Left 4 Dead Comic ‘The Sacrifice’ Now Online

Honestly, we would never have thought that [redacted] would be the character to bite the dust in "The Passing," but there it is. Sure, we could’ve pictured [redacted] dying, or [redacted] — heck, even [redacted] — but [redacted]? Life’s a trip, qué no?

Thing is, we never figured out how that particular survivor perished — not until now. The first two parts of Valve’s four-part, 150-page digital comic primer for "The Sacrifice," the upcoming DLC for Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, is now online. Give both issues a read by heading over to the Left 4 Dead Blog.

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Left 4 Dead 2 Multiplayer Demo On Its Way, Pre-Order Bonus

Doug Lombardi has told Joystiq that a multiplayer demo for Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2 is planned for both the Xbox 360 and PC. According to Valve’s PR guru, users who pre-order the upcoming zombie survival title at "participating retailers or [via] Steam" will gain "advanced access to the demo," which will eventually land on both platforms for all users prior to the game’s November 17 launch.

Speaking with OXM at a recent London preview event, Lombardi discussed the strength of Left 4 Dead‘s "word of mouth," which has presumably fueled the need for a demo to the sequel. With groups calling for a boycott of Left 4 Dead 2 due to lack of content support for the original title, a demo may be the best way for Valve to prove why it believes its sequel warrants a full price tag. Although, strong pre-order numbers tell us the game is already on pace to decimate sales charts like a zombie tank.

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Left 4 Dead 2 – New Characters And A New Setting – Daytime

Max Brooks’ imaginative novel World War Z tells the story of a zombie apocalypse from multiple perspectives, invoking new characters and locations with every chapter. It’s a great story that is basically unfilmable. But that sort of episode treatment is the first thing that came to mind as I watched the trailer for Left 4 Dead 2 (press release here), in which Valve revisits their own unique zombie apocalypse in a new location, with new characters, and during a completely new time of day. Namely, day.

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…

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.

While the basic gameplay doesn’t seem very different, chainsaws notwithstanding, I’m glad to see Valve concentrating on something they do so well: character. And not just people, but places. Read more

Left 4 Dead receives massive patch on Xbox 360

Valve just informed us that a patch has been released for the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead, just in time for the soon-to-be-released downloadable content.

The patch, applied via a mandatory title update over Xbox Live, fixes a bunch of bugs, attempts to balance online gameplay and generally improves the Left 4 Dead experience. View the entire list of changes after the break.

(Oh, PSA: Be sure to take extra care staying away from Tanks. We don’t remember asking for reduced auto-shotgun damage against them.)

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Left 4 Dead sales increased by 3000% During Steam Sale

Left 4 Dead saw a 3000% increase in sales during its Steam sale last weekend. Valve’s Gabe Newell revealed the stunning figure during his DICE keynote, in which he also announced the digital distribution service saw its customer base increase 1600% that same weekend. G4 noted that the Valve overlord believes those figures broke the game’s launch sales.

Steam has certainly been experimenting with numerous sales lately. Valve has even hired an experimental psychologist to maximize buzz and marketing around the online retail sales. Wait, now Valve doesn’t just want our wallets, they want our braaaaaaains too? Taking the whole zombie thing a little seriously, perhaps?

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Valve Teases Left 4 Dead DLC Reveal Soon, Simultaneous Xbox 360 Release

Solid details on the first batch of Left 4 Dead downloadable content should be out “shortly,” according to Valve writer Chet Faliszek. But, in true Valve tradition, it appears the announcement has already been postponed, as it was expected “before Christmas.”

Though details are light, Faliszek confirmed that the upcoming download will bring new scenarios, as “what we want to do is just deliver more content you can play at this point.” These new scenarios will be released on the “[Xbox] 360 at the same time as the PC,” instead of receiving a later Xbox 360 release a la Valve’s Team Fortress 2.

Owners of the PC version can also expect the long-promised SDK at some point, which should allow for the creation of custom maps, scenarios and other mods.

“We should be announcing that before Christmas, what the DLC is,” said Faliszek in a Kotaku video podcast, seemingly recorded December 15. “The holidays aren’t actually so much delaying it as the press guys–[marketing VP] Doug [Lombardi]‘s been taking some time. We’ll have an announcement shortly, I don’t know exactly when.”

As for a movie editor that would let users capture and edit in-game footage–something Valve apparently hinted at in an E3 interview–Faliszek merely noted that the team wants to make sure that playable content will be “the first out–after that, I hate to speculate.”

While pricing was not discussed, the new content is expected to be free for PC owners, continuing in Valve’s tradition of providing PC gamers with free post-release support. However, it is uncertain if the Xbox 360 DLC will be free, as Microsoft is apparently forcing Valve to charge for the upcoming Team Fortress 2 DLC on Xbox 360.

Source: ShackNews.com

Left 4 Dead Early Demo Access Tomorrow

November 5, 2008 – Early access to the Left 4 Dead demo begins Thursday, November 6 on both the PC and Xbox 360. The early demo access is scheduled to begin around 2 am PST on the Xbox 360 and 7 am PST on the PC.

This promotion is being offered in addition to the 10% savings for those who pre-order and applies to all Steam PC pre-orders and all PC and Xbox 360 pre-orders from GameStop and EB Games in North America.

On November 11 the demo will be made available to all PC and Xbox 360 gamers worldwide, with no obligation to purchase. The demo concludes on November 18, when Left 4 Dead will be made available at retail outlets across North America and worldwide via Steam.

Source: GamersCircle Read more

Valve Lowers System Requirements For Left 4 Dead

While it still won’t operate on our trusty Macintosh Performa 5200, PC gamers with less-than-stellar rigs will be pleased to know that Valve recently lowered the previously announced system requirements for Left 4 Dead.

Well, okay — the only thing they lowered was the video card memory requirement from 256 MB to 128 MB, but we imagine that this will allow access to a much larger number of casually outfitted PCs.

To find out if you’ll be able to join in all the zombified reindeer games upon Left 4 Dead’s Nov. 18 release, check out the full list of requirements we’ve posted after the jump.

• OS: Windows XP, Vista, Vista 64
• CPU: 3.0GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 or AMD64X2 (or higher)
• RAM: 1 GB for XP / 2 GB for Vista
• Disc Drive: DVD-ROM Drive
• Hard Drive: At least 7.5 GB of free space
• Video: DirectX 9 compatible video card (Video card must be 128 MB or more and should be a DirectX 9 compatible with support for pixel shader 2.0)
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Source: joystiq.com Read more