Left 4 Dead 2

[token]

Quick overview of the game. Absolutely a blast and much better than the first. New melee and special infected are great. Advanced with realism kicked in makes this the hardest game to complete ever. I recommend this game to all the zombie slayers out there.

[UB Legend]

Funnest coop game on 360. It's not Left 4 Dead 2.....it's Left 4 Dead Squared. Much bigger game than the first...and harder. Melee weapons and new Special Infected really change the gameplay. SO fun. Too bad it's getting buried by so many other good games. It's a true standout.

[UB Legend]

Patch for L4D2 PC is out with the 360 version releasing later this month. The PC patch is listed below. I suspect the 360 version would be similar.

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Changed rules for ghost placement in Scavenge Mode
Player controlled Special Infected are no longer forced to un-crouch and lock strafe when they crouch attack
Spitter spit that damages players on a moving elevator will now fizzle quickly
Allow the survivor and infected to rotate the camera yaw while being attacked by a Charger or Smoker
Smoker that has dragged a survivor to the end now gets the same cinematic flashlight as the Hunter and Charger
Fixed a crash in physics
Updated the Charger's hit boxes
Updated the Jockey's hit boxes
Updated the Spitter's hit boxes
Fixed player health on being revived after a Charger slam over a high ledge
Fixed versus scores not resetting after a vote to change campaigns
Fixed being able to use defibrillator on dead players who were far above or below you
Fixed pink glow on dead survivors
Fixed being able to hold crouch while incapped to get better weapon accuracy
Fixed players pushing against some props causing them to accumulate downward velocity and then take falling damage when they let go of the forward key
Fixed a case where an incapped survivor inside a rescue vehicle would trigger both the escape sequence and a round restart
Fixed the helping hand from getting stuck when extended


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[Vay]

Nothing on that pipe bomb glitch...Intresting

[Vay]

DLC....

Valve Announces L4D2 DLC for Spring
Press Release
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Dec. 14th, 2009 11:43 am
Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360)


December 14, 2009 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the first game add-on for its co-operative zombie thriller, Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2), is in development and targeted for release in early 2010.

Dubbed "The Passing," the first game add-on for L4D2 brings the original Left 4 Dead (L4D1) 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.

Targeted for release in early spring, "The Passing" takes place just after the Dead Center campaign of L4D2. Set in a small town in rural Georgia, players assume the role of the L4D2 Survivors as they meet with the L4D1 characters.

In addition to the new co-operative campaign and associated narrative, "The Passing" will include new arenas for Survival, Versus and Scavenge mode and introduce a new co-operative challenge mode of play. The Passing will also include a new "uncommon common" zombie class, melee weapon, and firearm.

"The Passing will become the most important campaign in the Left 4 Dead story, as all the Survivors are being called together in one campaign," said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. "It will also be a huge offering of new gameplay content, with something new for every game mode plus a new uncommon common and weaponry."

Exclusively available for the Xbox 360 and PC, L4D2 sets a new benchmark for co-operative action games. The title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaws, frying pans, axes, baseball bats, and more.

With the AI Director 2.0, L4D's dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players' performance. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.

Finally, with new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original, featuring more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, new Survival maps, and the new competitive game mode, Scavenge.

Left 4 Dead 2: The Passing is targeted for release in early spring for the PC and Xbox 360. Pricing will be announced closer to launch.

[UB Legend]

L4D2's "The Midnight Riders" have released their Christmas Song:



"In 1987, the Midnight Riders were asked to participate in a children's charity Christmas album with their rock peers. The Riders refused. In a 1993 Guitar God Magazine article, Dusty explained: "Givin' kids charity just makes 'em weak, man. Teach a kid to fish, he can eat fish his whole life. Teach a kid NOT to fish, he starves to death. Where I come from that's murder, Homes." A few years later, the Riders grudgingly agreed to participate in a 1998 Christmas album in exchange for not having to do 30,000 hours of community service. "All I Want For Christmas is to Kick Your Ass" was written, recorded and mailed in less than one hour."

[Vay]

Nice!

[UB Legend]

From Hellforge we find that any melee weapon beats any gun in taking down a Tank in L4D2:



I guess the baton's not so bad!

[UB Legend]

Looks like they're adding infected bots and removing autospawning in finales . Valve's also looking at modifying some maps to improve competition (we're looking at you, Dark Carnival finale). From the L4D blog:

---------------------------------------------------

With our last update having come out a few weeks ago and the next one a few weeks out, we wanted to let people know what we are working on. In addition to "The Passing" DLC, we are working on some other updates coming for both PC and 360. While not a complete list by any means, we wanted to give a heads up on a few Versus changes coming.

Bots
We are adding bots for the Infected team to help out the Infected when they are down a man or two. This will also make 1v1 Versus a bit more fun.

