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If you bought Left 4 Dead 2 on the PC, you might be pleased to hear that some modders have figured out a way to import all of the maps from Left 4 Dead into Left 4 Dead 2, playable with the new infected, new survivors, and the baseball bat. It’s a complex process compared to most mods, and it suffers from a few major problems at the time of writing, unfortunately.

The only new weapon that works is the bat, most of the campaigns crash on certain events, and some of the switches don’t work. If you can get past this, however, you’ve got 5 new expertly designed maps to play around with. I’m expecting that at some point someone (possibly even Valve) will create working versions of all of these maps for Left 4 Dead 2, so for now my advice is to keep your game files safe, and admire the work from a distance. I just hope that they patch in Francis as a playable character. I miss him terribly.

Oh how high society frowns upon you! If you happen to be an Xbox LIVE Silver Member that enjoys decapitating zombies when you aren’t drowning kittens in your bathtub, you know that the Left 4 Dead 2 demo wasn’t available to you last week. Well, put the kitten down and power up your 360. Valve’s zombie fest sequel is waiting and your clogged tub drain will thank you.

After my hands-on with the game at the MCM Expo a few weeks ago and a lot of time spent in the pre-release demo, I feel I’ve got enough experience to let you, our dear readers, know how I feel about the game. You may remember last year I did a similar thing with the original game, and I seem to have really rather enjoyed it. I felt that since I did one last year, I should run through some of my impressions of Left 4 Dead 2.

Can the sequel live up to the original? To answer that question, here are some words that I have typed on my computer which you will read. Read more…

Valve continues to show their love for the “it only does everything” PlayStation 3 console. The latest show of support comes from a CVG interview with Valve’s writer extraordinaire, Chet Faliszek.

“In hooking up with your friends and the community aspects, I think the Xbox 360 is head and shoulders above the PS3 …  it’s all about playing with your friends.”

Apparently the PS3 isn’t friendly enough for Valve. Chet digs the knife deeper by telling gamers that they shouldn’t not buy Left 4 Dead 2 with the hope that it will eventually come out for the PlayStation 3. Read more…

Infinity Ward’s decision to utilize Steamworks exclusively (it will handle updates, saves, achievements, etc) for the PC version of their Modern Warfare 2 title has IGN’s Direct2Drive download service refusing to sell it.

Valve’s Steamworks platform is a direct competitor to IGN’s Direct2Drive service, and considering the fact that you won’t be able to play the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 without installing Steamworks, this really doesn’t come as a huge surprise. Read more…

Short and sweet, the boycott laden announcement of Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2 has made it’s way through the shit storm of hate to amass a pre-order amount four times greater than that of the original. Setting aside the hurtful past, Valve’s Chet Faliszek comments on the pre-order numbers telling CVG “I think people are just excited now,”

Aww, I just love stories with a happy ending. Maybe now is a good time for Valve to announce the development of Left 4 Dead 3. Too soon?

Weighing in at 2 gigs, the Left 4 Dead 2 demo is available on Xbox LIVE for all Gold Members as of today. As in right now. Seriously. What are you still doing here? Go download it.

Boo! I hope that didn’t completely scare you, what with Halloween coming up and all the ghosts that totally aren’t fictional and monsters that totally exist coming out to haunt us. To celebrate this rather pointless special time of year, Valve have announced that Team Fortress 2 will be having a spooky update weekend.

The update will add five achievements to unlock some new ghostly hats, a new King of the Hill map (Harvest, a Halloween-themed map with a roaming ghost that will scare players stiff) and Pumpkin-bombs. It also seems that dead players will be able to interact in some way with the living. Not sure if this is restricted to this one map, but either way it sounds brilliant. The special runs October 29th-November 3rd.

Update: The game is also super cheap from now until 2:00pm PDT; go buy it!

G4TV recently confirmed the existence of avatar awards in Valve’s upcoming Left 4 Dead 2 video game. According to G4TV’s Stephen Johnson, there will be nine avatar awards in all, but only six are known at this point.

Below is a bulleted list of the ones that have been confirmed and some detailed info on what you’ll have to do to get them as well as a video showing them in use.  Read more…

This may be the best trailer for a videogame I’ve ever seen. Hell, it might be the best trailer I’ve ever seen. Valve are getting great at making these short films; the characters shine through even with two minutes of screen time, and it makes me want the game even more. If this isn’t the purpose of a trailer, I don’t know what is.

It’s supposedly “leaked”, but I’m not buying that. Valve are careful about this stuff. It’s most likely been put out as leaked to get more press. I don’t know why, because I could watch this thing over and over again happily. It’s worth a post, leaked or not. Now excuse me while I go and enthuse a bit more over there.

