Left 4 Dead 2

A Jockey rides on a Survivor and incapacitates him near the end of the video shown below.

Australian gamers clamoring to get their hands on the upcoming sequel to Valve’s zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead 2, were given the harsh news of the game’s ban earlier this week. The Australian Classifications Board refused the game, denying it to be sold anywhere in the country.

As you could have probably guessed, this news doesn’t sit well with Valve. VP of Marketing, Doug Lombardi, told IGN the company was surprised by the ban

“We were surprised to hear of this news. Obviously, everyone at Valve is disappointed,” he said. “It would be a shame if folks in Australia, or anywhere else, are unable to purchase Left 4 Dead 2 because of a ratings issue.”

The game was denied classification due to its ‘high impact violence’ against ‘living humans infected with a rabies-like virus.’

EA Australia is currently working through the submission process to see what, if anything can be done. Valve, meanwhile, is still collecting the details as well.

“As for what’s next, we don’t really know yet,” Lombardi added. “We’re still getting information back.”

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This is no joke. It really is banned in Australia. It’s all over the net.

THE sequel to a popular video game has been banned in Australia after failing to receive a rating of MA15+.

Left 4 Dead 2 was refused classification by the Classifications Board this week, meaning it will be banned from sale.

In its report the board said the game, due to be released in November, contained “realistic, frenetic and unrelenting violence”.

“The game contains violence that is high in impact and is therefore unsuitable for persons under 18 years to play,” the report said.

Related story Click here to read the Classification Board’s report (PDF, 600k)

There is no adult rating for video games in Australia. Any game that fails to meet the criteria for MA15+ is refused classification.

Gametraders national marketing manager Chad Polley said the decision was “hugely disappointing”.

“Left 4 Dead 2 was expected to be even bigger than the original version,” he said.

“We had huge predictions of sales.”

At least one member of the Classifications Board disagreed with the decision.

“A minority of the board is of the opinion that the violence is strong in playing impact and therefore warrants an MA15+ classification,” the report said.

Such a classification would have allowed the game to be sold in Australia.

Mr Polley said the decision highlighted the need to reform the rating system for games.

“We would love to see an R18+ rating introduced for more transparency around games,” he said.

Earlier today distributor Electronic Arts told gaming blog Kotaku it was in discussions with the Office of Film and Literature Classification.

“(We) are still working through the submission process with the OFLC and want to explore all opportunities before making any comment,” the company said.

Left 4 Dead 2 is the fourth title to be banned in Australia this year after strip poker game Sexy Poker, shooter Necrovision and role-playing game Risen.

Edited versions of Sexy Poker and Necrovision were both rated M after resubmission.

The plot of the original Left 4 Dead followed four survivors of a medical pandemic as they battled zombie-like victims. It received several end-of-year awards from gaming publications.

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Major points:

-There won’t be any cutscenes.
-There are more melee weapons (approximately 10, to be exact) than the amount of guns in the first Left 4 Dead.
-The guns aren’t just different skins of eachother, but actually have different behavior aswell. Some of them have a higher rate of fire, some of them do more damage, some are more accurate at a distance.
-Left 4 Dead 2 still MIGHT be compatible with Left 4 Dead 1. The idea isn’t dead yet.
-New term “Impound Lot” – It’s an impound lot of alarm cars.
-AI Director 2.0 has the ability to control the weather, change the environment & surrounding areas.
-Lighting, shadows, etc, have been improved.
-Editing tools for the 360 version is in thought. It likely won’t happen though.

During PAX 2009, we stopped by Valve’s booth to chat with Chet Faliszek, one of the leading minds behind Left 4 Dead 2. Read on for insight into the differences between Left 4 Dead and its upcoming sequel, the possibility of user-created levels on Xbox 360 and just what’s possible with the L4D2 editing tools:

So, you guys have talked about fleshing out the story in Left 4 Dead 2 a bit more, and having a more involved plot. How do you do that with a game like this?

