"Left 4 Dead 2" Split Vote and Comic Details - 8/31/10
Last week Valve posted the question “which favorite mutation of yours would you like to see come back?”, The results came back as a split vote.
PC users preferred Gib Fest, while Xbox 360 users preferred Chainsaw massacre, with both sides agreeing that they like the gore. As for the new DLC (for both L4D & L4D2), it is due out in October, you get to play as the original L4D survivors.
The comic that accompanies the new content is due in September. The comic will also be split into 4 separate sections, with each section featuring the back story of one of the survivors. Valve also posted the question of “Whose back story are you most interested in?”. So, who are you most interested in?
New Featured Community Campaign "Detour Ahead" - 8/27/10
Yesterday, Kerry Davis for Valve officially announces the new featured community campaign for PC known as "Detour Ahead." The new campaign features 5 maps with the option for both Co-op and Versus gameplay. Before playing, make sure to download the add-on support here
For more information on the installation process head over to Valve's official blog here
And as a recap, the new DLC for "Left 4 Dead" and "Left 4 Dead 2" will be available in October. The two new campaigns are "The Sacrifice" and "No Mercy". As mentioned in our previous blog post, "The Sacrifice" will let players determine the outcome of events (should Bill die, or should some other character die?) prior to the "The Passing".
As a cliffhanger, Valve promised more exciting news in the next few weeks in regards to the DLC and a "rockingly brand new contest next week, and more news on the comic coming out this September."
Image courtesy of Valve.
Last Man On Earth Mutation - 8/25/10
Last Man On Earth Returns - is this week's mutation, which brings us to...week 18! As the very last human left in the entire world, you've successfully scored yourself a place in the Guinness World Records for the Special Infected. Are you ready to face this incredible challenge and extreme pressure to keep up your legendary status as being the sole survivor? During this mode, there will be no survivor bots, and no split screens. Your curse? To be forever hunted down by the Special Infected.
So how did Bill die? Yup, Valve has not yet revealed their version, but here are the results that were in during the survey. Majority of both PC and XBox 360 gamers think that Bill was killed by a tank, followed by being overrun by zombies.
So which Mutation should return for another encore?
Image courtesy of Valve
Valve Announces New Left 4 Dead 2 DLC: "The Sacrifice" - 8/21/10
After patiently waiting for that one moment that was going to go down on SpikeTV, here we are. Now that the word is out, Valve has finally announced the very latest DLC for "Left 4 Dead" and "Left 4 Dead 2". Dubbed "The Sacrifice", fans will understand the back story on what happened to one of the original four survivors who died. The events were also set before "The Passing."
Valve is keeping 'em coming with more "Left 4 Dead 2" DLCs after this one.
Jim Sterling of Destructoid.com via GTTV wrote, "The Sacrifice will start Francis, Zoey, Bill and Louis, even if you play it via Left 4 Dead 2. Valve is not only giving L4D2 players a chance to play as the original survivors without loading the original, it's also throwing the entire No Mercy campaign into the DLC, just for good measure"
This is your chance to dictate the story line by choosing who dies instead of Valve's choice by downloading "The Sacrifice." While a release date for the DLC has not yet been officially confirmed, fans can download this for free on PC and Mac.
"Left 4 Dead 2" New community campaigns and DLC date - 8/20/10
Just a reminder for everyone. Tonight is officially the night where Steam will disclose details on the new Left 4 Dead campaigns, DLC packs, and much more. Check out GameTrailers TV tonight at 12:30am on Spike TV.
Yesterday Valve announced new bi-weekly community campaigns! The first one being features is called "2 Evil Eyes". They've also announced the date of the reveal for DLC pack 3 and answered questions about Left 4 Dead 2 DLC. Every two weeks the new community campaign will be launched on the L4D servers. Matt Williams of Games On Net reported that "120 servers have been setup around the globe to launch the first featured campaigns: Two Evil Eyes."
So stay tuned for next Friday - August 20th. Questions about the new DLC, Mac version, comic etc will be answered on Game Trailers TV, which will be airing at 12:30am on Spike.
