The first game add-on for Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2) brings the original Left 4 Dead (L4D1) Survivors down south for a meeting with the L4D2 cast, while delivering new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay for the PC and Xbox 360.

The Passing also introduces a series of weekly game mode events dubbed "Mutations." These week-long runs of new gameplay modes range from "Realism Versus" mode to "Chainsaw Massacre," which gives all players chainsaws with an unlimited supply of gasoline. There are over 20 Mutations planned, each playable on all L4D2 Campaigns. Mutations are exclusively available to owners of "The Passing" DLC.

In addition, "The Passing" offers a new co-operative challenge mode of play, support for infected bot play in Versus, a new "uncommon common" zombie class (the fallen survivor), melee weapon (golf club), and firearm (M-60).

Available for 560 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360 and free on the PC, "The Passing" takes place just after the Dead Center campaign of L4D2. Set in a small town in rural Georgia, players assume the role of the L4D2 Survivors as they meet with the L4D1 characters.

Exclusively available for Xbox 360 and the PC, L4D2 sets a new benchmark for co-operative action games. The title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaws, frying pans, axes, baseball bats, and more.

With the AI Director 2.0, L4D's dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players' performance. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.

Finally, with new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original, featuring more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, new Survival maps, and the new competitive game mode, Scavenge.

Sweet! Though the PC has had VS infected for some time now. Though it still doesn't stop rage quitters and then people following suite to quit because of lack of players.

I think the Mutation events will be fun. Endless supply of fuel for your chainsaw? Nice.

I think the Mutation events will be fun. Endless supply of fuel for your chainsaw? Nice.

lol, they should mix that with realism VS. Then we'll see how many TK there are. I guess the charge for XBOX users is due to MS distributing the content? Or just cause they can..

Hosting files. That's been the default explanation I hear anyways.

Sounds cool, always did like L4D. I ended up getting this title back in my collection awhile back but have not played it for a bit. I may get The Passing if more peeps are getting it. Seems less expensive than most of the DLC for stuff. Why 560 MS though? Seems like they trying to make sure you have leftover MS points that get lost in cyberspace because you never use them lol.

560MS is $7. It's between the regular $5 and $10 DLC normally costs. Suggests value, I suppose. lol

Mutations sound cool, but never got into 2 much, and im not going to pay for free content.

560MS is $7. It's between the regular $5 and $10 DLC normally costs. Suggests value, I suppose. lol

Not bad I guess. Those MW2 maps were 1200 points I think. I passed on it for that reason too expensive.

More argument for playing on the PC... and I have a server... lol

You know what....I think the mutations are going to cause a major split in the community while playing online.

I'll probably get this. I don't play L4D2 enough anymore, but the mutations sound like a good way to give players a reason to keep coming back. It kind of sucks that certain modes will only be playable during certain times, but Halo 3 is kind of the same way with their Double XP Weekends and special playlists.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU Valve for killing off my favorite survivor

It's out now? And just when I WANTED to buy an uneven amount of MS points (500), you no longer can. I have 70 points so wanted to pay about $6 for 500, but now have to get 800, then be left over with 310 instead of 10. >( I actually kind of preferred the older values so I could have a little extra for my next inevitable purchase. Ah well. I'll definitely get this DLC, hopefully it will get me back into L4D2 at least for a while.

It sounds really good from what I here, im just not going to buy it though.

It sounds really good from what I here, im just not going to buy it though.

Yeah, I ended up just spending 20 minutes on Youtube watching the entire Crash Course campaign for the... ahem... story. But this one interests me a lot more because I really enjoyed L4D2 and like the premise, with the idea of the two groups of survivors meeting. I really wish they'd somehow make a mode where there could be two groups of four survivors, original and new, though.

Is anyone else too excited about Red Dead Redemption to think of anything else? i was reading last night about the map size and came across this image in a forum that gives you a sense of scale. Also note this is only one of i think 3 or 4 different regions in the game.

I have all by two out of the 10 new achievements for the DLC from playing this morning. The mutation achievement is going to take 6 weeks but I can be patient and the last achievement I didn't get because I didn't have enough time to play versus before class.

I love me some L4D though. I just wish my computer could actually run it so I could play with my friends on Steam who don't have a 360.

@ARMISTICErj I am excited for Red Dead Redemption but I won't be picking it up any time soon sadly.

I have all by two out of the 10 new achievements for the DLC from playing this morning. The mutation achievement is going to take 6 weeks but I can be patient and the last achievement I didn't get because I didn't have enough time to play versus before class.

I love me some L4D though. I just wish my computer could actually run it so I could play with my friends on Steam who don't have a 360.

@ARMISTICErj I am excited for Red Dead Redemption but I won't be picking it up any time soon sadly.

And you get a Gnome prop avatar award for getting the Mutant Overlord achievement, too. I got the DLC, so we'll have to play together sometime. And I am definitely looking forward to RDR.

Looks like the Steam L4D2 servers are swamped. I can't even load into the game at the moment.

Looks like the Steam L4D2 servers are swamped. I can't even load into the game at the moment.

Freaking PC users, I swear. Not you, though. I was in Wax's channel last night, when he was casting The Passing. Someone on Steam, linked his cast from the Steam forum. The place filled up with angry Steam users, and they just wouldn't shut the fuck up about how much better the PC is over the 360. I mean, we'd finally get them to shut up, and more would join in and immediately moan about how bad it looks on the 360.

Over and over and over. It never gets old to them. I'm seriously starting to wonder if they're worse than the PS3 fanboys. Wax had 400 viewers, and most of them were just whining about console crap. So annoying.

lol. Just like any other whiners. They just do it for attention. I think it looks better on the PC too, but I don't care either. It's my choice to play PC and others to play whatever they want. I don't really care. For that matter, how can you come in a stream and complain about the looks of a game? There is no way in hell you can get the full idea of what a game looks like when its streamed through flash lol. Most likely they were pissed off because the steam servers are practically crapping themselves right now ( I'm downloading the update at... 16KBs at the moment ) and they can't play.

Everything has its ups and downs. Honestly, I would play a lot more console games if they had Keyboard/Mouse support. lol, exactly the opposite of you. Luckily you can use a controller though! Eh, besides, trolls are trolls

Yup. "There sure is a lot of bloom, is this 360 or something?". "Well mine doesn't look like this, so I thought I'd ask".

Me: I hope yours wouldn't look like this. It's a tiny window of a live stream. With the best equipment made, you can't get it to look as good as it does in person, at your house.

It's not just last night, either. PC users come in there all the time, taking jabs. I know it's not all PC users. I even know it's not just PC or PS3 users that do this. 360 people do it, too. I just tend to see it more on JTV, since most casts I watch, are from a 360.

There was one guy last night, that I admired. He kept saying "You're making all PC/Steam users look like complete idiots. Everyone knows this was linked from the Steam forums, so stop making us look stupid. Grow up. Let the guy play his game the way he wants to, and stop with the console crap". He was blasted at, each time he said it, too. Didn't stop him.

Well, there are a few of us out there . Sad to know there's always some jackass that just can't feel good about himself without bashing others.