Week 5

May 21, 2010 - L4D Team

Week 5 of the in game blog: Return of the Gnome and Realism Versus and Pick Your Favorite Infected.

Encore Week
Last Gnome On Earth
Protect the gnome at all cost.
Do you crave attention? Want all the Infected to swarm you and the gnome you are carrying? Then we have the game mode for you. The team needs to carry the garden gnome from start to finish in any campaign. The Infected hate the gnome and will swarm whoever is carrying him. Watch out putting him on the ground, a boomer explosion will send him flying!
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP PUTTING HIM DOWN HE IS THE LAST GNOME ON EARTH!!!
This Mutation is available in Campaign Mode.

Return of the Gnome
Last week was the first of a regular poll we will be running. After every four Mutations, we will have a vote to bring one back for an encore week. Last week The Last Gnome on Earth won handily, followed by Bleed Out and Follow the Liter. Thanks to voting on a previous poll, Realism Versus has graduated from a Mutation to a permanent Game Mode. On the Xbox 360, owners of "The Passing" just need to connect to the Internet for this update, no Live update is needed.

Favorite Infected
This week's poll question is simple. Which Special Infected is your favorite?

We will continue the Play with Devs games this weekend. Look for us all this weekend using these Steam names - L4D2_DEV_1, L4D2_DEV_2, L4D2_DEV_3, L4D2_DEV_4, L4D2_DEV_5. And on the Xbox 360 these gamer tags - L4D2 DEV 1, L4D2 DEV 2, L4D2 DEV 3, L4D2 DEV 4, L4D2 DEV 5. Let's get some games of Realism Versus going! Next Week's Mutation: Last Man On Earth

Week 4

May 14, 2010 - L4D Team

Week 4 of the in game blog: New Mutation, Angry and Confused, and Pick a Mutation.

New Mutation
Last Gnome On Earth
Protect the gnome at all cost.
Do you crave attention? Want all the infected to swarm you and the gnome you are carrying? Then we have the game mode for you. The team needs to carry the garden gnome from start to finish in any campaign. The common infected hate the gnome and will swarm whoever is carrying him. Watch out putting him on the ground, a boomer explosion will send him flying!

This Mutation is available in Campaign Mode.

Angry and Confused
Last week's poll asked what makes you rage quit. The answers were pretty spread out. The top two were skill imbalance and team disharmony. A thread was started in the L4D2 forums where people clarified their voting, thanks to everyone who participated. This helps us make choices on how to combat this problem. Our stats show the best way to avoid rage quitting is to play with friends. Both Steam and Xbox Live support friending people you recently played with. So if you have a good game with someone, make sure to bring up that dialogue and send a friend request. Your future games depend on it.

Pick a Mutation Any Mutation
Next week Realism Versus will slide into permanent slot for owners of "The Passing" but what about the other three Mutations? One is coming back for an encore week and you get to pick it. Your choices are Bleed Out, Follow the Liter and Last Gnome on Earth. Make sure to at least try Last Gnome on Earth before voting.

We will continue the Play with Devs games this weekend, someone needs to protect you while you carry the Gnome. Look for us all this weekend using these gamer tags on steam - L4D2_DEV_1, L4D2_DEV_2, L4D2_DEV_3, L4D2_DEV_4, L4D2_DEV_5 and these on Xbox Live - L4D2 DEV 1, L4D2 DEV 2, L4D2 DEV 3, L4D2 DEV 4, L4D2 DEV 5. Check back next week to see which Mutation will be returning.

Week 3

May 6, 2010 - L4D Team

Week 3 of the in game blog: New Mutation, Landslide Victory!, and what rages you?

New Mutation
Follow the Liter
Scavenge one can at a time.
No more fighting over what cans to grab first. This Mutation spawns only one group of cans at a time, so survivors know exactly where to go. There is only one problem: the Infected know exactly where they are going.

LANDSLIDE VICTORY!!!
Last week's poll asking if we should make Realism Versus a permanent mode ended up telling us clearly - make it permanent. The final results were 68% Yes, 21% No, and 11% No Opinion. Thanks everyone for voting, even those of you who have no opinion. Next week we will have news on when this Mutation will become permanent.

Don't Get Mad At This Poll
Do you play Versus Mode? Do you ever get frustrated mid-match and quit? Do you ever Rage Quit? If you do, why? While we can collect hard stats on this behavior, finding the motivation behind the behavior will help.

