Realism Vs. mode -- which, as the name implies, is basically the Vs. mode with the realism options on, including non-glowing items, tougher zombies, etc. -- will become permanent after fans voted to keep the mode available. The final tally came out to 68 percent in favor of making the mode permanent, 21 percent against, and 11 percent having no opinion one way or the other. Valve didn't give a date for when the mode will be made permanent, but said they'd have more news next week.
Meanwhile, Valve also announced this week's new Mutation, Follow the Liter. In this iteration of Scavenge mode, only one group of gas cans will spawn at a time, meaning both the Survivors and the Infected know exactly where to go at all times.
Left 4 Dead 2's new "Mutations" system of game variants is just two weeks old, and already one variant is becoming a permanent option. Valve has announced that Realism Vs. mode, the very first Mutation initiated last week, will eventually becoming a permanent option in the game. Additionally, they also revealed the second Mutation for the game: Follow the Liter.
Posts Tagged ‘NEWS’
L4D2′s Realism Vs. Mode Becoming Permanent
May 8th, 2010‘Wizard Of Oz’ Meets ‘Left 4 Dead’
April 14th, 2010
Can't say this mash-up ever occurred to me, though, in hindsight, it seems sort of obvious. Four people from four different backgrounds trying to conquer a gauntlet to ensure their future survival. Whether they're up against flying monkeys or zombies, the challenge before them is still epic.
The image above was created for the "Character of the Week" contest on Concept Art and was collected by Super Punch in a much more viewable format. Hardly any of the "Oz" re-imaginings are video game related, but they're all extremely impressive and make me upset that the recent SyFy re-imagining was so terrible.
Here's the full shot of the poster, which really sells the "Left 4 Oz" motif.
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‘Left 4 Dead’ DLC Spoilers Bring Out The Dead
March 22nd, 2010
On the non-spoilery side of some new "Left 4 Dead" reveals, the upcoming "Left 4 Dead 2" DLC episode "Nobody Survives Forever" will directly relate to some upcoming "L4D1" DLC, and a comic book with bridge both stories. On the significantly more spoilery side of "NSF," however, you'll have to click on past the jump where I've placed the rest of the info, just in case some readers don't want to know about it.
"You'll run into 'Left 4 Dead 1' characters after they've just had this happen," Valve writer Chet Faliszek told GameTrailers TV. "After this we'll release 'Left 4 Dead 1' DLC, in which one of you will have to do what happens, and one of you will die."
Faliszek didn't name the fated party member, but he did say that the story between the unreleased DLC releases will be laid out in comic book form -- though it won't factor in choices and alternatives that show up in-game.
"And we'll actually have a comic book coming out between the two," he said. "It explains the idealized version of how it works out."
It sounds like you may have be able to choose who bites the bullet in the end, but should you choose to by the DLC, you'll be able to find out for yourself.
Do you like the linked DLC strategy for "L4D2" and "L4D1" that Valve is planning? Would you rather they stuck to 2? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Tags: ea, left 4 dead 2, left 4 dead 2: nobody survives forever, left-4-dead, NEWS, PC, valve, Xbox 360Related posts
New Details Revealed for L4D2′s “The Passing” DLC
March 21st, 2010
Still with us? Then you probably won't mind finding out why "The Passing" is called "The Passing" -- and it turns out it's a very figurative title. "Someone passed," Faliszek explains bluntly, referring to the fact that one of the four survivors from the first Left 4 Dead -- Francis, Bill, Zoey, and Louis -- will no longer be a survivor in the L4D2 DLC. This is why Faliszek revealed The Passing's tagline is "Nobody Survives Forever."
The plan is to have the original group of survivors from the first game meet up with the new group from L4D2 in The Passing, but only three will actually still be alive by then. Faliszek of course didn't reveal which character will die, but he did explain L4D1 players will get to find out first-hand: After The Passing is released, new DLC will also be released for the original that actually has gamers play through the events that ultimately claims the life of the doomed character -- and one of the players has to literally make the sacrifice within the game.
Valve writer Chet Faliszek appeared on the latest episode of GameTrailers TV to talk about their upcoming Left 4 Dead 2 DLC called "The Passing," and if you want to stay completely in the dark about what twists it'll throw your way, stop reading now -- because Faliszek revealed a pretty major one.
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Steam Downtime to Prevent Matchmaking on Thursday
February 2nd, 2010
You might want to make different plans for Thursday if you intended on playing Left 4 Dead 2 or any game relying on Steam matchmaking and lobbies. Valve is planning on performing scheduled maintenance on Thursday beginning at 6PM PST; they expect it to take no longer than three hours, setting a return to normal operations by 9PM PST. You'll still be able to play any of the games you own on Steam, but those that rely on Steam matchmaking, including L4D2, will be unplayable.
Other services will be unavailable as well, including Steam Community, downloading games from Steam, and purchasing games from the Steam store.
Valve will be updating the news post located here with any further details as they become available. As you'd expect, they're promising to "make this downtime as short as possible," but the downtime is sure to once again bring out the anti-Steam crowd who will cite this as the reason that physical media is superior to digital downloads.
