Monday, June 1st 2009
Valve Announces Left 4 Dead 2
Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2), the sequel to the best-selling and critically-acclaimed co-operative multiplayer thriller.
Coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC, L4D2 promises to set a new benchmark for co-operative action games and become one of 2009's marquee titles.
"A large part of how Left 4 Dead became 2008's top-selling new IP on Xbox 360 and the PC was the custom-tailored gameplay made possible by the AI Director," said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. "With the knowledge gained from creating the original, new technology, and a passionate team, L4D2 will set a new benchmark for cooperative action games."
Set for release on November 17, the title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaw, frying pan, axe, baseball bat, and more.
Introducing the AI Director 2.0, L4D's dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director 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. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.
Featuring new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original with more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, and maps for Survival mode available at launch.
Supported by a $10+ million marketing campaign, Left 4 Dead has sold over 2.5 million retail copies since it was released in November of 2008. Left 4 Dead 2 is targeted for release on Xbox 360 and the PC on November 17, 2009, and will be launched worldwide with a multi-million dollar marketing campaign across TV, Outdoor, and Online.
"Left 4 Dead was backed by our most aggressive advertising campaign to date, and resulted in a top 5 showing on two platforms during holiday 2008," said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. "Left 4 Dead 2 is a larger game and will be supported with even more consumer and retail advertising programs than the original."
Left 4 Dead 2 will be featured as the cover story on PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazines this month. For more information, please visit l4d.com
Coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC, L4D2 promises to set a new benchmark for co-operative action games and become one of 2009's marquee titles.
"A large part of how Left 4 Dead became 2008's top-selling new IP on Xbox 360 and the PC was the custom-tailored gameplay made possible by the AI Director," said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. "With the knowledge gained from creating the original, new technology, and a passionate team, L4D2 will set a new benchmark for cooperative action games."
Set for release on November 17, the title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaw, frying pan, axe, baseball bat, and more.
Introducing the AI Director 2.0, L4D's dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director 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. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.
Featuring new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original with more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, and maps for Survival mode available at launch.
Supported by a $10+ million marketing campaign, Left 4 Dead has sold over 2.5 million retail copies since it was released in November of 2008. Left 4 Dead 2 is targeted for release on Xbox 360 and the PC on November 17, 2009, and will be launched worldwide with a multi-million dollar marketing campaign across TV, Outdoor, and Online.
"Left 4 Dead was backed by our most aggressive advertising campaign to date, and resulted in a top 5 showing on two platforms during holiday 2008," said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. "Left 4 Dead 2 is a larger game and will be supported with even more consumer and retail advertising programs than the original."
Left 4 Dead 2 will be featured as the cover story on PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazines this month. For more information, please visit l4d.com
89 Comments on Valve Announces Left 4 Dead 2
It might either be like a $10 DLC/and packaged with newer copies of L4D or it could be what everyone suspects it to be a $39 mod to the game.
and the creators of counter-strike joined valve software, turtle rock also joined valve i believe and made CS:CZ along with their AI.
You all have to admit, L4D is addictive as hell and the zombie physics are nuts. I was under some pipes the other day and noticed the zombies don't glitch when they have to crouch, they actually crawl at you. It's pretty creepy.
Anyways, with as many hours as I've already put into that game, I have no problem paying for a second version. What I DO want though is for it to just be a standalone upgrade to what you have, allowing you to open one copy of the game to get everything from the second as well as the first.
Oh and does anyone else notice the massive performance improvement when you disable multicore rendering and set the exe's affinity to 1?
Am i the only person who wants to see those games?
(just for the record - Half Life 2 is (still) the only game that isn't waste of money to buy in my books)
I dont want them to rush it, but come one! :D
Counter-Strike, in comparison, has no credit to its name apart from the fact that it was the first commercially successful mod.Yeah, it's been almost two whole f**king years since Episode 2 and still nothing. I understand that good game development takes time, but this is the second Left 4 Dead game they're releasing within a year.
Episode 3 had better be the equivalent of the Second Coming or a lot of gamers - myself included - are going to be (a) very disappointed and (b) very pissed off.
I will gift it only if you promise to play the whole game and LOVE IT!:D
Killing Floor is what would happen if they mixed Counter Strike and L4D together with Resident Evil!
which is fine....i just don't want to pay more for a game i already have, basically. so it better be as big as they are making it sound. and it better be GOOD
and yes, if it is i will most likely have it on pre-order :banghead: