Left 4 Dead 2

I'm finally excited for a game to come out this year!

June 1, 2009 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2), the sequel to the best-selling and critically-acclaimed co-operative multiplayer thriller.

Coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC, L4D2 promises to set a new benchmark for co-operative action games and become one of 2009's marquee titles.

"A large part of how Left 4 Dead became 2008's top-selling new IP on Xbox 360 and the PC was the custom-tailored gameplay made possible by the AI Director," said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. "With the knowledge gained from creating the original, new technology, and a passionate team, L4D2 will set a new benchmark for cooperative action games."

Set for release on November 17, the title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaw, frying pan, axe, baseball bat, and more.

Introducing the AI Director 2.0, L4D's dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players' performance. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.

Featuring new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original with more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, and maps for Survival mode available at launch.

Supported by a $10+ million marketing campaign, Left 4 Dead has sold over 2.5 million retail copies since it was released in November of 2008. Left 4 Dead 2 is targeted for release on Xbox 360 and the PC on November 17, 2009, and will be launched worldwide with a multi-million dollar marketing campaign across TV, Outdoor, and Online.

"Left 4 Dead was backed by our most aggressive advertising campaign to date, and resulted in a top 5 showing on two platforms during holiday 2008," said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. "Left 4 Dead 2 is a larger game and will be supported with even more consumer and retail advertising programs than the original."

Left 4 Dead 2 will be featured as the cover story on PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazines this month.

To be honest I'd have preferred if they followed through on the first game before they even started on a sequel.
Valve did kinda promise they'd suppose L4D with loads of new gameplay, and while they have done so, it seems they're a little rushed to use the same concept twice for money making purposes. Exactly how much of L4D2's content couldn't be released as an update to L4D?
I guess it's too much to ask for that volume of game support without a price tag attatched these days.

...oh well, by the way Valve, what happened to Episode 3 huh? Priorities!

I recon they're further behind in development of HL2:Ep3 than they thought so their E3 enouncement was changed from that to L4D2. I'm quite shocked that a sequal is coming out just one year after the orgianal. Valve have never released sequals that quickly, although I think massive delays are coming. I've definitely gotten my moneys worth out of L4D so I don't really feel cheated. I just hope valve don't take the EA/activision route of releasing a new version of a game each year.

On that note who's up for geussing what the new characters will be like?

Here's my attempt:

Sassy Black Girl - two birds with one stone
Asian crazy haired wock and woll super star guy
Ex-call girl
Dr. Daniel Jackson (first season of SG1)

Dude, theyve released screens of the new survivors?

Thar is a black girl - knowing most stereotypes she will be sassy!
Theres a black Uncle Phil fresh prince of bel air type black guy
A Tony Montana gangster wannabe
Then theres a guy who sorta looks like Ben Affleck!

http://kotaku.com/5274465/meet-left-4-dead-2s-new-survivors-see-first-screens

hey look, more posters of guns that you won't be able to use in-game :p

oh wow, just watched a teaser trailer on steam, looks cool - you get hillbilly tanks, woot! Also spent 30 mins replaying the demo for zombie shooter or something, fun lil' game : D

Amaya wrote:

Then theres a guy who sorta looks like Ben Affleck!
http://kotaku.com/5274465/meet-left-4-dead-2s-new-survivors-see-first-screens

"you white so.. you Ben Affleck!"

"It's true, you are white"

I heard that because they're gonna keep supporting L4D1 they might allow the original suvivors to transfer to the sequel or something. That'd be good, I'm not really keen on these new survivors. At least the original survivors were unique in their own right.

(my apologies for starting a duplicate topic of this in the xbox thread)

Big no no for me.

I got bored of the game pretty quickly (maybe because me and my mate played the BETA so much)
And when they announced this was coming out as a whole new game and not an expansion, I was all like

"Damn you valve".

Killing floor is sooo much more fun then L4D, if any of you have palyed it

Quote :

Killing floor is sooo much more fun then L4D, if any of you have palyed it

They said the same thing about Dead Rising 2. Sorry, but attaching chainsaws to kyak ores doesn't cut it for me.

Lol

If only there were chainsaws and flame-throwers and rocket launchers in l4d huh?

Well there's gonna be chainsaws in L4D2, at any rate. They were in the trailer.

I myself - that is to say, me, am greatly looking forward to Left 4 Dead 2. I'm also one of the people who strongly opposes the "boycott" of it, as I think most of the reasons are quite silly. The main reason is that I play games such as this for story as well as the game - a reason I love that we get a new Call of Duty every year (sometimes two!) - and knowing where the infection came from is going to be cool for me. I don't agree with talk about bad value or how it's too soon, because quite frankly I want more games more often, and they have added quite a lot of stuff to keep it fresh.

But yeah, if excitement could cause swelling, I'd be a boomer by now.

ExcessiveEvil wrote:

Killing floor is sooo much more fun then L4D, if any of you have palyed it

Disagree myself, got bored of Killing Floor, though didn't play it that much.

Personally am looking forward to L4D2!

Diverting traffic from this thread into the other L4D thread in Gamer Banter.