Hard Eight, Do you compete? Mutation Madness, The Road Ahead<br />
<strong>Hard Eight!!</strong>
Double the specials, quadruple the fun!
Face eight Special Infected at one time, this is double the standard number! And if that wasn’t trouble enough, we also increase the spawning frequency so it is raining Specials.
Why aren’t you going to give it a try? Scared?
<br />
<strong>Do You Compete?</strong>
We asked if you competed in Left 4 Dead 1 or 2 Tournaments. That both platforms tied with Play competitive games but not in tourneys and where am I? is a little scary. Here are the numbers by platform:<br />
Xbox 360
30% Play competitive games but not in tourneys
30% Where am I?
15% No, But I do compete in other games
13% Played in tourneys
12% Don’t play competitive modes<br />
PC<
26% Play competitive games but not in tourneys
26% Where am I?
19% Don’t play competitive modes
17% Played in tourneys
12% No, But I do compete in other games<br />
With 13-17% of you responding you do play in Tourneys – which ones? Where? Because that response rate dwarfs the numbers I see in online Tourneys. Do you have a tournament you are running or do you know about one? Let us know! We have been known to kick in prizes and who doesn't want to <a href='http://store.valvesoftware.com/product.php?i=S0201'>win one of these</a>?<br />
<strong>Mutation Madness!</strong>
The next Mutation will be a community created Mutation. We have been talking with Raymond Nondorf about his <a href='http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1529433'>Mutation mod that he posted in the forums</a>. We are going to be pulling the next Mutation from his mod and then after that the question becomes – can you create a better Mutation? Raymond, not content with just releasing his own Mutations, has also created a tutorial for others to create their own. <a href='http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1622064'>You can check it out here</a>. Nice work Raymond!<br />
As we continue to update bi-weekly, we will be incorporating some of these community Mutations. To make a Mutation, you will need to build and test your mutation on the PC but we will release them on both PC and Xbox 360. So user created content is beginning to see itself on the Xbox 360!
<br />
<strong>The Walking Dead</strong>
This season's final episode of The Walking Dead is this Sunday. Have you been watching it? Use the in-game poll to let us know.<br />

<strong>The Road Ahead</strong>
First up, Realism Versus. While the really short respawn interval was interesting, it removed our ability to increase difficulty in other ways. Today's update includes one of those other ways, the uncrownable Witch. Not only is she deadly in Realism but now she is also uncrownable. Good luck with that. <br />

We will have more gameplay changes and bug fixes coming and not just in Realism Versus and Versus.<br />

What else can you expect? We have some longer term projects that we are working on that have been taking our time. The biggest project is working custom content back into the core game on our official dedicated servers. There are complications to how that works and how we insure against cheating, so you will not see the results instantly but we are working on it.<br />

Past that, we should have some news for you early next year (it really isn't that far away) on any new content we might have in the works.<br />

Hard Eight, Do you compete? Mutation Madness, The Road Ahead

Hard Eight!!
Double the specials, quadruple the fun!
Face eight Special Infected at one time, this is double the standard number! And if that wasn’t trouble enough, we also increase the spawning frequency so it is raining Specials.
Why aren’t you going to give it a try? Scared?


Do You Compete?
We asked if you competed in Left 4 Dead 1 or 2 Tournaments. That both platforms tied with Play competitive games but not in tourneys and where am I? is a little scary. Here are the numbers by platform:

Xbox 360
30% Play competitive games but not in tourneys
30% Where am I?
15% No, But I do compete in other games
13% Played in tourneys
12% Don’t play competitive modes

PC<
26% Play competitive games but not in tourneys
26% Where am I?
19% Don’t play competitive modes
17% Played in tourneys
12% No, But I do compete in other games

With 13-17% of you responding you do play in Tourneys – which ones? Where? Because that response rate dwarfs the numbers I see in online Tourneys. Do you have a tournament you are running or do you know about one? Let us know! We have been known to kick in prizes and who doesn't want to win one of these?

Mutation Madness!
The next Mutation will be a community created Mutation. We have been talking with Raymond Nondorf about his Mutation mod that he posted in the forums. We are going to be pulling the next Mutation from his mod and then after that the question becomes – can you create a better Mutation? Raymond, not content with just releasing his own Mutations, has also created a tutorial for others to create their own. You can check it out here. Nice work Raymond!

As we continue to update bi-weekly, we will be incorporating some of these community Mutations. To make a Mutation, you will need to build and test your mutation on the PC but we will release them on both PC and Xbox 360. So user created content is beginning to see itself on the Xbox 360!


