BBC Radio profiled the efforts, lately highlighted in the game 221B, a movie adaptation of the recent Sherlock Holmes film. In it, players must interrogate witnesses and suspects to gain answers that advance the story.

"Rather than attempting to create an exhaustive list of possible questions and the appropriate response, the characters in the game are capable of making a 'fuzzy interpretation' of what is said to them," the BBC reports. "The intention is to remove the frustration, familiar to any who played the old text-based adventure games, of having to guess the right way of asking a question or giving an instruction."

Other games based on open-ended use of language, spoken or written, include Facade and, of course, Scribblenauts - and even Left 4 Dead. "Each of the characters has a set of voice samples which can trigger based on events, situations and other dialog lines," Rockstar's Alex Champandard said of L4D. "This results in completely emergent short conversations depending on the situation."

The BBC calls it one of "the last uncracked problems" in games design. It's a good read, especially for the humorous kicker paragraph.

AI Aims to Solve In-Game Chatter [BBC Radio]

Bayonetta's Got It, Flaunts It:
Without a doubt, Bayonetta was the high-amp vamp of gaming in 2009, and she hasn't even hit North America yet. In Japan, the ass-kicking, pistol-packing, hair-whipping witch with the naughty librarian look earned critical acclaim from no less than the Japanese director of the cinematic tour de force "Would You Like To Get An Enema Until You Poop?" Stateside and elsewhere, she emerged from relentless early comparisons to another gun enthusiast MILF, Sarah Palin, to become the undisputed cosplaying rookie of the year.

GTA: The Schlong and the Damned
The year's first major NSFW story came out of Rockstar, which broke new ground in Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned by becoming the first video game to show flaccid congressman dong. Fahey then bravely examined the historical importance of this depiction by providing a recap of nudity in games, "the good, the bad and the ugly." Hey, two out of three is bad.

Cussing-Outs and Swearing-Ins:
NSFW doesn't just mean T&A. Bad language also qualifies, and we had hilarious highlights for that, too. Grandma Hardcore, the game-playing senior citizen, spewed filth-flarn-flarn-filth-flarn over Brütal Legend. Ice-T (in a video featuring his NSFW wife, Coco) went apeshit playing Modern Warfare before demanding a Snapple to quench his thirst. And Ozzy Osbourne, talking to Fahey at Blizzcon, was just, well, Ozzy.

Just Two Words: Demon Tits
BioWare RPG's are eminently serious affairs, but the sex factor in Dragon Age: Origins' pre-release publicity got a little silly. The game gave us gay hookups with elves, brothel encounters with livestock, and everyone doing it with their underpants still attached. And, of course, Demon Tits.

Sheva-va-voom
Bayonetta and Dragon Age were far from the only titles ramping up the sex appeal. Resident Evil 5 opened the year with Sheva, and enabled gamers to instantly center the camera on her chest. This is especially useful once you unlock her secret tribal costume.

Boob! Headshot!
In October, two elite Counter Strike teams from Russia face off, but the event's promoter throws in a little "force multiplier" - a room full of strippers, disrobing and gyrating beside, over and on their monitors. The team forZe kept its focus and defeated rival Virtus.pro.

Attachments and Oddities
A product called the "Joydick" needs zero introduction, and I'll spare you from the description. And a tiny title offered over the Xbox Indie Games channel, which turns your controller into a rumbling vibrator, added console peripherals to the list of hiding-in-plain-sight sex toys. Slightly less sexy: The handcrafted Pokémon menstrual pad for $8 whose up-side I couldn't correctly identify. Finally, a lawsuit over virtual sex toys in Second Life gave us a darkhorse candidate for the Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year: "Fuck Coffins."

Things Seen and Never Unseen
Mario and Peach made a tape that, like much of porn, has sex but is soooooo far from sexy. The Mushroom Kingdom's top plumber also laid some pipe with Lara Croft in this unaccountably weird video from, where else, Germany, which also featured Pong sex. In that vein, have you ever wanted to see a Tetris piece masturbate? No? Too bad, here it is.

