| Left 4 Dead: Crash Course impressions |
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With the impending arrival of Valve's mostly anticipated Left 4 Dead 2 due to infect Xbox 360's this November, the original title as of late has had some support on the DLC side, firstly was the arrival of the Survival Pack which introduced a new game mode, known as Survival, obviously. This basically pitts our four survivors against the zombie horde and the clock, as a never ending wave of zombies that keep on coming until they finally feast on your brains, and Zoey. The latest DLC release for Left 4 Dead is Crash Course, which is essentially a campaign based mission with some new dialogue, and the story of which fits in just after the end of the first campaign mission No Mercy, where you were rescued by a helicopter... this is where Crash Course fits in, it just so happens the pilot must have had a love-bite or two from some hot and blood-thirsty zombie (easy to get confused without that make-up on). See our exclusive first 5-minutes of Crash Course campaign gameplay video here.
The Crash Course content, which is available for both the Xbox 360 and PC version of Left 4 Dead has caused quite a stir, simply being because the PC version of the content is free to download, where as downloading the content from the LIVE Marketplace will cost you 560MSP. Why this has happened is something of a mystery, but not all that surprising given the track record of content that was intended to be free in the past, but just never panned out that way.
Valve's Chet Faliszek said “We own our platform, Steam. Microsoft owns their platform. They wanted to make sure there's an economy of value there.” When pressed about if Microsoft forced the pricing, Faliszek added “Well, they helped us get the first one out for free. We had the one DLC out for free (Survival Pack). And I think... they have to look and say, wow, we are kind of being unfair to everybody else if these guys can do that.”
Well, it looks like we have our reason for the pricing, as disappointing as it might be that Microsoft can dictate pricing and have the final word over developers and the publishers' content is certainly somewhat a cause for concern, considering such content is 'intended' to be free during the making of such content, one must assume that said content holds less replay value than something that was planned to be premium/paid-for content, assuming developers obviously put more into content they plan to charge-for, than content that they do not.
Regardless of whether the content should be free or not, if you're reading this then it's likely that you own Left 4 Dead on the Xbox 360. The value of Crash Course depends on how you like to play Left 4 Dead, in comparison Crash Course just has two chapters, compared to the standard five chapters of the other campaigns. It took us just 24 minutes to complete Crash Course, albeit that was on Normal difficulty, but should give you some indication to the length of the campaign add-on.
The real value in Crash Course comes from Left 4 Dead's versus and survival modes, if you're reading this and picturing happy times with your buddies in co-op on a new level then Crash Course is not for you. However, if you enjoy the competitive multiplayer and survival modes of Left 4 Dead, then Crash Course is the perfect fit for all the versus zombie and hunter-pouncing mayhem – a must-buy only for Left 4 Dead's versus and survival modes, otherwise you're best off waiting for the apocalyptic zombies in Left 4 Dead 2 come November. If you've got points to burn though, then the recently released XBLA title, Zombie Apocalypse, provides greater value and an excellent co-op experience, furthermore it's money well spent and even more zombie slaying carnage. To place an overall score on the Left 4 Dead Crash Course downloadable content, then a 4 out of 10 is most suitable, all things considered.
Posted By: Wayne Julian
Date: 2009-10-05
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