Valve will be giving an exclusive baseball bat melee weapon to anyone who pre-orders Left 4 Dead 2.
One of the more sly announcements made at the Penny Arcade Expo, which is currently running in Seattle, was the reveal that an exclusive melee weapon will be unlocked for those who pre-order
Left 4 Dead 2.
The weapon in question is, according to
ShackNews, an American baseball bat that is essentially very similar to the cricket bat weapons which is already in the game.
However, as Valve's Chet Faliszek clarified with ShackNews, there's more to the weapon that meets the eye and the baseball bat isn't actually as exclusive as it might sound.
"
How it'll work is, if you're playing with somebody that's pre-ordered it, everybody playing gets it," explained Chet.
Melee weapons that replace firearms are one of the new additions in
Left 4 Dead 2, allowing much more powerful attacks at the cost of range and speed. Also, you can't use any other item without first dropping your melee weapon of choice.
To be honest, we weren't huge fans of the melee weapons when
we last had a look at Left 4 Dead 2 - the trade-off didn't really seem to be worth it and the weapons felt slow and not nearly as effective as a shotgun. We'd also question why you'd want to pre-order a game if the main benefit is being able to share your exclusive item with other people...
Ah well. Let us know your thoughts in
the forums - and don't forget to check out our own
interview with Valve's Chet Faliszek.
25 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyIf there's one thing Valve have proven time and time again, it's their ability to balance and polish to bar-raising standards.
All that matters is if the concept' sound, and as far as I'm concerned, that's a no-brainer; making melee weapons more prominent in the despatching of the horde? Great stuff!!
Just hear this Valve... THERE BETTER BE THE OPPORTUNITY FOR A WHOLE TEAM TO PWN THE TANK WITH FRYING PANS!!
Leaving out such an opportunity would be scandalous imo.
Opportunity? They've probably already got a 'panned' achievement in place...
pre-ordering on Steam means you can download the game files in advance so on release day you just start playing immediately, rather than having to download and install everything on the release day before you can start playing...
How on Earth could you get a tank with ANY melee weapon? As soon as you get close to it it'd destroy you... although it's worth a try :)
Just watch me! *grabs akimbo cricket bats*
Oh you mean pre-load.
Yeah, never used that either. I got broadband.
words cannot describe how AWESOME that would be
they should merge effectively taking out EA and discarding dependency on distributors like activision. Create a steam empire fused with the good of battle net, add video chat, go international competitive in markets here in china, india, korea, and other untapped markets... legitamize where piracy reigns and fix your prices pragmatically to your consumers so that you ensure capital and hooking their fan base young for future endevours whilst giving money to impoverished, un-irrogated lands in africa and constructing science and technology schools in places where they can produce talent. Taking their students ideas and start reaching into other markets... soon to create an empire then start a war in a neutral third world puppet country where all sides are tugging on each end to gain favors from weapons development organizations taking the technological theories and ideas used in starcraft ...
chesese
Something that was missed from the ShackNews article:
... Valve would be offering an exclusive melee weapon to those that pre-order the zombie shooter sequel from "select retailers."
Hope it is Play.com. Currently the price over there is 35, Stam will probably want 50-55. :(
just look cool I guess
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YngyMco72QA&NR=1
Then again, seeing how melee weapons seem to be largely ineffective, is it just a case of Valve making a lot of noise about nothing? Trying to big up L4D2 with 'exclusive' content that shouldn't really be exclusive, but making it exclusive means they can advertise it as such.
I preferred TF2 where if you pre-ordered you got to play like 3-4 days before release. :)
That would be INSANE - Fingers crossed they add it to the game!!!
Personally I would prefer one of those sticks that Morris Dancers use, a costume with bells on the ankles, and a big shout of 'Oi' every time I dispatch an onlooking undead. That, I would pay for.
Well, not so sure that a sacrifice is necessary, but very confident and skilled players a must.
I mean you can bunny hop around the tank when he swings for you and avoid getting hit, if you time it well, so presumably, as long as you had a good team with skilled players, they could manage it.
Anyway, if they build it in, it will be done ;)
BOINK!
Oh God, that sounded so wrong when my brain processed those words.
Kudos there Joe.
doesn't always work, I pre-ordered L4D, 45 min after release and at two dozen messages that read 'You playing Left 4 Dead yet?' I had to delete the local files and re-download the game because whatever I had on my hard drive could not be validated. To add further insult 3-4 weeks later there is a 20% off/Try before you buy weekend deal for it. Pre-Order? Never again!
Man yeah, that was so funny. About six or seven of us online calling valve **** :D
Showing off even better tricks... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykIdSolHg8k
I, too, will wait for a weekend deal ... bat or no bat.