Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Obviously you’re salivating about the release of Left 4 Dead 2 today, but if you can’t wait to get home and play the much-ballyhooed thing, there’s a look at the splendid new Left 4 Dead game below. Waitagoshdarnminute – that ain’t L4D2…
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Ill-timed because 1) it came out over Halloween and we’re only just posting about it. That is, of course, because none of RPS have ever demonstrated any kind of fear about anything, hence we do not recognise Halloween as a OH GOD WHAT WAS THAT I’M GONNA DIE I’M GONNA DIE… Oh, it’s just a yogurt pot. Cough. And 2) Because I’ve heard a rumour there might some sort of sequel to Left 4 Dead due any day now. Anyone heard anything about that? Nonetheless, you probably couldn’t wish for a more delectably violent stopgap than this vast and lavish tribute to Dawn of the Dead – a super-spiffy Left 4 Dead 1 mod replete with zombie-infested shopping mall…
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Yaaaaarrrrrr – Crash Course, aka L4D1:DLC2, as Valve themselves succinctly put it, has just gone live. It’s a new map, new storyline stuff and, in theory, a full Versus argy-bargy contained within a mere half hour. And all for free, not that this seems to placate the vengeful. Exit and restart Steam and it should download and install itself for you. If you don’t already own Left 4 Dead (and aren’t planning on picking up L4D2 instead on 20th November), there’s also a celebratory 50%-off sale on from now until October 1st.

September 29th. Yep, that’s the latest bit of DLC (free on PC) for Left 4 Dead, which is a new campaign set between the events of No Mercy and Death Toll, with support for both survival and versus modes. Valve says: “While containing both Survival maps and a Co-operative Campaign, 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. A recharge timer for infected teammates has also been added, and item spawn behavior has changed for more balanced gameplay.” There will also be a L4D2 demo from Valve on October 27th, accordingly to reports from Tokyo Games Show.

A Left 4 Dead mod that, well, adds the Teletubbies as enemies. There’s not really much more that can be added to that. It’s created by flameknight7, and can be downloaded from here. Watch the video, as displayed on our tummies, below.

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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.

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It’s a little alarming that the game I most want to play during Britain’s sunniest month since 1209AD involves skulking in the dark in the company of several hundred super-pale people: curse you, Valve, for releasing Left 4 Dead’s new, Alamo-tastic Survival mode now. It’s been my staple gaming diet for the last couple of evenings – and it’s very much renewed my interest in a game I’d otherwise grown a leeeeeeetle tired of. Here’s why.
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Left 4 Dead will update with Survival Mode if you restart Steam, and it’s reportedly rather brutal. Dead Air and Death Toll are also now playable in Versus mode (which I think is actually more interesting than the new mode, but hey, that’s just me.) Anyone playing? How long have you managed to stay alive? I’ll try and post some more useful thoughts when I get a proper game of it.

The downloadable add-on “Survival Mode” for L4D is apparently out sometime this week, and Valve were kind enough to detail it on their L4D blog, last week. I was off being clever somewhere and so didn’t notice it until this morning. Anyway, it says that “given the extreme pace of Survival Mode, the number of zombies killed in a single round often outnumbers an entire campaign.” It also plots spawn-wave frequency against survival time to create the graph you see above. This, I suspect, is the science of game design. Full thing here.

This is a short, cute cartoon, gently spoofing the idiosyncrasies of Left 4 Dead. It’ll let you know who’s most likely to be turned zombie in an apocalypse, who might survive, and other useful tips. It’s by =Golden-Silver (Stefan Martello), on his Deviant Art page, and worth a glance. Thanks to Yngvild for the tip-off.