Left 4 Dead: Crash Course

There’s a great interview with Valve writer, Chet Faliszek, at Offworld about Left 4 Dead and Valve culture in general. Very interesting conversation about the larger Left 4 Dead world, which has some surprises in store for us.

Interestingly, Faliszek mentions that the recently announced L4D1 DLC, Crash Course, was supposed to be released before E3 and the Left 4 Dead 2 announcement.

“I think in this case we just didn’t message correctly,” said Faliszek to Offworld. “We didn’t make it clear that Left 4 Dead was still going to be updated. We just didn’t think to mention it, we were focusing on other stuff.” “We, internally, always knew we were going to do cool new stuff, so we didn’t say anything about the original game,” he added. “Of course we also intended to get the Crash Course DLC for L4D out before E3, but some things held us up.” “I think if we had that out before the Left 4 Dead 2 announcement, then it would have been clearer for our intentions. Losing the opportunity to get that right hurt us, but I think we made the right choices otherwise.”

While I really enjoy what Valve is doing here, I’m not entirely convinced this is true. It all seems like damage control. From the outside looking in, Crash Course seems to be a short Left 4 Dead experience, one easily concocted between E3 and its September release. I’m hoping I’m wrong!

Left 4 Dead 2 - Dark Carnival

We’ve played “The Parish”, we’ve played “Swamp Fever” and soon we’ll get a chance at the new “Dark Carnival” campaign from Left 4 Dead 2. That is, if we hit the Penny Arcade Expo, where we can see different chapters in the Microsoft and Valve booth. Also we should see some more new items featured in the game. Worse, we can see that scary clown zombies will be out for blood!

Still leaves a new boss infected and an unrevealed gameplay mode unaccounted for! What will it be? Flying creatures? Free-for-all zombie/survivor deathmatches? What do you think?

GameTrailers revealed some video about Left 4 Dead 2′s “Fairgrounds” campaign and the pending DLC for Left 4 Dead, Crash Course. In Left 4 Dead 2, there’s a cool amusement park scene, and an eerie carousel, but I’m hopeful for a working rollercoaster. Crash Course opens with a helicopter crash, as it bridges the gap between No Mercy and Death Toll, and yes, confirms there are only two maps. Boo hoo, but still fun!

I’m still happy that we’ll have more Left 4 Dead to play, but I wish Valve cared a bit more. I would be fine if they bundled the best of the best fan content and sold that to me on my Xbox 360, as there is no way to play the user-created content outside of the PC. I suppose this will tide people over until November, when Left 4 Dead 2 comes out. But it feels a little cheap. If people really want a 20-30 min. Versus experience, why not just start on one of the later chapters?

Left 4 Dead: Crash Course

Valve announced today that a new Left 4 Dead downloadable content campaign, Crash Course, would be coming to Xbox 360 and PC this September. PC owners will get it free, but Xbox 360 players will need to pay $7 (560 Microsoft Points) for the campaign. Within the campaign, players can expect “new locations, new dialogue from the original cast, and an explosive finale.” Valve also stated that Crash Course is meant to bridge the gap between “No Mercy” and “Death Toll” storywise, and includes new Survival maps.

“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,” said Valve. “A recharge timer for infected teammates has also been added, and item spawn behavior has changed for more balanced gameplay.”

A complete Versus experience in under 30 mins? It usually takes that long to find a game!

The Winchester from Shaun of the Dead in Left 4 Dead form

Yes, that’s the Winchester from Shaun of the Dead, rendered in Left 4 Dead glory. A team of geniuses is re-creating many of the famous locations from Shaun of the Dead for a 5-chapter Left 4 Dead campaign (that’s hopefully compatible with Left 4 Dead 2 down the road!).

Unfortunately, no sooner is this mod discovered than the creators are getting cold feet. One member of the team is concerned with creating a campaign based on the Shaun of the Dead movie. While we’d think that would be a bad idea if you were looking to sell the campaign, creating it freely should be totally fine. But those people gotta do what they gotta do. Hopefully, we’ll still get to play it in Left 4 Dead or Left 4 Dead 2!

Check out the official site at Left4Winchester.net.