Auto-spawning
We've also been experimenting with a solution for auto-spawning in Versus finales. Even though it's pretty obvious from the L4D forums that EVERYONE LOVES auto-spawning in finales, we figured, what the hell-we'd just go ahead and remove auto-spawning anyway. But before we make any change to Versus we always need to see how the game is currently being played.

So how do finales currently play out? Across all finales in Left 4 Dead 2 currently, a single survivor has a 34.56% chance of escaping. That includes the Concert Finale in "Dark Carnival", which boasts close to a 50% escape rate (and yes, a fix for everyone's favorite cheese spot is coming). Remove the Concert Finale, and we see the average drop to 29.61%. With these figures in mind, when we make changes, we can measure the difference and see how much the change impacted the balance.

Another stat we often see discussed: What gets played more, Versus or Campaign? It really depends on the day, as they are almost always statistically tied. They are unquestionably the two favorite modes of Left 4 Dead.

Also: With work on "The Passing" in full swing, we will soon be recording the actors. First up in our recording sessions is everybody's favorite suit-wearing zombie killer Nick, played by Hugh Dillon. If you haven't already caught it, Hugh's show Durham County has been picked up by ION and is on Sunday nights at 10pm.

Lastly, in case you missed it, the CG Society has an interview up with Valve's own Randy Lundeen and Jeremy Bennett.

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[Seeker]

Dusty explained: "Givin' kids charity just makes 'em weak, man. Teach a kid to fish, he can eat fish his whole life. Teach a kid NOT to fish, he starves to death. Where I come from that's murder, Homes."

yep, sounds like Dusty.

Good find on the tank killing, UB.

[Vay]

Good update.....

Heard Keht ask last night if there was a mode where infected could train....although the answer is no,There is a way you can mess with the infected while in Versus mode. You'd have to set up a versus room 1 v 1. The downside is you'll have to deal with the A.I which in alot of cases will kill you faster than a real person. Upside is,you know your tryng to get the feel for each infected. Thier ups and downs, and their special abilities.

Stealth and patience is probably the best tools for the infected. Just like the survivors,working as a team to deal as much damage as possible while trying to achieve the ultimate goal depending on what side of the infection your on.

Boomer: A large and slow moving infected. You have to be at a very close distance to use its ability,Vomit or puke as everyone calls it. The Boomer IMO works best hiding in corners that are close to traffic area's. A place that the Survivors MUST walk through to get from point A to point B. The vomit not only attracts near by zombies,but it also makes visibility limited for a short time,10-15 seconds. The Boomer is a role player,a setup man,a creature that will cause Chaos amongst the survivors so that your team can afflict more damage. After vomiting there is an amount of time,30 seconds or so that it takes before you can vomit again. You cab also stand near survivors in hope that someone will shoot you,and you cover the rest of their party with your Boomer juice. Shove them away before shooting!

Smoker: another infected from the first game. Has a very long tongue. Able to constrict an opponent from a long distance.There is a very short amount of time 2-3 seconds where you can still fire a weapon during the constriction process.
There is a simple way to break the constriction that some people dont know about,Just hit your LT while in front of the survivor being constricted and the tongue breaks.The smoker survives,but it takes 20-30 seconds before he regains the use of the tongue.

Hunter: You must first crouch to use its special ability-pounce.Once you get into the crouch position a circle-reticule will cycle.on the circle completes,your ready to attack. The Hunter can cover long distances in a short time with this ability as well. The hunters claws also cause alot of damage once you have pounced on a victim.Unlike the Boomer and the Smoker,you dont have to wait for his ability to recharge. As long as your still alive you can use it as much as you want.

Jockey: My favorite infected of the bunch.Best used in tandem with the Boomer,or when all hell is breaking loose for some other reason.Nothing special about this infected aside from the laughter he creates. Get next to your victim and use the right trigger to pounce on him/her.Ride away. If you get to a point where you have incapped a survivor and are looking for another victim to ride,his abilty does need to recharge.

Spitter: Deals serious acid damage. Best used in a bottle neck situation,or when spitting on an incapped survivor. Fromt ime to time I'll actually go scratch at an incapped survivor. Reason being,once a spitter is killed instead having blood she spills into a big puddle of acid. Doesnt last as long as the spittle,but does damage to the incapped survivor. Stealth is her best defense.

Charger: also needs to recharge his ability once used. Good for carrying survivors away from their party.Using LT will allow you to deal punching damage if your charging ability is not powered up.

Feel free to add any tips or tricks I've missed.

[UB Legend]

Good stuff, Vay. I'd add that the Boomer many times is the one that starts that the mayhem. Once the survivors are boomed (and blind), the other Special Infected can really wreak havoc. Your point about booming them in a tight space is right in that you want them all close together. However, in tight spaces, it's easy for them to hunker down and defend against the horde. So I try to get them as they're coming OUT of tight spaces into more open areas. That way they struggle more against the horde and are more susceptible to our SI.

