Quite why Valve didn’t come to me first, I don’t know. Instead, they gave Rock, Paper, Shotgun an exclusive preview of their next game: Left 4 Dead 2.
All I can say is: AWESOME. According to the article, they’ve been working on it ever since the first one came out last November. Because of that, they’ve already slated a November 17th release. So what are you waiting for, go and read the preview! GO!
Holy Crap, it’s finally here! Valve announced today on the official L4D blog that they’ve just released the beta of the Left 4 Dead ‘Authoring Tools’, or SDK as they’re collectively known.
This is great news! All those mappers out there who have been working feverishly on their L4D campaigns, versus and survival maps can finally get their mitts on the behind-the-scenes magic that makes a proper L4D map tick. Zombie spawns, weapon and power up locations, all of that is now available. Read the rest of this entry »
Yes, the rumors are true: I’ve joined the 4.9% of the L4D population to have killed over 53,595 Infected. Does that make me better than you? Probably. Although I’ve never even come close to completing any of the other crazy difficult achievements (see my stats).
Ego stroking aside, how far along are you, the dear readers of this blog, with this achievement? I’d be interested to know the spread.
Today Valve made a new post on their blog detailing the in-depth player stat pages that they’ve now made available on the Steam Community. It makes for interesting reading, but even more interesting is reading your actual stats. Here’s my stats page, for the voyeuristic or just plain curious amongst you. They’re hardly stellar, but they are mine, so I feel a certain attachment to them. Please go easy on them in the comments, and feel free to link to your own for comparison (or bragging rights).
It’s official: The Left 4 Dead Survival pack is out. I could link to the release notes, but I’d much rather go back and play Last Stand again because IT’S AWESOME. My best time so far? 9:20
I’ve added a page with some link buttons in case any of you who read this blog want to promote it on your website/blog or in your forum sig. So that it’s easy to find, I’ve added a link to the page just under the main title banner. Take a look, then go spread the word about Francis and everything that he hates!
Valves latest post on the official L4D blog outlines some great matchmaking features that will be coming with the April 21st Survival Pack. Cheif amongst these (from my perspective) is the ability to form a team and be automatically matched against others for a versus game.
One thing in the post worried me a little though. Part way down the post is the following paragraph:
This is part of the L4D SDK rollout, which is currently in a closed beta and will be released shortly after the launch of the L4D Survival Pack.
Hmm… Let me have a quick look to see what ’shortly after’ means in Valve Time. Uh oh…
According to today’s official L4D blog post, there is a “small, but very large gameplay change’ coming concerning melee in versus mode. I’m thinking a nerf to Survivor melee, possibly preventing them from reloading while performing their melee attack. I suppose we’ll see later this evening! In the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions of their own?
It’s not the Survival pack (I suspect we’ll have to wait until April for that), but a new patch/update has been released for Left 4 Dead. Here’s the rundown: Read the rest of this entry »
Several people have asked me for a list of the sound files that contain Francis’ “I hate…” lines. I’ve finally gotten off my arse and done something about it. Behold: The List of Stuff Francis Hates. The new page is self-explanatory: It’s a list of all the sound files in which Francis says “I hate…” something. I’m pretty sure that it’s not complete, so if anyone knows the names of other sound files that match the criteria, please email me and I’ll add them to the list.
Oh, and you may have noticed that I’ve added a permanent link to the list at the top of the page. Enjoy!