I think that’s one of those “I’m just going to ask you to wait and see.” Some of it is simply … Left 4 Dead 1′s world was at the same stage every place you went. The infection had been there for a little bit. This time we’re seeing what it’s like to be in a city before the infection hits. And you see different people’s reaction to that, as you cross around the country, and there’s some other bits we tie in with the original Left 4 Dead in Left 4 Dead 2 as well.

Are there more traditional story elements this time around? Like more cutscenes?

Oh no. No no no. We want people to be able to jump in because, for whatever we do, equally there’s going to be as many people that just want to start on the fifth campaign and play that first with their friends. We don’t want to have that kind of confusion and, really, our goal and our interest is to tell stories in the game; not in cutscenes. I think movies do a really good job of telling that. If you look at the Team Fortress 2 shorts, they do a good job of telling the story there. I’m much more interested in trying to solve the problem of telling the story to players in the game.

The Left 4 Dead featured a lot of back-and-forth banter between the characters. You can even make them say things by hitting the right button. Do you have more of that this time around? Did you play around with that a little more?

Yeah, so we’ve actually refined our tools a little bit to help us do that a little bit better. And there’s a couple other little pieces that help do that and make it feel, hopefully, a little more natural.

How many melee weapons are there in Left 4 Dead 2? Do you have a count?

You know, I meant to get that because someone asked me that yesterday, and I could list eight off the top of my head and I thought I was missing some. So we have the chainsaw, we have … I can email you the exact number. [Editor's note: And he did.]

But yeah, we have quite a few. I think we have more melee weapons already than guns that shipped in Left 4 Dead 1 — to give you some idea.

Is there anything you haven’t announced yet? Anything you’re keeping secret, as far as melee goes?

That’s why I was trying to list them off! I think we’ve been telling them all. The only one we haven’t shown is the chainsaw.

What about variety in the guns? I saw the sniper, the shotgun, the uzi. What about guns that aren’t in the first game? I saw the magnums, for example.

There’s a lot of different weapons, and not only are they just different skins, there’s actually different behavior inside there. Some of them have a higher rate of fire, some of them do more damage, some are more accurate at a distance. Some of them have other characteristics that we’re not revealing quite yet, with how they behave differently.

One of the things in Left 4 Dead 1 that was always interesting was watching people take on roles. We never wanted to have a class system, where you had to be in that role from the start and hang on to it. Because, unlike Team Fortress, where you get a respawn every couple minutes because you die, in Left 4 Dead you tend to play for an extended period. So, you would see people — depending on who they’re playing with — define their class the way they wanted by the weapons they would choose.

Expanding on that — people finding their own classes and playing for a long time: A lot of folks seem to enjoy the first Left 4 Dead’s Versus Mode, but matches can take a long time. And now you’ve teased a new mode. Is it designed for shorter spurts, if you don’t have a few hours? How does that work?

We really haven’t announced the new mode, we’re not really talking about it. There’s a little bit more left to be revealed on that. But one of the things I think people look at is the DLC — and this isn’t what the new mode is — but the [Crash Course] DLC has a shorter experience, as well. The new game mode is, obviously, a new game mode. This is not Versus, so we want to also give people who still like Versus different ways to get into the game.

The new special Infected: You have the Spitter and you guys are showing off the Jockey. Is that it? Are there any more?

Spitter, Jockey and Charger.

Those are the three new ones. And all those are playable in Versus?

Mmhmm. And if you want to hear what someone’s cackle sounds like, have them play the Jockey.

Have you guys come to a decision as far as making Left 4 Dead 1 compatible with Left 4 Dead 2?

That’s the kind of thing that we’re not going to have concrete right before launch. It’s just kind of a complicated issue of different binaries and different sets of models and different changes and stuff, so we’ll see. We’re definitely aware of the want to do that, and how we do that, we’ll work out.

There are new climax moments, crescendo moments. For every campaign, do you try to offer a different kind of thrill?

Well, there’s some that work really well, and there’s some that are very unique to that situation. For example, consider what we call the Impound Lot. It’s just an impound lot of alarm cars. You can actually sneak by and never set one off, but the odds of you doing that are pretty minimal. We have that kind of thing. We have traditional mini-finales and crescendo events as well, so we kind of mix it up. If you think about it, there’s five campaigns, there’s how many crescendo events? Lots. So there’s a lot of variety. It’s kind of the same with finales. There’s some of what we call traditional finales. And partially we can do those now and not worry because the Spitter and Charger will help impact that.