The Walking Dead
This season's final episode of The Walking Dead is this Sunday. Have you been watching it? Use the in-game poll to let us know.


The Road Ahead
First up, Realism Versus. While the really short respawn interval was interesting, it removed our ability to increase difficulty in other ways. Today's update includes one of those other ways, the uncrownable Witch. Not only is she deadly in Realism but now she is also uncrownable. Good luck with that.


We will have more gameplay changes and bug fixes coming and not just in Realism Versus and Versus.


What else can you expect? We have some longer term projects that we are working on that have been taking our time. The biggest project is working custom content back into the core game on our official dedicated servers. There are complications to how that works and how we insure against cheating, so you will not see the results instantly but we are working on it.


Past that, we should have some news for you early next year (it really isn't that far away) on any new content we might have in the works.

<b>Gib Fest and…, You are Glowing, Do you compete?</b><br />
<strong>Gib Fest</strong><br />
M60s and buckets of blood. <br />
For our coop mutation this week we return to everyone’s favorite Gib Fest. Simple, go play.<br /><br />
<strong>Realism Versus</strong><br />
We are also “featuring” Realism Versus. This week we added quicker spawns for the infected. If you haven’t played recently, you are missing out on one of the most intense Left 4 Dead 2 competitive experiences. It is like regular Versus but no health kits in the world, no glows on fellow survivors, harder to kill commons and now faster Special Infected spawns (coming soon to the 360). <br />Give it a try this week, it's what all the cool kids will be playing.<br /><br />

<strong>You are glowing</strong><br />
You liked the idea of changing the Survivor’s glow. The breakdown was roughly 50% for, 30% against, 20% no opinion but I just like to vote. So this week we are changing the glow and also incorporating a suggestion from the forums. The glow color will now correspond to the run speed of the Survivors. This should help tanks know who they can catch.<br />
While we were at it, we added a glow to the Witch for the Infected team. <br /
Sometimes poll results can be incorporated quickly into the game, sometimes they take a bit longer – just a warning for past and future polls. Just because we don’t make a change that week doesn’t mean the results are being ignored. Xbox 360 users will see these changes in future title update.<br />
<strong>Do you compete?</strong><br />
Have you ever played in an L4D1 or L4D2 tournament? Let us know in this week's in-game poll. <br />

Gib Fest and…, You are Glowing, Do you compete?

Gib Fest

M60s and buckets of blood.

For our coop mutation this week we return to everyone’s favorite Gib Fest. Simple, go play.


Realism Versus

We are also “featuring” Realism Versus. This week we added quicker spawns for the infected. If you haven’t played recently, you are missing out on one of the most intense Left 4 Dead 2 competitive experiences. It is like regular Versus but no health kits in the world, no glows on fellow survivors, harder to kill commons and now faster Special Infected spawns (coming soon to the 360).
Give it a try this week, it's what all the cool kids will be playing.



You are glowing

You liked the idea of changing the Survivor’s glow. The breakdown was roughly 50% for, 30% against, 20% no opinion but I just like to vote. So this week we are changing the glow and also incorporating a suggestion from the forums. The glow color will now correspond to the run speed of the Survivors. This should help tanks know who they can catch.

While we were at it, we added a glow to the Witch for the Infected team.

Do you compete?

Have you ever played in an L4D1 or L4D2 tournament? Let us know in this week's in-game poll.

On this date last year, we released Left 4 Dead 2. The year before Left 4 Dead debuted. The team would like to thank the over 9 million people who have taken the time to prepare for the upcoming zombie apocalypse. <br />

While we continue to update – new stuff coming Friday – we wanted to take a quick look back at the <a href ="http://www.l4d.com/concept_art/charger_art.html">creation of Left 4 Dead 2’s new Special Infected</a>.

On this date last year, we released Left 4 Dead 2. The year before Left 4 Dead debuted. The team would like to thank the over 9 million people who have taken the time to prepare for the upcoming zombie apocalypse.


While we continue to update – new stuff coming Friday – we wanted to take a quick look back at the creation of Left 4 Dead 2’s new Special Infected.

