever in its pathing than the other maps in the game) set in a fantastic video game. Novel, I know!
22/08/2010 at 00:13 Dominic White says:
L4D threads never cease to amaze me. Packed to the gills with people trying desperately hard to find SOMETHING to be upset by.
The funny thing is that this is content for the original game, too, despite the whiners insisting that Valve had abandoned it the moment they started work on the sequel.
22/08/2010 at 01:07 negativedge says:
To be fair, they did abandon the original. There is no way this content would be in that game had the fan base not gone postal. That it comes months after the update to L4D2, and that nothing (almost nothing?) from the sequel has trickled down into the original is proof of that. Mind, this doesn’t particularly bother me at all, but facts are facts.
22/08/2010 at 01:12 Dominic White says:
I love that you can somehow rationalize that the proof that they’ve abandoned the original game is that they’re still releasing content for the original game.
You have a very funny definition of ‘abandoned’. Most companies that abandon games don’t even so much as patch them more than a week after launch. L4D is still getting free playable content patched in after years.
22/08/2010 at 03:34 negativedge says:
I’m saying it seems unlikely to me this would have happened were the fan reaction to a quick second game not so mental.
22/08/2010 at 04:41 Nick says:
So they can’t win, is that what you are saying?
Pathetic tbh.
22/08/2010 at 11:41 Dominic White says:
Seems to be how it works. Some people seem fanatically dedicated to being unhappy about whatever Valve does, even if Valve are doing exactly what they want. Obviously if Valve are doing something right, it’s because Valve know they were doing something wrong, and thus insincere, and should be complained about.
22/08/2010 at 12:15 negativedge says:
I think you guys are being just a little crazy, considering I’ve already said I don’t care and Valve is currently my favorite video game developer. With fans like you, who needs enemies!
22/08/2010 at 00:30 Inferno says:
They’re adding No Mercy to l4d2. THANK GOD. One of thing most important things that made me grow bored of l4d2 so fast compared to l4d1 was the level design. I love the atmosphere of the first game and no mercy was one of the best campaigns. I’ve wanted the originals in l4d2 for a long long time.
The new infected were added to stop tactics that only worked in the original game. but they left l4d1 alone and stopped patching it. The new infected aren’t in it so the issues are still there. Been waiting for an update so I can play the original campaigns in vs with all the updates they’ve made to improve it.
22/08/2010 at 01:21 mondomau says:
Some friends and I just fired up L4d (inspired by this story breaking elsewhere actually) and we were saying pretty much the same thing – we hadn’t realised it until we went back, but the design of the first game was far superior to the second, despite all the fancy graphical updates and (very cool) melee attacks.
22/08/2010 at 02:51 DarkFenix says:
I agree. I like L4D2 and all, but after going back and having a game or two on L4D the other day it’s really hit me just how bad the level design in L4D2 is. L4D2 lost all the atmosphere of L4D.
22/08/2010 at 01:06 Leelad says:
I own both and don’t care much for either BUT
I love that VALVe constantly put other big developers to shame by not charging for their DLC. it’s SUPER MEGA WONDERFUL!
22/08/2010 at 03:48 SLeigher says:
Anyone checked out the hate going on in the L4D1 steam forums, it’s hilarious seeing the boycotters complaining about getting free stuff even though L4D1 is pretty much the only game in history to get DLC after a sequel has been released.
22/08/2010 at 04:15 jalf says:
@SLeigher: I think it’s hilarious how some people apparently define their entire identity through finding a group of people to mock.
What did the boycotters ever do to you? Valve didn’t live up to their promises with L4D1, and some people are upset about that. You might not care about those promises, but some people do. Does it give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside to point and laugh at those people? Does it make you feel like a “better gamer” or something?
@Dominic White:
I guess I could say much the same to you. True, it’s not entirely accurate to say that they have “abandoned” L4D. But they haven’t delivered what they promised either. One of the things they sold the game on was 1) that specific types of content would be delivered as free updates, and that 2) this would happen at least as frequently as the TF2 updates.
So far, they haven’t lived up to either of these. They haven’t delivered the types of content they said they would, and they *certainly* haven’t kept the schedule of delivering updates as often as they do for TF2.
Again, you might think this is nitpicking, or that they’ve done *enough* for the game. But they haven’t delivered what, to some, were important selling points for the game. And those people are upset that they still haven’t gotten what they feel they paid for. And they’ve got a point. The facts are on their side. You might say that expecting these promises to be fulfilled is unreasonable, or that it’s ok for Valve to skip out on it because they’ve done so many other awesome things, and that’s a perfectly valid point of view, but it doesn’t change that they said L4D buyers would get something they haven’t gotten.
I get that it’s cool to label people AIM’s, and I get that it’s always a lot of fun to point and others and call them whiners. But seriously, can we move on? Could you guys just *try* to define an identity for yourselves as gamers that doesn’t depend on mocking and insulting others?
22/08/2010 at 10:09 Ninja Dodo says:
I don’t really get this hypothetical value proposition. Honestly, it’s better to buy a game that exists than one that might exist in the future.
22/08/2010 at 04:53 Tom Z says:
I’m sure that still is the REAL reason. But in the L4D world, they needed to kill him off somehow.
22/08/2010 at 05:11 bill says:
I’m unlikely to play it, but it’s probably not a great idea to post spoilers in the first line. Isn’t this post now going to show up on the LFD page in steam and tell everyone who opens it?
So far this weekend, I’ve managed to hit spoilers for Dragon Age, LFD2 and amother game that escapes me right now. It’s probably my fault for having a way-too-long “to play list”.
Once i get done with stalker, i can start on the witcher and then king’s bounty.
22/08/2010 at 06:09 Mondai says:
Yes, how DARE Valve charge such a steep fee of zero dollars TWICE.
If you’re Xbox, then don’t buy it. Easy as that. If you’re PC, stop complaining that you’re not getting the full value of your FREE DLC. I’ll give you that there’s reasons to complain about the Valve team, but that’s a shitty one.
22/08/2010 at 08:40 adam says:
Wow, spoiler in the first line of your post?
Ass!
22/08/2010 at 09:45 RogB says:
yeah twice i’ve had a spoiler from the front page image/text, in 2 days
im aware that im not on the cutting edge of gaming and constantly playing catchup, but can RPS not just hide stuff like this until ‘after the jump’, please?
22/08/2010 at 10:24 Tom says:
If you havent played the passing by know its your own fault , and it really isnt that much of a spoiler you dont actually see him die you just find his body.
22/08/2010 at 12:19 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
After playing the Passing at least five times I’m terribly offended that RPS has spoiled my sixth run for me.
22/08/2010 at 14:50 Gill says:
I don’t think its much of a spoiler really. I mean wow Bill dies? Who honestly cares. I doesn’t hinder the game play. It doesn’t “ruin the story” (mainly because there is no story). He’s just a character. He’s not a real person. His death means nothing exept you didn’t get as much cover in the passing finale.
22/08/2010 at 20:33 Helz says:
Any of the morons who are still whining about not getting everything they paid for with L4D1 are massive hypocrites. Face facts, if you still care enough about the original to be trolling the forums, I guarantee that your time played is enough that you got your money’s worth.
I bought the first game twice at full price, once for the 360 and again for the PC. I still got more value out of L4D with my 500+ hours played than I have with just about any other game out there.
23/08/2010 at 01:25 James T says:
We are not all the beneficiaries of your low standards.
23/08/2010 at 03:13 Tony says:
@Jaif
No offense to anybody who believes Valve has abandoned them, but how could they honestly provide the constant updates when they try deliver to both platforms the game is available on. If TF2 on 360 hasn’t even been updated, how could they compare that? And remember that Microsoft handles all of the DLC that goes through their Live service. So they can’t keep the promise to the fans because delivering to both Xbox and PC isn’t as easy as 1-2-3. Catch my drift?
If L4D had either stayed dedicated to PC alone or done the same as TF2, maybe it could’ve been a possibility. But seeing as they make some money off of the 360.
23/08/2010 at 10:21 fizz144 says:
l4d is the shit! What people forget is that whereas TF2 is just like thousands of other games, l4d does something new and I really dont mind paying extra to see/experience something i havent before
23/08/2010 at 11:08 HUUUUUUUURURuruURUUURuururrrrrr says:
he’s right though, look at HL2. w00t i love grey shitty eastern european cities that have nothing to do with the original HL that owned 1000% because it’s setting was techy and interesting.
here, let me care about a black man and his filthy half-caste daughter, despite the fact i killed that nigger scum “scientist” (more liek janitor amirite) repeatedly in HL as any true aryan would.
valve are faggots who can’t tell a story for shit. enjoy mexican gordon freeman or whatever politically correct bullshit they pull off in ep3, you’ve earned it for being such a bunch of caring little faggots.
23/08/2010 at 11:24 Dominic White says:
Fail troll tries way too hard.
23/08/2010 at 13:06 food says:
speaking of episode 3… when is it going to come out… i thought these episodes were supposed to come out faster…
23/08/2010 at 13:10 Dominic White says:
Given that HL2 was in development for something like five years, they ARE coming out faster.
Valve are just in no rush. Quite frankly, if you had all the time in the world and near-limitless funding to make a game, would you push it out as soon as people started getting uppity? No, of course not.
25/08/2010 at 04:26 James T says:
You really do babble an astonishing amount of shit, Dominic.
24/08/2010 at 16:27 maboesanman says:
they didn’t spoil the passing, and it’s lots of fun. go out and play it, it’s short too
24/08/2010 at 20:14 idiot patrole says:
you dope !!
25/08/2010 at 07:48 Jeff says:
You really need to proof read your writing.
25/08/2010 at 23:53 RanciDMonkeY_Original says:
They should allow us to revive Bill with the defib unit. That would be neat. Left5DeD you know.
P.S. I did not read many of the other posts so I do not know if this was mentioned before. Sooorry!
26/08/2010 at 00:53 Johnforester15 says:
Wait, why does it matter if the Passing is spoiled? I never even noticed that Bill was missing until I came across this. xD Its a short-fun experience, and you should all be thankful that Valve is including DLC in their games.
Also: The L4D series is, in my opinion, the best Zombie-Survival game out there. People are used to the singularity of those damned Resident Evil games and crap, so they don’t know what it’s truly like to fight a horde of flesh-hungry undead.