This is the award every publisher wants to win, the Ultimate Game The Year award. If you pick this one up, you've made a really good game. In the nominations were giants such as Fallout 3, Call of Duty World at War, Left 4 Dead, Grand Theft Auto, IV and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. See - them's some big guns.

But there can be only one. And the golden gong went to...
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HellDescent writes: "While playing the Left 4 Dead 2 demo, we noticed that our friends who were playing the original Left 4 Dead were showing up in in the main menu. Now why would players from the original Left 4 Dead have their online status displayed in Left 4 Dead 2? The only thing that comes to mind is the rumor/experimenting with linking the games that was on the web not too long ago. Valve aimed to bring both sides of Left 4 Dead fans together and stated they were attempting to link the 2 games. This little message under "Online Friends" in the main menu of Left 4 Dead 2 gives much the rumor a big tank sized injection of reality. Hopefully this means we wont have to leave Bill, Zoey, Francis and Louise behind. Only Valve and their super big vault of secrets now that answer. For now, we will have to wait a few more weeks to full release."
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HellDescent writes:" Hidden within the Left 4 Dead 2 demo, Steam user Fade Guy found what appears to be a listing of Avatar Awards for the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead 2. The list is as follows:

.Med Kit: Earned by beating all five campaigns.
.Bull Shifters Shirt: earned by winning 10 games of Versus.
.A 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.

Update: G4 has confirmed the Awards with video proof"
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Critical Gamer Writes: Today, we give you our interview with Left 4 Dead 2 writer Chet Faliszek. Good enough in itself; but it's turned up two very interesting comments.

A huge chunk of what makes the Left 4 Dead games so good is Valve's exclusive 'AI Director' which controls enemy behaviour, placement, and even the music; so no two games are ever exactly alike, and nothing is predictable. But could the Director be adapted for a single player game? We asked Chet and he replied:

"We have definitely thought along those lines. Replayability is just as important in single player games as it is in multiplayer games. The AI Director helps us bring that to our games so you should be looking out for variations on it in the future."
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Mercy. The hospital in Left 4 Dead's "No Mercy" campaign, and the name of a real one in Pittsburgh. And Louis, Zoey, Francis and Bill are sowing panic about its conditions, the access to medication, and patients you'll find there.

Some eye-opening (and - for the irony-deficient - pranked) reviews for Pittsburgh's real Mercy Hospital started popping up a couple weeks back on Citysearch, beginning with "FrancisSilverman" under the heading, "I hate hospitals!"
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Microsoft today announced five new entries to their Platinum Hits collection, and revealed a 3-for-2 sale at most retailers.
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The Koalition - I think this is the smartest move, even though its crazy expensive. Valve announced today that it would be spending 25 million to help push Left For Dead 2 to its full sales potential. With Modern Warfare 2 dropping on Nov. 10th and L4D2 dropping on Nov. 17th any gamer can clearly see that MW2 will have the majority of mind share the full 4th quarter. The only way to compete with that is to put your game in the faces of the people so they can still realize your there. Will 25 million be enough to weather the Modern Warfare storm?
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Ryan O'Koren is a student at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland. He is also a longtime modder of Half-Life games, making maps under the name "mrfanswa". And he's got something pretty cool in store for you. Cold Case is an incredibly ambitious mod for Left 4 Dead that O'Koren intends to complete in time for a Halloween release, celebrated with a big party in Baltimore.
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HellDescent writes: "Valve has just confirmed that the Left 4 Dead 2 demo will be accessible earlier if the game is pre-order on Steam or at participating retailers. Starting from today, those who preorder the game from Steam or what ever store will support the bonus will be given access to the demo on October 27th and an extra Baseball bat melee weapon for the full game. Pre-order bonuses are really sailing lately. Seems like every game has one. There's no excuse to not pre-order this game now. As an added incentive Steam and other participating retailers will be offering Left 4 Dead 2 at 10% off with the pre-order."
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Valve has released a new patch for both PC and Xbox 360 versions of their co-op survival FPS Left 4 Dead.
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Console Monster writes: "The Xbox Live Marketplace has been bursting with new content over the last three days with the addition of three new Xbox Live Arcade titles, new game content for Left 4 Dead and more to conclude the month of September. Here is the full Xbox Live Marketplace update for Monday 28th – Wednesday 30th September 2009:

Xbox Live Arcade
Military Madness: Nectaris
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Size: 101 MB
The Military is back for a new generation of recruits! The classic turn-based strategy series Military Madness, aka Nectaris, returns with an all-new graphical barrage and a host of new features. In addition to the single-player campaign, you and your allies can wage war offline or online in 4-person multiplayer, either in teams or every man for himself. As you bask in the glow of victory or suffer crushing defeats, check the online leaderboards to compare your skills against those of other generals. There's even an all-new multiplayer-only unit, the Commander, which has 20 unique abilities to turn the tide of battle. This is the maddest game in the series yet! This game requires the Xbox 360 hard drive or the 512MB Memory Unit for storage. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts..."
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Gamer Limit reviews the DLC for Left for Dead.Note this is free for all you pc gamers and costs 7 bucks for Xbox 360 owners
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The new Crash Course DLC has landed for Valve's zombie co-op shooter Left 4 Dead and is now available for download. Earlier the content was listed incorrectly at 800 MS Points and pulled, but has since been reposted and changed back to 560.
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Via CVG: Left 4 Dead's Crash Course DLC is up now for PC (free) and oddly priced at 800 MS Points on 360. We've blasted our way through the new campaign and here's what you get for your money (if you're a 360 owner). Check back as we'll be dropping fresh clips in throughout the day. Here's the first.
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Valve has confirmed that the Left 4 Dead add-on Crash Course is now available to purchase from the Xbox Live Marketplace.

The Xbox 360 version was meant to cost 560 MS Points, but the marketplace is currently listing it for 800 MSP. We aren't sure if this is an error, but we'll try and find out now. Remember that the PC version is free, but that isn't available on Steam yet, it should be soon.
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Destructoid writes:

"A Game With Fame announcement on Xbox Live offers the chance to play Left 4 Dead's Crash Course on Sept. 23. "Chance to play" doesn't necessarily mean "release date," but the DLC was promised in September."

Crash Course is a DLC pack for Valve's popular zombie thriller game, Left 4 Dead, and will be available for free on PC and 560 MS points on Xbox Live.
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GOONL!NE writes: 'So, on Thursday, we all booted up our Xbox or PC, hoping to finally try out the brand new 'Crash Course' campaign from Valve.

And it wasn't there.

What happened?...'
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Fresh off their visit to Valve, the guys responsible for the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott committee are now saying the developer has even more DLC lined up for the original game.

"There is more DLC for Left 4 Dead coming after Crash Coursh," said boycott organizer Walking_Target on the group's Steam blog.
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Luke Plunkett writes:

It's DIY Valve Action Figure Week this week at Kotaku, as hot on the heels of yesterday's lineup of Team Fortress 2 toys comes this fan-made Hunter from Left 4 Dead. And doesn't he look...hungry.
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From VGarabia.com " According to the last update from Valve official twitter, the 'Crash Course' campaign DLC is set to be released this Thursday."
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