New Left 4 Dead DLC Campaign Coming in September

"Crash Course," a new DLC campaign for Left 4 Dead designed with the game's Versus mode in mind, will debut this September, Valve announced today.

Contrary to popular assumptions tossed around the hivemind without care or consideration, Valve, evidently, is still very much committed to supporting the first Left 4 Dead game even as they prepare the sequel.

"Crash Course" is the new downloadable campaign for the co-op-tastic zombie survival shooter, Valve revealed today, and it's due for release in September for free on PC and 560 points on Xbox Live. The content, Valve says, provides a link between the end of the "No Mercy" campaign and the beginning of "Death Toll," by "expanding the game universe with new locations, new dialogue from the original cast, and an explosive finale."

And though the campaign supports every Left 4 Dead mode, it's specifically tuned with a particular one in mind. With Crash Course, Valve says their goal is "to deliver a complete Versus mode experience in just 30 minutes, resulting in a streamlined version of the game's existing Versus campaigns." To that end, they've made a few tweaks: there's a recharge timer for Infected teammates, and item spawns have been balanced a bit.

"Since the release of Left 4 Dead last November, the design team has been excited about creating new experiences for this world and allowing players to do the same, by releasing much of our internal toolset, like the Survival Pack and Authoring Tools," Gabe Newell said. "We're working with the fans toward the ongoing entertainment value of the product."

I guess "ongoing" would be the key word there, right?