Cross-Game Play May Be Possible in Left 4 Dead 2

[rrquinta]

Cross-Game Play May Be Possible in Left 4 Dead 2 | Spawn Kill

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You might want to hold off ordering your “Left 4 Dead is Dead To Me” t-shirts, folks. Valve has addressed some of the concerns of L4D fans (including the 40,000+ person boycott) by admitting they are trying to work out a way for players from both games - the original and sequel - to participate in online multiplayer together. This revelation is the first time Valve has seriously addressed one of the boycotters’ main concerns: That the sequel will split the community, thus decreasing the viability of the games.

Additionally, Valve’s VP of Marketing, Doug Lombardi admitted they are also hoping to allow MODs from the original game to be transferable to the sequel. Still, he defended Valve’s decision to go for a full-out sequel rather than DLC or additional expansion packs adding on to the original game.

We’re going to be delivering a bigger game than the first game, which is key. When we sat down we ordered what we wanted to do next with Left 4 Dead, there’s certain things that felt like a new game and there’s certain things that felt like DLC, and that’s the way Valve makes decisions.

- Valve's VP of Marketing, Doug Lombardi

At the same time, however, he wanted to assert that the announcement of L4D2 does not mean that Valve is abandoning the first game: “I think folks took the announcement at E3 as a signal that we were dumping support for Left 4 Dead, but that was never the plan at all.”

Lombardi was also quick to assure fans that the rapidity of L4D2’s release relative to its progenitor is not necessarily a sign of things to come, but simply a technical matter due to the type of game Left 4 Dead is: in other words, as an FPS, the “hard work” was already done (i.e., the AI Director), it was just a matter of tweaking and adding to make the sequel.

For fans hungry (and not turned off) by the sequel’s announcement, Left 4 Dead 2 promises to be “bigger” than the original: five compaigns of equal (if not larger) size than the first game all playable in four different multiplayer modes, not to mention a slew of new weapons (something like 20). Despite Valve’s enthusiasm that their new game truly merits a sequel, even I (as one of the only gamers on the planet not interested in killing the undead) has to be a little skeptical: one glance at IGN’s comparison chart between the two games doesn’t give me any warm fuzzies. Nevertheless, expect more (hopefully new?) zombie-slaying action November 17.

[GhostVoices]

Glad to hear that Valve is working everything out for Left 4 Dead, so that way more fans will hopefully be happy about the sequel.