It looks like the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott movement I wrote about back in June has been dealt a major blow as two of the founders recently published a post that raised more than just a few eyebrows. In an attempt to show the boycott group that Left 4 Dead 2 maintains the same quality that made the first game such a joy to play Valve flew the two group members out to their offices in Washington, which at least gives them a chance to say they’ve played the game before they continue to ‘boycott’ it.

So, what was their verdict?

“As for L4D2, things seemed balanced and ‘tight’ and did not feel like a rushed job. While we were visiting their offices we personally witnessed what can only be called a small army of artists, coders, mappers hard at work, which explains the rapid transformations in artwork that we’ve all seen.

What we can say with confidence is that the quality of gameplay in Left 4 Dead 2 is not in question; and it will only get better (from what we understand, almost daily testing of game builds by most of the staff at Valve).” - Source

266 comments later (at the time of writing) and they had been predictably labeled as ‘sell-outs’ by the majority of the group, even after the two guys were adamant that Valve isn’t dropping support for the first game. I suppose it’s hard to trust the word of two guys who’d just had an all-expenses paid trip across the US, even if they did help create the group. However, I had already made up my mind long before this new development.

So, what do you think? Sell-outs? Simply appreciating a good game? Don’t care? I think that I regret the comments I made in my previous post on this issue. After reading updated previews and seeing new videos since that post I believe that Left 4 Dead 2 will be worth it if you enjoyed the first game, and I am now genuinely looking forward to it. If Valve continues to support the first game then you’ve got two great games in your hands, and what could really be wrong with that apart from finding the time to play them both? I also need to note that I never agreed with a ‘boycott’ in the first place; I was simply a little annoyed because I thought that Valve would only be releasing a tiny bit of content for the first game, but from seeing more of the sequel I’m not sure that I’m even bothered about playing the first game anymore (to be fair I have enjoyed the content we did get). I probably won’t buy the game full price, but that’s because I have more than enough games to keep me occupied at the moment and it’s always good to pick up a bargain somewhere down the line.

I suppose the most important question here is “What the hell is that on Gabe’s shirt???”.

Related posts:

• Valve Responds to Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott

Earlier this week over 15,000 fans formed a Steam community group with the aim to boycott the upcoming Left 4 Dead 2 launch. Left 4 Dead 2 was a surprise announcement at E3 – especially for Valve, a company that tends to take a long time to release a sequel – annoying many fans as they felt that Valve had promised to offer continued support and new content for Left 4 Dead. By releasing a sequel only a year after the first game gamers were starting to feel a bit short changed, as Left 4 Dead doesn’t have a great deal of content and the idea was that more would be added (only the Survival Pack has been released so far). Valve has now responded to these protests.

Speaking to Kotaku Valve founder Gabe Newell defended plans for the sequel, saying that its release would not change plans for the continued support of the first game

“Doing a sequel in one year is new for Valve. But providing ongoing support for our titles after the initial launch isn’t - it has been part of our philosophy since Half-Life was released ten and half years ago,” said Newell.

“We see no reason to change that and will continue to support the over three million customers in the L4D community. Some in the community are concerned that the announcement of L4D2 implied a change in our plans for L4D1. We aren’t changing our plans for L4D1.”

“In addition to the recently released Survival Pack, we are releasing authoring tools for Mod makers, community matchmaking, 4×4 matchmaking, and more new content during the coming months for L4D1,” Newell claimed. “We also agree with our customers that there needs to be an interoperability plan for players of L4D1 and L4D2, as multiplayer games are driven by the cohesiveness of their community.”

While it’s refreshing to hear that Valve will still be supporting Left 4 Dead I still don’t understand why Valve couldn’t have just released Left 4 Dead 2 as an expansion pack instead of a fully fledged game. It’s not looking much different from the first game anyway, so it could have just been a new campaign instead. I understand that Valve need to make money but that can easily be done by charging for new content, just like the Burnout Paradise developers do.
Gabe Newell can justify it all he wants, but I’m still not sold. What’s the point in updating two products that are incredibly similar? I’m willing to bet that Valve stop creating new content for Left 4 Dead a few months after the sequel is released.