The Second Sexiest Game of 2009
Left 4 Dead instantly spun off a robust modding community; too bad it chose to use its powers for evil, giving us the Nude Zoey Mod. Because, hey, nothing's hotter than blasting apart the leprous undead with a saucy deshabille look. It wasn't L4D's only brush with the naughty-naughty. Horny infected took to the personal ads for our Valentine's Day prank, where they hooked up with a horde even more mindlessly disgusting - the Craigslist casual encounter lurkers. Finally, porn gave the zombie FPS the ultimate compliment, a sex flick punning the title, named "Left 4 Head."

Munn's the Word
G4's "Attack of the Show" co-host took (most of) it all off for Playboy in June, despite a relentless haranguing from a Playboy stylist to try going commando under imaginary pants. Munn refused, saying the outfits they had in mind would have made her vadge "look like a Honeybaked Ham." Way to work it, Olivia! Geeks were in high dudgeon, because there is no other kind of dudgeon, over Playboy's beyond-the-pale exploitation of their hormones. Or just that it was a Tuesday. Many made the shocking declaration that she just wasn't hot enough, although Munn, as of press time, had no plans to do any of them.

Porn O'Plenty
In September, Vivid Entertainment's CEO says his firm is interested in getting its seminal works (ha ha, get it?) available for download over the PlayStation Network, an offer Sony ignored discreetly (in a plain brown wrapper.) But he's far from the only figure in adult entertainment to make the games crossover in 2009. Bobbi Starr, the X-Rated Critics Organization's regining "Superslut" finds work at E3 as a booth babe for Dirt 2. Porn legend Ron Jeremy joins actresses Krissy Lynn and Andy San Dimas (taking the whole use-your-address-as-a-porn-name motif a little seriously) in Fairytale Fights trailer promos of a viral nature, but not the one that sends you down to the free clinic. Finally, adult star Raven Alexis, an avowed World of Warcraft enthusiast, closes out the year with her five-step plan to winning the heart of a gamer girl - provided, of course, you know one in real life.

"The Passing" offers more than just a friendly Survivor get-together, adding one new "uncommon common" infected type, new weapons—one melee, one firearm—and "a new co-operative challenge mode of play." The new campaign will naturally be playable in Survival, Versus and Scavenge modes in addition to that still unannounced newer mode.

The new episode is "set in a small town in rural Georgia," according to Valve's release, keeping players in the role of Left 4 Dead 2's cast "as they meet with the L4D1 characters." Could "The Passing" offer 4-plus-4 cooperative multiplayer action, or are we just aiming too high?

Left 4 Dead 2's "The Passing" is scheduled for release in "early spring" for the PC and Xbox 360. Pricing has not yet been announced.

Colbert presses the point with a look at a couple of the games that highlight the "family" oriented nature of the Xbox 360 — first with a look at Left 4 Dead 2 ("The family that plays together, stays together."). Then with an examination of the values imparted to players via Grand Theft Auto IV ("Where yes you can pay a prostitute to work your crank. But then you can mow her down with your car to get the money back. That's just fiscal responsibility.").

Hey, I lol'd.

Thanks for the tip, Geoff!

Some modders have managed to insert Suda's leathery star into two of Valve's more recent titles, Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2.

You can see the Left 4 Dead one here. It's by DethKlan, and is just fine.

Finer, though, is the Travis Touchdown mod for Team Fortress 2 (by MechaWare), which not only sees him dropped into the game, but he gets an energy drink and custom baseball bat as well.

How Travis met Zoey: No More Heroes invades Valve-world [Destructoid]

Plus, I mean, god damn, look how long it takes for everyone to get in the safe room.

Here's another video. I love the beginning, everyone running one after the other to the weapons table. As awesome as this looks, I bet it's pure hell to play. We're seeing the reason Valve capped this at four to a side, I think.

