left-4-dead-2 posts

Left 4 Dead 2 may be getting some new content soon-ish but a new gameplay trailer for a fictional spin-off of Valve's zombie shooter is currently getting a lot of attention on the interwebs. It shows off the game's resident garden gnome doing what he does best.

And apparently what he does best is shooting, chain sawing and otherwise going on a massive rampage. The trailer, which you can check out after the jump, comes to us from the Fine Leather Jackets group and it's one of the most entertaining short films we have seen in a while. Valve, the balls in your court on this one. We want to play this game for real.

The weekend is getting closer and we have far too many PC games to play. It's time to pace ourselves before we become part of our PC office chair.

• Steam has automatic updates for Arcadia, Booster Trooper, Dogfighter, and Lead and Gold.
• Left 4 Dead 2 is repeating the Last Gnome on Earth gameplay mutation this week.
• You can now check out a free streaming video of the GDC 2011 Doom post mortem panel taped earlier this month.
• Why is Duke Nukem Forever now being released overseas a few days before it comes to the US? 2k Games says blame retailers.
• You can now buy official Minecraft t-shirts. How cute.
• Ubisoft is hiring for someone to write a Assassin's Creed encyclopedia.

A few weeks ago Valve announced that it would be releasing a new campaign for its zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 titled Cold Stream. Today the campaign is now available for people to download in beta form.

The campaign, created by community mapper Matthew Lourdelet, will be tested out before it's officially released as part of a new Left 4 Dead 2 DLC package from Valve. As previously announced the DLC will contain Cold Stream as well as Left 4 Dead 2 versions of the three remaining campaigns from the original Left 4 Dead that have yet to be ported. There's still no word on when the DLC will be released.

PAX East 2011 is finished its first day. Look for reports from our editor Steven Wong in the near future:

• Steam has a new automatic update today for Team Fortress 2.
• Left 4 Dead 2 players can now check out a repeat of the Follow The Lifer mutation gameplay mode.
• Minecraft's creator Markus "Notch" Persson talks about generating terrain.
• Could Battlefield 3 allow for 256 players in one match? Sure but according to Digital Illusions it would not be a lot of fun to play.
• More info on Guild Wars 2's Thief profession has been revealed.

Friday's here. Anyone still playing Bulletstorm? Anyone trying to sign into those Rift Head Start servers and having to wait hours and hours before finally being able to play online? It's the joys of PC gaming

• This week Valve brings back the Bleed Out Mutation gameplay mode for Left 4 Dead 2.
• Dragon Age 2's soundtrack features a song from currently popular band Florence + The Machine.
• Bulletstorm has a very interesting unlockable weapon skin. And by "interesting" we mean "dirty"
• Happy 15th anniversary this week to the release of Qtest, the first public demo version of Quake.

With GDC less than a week away, the new game announcements should be coming fast and furious very soon.

• Steam has an automatic update for Left 4 Dead 2 that is suppose to improve performance over a wide range of ATI-based graphics cards.
• Steam has also added the indie platformer CreaVures to its library of titles.
• A blind PC gamer can play Oddworld Abe's Exoddus by just using the sound effects.
• It's true: Valve at one point wanted to make a submarine-based game.
• Bethesda has announced one of the prizes if someone names their kid born on 11/11/11 Dovahkiin. It's actually pretty cool

Left 4 Dead 2 hasn't had a new official DLC release since last October's The Sacrifice. However developer Valve revealed some early plans for the next batch of DLC for its zombie co-op shooter on the game's official blog site today. The update states that the DLC will include the three remaining Left 4 Dead 1 campaigns that have not yet been adapted into Left 4 Dead 2 levels. It will also contains a campaign called Cold Stream created by community mapper Matthew Lourdelet.

The blog site states they are looking for the community to offer up their input on the DLC pack and have started up a forum thread for anyone to give their ideas. The release date for the DLC pack is still vague with Valve saying only it will be coming out after its puzzle shooter sequel Portal 2 is released.

[Via Blue's News]

We hope all of you had a good Valentine's Day. Of course there's still the day after where some of you will realize that the person who you made your Valentine is just an artificial intelligence out to trick humanity. That happened to us last year; never again.

• Not a huge shock but Ubisoft has confirmed that it will reveal details of the next Assassin's Creed game in May.
• There will be a huge announcement from THQ in the second week of March.
• Steam has new automatic updates available for Left 4 Dead 2 and Railworks 2.
• The next patch for the Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II Retribution beta goes live tomorrow; here are the patch notes.
• In related news, the CGI-based Warhammer 40,000 movie Ultramarines is being shown for free this weekend at several movie theaters in the US.

Left 4 Dead 2 is no stranger to death; the players have to fight off undead Infected creatures. But for the latest mutation gameplay mode for Valve's zombie co-op shooter puts the death part of the game even more on the player.

The Death's Door mode, which will be on Valve's official servers for the next two weeks, basically means that if you go down in a firefight, then that's it. No revival or first aid can help you come back to life with your buddies. Your time in the match is over. Meanwhile the game's official servers will have the community-made map One 4 Nine online for the next week.

While Valve has never revealed specific revenue and sales numbers for its Steam PC/Mac download service, a organization called Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment (FADE) claims in a press release today that the Steam service generated $970 million in revenue in 2010. The month of December 2010 alone saw $213 million in revenues for Steam, according to FADE's numbers.

While the press release didn't give specific sale unit number, it did say that Call of Duty: Black Ops was the number one best selling game on Steam in 2010 with $98.2 million in revenue. Assuming that number is accurate, that means the game sold about 1.6 million copies on Steam (at $59.99 a copy) in less than two months. The 2009 released shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 came in second in revenue in 2010 with $39.4 million and Valve's own game Left 4 Dead 2 was third with $36 million. According to FADE's study, over 180 games on Steam had sales of at least $1 million in 2010.

Big Download contacted FADE to find out more about how it came up with its Steam revenue numbers. It's Director of Research & Analysis Benjamin Schlichter told us, "Our sales figures for Steam are estimated by incorporating a passive user survey of approximately 8 million registered Steam users. This allows us to track actual sales conversions by users, so we can offer insights into the Steam market." He declined to give more info about FADE's methodology, stating, "Our system is proprietary, which allows us to ensure our competitors can't offer the same volumes of information." We have emailed Valve to see if it wishes to comment on FADE's estimated revenue numbers on Steam. You can check out FADE's estimates of the top 10 best selling games on Steam in 2010 after the jump

Update: We have gotten a statement from Valve's Marketing Director Doug Lombardi who told us simply, "We do not release our detailed sales. We have never met with FADE."