Something strange may happen today when you log into Team Fortress 2…

Quietly, and without fanfare, the guys at Valve started a promotion bundled with pre-orders of Left 4 Dead 2—you will receive a special hat if you own Team Fortress 2.  The promotion, attached to both Xbox 360 and PC, was announced yesterday.

The other interesting thing mentioned in this announcement is a subtle allusion to a tenth class in TF2. First hinted at in Left 4 Dead, it has slowly faded into the background as time has passed.

It is also worth mentioning that this is the first official cross-IP content in any Valve game. Valve’s tactics of subtlety and humor continue as Left 4 Dead 2 launch day approaches.

Today Valve announced that their upcoming Left 4 Dead 2 will have a fourth, entirely new game mode.

This mode is called “Scavenge,” and it pits players against both the clock and the Infected.

In Scavenge mode, Survivors are given a set amount of time to collect gas cans to refuel generators located in each map. The gas cans are located around the map, and they add time to the clock when used to fill the generator.

The Infected have to stop the Survivors from refilling the generator, and can do that by destroying the gas cans, killing the Survivors, or running down the clock. Infected can choose to play as any of the old Infected characters as well as the new Spitter, Jockey and Charger.

The four-man teams will have the opportunity to play as both Infected and Survivors in each round, and the team with the most gas cans wins.

Look for the new Scavenge  game mode when L4D2 drops November 17th.

Here’s the summary:

• Left 4 Dead boycott group gains popularity.
• Valve offers to fly the founders up to Washington to play Left 4 Dead 2.
• A prolific Australian Left 4 Dead modder name Joe W-A  gets sad and emails Gabe, asks “Why haven’t I been flown to Valve? You guys need to preview my campaign.”
• Gabe responds “I’m boycotting your campaign.”
• Joe W-A offers to fly Gabe to Brisbane. Gabe probably thinks this is a joke.
• Joe W-A raises $3000 to fly Gabe to Australia.

Today, Valve announced that Gabe Newell is indeed going to take up Joe W-A on his offer, and visit him down under, on October 7th. Valve employee Erik Johnson will be travelling with Gabe, and will be blogging about it on the L4D.com blog.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering about the $3000 that was raised; Valve will be paying their own way, and Joe W-A donated the entirety of the money collected to the Child’s Play charity.

There you have it. A happy story for a sunny Thursday.

Today Valve announced that the second DLC update for Left 4 Dead will be made available worldwide on September 29 on Xbox 360 and PC.

From their press release:

Crash Course delivers new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay to both platforms, and bridges the gap between the end of the “No Mercy” campaign and the beginning of “Death Toll” in the original game.
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.

I expect the Icrontic L4D community will be abuzz with this one. Crash Course will be free of charge for PC owners, while pricing for Xbox 360 owners has not been announced yet.

More game. On day one, L4D 2 features more co-operative campaigns, more campaigns and maps for the Versus game modes than L4D 1, plus support for Survival mode out of the box.

Valve is once more taking us toe-to-toe with the zombie horde, this time with an all-new cast of characters, weapons (hell yeah chainsaw!) and baddies set deep in America’s sweltering southern heat.

The new entry to what is now the Left 4 Dead series will also feature new AI that can procedurally alter the game world in response to player performance. Left 4 Dead 2 can alter enemy populations, weather, escape routes, sounds and special effects to save (or punish…) you from that dumb pubby who went AWOL with an auto-shotty.

Get ready for smarter zombies, a smarter game, and a more deadly you on PC and Xbox 360 this November. Click the jump for the press release.

(more…)