Zombicidal

Valve has patched Left 4 Dead 2, fixing errors with the stats page (perhaps including achievement loss) and fixing the issue some users have after being struck by the Charger.

Updates to Left 4 Dead 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Left 4 Dead 2

• Updated stats collection and related steam pages
• Fixed issue where players could be stuck if caught in charger pound
• Updated CPU detection

In other news, Steam’s Black Friday sale is on! A single copy of L4D2 is $37.49, and a 4-pack is $112.49 ($28 and change if you split the cost)!

Elunah Left 4 Dead 2, Patch Black Friday, deals, PC, Steam

Zombies have staggered and bashed their way into nearly every part of the gaming community, from shooters to RPGs to pretty much anything you can imagine. If you can mod it, there’s a zombie mod for it. And we’re unsurprisingly giddy about that.

One area where the walking dead have not experienced as much success is in the realm of MMORPGs, but Jeff Strain and his Seattle-based company, Undead Labs, are working to change that, one brain-eating misanthrope at a time. Strain wants to create not just a successful zombie MMO, but a successful zombie MMO on consoles.

Strain is no stranger to MMOs. He was a founder of ArenaNet and a bigwig at NCsoft, exec producer of Guild Wars, lead programmer for World of Warcraft, and has credits in numerous other Blizzard games. In an interview with Destructoid, he explains what he wants to do and why.

There are a few zombie RPG games out now, but most of them are limited web-based games. Strain is setting out to make the “best zombie RPG ever”. Unlike the gameplay style of Left 4 Dead, Strain’s apocalypse will see survivors working together to build communities, reinforce defenses, gather supplies, and defend themselves when the hordes hit. He says that he wants players to feel like they really must try to live and perhaps rebuild in a world beset by the undead scourging of the Earth. He says that unlike traditional MMOs, his zombie MMO will be focused on more survival elements, with quick bursts of intense action. Also, unlike Left 4 Dead, survivors will probably have to make due with makeshift weapons, for the most part. He mentioned sharpened pencils and lawn chairs.

Why a console MMO? Strain essentially says that while MMOs have a loyal PC player base, it’s about time the genre expanded to incorporate the growing console market. He remarks that it wasn’t so long ago that many thought a first-person shooter on a console would be worthwhile, but then games like Halo appeared on the market. He hopes his MMO can tap some similar magic.

Strain wouldn’t comment on what would happen if a character became infected or how player-versus-player elements would be staged, but he did mention that he’s amongst the younger generation of zombie lore lovers, so don’t expect your walking dead to do much walking at all.

Elunah Other Games console, rpg

You heard me right. Not Left 4 Dead 2 Scavenge Mode, but Scavenge for the original game! Impossible9 at FPSBanana has come up with a prefab kit so modders to make Scavenge Mode maps for L4D1. Unfortunately, at the moment, we haven’t been able to find an actual map you can download to try it, but it seems that the modified Scavenge Mode has as many features of the new game’s mode as you could expect from the original game engine.

Of course, the boycotters (or, should I say, “boycotters”) are all over this, touting it as proof that Valve didn’t need to make a new game. Whatever you think, it’s an example of the direction that the community will probably take in the next few months as they port more and more content between the two games in an effort to bridge the gap themselves.

Elunah Left 4 Dead 1, Media

According to some folks in the L4DMods forums, some community developers have found a way to port the Left 4 Dead 1 campaigns (including Crash Course) to L4D2! Including the maps (and perhaps Survivors) from Left 4 Dead 1 was one of the possibilities that players were most excited to hear from Valve, but so far, we haven’t heard anything official about this possibility since about a week after E3.

For those who are excited at the possibility of integration between the two games, this is as good as you’re going to get for now. The modification allows you to play as the new Survivors in the old maps, with the new Infected. However, there are still a number of bugs. For instance, the baseball bat is the only new weapon that can spawn, though the tonfa and Bile bomb are dropped by UCI. Also, players have been complaining about a lot of lag and crashes, especially in crescendos and finales. Most of the finales will crash before completion.

In order to use this mod legally, you have to own both L4D and L4D2 on the PC. You should also have some experience modding your game files, and should create a full backup before proceeding. Otherwise, enjoy!

Elunah Developer, Left 4 Dead 1, Left 4 Dead 2 campaign, community, gameplay, melee, PC

Left 4 Dead 2 has been patched, though some of the more pressing issues haven’t been addressed yet. See the Steam News entry.

Updates to Left 4 Dead 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Left 4 Dead 2

• Fixed performance problem when rendering lots of decals, notably when fighting tanks with shotguns
• Fixed rcon response not working on Linux dedicated servers
• Fixed matchmaking problem matching into Advanced and Expert games
• Fix bug that would cause other specials to try to pummel a player a Charger disconnects or reconnects
• Fixed versus mode results panel being cut off in transition stats screen in non-english
• Found games: fixed non-player entries drawing the wrong type of icon in the selected item name label
• Game mode selector on main menu now takes keyboard input

Elunah Left 4 Dead 2, Patch

It seems that Valve has purchased and parked the domain name midnight-riders.com. We can only speculate about the reasons for this move, but we can expect that in the future, we’ll be seeing more about the imaginary rock band and its place in Left 4 Dead 2.

EDIT: It now seems that the site is part of a viral marketing plan from Valve. Whatever the case, it’s pretty interesting, and we may have to walk around town sporting those Midnight Riders shirts they have available.

Elunah Left 4 Dead 2 DLC, speculation

Someone on the official forums found a very special Infected while browsing the population.txt file: common_male_jimmy, otherwise known as the Infected version of Jimmy Gibbs, Jr, the famous Super Cup racecar driver from Dead Center!

The Infected model, which has no known placement naturally in the game, has a thousand health, no gibs, has an attack similar to a Mud Man (in that his hits splash the screen with mud), and he can be killed in a single swipe from a melee weapon. He also has a set of unique dialogue reactions from the Survivors, including:

• “Sorry about this Mr. Gibbs, but we need your car.” ~ Coach
• “HEY! Jimmy Gibbs!” ~ Coach
• “HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPP!” ~Ellis
• “Dibs on Gibbs.” ~ Rochelle
• “God damn that Jimmy Gibbs Jr.!” ~Nick

To spawn him yourself, use these commands:

map <mapname>
sv_cheats 1
z_forcezombiemodelname common_male_jimmy
z_forcezombiemodel 1
z_spawn

EDIT: Jimmy spawns randomly in the finale of Dead Center, it seems! I was playing in Expert difficulty a couple nights ago, and he spawned a few times. Usually, he spawned near the bathrooms at the start, but he may also spawn randomly during the event. Here are some screenshots:

Elunah Left 4 Dead 2 console, Infected, jimmy gibbs

The game has finally been released, notwithstanding a brief strike from the chaotic forces of Valve Time. Let us know what you think of the game, and share your thoughts in the forums!

Elunah Left 4 Dead 2

Ok, not really, but everyone should take a look at this. For the children.

Elunah Left 4 Dead 1, Left 4 Dead 2, Media commercial, funny, Media

You’re about to hear it soon on your own computer anyway, but in case you’re interested, we’ve updated our Left 4 Dead 2 music playlist with some new tunes that appear throughout the game. Check out our complete playlist below:

Elunah Left 4 Dead 2, Media music