A First Look At "Fairgrounds" Left 4 Dead 2 Campaign

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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A First Look At "Fairgrounds" Left 4 Dead 2 Campaign

Left 4 Dead 2's survivors find themselves in a creepy amusement park after the zombie apocalypse - take a look at a L4D2 campaign so new, Valve doesn't have a name for it yet! Also, Gabe Newell talks about the L4D2 boycott.

[gametrailers=53917]

On last night's episode of Gametrailers TV [http://www.gametrailers.com/episode/gametrailers-tv/67?ep=67], host Geoff Keighley headed over to Valve to check out the latest and greatest of what was under development. Among other things, viewers got a sneak peek at one of the new campaigns in Left 4 Dead 2, the "fairgrounds" level.

After fleeing Savannah, Georgia, L4D2's survivors - Coach, Nick, Rochelle, and Ellis - find themselves in a traffic jam, and so end up traversing the ruins of a fairground. You know, because few things are creepier than places of fun and joy turned into killing fields. According to L4D2 writer Chet Faliszek, this campaign is "so new, so breaking, that we haven't even given it a name or a tagline yet."

There's not much footage yet, but we know that at some point there will be a merry-go-round. Fighting zombies on a merry-go-round seems like a perfectly entertaining pastime to me, but there's quite a bit of potential in this sort of campaign for trickery. Fighting in a house of mirrors, anyone?

Of course, there's a lot more in this episode for L4D fans - Faliszek talks about the new characters, weapons, and storytelling elements upcoming in the sequel, and shows off the new "Crash Course" DLC for L4D1. Which, Gabe Newell points out, was Valve's attempt to directly address the concerns of the Left 4 Dead 2 boycotters.

"The people who are leading the boycott group have some really legitimate concerns," says Newell. "One is, 'If you guys have announced this [making a sequel in less than a year], this is something you've never done before. Does this mean you're not going to support Left 4 Dead? Rather than get into a debate with these people, we've tried to just show them that we're actively going to support Left 4 Dead, that we love it, and that Left 4 Dead 2 really is a legitimate sequel and separate from Left 4 Dead 1, as well as making sure we do a good job integrating these two communities."

(Via VG247 [http://www.vg247.com/2009/08/14/left-4-dead-2-fairground-level-video-released/])

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GoblinOnFire

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Jul 28, 2008
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I have high hopes for L4D2 and the Crash Course DLC. I felt that the original lacked..um... coherency: The chapters were so...I dunno... separated.. The DLC will fuse them together. Way to go, Valve!
And the fact that Valve is working on Portal 2 gives me yet another reason to upgrade my rig.

My faith is restored
 

DamienHell

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Oct 17, 2007
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Crash Course confuses me because they said earlier that they DIDN'T want to make the maps following each other because it depressed the characters. "Oh you escaped, lol no you didn't!"
Are you trying to make us depressed valve?!
 

brabz

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Jan 3, 2008
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Very informative, definitely looking forward to L4D2, as well as the eventual Portal 2 and HL2:3 sequels.

I was pretty surprised by the attitude towards the PS3; to completely acknowledge a customer base got treated poorly and then go on to say their studio isn't making any efforts to learn it further is very surprising. Sony must have really done some weird stuff with their coding if a company like Valve is having such problems.

My only complaint is that they still haven't addressed the problems with TF:2 on console. The new update that allows the host to block classes is completely assinine, and the glitching/skywalking still exists.
 

Destal

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Jul 8, 2009
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I'm really glad that they are continuing to support L4D and I have to say that L4D2 is shaping up quite nicely.
 

TheNumber1Zero

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Jul 23, 2009
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even more ways to make boycotters hush up,very good.looking foward to LFD2 in all it's leave the bait behind glory(I got lost somehow)
 

Croaker42

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Feb 5, 2009
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This is exciting. Im looking forward to the DLC. As per how I handle L4D2 will mostly depend on how they handle cross community integration.

On a side note, I love the fuck it method to dev on the ps3. Some times you just have to cut your losses instead of dumping money into a pit.
 

RebelRising

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Jan 5, 2008
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If Geoff Keighly was a diplomat, we'd have world piece within hours.

Anyways, I'm excited for the DLC, and the sequel is shaping up nicely. I've never played CounterStrike, but Portal 2 sounds good.
 

IrrelevantTangent

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Oct 4, 2008
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All L4D2 news is good news, as far as I'm concerned. I'm absolutely thrilled that the katana will be in L4D2; I can't wait to get up to all sorts of crazy Kill-Bill hijinks.

I wish they could have revealed the last special infected, but I guess they're saving that for later.
 

King O' Da Bees

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Aug 14, 2009
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Man everything I see about LVD2 makes me want it more, and now I got the Cricket bat to work with! Go all Shaun of the Dead on everyone!
 

Cowabungaa

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Feb 10, 2008
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I want L4D2 even more now. A grenade launcher, a crícket bat? Gods that's awesome. Also a couple of other things that weren't "Fairgrounds campaign" related:
- The Rage trailer makes me even more interested in that game, I wonder how it'll compare to Borderlands. I think I'll go for Rage, Borderlands has too many monsters.
- Does anyone else think that hitting a zombie with an iron skillet (not a frying pan!!!) using the Wiimote would be incredibly satisfying. I think I wouldn't use any other weapon in a Wii version of L4D. THUNK!
 

AceDiamond

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Croaker42 said:
On a side note, I love the fuck it method to dev on the ps3. Some times you just have to cut your losses instead of dumping money into a pit.
Agreed. As profitable as Valve is as a company they aren't the largest one out there and thus it makes sense for them to not spend resources on PS3 development if personally they don't think it's viable
 

HEXYDEZiMAL

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Aug 11, 2009
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As one who's boycotting L4D2, I wrote a letter to Newell that you can see here:
http://pastebin.ca/1534620

Some piddly ass two level DLC that they already had from before is far from addressing my concerns.
 

ChromeAlchemist

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Aug 21, 2008
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Portal 2? Sigh...

I guess it's a different story, colour me uninterested for that one, I don't think it needed a sequel.

HEXYDEZiMAL said:
As one who's boycotting L4D2, I wrote a letter to Newell that you can see here:
http://pastebin.ca/1534620

Some piddly ass two level DLC that they already had from before is far from addressing my concerns.
Back to this again? I still can't see this as anything but "We love you Valve, but we don't trust you to update your products as promised". I don't think that will ever change. Don't think I misunderstand this as greed, I interpret it as mistrust. I scanned over that letter, and my stance remains the same. They made substantial changes to warrant a sequel, but there's no reason they can't go back and update the game (and honestly I think the only thing that is necessary is bug fixes, but that's just me). And to be honest, I would count oneself lucky...
AceDiamond said:
Croaker42 said:
On a side note, I love the fuck it method to dev on the ps3. Some times you just have to cut your losses instead of dumping money into a pit.
Agreed. As profitable as Valve is as a company they aren't the largest one out there and thus it makes sense for them to not spend resources on PS3 development if personally they don't think it's viable