This is Why Left 4 Dead 2 is Limited to Four Players [Hot Blooded Gaming]

Industrious Left 4 Dead modders have devised a not-exactly-simple workaround to bring the original game's four campaigns into the sequel. The very unofficial, multi-step hack requires ownership of Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, ample patience and better than basic knowledge of editing PAK files. But, hey, it works.

Well, it mostly works. The list of issues includes numerous crashes, limitations and a dependency on console commands, but if you're desperate to play No Mercy with Spitters and baseball bats, you now have the option. Will Valve offer a sanctioned version of this? At the risk of pissing off the Left 4 Dead owner further, we sure hope it does.

How to Resurrect the Original Left 4 Dead [L4D Mods]

Now, that's not to say this is exciting. I kept waiting for a crescendo event and then realized this emulator probably cannot handle that many characters on the screen. But the common infected are a little too sedate, especially considering 8-bit games are remembered for being muuuuuch harder.

There's also only one special infected - the Boomer - although the creator Eric Ruth says all of the other special infected will be added in later some point. Ruth promises that all maps and campaigns will be represented, too, when the game is available for free download on PC on Jan. 4.

NES Left 4 Dead Gameplay Video 1 [YouTube, thanks Eric.]

They're slam-packed with in-game memes - Pyro's speechlessness, Demo-Man getting lit on egg nog, and Spy romancing Scout's mom under the mistletoe. Each set is $15.95 - a steep price to confuse your family, or a bargain to wow your friends, your choice.

2009 Holiday Card Collection [Steam via VG247]

Says Valve, on the L4D2 blog:

Due to an ongoing debate in the office and online as to whether "12 AM" means noon or midnight (we're still sticking with midnight), it's been more challenging than we realized to tell people when exactly our game will be available. Factor in the Earth rotating around the sun, daylight savings time, some of our fans insisting on using the Mayan calendar, and we're just going to try and make this as specific as possible:

Alright, ready? Get out your pens, flip open your calendars, synchronize your watches, take your index finger and stick it in the middle of your palm to form a sundial, however you keep time. Here's when Left 4 Dead 2 unlocks:

• Monday, Nov. 16, 9 p.m. Pacific Standard Time
• Monday, Nov. 16, 10 p.m. Mountain Standard Time
• Monday, Nov. 16, 11 p.m. Central Standard Time
• Tuesday, Nov. 17, 12 a.m. (midnight) Eastern Standard Time
• Tuesday, Nov. 17, 5 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time
• Tuesday, Nov. 17, 8 a.m. Moscow Time
• Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2 p.m. Japan Standard Time

As you can see, the U.S. west coast gets a three-hour head start (technically) against the console street date, London and Moscow will be getting up or on the train to work, and Tokyo's hosed. Hey, I don't make the rules.

Now that we've cleared that up, you might want to pre-load that six-gigabyte sucker, so that you're not waiting an additional zillion hours to download the game on unlock day.

A Slight Clarification ... [Left 4 Dead Blog via VE3D]

Can't fault their timing; just as people are about to abandon the first game en masse to pick up the sequel. Ah well. Better late than never, eh?

In related Left 4 Dead news, the Left 4 Dead 2 demo, which was previously restricted to Xbox Live Gold subscribers, is now open to silver subscribers too. Have at it, hoss.

The developer tells CVG that perception about the sequel seems to have changed since the original E3 2009 announcement. "I think people are just excited now," Valve's Chet Faliszek says, citing response to the recently released demo and pre-order numbers.

Oh, indeed, Chet. I may not have coughed up the necessary bills to secure an exclusive American baseball bat or Bill's interdimensional hat, but I'm excited. Where is that UPS man, anyway?

Of course, Left 4 Dead 2 has the benefit of being a known entity, instead of a newly launched intellectual property like the first. We do love our sequels, Valve.

Left 4 Dead 2 pre-orders "four times" that of the original [CVG]

Modder Saul has whipped up a little plugin that allows you to play as the zombies in an online match (PC version only, of course). If you want to host a game, you download the plugin, if you just want to join a game, all you need to do is enter some commands in the console and you're good to go.

Interested? Full details at the link below.

