Left 4 Dead Series

If you are one of the many people who have put down their money and pre-ordered Left 4 Dead 2 via Steam, you also know that a demo for Valve's zombie co-op shooter game will be made available by Valve for those pre-orders on Tuesday. Now Valve has open the floodgates and allowed those folks to go ahead and pre-load the demo via Steam.

That means that when the pre-load is complete, it will only take a few minutes to unlock the demo on the release date. If for some reason you pre-ordered the game via an old fashioned brick and mortar retailer, Valve says the access codes to get the demo should also be available now. The demo will be made available to the general public on November 3.

The newest Left 4 Dead 2 cinematic trailer gives viewers a deeper look at the characters and their relationship with each other. The video pretty much speaks for itself, so enjoy. The game is scheduled to release on November 17th.

Download HD Left 4 Dead 2 Cinematic Trailer (309 MB)
Check out all Left 4 Dead 2 downloads

While expected it's also disappointing to hear that Australia's game ratings system has refused to lift their ban on the original version of Left 4 Dead 2. Valve's zombie co-op shooter sequel was denied a rating by the board in its original form a number of weeks ago, which makes that version of the game unavailable for sale in that country.

Valve tried to get the board to reconsider while at the same time getting them to approve a censored version of the game that will now be sold in Australia under their MA 15+ rating. However, the original version, according to the board, has violence that is "high in impact, prolonged, repeated frequently and realistic within the context of the game." The board also felt the game's visuals did not make the distinction wide enough between the human characters and the regular run-of-the-mill zombies. Therefore the original version "could not be accommodated within the MA 15+ classification."

Games that are coming out soon have a lot of unknowns that the average person might not know. Who is this character inspired by? Is all the talk of volumetric fog or cel-shaded graphics really worthwhile? Do the game mechanics really seem solid, or are they lackluster? In All You Need To Know we provide information to help you fully appreciate what these upcoming games have to offer.

Feed your head after the jump.

Check out our collection of Left 4 Dead 2 related downloads here on Big Download!

So Left 4 Dead 2 is at the top of this week's Steam top 10 best selling game list. Not a shock. Not a shock at all, considering that the zombie co-op shooter sequel from Valve won't be showing up on any other downloadable game services. With the demo (for pre-orders) being released next week on Steam you can bet that sales will continue to pick up . . . oh you get it.

Borderlands continues to do well in its pre-orders, showing up in the number two position. Codemasters' military shooter Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is also still selling well and is in the number three position this week.

1. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
2. Borderlands - Gearbox Software/2K Games
3. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising - Codemasters
4. Civilization IV: The Complete Edition - Firaxis/2K Games
5. Aion Standard Edition - NCSoft
6. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II - Relic/THQ
7. Saints Row 2 - Volition/THQ
8. Cities XL Limited Edition - Monte Cristo Games
9. Left 4 Dead - Valve
10. Counter-Strike: Source - Valve

Valve has already announced that pre-orders for Left 4 Dead 2 would get early access to the demo for the zombie co-op shooter sequel on October 27. Today they revealed even more info about the demo including its setting and when everyone else can get in and shoot some more undead flesh.

The demo itself will take place in The Parish campaign, the first of the five campaigns that Valve showed off when Left 4 Dead 2 was first announced in June. As with the original Left 4 Dead demo there is support for up to four players. The demo will feature all of the new boss zombies in the sequel along with all of the game's new melee weapons. There's no word on how many levels the demo will contain nor what specific gameplay modes will be featured. After pre-orders get access to the demo, alll PC gamers will be able to play it starting Nov. 3.

We had a feeling this would happen anyway but this week it became official. Five months after a bunch of nerds gamers decided to form a boycott against Left 4 Dead 2, the group's leaders made the decision to break the group up, claiming that their goals have been accomplished.

If you remember, the goals of the boycott were were to get Valve to continue to support the original game in their zombie shooter series (something they said they would do ever since Left 4 Dead 2 was announced) and that Left 4 Dead 2 be either a free expansion or have some kind of discount (Valve is giving folks a 10 percent discount via Steam and even more with their four-pack arrangement, the latter of which they also had for the original game). Valve even flew up the two main organizers of the boycott to their offices to play Left 4 Dead 2.

In their farewell statement the organizers state, " . . . we have paved the way for Developer-Community relations in the future." We are not sure about that since Valve has always listened to their community and taken their statements to heart many times. However, the two organizers got their free Valve trip. We guess that's something.

Valve's zombie co-op shooter sequel Let 4 Dead 2 is on top of the Steam top 10 best selling PC games for a second straight week. It's likely that the game will stay atop the Steam list for quite a while as Valve has already said pre-orders for the game have already surpassed those of the original.

