Left 4 Dead 2 Message Board

Valve wants to say "Merry Christmas". So everyone gets a copy of Left 4 Dead 2. You get a copy, you get a copy, you get a copy, you get a copy.Read more...

Valve is getting into the holiday spirit, announcing today on the official Left 4 Dead blog that the second game in the zombie-killing series is available for free for a limited time. "[Left 4 Dead 2] will be free as in, grab it now, pay no money, and it is yours to keep forever - for free!" the post reads.

To claim the gift, and keep it in your Steam library forever, "all you need to do is install it."

Left 4 Dead 2 will be available as a free gift until December 26 at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern.

Happy holidays!

If you've ever watched Zombieland or played L4D2's Dark Carnival, then you already know that going to a theme park when the world is overrun by zombies maaay not be the best idea. ...or it might be the best idea. Especially if said theme park is Disneyland!Read more...

In an intriguing turn of events, a leak of Left 4 Dead 3's existence seems to have sprung directly from the source: Valve's Bellevue-based offices.

Thanks to the efficiencies afforded by Linux, "we skipped Valve time," jokes Valve, and the Left 4 Dead 2 Linux beta is available right now. Access to authoring tools and a beta dedicated server come with it, if you own the game already.

Pretend that you didn’t read anything on the internet last week so that I can tell you about a keerrraazy new crossover that you won’t believe. Left 4 Dead 2 and Resident Evil 6. I know, right? When you’ve gathered the pieces of your mind, now blown into giblets, indulge me for a moment longer and act like you didn’t know that the survivors from Valve’s co-op sequel will be selectable in Capcom’s lurching horror. Mini-tanks and witches will also appear in the No Mercy game mode, which is part of the ‘Mercenaries’ minigame. Some Resident Evil monsters will also appear in Left 4 Dead 2. They’re called the Lepotitsa, Napad and Ogroman, and I can’t work out which has the silliest name. There’s a video below.

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My absolute favorite thing in the world is when games existences somehow mirror their names. Seriously. I have very few other interests. I’m an incredibly boring person. But anyway, just as Duke Nukem Forever took forever to come out, Call of Duty is nothing if not dutiful in its adherence to a yearly release schedule, and Toilet Tycoon was awful, Left 4 Dead 2 has not, in fact, been left for dead. Sure, Valve hasn’t lavished it with quite as much attention as, say, Team Fortress 2, but it’s certainly attempted to empower the community’s efforts – first with Cold Stream, and then with full Workshop support. But those mods? They’re about to get seventy five point blue banana apple sauce percent modderier, because Valve’s put its Extended Mutation System into beta.

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I have a proposal. We all have things on our PC the world shouldn’t know about. When the inevitable happens and Death beckons, we all have the our power to help each other out. What I need is someone to sneak into my Steam account (password: abetterpasswordthangaben), load up the Left 4 Dead 2 Workshop, and delete all my subscriptions. If anyone found out what I’ve been doing to Valve’s zombie shooter, why I’d die all over again. I’m happy to do the same for you. Just email me your Steam passwords and I’ll make sure whatever needs doing is done. (more…)

Valve is looking into its options for bringing the unedited version of Left 4 Dead 2 to Australia. Gamespot took note of a post on the Steam forums where Valve's Chet Faliszek stated the company is exploring the brave new world of R18+ ratings for video games in the region.

"No need to flood us with emails," wrote Faliszek. "We will have more information on this when we understand the issues fully and how we are moving forward but don't worry any cost associated with it doesn't worry us, this is something we want to do."

Left 4 Dead 2 was denied classification twice in its unedited form for Australia. The game was eventually classified in the region without zombie decapitation and limb dismemberment - a skillset that Australians would have learned is also helpful in dealing with necromorphs.

#left4dead You may remember that, nearly four years ago, Australia's classification board refused to classify Left 4 Dead 2, effectively banning it from sale in the country. At the time, Australia's ratings system for video games topped out at MA15+, which basically means suitable for teenagers. Valve released a highly sanitized version of the game just for Australia, disappointing many and calling attention to the country's insufficient ratings policies. More »

#wreckitralph I finally saw Wreck-It Ralph over the Thanksgiving break. It was heartwarming, delightful, charming. It nudged at some big-name titles in ways that made me giggle and nod in recognition. It covered the bases of a handful of video game tropes. It made jokes in the form of clever puns and cute character behavior. More »

#screengrab I feel we haven't hit our weekly quota of Things Tina Likes, so here's a mash-up image of Adventure Time and Left 4 Dead 2, which, yes, I still play. In between Halo 4. More »

To celebrate Halloween, say Valve, they’re making Left 4 Dead 2 free this weekend. And by weekend, they mean from today (Thursday) until Monday. And by Halloween, they mean stopping days short of Halloween. Ladies and gentlemen: Valve Time.

