Left 4 Dead 2 Roundup – Scavenger Mode Revealed, Aussie Classification Given
Left 4 Dead 2 ‘Scavenge’ Multiplayer Mode Revealed
As promised, Left 4 Dead 2 ships with a new game mode called Scavenge.
Developed as part of Valve’s wishes to keep multiplayer games to a more manageable time, Scavenge is designed to be quicker and more frantic (which it wasn’t exactly lacking in the first place), with a best 2/3 system where players swap between survivors and infected as usual.
Players must collect gas cans from around the specially designed levels and get back to fill up a generator within a 2 minute time frame. There are 16 cans to collect around the small levels and each one successfully put into the generator earns the team 20 seconds more.
The zombie players must prevent the survivors from collecting as cannisters and new special infected Jockeys and Spitters are expected to play very significant roles, controlling players to take them away from cans or inflicting significant damage as they fuel up.
Each campaign has it’s own Scavenge map, so there should be 6 levels to play on it’s release November 17th.
Left 4 Dead 2 receives Australian classification
Despite the initial ban on Left 4 Dead 2 in Australia, Valve have re-submitted the game in an ‘edited’ version, which has successfully been given a MA15+ rating (Australia’s highest age restriction on games).
There’s no word on exactly what’s been cut to bring it in line but it’s fair to guess that decapitation will be removed. Gabe Newell, Valve co-founder and MD, said at a press conference that he was initially
a little surprised by the decision
to ban L4D2 as he
thought Left 4 Dead 2 would get the same treatment as Left 4 Dead 1
This isn’t the end of the story for Left 4 Dead 2 in Australia though.
EA and Valve also chose to appeal the decision by the Australian government at the same time as submitting the censored which, if successful, could see Aussie players being able to enjoy chopping off zombie heads with the rest of the world.
The results of the appeal won’t be known until October 22nd though (making producing and replacing the censored version copies in time for the November release difficult) but if it later comes to pass PC players will be able to patch immediately, although no word on how easy that will be to replicate for Xbox players.
Left 4 Dead 2 Valve’s Fastest Selling Game
Based on the number of pre-orders already received for Left 4 Dead 2, it will become Valve’s fastest selling game to date, despite still being a month away from shipping and only taking pre-orders from the last week (Oct 2nd). Something I’m sure the boycotters aren’t happy about.
Left 4 Dead 2 Spending $25M on Marketing
Having consistently run at “300% of Left 4 Dead’s numbers” (what sort of numbers?) Valve are pushing Left 4 Dead 2 at us with a $25M marketing spend, only a 250% increase on the original’s $10M (so not all the numbers then).
This means that you can expect to see it on every TV show, magazine and website from next month