Codemasters' military shooter Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising debuts at the number two spot this week with Gearbox Software's FPS-RPG hyrbid game Borderlands jumping in at number three and Piranha Bytes' fantasy RPG Risen rising to the number four position. The full top 10 list, based as always on total revenue for the week, is as follows:

• 1. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
• 2. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising - Codemasters
• 3. Borderlands - Gearbox Software/2K Games
• 4. Risen - Piranha Bytes/Deep Silver
• 5. Empire Total War: The Warpath Campaign - The Creative Assembly/Sega
• 6. Empire: Total War - The Creative Assemby/Sega
• 7. Aion Standard Edition - NCsoft
• 8. Aion Collector's Edition - NCsoft
• 9. Left 4 Dead - Valve
• 10. Cities XL Limited Edition - Monte Cristo

Valve has been keeping the titles and locations of the final two campaigns for Left 4 Dead 2 under wraps but a Taiwan-based web site seems to have gotten the "movie posters" for those final two sections in Valve's upcoming zombie-co shooter sequel.

It's possible that those posters are fakes. It's also possible that some journalists have broken an embargo and posted up those final two campaign posters just for the heck of it. In any case, if you want to keep the secret alive, don't read after the jump. If you do want to see what the site reported, head over after the jump to see what's what.

Valve was apparently only supposed to show press folks the new Scavenge mode in Left 4 Dead 2 this week at a press event but 1Up.com caught something different while playing the press build of Valve's upcoming co-op zombie shooter sequel. They saw a menu option titled "Realism Mode" and that's something that Valve wasn't supposed to show this week.

However, Valve's Doug Lombardi admitted to the new mode when asked, saying it's for the super hardcore players that blow through games like, as an example, Portal in just a few minutes. There's no word yet on the specifics of "Realism Mode" but we will guess it's more involved that going through puzzle levels with no enemies.

Gamers in Australia can breath easy. It looks like they will indeed be getting some version of Left 4 Dead 2. The original version of Valve's zombie co-op shooter sequel was denied a rating by the country's ratings board, which effectively bans the game from being sold. However, the board has shown on its web site that the game has now the MA 15+ rating, the current highest level that a game can get in that country.

It's likely that the MA15 + rating was given to the edited version that Valve submitted to the board. However they are also still appealing the original decision to deny the unedited Left 4 Dead 2 a rating. That decision is expected to be made by the board later this month.

[Via Kotaku]

Slowly but surely, Valve is revealing more and more content they plan to put into their upcoming zombie co-op shooter sequel Left 4 Dead 2. At a new press event this week, Shacknews reports that Valve's promised all new multiplayer mode for the game is called Scavenge, a variation of the original game's Versus mode.

Just like in Versus, Scavenge has a four-player human team going up against a four-player "Special" zombie team along with hordes of regular zombies. The human players have to take 16 gas cans that appear in the levels and use them to fill generators. Each can used adds 20 seconds to the round's initial countdown clock of 120 seconds. Of course, the zombies still want to eat the humans and could even cause the gas cans to explode. The winning team is declared after six rounds with each team taking three turns for each side. Six Scavenge maps will be included in the final version of Left 4 Dead 2.

Valve still has some secrets to reveal in the game; they have yet to show the final two of the game's five campaigns.

The recent decision by Australia's game ratings board to ban the sale of Left 4 Dead 2 in its current form has generated a ton of press already. Now the game's developer Valve has announced that while they are still appealing the decision and want the zombie-themed co-op shooter to be released in its original form, they also have created an edited version that they will submit as well.

According to GameSpot Valve's head man Gabe Newell, stated, "So the goal is to guarantee that something will be available on November 17 in Australia while at the same time pushing to get approval for that to be the full version of the game." He did not say how the game was different in its edited version. A decision of the appeal for the original version should be made on October 22 but we should learn if the edited version will be approved by the ratings system soon.

In 2008 Valve announced that it would spend $10 million to promote their zombie co-op shooter Left 4 Dead. We are not sure if the game benefited from all that marketing and ad money (it's about shooting zombies with pals and it comes from Valve; copy sold for us) but the game was a big hit and continues to sell well in its PC Steam version.

Today Valve announced that they would be spending even more to promote the game's quick-to-develop sequel Left 4 Dead 2. How much? Try $25 million, which in case you are keeping score is over double what Valve spend to market the original game. Cue ad execs doing the happy dance now.

Look for print, billboards and online ads along with TV ads during UFC and Monday Night Football telecasts here in the US. Europe will also get a sizable push with TV, print and online ads along with more outdoor advertisements. Valve claims that Left 4 Dead 2 is already outpacing the original in terms of pre-orders sales, saying that the game has already set a company record for the most pre-orders for one of their titles. Valve's Gabe Newell is quoted as saying, "Left 4 Dead 2 has consistently run at 300% of Left 4 Dead's numbers." As usual for Valve specific sales numbers were not disclosed.

In related news the Left 4 Dead blog announces that the as yet unrevealed new gameplay mode for Left 4 Dead 2 will first be shown to the public during London's Eurogamer Expo on October 30-31. There is one hint given; the mode is 4 vs 4.

It's the eve of the second entry into the Left 4 Dead franchise, and as a bonus (or perhaps consolation prize) to owners of the original, the campaign Crash Course was released on September 29th. While it is, overall, shorter than your average campaign, it's also tougher and is only comprised of two missions, both of which are extra long. If you don't know how to handle yourself, you can die extremely easily, and then you'll have to restart the level all the way back at the beginning. In case you are struggling, here's a handy-dandy guide to splattering those zombie brains and guts all over the alleyway walls.