I classify the SI into two categories: the ones you want to spawn ahead of the survivors, and the ones you want to spawn behind the survivors. Boomer and Spitter are usually best ahead as the survivors move into new areas. Hunters, Smokers, and Jockeys are usually best behind picking off stragglers. Chargers can go either way.

On Tank defense, it takes 10 melee weapon hits to kill one. (EDIT: In the patch, this is changed to 20 hits.) So if you can chase it and whack at it while it's distracted, you can make quick work of a Tank. (BTW, although all the melee weapons do the same damage, some hit faster than others, making them kill the Tanks faster. See table above.) Also, Boomer bile is awesome against Tanks, notsomuch 'cuz they take damage but 'cuz it blinds them. On Tank offense, always look for smashable environment objects (i.e. cars, dumpsters, etc). They're one-hit incaps and two-hit kills if you hit a survivor with one.

[UB Legend]

The patch is out for the PC and will be out soon for us.

Of note:
--Melee hits against Tanks now half-damage. It'll take 20 melee-hits to kill the Tank. (Get your Tankbuster achievement now before the game's patched!)
--No more auto respawn for SI on finales.
--Looks like they changed a few things on some maps (especially DC finale) to make it more competitive.

From the Steam News Blog:

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Updates to Left 4 Dead 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. XBOX 360 users will see these changes in an upcoming title update. The major changes include:

Gameplay


â– Now ghost PZ's can never be staggered

â– Enabled PZ bots

â– PZ bots use their more aggressive survival mode behavior in versus and scavenge

â– Enabled finale manual spawn by default

â– Fixed human PZ players not getting counted when they were dead, allowing extra PZ bots to spawn

â– Reduced effectiveness of melee weapons against the Tank ( 5% of max health, from 10% )

â– Fixed a case where a player who dies, then is rescued from a rescue closet, and then is revived from a ledge hang receives the secondary weapon that he lost when he was initially killed

â– Improved SurvivorBot AI in cases where the bots refused to shoot through their teammates and became non-responsive

â– Fixed issue with witch sometimes taking on uncommon common properties

â– Fix for cheaters quitting before the vote to kick them would succeed and avoiding ban on server

â– VAC banned users can now play L4D2 single-player, commentary mode and credits


Map Fixes

â– Dark Carnival Fair Ground: added env_player_blocker to keep special infected from getting stuck

â– Dark Carnival Fair Ground: added navigation area that was missing

â– Dark Carnival Fair Ground: Disconnected drops that were blocked by the top of a fence

â– Swamp Fever Plank Country: Deleted 2 nav areas that connected between tree trunks you can't pass through

â– Swamp Fever Shanty Town: Redrew ladder thinner so special infected could climb up to the roof

â– The Parish Waterfront: Fixed various navigation areas

â– Mall: Tuned spawning for difficulty


SDK Content

â– Added missing nature/blend tooltextures added

â– Added missing cs models/textures

â– Added missing acunit01 model/texture

â– Added missing ammo_can_02 model/texture

â– Added missing patio_chair model/texture
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[Vay]

The patch is out for the PC and will be out soon for us.



â– Added missing patio_chair model/texture[/i]
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Didnt need a new lawn chair IMO

[UB Legend]

L4D2 DLC coming out "late March" and includes a new SI, the Fallen Survivor, and new weapons. It'll have 3 (!) new maps and the old L4D1 crew will make an appearance. Valve will also put out a new campaign for L4D1 later but not much info is out on that yet.

Screenshots can be found here but I particularly liked this one:

Holy zombie horde, Batman!

From Kotaku:

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Valve is showing the first downloadable content pack for Left 4 Dead 2, "The Passing," at today's X10 event. The new campaign is now aiming for a March release, the start of new content for the zombie apocalypse shooter.

In "The Passing," players will meet up with the original Left 4 Dead's survivors, Francis, Bill, Zoey and Louis, who will appear as non-playable characters. Valve's Chet Faliszek told Kotaku that Left 4 Dead 2's survivors will rendezvous with the original quartet later on in the campaign, and that they will aid Coach, Nick, Ellis and Rochelle in finishing the third map in the campaign.

"The Passing" will also add one new uncommon common infected type, which Valve is calling the Fallen Survivor. These new zombies, humans who erroneously believed themselves to be immune to the infection, will sometimes drop items when killed, like health kits or ammo.

That new add-on will offer an opportunity to see more of the original cast's character traits, Faliszek said, storylines that will likely be explored in the Left 4 Dead digital comic book that will arrive after "The Passing." That comic will be illustrated by Powers artist Michael Avon Oeming.

Then, about a "month or so" after that, Valve plans to release an add-on for the first Left 4 Dead, an episode that will tell the story of the original survivors' journey to "The Passing." That unnamed Left 4 Dead add-on will only be playable on the original game, not in the sequel.

Valve says it plans to release "The Passing" on Xbox 360 and PC in "late March" with more details on the Left 4 Dead downloadable content coming soon.


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