For more information on downloading the campaign, head over here
Week 17: Iron Man and Bill's Story - 8/13/10
Week 17's Iron Man: Try Mutations on Expert for a change + Realism. Warning: No respawning in the map, no restarting, no ammunition. You will have to restart the entire campaign if your team dies. Are you up to this challenge?
What did you think of the Gib Fest? Valve reported that "it not only had a high rate of people trying it, it kept a steady 20% of the player minutes for the week" on it's blog.
Let's talk about Bill for a little bit. Spoiler alert if you haven't played The Passing DLC: Bill dies. While Valve will be coming out with their own explanations as to how Bill dies, Valve wants to hear your guesses:
1. Killed by a Tank
2. Killed by a Witch
3. Overrun by Zombies
4. Friendly Fire
5. Old Age
And stay tuned for next week's Mutation: Developer's choice.
Mutation Mode Stats And "Gib Fest" - 8/9/10
Stats are now up for "Left 4 Dead 2's" mutation modes. Valve has recently announced the two most popular mutation modes that you absolutely cannot live without: Realism Versus and Chainsaw Massacre. Bring the gore and realism on!
Realism Versus brought in about 41% of players during it's launch and 22% of playing time while Chainsaw had 52% of players during launch and 14% of playing time.
Joystiq/Gamedaily reported, "Outside of mutations, versus and the co-op campaign actually both nab about 40 percent of players every day. And while Valve doesn't mention any of the least-played mutations, it does give notice to the Infected-doubling Hard Eight mutation, which was only tried by 26 percent of players but still grabbed over 10 percent of that week's playing time."
This week it's all about the featured "Gib Fest" - this can easily be a favorite. Unlimited ammo and M60s?! Can't get any better than that.
Image credit: GameDaily.com
"Left 4 Dead 2" Mutation Results from Valve - 8/6/10
Valve certainly has their way with statistics - and making it fun in the process of research! The first dozen of "Left 4 Dead 2" Mutation game modes are now 'over' and Valve is sharing some of their findings on what gamers are playing with us.
Matt Williams for Games On Net wrote "Prior to Mutations 'Versus and Co-op Campaign were tied neck and neck each with around 40% (80%-85% total) of the players on any given day. The other 15%-20% was split between Survival, Realism and Scavenge'. Each week, a new Mutation has been tested on the servers, offering a new set of rules to mix up the gameplay."
While the release of these Mutations are not intended to replace current L4D gaming modes, they are definitely an eye opener for fans playing on a daily basis. For example, Williams said, "It's a way of leveling the playing field for the casual and hardcore players alike."
I know what you're asking - we'll get to that. Of course some Mutation modes are more popular than others. Here is the breakdown of the most popular game modes:
"The top 3 Mutations based on percentage of players who tried it at least once:
52% Chainsaw Massacre
45% Last Man On Earth
41% Realism Versus
"The top 3 Mutations based on percentage of players minutes during featured week:
22% Realism Versus
14% Chainsaw Massacre
12% Last Gnome on Earth
Image Credit: Games On Net
Week 15: The week of split vote and "If you only had one thing" - 8/1/10
Results from L4D's official blog confirmed that PC gamers were pro-Survival Versus while Xbox 360 gamers are obsessed with the Four Swordsmen of the Apocalypse.
Next Week's Mutation is Gib Fest!
PC:
32% Versus Survival
26% Four Swordsmen
22% Hard Eight
20% Healthpackalypse
Xbox 360:
38% Four Swordsmen
28% Versus Survival
17% Hard Eight
17% Healthpackalypse
Imagine yourself in a real world plagued with the zombie apocalypse. So you fought through, survived, left unbitten and have boarded a boat. What is the one thing that you'd want on your way to the Island in the Keys? The one thing that would be important to your survival?
Gaming Heads Introduces New Left 4 Dead 2 Limited Tank Statue - 8/1/10
Gaming Heads have recently announced their amazing (yet expensive) "Left 4 Dead 2" line which includes a 15 inches tall Tank statue. Only 750 of these will be made, so they are a very limited collectors edition that is available for pre-ordering now at GamingHeads.com. Be forewarned: After the purchase, the product will only be out/shipped early next year. This is the regular version of the statue that is retailing for $299.99. Gaming Heads will also be rolling out the exclusive version of the statue, albeit a bit expensive at $324.99. Only 300 of these limited edition statues are made, and includes a Pump Shotgun, as reported by Tanya Valdez for Examiner.com.