The Australian games ratings board have refused to classify Left 4 Dead 2 for release. Because the game features a lot of blood and gore, it is only suitable for those who are 18 and over. Because the Australian ratings board (the OFLC) is ridiculous, they do not have an 18+ rating. Therefore, Left 4 Dead 2 is banned from being sold in Australia.

Because of the stupid and backwards system in place in Australia, the game must either lose all of its sales or cut out most of the mature content in order to secure a 15+ rating. I know that many are campaigning for a separate ratings board for games in Australia, and I wish them the best of luck- even if all they can hope for is an 18+ rating for now, that’s a start. As if they don’t suffer enough from price hikes and late releases.

This person, as with virtually everyone else on the Internet, likes Portal. As with a great majority, he decided to make something that references the game. The thing about this one, though, is not only that it is probably the best Companion Cube I’ve ever seen, it opens up to reveal the Portal cake (also fantastically well recreated) as well as some of the game’s staple graffiti.

I’m bracing myself, though. Portal memes are getting on my nerves no end, and this is likely to kick them right off again. Anyone who comments with a Portal reference gets a stern talking to. However, a clever pun gets you a pat on the back (and you’d better be GLaD of it).

What you see above is the new special infected, The Spitter. You are forgiven for looking away, as it’s one of the strangest things I’ve seen come out of Valve’s art studio. the gallery below shows some new features of the game off, including some new weapons, the new types of zombie, and generally just the bleak looking swamp level. I can;t wait to get my hands on this game, if only just to shoot the monstrosity that is The Spitter right in the face with a shotgun.
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In this preview of Left 4 Dead 2, some brand new details about the game have been revealed, including some new infected types and more details about the Swamp level. First of all, the level-specific infected, known as ‘common-uncommons’, for the swamp have been revealed. We already knew about the ones with fire-proof suits on, but the swamp level has ‘mud men’, who run quickly on all fours through the swamp, making them difficult to spot.

A new special infected is the ‘Spitter’, who provides a more long-range option for the infected. He spits out an attack (unspecified at this point, probably gob) that damages those who stand in it. The attck isn#t fantastically powerful but can hinder a team who stay in the area of effect too long. Finally, the preview mentions adrenaline and ammo packs (which replace pills and first aid kits). The adrenaline packs allow you to run past zombies without them slowing you down, as well as removing restrictions on your melee attack. Sounds good to me, although removing health packs seems a little odd. I trust Valve, though. They know what they’re doing.

Valve have updated Left 4 Dead today with a patch that adds a lobby browser to the game. This is an important addition to the game; not only does it mean we are able to make our own decisions about where we want to play, but it means that the inevitably great community maps are much more widely available.

Instead of having to go to a map site, downloading a map, and hoping that someone else has done the same, one can simply browse the lobbies for a map they would like, and download it in-game. Hooray for custom maps, and hooray for no longer being treated like children!

As an African-American male in today’s society, it absolutely pains me to see racism become so pervasive in video games. Sure, I’ll shoot the black zombies in Resident Evil 5, and I’ll absolutely love doing it, but behind these hazel brown eyes, a little black man (with a tiny hat, even) inside me cries- which is why it’s absolutely APPALLING to see Left 4 Dead 2 follow RE5’s pattern and include some black zombies.

Despicable!
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As you can see in the (brilliant) above image, Valve have revealed a certain sports bat will be featured in Left 4 Dead 2. Yes, the cricket bat, likely a homage to the fantastic zombie film Shaun of the Dead, will be available for use. Perhaps I should be berated for posting something that is probably a little trivial and not newsworthy- that was my initial reaction.

However, by doing this post, I am able to simultaneously post a picture of a zombie being smacked by a cricket bat by a man in a hat with the English flag on it, and praise a brilliant British film. This is the first time I’ve ever felt patriotic, and it’s all thanks to zombies.
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Yesterday I reported that Left 4 Dead 2 seemed to be coming to PS3, as the console was listed on the game’s EA products page. Now, however, it looks like that was simply an error. The product page has been updated and now it only lists “Xbox 360, PC, PC Download.” Sorry to get your hopes up, Sony fans.

Valve may be opposed to porting its games to the PlayStation 3, but their publisher Electronic Arts sure the hell isn’t. A PS3 version of Left 4 Dead 2 is listed on its EA Games page, leading the internet to assume that EA will port it to the console, just as they did with Team Fortress 2. Let’s hope they do a better job this time.

Digital Battle

True to their word, Valve are going to release a Left 4 Dead update next week, focused mainly on the community maps that have been created, and pushing for more to be made in the coming months. The update includes a much better matchmaking system, support for community maps, the full, non-beta SDK release, and obviously support for new maps, models, and textures (via an “add-ons” section).

This is an important update for PC fans of Left 4 Dead, since we’ll be getting a whole load more maps made by the community. Going on the support for TF2, there’ll be a lot of great maps, both well designed and ridiculously silly. I urge everyone with the skills to make a L4D map to do it!