Left 4 Dead 2 Announced For November

hansamurai writes "Left 4 Dead 2 has been announced at E3, and a trailer for the game has surfaced. It will be released November 17, 2009, just a year after the first game. Gameplay changes include a new focus on melee weapons, especially the iconic anti-zombie weapon, the chainsaw. The cast of characters is brand new, but the plot appears to take place during the same zombie outbreak." The game is being developed for the PC and Xbox 360, and Valve says it will make use of a new version of their AI engine, which has 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." Rock, Paper, Shotgun got the chance to do a hands-on preview, providing details about the gameplay and confirming that "it's a coherent new imagining of the game, this time bigger, smarter, and far more elaborate. Oh, and gloriously more gory."

Comments

What about HL2 Episode 3?

[letsief]

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing Left 4 Dead, but I was really hoping we'd finally get an update on Half Life 2: Episode 3. Left 4 Dead gets a sequel after one year, but we have to wait three years (presumably) for Episode 3?

Re:What about HL2 Episode 3?

[Zeussy]

remember that Left 4 Dead that made by Turtle Rock Studios or now Valve South. Valve North have been quite quiet, apart from the TF2 updates.

Re:Sigh...

[jandrese]

Don't worry, this is Valve, it will be delayed until 2012.

Title

[yoyhed]

Left 4 Dead 2? What about Left 8 Dead?

This sucks

[Caboosian]

What the hell happened to the continued post-release support of L4D? TF2's community has been growing steadily thanks to the fantastic updates being constantly released for it - yet L4D's map editor isn't even out yet? Simply put, this is a grab for money - they're cutting the legs out from under L4D, and releasing what quite simply should be free updates. I mean, honestly, this isn't even that much new content - the gameplay is exactly the same, the graphics are just barely better, and the setting, well, kind of sucks.

As far as I'm concerned, Valve just got downgraded from premium status in my book. This game is a mistake.

Re:This sucks

[kusanagi374]

Basically Valve broke their promise from last year and is now officially a greedy developer. If they intended to have Left4Dead be a technology preview all along, they should've gone and called this paid beta-testing as the Prologue version, like Gran Turismo 5.

"Valve intends to support hotly anticipated zombie survival shooter Left 4 Dead post-release with new characters, new maps, new achievements and new weapons in order to grow the community, Gabe Newell has revealed.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com at Leipzig Games Convention, the Valve co-founder and managing director said the developer intended to follow a similar downloadable content policy as it has with Team Fortress 2.

Newell said that Valve's support of the game post-launch will be essential for growing the community.

He said: "One of the things that we're doing is we seem to be in a transition between games as a package product and games more of a service. So if you look at Team Fortress 2, one of things that's really helped grow the community is the continuous updates, where we release new maps, new character classes, new unlockables, new weapons. And we tell the stories about the characters, like the meet the sniper, or meet the sandwich. And that ongoing delivery of content really seems to grow the community."
 
 

source: http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/left_4_dead/news/valve_details_post_left_4_dead_launch_plans.html

Re:This sucks

[$1uck]

I cannot disagree with you more. Seriously, for how much time I've played the game and how much enjoyment I've received from the game I have gotten my money's worth multiple times. The article I read specifically states that this does not mean that support for l4d is going away. It also stated that it is a possibility that l4d would be included with l4d2. Something else I'm completely fine with, I would simply give my copy of l4d away to someone who was unsure if they wanted to buy the game.

Looks to be plenty of new content, 5 campaigns, new infected, new behaviors from old special infected, melee weapons, expanded alteration game play driven by the ai (maps will vary from play to play).

If you think it sucks don't buy the game. I will gladly shell out the money when the game is released (fully expecting it to sell for half the price 6 months later).

Dynamic Lighting

[Anonymous Coward]

The real question is will I be able to to see the light from the other player's flashlights.

And the scores are...

[Anonymous Coward]

Left - 4
Dead - 2
Chelsea - 2
Everton - 1

Re:Sigh...

[tibman]

Hardly usable? Did you even play it? I had a blast with a group of buddies.. did all the campaigns in one day. I still play every other day with various steam groups. Valve has done a good job addressing map hacks and other wierdness you run into online. The only thing Valve didn't do right with L4D is releasing only 4 campaigns and 2 of which weren't usable in versus mode.

Re:Xbox 360? Sigh...Once Again Gimped

[morari]

I think the fact that we're getting a "sequel" instead of an expansion pack goes to show that console versions screw everyone over.

Re:Sigh...

[interkin3tic]

I'm assuming they have different teams for different games, and I'm equally sure the half-life team is, in fact, concentrating on wrapping up the half life 2 series.

Plus, in my opinion, TF2 outshines HL2 and the episodes, even though they were amazing themselves.