Left 4 Dead 2 Game Add-on #1 Announced

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
234
106
Here's the Steam article:

"The Passing" Brings L4D1 Survivors Down South

December 14, 2009 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the first game add-on for its co-operative zombie thriller, Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2), is in development and targeted for release in early 2010.

Dubbed "The Passing," the first game add-on for L4D2 brings the original Left 4 Dead (L4D1) Survivors down south for a meeting with the L4D2 cast, while delivering new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay for the PC and Xbox 360.

Targeted for release in early spring, "The Passing" takes place just after the Dead Center campaign of L4D2. Set in a small town in rural Georgia, players assume the role of the L4D2 Survivors as they meet with the L4D1 characters.

In addition to the new co-operative campaign and associated narrative, "The Passing" will include new arenas for Survival, Versus and Scavenge mode and introduce a new co-operative challenge mode of play. The Passing will also include a new "uncommon common" zombie class, melee weapon, and firearm.

"The Passing will become the most important campaign in the Left 4 Dead story, as all the Survivors are being called together in one campaign," said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. "It will also be a huge offering of new gameplay content, with something new for every game mode plus a new uncommon common and weaponry."

Exclusively available for the Xbox 360 and PC, L4D2 sets a new benchmark for co-operative action games. The title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaws, frying pans, axes, baseball bats, and more.

With the AI Director 2.0, L4D's dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players' performance. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.

Finally, with new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original, featuring more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, new Survival maps, and the new competitive game mode, Scavenge.

Left 4 Dead 2: The Passing is targeted for release in early spring for the PC and Xbox 360. Pricing will be announced closer to launch.


:| Don't like the sound of "pricing". I mean it's only been what, one month since it was released? Oh well, I can always wait for prices to drop.
 

ZzZGuy

Golden Member
Nov 15, 2006
1,855
0
0
Plain and simple, L4D is worth half of the retail price. L4D2 appears to be a clone of L4D with tweaking here and there but no change to gameplay or more content like extra levels (new ones sure, but not enough). Sure they added a bunch of little things but it doesn't change the fact it looks like a L4D clone (after watching live broadcasts of L4D2). Now they charge extra for additional content?

They burned me on the first game, now my money goes elsewhere. L4D is dead to me.
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
They make you pay full price for a DLC then release another DLC that you have to pay for again? yea.....................
 

JSt0rm

Lifer
Sep 5, 2000
27,399
3,947
126
I think valves strategy with l4d is to whore it out and just pump the money.
 

bunnyfubbles

Lifer
Sep 3, 2001
12,248
3
0
They make you pay full price for a DLC then release another DLC that you have to pay for again? yea.....................

L4D2 is a bigger / more complete game than L4D1 was. If you're sore because you paid full price for the first game and felt ripped off that's fine, but the idea of L4D2 as a DLC is asinine.

Also, pricing for these true addons/DLC is for the XBox 360 players reading about the announcement (because Microsoft is opposed to free DLC). I would bet money it will be free for the PC.
 

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
234
106
L4D2 is a bigger / more complete game than L4D1 was. If you're sore because you paid full price for the first game and felt ripped off that's fine, but the idea of L4D2 as a DLC is asinine.

Also, pricing for these true addons/DLC is for the XBox 360 players reading about the announcement (because Microsoft is opposed to free DLC). I would bet money it will be free for the PC.

Before Left 4 Dead 2, I would have bet my life savings on it being free. Now though? I really don't know, I wouldn't be surprised either way.
 

JSt0rm

Lifer
Sep 5, 2000
27,399
3,947
126
I think we feel the tf2 effect. Lots of free content in that game keeps it and sales going strong. Dividing the player base would kill a game like that. L4d doesn't need a huge player base (although I'm sure it has one).
 

Fox5

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2005
5,957
7
81
L4D2 is a bigger / more complete game than L4D1 was. If you're sore because you paid full price for the first game and felt ripped off that's fine, but the idea of L4D2 as a DLC is asinine.

Also, pricing for these true addons/DLC is for the XBox 360 players reading about the announcement (because Microsoft is opposed to free DLC). I would bet money it will be free for the PC.

