Left 4 Dead's 'Dead Before Dawn' and New L4D2 Campaigns & Realism

The Left 4 Dead news continues to roll in thanks to L4DMods and Ian over at Hellforge.  Click the above image for the full campaign poster.

First up is news on the awesome Crossroads Mall map which has been in progress before Left 4 Dead even came out.  The map was ported over to the game and since the SDK came out the crew behind the mod has been fast at work trying to get the game out in to your autoshotty-loving hands.  According to the story last week they are certain that at least maps 1-5 will be released on Halloween.  A worst case scenario is that they may have to release the finale a bit later but they are trying to have it done by then.

They also confirm rumors of a 5th character, C.J. from Dawn of the Dead, head of mall security, is in the game.  Doesn't seem he will be playable like first rumored but he does have a significant role is various parts of the campaign. 

The map and models are looking fantastic so far and seem to show a sizable improvement from when we first saw map.  Plus, Valve sent them a wav file of Francis noting "I hate malls".  What more could you ask for besides forcing a pet dog to wade through the zombies?

Hellforge has images of the new campaigns that were unannounced for Left 4 Dead 2.  Dead Center, ironically a mall map as well, and Hard Rain will join The Parish, Dark Carnival and Swamp Fever.  That is all five campaigns announced now taking us from Georgia to New Orleans if I am not mistaken. 

I am curious to see how Valve's mall map stacks up to the efforts of the mod crew even though they are completely different settings.  I think it is a wise more for the Crossroads Mall crew to get the campaign out before the release of L4D2.  Generally I would think it may get lost in the "new game" shuffle but the community campaigns will work just fine in the sequel which is a big plus. 

As I have discussed with Ian I do hope they make the original L4D backwards compatible with the sequel so you only have one game to load.  If you have L4D1 in Steam the sequel should load up with all 10 campaigns, characters and guns from both games.  Then some behind the scenes code on Friends could wrap it up allowing your friends that only have the original to join you accordingly. 

The other good news, depending on how bad you suck at Left 4 Dead, is the inclusion of a "Realism" mode that testers of the game have seen in the menus.  According to 1UP

"Realism" mode sounds like a blast.  Expert can be a slight chore if you don't have the right teammates but with a squad of solid players I'd totally be willing to take on "realism".