The Passing Out Tomorrow, Valve Employees Ready to Play

Valve has confirmed that both PC and Xbox 360 players will be able to download The Passing DLC pack on Thursday, April 22. Those who are playing Left 4 Dead 2 on the Microsoft home console will need to pay 560 Microsoft Points for the new content, which is the equivalent of 7 dollars, while those gaming on the PC will get it for free.

The big new announcement related to the DLC is that Valve is also introducing the concept of “Mutations,” weekly changed game modes. There will be more than 20 of them introduced over time but Valve has only mentioned two at the moment: Chainsaw Massacre, which will see players getting unlimited fuel for the zombie slashers, and Realism Versus. Interestingly, the “Mutations” will be usable in all the campaigns delivered in the game and not just in The Passing.

The fresh campaign will see the survivors from the two Left 4 Dead games reunite to face the zombie horde although it has been revealed that one of the people from the first iteration is gone and will even resurface as a new kind of infected special zombie. A fresh poster that Valve has offered on the official blog features the seven surviving characters and it seems that Zoey from the first game is the one who is missing in action.

To celebrate the two-platform launch of The Passing, Valve is also revealing that some of the people who have developed the original Left 4 Dead 2 and the DLC will be joining regular players for some matches. The company says that PC gamers need their Steam accounts named L4D2_DEV_ (number), which will be online from 11 AM to 5 PM on Pacific Daylight Time while those on the Xbox 360 will get to meet developers online from 7 PM to 11 PM.