There are sections, I believe it’s in the parish, in the graveyard section, where the map will actually be different depending on how you play.

In certain parts of the campaigns, the Director looks at how you’re doing and, as the map starts, lays out that section of the map differently.

So that idea is present in more than just that one graveyard section?

Yes, correct.

It’s in other campaigns too?

Yeah.

And how has the Director changed?

Well, the ability to do that is, one, we also have a campaign where it brings in weather events. And that essentially changes it and makes it claustrophobic. You hear the storm coming, you want to find a small place to hang out in and kind of seek safety. And then we also have the ability that it has more creatures to throw at you. So it’s smarter about mixing it up, and what it’s sending at you and when. It’s just not the simple “hunter hunter hunter” kind of thing that happened. How the creatures work together has just gotten really cool, like watching the Spitter throw down spit, and the Jockey grab someone and walk him into the spit.

What are some changes that you’ve made to the engine, other than the AI Director? Things that you can do in the second game that you can’t do in the first game?

The major piece is there’s been a ton of work on the Director done. And the cool thing is, for modders, they’ve been given some control of the director now. When people would say, “Hey, I want to place a Smoker there,” and place it, that’s not how Left 4 Dead 1 worked. We’ve opened it up so that the level designers can add some influence, and we’ll have a map that the level designers set up to have some influence on the director as well. We’ve done some more stuff with shadows, lights, water — we have a lot of water in the game — and those kind of graphic engine changes.

So the editing tools, will those be available on day one?

We’re hoping it’ll be day one or extremely shortly afterwards. We’ve been off the challenge that was Left 4 Dead modeling tools. We hope everyone understands they’re not just the Source authoring tools. Like when Team Fortress came out, we already had the Source authoring tools, or the Source SDK. It just fell underneath that umbrella. This had to be its own beast, because it does things differently. It has a different file system entirely than any of our other games. And that’s helped performance. There’s all these different things that you can do.

Speaking of the level editor, have you seen a pretty big response to that, in the original Left 4 Dead?

Oh yeah, there’s some really cool stuff there. I think Death Aboard has been great; Crossroads Mall is looking good. There’s some other campaigns, like Dam It, that I’ve had some fun with. There was one the other day that was … I wasn’t sure if it was trying to be a horror ride or … I forget the name of it. There’s been a ton of great ones.

Have you put any thought into trying to implement some of the better stuff that you find into the Xbox 360 version? Developers have always had trouble doing that.

One of the things that we look at is the campaigns that people are making. They’re working without testing on low level machines or the 360. Not even low level machines, really mid-level machines or the 360. Some of theirs can’t even run on my high-end machine. So there’d have to be a lot of work there to get them to perform so that we could ship them on their own. One nice thing about Team Fortress map: they’re a small, self-contained space. They’re not nearly as big as a Left 4 Dead map, let alone a five map campaign. If people start getting stuff close, we’d definitely be [interested]. But one of the things now is the first generation maps, these guys have got amazing work, right out of the gate. But we’ll have to see as they get more practice in the engine, as they get more practice working with the Left 4 Dead world, what they can do.

Have you ever considered providing any sort of editing tools for the Xbox 360?

The problem we look at there is always — I guess I should watch what I say, because I guess you could make something easy that does really complicated stuff — but, traditionally, when you make something that’s really easy to do, what people can do is very similar things, not very unique things. What we allow with the full SDK is that people can do very complicated and very cool things, right? And you see total changes and total, you know, big differences. But with editing tools that come with a game, you see, they’re very incremental, more just reordering of current maps and stuff. Honestly, in my opinion, it’s more interesting to see the really powerful thing. That’s not to say that, down the road, we won’t look at something like that. But when I look at something like Death Aboard, that has this ship that’s at an angle, and they created all of their own assets and everything. That’s really cool. Give me your latest copy, I want to go play it, right?

