DLC and SDK scheduled for this Spring

[JackieChan]

February 5, 2008 — Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced a series of content and development releases for its latest title, 2008's best-selling new game property for the PC and Xbox 360, Left 4 Dead (L4D).

 

The first L4D DLC — dubbed the L4D Survival Pack -- is due for release this spring and introduces a new multiplayer game mode entitled, Survival, plus two complete campaigns for Versus Mode . A Critic's Choice Edition of the game will be heading to retail stores this spring, and will include access to all the content introduced in the L4D: Survival Pack.

 

In addition, for PC gamers and aspiring developers, the first Left 4 Dead release for the Source Software Development Kit (Source SDK) will allow the creation of custom Left 4 Dead campaigns that will be discoverable via L4D's matchmaking system. The SDK update is also due for release this spring, and is free of charge to all owners of L4D on the PC.

 

"Since Half-Life launched in 1998, Valve has made continuous efforts to expand the offering of its products beyond what's included on the day of launch," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. "With Half-Life and Counter-Strike, and more recently Team Fortress 2, we've learned that we're no longer making stand-alone games but creating entertainment services. With Left 4 Dead we're extending that tradition by creating additional gameplay and releasing our internal tools to aspiring developers so they may also create and distribute new Left 4 Dead experiences."

 

Left 4 Dead is a survival action game from Valve that blends the social entertainment experience of multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress with the dramatic, narrative experience made popular in single player action game classics such as the Half-Life series of games. Released in November of 2008, L4D has earned over 25 industry awards from outlets around the world.

 

I'm excited to know what Survival is like. I wonder if it'll be the survivors in some area and have to hold out as long as possible and scored on how long they last.

 

Unfortunately, it seems that the DLC is going to cost some monies too.

Edited February 5, 2009 by JackieChan

[TheFirstMonk]

I'm excited to know what Survival is like. I wonder if it'll be the survivors in some area and have to hold out as long as possible and scored on how long they last.

 

Unfortunately, it seems that the DLC is going to cost some monies too.

 

Yeah, Survival could be like that zombie mini game in COD where you fight endless waves of zombies. It could be something entirely different though (I hope). I don't mind if it's going to cost some money as long as they keep it small (like 10-15 dollars) and as long as the content is worth it. If not, I might not buy it right away until the price dropped a bit.

 

Btw, I like your sig.

[JackieChan]

Apparently after roaming around the Steam forums again, someone e-mailed Gabe about the DLC costing money and this is his response:

 

 

Now send that guy who didn't block out his e-mail a bunch of spam!

Edited February 6, 2009 by JackieChan

[anonymo]

Either Gabe sent that mysteriously from the future or I'm at work on a Saturday.

[dwEEziL]

Every hear of Time Zones?

[anonymo]

Every hear of Time Zones?

Pretty sure Washington isn't over 24 hours different...

[dwEEziL]

That's on the recipients e-mail. The time stamp would be adjusted for his computer.

[anonymo]

That's on the recipients e-mail. The time stamp would be adjusted for his computer.

Does it? I thought that was all fixed years ago...

[JackieChan]

Okay. So, I ended up missing the GTTV air on Spike TV last night, so I caught it on their site this morning. They explained what the new content was and it felt like a huge tease.

 

To me, the huge part of the upcoming update for L4D was the Survival Mode. Anything new to L4D at this point is a breath of fresh air no matter how many times you've killed mobs and mobs of infected. So, I'm watching the new content segment on L4D and they're showing all this footage of Death Toll and Dead Air being played in Versus Mode.

 

I say to myself, "Ok, that's cool. I want to know more about that Survival Mode nao."

 

Then a little bit later, they have a subtitle saying "Survival Mode footage not featured."

 

What a big tease! They advertised how they would be showing exclusive footage of the new content only to announce 3/4ths of the way through that Survival Mode footage wouldn't be shown. I already know what Versus Mode is like!

 

On a brighter note, they did announce a nice little tidbit about the Survival Mode. It is going to be like the Horde Mode in Gears of War 2, or the Zombie Mode in CoD:WaW (I'm not going to be clever and put a @ in there).

 

Apparently, it's speculated that Valve might be adding Leaderboards for this mode too, so I'm sure us GCers would dominate em... only if people wouldn't be such cheaters and use other means to get high up there by cheating (I wouldn't dream of it ).

 

Anywho, that's all there is on the new content. No new campaign for co-op, the other two campaigns for Versus, and a Survival Mode - I forgot to mention this - featuring 12 maps to play the mode on. They just better not just rehash the old maps and make them Survival Mode friendly. That would just be lazy.

Edited February 7, 2009 by JackieChan

[eXile]

this is sounding like a pretty lackluster content update.