We Might Need a Recount!

June 23, 2010 - L4D Team

Voting is going strong for next week's Encore Mutation Poll.





On the 360 side, Chainsaw Massacre is the runway leader with 43% of the vote. On the PC side, we are quite a bit closer with Headshot! leading with only 33% over Chainsaw Massacre's 32%. This is a close race, so make sure to get your vote in by Thursday night!

What happens if the PC and Xbox 360 have different picks? They each get what they voted for. We created the system to accommodate this scenario. The different platforms can be running different Mutations.

When you are done voting, check out what the Left 4 Dead 1/2 community has been up to this past year.

We have been busy playing I Hate Mountains in L4D1 while we wait for the L4D2 version.

Gravitybomb has created a simple but very cool Left 4 Dead 1 poster.

Do you have visions of a Cheeseburger Apocalypse?

With the Portal 2 announcement at E3, we have all had cake on our mind. This google image search returns plenty of tasty images along with our favorite.



You can also always check out the L4D1 or L4D2 photo pages on Facebook for a ton of cool community pics.

WEEK 9

June 17, 2010 - L4D Team

Headshot!, This is my Rifle, Pick Your Mutation

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.

This is my Rifle
Last week's poll results for the question; Pick your favorite Weapon Class.

The results were very similar between the PC and Xbox 360. Everyone picked the Assault Rifle class as their favorite and Auto-Shotguns next. The third and fourth choices are where the two platforms differed. Xbox users preferred Melee weapons and then Sniper Rifles and PC users went with Sniper Rifles then Melee weapons. Is this where the controller Vs. mouse/keyboard makes a difference?

The rest of the field in order of popularity: Shotguns, Grenade Launcher, SMG, and Pistols.

Pick your Mutation
It's time to pick your favorite Mutation! Vote for next week's Encore Mutation.
Last Man On Earth, Chain Saw Massacre, Room For One, or Headshot!

Also in This Update
We have the first of our planned Versus Changes. These changes will appear on the PC and later on the Xbox 360.

While not removing Defibrillators, we have made some changes to them. We scaled dynamic Defibs based on map length. This means unless the Defib was expressly set by the level designer to have more, the Director will only spawn them on a long map. The Director will also cap the number to one per map.

Using the Defibrillator is no longer free; there is now a 25 point scoring penalty for using a Defib. That means each time you use one, you will have 25 points removed from your final score. Will your revived Survivor make it far enough to be worth it?

Health kits will also be less numerous as we have removed the Director's dynamic Pill conversion. Previously if the first team was injured, the Director would spawn First Aid Kits instead of Pills for both teams. Now the Director will always just spawn Pills.

The Jockey received some minor buffs. His damage per second was increased and we removed his damage delay.

WEEK 8

June 11, 2010 - L4D Team

Room For One, Everything Must Go, Favorite Weapon Class

New Mutation
Room For One
Only room for one survivor in this rescue vehicle.

You need to work together only long enough until you can survive on your own. First person to the rescue vehicle wins!

This Mutation is available for Campaign Finales Only.

Everything Must Go
Last week's poll results for the question; If you could remove one item from the Survivors in Versus, what would it be?

PC Results
23% Nothing
19% Medkits
19% Defibs
18% Grenade Launcher
14% Explosive Ammo
 7% Incendiary Ammo

Xbox 360 Results
27% Nothing
21% Medkits
18% Defibs
16% Grenade Launcher
11% Explosive Ammo
 7% Incendiary Ammo

Overall:
In this kind of Poll we don't consider "Nothing" the winner, as nothing to anything loses in both polls. What it does say is there are many things that people feel strongly about, maybe not strong enough to remove but strong enough that we should make some adjustments. So we are going to be making adjustments.

Favorite Weapon
This week's in-game blog poll is; what is your favorite weapon class?

On the PC this week we are testing increased self-inflicted friendly fire damage for the Grenade Launcher. Will this change balance the Grenade Launcher? Time will tell. We will continue to experiment with changes on both platforms through this process.

Favorite Weapon
This week's in-game blog poll is: what is your favorite weapon class?

Next Week's Mutation: Headshot!

WEEK 7

June 4, 2010 - L4D Team

Chainsaw Massacre, Loving the Dark, Is Less More, and Last Video on Earth.

New Mutation
Chainsaw Massacre.
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.

Loving the Dark
Last week's poll results for the question; What is your favorite campaign?

360 Results
33% Dark Carnival
21% The Passing
17% The Parish
13% Hard Rain
12% Dead Center
 5% Swamp Fever

This compares to what was actually played the most last week on the Xbox 360.
27% Dark Carnival
23% Dead Center
21% The Parish
11% Hard Rain
 9% The Passing
 9% Swamp Fever

PC Results
27% Dark Carnival
21% The Parish
16% Dead Center
16% Hard Rain
15% The Passing
 5% Swamp Fever

This compares to what was actually played the most last week on the PC.
26% Dead Center
21% Dark Carnival
20% The Parish
15% The Passing
 8% Hard Rain
 7% Swamp Fever
 3% Community Maps

Is Less More?
If you could remove one item from the Survivors in Versus, what would it be? Remember to vote in this poll you need to go to the in-game blog and vote there.

Last Video On Earth
With over 700 videos to choose from we had our work cut out for us to pick our top 3.

After careful consideration, numerous votes, recounts, dart throwing, and picking things out of a hat... we have chosen the top three.

1. "This chainsaw runs on adrenaline" brought a tear to our eye and captured the #1 spot.



2. Coach grabs #2 for thinking it would be fun to mess with all the witches. He was almost right.



3. Nicks grabs the #3 spot showing how close you can come to being killed by a tank.



Honorable Mentions.

Rocking out while killing 2 tanks

10 Things I would do if I was the Last Man On Earth

The Last Woman On Earth

Ellis Escaping No Mercy on the... Hey Wait a Minute!

Francis Inspires Zoey?

The Last Sniper on Earth

These are just a small sample of the great submissions. If you have some time, sit back and watch as many as you can on YouTube. You can search by votes or views on YouTube. You can also check these threads (thread #1, thread #2) on the SteamPowered forums for more featured videos.

Thanks to everyone who submitted a video and helped us select the winners.

Next Week's Mutation: Room For One

Week 6

May 28, 2010 - L4D Team

Last Man On Earth, Special Infected Love, Favorite Campaign, and Last Video on Earth.

New Mutation
Last Man On Earth.

You will become legend to the infected as the last human left.
You are the only Survivor left in the world. No split screen help. No Survivor bots. But don't worry you aren't entirely alone. While there are no common Infected, Special Infected will hunt you down and become close, close friends with you.

This Mutation is available in Single Player Mode.

Special Infected Love
The results from last week's poll are in and the Hunter clawed his way to the top.

Here are the numbers from the PC:
20% Hunter
17% Charger
15% Tank
13% Spitter
12% Smoker
11% Witch
 7% Boomer
 5% Jockey

And the 360:
22% Hunter
18% Tank
14% Smoker
14% Witch
13% Charger
7% Jockey
7% Spitter
5% Boomer

The only thing we are sure of is that people love the Hunter.

Favorite Campaign
So now that we know what creatures you like, what campaigns do you like? Tell us in this week's poll - What's your favorite campaign?

Last Video on Earth
Since this week's Mutation is Single player only, we can't really play it with you. How about this? You play by yourself. Record a video of your best 60 seconds. Upload that clip to YouTube with the tag "L4D2LastSurvivor". We will wade through the submissions and feature the best in next week's web blog. If you want to pimp your clip, you can also go to forums.l4d.com and post in this thread.

Next Week's Mutation: Chainsaw Massacre