Healing Gnome, Halloween?, Pick the Mutation, Tweet Tweet<br />

<strong>Healing Gnome</strong>
There is only one way to heal, holding the Gnome!<br />

This Coop game is all about the Gnome and his magical healing properties. There is only one way to heal and that is by holding the Gnome. Better share him with your teammates!<br />

<strong>Halloween?</strong>
If you haven’t checked out the Halloween Costumes on our Facebook pages, what are you waiting for? Hunters, Zoeys, Bills, and even Rochelles are all there to TERRIFY YOU!!! For the poll, the Hunter handily won followed by the Tank. PC players then chose Bill and 360 players chose Ellis.<br />
From a quick headcount in the real world, I think the order was Hunter, Ellis, Zoey, and then Bill. The Tank seemed to be too much for most people’s costume making abilities. <br />

<strong>Pick the Mutation.</strong>
Pick Next week’s Mutation:
1)Bleedout Versus
2)Healing Gnome
3)Hunting Party
4)Lone Gunman
5)Taaannnkk!
<br />
<strong>Tweet Tweet</strong>
Want to know what the Left 4 Dead development team is working on or thinking about? Follow us on our brand new Twitter account at <a href='http://twitter.com/l4ddev'>twitter.com/l4ddev</a>. We promise we will never bore you with what we are eating or … okay, we did have some really good Thai food today. But look, we said that here and not on the twitter account, the twitter account will stay food free. We promise. Most likely.<br />

Healing Gnome, Halloween?, Pick the Mutation, Tweet Tweet


Healing Gnome
There is only one way to heal, holding the Gnome!


This Coop game is all about the Gnome and his magical healing properties. There is only one way to heal and that is by holding the Gnome. Better share him with your teammates!


Halloween?
If you haven’t checked out the Halloween Costumes on our Facebook pages, what are you waiting for? Hunters, Zoeys, Bills, and even Rochelles are all there to TERRIFY YOU!!! For the poll, the Hunter handily won followed by the Tank. PC players then chose Bill and 360 players chose Ellis.

From a quick headcount in the real world, I think the order was Hunter, Ellis, Zoey, and then Bill. The Tank seemed to be too much for most people’s costume making abilities.


Pick the Mutation.
Pick Next week’s Mutation:
1)Bleedout Versus
2)Healing Gnome
3)Hunting Party
4)Lone Gunman
5)Taaannnkk!


Tweet Tweet
Want to know what the Left 4 Dead development team is working on or thinking about? Follow us on our brand new Twitter account at http://twitter.com/l4ddev. We promise we will never bore you with what we are eating or … okay, we did have some really good Thai food today. But look, we said that here and not on the twitter account, the twitter account will stay food free. We promise. Most likely.

<strong>Bleed Out Versus, You Rock, Halloween?</strong><br />

<strong>Bleed Out Versus</strong>
Now you have a good excuse for rushing through Versus.<br />

There is no permanent Survivor health, it is all temporary and it is ticking down. Even if you don’t normally play Versus, this is a great mutation to try. The action is frantic and fast as team wipes are always just a few seconds away.<br />

<strong>You Rock!</strong>
It didn’t matter on the platform, 38% of you have rocked out with the Midnight Riders in Rock Band. We need to get cracking on converting the rest of the Riders’ catalog.<br />

<strong>Are you dressing up for Halloween?</strong>
Of course you are, the real question is - are you dressing up as someone from the Left 4 Dead universe? If you do dress up, make sure to post your picture on our Facebook pages. This week’s poll asks who you would dress up as - make sure to vote using the in-game poll.<br />

Still not sure who you want to be, what about just being part of the crowd? If you are going to go as a common infected make sure to <a href="http://www.petrilude.com/?p=586">check out this tutorial </a>on getting your infected makeup right.<br />

Don’t forget, if you are in Seattle this weekend, the first annual ZomBcon will be in full swing. Look for us Sunday, we’ll be the ones carrying shwag and concept art to hand out at our 12 noon panel.<br />

Next week: Healing Gnome<br /><br />

Bleed Out Versus, You Rock, Halloween?


Bleed Out Versus
Now you have a good excuse for rushing through Versus.


There is no permanent Survivor health, it is all temporary and it is ticking down. Even if you don’t normally play Versus, this is a great mutation to try. The action is frantic and fast as team wipes are always just a few seconds away.


You Rock!
It didn’t matter on the platform, 38% of you have rocked out with the Midnight Riders in Rock Band. We need to get cracking on converting the rest of the Riders’ catalog.


Are you dressing up for Halloween?
Of course you are, the real question is - are you dressing up as someone from the Left 4 Dead universe? If you do dress up, make sure to post your picture on our Facebook pages. This week’s poll asks who you would dress up as - make sure to vote using the in-game poll.


Still not sure who you want to be, what about just being part of the crowd? If you are going to go as a common infected make sure to check out this tutorial on getting your infected makeup right.


Don’t forget, if you are in Seattle this weekend, the first annual ZomBcon will be in full swing. Look for us Sunday, we’ll be the ones carrying shwag and concept art to hand out at our 12 noon panel.


Next week: Healing Gnome