The major changes include:
L4D 360:
- Added “The Sacrifice” content.

L4D2 360:
- Added “The Sacrifice” content.
- Added “No Mercy” content.

- Game Play
• Bullets that first pass through an infected character before striking a Survivor are now ignored as friendly fire.
• Fix for survivors speaking The Passing Finale lines in other campaigns.
• Added a setup timer to Versus Survival
• Fixed bug in Versus-Survival where a team could get 5 survivors
• Removed Defibs and First Aid Kits in Realism Versus. Survivors start with a First Aid Kit, but all world spawns are disabled.
- UI
• Added vote option to enable All Talk in Versus.
• Added vote option to Restart Chapter in Versus.
• Added the ability in the lobby for all players to vote on starting the game.
- Versus
• Charger now receives 300 points for any Survivor that is insta-killed.
• Charger now receives 100 points for any Survivor that is insta-incapped by a charge.
• Any infected that causes a Survivor to stumble into a “ledge hang” situation will receive 50 points.
• Tanks go into a stasis when they spawn and leave stasis when the human player takes over.
• Tanks in stasis are invisible but still show a glow to the infected team.
• Tanks do not attack when they are in stasis.
• Tanks in stasis cannot be set on fire or damaged.

L4D PC:
- Fixed a few third person camera cheats.
- Added VPK audio cache support.
- Added “The Sacrifice” content.
- Added Versus Multi-Map Scoreboard
- Added the L4D2 Mounted .50 Cal
L4D2 PC/OS X:
- Game is fully playable on the Mac platform.
- Fixed a few third person camera cheats.
- Added “The Sacrifice” content.
- Added “No Mercy” content.
- Versus: Infected players will get a respawn time reduction against teams that rush.
- Removed need for Left 4 Dead 2 Add-on Support for Community Campaigns

A required update for Left 4 Dead 2 is now available. Please run hldsupdatetool to receive the update. The specific changes include:

- Fixed all bot teams not leaving the starting area if sb_all_bot_team 1 was set
- Fixed a case where survivor bots would fail to rescue a friend from charger attacks
- Updated Thai translations
- Fixed an issue where servers wouldn’t relist after the master server was bounced
- Fixed Charger jumping exploit
- Fixed Spitter bug where spit could emit from a location several inches from the head, causing the spit to unexpectedly strike nearby objects and fall

Jason

–

A required update for Left 4 Dead 2 is now available. Please run hldsupdatetool to receive the update. The specific changes include:

Gameplay:
- Fixed where last round of upgraded ammo didn’t have upgrade effect
- Jockeyed survivor now glows for infected team in all cases
- Fixed exploit that allowed Jockey players to get instant recharge of their ability
- Fixed Charger ability timer not resetting when killing a survivor with low health on their third strike
- Charger now applies a small amount of damage when charging through physic props

Match Making:
- Changed how requests are made to master server for group servers
- Fixed sorting on group servers UI
- Reduced update work on group servers UI

Miscellaneous:
- Made the water shader support splitscreen on the PC
- Miscellaneous fixes in the subtitles
- Updated system tray icon
- Fixed Survival timer issue caused when voting for round restart

SDK/L4D2-LD/Hammer changes:
- When browsing for a func_instance filename, the proper path relative to the current bsp will be returned. This allows level designers to use instances from the base game in dlc maps without having to manually fix up the filename
- Changed base.fgd default skybox to one that exists in L4D2
- Added env_instructor_hint to fgd, as well as content/game icon images
- Deadline URL fix
- Added missing vmt for env_instructor_hint
- L4D Addon Support – restored missing delivery van modified VMT
- L4D Addon Support – restored missing shelves metal 3
- L4D Addon Support – restored floodlight generator switch
- L4D Addon Support – restored missing airliner content
- Updated vbsp to correctly handle instances within instances
- Fixed the fullscreen engine changing the Hammer views, requiring a restart of Hammer

Jason

Left 4 Dead 2
Fixed crash on startup when using FAT32 file system
Fixed in-game chat input where the local encoding differs from the input language’s
Fixed bug where Survivor Bots would sometimes become unresponsive in Scavenge games
Updated subtitle localization files for Hungarian, Portuguese, Romanian and Russian
Fixed exploit that allowed players on the Infected team to spawn directly next to the Survivors

- Fixed crash on startup when using FAT32 file system
- Fixed in-game chat input where the local encoding differs from the input language’s
- Fixed bug where Survivor Bots would sometimes become unresponsive in Scavenge games
- Updated subtitle localization files for Hungarian, Portuguese, Romanian and Russian
- Fixed exploit that allowed players on the Infected team to spawn directly next to the Survivors

Jason

Left 4 Dead 2

* Updated stats collection and related steam pages
* Fixed issue where players could be stuck if caught in charger pound
* Updated CPU detection

- Fixed a crash related to a Crash Course achievement
- Fixed an issue were bots and computer controlled special infected were being reported via “View Game Info”
- Added Team Versus 4 on 4 competitive matchmaking

Linux:
- Add warning if +map is not specified on the command line
- Steam is located by searching .., . and $PATH
- Added -steambin option to specify location steam, overrides search
- Added -steamverify option to add -verify_all when updating with steam

Jason

Delay after delay-those that had pre-ordered were told to wait another hour over and over again. To much anger- I mean anger.