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Next L4D2 Update Adding Versus Bots, Tweaking Auto-Spawning
January 23rd, 2010
Valve has announced that Left 4 Dead 2's next update won't be out for another few weeks, but at least they let us know what to expect: Infected bots and auto-spawning tweaks in the game's popular Versus mode.
Detailing the two major aspects of the update in a post on their official blog, the L4D2 team explained how both the bots and auto-spawning tweaks are intended to smooth out issues with the Versus mode. The bots will "help out the Infected when they are down a man or two," the post explains, and "will also make 1v1 Versus a bit more fun."
As for tweaking the auto-spawning in the finale events of Versus mode, Valve says one thing they've been experimenting with is disabling them altogether -- and crunched some numbers to show why. "Across all finales in Left 4 Dead 2 currently, a single survivor has a 34.56% chance of escaping," the post reads. "That includes the Concert Finale in 'Dark Carnival,' which boasts close to a 50% escape rate (and yes, a fix for everyone's favorite cheese spot is coming). Remove the Concert Finale, and we see the average drop to 29.61%."
Tags: NEWSRelated posts
Left 4 Dead 8-bit “De-make” is Now Available
January 6th, 2010
Back in November we got a glimpse of developer Eric Ruth's project to "de-make" Left 4 Dead into an 8-bit game, and since then he's released another video showing of almost all of the game's special infected (seen above). The first playable version of the game has been released, making the promised January release date.
As we noted originally, the game runs as a resolution of 256x240 with 16 colors and a 4 sound channel soundtrack. It includes all five of the special infected from the first Left 4 Dead (all seen in the video above, with the exception of the tank which doesn't show up until later), the four campaigns' five maps, and each of the four playable characters.
Keep in mind that the goal, as Ruth notes, was "to create the game Left 4 Dead in a way that I feel it would have been handled back in 1986. The idea was NOT to remake it exactly like the Valve original." Among the complaints sure to be leveled at the game is a lack of four player support, which Ruth says the game is capable of handling but wouldn't be true his goal -- there just weren't a lot of games that had support for four players back then.
Tags: NEWSRelated posts
Valve Brings ‘L4D2′ And ‘Team Fortress 2′ To Holiday Greeting Cards
November 23rd, 2009
Anyone having trouble deciding on a holiday greeting card to send out to their Xbox Live friend list this season should an easier search thanks to Valve expansion into the stationary market. "Left 4 Dead," "Left 4 Dead 2" and "Team Fortress 2" each have their own set available, featuring artwork by Alexandria Neonakis.
The cards run $15.95 for a pack of 10 with envelopes and are available through The Valve Store.
If Neonakis' name sounds familiar, it's probably because you've seen her home-grown creations in the past, which have included "Katamari Damacy" and "World of Warcraft" cards posted on her website. Valve seems to have recognized her talent and employed her thusly.
Images on the notes range from zombies adorned in Christmas tree lights to snipers dressed like snowmen, but all of them have Neonakis' signature feel of classic illustration with a touch of fannish appreciation. They're pretty much exactly what you'd want to send to any online friends that you primarily associate with over Steam or XBL.
According to the site, pre-orders entered now should ship at the end of November, so move quickly if you want to receive them in time to fill out and distribute for December.
What do you think of Valve's new line of holiday greeting cards? Which games would you like to see get a similar treatment? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Tags: alexandria neonakis, left 4 dead 2, left-4-dead, NEWS, Team Fortress 2, valveRelated posts
Valve Releases Left 4 Dead 2 Patch
November 22nd, 2009
Valve has announced that they've issued the first patch for Left 4 Dead 2, fixing a number of bugs ranging from matchmaking issues with getting into Advance and Expert games to performance issues with rendering decals.
The patch will automatically be applied the next time you load up your Steam client. Hopefully, with this bit of housekeeping out of the way, Valve can now get around to releasing the SDK for the game so gamers no longer have to engage in multi-step processes to mod it.
A full list of fixes for this patch can be seen below.
Tags: NEWSRelated posts
Mod Brings Original Left 4 Dead Campaign to L4D2
November 21st, 2009
Are you a Left 4 Dead fan? Do you love burrowing into a game's directories on your PC and modifying files? Then this somewhat complicated tutorial is for you. A group of modders have figured out how to import the first game's campaigns into Left 4 Dead 2, and it will only take owning both games, some technical know-how, and quite a bit of patience.
Since Valve has yet to release the SDK for Left 4 Dead 2, the process of modding the game is a little more in-depth than usual. You can find a full tutorial of how to make the process work on L4DMods.com (via Kotaku), but be aware it'll involve a lot of manually editing file names and transporting certain files from one directory to another. And even then, to get it all working you're going to need to fiddle with the command console in Left 4 Dead 2 (although honestly, that'll probably be the easiest part of this process).
So what do you get for all of your troubles? The option to play through No Mercy, Death Toll, Dead Air, and Blood Harvest from the first game, with the new infected and the new baseball bat melee weapon from the second. Oh, and you're also going to need to deal with a number of known bugs and issues...
Tags: NEWS
