Welcome to the 3rd and most likely last community update before release of Dead Before Dawn! So whats new? Well first let me just say that this update is HUGE! Today we will talk to you about the current development of Dead Before Dawn, how we are progressing towards our Halloween release date, introduce our 5th character, show off some new shots and give to you the first video preview of Dead Before Dawn courtesy of gamestar.de!

Many thanks to Reko for the custom poster!

Whats being worked on right now?

As you would expect , the usual optimizations, bug fixes and overall testing is on going. While we are on the topic of testing, I would like to say we are very much so looking forward to seeing how our fresh meat (ahem, beta testers) get on with the campaign, and thank you again for your donations! As well as that, we are currently working hard on completing the finale so its up to standard for release. And finally, our modellers are still hard at work pumping out all the custom props to give the campaign that real custom feel and give the mall a sense of realism.

Halloween on the horizon, how are we progressing towards it?

Things are going well, and all that really remains (except for the obvious on going testing and fixes) is to have the finale completed. In the event that we do not see our finale up to scratch for release, we will NOT postpone the release. We promised you a halloween release date, a halloween release date is what your going to get. If this does happen, maps 1 - 5 will be released and an update for the campaign containing the finale will be released shortly after.

5th Character?

There are lots of rumours flying around about a 5th playable character or how the 5th character will interact with the survivors. In fact we even accidentally gave it away in the credits of the 'I hate malls' youtube promo. But now, in light of the gamestar.de video we can now with great pleasure confirm that the 5th character is indeed CJ, the Crossroads Mall head of security. Throughout the maps that take place around and within the mall, expect CJ to be bossing you around and directing you through various situations. CJ is voiced by team member and professional voice actor: Jeremiah Costello and he has done an oustanding job and we recommend you check him out over at http://www.jeremiah-costello.com/ . Many of our team members work within the games industry, so you can expect high quality content like this throughout the campaign!

New shots!

Below we bring to you some brand new screenshots not only showcasing some newly added areas such as the second floor walkways to the mall (better for VS and infected in general), but for the first time ever we are showing you parts of map 5 that the player will battle through including a staff complex, some more mall and a supermarket! Oh and we also have some brand new models to show!

Gamestar.de preview!

We recently handed over our very precious beta to gamestar.de to preview

for us because lets be honest. A preview from ourselves would be ever so slightly biased wouldnt you think? We were simply overwhelmed with the response from them and wha

t they had to say. Check out the translated preview below and a video preview they also created for us. If you dont speak german, dont worry. All the brand new footage should keep you salivating at the prospect of playing Dead Before Dawn. And well if this doesnt keep the flamers quiet about it being vapourware, I dont know what will. Enjoy :)

(Translated from german) The Mod Campaign Dead Before Dawn leads the four survivors of Left 4 Dead to the Crossroads Mall, a shopping center known from the zombie movie Dawn of the Dead. We have played an internal beta version with five maps, and are thrilled: This mod is the Rolls Royce of Left 4 Dead campaigns.

Several months ago management had prepared the Crossroads Mall for the celebration of the one millionth customer. Colorful confetti was raining from the ceilings, sirens ring and fireworks make the party mood. The countdown began. But with 999,957 customers already passed into the shopping arcade there is just sheer panic. We hear screams, shots and rapid-fire. Instead of confetti raining, it was a lot of blood and lead. Should 43 or more creatures storm through the main entrance, the countdown to one million and the said fireworks attract each zombie the city to shopping centers. Welcome to Dead Before Dawn, a mod-Campaign for Left 4 Dead, parallel to the plot of the horror movie remake Dawn of the Dead released in 2004.

Scenes like this are experienced all over in Dead before Dawn. Was it in the main game so often only select one radio, and then withstand the onslaught of infected people, almost all of the numerous tasks of the mod handle differently. Thus, we hunt on a playground a leaking gas into the air to move in with four of a generator on a porch or arrange CJ - The Chief of Security - his favorite beer.

Great Events
For almost all of these "events" there are at least three possible scenarios. Once we brought CJ the wrong beer, and must once again battle through the infected in the supermarket to find the right one. The second time , he was satisfied and opens the door to the shelter. In the third variant of his 'thirsty' complaints that he had drunk up probably one of the six-packs.
But this happens not on a dirty text fade but by voice recordings by professional voice actors. Even otherwise you will hear from radios, televisions and phones, re-recorded voices and that emphasise the extent of the zombie disaster.

Fans of the movie, see Dead Before Dawn, all references to Zack S nyder's long nose horror department store. In a suburb of the journey takes us through the desolate house of the film protagonist, Anna, and soon after we meet the victims of their cars. Small drawback: the loyalty to the film production sometimes causes confusion. To free ourselves from such a store, we need a toilet to throw through the shop window - for players with no previous experience it is not apparent.

Full support
The quantity of sound recordings and new objects for the makers of the mod is still a problem - for a vpk file (the standard file format for mod campaigns) the trip to the Crossroads Mall is just too big.
Hoping for a solution to the problem, the mod team are contacting Valve. And that is not even unrealistic: Valve liked the mod so good that you have given to the modders an audio recording of Francis phrase "I hate malls."

Dead before Dawn is to appear at the end of October on L4DMods.com with six maps (5 + finale). Until then, the team and "Darth_Brush" at the campaign finale tinker and fix small blunder in the other maps. We already had with the beta version of four to five hours a lot of fun and look forward to the finished campaign. Gamestar.de Article

So...thats it. Our last major update. Halloween is approaching boys and girls. Are you ready for Dead Before Dawn? See you October 31st.

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