Soldiers of the Wasteland

Crash Course, the all-new free DLC for Left 4 Dead was released yesterday. The update includes a new campaign (which can also be played in versus or survival mode), new achievements as well as a streamlined version of the existing versus campaigns.

The events of the Crash Course campaign are set after the finale of No Mercy (where the survivors escape on the helicopter) and leads up to the beginning of the Death Toll campaign.

However, the main feature of Crash Course is its streamlined Versus mode. This update is set to balance Versus campaigns more effectively and allow the completion of a campaign within 30 minutes, making for a much faster play experience.

To coincide with the release of Crash Course, Left 4 Dead can be bought for half price ($14.99) from the Steam store (sale ends October 2).

A number of SotW members have already purchased the very recently released Killing Floor. It is a cooperative survival horror game (sharing similarities with Left 4 Dead) which pits a group of up to six people against hordes of zombies with one goal in mind – kill them all before they kill you.

The game features First Person cooperative zombie killing action, a persistent perk system which allows players to make permanent improvements their character’s skills and abilities, an achievement system, as well as the SDK which allows the community to continue to improve upon the game by making new levels and mods. And if that wasn’t enough, those who have fond memories of Hellgate may also experience a feeling of nostalgia as you blast your way through countless zombies on the streets of London once more.

Check out the roll call thread on the forums to see who has already bought the game and be sure to add your name to the list if you decided to purchase it as well.

This Friday Valve has given Steam users the opportunity to download and play Left 4 Dead for free. The promotion only lasts for the day, so if you have been thinking of buying the game, this would be the perfect opportunity to try it out.

Beginning Friday at 12:01 am GMT, the PC version of Left 4 Dead will be available for a free 24-hour trial via Steam. The free trial will include access to the recently released Survival Pack DLC, which introduces a new multiplayer game mode and two additional Versus campaigns. Those who wish to give L4D and the Survival Pack a try may now pre-load everything needed to play with no obligation to purchase.
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If you do happen to download the game to try it out, make sure you drop a line in this thread to let everyone know so they can join you for some games.

Thanks to Shayagor for the heads up on this deal.

Just in case you couldn’t decipher the string of acronyms thrown in the post title, the Left 4 Dead ‘Survival Pack’ was released yesterday on PC as free downloadable content for owners of the game. This update introduces the new game mode known as Survival Mode where players must try to survive a continuous onslaught of zombies for as long as possible, as well as also including 16 new maps and 7 new achievements.

Judging by the spawn-graph released by Valve, Survival Mode looks like it will appeal to the hardcore gamers inside of us all. If your team manages to survive for 12 minutes, then you will be getting a new Tank spawn every 30 seconds! It’s going to be tough to survive for 12 minutes, and basically impossible to go over 14 with the Tank spawning every 20 seconds or less, but I’m sure SotW is up for the challenge.

To find people who are ready for that challenge, be sure to head to the L4D section of the forums.