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#screengrab Halloween is on its way, and while ghosts and ghouls may have been the undead horrors of decades past, here in 2012 it's all about the zombies and their ilk. More »

#achievements I'm having the same, recurring nightmare of late. It's one of those stupid ones where something that's normally inane and innocuous becomes unreasonably horrible.Here's what happens: I'm in Pandora, out on a mission—to kill someone, probably—when I notice something. Maybe it's a a box or a locker. And the second that I notice that, everything else fades away: there is only the lootable object. More »

#watchthis Video spoilers More »

The Left 4 Dead series has sold more than 12 million copies, Valve writer Chet Faliszek noted in an interview with VG24/7. Faliszek talked about the company's approach to promoting its games, saying Valve doesn't rely much on marketing because "when a game does really well at pre-release, they're going to know that you're not just talking a bunch of PR crap."

"We just let the game speak for itself because the internet has made this thing where you can't pull the wool over people's eyes any more. They're going to know you're hyping," he said. Either the zombie apocalypse creates some high-quality wool, or Left 4 Dead must be a pretty great series.

The Cabin in the Woods, the brilliant kitsch horror film from director Drew Goddard, features a lineup of classic horror monsters, hidden in the background or dismembering members in the fore. One scene even shows a glimpse of infected from Left 4 Dead, and in a Reddit AmA Goddard says this isn't an accident.

Read on for The Cabin in the Woods spoilers:

"We actually were going to do a downloadable L4D2 expansion pack, where you'd fight in the Cabin world, but then MGM went bankrupt so the delay squashed it," Goddard writes. "But the people at Valve were still cool enough to let us use some of their monsters to fill the cubes in the background (I had a lot of cubes to fill)."

The Left 4 Dead zombies populate some of the monster holding cells shown as the elevator descends into the bowels of the facility. Goddard was excited for the tie-in DLC and is upset it never happened.

"By the way - the game was gonna be amazing. You were gonna be able to play in both the upstairs Cabin in the Woods world and the downstairs "facility" world with all the monsters. Believe me, I HATE all video games based on movies, they always suck, but porting Cabin into Left For Dead felt like the right fit. It pains me that it didn't happen."

Us too, Goddard. Us too.

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:

- Console commands update_addon_paths and unload_all_addons can't be used while connected to a
- Some custom UI's give the ability to change which add-ons are active from the in-game menu. Now those changes won't be applied until the player returns to the lobby or main
- Melee weapon scripts can optionally define the HUD icon data inside the script, similar to other weapons. See golfclub.txt for a format
- Fixed a rare crash in the Spitter
- Fixed a rare crash in bot navigation involving ladders.

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:

- Added protection against possible memory corruption from oddly sized avatar images
- Added handlers for two crash types that weren't getting picked up by our crash reporting system
- Added dlc directories to whitelist for consistency checking
- Flagged whitelist.cfg, motd.txt and host.txt to not clobber local versions on updates
- Updated some translations

It's been a long time coming, but the Cold Stream DLC will arrive on Xbox 360 this Friday, August 3, according to Valve. The Cold Stream update, which is already available on PC and Mac over Steam for free, will cost 560 Microsoft Points ($7) on the console.

Cold Stream includes the fan-made campaign of the same name, along with the four original Left 4 Dead maps: Crash Course, Death Toll, Dead Air and Blood Harvest. Friday night we'll see if the new pack gets people "RELOADING!" the three year old game.

‘Twas more than a year ago that Left 4 Dead 2′s Cold Stream DLC first stirred beneath the grave of Valve’s nearly immortal undead sequel, and then – as though cast in the world’s most anticlimatic horror movie – it just kind of sat there. “I’ll rise and kick off the end of all human civilization tomorrow,” it thought to itself. But tomorrow never came. Until now! After gobs of testing and fine-tuning, Valve’s finally deemed Cold Stream fit for public consumption.

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Left 4 Dead 2's Cold Stream DLC is out in completion on Steam today, but the Xbox 360 version is being held up (probably at gun- or frying-pan-point). Valve is working with Microsoft on a release schedule, the Left 4 Dead development team tweeted today. They hope to have it out "soon."

When Cold Stream does finally drop an anchor in Xbox 360, it will cost 560 MS Points ($7). Cold Stream is free for PC and Mac via Steam.

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:

- Made all mutations accessible from the main menu

CRASH COURSE

Crash Course 1:
- Fixed survivors being able to climb into infected-only territory from the top of the white truck in the early alley.
- Survivors can no longer leave the map bounds near the riverfront.
- Closed off a shortcut method to bypass the howitzer event.

Crash Course 2:
- Survivors can no longer jump on the generators in the finale area.

DEATH TOLL

Death Toll 1:
- Moved car near the tunnel entrance away from the drooping traffic light, as standing on parts of the car near the traffic signal could put you into a permanently stuck position.
- Moved a traffic sign that allowed survivors to climb the drooping traffic light prop up to the top of the tunnel entrance.

