Remember that fake engie update posted a while back? A video’s been released showing the Amplifier sort of working ingame. Wonder when this will be downloadable for server admins in Sourcemod script form…

Also, I seem to have missed a recent L4D2 blog post detailing achievements and a number of new gameplay mechanics. This new campaign just seems to get better and better.

EDIT: And an hour or two later, Valve drops a significant change to the drop system. More details on their blog. Idling will be a lot less useful now, and everyone that isn’t obsessed about models in a video game will now receive them more frequently. About time.

While ‘The Passing’ will be available for both L4D2 and L4D1, it seems they’ll kill off one of the old cast members by the time you’re done with it. If you’re playing L4D1, you’ll have to choose which team member to leave behind. But if you’re playing L4D2, the character that dies off will actually be the true choice.

Predicted spoilers? I’m seeing Bill kicking the bucket, seeing as there’s rumors of his voice actor going AWOL.

A L4D2 DLC campaign was announced recently, and the main focus of it is the return of the old survivors. This is great news for the fans who really connected with the original cast. The new campaign is called “The passing”, and it’s set in a small rural town in Georgia, featuring one new uncommon infected, one new melee weapon, one new firearm, and a new co-op mode.

What I’m wondering is how big this expansion will be. You’ve probably heard how each survivor has over one thousand voice lines, so there’s going to be some downloading to do. Also, pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but PC players can expect it to be free.

Well apparently, looking through files in the L4D2 Demo to find references to both a “Miracle Pack” and “Apocalyptic Pack” to be downloaded from Xbox LIVE’s marketplace system. It looks like DLC may not be far down the road after release, which will be good, considering how frequent the previous Left4Dead was updated.

Owners of the PC version will have nothing to worry about, as Valve has stated time and time again, any DLC pricing is strictly done by Microsoft.

“On the consoles, they want us to charge money for [DLC], because that’s in their model, and our model is very much more to grow the community by giving out free updates,” said Valve president Gabe Newell last year. “That’s harder for us.”

There is also mention of the original Left 4 Dead maps, as well as mugshots of the original four survivors for character selection. Left over files from the first, or a possible clue to L4D2 supporting the original maps and characters, under the new engine?

Thanks to FPSBanana and G4 for bringing the story to my attention.

The original story can be found here, posted by Cordl3ssPen on the Rage3D forums.