Play as Infected with the Left 4 Dead 2 Demo [L4dmods]

The deal's of course restricted to pre-orders of the PC L4D2, Steam or retail. However, if you've already preordered the game, never fear. "Just fire up TF2 and you'll find the hat in your next game," the ad states.

For the record, Valve offers this defense of shamelessly rending two continuities asunder just to make a fast buck:

Lest you think this is just some marketing gimmick, here's the intricate back-story justifying it: while conducting a science experiment on parallel dimensions, Bill's hat fell off a table into the Team Fortress universe.

Plausible. The hat preorder bonus accompanies a 10 percent discount, too.

Pre-Order Giveaway Madness! [TF2 Official Blog]

You can see for yourself in that video above. The scorecard, according to the Steam community forums is comprehensive: the Australian version of Left 4 Dead 2 will have no bloodspatter on the screen; there will be no zombie dismemberment; there will be nothing beyond a "small splash of blood" when you attack an infected - no guts or gore; infected won't light on fire if they get hit with a molotov, and corpses will disappear from the screen.

But wait, there's less! The bullet-proof Riot Cop uncommon infected will not spawn, I guess over cop-killing concerns? "If someone with an uncut version joins a game with Australians with the cut version, Uncommon Infected will NOT spawn," says the forums.

Wow. I was thinking melee would be subject to the two-hand touch rule. Good thing they saved that!

Kotaku Australia wrote up the full scoop - with a workaround to defeat the censorship. Although they point out this was tested only on the demo and may not work with the full release.

What's Cut From Aussie Left 4 Dead 2, And How To Uncut It [Kotaku Australia]

If anybody else has got gamer-themed costumes they want to share, throw 'em in the comments field. I would say email 'em to me — but given that I'm still receiving pumpkin pics even now in November, I doubt they'd get to me in time to be relevant. So comment away!

P.S. Sorry, guys. I wound up not going as Peach this year because I couldn't find anybody to be my Mario.

P.P.S. Check back at 5AM for a very special Batman: Arkham Asylum costume. It's so spiffy, this boss is giving it its own post.

These are actually colleagues of mine who posted their group costume to Facebook. I re-posted here so you could compare this Zoe to the Drag Zoe in the next three pictures.

Original story follows:

"Miracle Pack" and "Apocalyptic Pack" are both mentioned in the demo files. The original L4D survivors also are mentioned in the files. CVG speculates they might be made available at some time in the sequel.

News of Xbox Live avatar awards were also discovered by the same inspection of gamefiles.

I've emailed Valve to see if they want to take a swing at it. If so, it'll be updated here.

Left 4 Dead 2 DLC Detailed? [CVG, thanks Mike B.]

This viral vid across the pond for Left 4 Dead 2 furthers the European co-opting of the zombie genre - as American as the Fourth of July, apple pie and loud mufflers - by applying all sorts of Euro words to zombie-fightin' weaponry. You don't have a chainsaw but you do have a what? "A ... 'strimmer'"?

The hell is a "strimmer"?

Looky here, beefeater. My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great granddaddy kicked your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great granddaddy's ass back in 1812, and then my granddaddy, forgiving all of that, bailed y'all out in the big Dubya-Dubya-Eye-Eye, so that I would grow up in a world where I had the inalienable right to call that goddamn yard tool by its proper generic name - "weedwhacker."

Video: Left 4 Dead 2 UK Survival 101 Viral Teaser [Gay Gamer]

The Dragon Age: Origins entry comes from Cameron Vetter's girlfriend (and man has she got some skills). The second Left 4 Dead pumpkin we've seen so far comes our way from Kotaku reader Necrothug. And lastly, we've got a rare white pumpkin entry from Alex Fortuno.

Fortuno says: "This is supposed to be the Bass icon from Beatles Rock Band. It's also carved on a white pumpkin. The idea was much better in my head."

But don't be too hard on him — he had the ingenious idea to keep the whole thing together with toothpicks. I've got to try that on my Bubs pumpkin. My cat sort of ruined his teeth...