Anyway, at least the demo was released with dedicated server files, eh IW?

After the let down of Call of Duty 6 (and if you haven’t read about that, just Google) it was nice to see Valve supporting their new games with dedicated servers. Giving the PC gamer that pay for the games what they want. But enough of my Valve love fest.

If the demo is a taste of things to come, then I’m not overly excited. I know developers always make the point a demo is by far not the released product, but still…it didn’t wow me.

For all the new features, improved AI and promise of advanced ranking systems….something is missing. Something different.

New weapons, such as the saucepan to whallop Zombies are cute. But nothing beyond the Molotovs and pipe bombs?

The demo map seemed hard to navigate and didn’t seem to have the imagination of previous campaigns.

So far it looks nothing more than Left 4 Dead, with the updates it perhaps should have received?

Still, its new content, and Left 4 Dead 2 game servers seem popular so far. If you are interested in renting one, we’re doing them for £9.31 a month, and you’ll be able to switch to the original Left 4 Dead if you get bored.

Left 4 Dead:
- Novint Falcon support is now enabled by default

Orange Box Engine:
- Fixed an exploit that allowed files to be uploaded to the server at arbitrary locations in the file system.
- Fixed a server crash caused by a client packet claiming to be an HLTV client when HLTV is disabled on the server
- Fixed a server crash caused by spoofing a client disconnect message
- Fixed a server crash caused by sending malformed reliable subchannel data
- Fixed a server crash related to unbounded settings on some convars

Team Fortress 2:
- Bullet spread algorithm changed to fire a bullet right down the crosshair under these circumstances:
– The first bullet of a spread weapon (except for rapid fire spread weapons like the minigun)
– The first bullet of a non-spread weapon if it’s been >1.25 seconds since firing
- Added a “Disable HTML MOTDs” option to the multiplayer->advanced dialog
– Added “motdfile_text” convar to servers, which allows them to specify a text file that’s shown instead of the HTML MOTD to clients who’ve turned on this option
- Fixed radius damage not tracing out of enemies when the explosion occurs within them
– Fixes rockets & grenades doing no splash damage when fired point blank into enemies
- Added missing snowpuff particles for DX8 players (honest)
- Restored LOD for the Demoman player model
- Fixed being able to alt-fire with the fists while stunned as a Heavy
- Fixed CTF_Sawmill not ending the map when mp_timelimit hits during the middle of a round
- Fixed the “The Big Hurt” achievement not being awarded for players who already have the required count
- Fixed sv_pure not reloading the map’s custom particle file
– Custom particle effects contained within maps must now be placed in the \particles directory
- Fixed another case where items weren’t being validated properly in class loadout slots

Community requests:
- Removed centerprint texts for TF_FLAGTYPE_INVADE CTF game mode
- Changed TF_FLAGTYPE_INVADE CTF game mode capture reward from 10 kills to 1 capture
- Added OnCapTeam1 and OnCapTeam2 outputs to the item_teamflag and func_capturezone entities
- Fixed HUD “carried” image for the TF_FLAGTYPE_ATTACK_DEFEND and TF_FLAGTYPE_INVADE CTF game modes using the wrong team color
- Fixed dropped flag for the TF_FLAGTYPE_INVADE CTF game mode using the wrong skin

Why?

Firstly, the lack of support for custom content. Only with a very recent update was support for downloads (from the server) added. Before, any custom content had to be downloaded manually. Not a way to fill your server, huh?

Secondly, the lack of extra campaigns. Two in total since the release of the game. In Valve’s defence, they did add the new game mode- Survivor. But it’s done little to fan the flames of the angry crowd that bought the game.

In comparison, Team Fortress 2 servers have enjoyed update after update, with tweaks and new game play. Left 4 Dead just hasn’t had the new content.

Now, Left 4 Dead 2 is announced, due November. Boycott groups are rife.

But Valve aren’t really doing anything different to the many developers / publishers. Just look at the FIFA / Pro Evolution Soccer franchise, that pushes out, what could be described as ‘patches’ each year- flogging that, and updated players for £50 a time. Good business if you can get it.

Left 4 Dead 2 will be a different game, it will have different content. And with the buzz, and the marketing, and the cool videos on the web, and on TV……those guys boycotting won’t be able to resist.

While in principle, Valve should have provided more support for Left 4 Dead- I don’t see it truly harming the sales figures. In fact, expect them to eclipse last year’s game of the year.

Or will I be eating a slice of humble pie? Let me know