Valve is ensuring its zombie franchise won’t stay dead for long with a doubletap DLC package for Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, including the classic “No Mercy” campaign and “The Sacrifice,” a brand new storyline bridging the gap between the two games.

As detailed on the most recent edition of GTTV, “The Sacrifice” resurrects the L4D1 crew again to finish their adventure and finally reveal how that one pivotal character died in “The Passing” L4D2 DLC released earlier this year. Spoiler: It was Bill.

“No Mercy,” the campaign that started it all in L4D1, will be officially ported to L4D2 in the same DLC pack and will include the original survivors, but they will get to play with the upgraded weapons and toys of L4D2.

Continuing the background stories of the original four survivors, Valve is also releasing a 150+ page digital comic detailing their lives before and during the infection, ending with the canonical death of one member of their group at “The Sacrifice.” Spoiler: It’s still Bill.

The comic, written by Mike Oeming, will be released in four parts starting this September, before the DLC pack drops.

While the digital comic features the singular, definite death of one of the characters (Bill), in “The Sacrifice” players will have the option to choose which character should die (Louis).

“The Sacrifice” and “No Mercy” DLC pack will be available for L4D1 and L4D2, free for PC and Mac, and for an unannounced price for Xbox 360. Valve has not yet announced an official release date, but we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they do actually have a timeline for this one.

Chet Faliszek, a writer on L4D2, assured GTTV that while the upcoming pack contains a lot of content, this isn’t the end of L4DDLC.

“Except for Bill. Bill is dead,” Faliszek said.

Check out the interview and discuss the finer points of L4D DLC below!

If the last survivor on Earth is bitten by a zombie and no one is alive to hear it, does he make a sound? Left 4 Dead 2’s latest mutation attempts to answer this question with its first-ever update for single player, Last Man on Earth.

The new mutation spawns a world with no common infected, just pockets of special infected to hunt down your tasty, tasty fleshmeat. This one is a personal test, with no help from survivor bots or split-screens, and only available in single player.

With all Left 4 Dead 2 mutations, Last Man on Earth is available to those who have downloaded “The Passing.” Next week’s mutation will be one Valve has fanboyed over since the first mutation, Chainsaw Massacre, which gives all players chainsaws and an infinite supply of gasoline.

By the way – yes. The last man on earth screams like a little girl when the zombies finally hunt him down and devour his succulent body. Just FYI.

For all the Zombie killas in da house – if you haven’t heard already, “The Passing”, the new DLC from Valve Software for Left 4 Dead 2, has been delayed. Originally scheduled to be released before the end of March, the new material is now slated for a “spring” release. Hopefully that means it is not too far away, but you won’t get it in the next few days either.

In addition, the new kill-pack has been priced. The add-on, which brings some new story content and new weapons to the game, will go for 560 Microsoft Points on the Xbox 360, that’s $7 for those of you without your conversion tables handy.

So what do you think? Will you buy it and further your chainsaw skills? And how about the price point? Is it fair, or do you think it is too much? Wield your chainsaws below!

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Valve is havin’ a sale! It may not be the ridiculous everything-must-go madness of the holiday season last year, but it is a sweet deal! Left 4 Dead 2 is on sale for half off until Thursday March 25th at 4pm PST via Steam. That makes the game just $24.99!

What’s that you say? Not sweeet enough for you? Ok – fine. How about 50% off of the four pack as well? That’s right, in addition to the half price deal on the game, so to will the four pack be priced. That means if you can find three friends to jump in with you, you can get four copies of Left 4 Dead 2 for just $74.99. That’s just $18.75 per copy!

So pull out the old wallet, my friends, and get while the gettin’s good, or you might just find yourself alone when the zombie apocalypse comes knockin’ at your door!

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Previously only given a “Spring 2010″ release window, Valve has let it be known that “The Passing“, the first downloadable content pack for Left 4 Dead 2, is shooting for a late March release on the PC and Xbox 360. This coming out of today’s X10 event where the content was shown for the first time and also where it was revealed that a new add-on for the ORIGINAL Left 4 Dead (not playable in L4D2) will follow about a “month or so” after the release of “The Passing“. There’s no details on that content at the moment, but we’ll be keeping our half chewed off ears to the ground.

Lastly, Valves Chet Faliszek stated to Kotaku that a L4D digital comic illustrated by Powers artist Michael Avon Oeming will be coming our way sometime after the release of “The Passing” DLC. Again, we’ll just have to get you updates once we have them.

So, looks like Left 4 Dead fans have plenty to look 4ward to…We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

Now I know what you’re all thinking.  Why would this crazy writer put up a picture of the original Left 4 Dead cast when CLEARLY this new DLC is for Left 4 Dead 2.  Well my friends, if you bare with me, there is a reason for my insanity.

Valve has dropped the details on The Passing, the first DLC  for its Game Of The Year nominee Left 4 Dead 2 and the new content will feature the return of Bill, Zoey, Lois and Francis!  Now, before we all get excited and start fighting about who gets to be Bill, I should inform you that players will still be playing with Coach, Ellis, Rochelle and Nick, but will be crossing paths with the old crew at some point in the new campaign.  The nature of the crossing is currently unknown but honestly does it really matter?  Seeing the old crew in any way, shape, or form will be epic and bring back nostalgic memories of Bill and Francis bickering at each other while holding back a Tank and a legion of the undead.

