left-4-dead posts

We are getting close to the end of the year and over at developer Valve the team behind the zombie co-op shooter Left 4 Dead 2 is offering up a new Mutation gameplay mode for the next couple of weeks. This time its a community-developed Mutation called Special Delivery.

In a variation of the previous Hard Eight mode, Special Delivery raises the Special infected spawn cap to 10 and also removes all spawn timers. In other words, tons of chaos as you and your buddies try to shoot your way through tons of Specials. After the new year Valve plans to release new Mutations from the community every two weeks with a featured community made campaign on the off weeks.

The holiday season is in full swing now. Lots of gift buying, lots of decorating and lots of TV specials. Oh, and lots of lame Christmas puns.

• Quake Live got a new patch update that includes the return of its old in-game ad provider IGA Worldwide.
• Steam added the new games RUSH and Blue Toad Murder Files to its library with 10 percent off each game for the next week.
• Steam also has a big new Global Agenda update that adds four new maps and other new features and improvements.
• New patch updates for Super Meat Boy, Counter-Strike Source Beta and Left 4 Dead are also available on Steam.
• Who is really waiting to play World of Warcraft Cataclysm? This guy.
• There's also a new Minecraft update available.

After taking Thanksgiving week off, Valve's zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 is updating its gameplay Mutation modes. This week Valve has a repeat of Hard Eight which gives players eight special Infected bosses to deal with at one time. In addition there's a new tweak to Realism Versus that makes the Witch special infected uncrownable.

Valve has also announced via the Left 4 Dead 2 web site that soon it will start adding Mutation modes created by the community. The first will be one made by Raymond Nondorf, a community member who created a Mutation mod that can be downloaded via the game's official message boards. And you can create your own Mutation via Nondorf's own tutorial. If you create one and submit it to Valve they could use it for a future Mutation that will be updated for both the PC and Xbox 360 version.

Valve also hints about future new content for Left 4 Dead 2 stating, " ... 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."

Left 4 Dead 2's weekly choice for a new mutation gameplay mode is all about healing ... and carrying what some would consider to be a creepy looking figurine. The newest mutation mode for Valve's zombie shooter is called Healing Gnome.
As you might guess the mode, played in co-op, is all about holding a garden gnome to gain health. It's the only way for players to gain health in the matches so the key to success is sharing the gnome (and no, that's not a metaphor ... at least we don't think it is).

Next week's mutation mode is up for grabs as Valve will pick from one of the previous five modes: Bleedout Versus, Hunting Party, Lone Gunman, Taaannkk and of course Healing Gnome.

It was indeed a busy day for gaming news. The US Supreme Court justices seemed to take the California game law to task in the oral arguments. We will go ahead and predict that ... we will make another prediction on this case some other day.

• Steam has auto updates for a number of games including Warhamer 40,000 Dawn of War II, Team Fortress 2, Garry's Mod, and Left 4 Dead.
• Steam has also added the Interwar Spritepack for Victoria II for $1.99.
• GoG.com has added Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic to its list of DRM-free games.

It's the Friday before Halloween and the already pretty scary Left 4 Dead 2 is going to get a lot scarier if you and your buddies decide to try out Valve's zombie co-op shooter's newest weekly Mutation gameplay mode.

From now until next Friday you can play a variation of the Versus team mode called Bleed Out Versus. As some of you might have figured out this version of Versus has players dealing with the fact that there is no permanent health for them. it's all temporary which means players will be pretty much frantic to find pain pills or adrenaline to keep their health up.

Things got busy late this night with lots of announcements and sales from Valve. There should be even more Halloween-themed game announcements in the next couple of days.

• New Steam updates have been released for Global Agenda, Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2.
• You can get a 50 percent discount for Making History II: The War of the World for 50 percent until October 31 if you put in the code MH2BOO at checkout.
• Check out this pitch from Irrational Games for a never developed game called Monster Island. It was supposed to be primarily for consoles but it would have made for a great PC game as well. Too bad.
  

As promised a few weeks ago when the Mac version of Left 4 Dead 2 was released, Valve has now finally given Mac owners a port of the original Left 4 Dead via Steam. Now Mac owners can check out the zombie co-op themed shooter series began and yes, Mac owners can play with their PC counterparts.

In order to celebrate, Valve has put both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 on sale once again for 50 percent off their normal prices. You can get Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 for $9.99 each or get both games in a bundle for $14.99. In addition there's been some other bug fixes and changes for Left 4 Dead and a Halloween-themed community map added in Valve's servers called the Haunted Forest for Left 4 Dead 2. Finally Valve will be holding a Left 4 Dead panel at the first annual ZomBCon this weekend in Seattle.

BlizzCon 2010 has started in Anaheim, California and the StarCraft II section of the show floor is showing off some Blizzard-made custom maps for the hit RTS game that reference other well known games, along with a cult hit cooking TV show.

According to Shacknews, the maps include maps that make references to Valve's zombie shooter Left 4 Dead, PopCap's puzzle game Bejeweled, the hit WarCraft III mod Defense of the Ancients and even the Iron Chef TV show. The StarCraft II section is also showing off the maps made by the winners of the recent custom map contest. During the BlizzCon opening ceremony it was announced that the Blizzard custom maps will be released for free in the coming months.

We are less than a week to BlizzCon 2010. While we won't be attending this year we will be watching via the handy dandy streaming video coverage. Blizzard had over 50,000 people pay to watch the coverage via the internet or DirecTV last year.

• New Steam bug patches have been posted for Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2 and Counter-Strike Source Beta.
• Irrational Games picks its top 10 PC games of all time.
• GameStop has posted up where you can buy Fallout New Vegas on Monday at midnight.
• Blizzard has launched the 2010 version of its annual Pumpkin Contest.
• Stardock's Brad Wardell talks about game design vs producing.
• AMD will officially launch its second generation DirectX 11 graphics cards next week.