Left 4 Dead 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the award winning Left 4 Dead from Valve Corporation, has just arrived. Lets take a closer look at the exposed innards of this co-operative horror FPS title and see just how far the infection has spread since the franchise’s first installment.

The additions in this title are numerous, but the basics still remain: A team of four Survivors must seek refuge from an infected world that is literally dying to add them to the mix. At the start of each level, the Survivors are provided a health pack, a pistol, and a primary firearm. Each chapter of a campaign begins and ends with a safe room, while the final chapter ends with some form of escape.

Survivors that take to too much damage in their escape must rely only on their pistol and their friends until they can be revived from their incapacitation. Survivors that are repeatedly incapacitated will quickly exhaust their second chances, resulting in their inevitable death.

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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.

What are you swinging at my head?

Now that Valve has finally unleashed the Left 4 Dead 2 demo, the Icrontic Steam group has been descending upon it in droves. I had a chance to play a round with some of the {IC} crew: Winfrey, Cola, and Sir Candle.

One thing that hasn’t changed a bit from L4D1 is “playing lobby.” We played lobby for a few minutes but quickly got the game launched.

The initial weapon loadout is relatively similar to the first game: a variety of SMG or a shotgun. Then you look to the left, and you see a frying pan. That’s when you know this is a whole different animal.

The rhythm of combat is similar to the first: horde, lull, horde, lull, with random occasional individual zombies coming at you before you can get too relaxed.

As we moved through the campaign, we all commented at various points that the game is noticeably more difficult, more wide open, and gives you many more ways to deal with clusterfucks.

The {IC} crew I played with were asked to give me their impressions on the demo. Is Left 4 Dead 2 worth the price of a new game? Is it more than just an expansion pack? (more…)

A new Left 4 Dead 2 trailer leaked today

Zombie aficionados rejoice! Valve has released new details about the upcoming demo for Left 4 Dead 2.

The demo will allow players to preview the “Parish” campaign in teams of 1 to 4. The campaign is set in the New Orleans French Quarter, and will show all of the new infected boss zombies as well as the new melee weapons.

Players that pre-ordered the game will get to start chain sawing the undead as soon as October 27. The rest of the rabble will have to wait until November 3, when it drops for PC and Xbox LIVE Gold members. Standard Xbox LIVE members will have to twiddle their thumbs even longer until their demo is released November 10, or just 7 days before the full title launches.

So if you’re eager to start batting zombies, get the L4D2 pre-order, and join the apocalypse October 27. But don’t worry; no matter when you get the demo, there should still be plenty of shotguns–and shambling corpses–to go around.

You’d have to have lived under a big rock without wifi access to not know of the controversy around Australia’s banning of Left 4 Dead 2. It was decided that the game had excessively high levels of violence and gore directed towards the infected (read: zombies) whom the OFLC classified as ‘living humans infected with a rabies-like virus.’ For this reason, they refused classification, effectively banning the game from seeing store shelves. Many gamers have been up in arms regarding this decision–Australia was the only country to place such a ban on the game.

You like what you see? Not if you're in Australia!

Valve recently submitted a modified version of the game for classification by the OFLC. This modified version has a significantly less amount of gore. Decapitation and dismemberment were removed, blood splatter is almost completely non-existent, and the ever-ambiguous ‘piles of dead bodies’ issue has been solved by removing dead zombi-, err, rabies-infected living humans, as soon as they hit the ground.

Word from down under early this morning tells us that the OFLC has given a rating of MA15+ to this modified version of Left 4 Dead 2. This means that the game will see Aussie store shelves. In the Classification Board’s report, they made note that this was made possible by the removal of considerable amounts of gore from the gameplay.

Here’s to hoping you’re not an Australian gamer that enjoys mature violence and gore. Sure, now you’ll be able to buy the game, but in this situation, nobody wins.

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.

Today Valve announced that they are taking pre-orders for Left 4 Dead 2. You can pre-order via select retailers (for the Xbox 360 or PC versions) and through Steam. Pre-order perks include a 10% discount as well as an exclusive in-game melee weapon, the American Baseball Bat. In addition, those who pre-order will get early access to the demo, which is slated for October 27th.

Left 4 Dead 2 is scheduled for full release on November 17th. Except for in Australia.

The Spitter

Today at ComicCon, Valve introduced a new special infected for Left 4 Dead 2 called the Spitter. The Spitter has “an area attack that can split up Survivors or flush them out of their hiding spots” according to the press release.

In addition to the Spitter, they announced a new “uncommon common” infected exclusive to the Swamp Fever campaign called the “Mudmen”.

News on some more items was released today as well, including a cricket bat, an AK-47, and a grenade launcher.

I was surprised to hear about “uncommon common” infected. One can assume this means they can be part of the swarm as normal infected can be, and are probably relatively easy to put down, but perhaps have special abilities that normal infected don’t have? The screenshot alludes to the fact that they’re crawling around; perhaps they are buried in the swamp and come up as you’re walking through. In addition, another odd aspect of the screenshot shows what looks like an infected suspended by a bunch of lines. Whether that means another infected strung it up there or it’s just a decoration remains to be seen.

Mudmen, and an oddly suspended infected in the background

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.

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