Review by: Brandon "I hate birds" Cackowski-Schnell

You can consider me firmly in the camp of those who are eagerly awaiting the release of Left 4 Dead 2 next month as the original provided one of 2008's best gaming experiences. Unfortunately not everyone is so happy and take the release of a sequel to mean that Valve is no longer interested in supporting the original game. Here then, to allay your fears is Crash Course, an all new albeit shortened episode for both co-op and Versus. It offers a few entertaining moments and its shorter size makes a full Versus match more of a practical reality, but if this is what continued support for Left 4 Dead means, well, I say bring on the sequel.

The episode takes place immediately after the "No Mercy" campaign with our four survivors having crashed in the rescue helicopter after the pilot turned into a zombie and Zoe had to shoot him. The new predicament is told completely through the new dialog recorded for Francis, Zoe and Louis and these new lines are one of the high points of the game, being laugh out loud funny a number of times. Let's just say that you'll be treated to new depths of Francis' hatred for all things...um, well, really just all things.

The episode is only two chapters long with the intention of providing players the ability to play a complete Versus map in under an hour. In that regard the DLC delivers, however none of the interesting venue designs present in the main game's episodes make an appearance here.