The guys over at L4Dmods have started cracking on custom Melee weapons, which the game supports surprisingly well. This only works with Melee weapons.

Very simple and temporary tutorial.

Riot Shield Mod, using scrapped melee weapon models, when Locally Hosting or Playing as Singelplayer, it has a chance to show up in all games.

Note: While looking through the models myself I found an unused w_didgeridoo.mdl, currently working on a weapon mod to see what that is.

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.

For those of you who don’t check the Left 4 Dead blog too often, and none would blame you, Erik Johnson posted on the 13th explaining that Gabe Newell and him had returned from their trip over in Australia. The visitation, for those who don’t keep up to date with the Valve news, was to test out Joe W-A’s Left 4 Dead campaign, after a few joke e-mails between the parties resulted in Joe W-A’s community forking over $3000 in under 48 hours.

The blog post explained that Valve was unable to actually make the contributors pay for their ticket, and instead donated the $3000 to Child’s Play, a video game based charity organization. However, they still counted the contributors donations in a pretty long image, showing the contributor’s name, amount and the distance that amount got them. The chart can be found by clicking the image below:

Pictures from the trip, as well as videos and information can be found on the Fly Gabe Newell blog set up by Joe W-A.

Like, next week, or at least “very soon,” according to Kotaku. It might include a L4D SDK update, so you know what that means: That’s right, community made L4D campaigns! Hooray!

Yeah, that’s all I got. I recommend watching the in-game interview linked off the the article if you’re bored.

So, I finally got L4D, which means I have some stuff to write about. Let me summarize my first impressions in a few chioce words:

OH MY GOD ZOMBIES GET OUT OF THERE SHOOT THEM KILL THEM KILL THEM ALL HELP WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING IT HURLED ON ME OH GOD WHATS HAPPENING SHOOT THEM USE YOUR GUNS DAMMIT WHAT IS THAT THING OH ITS CLAWING ME TO DEATH OH GOD IM GONNA DIE HELP OH WHY ME OH WHY oh I died.

This is kinda what it looked like.

In other words, I had a great time. The guns have oomph, the zombies are scary enough, and the characters are well developed and easy to like. The main problem is that I was able to play through all the campaigns in a single day. In other words, it was much too short.

This is probably repeated quite often through this thing we call the internet, so I’m only going to say it once.

VALVE: HURRY THE HELL UP AND GIVE US SOME MORE CAMPAIGNS.

For those of you who don’t have it yet, I still heartily recommend L4D. If you do have it, good. Lets both hope for new maps together. Maybe it will happen. You know, eventually.

Oh, and one more thing: In versus mode, please don’t do this. It doesn’t make you cool, or smart, or better at the game. It just makes you a jerk. Play the game without exploits- it makes the whole thing much more fun for everyone. Thanks.

Edit: One more thing I want to complain about: Why can’t I see where other people’s flashlights are shining? While the beam is visible, there is no light actually produced for anyone but themselves. Being able to see by their light would make looking through small, dark rooms much easier- and you would be able to see more distinctly what they are looking at. I can’t see why Valve didn’t include this.

(Or maybe my graphics settings are wrong? Can any of you see by someone else’s light?)