Valve today confirmed that its cooperative zombie shooter Left 4 Dead, due November 18, will be the first game to pack support for its free Steam Cloud technology, which automatically stores game settings online.

The initial release of Steam Cloud will store keyboard, mouse, and gamepad configurations, along with multiplayer settings such as spraypaint images, on Steam, allowing gamers to easily play with their settings on any Steam-connected PC.

The initial release of Steam Cloud will not archive saved games, Valve confirmed with Shacknews, though the promised functionality "is coming."

Along with Left 4 Dead's Steam Cloud implementation, Valve will apply the technology to its back catalog of Steam games and provide the free Steam Cloud toolset to all Steam developers and publishers for widespread implementation.

"Steam Cloud is a natural extension of the portability Steam affords gamers and developers, and we intend to expand its feature set as it is used in Left 4 Dead and other games coming to Steam," noted Valve president Gabe Newell.

Valve today announced Steam Cloud, a free Steam system that will retain users' saved games and configuration files indefinitely.

Half-Life and Half-Life 2 will be the first games to support the service. User key mappings will also be saved in Counter-Strike, and Left 4 Dead will ship with the feature.

If players are offline, the service will store the data and then add it to the network on the next connection. According to Valve, saved games and configurations will be stored forever.

Valve further noted that the service will be freely available to developers, and is set to launch in the "near future."

The company also detailed plans for several new Steam systems, including a driver auto-updater and calendar functionality.

Another feature in development is a system-requirement checker. The program will analyze your hardware and compare it to multiple games, estimating your performance and recommending upgrades.

Valve is also considering storing replay videos and kill-cam screens from games such as Team Fortress 2 and Day of Defeat: Source.