Southern discomfort: new screenshots of Valve's Left 4 Dead 2
I essentially resolutely refuse to chime in with ongoing posts elsewhere covering the asinine kneejerk 'Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott' because, flatly, we don't have the first clue what Valve are planning to do for either the retail release of the sequel, and even less their continued plans for the expansion of the original.
It's interesting, of course, to see a developer inadvertently shoot themselves in their own survivor foot by doing nothing more than providing a fantastic, free service to its community (here, the Team Fortress 2 audience) for the past few years, and stirring up a hornet's nest of car-alarm-angry infected by even suggesting they might have to pay for additional content.
'Nuff said there, then, and I won't stretch the metaphor any further, but I will add these new screenshots of the upcoming dirty south expansion (with nice, wide extras under the fold), and idly wonder aloud what it might mean that Ellis (aka 'the hick-looking one') not only appears to change his hat, but also his pants (possibly into fire-retardant slacks?) over the course of the shots, and note that Valve recently said that The Wire's Chad Coleman ('Cutty', aka 'the one that started the boxing gym') will be doing the voice of Coach, aka 'the one in the awesome shirt', which is a Very Good Thing.
13tales
#1 – 11:34 PM June 9, 2009
I don't know - I was disappointed that a sequel was coming so soon, instead of DLC for the original. I trust Valve, though. They say that L4D2 will be bigger than the original game, and in that case, I'm sure it'll be worth the purchase price.
pelrun
#2 – 4:13 AM June 10, 2009
It isn't so much that they're charging for content - it's that the original had *so little* to begin with. We let Valve get away with it because of the expectation of map-creation tools and DLC to come. Valve dragged their feet on the former and decided to charge us for the latter, so they're reaping a load of discontent that's been there for some time.
liatach
#3 – 6:15 AM June 10, 2009
Man,
They charged half the price of a full game for the original -which i am still playing regularly- in fact i'm sure i've clocked up more than a 100 hours play, and i'm all but certain there will be more updates for L4D before the sequel hits.
I'll be happy to buy the sequel with all the extra content they are offering.
Also i reckon they will probably make it so L4D2 players can still choose to play the original levels with people who have yyet to buy the sequel if they want to.
have a little faith, angry internet men.
JDavid
#4 – 7:21 AM June 10, 2009
I dunno, I'm just not getting the excitement over this game...at all. The game just feels very much to me, like a PC game from 2001. Valve is one of my favs, with the whole HL series...but this?
I don't get the fascination with a shooter that has no real basis to it. This is just mindless point and shoot. Maybe it's the online interaction and 4 friends tearing it up, which I suppose has it's fun.
Visually? It's 5 years behind graphically (I'm sure due to the speed of gameplay and amount of enemies on screen at one time. I often see the rag doll touted as something special. Again, most games employ this these days, and some even using limb restraints to keep the body in some sort of real limitation while rag doll is in effect. L4D's zombies remind me of those little squeeze toys from childhood where you push the underside and the plastic figure's strings go limp.
To me, it's just a de-evolved game. I see the huge potential, and if nothing else it's a great stress reliever. I'll try the second one, but I won't get pumped for it like I was the first. I'll just be cautiously optimistic.
Lobster
#5 – 8:40 AM June 10, 2009
Wow, check out the F/A-18s. That kind of direct "contact" during a campaign (except right at the finale) is a huge change from the first game.
ValuedRug
#6 – 9:53 AM June 10, 2009
JDavid - your comment infuriated me to flameworthy heights. But, I will reply calmly.
1- PC Game from 2001. If you actually play L4D on any high-spec PC, it's gorgeous. You're just wrong on that one. The plane crash scene?...holy crap. You might be reacting to the L4D2 shots..which are WIP and not to be judged as final.
2- Gameplay - this is a mindless shooter AND you cannot survive if you don't work together as a team. I personally think there could be more strategy involved (hint modders), but your flippant attitude towards "online interaction"....dude that IS the game. (Which is why people get miffed over the lame matchmaking)
As for the over-arching boycott stuff, I feel like Valve deserves a kick in the pants. How can anyone be shocked that fans are reacting like this? Valve has consistently run with a pretty awesome business model, and fans have rewarded them for it. I feel L4D1 had EA-esque decisions all over it (lobby system, content patching, etc). I also don't pretend to know what --really-- went down with L4D or L4D2. I'm just a fan that has played some epic valve games in the past, and wonder where valve will be in a few years time.
Agies
#7 – 11:10 AM June 10, 2009
@6
What went down with L4D2 is that devs at Valve get to pick their next project and the L4D team picked L4D2.
Grobstein
#8 – 11:16 AM June 10, 2009
Valve didn't "shoot themselves in the foot" for supporting TF2 so lavishly. They generated tremendous goodwill and expectations that helped them sell many copies of L4D, even though it shipped with only a little bit of content, not all of which was even fully playable.
So, Brandon, your implication that Valve is being punished by fans for its good deeds is ridiculous. It reaped immense financial rewards for those good deeds, when people bought L4D with the understanding that it would be expanded with content downloads for a long time. Fans are angry that this understanding was violated, and of course Valve keeps the money.
lumpi
#9 – 7:28 AM June 11, 2009
Yes, Valve has to choose whether to continue the goodwill path or maximize their profits (temporally?). They can do whatever they want. But not both.