Some people complained about how Left 4 Dead 2 is coming out a year to the day from the first Left 4 Dead. Are you worried about people not making the transition or people just sticking with Left 4 Dead and being left alone?

No, I think if you look at Counter Strike Source and Counter Strike 1.6, those two are still thriving. Obviously, I think Left 4 Dead 2 is a bigger … more game — I don’t want to say better, because I love Left 4 Dead 1 — and I would think it would be the natural way to go, but if people want to stick with Left 4 Dead 1, we still have content coming out for it. We’re still updating it. It’s a schizophrenic thing, but we’ve done it before. How we work as a company and how we are willing to be a little schizophrenic, because we always kind of look at games from the gamers’ perspective, and we play Left 4 Dead ourselves.

We like Left 4 Dead and equally like Left 4 Dead 2. So if people want to stay in there and not have the melee weapons, it’s one of those [things] that you go read the forums and, “Oh my God, they added melee weapons to Left 4 Dead!”, where 99 percent of the world is like, “Melee weapons! I want the chainsaw!”, right? I mean, it’s cool, there are still people playing Team Fortress Classic. We just updated Counter Strike Source a couple of weeks ago.

When you started thinking about new ideas for Left 4 Dead, did you think “We could start adding DLC to the original game”? At what point did it become: “This can’t be DLC, this has to be a new game”?

Well, see, early on it became a question of dependencies. So, what you can do with the Director needs to — because you have these other creatures that it can throw at you — have these AI changes and it needs to have these other weapons. There are just all these inter-dependencies that existed there that we wanted to be able to deliver in one single file. If we had just released the Charger first it wouldn’t have been that interesting. We needed the director changes for the Charger in order to make it work.

Last question: How much disparity do you see in how many people are playing at any given time between the two versions? Is the community leaning more heavily toward PC versus Xbox 360?

No, no. Both communities are totally thriving. I don’t have exact numbers and I don’t want to talk off the top of my head. I haven’t looked at them for a while, which is bad. I should be. We looked at them around E3, and we’re seeing both communities … there’s a thriving community there, and they’re both looking forward to the Crash Course DLC. I talk with a lot of people in the community so it’s pretty evenly split.

I actually do have to ask one more question: The DLC upcoming for Left 4 Dead 1. On PC it’s free, for Xbox it costs seven dollars, I think.

560 Points.

Why is that?

It’s just every time we’re going to release DLC, we’ll come up to this as well. Microsoft did great support for us in getting the Survival Pack DLC out. We think [Crash Course is] a great value. We’re really happy with Crash Course. It’s good DLC. It’s a lot of fun.

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Isn’t she pretty?

One of the first games I got my hands on at PAX this year was Left 4 Dead 2. As a fan of the first game, even with it’s shortcomings, I’m very excited for the sequel. I know a lot of you want nothing to do with it for one reason or another & that’s just fine. I’m not going to try to change your mind. What I do want to do is discuss some of the new things coming to the game & how much I enjoyed my play through one of the levels while I was up in Seattle last weekend.

First thing you should know: Valve isn’t tying to reinvent the wheel here. If you’ve played the first game, then you know what to expect here. For those who didn’t basically you must guide a one of four of survivors to safety from the zombie apocalypse. Left 4 Dead 2 takes everything from the first game & makes it bigger. More weapons, more special infected, better visuals, more paths to get from point A to point B, etc… Most of the naysayers out there have said that this isn’t enough to warrant a sequel. I disagree as the sports games (Madden, NHL, etc…) have been doing it for years.

One of my favorite parts of Left 4 Dead was the special infected. Sure, zombie hordes can be a pain, but having a Smoker grab you just before you make it to the Safe Room or turning around a corner just to have a Boomer vomit on you or a Hunter jump you can make or break your mortality rate. With Left 4 Dead 2, the Boomer, Hunter, Smoker, Tank & Witch all return (with some tweaks, like the Witch wanders around once you startle her). In addition, three new ones have been announced: the Charger (announced at E3), Spitter (announced at ComicCon) & now the Jockey! This guy doesn’t look like much, but he can dramatically change things for you. He’ll hop on your back & ride you like a pony, driving you toward the zombie hordes or other Special Infected (in my play session, he rode one of my teammates right to the Witch). You’ll also find what’s called “Uncommon Infected”. I don’t have much info on them yet, but I suspect they will fall in between the Special Infected & the regular zombies.

