Left 4 Dead Holiday Cards

Can you have too much Left 4 Dead? I didn't think so. Valve doesn't think so, either. That's why they are offering a package of 10 Left 4 Dead or Left 4 Dead 2 Holiday Cards for $15.95. If I made it on anyone's zombie Xmas card list, you can email me for my address.

Valve Spending 25 Million Promoting Left 4 Dead 2

Alrighty-then. So Vavle is spending 25 million on an ad campaign promoting a game we were going to buy anyway. Valve's vice president of marketing Doug Lombardi reports that "[Valve will] be supporting Left 4 Dead 2's launch with a $25 million campaign." Lombardi continues, "Left 4 Dead 2 has already set the record for greatest number of pre-orders in our company's history, and we're still over a month out from shipping."

Valve expects Left 4 Dead 2 to be the fastest-selling product in their history. Co-founder Gabe Newell said that pre-orders for the new title is running 300 percent of the original game, which was also a bestseller.

Dead Rising 2 News ...LOTS of Dead Rising 2 News

So I hear the folks over at Capcom were becoming jealous of all the attention Valve's Left 4 Dead 2 has been getting on Zombies & Toys. As a result, they have dropped a ton of Dead Rising 2 news to report on. Okay, so maybe Capcom doesn't know ZT even exists. But, hey, I still have a ton of Dead Rising 2 news to report!

First, is the official announcement that DR2 will have multiplayer. So, once zombies invade the entertainment hub of Fortune City (think, Las Vegas) what else is there to do but capitalize on it? Bring in the television show, "Terror is Reality". This show allows you and three friends to compete in a series of zombie killing challenges. Sounds like fun but a multiplayer story mode would be nice, too.

The goal of the challenges is to slay more zombies than your opponents. Winning will give you a large paycheck and allow you to come back for more prizes. The challenges are over the top and consist as fun romps like running over zombies in giant hampster balls, riding through hordes of undead on a motorcycle with chainsaws on the handlebars, and putting buckets on the zombies' heads. You'll even have the opportunity to see slow motion replays on the jumbotron screen!

Check out the new screen shots below and check out the additional news that follows.

This next bit of news comes from GamePro and I must admit, I thought it was a hoax. It looks like Frank West from from the original Dead Rising will be featured in a Wii exclusive fighting game, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.

It looks like Frank will use basic fighting moves. What's really exciting are his special moves. He has a baseball bat Grand Slam, golf club Giant Swing, and (of course) some zombie moves. He can summon zombies to throw, one that will grab an opponent from the opposite side of the screen, and even a zombie horde.

Valve Makes Friendly With Boycotters

Nothing huge to report other than the show of goodwill from Valve but you can read the article here.

Co-Optimus reported some words from the small group who went to Valve HQ. The most vocal of the boycotters said that L4D2 “seemed balanced and 'tight' and did not feel like a rushed job.” There is also news of more downloadable content for the original game soon and that it will be ongoing.

An Interview With Valve's Chet Faliszek About Left 4 Dead 2

Head over to Kikizo to read an interview with Chet Faliszek from Valve.

Scared Shitless: Left 4 Dead 2 Interview
Valve's Chet Faliszek emerges from the zombie-laden gloom to discuss certain Steam boycotts, the role of daylight, browser-based shooters and the golden goose of console-to-PC multiplayer.

Valve Responds To Left 4 Dead 2 Critics

Valve speaks! The online petition is now approaching 20,000. What are Vavle's plans to calm their zombie fan-base?

"We want to wait and weed through the comments, I'm already getting e-mails, and I'm responding to them," Valve's Chet Faliszek commented.

"Looking back, was the Orange Box a ripoff?" He said, on initial complaints at having to "buy" Half-Life 2 again in the compilation. "Give us a fair shake on this, read more about it, find out about it, we've already let people play it [at E3]... After that, if you want to vent, post to the forums. We do read them, we read all the forums."

So we are looking at five new campaigns, new weapons, new special infected, and a new zombie dismemberment system. Not to mention a new AI Director. According to critics, this should have been made an update to L4D1.

"We had some meetings about it, and we all talked about our ideas, and everyone was pretty focused and thoughtful, a lot of the same ideas were happening," Faliszek told Ars Technica. "We wanted the (A.I.) Director to be smarter, but to be smarter it needed more special infected in its stable. For example, the Charger that we see today. It just became very clear that this was a cohesive, singular statement we wanted to make, not a more slow update thing... too much stuff was tied together with too many other things."

Faliszek continues, "The Common Infected-now there is destruction in different parts of their body, to ship all the new Common Infected, even with an update, would be a huge thing."

Faliszek also confirmed that the updates and support for L4D1 is not finished. The solution here is easy, if you don't agree with it don't buy it. Oh, but you will... the doubters know this new incarnation of L4D will be just as fun and addicting as the original! Don't forget to let your voice be heard here. Vote your piece of mind in our first poll to your right!

Left 4 Dead 2 - Hated By 15,000 So Far

Here I go again, posting news that isn't exactly new. Matter-of-fact, our friends Zombie Command reported about this last week. But I can't deny that the internet-zombie-gaming-community is ablaze with the turmoil that is the L4D2 Boycott. What!? You mean to tell me that what can be said to be one of the greatest zombie shooter games ever made gets a sequel, and quickly, and people are complaining?

Arguments are somewhat valid but I feel that folks are jumping to conclusions. It seems that the complaints revolve around nine key points:

• Significant content for L4D1 was promised but never delivered
• Valve put little faith in L4D1 since they "almost certainly" started working on L4D2 right after its release
• The fact that L4D2 is nearly identical to L4D1 will decimate the community for both games
• The announced date is not nearly enough time to polish content or make significant gameplay changes
• The new character designs seem bland and unappealing so far
• L4D2 is too bright to fit in with L4D1's visual aesthetic
• The horde music is disliked
• L4D2's release will result a drop in quality and frequency for L4D1 content
• The community has lost faith in Valve's reputation for commitment to their games post-release

Okay, so I guess you can consider this more of an editorial and less an article because I'm psyched for L4D2. I can't argue that we have received much post-release support thus far for L4D1, but that doesn't mean we still won't see any. And we can't make any judgements for quality or consistency yet. But, admittedly, it is likely One will not receive as much support with Two being released.

As far as Two being too bright? Hold on, we haven't seen the entire game yet. And so what if it is? This may open the doors to gamers that steered away from One or gave up on it because it was too dark. As far as decimating the community goes, I doubt there will be a shortage of people to play with for either game. Heck, at the very least you know you'll have 15,000 people still playing L4D1!

And just like my rant, most of these gripes are opinions. Bland character design? What about those who dislike One's characters? And who cares? All characters have the same abilities anyway. Who says the music doesn't suck in the first game as well?

As far as the "little faith" comment goes... Maybe Valve had so much faith that they started on the second one right away. If they really had no faith in One, why waste the time, money, and efforts on Two so quickly? I think Two seems similar enough to keep One's fans and different enough to draw some new blood in the mix.

If you want to check out the boycott page, click here. Maybe I'll start a boycott to boycott the L4D2 boycott. Even if, IF, Valve decides to not release any more downloads for L4D1, I feel like I got my money's worth. Obviously, I'm looking forward to Two. So, rest assured, I'll be playing on Nov 17th. Hit me up: xnoybis zombie. And, yes, for all you haters I'll still be playing L4D1 so feel free to give me a yell as well. Just don't expect me to play right away.

Feel free to add your two cents via comment. There is also a poll in the margin. Not much of a democracy since our vote doesn't really count for anything. But it'll be interesting to see where everyone stands.