Cold Stream Update

January 6, 2012 - L4D Team

With the team back from the holidays, we have been hard at work on the Cold Stream DLC and wanted to let you know what is going on.

Right now the focus is on making sure the game plays well on the Xbox 360. We still have a few problems spots that we are working on before we begin heavy internal testing and then release to certification. Sorry, we don't have a release date yet.

Before the holidays, we made a push on outstanding bugs and issues in all the campaigns in the DLC. One of the ongoing bugs has been an item density issue caused by the differences between how Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 handle density.

We looked into a few different ways to handle it. To fix it right, we needed to fix it in each campaign map by map. While we were updating each map, we fixed other bugs and exploits in those maps.

Starting next week we will be releasing these updates a campaign or two at a time to get more feedback from the community. Your playing, posting, and general feedback has made this whole process a much better game for everyone – thanks!

Next week we will start by releasing an updated version of Crash Course and Cold Stream. The other campaigns will follow. While the release notes are lengthy, we can give you some idea of the extent of the updates.

For Crash Course: The Alleys, among the bugs we fixed was removing the exploit where survivors could get on to a roof near the drop down to the river, we rebalanced item distribution, switched out the L4D2 mounted gun for the L4D1 mini-gun, and more.

Some examples from Cold Stream: South Pine Stream; we removed the shortcut through the bushes between a pair of barricades leading to the barrel explosion event, added a tooltip to prompt players to fight to the safe room when the onslaught begins, blocked the ability to get under the map, and more.

We will have detailed release notes for each update as they are released.

We have one last big bit of Cold Stream news. Congratulations are in order for Matthew Lourdelet. The community mapper who created Cold Stream is no longer a community mapper! He is a full blown professional mapper and is part of the team working on Dishonored for Arkane. Congrats Matthew and this gives us yet another reason to look forward to Dishonored!

Holiday Update

December 16, 2011 - L4D Team

If you have been playing Left 4 Dead 2 for a bit, you probably have your own lists of who is naughty and who is nice. We already make it easy for you to track who is being nice – we have the Steam Friends list. But we know people can rage, players can grief, and some people… well some people you just don’t want to play another game with.

For those special people, we have the blocked list. Think of it as your own personal naughty list. Not only will those people not be getting gifts from you this holiday season, they also won’t be joining you in any games, reindeer or otherwise.

Once you add someone to your blocked list, they will not be able to join your game. This means they are blocked through the lobby interface, the server browser, the recently played list, and even direct connecting. They are gone from your life.

This does also mean if a friend invites them to your game, they will be blocked. It also prevents you from joining a game where there is a player you have blocked. If it was a mistake or you kissed and made up, you can always unblock them and everything will return to normal.

How do you block someone? You can simply block any user from within the Steam Community page, Steam chats, or your Steam Friends list. Players can also be blocked while in a game via the Steam Overlay, which provides an easy path to both locate and block current and recent players from joining your future matches.

Don’t worry about offending someone with your block. As always, your blocks are private. Only you can see the list of people you’ve blocked. And again, don’t worry about making a mistake blocking, you can always unblock someone at any time.

What games will support your block? Left 4 Dead 2 is the first. We want to test it here. CS:GO will be next and then we will continue to add games that use Steamworks matchmaking.

So now that you have your lists, what about gifts for you in today’s updates?

First we have some bug fixes. We have a fix for the problem of Tanks not consistently spawning in the finales. Prodigysim (once again) correctly identified when the issue was introduced and helped us track it down. Thanks!

We fixed the problem of dying when you win Death Toll and we mixed up the distribution of melee weapons in the new campaigns (we do read the forums) .

We are also back with custom campaigns. Today we are adding I Hate Mountains ( Download ) to the rotation and have an updated version of Suicide Blitz 2. If you missed it, RT Frisk made a special version of Suicide Blitz 2 to help with a marriage proposal. Ohh…

Lastly… well what are those things in Versus? What’s this new achievement? You’re gonna have to play a round and find out.

Left 4 Dead Zombie Holiday Sale!

December 10, 2011 - L4D Team

Looking around at holiday decorations and sales, we noticed an alarming lack of zombies.

We need to fix that.

To help you spread the zombie cheer through the holiday seasons, we have put the games on sale today for 75% off. This includes Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, the bundles, the four packs – everything is 75% off today!

We also put all our L4D & L4D2 merchandise on sale at the Valve store. This includes the holiday cards at 75% discount! (L4D1 – L4D2) We also have shirts, posters, mouse pads and more on sale.

One of the most requested gift items we see is the health kit back pack. We don’t sell them but Glitch Gaming Apparel does. If you use the coupon code “I Love L4D2”, you will get $4 off any order.

I know what some of you are thinking, you are NOT a last minute gift kind of person. You are a preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse kind of person. You prepare early. Your 2011 gifts were delivered last June. You are picking out your Halloween decorations this week. You're thinking about your 2012 gifts already. We respect that. For you we have an articulated action figure boomer. It was created by NECA and will go on sale early next spring for under $20 at major retailers. Just in time for your 2012 holiday gift buying.

December 2nd Update - Special Confogl Update

December 2, 2011 - L4D Team

Confogl
Competitive Versus Mutation

Confogl is a set of rules for competitive L4D2 Versus that standardizes many of the elements and changes item and weapon distribution. In general it tips the balance a bit more towards the Infected.

ProdigySim, the creator of this Mutation, has made an update based on community feedback. He has reduced scavenge item counts, reduced number of hunting rifle spawns, and some other small tweaks. Keep giving him feedback on the changes.

We have other updates for this month but we want to let people get accustomed to this Mutation so we will be having Confogl for the entire month of December.

CSGO
In honor of the competitive mutation and the start of the CSGO stress test this week, we will be keeping the poll active. Let us know.

November 18th Update - Headshot!, Confogl, CS:GO?

November 18, 2011 - L4D Team

Headshot!
The only shot that counts is the one in the head.

Shoot them in the arm, shoot them in the leg, shoot them in the chest - it just doesn't matter! The only way these zombies are going down is with a head shot. Other hits will stumble them back, but only a head shot or decapitation will kill them.

This Mutation is available for Campaign Mode.

Confogl
The voting was close, real close on the 360 but people want to give it another try. One of the problems with a big change like Confogl is that two weeks is not enough time to adjust to the changes. You need to learn what is different and adapt.

To help, the next update is going to bring back Confogl and we will leave it in rotation until the new year. That should give you enough time. It will also give us a longer period to evaluate the data on people playing.

CS:GO?
With the imminent release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Beta, we were curious; will you try CS:GO?