Another big change is the melee weapons. In the first game, you had…um…oh right! There were no melee weapons! Now, we have 10 to play with: Baseball Bat, Cricket Bat, Crowbar, Electric Guitar, Fire Axe, Frying Pan, Katana, Machete, Police Baton & a Chainsaw. I have with about a third of these & I almost like the melee weapons better than the guns. It’s an empowering, almost visceral experience to swing that frying pan, hear the “throng” sound it makes as it launches a zombie across the room. Not to say the guns aren’t any good. In fact, they have been improved as well. Not only do the look better, but they feel better to use & there is some special ammo scattered around (not all of which has been announced) like the incendiary ammo. Items are changing too. We still have the Pipe Bomb & the Molotov, but another item leaked out of PAX. There is a defibrillator that will be able to be used to resurrect a fallen teammate. It still hasn’t officially been announced, so we have no idea how it will work yet, but someone discovered it during a glitch in the demo.

Finally, the game itself is just improved. Visually, the zombies & environment look much better. The environments are bigger, allowing you to take many different paths to get from the beginning to the Safe House. In one of my play-sessions, I was able to circumvent an apartment complex by going around it, through it on ground level or on the upper ledge. Each area presents it’s own set of challenges & the now AI Director will make adjustments on the fly, rewarding you for taking a more difficult path with ammo, weapons, etc… You’ll find weapons scattered here & there in addition to the “stash” that you found twice a level in the first game.

All-in-all, I loved it. The idea that everything could have been done through DLC is arguable, but to be honest, I don’t really care. I enjoyed the first game & I will enjoy the sequel. Regardless of how long or short of a development time they had. As I said before, I’m not gonna try to change your mind. I don’t think I can. It isn’t about me telling you what I experienced. it’s about you playing it & deciding for yourself. So, come this November, have an open mind & give it a whirl. You may like what you find…

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Shacknews had the oppurtunity to interview Valve’s Chet Falizsik during PAX ’09.

Major points:

-The uncommon “clown” infected has clown shoes that squeak as he walks. This squeaking sound makes common infected nearby to follow him.
-As a survivor being Jockeyed, you have some control, but you have less control than the Jockey.
-There will be multiple paths which you can choose to go through, though it all still leads to the same saferoom.
-If you’re playing with somebody who pre-ordered Left 4 Dead 2 and got the baseball bat bonus, you too will be able to play with it.
-Baseball bat is NOT a reskinned cricket bat.
-There is still lots more to be seen. There are two remaining campaigns to be revealed including new uncommon infected, and a new game mode.

Along with many Shackers, the staff here has been hoping for a theme park campaign for some time. In fact, we even asked Valve writer Chet Faliszek about it at E3.

“Are you guys taking pictures from our office or something?” he said in response, laughing. “Um… there’s some stuff we’ll be talking about later.”

Fast forward to PAX, and we’ve got our hands on a theme park campaign in Left 4 Dead 2, the wonderfully off-beat Dark Carnival. Surprise!

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all fun and games with Faliszek this time around. In fact, there were a few tears. And it’s all your fault. But he doesn’t want your sympathy–just a chance. Read on for some talk of the game, and an explanation of this goofy tease.

Shack: I have to tell you, just after Left 4 Dead was released last year, there was a thread on Shacknews that someone started asking what people wanted next from Valve as far as new levels. One of the first responses was a theme park campaign, and the second response was me agreeing.

Chet Faliszek: We did it for you.

Shack: Yeah? That’s really what I’m asking.

Chet Faliszek: We saw that and said, “How can we not deliver?”

Shack: Well, thanks! But seriously, what was the inspiration behind this campaign?

