The annual Penny Arcade Expo 2009 is already underway. As promised by Valve, the Dark Carnival campaign is playable to the public at the expo. More screenshots and information about Left 4 Dead 2 have also been released.
Unique to Dark Carnival is a new “uncommon common Infected”, the Zombie Clown. Apart from reminding everybody about why clowns are such scary horror-movie antagonists, the Zombie Clown functions as a miniature Boomer of sorts, drawing other common Infected to his location with his squeaky clown footwear.
IT lives.
The third and final new Boss Infected was also revealed (the other two being the Charger and Spitter), and he’s called the Jockey. The Jockey combines both the disabling abilities of the Hunter and the range-manipulation of the Smoker into one: once a Jockey hops onto one of the Survivor’s backs, that Survivor loses control of his or her movement, allowing the Jockey to steer his victim towards certain doom where other Infected can pile on the damage on that poor Survivor.
Valve must really hate the Survivor team a lot. Imagine the different permutations of chaos possible when the Jockey is teamed up with the other Boss Infected: Jockey and Spitter (steer the Survivor into her poison cloud), Jockey and Hunters (steer the Survivor into a 25-damage pounce), Jockey and Wandering Witches (steer the Survivor into instant incapacitation). Oh my.
What’s a “Disc?”
Lastly, Shacknews reports that an exclusive melee weapon, the American baseball bat, will be available to players who pre-order the sequel from “select retailers”. Valve said the American bat isn’t just simply a reskinned version of the cricket bat, and it will possess its own unique characteristics.
Late adopters of Left 4 Dead 2, fear not. “How it’ll work is, if you’re playing with somebody that’s pre-ordered it, everybody playing gets it,” Valve’s Chet Faliszek explained.
Now, I’m not sure which “select retailers” would be applicable for the pre-order bonus here in Singapore, although I suspect the perk could also be available to players who have pre-purchased and pre-loaded the game via Steam’s online store.
Stay tuned for more Left 4 Dead 2 updates!
Anyone pre-purchasing Left 4 Dead 2 on Steam, or knows of any game retailers in Singapore that are offering the pre-purchase bonus, please add Glimmerous.Fop to your friends list immediately. Better Safe Than Sorry.
Left 4 Dead 2 images courtesy of Shacknews, Kotaku, and Rock Paper Shotgun.
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