We will continue the Play with Devs games this Friday. We might even be forming Valve teams to take on your team! Look for us all this weekend using steam names - L4D2_DEV_1, L4D2_DEV_2, L4D2_DEV_3, L4D2_DEV_4, L4D2_DEV_5. All valid dev accounts are members of the Valve steam group. On the Xbox 360 we will be playing under L4D2 DEV 1, L4D2 DEV 2, L4D2 DEV 3, L4D2 DEV 4, L4D2 DEV 5. Our friends lists are full, but just play Follow the Liter and look for us. And please, try not to rage quit.

Check back next week for info on the next mutation: Last Gnome on Earth.

Puking and Bleeding Out

April 30, 2010 - L4D Team

This week we introduce a new mutation, reveal poll results, put the game in your hands, have a Boomer sighting, and more!

New Mutation
Bleed Out
Your health is a ticking away!
With constant mobs chasing you, there's no time for standing around. You have no permanent health, only temporary health that is continuously ticking away. You won't find any health packs to restore your health, only pills and adrenaline. This mutation is for Campaign mode.

Remember, each week a new mutation will be coming out, so you need to check back every week.

Poll Results
Last week's in-game poll asking who your favorite L4D2 character was resulted in an interesting stat. 360 users were clearly Ellis fans with him winning by a wide margin with 43% of the vote. PC users were split with Nick and Ellis coming in a virtual tie with 33%. Reading the forums, Rochelle surged a bit in popularity after people watched her in "The Passing" teaser. Our internal poll tells us we should make more teasers.

This Week's Poll
While last week's poll was interesting, this week's in-game poll actually changes the game. The question? Should we make Realism Versus a permanent game mode? This is by far the most important vote you will cast this year. For 360 owners, you must own "The Passing" to vote in this poll.



Boomer!
Want to scare and terrify your friends and family? Then you should look elsewhere. But if you want to hear them say "Ahhhh cute"; over a puke filled, boiled covered creature that speaks when you pull its chord — then we have the plushy for you. The "talking" Boomer plushy is now available at the Valve Store.

Join us in a Game!
We will be playing the Bleed Out Mutation all weekend using our super secret Valve developer accounts. While our friend lists are already filled to the brim, if you want to play with a Left 4 Dead 2 Dev just play Bleed Out this weekend on the Xbox 360 or PC and look for these user names.

Xbox 360
L4D2 DEV 1, L4D2 DEV 2, L4D2 DEV 3, L4D2 DEV 4, L4D2 DEV 5

PC
L4D2_DEV_1, L4D2_DEV_2, L4D2_DEV_3, L4D2_DEV_4, L4D2_DEV_5
You can verify these are valid Steam Names by checking that the name is in the Valve Group.

As you may have noticed, we didn't update the blog Thursday night. We decided to release the new blog update to coincide with the new Mutation release. When we tested it internally, it seemed odd to read about the new Mutation when you were unable to play it. So from here on out we will be releasing the new Mutation and blog post at the same time.

Check back next week for info on the next mutation; Follow the Liter.

Passed!

April 22, 2010 - L4D Team

"The Passing" is now available on the Xbox 360 and PC!

The first game add-on for Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2) brings the original Left 4 Dead Survivors down south for a meeting with the L4D2 cast, while delivering new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay for the PC and Xbox 360.

"The Passing" features 3 new maps, new weekly game modes (Mutations), a new "uncommon common" zombie class (the fallen survivor), melee weapon (golf club), firearm (M-60), support for infected bot play in Versus, 10 new achievements and more!

To celebrate the launch of "The Passing" DLC this Thursday Valve employees will be playing on the PC between 11am-5pm PDT and then on the 360 from 7pm-11pm PDT using special accounts. To play with someone from Valve just friend one of the following:

On PC:
L4D2_DEV_1, L4D2_DEV_2, L4D2_DEV_3, L4D2_DEV_4, L4D2_DEV_5, L4D2_DEV_6, L4D2_DEV_7, L4D2_DEV8, L4D2_DEV_9, L4D2_DEV_10

On the Xbox 360:
L4D2 DEV 1, L4D2 DEV 2, L4D2 DEV 3, L4D2 DEV 4, L4D2 DEV 5, L4D2 DEV 6, L4D2 DEV 7, L4D2 DEV 8, L4D2 DEV 9, L4D2 DEV 10