If you’ve just picked up Sega’s Football Manager 2009 today then you may find that, upon rushing home and ripping open the case, the game will refuse to authenticate when trying to activate your CD key online.  Since the game requires you to complete this process in order to play then, understandably, people are annoyed. Sega has responded to complaints with an apology and a possible solution:

“SEGA is aware that there have been some problems with the activation of Football Manager 2009 today. This has been due to a combination of issues relating to the printing of keycodes and the huge demand for the game,” reads a SEGA statement.

“A solution is in place and is starting to clear the problem, we are confident that the issue will be solved today. The chances of successful authentication are increasing hourly. At this point consumers still experiencing difficulties are advised to leave a 10 minute gap between authentication attempts.

“SEGA apologises for the disappointment caused by the problems with activating the game and asks for Football Manager fans to remain patient,” - Eurogamer

Technical difficulties and incomplete games seem to be the norm these days, and it’s getting a little worrying. I understand that things can happen which developers didn’t originally foresee but gamers not being able to play the game they paid money for is really unacceptable. Also, has DRM really combated piracy? It seems that piracy on the PC is as strong as ever, which doesn’t look well for the future of PC gaming. Developers/publishers need to come up with something new that doesn’t infuriate (such as Valve with Steam) if the future of PC gaming is to be stable.

Update:

There’s been a somewhat overwhelming response to this article, so I’d like to point out a few things.

I do not have a fix for your Football Manager 2009 problems, nor can I give out CD keys (which is, by the way, illegal). If you are coming here to find a fix then I direct you to the Football Manager 2009 website where you can contact Sega support, or ask in the forums there.

Hope that helps!

While I’ve always admired Rockstar’s habit of trying to get away with as much as they possibly can in their video games I think that they may have stepped slightly over the line with this one. The above screenshot shows evidence of a drug-dealing minigame in the upcoming Nintendo DS game GTA: China Town Wars. While it’s not on the scale of the ‘Hot Coffee‘ scandal (which I never saw as that of a big deal since sex isn’t exactly as bad as walking down the street and killing innocent people. Kids should not be playing an 18-rated game anyway) it’s no doubt still going to be pretty scandalous, especially since Rockstar is releasing the game on what’s thought to be the family friendly Nintendo DS.

Dan Houser, the boss over at Rockstar, told EDGE magazine (which I subscribe to by the way, since it’s brilliant) this:

“We wanted to have a drug-dealing mini-game in lots of the GTA games,” said Dan Houser, big boss of Rockstar. “It works well with what GTA is, with driving around the map, and it gives you another thing to think about - another layer or piece of the puzzle to keep you motivated.” - EDGE

Well, nice idea Dan but I doubt that the people already incensed over the GTA franchise will see it that way - but I think Rockstar secretly likes the publicity anyway and purposely adds more fuel to the fire. Of course, it is the parents responsibility to control what their children play and the GTA series has never been intentionally targeted at children. I myself - as a grown adult - am not too fussed about what appears in a game since, in the end, it’s real-life, you can see it in books and films plus, well, it’s just a video game.

While I believe that the DS needs more adult-orientated games parents and others may not take too kindly to these types of games ‘polluting’ what they see as a handheld largely for children (part of this is due to the developers releasing so many children’s games on the handheld which has largely swayed it’s image to the younger generation). Of course, in the end, who’s fault is it if a child get’s hold of a video game clearing not intended for them? Is it the retailers or the parents fault? Or is it the developers who made the game’s fault? I think we all know the obvious answer to that one.

I’ll have a post about the game coming up pretty soon.

GTA Chinatown Wars maintains gritty, urban edge with drug-dealing minigame - Joystiq.