Co-op zombie kill-em-up Left 4 Dead 2 will enjoy new downloadable content, Valve has announced but there's a twist.
Cold Stream is an in the works community campaign created by modder Matthew Lourdelet. Valve is so impressed, it wants it finished and chucked into DLC. But it wants the L4D community's help.
"The very first step in creating a new DLC is deciding on the larger goals and constraints for the DLC," wrote Valve on the Left 4 Dead blog.
"The Sacrifice and the Passing were story heavy, so we want to see what the other end of the spectrum looks like. For this DLC we start with wanting to experiment by releasing a map pack that wasn't about story. It would just be new campaigns for Left 4 Dead 2."
What this means is Cold Stream doesn't have new audio or story. But the DLC will include the three remaining L4D1 campaigns, with Cold Stream added.
"That's the start of the DLC," Valve added. "We have the basic information but we don't even have a name or release date yet."
We do know, however, that the DLC will release "sometime after Portal 2", and launch for the Mac, PC and Xbox 360.
"In the next few weeks we will add Cold Stream to the UI (user interface) and we will all begin testing it," Valve continued. "As we receive feedback and test data we will also share some data we collect on player experience and show how we put that data to use.
"While the beta will only be available for PC and Mac users, we appreciate feedback and ideas from the entire community. This is an experiment for us, so please let us know what you think and what you would like to see in the DLC just remember the constraints."
Tom gave Left 4 Dead 2 a 9/10 for Eurogamer in November 2009. "It's an amazing volume of new modes and features for a game that once kept things simple, but it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to see them," he wrote.
"Whereas once we treated Left 4 Dead as a stopgap between Half-Lifes, this is no longer a weird little side project with modest expectations, and Valve is confident enough to play around with it, safe in the knowledge that you can trust your players. Left 4 Dead proved it. And whereas that game had a personality, this one is overflowing with it."
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