Below is the excerpt from Gaming Heads' public and official announcement of Tank:
<"The Tank has been heavily mutated by a strain of the infection. It has developed immense, thick muscles that not only indicate it's incredible strength and endurance, but make it nearly bulletproof, resulting in extreme fire-power being needed to take one down. It's mind has also been heavily affected, making it extremely bloodthirsty.
"...This is the exclusive version of the Tank. He comes with a to scale additional Pump Shotgun. In order to create the most accurate statue, we have used the actual game files. He measures approximately 15 inches tall, including the base. Comes packed in a foam interior full colored box with a validation card which ensures your product is genuine. Highly limited at only 300 pieces available worldwide. Cast in high quality poly-stone, the statue is hand finished and hand painted to exacting standards."
Valve Offers Free "Left 4 Dead 2" Copies for "Modern Warfare 2" bans - 7/30/10
Valve's anti-cheat software has been banning as close to 12,000 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 soldiers. To compensate the non-cheaters, the company is offering free copies of "Left 4 Dead 2" as payment for lost times, as reported by Eddie Makuch for GameSpot.com.
Valve's president Gabe Newell wrote an email to one of Steam's user which read, "This was our mistake and I apologize for any frustration or angst it may have caused you."
"The problem was that Steam would fail a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latest memory version. This was caused by a combination of conditions occurring while Steam was updating the disk image of a game. This wasn't a game-specific mistake. Steam allows us to manage and reverse these erroneous bans," Newell explained further.
In addition, to a free copy of "Left 4 Dead 2", gamers can also get another free copy to give away as a gift.
Left 4 Dead 2 patch, more to come - 7/30/10
Updates to Left 4 Dead 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Addons
Client's custom HUDs will be reloaded when changing between Official and Non-official servers.
GamePlay
Bullets that first pass through an infected character before striking a Survivor are now ignored as friendly fire. Fix for survivors speaking The Passing Finale lines in other campaigns.
Versus
Charger now receives 300 points for any Survivor that is insta-killed.
Charger now receives 100 points for any Survivor that is insta-incapped by a charge.
Any infected that causes a Survivor to stumble into a "ledge hang" situation will receive 50 points.
Tank
Tanks go into a stasis when they spawn and leave stasis when the human player takes over.
Tanks in stasis are invisible but still show a glow to the infected team.
Tanks do not attack when they are in stasis.
Tanks in stasis cannot be set on fire or damaged.
SDK Tools
Fixed crash whenever a VMT was loaded in L4D2 tools mode.
Contributed from our Moderator: Deadly
Mutation Week 14: Healthpackalypse and Updates - 7/26/10
In the updates news section: PC players rejoice as more Versus updates will be coming up later this week. Xbox players, will have to be patient.
So what's your favorite Mutation? Next week's Encore Mutation and go ahead and vote.
Results of players' votes by platform can be found here.
Tank Rush Server - campaign game where the infected are replaced by...tanks! Tanks that will respawn when killed. So here we are at Mutation Week 13: Hard Eight.
Here is a good time to curse the lucky 8 ball as the challenge is to face eight Special Infected zombies at a time! What's so hard about it? Well, the increasing frequency of spawning zombies!
Here are last week's results on your favorite Melee Weapon. Xbox 360 users love the Chainsaw over PC gamers. Yet, the Katana reigns supreme here for both consoles.
Xbox 360
34% Katana (Sword)
17% Chainsaw
12% Machete
10% Fire Axe
7% Baseball Bat
6% Golf Club
3% Frying Pan
3% Electric Guitar
3% Crowbar
3% Cricket Bat
1% Tonfa (police baton)
PC
44% Katana (Sword)
12% Machete
11% Fire Axe
9% Chainsaw
5% Baseball Bat
4% Golf Club
3% Frying Pan
3% Electric Guitar
3% Crowbar
2% Cricket Bat
2% Tonfa (police baton)
We'll be checking back in on next week's mutation: Healthpackalypse
Left 4 Dead's Tank Rush Mod - 7/18/10
L4D's Week 13: Hard Eight Mutation and Your Favorite Melee Weapon - 7/16/10
