The Sacrifice Comic Starts Tuesday September 14th

September 10, 2010 - L4D Team

This Tuesday we will begin releasing the comic that leads up to the Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2 DLC “The Sacrifice”. Tuesday will be the first of four parts. To whet your appetite for the upcoming parts, here is the cover art.

Week 21

September 9, 2010 - L4D Team

Follow the Liter, Favorite Survivor, Whose back story?

Follow the Liter
Scavenge One Can at a Time.

Week 3’s Mutation did not win over the crowds, but we think that’s because it was misunderstood. It has a very different feeling than Scavenge and games tend to be much lower scoring. You have to remember, if their can goes up in flames – they have to wait for it to respawn. So get that can on the ground and use the Spitter to light it up!

For the month of September we will continue bringing back previous Mutations and explain why we think you should give them a chance. So if you missed them the first time, give them a chance. It won’t hurt. Probably…

Favorite Survivors
The PC crowd continues to love Zoey. The polls were pretty much identical except for the top two. xBox 360 users prefer Ellis then Zoey for their top picks. PC users prefer Zoey and then Ellis. Last week Bill (3rd place in this week’s poll) was ranked ahead of Zoey in the 360 poll and behind Zoey in the PC poll. I think PC players are sweet on somebody…

This or that?
For the new DLC for Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2, “The Sacrifice” we have a Comic, Teaser movie and of course the game. Do you prefer to get a more in depth preview through the comic? Watch the teaser? Wait for the game? Or All of the above?

Next week's Mutation: Developer's Choice

Bonus: What would the Hunter do in Toy Story? What Hunters do of course.

Week 20

September 3, 2010 - L4D Team

Hard Eight, Whose Back Story?, Favorite Survivor?

Hard Eight
Double the specials, quadruple the fun!

Face eight Special Infected at one time, this is double the standard number! And if that wasn’t trouble enough, we also increase the spawning frequency so it is raining Specials.

During its first release, this Mutation gained popularity through the week as people realized how much of a challenge this Mutation really was. So if you didn’t try it the first time around, give it a shot.

Whose Backstory?
Last week we asked whose back story you were most interested in for the upcoming comic. We love them all, so no one is going to be disappointed but here is how you voted. I don’t think we can attribute this split to the controller!

Votes by platform:
Xbox 360
30% Bill
28% Zoey
24% Francis
13% Louis
5% None

PC
34% Zoey
27% Bill
21% Francis
13% Louis
5% None

Favorite Survivor?
Many Left 4 Dead 2 players have played Left 4 Dead 1. For those that didn’t, you met 3 of the Left 4 Dead 1 survivors in “The Passing”. Bill is normally a bit more active… You are about to get to play all 4 of them in the upcoming DLC “The Sacrifice”. Out of all 8 Survivors, who is your favorite?

Next week's mutation: Developer’s Choice!

POLL
Favorite Survivor
Bill
Coach
Ellis
Francis
Louis
Nick
Rochelle
Zoey

Save Me Some Sugar – This won’t take long

September 1, 2010 - L4D Team

The Midnight Riders need your help. We haven’t seen the Riders for a long time. We were hoping they could help us with the official release of “Save Me Some Sugar” for the upcoming DLC for Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 “The Sacrifice”.

This is the first time Left 4 Dead 1 players will get to listen to the Midnight Riders while they slay zombies. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we wanted to release on YouTube their full music video for the song. This was the very first Music Video the Riders ever made “for the MTV”.

Sadly the video was lost and the Riders aren’t helping us find it. The only thing we have left behind from the band is one of Dusty’s guitars signed by the band. Dusty was not one to accept the charity of others so he had left this with management to be sold for bail money.

This leaves us with the guitar, the song, but no video.

Here’s where you can help. Make a music video for “Save Me Some Sugar” and post it on YouTube.com with the tag L4DMNRSAVESUGAR. The best video will win the guitar signed by the MNRs and a gift pack from Valve. We will wait until October 1st 2010 to judge the winning entry, so take your time.

Should you make it live action? Use game assets? Show the Riders? Well the band would have wanted this contest to have no rules. So you choose what’s in the video – THERE ARE NO STINKING RULES*!

Visit the official contest page for an mp3 of the song and the Midnight Rider’s Logo.

You can use this thread to promote your video.

*For actual boring legal rules written by people who don’t rock, please visit the official contest page here.

Week 19

August 27, 2010 - L4D Team

Split Vote! Whose back story?

Gib Fest (PC)
Blast the infected to shreds with M60s.

Swords can slice up some fun. Chainsaws can tear apart the infected. But you need to get close for both and well… chainsaws are really loud! Time to go with the ultimate gun, you and three friends armed with M60s and unlimited ammo.

Chainsaw Massacre (360)
4 chainsaws, millions of zombies.

You are armed with the only thing you need to survive a Zombie Apocalypse, a chainsaw. Rip apart thousands of zombies on your way to safety.

This Mutation is available in Campaign Mode.

Split Vote
Both the PC and 360 crowd want to see the blood flowing! 360 users preferring chainsaws and PC users going with M60s. Whichever way you like to kill zombies, it's going to be messy.
The numbers by platform.

xBox 360
26% Chainsaw Massacre
21% GibFest
18% Versus Survival
15% Last Gnome on Earth
11% Four Swordsmen of the Apocalypse
  9% Bleed Out

PC
25% GibFest
20% Versus Survival
16% Chainsaw Massacre
14% Four Swordsmen of the Apocalypse
13% Last Gnome on Earth
12% Bleed Out

Whose backstory?
The new DLC for Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2 is due out in October. In the DLC you will get to play the Left 4 Dead 1 survivors. The accompanying Comic is coming in September. The Comic is broken up into 4 separate sections. Each section features the back story from one of the Survivors. Whose back story are you most interested in?