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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