Left 4 Dead to get new content

Valve have today announced that Left 4 Dead will be getting some new DLC in September. This new content is titled Crash Course and will provide gamers with a new single player, multiplayer and versus mode campaign. Crash Course will bring together the stories from the No Mercy and Death Tolls campaigns from the original game. Finally Valve have also stated some tweaks will also be made to the gamplay to provide a more balanced experience; one of these “tweaks” will include a recharge timer for infected team-mates.

Ah yes, don’t worry folks I hear your cries, “how much will this new content cost?”. Well it will be available for free on the PC but will cost 560 points (about £4.76) on the Xbox 360. Now this announcement will certainly silence those gamers out there (well for a short period anyway) who suggested Valve have not supported Left 4 Dead but I can certainly see it annoying some people. They are charging for the DLC on the Xbox 360 but giving it out for free on the PC, what is all that about then?! The PC version costs less than the Xbox 360 version and yet players of the console version have to pay for extra content. Now it would probably be slightly naive of me to suggest that Valve love to cause a bit of controversy amongst gamers but when they make announcements like this I can certainly see why people would imply such things. I personally think it has something to do with content being released via Xbox Live and Microsoft’s secret policy of not wanting to give away DLC for nothing unless of course it is available for free on the PS3 😉

The cost of the content on the Xbox 360 is not astronomically high or anything and I have no doubt that it will probably provide way more than 560 points worth of gaming joy but to have it available for free on another format is what will anger fans. Valve have already caused a stir amongst gamers by announcing Left 4 Dead 2 so soon after the original game. The announcement of the sequel at E3 angered some fans so much that they started online petitions stating that they will not buy the sequel unless the developers show more support for the original game. Will this new announcment cause a similar uproar?! Watch this space I guess. For now we leave you with the words of Gabe Newell and what he had to say about the new content for Left 4 Dead.

“Since the release of Left 4 Dead last November, the design team has been excited about creating new experiences for this world and allowing players to do the same, by releasing much of our internal toolset, like the Survival Pack and Authoring Tool. We’re working with the fans toward the ongoing entertainment value of the product.”