Valve announces new L4D DLC

[sambo]

True to its word, Valve has announced new Left 4 Dead DLC that'll be made available in September. Called Crash Course, it adds new Survival maps and a new campaign for the slightly random sum of 560 Microsoft Points.

"Crash Course" bridges the gap between the end of the "No Mercy" campaign and the beginning of "Death Toll" in the original game, expanding the game universe with new locations, new dialogue from the original cast, and an explosive finale," quoth Valve.

"The primary goal of "Crash" is to deliver a complete Versus mode experience in just 30 minutes, resulting in a streamlined version of the game's existing Versus campaigns."
Versus also gets a respawn timer so you can see how long you've got before people respawn, and the item drops have been adjusted.

[nCogNeato]

Suuuwwweeeeeeeet!

[GamerMan316]

Suuuwwweeeeeeeet!

Ditto 

[GamerMan316]

[GamerMan316]

Valve hasn't figured out yet whether the new Crash Course campaign will work with both Left 4 Dead and the upcoming Left 4 Dead 2.

"We're still struggling with how interoperability is going to work, right now," Faliszek told Edge. "When we talk about L4D, the story stuff - there's actually a lot of character dialogue that's based in each map."

Faliszek's concern is that the new Left 4 Dead 2 cast would not be anywhere near the locations from Left 4 Dead 1 - including Crash Course, which was the subject of discussion - which would make things a little awkward.

"We have a world sketched out and we have an understanding of where everything is and what's going on, you know, so story-wise it wouldn't make much sense," he explained. "But equally there's a whole group of the fans who don't care."

One option, he said, was to bring the original cast of characters along to the second game. "That's one of the routes we've talked about going, and maybe adding the new creatures, or whatever," he said. But the point is that it's not fixed, even with Crash Course out next month and Left 4 Dead 2 hitting in mid-November.

As for what is confirmed about Crash Course, Faliszek explained that the Versus focus was a reaction to feedback and statistics, and particularly the desire to reduce Versus sessions from two hours down to a sharp 20 or 30 minutes.

Crash Course is described as "a two-map campaign with a finale", and as discussed earlier this week it's set between the No Mercy and Death Toll campaigns, with Survival maps and the traditional option to play it as a co-op campaign.

The other big talking point around Crash Course was the decision to release it for free on PC while Xbox 360 owners are expected to pay 560 Microsoft Points (£4.76 / €6.72). We've asked about that but haven't heard back yet.

[Failed]

I hope it's released early September, because ODST is out later that month!

[Handshakes]

  Ahahahaahaahahahahahahahhhhahahahahahahaha.

You guys have to pay for it.

Ahahahahahhahahahahaahahahahhahahahahhahaha.

[nCogNeato]

[Failed]

Ahahahaahaahahahahahahahhhhahahahahahahaha.

You guys have to pay for it.

Ahahahahahhahahahahaahahahahhahahahahhahaha.

It's not my fault i can't get a girlfriend!

[GamerMan316]

More Left 4 Dead DLC after 'Crash Course,' says boycotter

When Left 4 Dead 2 boycott co-leader Walking_Target visited Wonka's chocolate factory Valve Software recently, he saw the most fantastical things. Though he can't go into too much detail per a verbal agreement with Valve, the lucky gent drew upon his inner Keighley to deliver a few scant details about "more DLC for Left 4 Dead coming after Crash Course" on his blog.

According to Walking_Target, the upcoming content could be "a new special infected, a new campaign, or new weapon(s)." Considering the fact that the Crash Course DLC lands this month, and Left 4 Dead 2 shambles into stores on November 17, that leaves one empty month in between for this mystery content -- that is, unless Valve plans on releasing it after L4D2. This would of course put us in a compromising position: Buy Left 4 Dead 2 and potentially miss out on the original game's DLC, or download the first game's DLC and maybe permanently delay a purchase of the sequel? We've contacted Valve for more details to help us (and you!) solve this particularly problematic predicament.

[TaraJayne]

Left 4 Dead 1's new downloadable content, Crash Course, will be available by September 23, if Microsoft's to be believed.

The new campaign - which bridges the gap between the end of the No Mercy campaign and the beginning of Death Toll - is being pimped for  a Game with Fame event next week

If you're an Xbox LIVE Gold Member and you want a chance to play the new Crash Course add-on for Left 4 Dead, send a friend request to the following Gamertag and be online half an hour before (5:30 P.M. Central Time) the Game with Fame session starts on Wednesday, September 23, at 6:00 P.M. CT.

Paramore GWF

Have you posted this already Craig ?

[GamerMan316]

Left 4 Dead 1's new downloadable content, Crash Course, will be available by September 23, if Microsoft's to be believed.

The new campaign - which bridges the gap between the end of the No Mercy campaign and the beginning of Death Toll - is being pimped for  a Game with Fame event next week

If you're an Xbox LIVE Gold Member and you want a chance to play the new Crash Course add-on for Left 4 Dead, send a friend request to the following Gamertag and be online half an hour before (5:30 P.M. Central Time) the Game with Fame session starts on Wednesday, September 23, at 6:00 P.M. CT.

Paramore GWF

Have you posted this already Craig ?

nope, was going to earlier but decided to play on Gears instead 

[Failed]

pffft 23rd is a bit of a selfish day to release it, i have to get ODST on the 22nd!

[GamerMan316]

Left 4 Dead Patch Improves Zombie HUD, Adds Achievements



A patch went out today for Left 4 Dead that adds improvements to the HUD when you play as a zombie in versus mode. Speculation also is that it lays the foundation for the upcoming Crash Course campaign.

The most notable content addition is a timer in the Zombie HUD that counts down the special attack recharge of the other infecteds you're playing with.

Curiously, the in-game achievements menu now reads "X of 60" unlocked. Before this patch, there were 50 achievements. No names of these achievements or Gamerscore for them are yet available, but it seems the patch has reset the achievement flags in advance of adding new ones. I'm showing "1 of 60" in the game's achievement menu. In the dashboard, it shows me with 16 of 50. So something's up here.

There's a Game With Fame tonight tomorrow night (thanks Komrade Kayce) with the band Paramore, and we earlier reported that the GWF announcement mentioned it is an opportunity to play Crash Course. That still has not hit the Xbox Live Marketplace.

This patch, of course, is free. Thanks to tipster Sean S. for the heads-up to the heads-up display. The L4D forums are buzzing as you can imagine.

[GamerMan316]

L4D Crash Course released on Live



Left 4 Dead add-on Crash Course has been released on Steam and Xbox Live Marketplace, as Valve said it would be.

Valve didn't tell us the Xbox 360 version would cost 800 MS Points (£6.80/€9.60), however - 560 MSP (£4.76 / €6.72) was the previously announced price. It's not clear whether this is intended or simply an error. Tom's downloading the add-on for Xbox 360 now.

Update: Xbox Live's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb has Tweeted that the higher price-point is an error, and the content should cost 560 MSP. He suggests holding off until Xbox Live admins rectify the mistake.

PC owners needn't pay anything for Crash Course from Steam, although the DLC doesn't appear to be available just yet.

Crash Course bridges the gap between the No Mercy and Death Toll campaigns in the original game, and has been designed for shorter, 30-minute Versus mode games, as matches using the existing campaigns can take around two hours to complete.