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Valve Provides Details On Left 4 Dead Survival Pack DLC

Posted by Soulskill on from the a-new-take-on-not-dying dept.

A post on the Left 4 Dead blog shares details of the Survival Pack downloadable content due out next week. It will be free, and available for both the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game. "Our goals for Survival Mode are to deliver a mode of play distinct from Campaign or Versus, have games that regularly last under ten minutes, and emphasize competition with team play through leaderboards. Survival Mode draws on the planning and communication aspects of a successful Finale or Crescendo event, while taking it to another level. It rapidly hits a fever pitch that only a well coordinated team will be able to successfully survive. ... Given the extreme pace of Survival Mode, the number of zombies killed in a single round often outnumbers an entire campaign."

9 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Bad content:dollar by X0563511 · · Score: 1, Informative

    See above (or below, as your settings go) where I admit my idiocy.

    --
    For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
  2. no new maps? by sentientbrendan · · Score: 3, Informative

    The gameplay of versus is great... we don't need another game mode, we need *MAPS*. I can't believe they've been wasting their time on this. If they'd actually talked to anyone who *PLAYS* their game, they would know that people want new maps.

    Everyone is tired of playing mercy hospital for the trillionth time... A new game mode isn't going to make mercy more exciting.

    1. Re:no new maps? by Fallingcow · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'd feel like Valve had done right by their customers if they'd give us the two existing non-VS campaigns as VS--which they say they will do, but goddamnit Valve, that should have been done at launch or a couple weeks after--and at least two more official campaigns (for both VS and Coop). A new game mode is fine, but more maps are what I really want.

      I'm less upset by the small number of campaigns than many are, I think, as it seems to me like 20 maps is quite a few for a multiplayer-only game, but given the nature of this one it just feels like there should be 6-8 official campaigns rather than 4. I'm sure we'll get some great community content, but Valve is just so damn good at what they do that I want more of it straight from them.

      Maybe part of the reason it bothers me at all is that the game was so clearly rushed. The fact that only two of the four campaigns were ready for Vs. play was one sign, but others abound in the interface and menu system. Hell, it still (AFAIK) kicks you back to the menu if it tries to connect to a server during a server search and fails, rather than just re-trying with the same search terms which is what pretty much everyone expects it to do. They clearly tossed the game out to the public before it was polished on even such a basic level, so I find it hard to believe that they didn't cut some planned content for the same reason. That's what I want--the stuff they cut to ship it faster.

    2. Re:no new maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      You do know that those large 5 map campaigns aren't just something a level designer can pull out of their ass on a weekend right? The four campaigns at 5 maps per must have taken quite some time to do.

      The two that were released for versus lent themselves fairly easily to versus mode play I think. The two that were NOT released for versus are a bit more wide open in some places. I played both of them a bit earlier tonight and found some spots were damned frustrating for infected as spawning was quite difficult at times, especially as the boomer.

    3. Re:no new maps? by SCPRedMage · · Score: 2, Informative

      Uh, both the remaining campaigns WILL be introduced to Versus mode as part of the Survival Pack...

      --
      My sig can beat up your sig.
    4. Re:no new maps? by SCPRedMage · · Score: 4, Informative

      Also, they're supposed to release the L4D SDK at the same time as the Survival Pack, which will let people make their own custom campaigns "discoverable via L4D's matchmaking system.

      So, new maps are DEFINITELY on the way.

      --
      My sig can beat up your sig.
    5. Re:no new maps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      The Developers Kit is going to be released for PC around the DLC time. Its already in beta testing... so there will be more high quality maps to play with over time. If you have Xbox version sorry you went with the worse choice.

  3. Re:Bad content:dollar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's free. "DLC" refers to a specific distribution system on the Xbox 360 - the downloads menu. Those are optional downloads, show up as game data in memory management, are priced to the developers whims (or released for free), and you can release as much DLC as you want as big as you want (subject to the whole certification process, of course).

    Alternatively, you can release a "title update". This is that little window that pops up when you launch a game telling you that you have to update or disconnect from Xbox Live. It's a required download, can only be done 3 times a year, is mandated free, and gets stored in the hidden 8GB system partition that the console memory manager doesn't tell you about. I'm not sure what happens if patches fill up the update memory. Most likely, old patches get trashed and re-downloaded as needed, and there's probably a really restrictive size limit.

    In short, calling it DLC is a consequence of Microsoft having two different pathways to deliver content through Xbox Live.

    Additionally, I believe that the TF2 guys stated that the 360 update has been delayed so long just because they happen to be running up against memory limits on the 360.

  4. Re:Bad content:dollar by pharm · · Score: 2, Informative

    Right now, L4D is 15 UKP in the UK from Asda online (It's been a tad cheaper elsewhere, but the rest of the online distributors have put their prices back up).

    In the US, Amazon are selling it for $27.

    Anyone who pays sticker price for games these days just isn't looking hard enough.