Left 4 Dead Survival Pack for PC, Xbox 360 is Live

— -- Ready for Zombie Gauntlet? Valve sends word its Left 4 Dead necrotic-flesh puree-spree expansion launched on Xbox Live at 2 am PST (in theory, that is...in actuality, it hit around 4am PST) this morning, with the PC version due out sometime later today. What's it add? Like I said, Zombie Gauntlet. You know, shambling stiffs meets "Valkyrie shot the potion" and "Wizard needs food badly"?

Kidding. Take me literally. Zombie gauntlet, lower-case-gee, aka "Survival" mode. You, your pals, a claustrophobic-because-you're-trapped-in-the-corner map, all versus an onslaught of relentless lunging, hissing, shrieking, pathologically churlish corpse hordes. The goal? Whosoever lives longest, scores highest.

You also get two complete campaigns for Versus Mode. Seems the survival pack opens up "Dead Air" and "Death Toll" to versus play. Dead Air mingles cramped and exposed areas to support shifting tactical styles, while Death Toll sees you slog through a thick-forested countryside on through a rural town. If you've played the game, you're familiar with both of these already, but instead of fighting you plus three pals against computer-controlled slavering throngs, Versus lets four additional players slip into the shoes of "Special Infected," i.e. extra-extra-big-bads.

EA and Valve dropped the ball getting retail review copies of Left 4 Dead out, so I passed on the original release, and shamefully haven't been back to it since.

Time to remedy that.

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