If you’ve been laying Left 4 Dead’s Crash Course campaign you may have noticed that you are unable to let survivors out of rescue doors in Versus mode. Today, Valve has announced that a new patch has been pushed out that will effectively fix this problem and let the zombie slaying madness continue.

Among other minor bug fixes, this patch also gives server owners the ability to designate a maximum ping for players on their server.

Read (Steam)

Microsoft is proud to announce that 3 of their console’s greatest titles are going to get the Platinum Hits treatment, and I’m sure you’d agree with their decision.

Those titles in question are none other than Street Fighter IV, Left 4 Dead and Grand Theft Auto IV in addition to Saints Row 2 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

With the Platinum Hits comes lowered prices with Joystiq reporting they will be lowered to right around $29.99.

via joystiq

It was recently made known that Valve is preparing to launch a $25 million Left 4 Dead 2 advertisement campaign in hopes of hyping up the zombie FPS. To put this into comparison, Vavle spent about $10 million on the ad campaign for the original Left 4 Dead, so you can see they are a bit more serious about its sequel.

The decision to put such a heavy chunk of change into L4D2 most likely came about after it was made known that it was pre-ordered a tremendous amount more than the original.

Expensive ad campaign or not, you’re still not going to be able to get your hands on Left 4 Dead 2 until its November 17th release date for the Xbox 360 and PC.

via joystiq

Just as they had promised, Valve has released DLC for the original Left 4 Dead effectively soothing the woes of boycotters everywhere. The DLC in question is entitled Crash Course and is available now for both the Xbox 360 and PC with a price of 560 Microsoft points, for the 360, of course.

For those who don’t know, Crash Course includes an all new campaign available for the game’s single player, co-op, versus and survival modes.

If you noticed the DLC was priced at 800 Microsoft Points earlier today, it was a mistake, according to Major Nelson.

To remedy this console disadvantage, Valve has recently toyed with the idea of porting the popular Left 4 Dead 2 PC mods to the Xbox 360 version. In fact, one of the game’s developers, Yasser Mailaka, recently told OXM UK the following:

One of the things I’d like to do is allow these modules that are being released on the PC to somehow integrate with Microsoft’s system.

So, while these plans are no where near final it is definitely a possibility and is something we will most likely see soon after the game’s November 17th release.

Not to be outdone, the folks developing Left 4 Dead 2 have put in their own loving tribute, but this time to a far more modern piece of zombie lore: Shaun of the Dead. No, you won’t be hurling records at the shambling corpses, but you’ll have the far more satisfactory crunch involved with pounding on them with a cricket bat. The efficiency of this weapon is yet to be announced since Valve are keeping a tight lid on things, but whether it takes one or a hundred whacks with this simple implement to dispatch a zombie, every swing will be full of glee. I’m guessing once the game comes out the number of virtual cricket bats in use will far exceed the number of real cricket bats being employed.

Back when Left 4 Dead 2 was boycotted by a large group of gamers, the group demanded that Left 4 Dead 1 players be able to play with those running Left 4 Dead 2. At the time, it seemed unlikely that Valve would even considering this but according to Doug Lombardi, it’s much more realstic than we first thought:

“That’s something that we’re trying to work out the details of right now so nothing specific to say today, but we understand that it’s a very valid thing to be working on and looking at.”

Futhermore, Lombardi also told TVG that it will be very easy for the MOD community to port Left 4 Dead 1 MODs to Left 4 Dead 2:

“With the MOD stuff, if you’re making stuff for Left 4 Dead it will work in Left 4 Dead 2 with very minor amounts of work to bring it over. So we feel we’ve made good steps on that side and now we’re looking at how we manage that for folks who buy the first game and sequel.”

The demo will eventually be released for all users prior to the game’s launch on November 17.

Lombardi talked more about sequel, noting how it had gained strength due to strong “word of mouth”. It should be pointed out here that many users had initially boycotted the game, noting its full price tag and early release.

Some of those supposed Left 4 Dead 2 boycotters must have been lying as Valve recently told Eurogamer that the pre-order numbers for the sequel are twice as much as its predecessor. In the words of Doug Lombardi:

“Our pre-orders are currently double what they were for Left 4 Dead 1 at this point in time away from launch. We’re like 20 weeks out or something like that.”

So what do you guys say? Did you pre-order Left 4 Dead 2? I think I’ll wait until it gets a bit closer to it’s November 17th release date for the PC and Xbox 360.

Considering some of Valve’s flagship titles such as Left 4 Dead never made their way onto the Playstation 3 would lead one to think that Valve had no intentions of ever bringing titles to the platform. However, this is not the case.

In a recent interview with Valve’s Doug Lombardi, done by Joystiq, he said that despite the titles not coming to the PS3, the company still wants to develop for the platform. What’s blocking the way? Well, a group of “decent PS3 coders”, of course.

