Please Valve, do not release Left 4 Dead 3 in 2010!
With cmfl3x and me going on a blogging holiday break starting tomorrow, this entry will be our last post for 2009! Similar to cmfl3x, I also several holiday wishes for 2010 but I’ve narrowed it down to three possible wishes that would make me a happy gamer next year and they all relate to sequels: BioShock 2, Starcraft 2, and Left 4 Dead 3 (well, Left 4 Dead 2, to be more exact).
1. BioShock 2 Turns Out to be Just as Good as the Original
BioShock was my favorite 360 game of 2007. The combination of action, storytelling, RPG, and length made it the perfect single player gaming experience for me. With the game being released only about a month and a half from now, I’m trying to get more excited about the sequel but at the same time, “bracing” for impact in case it falls short. What worries me is that BioShock 1 was led by Ken Levine, the Creative Director at 2K Boston. The sequel is not being developed by 2K Boston, but instead by the newly formed 2K Marin without any of Ken Levine’s input. Furthermore, BioShock 2 will have multiplayer modes developed by Digital Extremes, a company that isn’t exactly making a huge name for itself with its only recent title being Dark Sector.
A new studio behind a sequel to many players’ 2007 game of the year along with multiplayer modes being added to a game that should not have multiplayer has me worried. If I had three gaming wishes for 2010, one of them would be for this game to be just as good as the first. Often times a good sequel to a game is the result of the developers of the original game learning what worked and didn’t work in the original, and using their intimate knowledge of the original game to craft a better sequel. After all, the sequel really should just be an extension of the first game right? Now that a new studio is taking over the sequel, there’s a lot of odds against it turning out just as well so I’m hoping it doesn’t come out as a dud like Devil May Cry 2.
2. Starcraft II Releases in 2010 (and consequently, the beta arrives by summer)
For many Blizzard RTS fans, it was a tough year in 2009. We started getting all of this information about Starcraft II, saw videos of different matches, and there was indication that we would have been playing the Starcraft II beta in the summer of 2009. Apparently Blizzard was too ambitious with what they wanted to do in the total redesign of battle.net, and thus we are now waiting with baited breath until the new battle.net releases so we can hear word about the Starcraft II beta. If the beta doesn’t hit by summer of 2010, we may not see the retail release until 2011.
For me, the release of the Starcraft II beta is practically the release of the game. I remember playing the betas of Warcraft III and World of Warcraft months in advance of the retail releases, and the transition from beta to retail was practically seamless – I just needed to go out and actually buy a physical copy of the disc. Please Blizzard, get your new battle.net working so all of us can enjoy Starcraft II in 2010. And if we’re enjoying Starcraft II in 2010, it’s possible we could then be enjoying Diablo III in 2011!
3. Left 4 Dead 3 Is Not Released in 2010
For my final gaming wish next year, I’ll wish for Valve not to release another sequel to Left 4 Dead. This is somewhat of a loaded wish though. What I’m honestly wishing for is that Valve devotes its Left 4 Dead franchise resources to improving upon the two games already out before putting out another sequel.
Left 4 Dead 2 is a great game. Valve, can we have more time to enjoy it before it becomes obsolete like the first one? If Valve continues to pump out Left 4 Dead sequels, that honestly means not enough effort is being put into supporting the original games. I don’t care if Valve claims that it’s possible to develop both downloadable content for the existing games and work on Left 4 Dead 3 at the same time. If you’re putting your resources on the sequel, that’s less people being devoted towards making new content for your existing products and I would argue that Left 4 Dead’s “content” suffered for that same reason.
The announcement of the Left 4 Dead 1 survivors appearing in a Left 4 Dead 2 DLC campaign next year is a step in the right direction, but is far from a full integration that many Left 4 Dead fans are dreaming of. Instead of churning out sequels, why not figure out a way to bring the two worlds together? I know it’s too much to ask to put the Survivors from each game in each others’ levels and even mix the Survivors together (too many new lines), so my more “reasonable” desire is to see Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2 stages all being selectable in Left 4 Dead 2. If you pick a Left 4 Dead 2 stage, you have to play using Left 4 Dead 2′s survivors, and if you pick a Left 4 Dead 1 stage, you have to play using Left 4 Dead 1 survivors. Just getting everyone to be able to play all nine campaigns (or 10, with Crash Course) with the same disc would be the ultimate Left 4 Dead experience, much like being able to play Rock Band 1 songs in Rock Band 2. I feel that this is a reasonable way to unite the two games and it would go a long way towards making fans see that Valve is putting as much effort into supporting the Left 4 Dead franchise as it is with Team Fortress 2.
