Crash Course - So Far...

Francis: "I hate helicopters."

Yes, the Left 4 Dead DLC has arrived and I have it, and played it! The idea of it is to bridge the gap between the end of original campaign 'No Mercy' - when you escape the roof of the hospital via helicopter, with the start of 'Death Toll.' Basically, the pilot of the chopper is infected and the copter crashes, leaving you with the usual problem of lots and lots of undead nasties trying to tear your limbs off.

First impressions... hmm, I haven't played Left 4 Dead for a while and I did find the two levels that make up this new campaign quite tough! The environments were quite sprawling and it was confusing knowing which way to go - I try to cast my mind back to when I first played the game and I guess it was the same back then when playing a new level, but I've played all the standard Left 4 Dead levels so many times now I know the layout completely.

I only played it on Single Player so I could get used to it, so I haven't tried it on Live yet and I haven't played Versus, which I think is where it will really come into it's own. I must admit I didn't really like the finale, it felt like the place to defend wasn't quite as well designed as the original levels - but I did like the fact you had to activate the generator twice, so couldn't rely on camping!

In the first level of the campaign, I got 2 witches and a tank! Harsh!

I will aim to have a go with actual live humans asap - oh, and I was playing on Normal and still died once! I really must be rusty!

Crash Course Has Landed! (Left 4 Dead)

So today the DLC expansion (that's downloadable content for all you non-geeks) was released for Left 4 Dead.

I will be downloading it probably on Thursday, off Xbox Live, and then having a good old crack. I haven't actually played L4D for a while so this will be a nice kick start in the run up to the release of Left 4 Dead 2 in November. Annoying that Xbox owners have to pay for this content when PC gamers are getting it for free, but such is life. I think it's only going to work out being about a fiver, and I'm sure to get hours of fun from it.

Can't wait to see what is in store for Zoey, Francis, Louis and Bill - let's lock 'n' load!

Left 4 Dead DLC

Apparently there's some new DLC content coming for the original Left 4 Dead prior to the release of Left 4 Dead 2 - it's called Crash Course, and it's due to hit in September.

The sting is that for PC gamers, this DLC is going to be free...but for Xbox 360, it's going to cost MS points! I'm not sure how much right now, but of course I'm going to pay it...just a bit galling that I'll be paying for something that PC players get for free. I personally think this is a bad move but I read somewhere that Valve had their hands tied by Microsoft and they weren't able to offer it for free...if that's the case and we either have it and pay for it, or don't have it at all, then I'd rather pay!

Crash Course is meant to be a mini-campaign (so probably not the full 5 levels of each of the original campaigns) that fills in the blanks between when the survivors escaped from the rooftop at the end of No Mercy, and the beginning of Death Toll. The assumption is that the 'copter crashed, probably because the pilot turned into a zombie (if you listen to him at the end of No Mercy you can hear he got bit and now he's not feeling too good). Anyway, this is probably going to be the last time we get to play as Francis, Bill, Louis and Zoey and I can't frickin' wait!!