So, once Valve secures a team of what they are calling “talented PS3 guys” they will again develop for the PS3 but until then, not a chance.

If you’ve been paying attention you’ll know that not too long ago an online group formed who swore to boycott Left 4 Dead 2 if Valve didn’t continue to support the original title. Well, shortly after that group was formed, Valve swore to continue to support the original title, which means the boycott worked, right?

According to Valve’s Dougle Lombardi, no, Valve had planned on continuing to support Left 4 Dead even before they were threatened with a boycott:

“I think there was just some confusion. When you go to E3 and make a big splash on a new product you’re trying to get the retailer’s attention and the press attention.It’s not really the venue for announcing DLC and whatnot. I think folks took our announcement as a sign that we were dropping Left 4 Dead 1 and that’s just not the case.

OK, Mr. Lombardi, we’ll believe you if you hurry up and announce that DLC pack for L4D already.

Read (Destructoid)

Valve promised they would continue to support the original Left 4 Dead despite its sequel coming out following the creation of the boycott Left 4 Dead 2 group. Well, ever since we haven’t seen much besides minor updates for the title, what gives?

Luckily, a Valve spokesperson has stepped forward and let the community know that there will in fact be a Left 4 Dead DLC announcement before the end of the summer.

What kind of DLC announcement? We have no idea, but it better be good to keep those boycotters quiet.

Read (Joystiq)

Just in time for the not-so-exciting patch a blogger over at Examiner has noticed that his local Target was selling the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead for a ridiculously low price of $12. Dumbfounded by this discovering he proceeded to go to another Target and found that the game was also $12.

Now, there’s no telling if this is a nationwide clearance as there have been no official announcements but definitely check out your local Target if you haven’t already picked up Left 4 Dead. This is a deal that’s too good to pass up!

Valve has recently announced a patch has been released for their much loved zombie shooter Left 4 Dead. Don’t expect much from the patch as it’s mostly bug fixed but regardless it’s not available to download via Steam.

Below are the Left 4 Dead patch notes:

Removed the “Are you ready to play Versus?” confirmation

Fixed a crash when using mouse wheel or keyboard to select Campaign chapters

Fixed sv_steamgroup_exclusive servers advertising for public lobbies

Restored the ability to vote for a new campaign in Versus mode

The update will focus on custom campaigns, providing mod authors with non-beta mod tools. It will now include source files for all of Valve’s campaign maps, as well as an example campaign add-on tutorial map.

It will also allow content creators to use a new framework that will package their content into a single “VPK” file which can be installed by just double clicking on them, or dropping them into the game’s new ‘addons’ folder.

Finally, the update will redo the game’s matchmaking system, adding support for custom campaigns and making it easier to create a lobby.

First Left 4 Dead 2 was announced, then a group of 15,000+ formed to boycott said game, then Valve responded to the boycott and now the group has responded to Valve.

“While we are excited about the idea of new content, we are still in the dark about it. What sort of content is it? For all we know, it could be a new main menu screen. Is it a new map, is it new monsters, is it new weapons, etc…? We’d like to know what is going to be in this new content.

Furthermore, when will this content be released? Is there any sort of timetable within which the content will be made available? These are all questions we would like Valve to elaborate on.

Last, Valve is trying to address the community split from releasing a new game in the series… they did not go into details, and are still working on it.”

I mean I don’t really blame them for giving such a stern response. Valve says that there will be new content for the original Left 4 Dead but exactly what kind of content and when, if ever, will this content hit? Let’s hope that Valve didn’t just tell the boycott group what they wanted to hear to calm them down as we will have a very unhappy community if that is the case.

Just a few days ago a group emerged who pledged they would boycott Left 4 Dead 2 due to the game’s release date being so close to the previous game’s. They also pointed to the fact that Valve would likely not support the original Left 4 Dead as they should once the new one hits the market.

Well, Kotaku proceeded to contact Valve about the boycott and Gabe Newell himself, president of the company, has taken time to make a statement:

Doing a sequel in one year is new for Valve. But providing ongoing support for our titles after the initial launch isn’t – it has been part of our philosophy since Half-Life was released ten and half years ago. We see no reason to change that and will continue to support the over three million customers in the L4D community.

So there you have it folks, Valve will in fact continue to support the original Left 4 Dead once the sequeal drops so you can stop boycotting and such.

This has prompted outrage among some L4D players, who have created a group on the Steam Community boycotting the upcoming sequels. Currently the group has over 11,000 members, you can read more about it, and their reasons for the boycott, here.

The rumor seems to be quite a bit off, since L4D was only released last year, and Valve has recently released new DLC for the game. Valve is known for keeping their games alive longer than other developers, supporting them with new content. If anything L4D related is revealed at E3, it’s most likely a new peice of DLC.