Personally, I felt the levels in l4d1 were much better. L4D2's managed to feel samey (as in they repeat content a lot, not that they felt like l4d1's). Heck, some of the levels even involve backtracking, and they reuse setups a lot.
 

Zenoth

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2005
5,198
204
106
I think that the very title of the game couldn't be more appropriate for what's going on with the original. Basically Valve are doing everything they can to "convince" the L4D players go play L4D2 instead, amazing how Valve has changed over the years. I'm glad I still haven't bought L4D2.
 

l0cke

Diamond Member
Dec 12, 2005
3,790
0
0
You can already see the pricing, go to L4D2 in steam and click on "view downloadable content" It has the DLC and says "complementary" right next to it.
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
At least they're updating it instead of just jumping to L4D3.

We have no idea about that. They updated L4D1 a few times but still came out with 2 but I think there are no plans for another version any time soon since this is what L4D1 was supposed to be but don't see much of a difference.
 

slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,679
119
106
wah wah wah. l4d2 has an insane amount more content than l4d and its 10x more fun and well worth $35. It is a ton better than MW2 also, which is a lot more money
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
wah wah wah. l4d2 has an insane amount more content than l4d and its 10x more fun and well worth $35. It is a ton better than MW2 also, which is a lot more money

$35??? you obviously got in on the package deal. And no, the content is hardly an insane amount more than part 1.
 

TridenT

Lifer
Sep 4, 2006
16,800
45
91
Plain and simple, L4D is worth half of the retail price. L4D2 appears to be a clone of L4D with tweaking here and there but no change to gameplay or more content like extra levels (new ones sure, but not enough). Sure they added a bunch of little things but it doesn't change the fact it looks like a L4D clone (after watching live broadcasts of L4D2). Now they charge extra for additional content?

They burned me on the first game, now my money goes elsewhere. L4D is dead to me.

This.

Fuck L4D.
 

JujuFish

Lifer
Feb 3, 2005
11,284
953
136
I'm guessing most of the people bashing L4D2 have never even tried it.
Ah well, haters must hate.
 

BD231

Lifer
Feb 26, 2001
10,568
138
106
I'm guessing most of the people bashing L4D2 have never even tried it.
Ah well, haters must hate.

So are you telling us the add-on makes this game not suck? Cus let me tell you, it REALLY sucks without it.
 

MichaelD

Lifer
Jan 16, 2001
31,528
3
76
I really liked L4D and REALLY enjoyed playing all the community-created maps/campaigns. Some of those maps were as well-designed and bug-checked as the stock maps and a few were even BETTER. I feel that the user community ads a lot to the value of the game.

Interestingly enough, I just loaded up L4D2 last night and am about halfway thru the single player campaign. The new weapons and weird new enemies are fantastic! This is a brainless, shoot'em up game (Serious Sam, anyone?). It's a whole lot of fun and well worth the money IMO. I hope the user community makes lots of new campaigns for L4D2! Thanks for the heads up on the free (for PC) expansion!
 

coreyb

Platinum Member
Aug 12, 2007
2,437
1
0
and people wonder why pc gaming is dying (apparently). you guys whine more then my ex girlfriend. either you like a game or you don't, stop worrying so much about the politics behind it. its so ironic because i bet most of you guys are wealthy and youre complaining about buying a $40 game because it's not that much different then the first.

valve is one of the best pc developers right now and STILL, you guys have to have a problem with them and start these boycotts and what not. so annoying!
 

MichaelD

Lifer
Jan 16, 2001
31,528
3
76
I also think that people get too wrapped around the axle when it comes to complaining about PC games. IMO, aside from software that breaks your PC (the copy protection that came with Bioshock or Sony's rootkit fiasco) if you don't like the game or manuf's policies, then you don't have to buy it. By not buying, you're voting with the most powerful tool possible; your wallet.

Do I think that $50 is too pricey for a game? Yeah, I do. But I can understand the development costs, marketing, blahblah involved. I like it, so I buy it. I feel lucky that I have the $50 disposable income to pay $50 for a game that will cost $15 a year from now.

Shootin' zombies, stabbing aliens and blowing everything up along the way...ah, games. They're all worth $50 to me.