Chet Faliszek: So, we mainly kind of designed the whole set of campaigns as, it was really first New Orleans, Savannah, swamp, then we started looking at Georgia. We were like, well, we could either do some rural city things, or let’s just kind of do a little… goofy one. And what you’re playing here doesn’t have the games you get to play, you haven’t gotten to ride any of the rides yet, you haven’t seen the finale yet, which is an odd finale. In a way, it’s kind of like, you know how in the X-Files they have those one-off episodes?

Shack: Yeah.

Chet Faliszek: We went a little goofy on this one.

Shack: Hall of mirrors, perhaps?

Chet Faliszek: No hall of mirrors.

Shack: That’d probably kill your processor.

Chet Faliszek: Yeah.

Shack: So what’s coming in the rest of this campaign? Will we see new enemies?

Chet Faliszek: So the new uncommon common for Whispering Oaks is the clown.

Shack: Right.

Chet Faliszek: And once he starts walking fast, or running up to you, his shoe squeaks. And if there are any common infected out there, they’ll all come following after him, so you want to shoot him quick.

Shack: And the Jockey is in there.

Chet Faliszek: Well the Jockey is for everything. He’s a special infected, and he jumps on your back and pulls you into evil, evil places.

Shack: So when a player is playing as the Jockey, how does that work? Do you have minimal control? Can you shoot people?

Chet Faliszek: No, no. As a survivor being Jockeyed, you have some control, but you have less control than the Jockey. So the Jockey can start running you this way, and if you try to push back, he’s going to win because he has more control. But what you can do is lean to the left and the right, and kind of steer that way. And so you’ll see a good move is, jump on the guy, get him around the room, and around the corner so you can’t be shot off. You’ll see the AI and human players run people into Witches.

Shack: Ugh.

Chet Faliszek: Fire, throw them off cliffs, or into the Spitter’s goo. So all of those tiny mechanics in there… the survivor’s trying not to go there, and the Jockey is trying to lead you there.

Shack: After playing the swamp section here, and parts of the theme park, it seems like you’re going for a much more open approach to the outdoor areas.

Chet Faliszek: Some of the campaigns have that definitely. The first campaign is a little more tight. The parts of New Orleans that we haven’t shown much are a little more tight. But we wanted to get some variety. In Left 4 Dead 1, the way the director worked, and the way the world worked in there, some of the outdoor maps were much harder. I think the beginning of Blood Harvest is really, really hard, because [the zombies] are so close to you. So we wanted to take what we learned there and make the outdoor fun as well. Players tend to like a more open area and define how they want to travel through the area, but even then we want to keep choke points because in Versus the other team needs to know where you’re going to go.

Shack: Are there divergent points?

Chet Faliszek: Oh yeah, often you’ll have multiple paths where you can go around. They’ll always lead back to the same place, because you have to go to the same safe room. But in a lot of different ways, things can get interesting. But And then of course we’ll have choke points that leave you open.

Shack: I wanted to ask you about transitioning from Left 4 Dead 1 to Left 4 Dead 2. Has any decision been made as to whether there will be support for the first game?

Chet Faliszek: So the inter-opterability between the two?

Shack: Yeah.

Chet Faliszek: We’re working on what that will be. There are some technical problems, issues, we’re working things out.

Shack: Are you optimistic that will make it into the game?

Chet Faliszek: Yeah, yeah. I’m not exactly sure what it’s going to be. At some point when we’re near shipping and that’s set, we’ll get smarter people who know technical stuff to come out and talk about it. And that won’t be me. I don’t mean to punt on that, but until it gets closer and we know what it is.

Shack: I also wanted to ask about the pre-order exclusive weapon that was just announced.

Chet Faliszek: [Chet checks his email quickly.] I’m sorry–I actually got another question on that and I’ve been out for two weeks. So, it’s the baseball bat, and–I had to ask [Valve PR chief Doug Lombardi], you know, “Dude!” We’ll have a formal press release on that out soon.

Shack: Is that something that will be just on console, or both platforms?

Chet Faliszek: Both platforms. And I do know how it’ll work is, if you’re playing with somebody that’s preordered it, everybody playing gets it.

Shack: And is it essentially a re-skinned cricket bat, or a unique weapon?

