left-4-dead posts

As you prepare to shop and give presents to your family and friends you may want to give those gifts a certain special something. Valve's online store has some newly available holiday greeting cards that should give your gift giving efforts some extra "oomph."

The three sets of cards cover Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2 and the new Left 4 Dead 2 (which you can see above). The cards have that weird humor theme that always seems to creep up in Valve projects (we especially like the Spitter card in the Left 4 Dead 2 set). Of course there's also lots of t-shirts and other items in the online store that would be perfect for any Valve fan for the holidays (we want the Midnight Riders tour shirt please).

Valve has yet to release the mod tools for Left 4 Dead 2 (we assume they are coming soon-ish) but in the meantime that hasn't stopped some enterprising mod creators from shoehorning the characters, new zombie bosses and items from the just released shooter sequel into the original Left 4 Dead campaigns.

The L4DMods.com site has the full instructions on how to make this happen. The site puts up plenty of warnings that this kind of thing is not for folks who are unfamiliar with opening up and altering a PAK file but as you can see from the above screenshot it is possible to get Coach, Nick, Noelle and Ellis up north to battle the infected.

[Via Kotaku]

You might think that big temporary price cuts on games via download services could hurt revenues when they go back up to their regular prices. However, Valve has some evidence that the reverse is actually true and that temporary price cuts on games could serve to actually improve revenues in the long run.

Gamasutra reports that during a speech at the Montreal International Game Summit, Valve's director of business development Jason Holtman stated that, "in a connected market, you can shift prices up and down, and people don't care." As evidence he cited the quick two hour sale they held last month for the multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2 via Steam, which got its price cut down to just $2.49. Sales went way up during those brief time periods, they also stayed at higher levels after it was over.

Furthermore, retail sales for games are unaffected with the digital download prices. Holtman states that there was a price cut on Steam for Left 4 Dead back in February and, "retail [sales] were unaffected."

While folks are waiting on their PCs tonight to unlock Left 4 Dead 2 on Steam (that should happen at midnight Eastern time tonight) another developer is working on his own version of the original game. The difference? He's making it as a 8-bit NES-style title. Yep, it's supposed to be a fully playable version of the game with support for just a few pixels and support for just one or two players (sorry no four player co-op in NES's timeline).

The game's creator is budding game designer Eric Ruth and while he has created a number of original NES-style games this is apparently his first attempt to port an existing franchise to his game design style. As you can see from the video above he's got the general idea behind Valve original game down patch. Thankfully you won't have to have a modded NES to play the full version; Ruth says he will release the game for free for the PC in early January. Big Download got Ruth to answer some questions about his upcoming reimagining of Left 4 Dead.

So much for all the talk about boycotts against Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's PC port. The Infinity Ward-developed shooter is firmly on top of this week's latest top 10 best selling games (according to revenue) on the Steam download service. Steam is the only place (legally anyway) where one can download and purchase Modern Warfare 2. Other download services like Direct2Drive, Impulse and Gamersgate have decided not to make the game available because they have objected to the game's use of Steamworks's features that are required for the PC version.

Valve's zombie co-op shooter Left 4 Dead 2, due to be unlocked at midnight Eastern time tonight on Steam, took the number two sales spot this week. Dragon Age: Origins' regular edition and deluxe edition took the third and fourth spot while Borderlands continues to sell well in fifth position.

1. Modern Warfare 2 - Infinity Ward/Activision
2. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
3. Dragon Age Origins - BioWare/EA
4. Dragon Age Origins Digital Deluxe Edition - BioWare/EA
5. Borderlands - Gearbox Software/2K Games
6. Overlord Complete Pack - Triumph Studios/Codemasters
7. Torchlight - Runic Games
8. Crysis Maximum Edition - Crytek/EA
9. Football Manager 2010 - Sega
10. Mass Effect - BioWare/EA

While Valve's release of Left 4 Dead 2 is just over a week away, the developer has not forgotten how to support the original game in their zombie shooter series. The latest update to Left 4 Dead, available automatically via Steam, has added a feature many fans of the game have been waiting on.

It's the Team Versus 4 on 4 competitive matchmaking feature Valve has been promising would be added in the game for some time. The update also fixes a couple of bugs in the game but the matchmaking feature is something we know will please fans of the original. Meanwhile, Left 4 Dead 2 is available for pre-load on Steam ahead of its release November 17.

Looks like the so-called "protest" by a group of gamers against the release of Left 4 Dead 2 had just about zero effect on pre-orders for Valve's zombie shooter sequel. According to Computer and Video Games' Valve's Chet Faliszek stated that pre-orders have come in at "four times" the amount of the original game released just a year ago.

And what about those protesters who feel that releasing Left 4 Dead 2 just over a year after the original would split the community and is simply a way for Valve to get more money? Faliszek states that there will always be someone complaining about something and adds, "Honestly I made the joke and it's true: If you put $20 in a box and charge $10 for it someone would complain you didn't put $50 in a box."

Gallery: Left 4 Dead 2

This mod adds the 'Dead Before Dawn' Campaign to Left 4 Dead. It's inspired by the movie Dawn of the Dead. Installation instructions are shown after the jump.

"The custom campaign Left 4 Dead fans have been clamouring for has finally arrived, bringing Valve's zombie shooter to the Crossroads Mall--the setting for Zack Snyder's zombie movie remake Dawn of the Dead.

Dead Before Dawn contains 5 maps--the sixth, the finale is not included in this beta--for both co-op and versus play. For that complete shopping mall experience, there are hundreds of new props along new music, new voice-overs and randomized special events. "

Download Left 4 Dead 'Dead Before Dawn' Campaign (1.1 GB)

Gallery: Left 4 Dead

In comic books, crossover events between two super hero universes are considered to be a huge deal. Remember when Superman met Spider-Man? When Batman met Predator? When Archie met The Punisher? Well two of Valve's game universes are about to have a (tiny) crossover of their own.

The deal is if you pre-order Valve's upcoming zombie shooter sequel Left 4 Dead 2, not only do you gain early access to the game's demo and pay 10 percent off its regular price but if you also happen to own Valve's multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2 you get an extra in-game bonus. It's Bill's hat. Yep, now your TF2 characters will be able to wear the same hat design Bill has for Left 4 Dead 1. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. The Heavy mowing down the Tank in a game? We would love to see that.

Scenario: The zombie apocalypse is at hand. What do you do? What DO you do? If you the four person teams in Left 4 Dead and its upcoming sequel Left 4 Dead 2, you run around and start shooting as many of the undead as you can as you move from place to place.

The original game from Valve takes place in areas of Pennsylvania while Left 4 Dead 2 is in New Orleans and the surrounding Louisiana area. But what if the zombie apocalypse hit other US cities like they did in Valve's games? We decided to look at 10 such cities and postulate what would be the good, the bad and the worse thing that could happen to those cities if flesh-eating folks invaded. For how other cities around the world would do the same thing check out Game Daily's sister feature.