Death Toll 2:
- Added an infected ladder leading in to the upper pipe in the large drain room.
- Survivors should no longer be able to cross the bridge-lowering event before the bridge has fully lowered.
- Survivors should no longer be able to access the infected-only areas toward the end of the level.
- Survivors should no longer be able to leave the playable areas of the map from the areas beyond the saferoom.

Death Toll 3:
- Added "Checkpoint" flag to the nav square at the end of the intro saferoom to prevent versus rounds from starting when survivors stand next to the door.
- Removed a nav square by the next-level saferoom door to prevent infected players from standing there to prevent the round ending.
- Tweaked saferoom level transition trigger brushes to prevent infected players outside of the saferoom preventing the transition.

Death Toll 4:
- Players can no longer access the right-hand corner just outside the starting saferoom. This is to address a permanent-stuck spot when the saferoom door is opened.
- Survivors can no longer climb over the van in the ally leading to the onslaught area, which allowed them to skip most of the level.
- Survivors should no longer be able to leave the map/enter infected-only areas outside of the onslaught even street.

Death Toll 5:
- Made the roof of the picnic area inaccessible to survivors. This resolves an invincible spot.
- Players can no longer jump on the electric box prop facing the water on the side of the lakehouse.

DEAD AIR

Dead Air 1:
- Moved a bookshelf in front of the window in the second interior area (before the ladder climb) to prevent players from skipping parts of the level.

Dead Air 2:
- Move the trailer below the office building out of jumping range to prevent players skipping the offices.

Dead Air 3:
- Moved the fence and fence-climbing props at the entrance to the construction yard further back into the alleyway.
- Several tweaks to the area near the construction yard to prevent survivors from setting off the barricade fire event before they enter the event arena.
- Boarded up a window in the construction yard to address survivors accessing an invincible area.
- Survivors should no longer be able to jump over the barricade.

Dead Air 4:
- Infected players should no longer get stuck climbing over the rubble that divides the start of the map from the balcony leading to the escalator side .
Dead Air 5:
- Fixed a visual bug caused by a cube map being hidden inside of a prop.

BLOOD HARVEST

Blood Harvest 1:
- Survivors should no longer be able to leave the map by jumping to the left toward the end of the rope bridge..

Blood Harvest 2:
- It is no longer possible for survivors to climb in the vent above the alarm room.
- Survivors can no longer stand on the horizontal pipes under the catwalk in the area following the alarm door event.
- The high pipes along the sides of the train tunnel are no longer accessible to survivors.

Blood Harvest 4:
- The roof of the starting safe room is no longer accessible to survivors..
- Survivors can no longer jump on top of the Richardson Atlantic building.

Blood Harvest 5:
-Removed some of the crossbeams in the hay storage building.

COLD STREAM

Cold Stream 1:
- AI infected can now access the roof of the watchtower.
- Survivors can no longer jump on top of the roof of the single-storey cabin at the far end of the area after the rope bridge.

Cold Stream 2:
- It should no longer be possible for survivors to jump up to the top of the tunnel entrance pipe near the start of the map.
- Survivors should no longer be able to jump over the fence on the bridge toward the end, skipping the barrel explosion event.
- Changed the M60 spawns into weapon_item_spawn to be more mutation friendly.

Cold Stream 3:
- The walls toward the back of the bridge (opposite of the direction players go to progress the level) are no longer accessible to survivors. This is to prevent survivors from getting into infected-only areas below the bridge, which they may not be able to escape from.
- Changed the M60 spawns into weapon_item_spawn to be more mutation friendly.

Cold Stream 4:
- Hooked up a quick conversation between the chopper pilot and the triggering survivor.

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:

- Next Mutation: Nightmare
- Fixed an exploit that allowed banned players to bypass the ban

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:

Changes:
- Next Mutation: Flu Season
- Removed a demo ConVar that was being used for an exploit

Dead Center 1:
- The lower windows should no longer be accessible (versus map grief).

Dark Carnival 3:
- Adjusted brush that was blocking a truck interior, to no longer block the truck interior.
- Adjusted the rollercoaster event start to make it more difficult to skip.

Hard Rain 2:
- Adjusted blockers on the pipe-hop shortcut to provide better coverage.

Hard Rain 1/5:
- Adjusted blockers to better cover the added box which itself covers an invincible spot.

The Passing 1:
- Added blockers for survivors along the railings in the upper areas to prevent them from leaving the map or getting stuck out of bounds

#valve When tech guru and Linux fan Michael Larabel visited Valve yesterday, he promised more info and pics than simply saying Steam was coming to Linux. Looks like he's come through. More »

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:

- Next Mutation: Last Man on Earth

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:

- Next Mutation: Versus Survival