GamesBloggo - Your source on game news! January 2009

Chet Faliszek from Valve has confirmed during a video podcast for Kotaku that the developing team is working on downloadable contents for Left 4 Dead.

He confirmed that the team is working on additional contents that will be available for download, and that the developing is being done contemporarily for the XBox 360 and PC versions. Although there aren’t many details on how this expansion will present itself, Faliszek has declared that it will feature “new playable contents”.

We’ll be waiting on more information on the matter.

After having analyzed different cases of suspect behavior from some players in Left 4 Dead, Valve has decided to act and to stop the “cheaters” with a software update.

“Valve has released a server-side fix to deny the recently reported cheats on all dedicated Left 4 Dead Xbox 360 servers. The fix is designed to halt the cheating behavior on the dedicated servers, which accounts for the majority of the co-op and Versus modes of play. A title update for those playing on user-hosted servers and/or via system link will be released in the coming days.”, it can be read on Blue’s News.

The problems found were caused by changes that are possible only on the Xbox 360 version, giving players the possibility to touch options that were generally inaccessible, offering the possibility of modifying many game aspects and spoil the experience to other players as well.

The Left 4 Dead demo for the XBox 360 is already available on the XBox Live Marketplace. The file is rather large, 1.21GB, and it should feature the first two Survivor campaign maps, set at the hospital, and some multiplayer elements for up to 4 players, if the demo is the same as the PC version, as it should be.

Left 4 Dead is expected to launch on November 21st for PC and XBox 360.

And the zombie invasion continues, just in time for Halloween! Besides the nazi zombie squad that has been announced for Call of Duty: World at War, an “old school” arcade game has been presented today for the PSN: Burn Zombie Burn, from Pinnacle Software and Doublesix. The game’s settings will probably please the fans of the recent Monster Madness, which inspired itself on the old 16-bit cult named “Zombies Ate My Neighbour”. Burn Zombie Burn tells the story of a young couple that finds themselves facing a zombie invasion, and there’s the possibility of playing as the main protagonist Bruce, his girlfriend Daisy or his brother Bruno, and also, the possibility of multi or single-player modes.

The game is expected to be launched on 2009 on the PlayStation Network.

No, it’s not a big change. But, in any case, Valve has published the new minimum requirements for their upcoming game, Left 4 Dead. These are, of course, related to the game’s PC version.

* OS: Windows XP, Vista, Vista 64
* CPU: 3.0GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 or AMD64X2 (o better)
* RAM: 1 GB per XP / 2 GB for Vista
* Disc Drive: DVD-ROM Drive
* Hard Drive: At leas 7.5 GB of free space
* Video:DirectX 9-compatible video-card (minimum 128 MB or more, support for DirectX 9 and pixel shader 2.0)
* Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible audio card.

Basically, the only changes in comparison to the previous released requirements is the video card memory requirement: 128 MB instead of the previous 256 MB.

Rhianna Pratchett will be the new Overlord 2 scriptwriter. The game is an action/adventure produced by Codemasters and developed by Triumph Studios. Pratchett has also written the previous title, and other big names such as Mirror’s Edge and Heavenly Sword. She’ll also be taking care of the Overlord Dark Legend and Overlord Minions spinoffs, aimed for Nintendo Wii and DS respectively.

Rhianna is Terry Pratchett’s daughter, famous British writer responsible for the DiscWorld novels. In the meantime, Codemasters has released two new Overlord 2 images. This sequel expands the first title in many aspects: artificial intelligence, interface system, world interaction and graphics.

Overlord 2 will be more realistic than the previous title, with current political elements presented in the game as a parody. The world will have less fantasy elements to make room for more real scenarios.

Valve has decided to place the launch date of the Left 4 Demo version around the Halloween period, roughly two weeks before the announced release on November 18th. The date announced on Shacknews corresponds, therefore, to the release on XBox Live and Steam, Valve’s digital delivery system where players can already find the game for pre-order.

The demo will include the two first missions on the Survivor campaign, set in the Hospital map, and will support the cooperative multiplayer up to 4 players. In order to play as an undead character, however, it might be better to wait the full game release, since the option will not be available on the demo.

It’s been a while that a demo for Left 4 Dead has been rumored, but now it’s been officially confirmed by Valve’s Gabe Newell. He has also announced the probable release date for the Zombie-based FPS demo. Newell has told Edge that the demo, that allows up to four players to experience a small portion of the game, will be available in the “first days of November”. The final game is expected to be launched on November 18th for PC and XBox 360 (in North America).

The game represents the videogame version of the classic zombie horror movies: based on multiplayer (but containing also a single player component), some players will be able to play the undead characters, while the others will be the humans inside and outside different scenarios.

According to what’s been reported by XboxOZ360Gamer, the Australian classification system for multimedia products (OFLC) has refused to place Silent Hill: Homecoming inside any of the classification ratings, thus eliminating the game from the market. The Australian system, in fact, doesn’t really have an “18+” game rating, therefore the Konami title didn’t fit within any of the other categories, due to its content. As the site we mentioned before says, this solution’s becoming more and more frequent in the Australian market, which also has made very strange decisions. For example, Dark Sector was refused by the classification system due to an excessive blood display, but Ninja Gaiden 2, which doesn’t seem less violent, has received the “MA15+” rating and is free to be commercialized. The same thing happened to Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, that got the same ratings, despite its violence.

Electronic Arts decided to release an “Ultra Limited Edition” version of Dead Space. This version for now seems to be sold only through the EA site, for the rather high price of $150. The package, however, is filled with contents, such as:

- The Dead Space game, as it’d be expected
- A special Ultra Limited Edition
- A DVD with the animation movie “Dead Space Downfall”
- Another DVD with bonus contents
- An exclusive litographic artwork
- A 97-page artbook written and illustrated by the developing team
- A 160-page graphic novel
- A patch called “Ishimura Crew”

For a collector, the package may be worth the price.