Chet Faliszek: No, all the melee weapons have slight variations on how they work. It’s its own weapon and it has its own characteristics.

Shack: Just looking at the game on paper, there must be a lot of stuff you guys still haven’t shown yet.

Chet Faliszek: We have two campaigns we haven’t shown. We have new uncommon common we haven’t shown. And we do a lot of things like–we’re sitting here staring at a sheriff’s car at the beginning of this campaign. That’s not how the campaign starts; it actually starts differently. But we just wanted to hold some of that back.

Inside the [theme park], we haven’t seen the different toys you can play with inside there. We haven’t seen the Hulk special’s new look. We haven’t seen the new game mode. There’s a whole bunch of stuff in there that we still haven’t talked about. And everything we’ve talked about–we let people play the French Quarter and the finale there, but when they come back and play it they’re going to see how different it is. Part of it is we’ve been showing the game and deliberately decided to hold some stuff back.

Shack: Do you think the reason that the fan reaction to Left 4 Dead 2 being a full-priced game was so… “immediate” was that you are holding some of that stuff back?

Chet Faliszek: Yeah, I think when we try to talk about that… we kind of stop trying to say stuff because we don’t want to… it’s like, look. We’re going to keep going on Left 4 Dead 1. We’ve got all this stuff coming out on Left 4 Dead 2 that we don’t want to talk about yet. We hate talking about stuff that we don’t know exactly is going to happen, because then we cut something or add something.

And so actually to that end, I know you guys followed up on the Offworld interview with Jim Rossignol, where I talked about how we had hoped to get the [Left 4 Dead 1] DLC out beforehand. And I hated that… I read your forums and it made me cry. [laughs]

Shack: I know.

Chet Faliszek: They thought I was making an excuse. I didn’t think… in that interview we were talking about the trials and tribulations of developing, and we had never talked about that before, because I didn’t want to make an excuse. I wanted to say, here, let’s keep working on our stuff and show you.

And so I hated that that looked like an excuse, because I have more respect for the people that play our games than that. And you don’t need to have words at this point. Even now, just play Crash Course when it comes out, take a look at Left 4 Dead 2 when it comes out. I apologize if anyone thinks that I was making an excuse there, because that was not my intent.

Shack: I don’t think we spun it that way, either. [laughs]

Chet Faliszek: Oh no, no, no, no, I know. It’s just, when you’re making stuff and you realize, oh wow, this isn’t going to work, we can’t ship this. Or, when things happen during the process that… I won’t even tell you on the record because it’ll sound like more excuses. But things that make you say, “Are you serious?” You pull your hair out trying to get [a game] out.

And so, just to let everyone know, we’re not trying to make excuses. We’re trying to say, keep looking at Left 4 Dead 2. Keep seeing what we’re going to do on Left 4 Dead 1. There’s a demo coming out for Left 4 Dead 2 before it comes out. Judge us on that, not just by me talking about it, right?

Shack: Sounds good. Thanks Chet.

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Valve is hopeful it can find a way to make user-generated content from the PC version of Left 4 Dead 2 available to Xbox 360 users, the company told OXM UK. “One of the things I’d like to do is to allow these modules that are being released on PC to somehow integrate with Microsoft’s system,” Yasser Mailaka, a “team player” at the developer said.

He’s talking about custom campaigns made with L4D2′s PC-only mod tools, which we’re certain will be put to use straight away turning the game’s zombies into all manner of famous people and copyrighted characters (ie: Shaun of the Dead). At least Valve won’t have a proble– hold on, what’s this? “We’ll have to filter them, we can’t allow any copyrighted materials, so it’s going to have to go through a process,” Mailaka pointed out, dashing our dreams of escaping from not one, but hordes of shambling Andy Dicks.

Mailaka said that Valve is “hoping perhaps we can shepherd the really popular campaigns onto 360. And you know, if they are a paid system, perhaps that could go back to the authors. I think that would be a great story.” You know what, it would — but so would a mod where you have to avoid being trampled at Walmart on Black Friday. Hey, that sounds like a good L4D campaign: “Black Friday … Escape or Die Buying.”

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