Left 4 Dead now $30, L4D2 rant
Posted: 27 Aug 2009, 07:07
If anyone was holding off on buying Left 4 Dead, its price is now just $30. I know this is old news.
BTW, is anyone here thinking about getting L4D 2 when it comes out? Personally I'm really disappointed with the support L4D got - it's totally unlike Valve, and to release a sequel to a game only a year after the original is almost unprecedented since DOS went out of style.
What really hurts is the half-assed DLC after Gabe Newell himself promised lots of it (paraphrasing). First they added the survival mode, which added one new map where you can't actually go anywhere or do anything. Even excellent players only last a matter of minutes, and it's so boring.
Now they've announced a new "campaign" - the campaign itself is only two chapters long and about half the overall play time of a regular full campaign. Their rationale for this is that people supposedly complained a lot about the game being so long for versus matches.
Even if that WAS true, which it isn't, why would they turn around and announce that L4D2 will have LONGER campaigns if this was such a problem?
Regardless of how many sales they get for L4D2, it won't make up for the damage to their reputation. Valve has prided itself on excellent, Stardock-like after sale support and free upgrades for years after the game is released. If this was almost any other company, I'd say, "that's kind of lame but understandable," but this is VALVE. Valve has made it very clear that they support their games well after release. It should come as no surprise that a quick sequel like this on such a massively popular game would not be welcome.
When L4D2 is released, I'm sure I won't be the only one wondering if they should wait for L4D3 - which might actually be a significant improvement in some way. So far the only new features announced are:
-5 new, longer campaigns (sorry, you can't play the original 5 anymore though... and the player base will be half the size now for both games...)
-3 new super mutants (the originals will probably be "new and improved!" too)
-1 new game mode, as-yet unannounced ("super survival" maybe? where you can only use melee?)
-Different weapons (since the original ones were... so crappy?)
-Some levels take place during the day (personally, as a geek, I find natural light disturbing so perhaps this is having the desired effect)
If they make L4D2 essentially an add-on in all but name, ie, allow L4D2 owners to play with original L4D players, it would save the situation a little, but this doesn't make any sense financially... with a traditional business model anyway.
BTW, is anyone here thinking about getting L4D 2 when it comes out? Personally I'm really disappointed with the support L4D got - it's totally unlike Valve, and to release a sequel to a game only a year after the original is almost unprecedented since DOS went out of style.
What really hurts is the half-assed DLC after Gabe Newell himself promised lots of it (paraphrasing). First they added the survival mode, which added one new map where you can't actually go anywhere or do anything. Even excellent players only last a matter of minutes, and it's so boring.
Now they've announced a new "campaign" - the campaign itself is only two chapters long and about half the overall play time of a regular full campaign. Their rationale for this is that people supposedly complained a lot about the game being so long for versus matches.
Even if that WAS true, which it isn't, why would they turn around and announce that L4D2 will have LONGER campaigns if this was such a problem?
Regardless of how many sales they get for L4D2, it won't make up for the damage to their reputation. Valve has prided itself on excellent, Stardock-like after sale support and free upgrades for years after the game is released. If this was almost any other company, I'd say, "that's kind of lame but understandable," but this is VALVE. Valve has made it very clear that they support their games well after release. It should come as no surprise that a quick sequel like this on such a massively popular game would not be welcome.
When L4D2 is released, I'm sure I won't be the only one wondering if they should wait for L4D3 - which might actually be a significant improvement in some way. So far the only new features announced are:
-5 new, longer campaigns (sorry, you can't play the original 5 anymore though... and the player base will be half the size now for both games...)
-3 new super mutants (the originals will probably be "new and improved!" too)
-1 new game mode, as-yet unannounced ("super survival" maybe? where you can only use melee?)
-Different weapons (since the original ones were... so crappy?)
-Some levels take place during the day (personally, as a geek, I find natural light disturbing so perhaps this is having the desired effect)
If they make L4D2 essentially an add-on in all but name, ie, allow L4D2 owners to play with original L4D players, it would save the situation a little, but this doesn't make any sense financially... with a traditional business model anyway.