Doug Lombardi has told Joystiq that a multiplayer demo for Valve's Left 4 Dead 2 is planned for both the Xbox 360 and PC. According to Valve's PR guru, users who pre-order the upcoming zombie survival title at "participating retailers or [via] Steam" will gain "advanced access to the demo," which will eventually land on both platforms for all users prior to the game's November 17 launch.

Speaking with OXM at a recent London preview event, Lombardi discussed the strength of Left 4 Dead's "word of mouth," which has presumably fueled the need for a demo to the sequel. With groups calling for a boycott of Left 4 Dead 2 due to lack of content support for the original title, a demo may be the best way for Valve to prove why it believes its sequel warrants a full price tag. Although, strong pre-order numbers tell us the game is already on pace to decimate sales charts like a zombie tank.

After deftly dodging questions like, "How many polygons are there in Nathan's eyebrow?" and "Can I give Elena an accent in my fanfic?" Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells confirmed a new Uncharted 2: Among Thieves demo in an online Q&A held yesterday, courtesy of the PlayStation Blog. "Yes, we're going to have another multiplayer demo before the game hits shelves," Wells said. "The exact timing isn't finalized yet, but it should be available to an even wider group this time, so if you missed the last one I don't think you'll have any problem getting in this one."

We're hoping that by "even wider group," he's referring to everyone who can't wait to play the frantically anticipated action-adventure (which is everyone) and failed to gain entry into the recent beta. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is currently scheduled for release this Fall -- a more exact date will be announced "very soon," Wells teased.

Though he didn't exactly spell out what it's going to be or when it's going to be hitting digital shelves, id Software's John Carmack told us his newest iPhone game will be getting DLC. He let slip yesterday morning during an interview about recently released Doom Resurrection that the game would be getting DLC "sometime soon" -- downloadable content just became an option for iPhone games, with the launch of OS 3.0.

When we pressed him on whether we'd see downloadable anything for the upcoming flood of id Software games coming to the iPhone, he kept his cards a bit closer to his chest, saying it's technically "possible" but nothing's set in stone yet. He also revealed that Resurrection will be getting multiplayer add-ons in the upcoming weeks, so for those of you who already took the $10 plunge, you may want to ask your best buddy to do so as well.

Update: We got some clarification on the DLC from id Software's John Carmack just now, saying, "There won't be any DLC until we have moved the projects to requiring 3.0, and we aren't sure exactly when that will be. Pretty much all of the titles are being set up for DLC in the future. We are prepping the "Spear of Destiny" levels for Wolfenstein 3D classic, and all the various classic games have sequels and mission packs that we can offer. For Resurrection, new content will have to be created from scratch. I expect we will know within a few weeks if the reception to the game is good enough to justify it."

According to an IncGamers interview with members of the StarCraft II team, one of the major components of the original game won't be included in the sequel -- LAN play. "We don't have any plans to support LAN," VP of game design Rob Pardo told the site. Blizzard has reportedly confirmed to IGN that LAN support is indeed out the window. We're reaching out to Blizzard for comment as well, so don't throw out all your cables yet.

If this is true, Battle.net is the only multiplayer option in StarCraft II, and the era of the LAN party has officially ended -- we suppose you could still bring your computer over to someone else's house, but you no longer need to. More than that, we suspect that this will be just one of the things that thousands of daily StarCraft players are going to freak out about, because it's something in the new game that is the slightest bit different from the old game.

[Via IGN]

It's been nearly two years since we were first embarrassed in a StarCraft II multiplayer preview, but we recently got our long-awaited shot at redemption. During the interim, we've logged countless hours with the original StarCraft and its Brood War expansion (having picked up new, digital copies for a mere $15) in order to prepare for this opportunity. The bad news? We still managed to get owned. Although, in our defense, we were playing against some hardcore fansites, and the setup of Blizzard's recent hands-on event was not unlike being dropped into a televised StarCraft tournament match in Korea with an announcer saying, "Okay, and ... GO!"

That's the bad news. The good news is that StarCraft II looks simply amazing, and it plays even better. After you've pounded your brain with several hundred hours (for some of you, it's probably thousands of hours) of StarCraft, and you fire up StarCraft II, it's like being jolted by 1.21 jigawatts of mouse-clicking rapture -- which, thankfully, also numbed the pain of our ongoing losing streak.

Seven minutes and six seconds, to be exact. That's pure, raw, Starcraft 2 footage coming at you just beyond the break, and it features Terran, Zerg, and Protoss units going at it. If you're still not sated, try out the direct video file here (it's 250MB), free from flash encoding.

See how much you can resist trying to move the screen around with your own mouse, continually forgetting that – alas! – it's just a video. For us it happened right at the very end when that swarm of Ultralisks started pounding on that poor Terran Command Center. Ouch.

To kill time until the game ships (hopefully) later this year, be sure to check out our new hands-on with the multiplayer and our interview with lead producer Chris Sigaty, both coming later today, and the new images in the gallery below.

By now, you must have heard about MAG -- an ambitious 256-player online shooter. We've seen it in action and have even tried it out for ourselves, but what's it all about, and what's this Shadow War we keep hearing of? Luckily, this developer video diary (posted after the break) gives us a look into the storyline of MAG and its fictional Shadow War backdrop and answers all those questions.