Anyway, I digress; the DLC will bring more to the table then just a new mission, which for the record takes place between Dead Center and Dark Carnival.  The pack will also include a new Uncommon Infected, new Survival, Scavenge and Versus maps, a new co-op mode (currently a complete mystery), a new firearm AND a new melee weapon to play with.  All this will be coming in Spring 2010 to Xbox 360 and Steam.

Now, after reading this, can fans find a reason not to drool a bit?  I certainly can’t and with Valve being the Santa Claus of video game developers the odds are PC gamers will get this free and Xbox 360 owns will probably have to pay a small fee. We’ll of course keep you posted as more details emerge.

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PRESS RELEASE

SPIKE TV’S “VIDEO GAME AWARDS 2009″ PLANS GLOBAL DOMINATION

7TH ANNUAL EVENT WILL BE BROADCAST IN MORE THAN 180 COUNTRIES AND TERRITORIES WORLDWIDE

Two-Hour Event Premieres LIVE On Saturday, December 12 At 8:00 PM ET

Halo: Reach To Exclusively Premiere At VGAs, Plus Spectacular First Looks At
Never-Before-Seen Titles Set To Rock Gaming Consoles In 2010 And Beyond

Nominees And Categories Honoring The Best In Video Games Announced With Sony’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Topping List With Eight Nominations

Voting Begins Today At VGA.Spike.Com and GameTrailers.com

New York, NY, November 18, 2009 – Spike TV today announced the nominees and categories for the biggest world-wide event ever to celebrate the video game industry, the 2009 “Video Game Awards .” The seventh annual “VGAs” will be a global event, broadcasting in over 180 territories and countries and gathering megastars from the worlds of video games, Hollywood, music, sports and more to honor the outstanding achievements within the video game industry during the past year. The two-hour event, taking place in Los Angeles, CA, will premiere LIVE on Spike TV Saturday, December 12 at 8:00pm, ET/PT (tape delay west coast). Beginning today, fans can vote for their favorite nominees at VGA.Spike.Com and GameTrailers.com.
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Left 4 Dead fans anxious to get their undead hands on the highly-anticipated sequel can sample a bit of the carnage today as the demo for Left 4 Dead 2, previously only available to those that pre-ordered the game, has hit Xbox Live.

Here’s a description of the game in case you’ve been under a rock:

The sequel to the best-selling and critically-acclaimed co-operative multiplayer smash from Valve, Left 4 Dead2 promises to become one of 2009’s top-selling games and set a new benchmark for co-operative action games. Left 4 Dead 2 takes place at roughly the same time as the original, and leads four new “Survivors” through the southeastern United States — from Savannah, Georgia to New Orleans’ French Quarter. The title adds melee combat, new monsters and weapons, the AI Director 2.0, and more to create a larger game than the original.

Sweet! Left 4 Dead 2 hits retail on November 17. Visit www.l4d.com for more.

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Scale the wall and breech their defenses, its time for another edition of EpicBattleCry! In this week’s skirmish, we open pandora’s box with the new God of War III Ultimate Edition, run down down the details of Netflix on the PS3, check out the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Limited Edition, and ponder the newly announced Nintendo DSi LL.

With Modern Warfare 2 just around the corner, we examine some of the recent news that has cast a shadow over the release of this title; is Infinity Ward ruining their rep with players by charging more for less features with MW2 on PC? Long-running Japanese game mag Famitsu has given Bayonetta a perfect score? Is the game really that good and is there such a thing as a perfect game?

The Battle Cry of the week goes to the DSi LL for boldly establishing the new less-portable trend, Left 4 Dead 2’s avatar awards, the possibility of Goldeneye finally making an appearance on the Wii Virtual Console next year, and all those PC gamers who have vowed not to purchase MW2; are they planning to get some other way?

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While poking around the coding in the Left 4 Dead 2 demo, a few gamers reportedly found a text file indicating the possibility that the zombie shooter would contain avatar awards. Well, Valve has now confirmed that the game will indeed feature some fancy Xbox 360 avatar awards for fans to enjoy.

Though they never specified what the awards would be, Fade Guy from the Steam forums discovered the following possible awards:

• Med Kit – “earned by beating all five campaigns”
• Bull Shifters Shirt – “earned by winning 10 games of Versus”
• Left 4 Dead 2 Shirt – “earned by winning 10 games of Scavenge”
• Zombie Hand shirt – “earned by killing 10,000 Infected”
• Depeche Mode Shirt – “earned by rescuing Gnome Chompski from the Dark Carnival”

Pretty nice edition from the guys over at Valve and even if these aren’t the exact awards, it’s good that they are including this type of content for fans. I for one am hoping that more games include these awards as I think they are a cool addition to compliment the achievements you earn.  Agree? Disagree? Discuss!

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