Left 4 Dead cover
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Genre: Shooter

Left 4 Dead

We're back!



As many of you might have heard, Gabe and I went to Australia last week to try out the Source MOD made by Joe W-A, after he was able to raise the funds for the $3000 plane ticket in less than 48 hours.

We're back now in Bellevue, Washington, we've slept through the jetlag, and both of us had an amazing time down under. Thanks to the hundreds of you who donated money to make his great experience possible (we wouldn't actually make you pay for our tickets, though — the money was donated to Child's Play).

Read the full post

Left 4 Dead Crash Course Available Now

L4D DLC2 Expands Award-Winning Game

September 29, 2009 - 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 that Crash Course -- the second downloadable content (DLC) update for its zombie thriller, Left 4 Dead (L4D) -- is available now for Xbox 360 and PC. To celebrate, Left 4 Dead is available via Steam for 50% off its regular price until Oct 2.

Entitled "Crash Course," the latest DLC delivers new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay to both platforms. Targeted for release in September, "Crash Course" bridges the gap between the end of the "No Mercy" campaign and the beginning of "Death Toll" in the original game, expanding the game universe with new locations, new dialogue from the original cast, and an explosive finale.

While containing both Survival maps and a Co-operative Campaign, the primary goal of "Crash" is to deliver a complete Versus mode experience in just 30 minutes, resulting in a streamlined version of the game's existing Versus campaigns. A recharge timer for infected teammates has also been added, and item spawn behavior has changed for more balanced gameplay.

Left 4 Dead is an action horror 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 50 industry awards from outlets around the world and sold over 3 million copies worldwide.

For more information, please visit www.l4d.com/crashcourse. Xbox 360 players may also obtain Crash Course via marketplace.xbox.com.

Left 4 Dead Crash Course Available Sept 29

L4D1 DLC2 Expands Award-Winning Game

September 23, 2009 - 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 that Crash Course -- the second downloadable content (DLC) update for its co-operative zombie thriller, Left 4 Dead (L4D) -- will be made available worldwide on September 29 on XBOX 360 and PC.

Crash Course delivers new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay to both platforms, and bridges the gap between the end of the "No Mercy" campaign and the beginning of "Death Toll" in the original game.

While containing both Survival maps and a Co-operative Campaign, the primary goal of Crash Course is to deliver a complete Versus mode experience in just 30 minutes, resulting in a streamlined version of the game's existing Versus campaigns. A recharge timer for infected teammates has also been added, and item spawn behavior has changed for more balanced gameplay.

Left 4 Dead is an action horror 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 50 industry awards from outlets around the world and sold almost 3 million copies worldwide.

For more information, please visit www.l4d.com.

Left 4 Dead 2's Zombies Invade Gametrailers TV at 12:30am on SPIKE!

Get the inside scoop on Left 4 Dead 2, new Left 4 Dead DLC and much, much more tonight on GTTV!

Tonight's revealing episode of GameTrailers TV takes viewers inside Valve as we showcase brand new Left 4 Dead 2 footage, including a never-before-seen campaign that's quite literally a carnival of zombie action! We also deliver detailed information and new gameplay footage from Left 4 Dead's upcoming DLC - Crash Course, find out about the future of the Team Fortress 2 short films and the possibility of a TF 2 comic book, and host Geoff Keighley unleashes a flurry of Twitter user-questions on Gabe Newell. Find out about Valve's distance from the PS3, the progress of Half Life 2: Episode 3, Counter-Strike 2, and a whole lot more!

All of that and more is going down tonight at 12:30am ET/PT on Spike and you can catch the show after it airs on GameTrailers.com in glorious HD.

Check out this week's promo:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/episode-220-gametrailers-tv/54082

More Left 4 Dead DLC Announced

Entitled "Crash Course," the latest DLC delivers new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay to both platforms. Targeted for release in September, "Crash Course" bridges the gap between the end of the "No Mercy" campaign and the beginning of "Death Toll" in the original game, expanding the game universe with new locations, new dialogue from the original cast, and an explosive finale.

While containing both Survival maps and a Co-operative Campaign, the primary goal of "Crash" is to deliver a complete Versus mode experience in just 30 minutes, resulting in a streamlined version of the game's existing Versus campaigns. A recharge timer for infected teammates has also been added, and item spawn behavior has changed for more balanced gameplay.

Click here to read the full press release.

Get your Campaign On

In case you missed it, here's a link to last Friday's blog post about Add-Ons, Matchmaking and Authoring Tools.

Rules of Thumb

When it came time to photograph the box art of L4D1, our art staff had three goals. One, there should be a hand in it somehow. Two, the hand should have a thumb bitten off, so customers would look at the four fingers remaining on the hand and think, "Hey, four." Three, under no circumstances would we use Photoshop. L4D is a visceral experience, and its box art deserved the same approach. Valve artist and L4D1 hand model Andrea Wicklund was more than happy to help.

Read more.

Valve Announces Left 4 Dead 2

Sequel to Best-Selling Co-op Thriller Coming This Holiday

Read the press release.

Now Hiring!

It's been an interesting week for us here on the Left 4 Dead team. This Monday, for instance, somebody accidentally told Robin Walker he had the power to fire people. In other interesting news, the Left 4 Dead team has all been fired.

Find out what's going on at the L4D blog.

A Subtle Hint

The 27th Annual Golden Joystick Awards are now accepting votes for your favorite game of the year. Now, we'd of course never for a second want to sway your vote and suggest you follow this link and vote for Left 4 Dead. We're above that sort of thing.