We get a closer look at the maps, weapons and characters seen in the game, while Zipper details the various PMC groups vying for power in the Shadow War. The clip also shows off some all-new gameplay footage, so make sure you don't miss it.

Naughty Dog recently released a patch for the multiplayer beta of Uncharted 2, and we contacted them to get more information on the changes, especially to the grenades. If only these had been made before our team matches, we might not have dealt out so much death to our teammates.

Naughty Dog's Multiplayer Designer Justin Richmond got back to us with some answers:

Was player feedback the reason for the tweaks? Or was it internal?

A little of both. We LOVE getting feedback on the forums, and appreciate everybody taking the time to post about what they like and dislike. The data from the players themselves is invaluable.

Almost everything we patched for was stuff that was broken in code that we could address in a short amount of time. We did raise the score limits in the game pre-patch due to overwhelming player response. We have been looking at the forums constantly and are aware of all of the issues that people have with the game. Already, changes have been made based on feedback from the beta that are NOT in the patch however, and we will continue to do so as we hear from the players on the forums.

What specifically was changed about the grenades? Made more powerful? Less powerful? Can you still teamkill with them?

Players will still take team damage from grenades as they did before, but accidentally grenade killing your whole team in the first seconds of a game are being fixed for the full game. We are also tweaking the "kick" system.

We're sure the lot of you would rather hear about the intricacies of the single player campaign of BioShock 2 that we divined from our time with the game at E3 -- unfortunately, 2K wasn't keen on sharing any new details about the story of the core game. What we did get a chance to see was the multiplayer portion of the undersea follow-up -- a feature that we've yet to hear much about before today.

Watching the six-player deathmatch BioShock 2 demo was kind of like watching your beloved family dog sing opera. Mind you, this dog sang opera really well, but still, watching your canine companion sing is a somewhat unsettling experience. For some reason, it's ingrained in our minds that BioShock is meant to be experienced on ones lonesome. When you strip the rich story away from the game and toss in multiplayer elements, you end up with a product that, despite its strengths, seems a bit out of its element.

It's hard to take developers at face value when they're sitting around talking about how cool their game is, but in this case we have the first-hand knowledge to agree. While Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen might not be "more faster-paced" than other multiplayer games, it's a heck of a lot of fun. More fun than the single player, in fact.

Check out the video above for a sneak peek at the multiplayer action in the upcoming title, and imagine what the insurance bill has to be like in that city.

So here it is, folks. The second game in 2009 to have an individual and somewhat unique premise with a less than flattering visual accompaniment (not to mention bland, seen-it-before looking gameplay). But hey, let's give it a fair shake -- we haven't laid our grubby, jaded mitts on the game yet, so it'd be unfair to prejudge.

What we can glean from the trailer is this: the totally sweet, Raiden-esque sword action seen in previously released clips seems to have all but left in the multiplayer-combat focused video above. In it's place? "Verticality." At least we can still flip around like most ... cowboys. That's what cowboys do, right? Right?!

The recent single-player demo for Red Faction: Guerrilla has been downloaded more than a million times already. Still, assuming you're tired of swinging sledgehammers in a vacuum, Volition and THQ will release a multiplayer demo over Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network on May 21.

The demo will highlight the game's "Damage Control" mode, as players work to build and rebuild key structures on a pair of included maps, using an assortment of nine weapons and five backpacks. 15 unlockable experience levels will also be included -- useful with Red Faction: Guerrilla set to ship on June 2 and ostrich hunting season just around the corner.

[Via Console Monster]

From the "be careful what you wish for" file, we've got the first details on the BioShock 2 multiplayer you all wanted so very much after the first game. You'll play as a Plasmid test subject working for Sinclair Solutions during the fall of Rapture as you battle other players in re-worked game locales like Kashmir Restaurant and Mercury Suites.

Victory over your opponents will yield experience that you can spend on new Plasmids, weapons and tonics. If you can take it, you can read all about the mode right here. The mode's being developed by Digital Extremes, which you likely remember for its work on Dark Sector.

... Hey, why do you all look so depressed? What? Us? No, we're not crying. Why would you *sniff* think that?

For those of you not playing that other fantasy RTS with giant beasts on PC (*cough* Demigod *cough*), there's always the card-based strategery of Phenomic's BattleForge. The newest trailer released (seen above) showcases not just the massive scale of some rather colorful battles but also some of the most dramatic music we've ever heard. And what does the sound of tribal drumming bring with it? Apparently a price drop, as EA announced today that the game's price is lowering to a more competitive $29.99.

We'd love to tell you more about the online-only PC game but when we tried to get a hands-on at New York City Comic Con, wouldn't ya know it, the servers went down. We can, however, point you to the game's website where a free demo is waiting patiently for you to download it.

The Killzone 2 leaderboards aren't just for tracking who's best at putting down Helghast scum (or the invading ISA, if that's how you roll). The leaderboards are also handy for when you need to keep track of a milestone, like Killzone 2's millionth player to log in online, for example.

That's right, Killzone 2 has over one million folks taking the fight online, achieving the number in little over two months of being on store shelves. Based on sales data, this also means that roughly 2/3rds of the people that purchased the game have taken it online, which is impressive in and of itself. And with so many of the people that bought the game going online to try their skills against the rest of the world, we're willing to bet that Sony will sell a good deal of Steel and Titanium to gamers.

[Via PS3Center]