INX Gaming Tutorial: Installing Mani Admin

This tutorial is also available in a video. Click here to view it.

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We are going to go through the motions of installing Mani Admin on your server. We will be going through the configuration of Mani Admin in another tutorial.

Login to your MyINX account and select the control panel for the server that you want to install Mani Admin on to. Once you have entered the control panel, click on ‘Mod Central’.

Now you are in Mod Central, locate the Mani Admin plugin and click ‘Install’.

When you click install, the control panel will go through the process of installing Mani Admin onto your server and moving the files to the correct place on your server. Once this process has been carried out, you will be presented with the notification to restart your server. Click ‘Start/Restart’.

Once you have restarted your server, return to the home page of the control panel to ensure that your server is now online again.

You can also check the status of your server by using HLSW. This will tell you if your server is back online, or still in the process of restarting. The other advantage of using HLSW to monitor your server is that it tells you what mods are currently installed and active on your server. This is the ideal tool to see if Mani Admin has successfully installed and is running on your server. Click the HLSW link on the main page of the control panel.

As you can see from this picture, the latest version of Mani Admin (correct at the time of writing this) is installed on the server and is currently running.

You have now successfully installed Mani Admin onto your server! :)

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Team Fortress 2 game servers update 06/01/10

This ran through last night- a pretty hefty update for Team Fortress 2 game servers.

A required update for Team Fortress 2 is now available. Please run hldsupdatetool to receive the update. The specific change include:

Server Browser (for TF2 and DoD:S)
- Added a client-side server blacklist:
– Supports blacklisting of specific servers, all servers on an IP, and all servers on a class C range.
– Saves the server list to a file, and has an Import button to allow easy sharing (cfg\server_blacklist.txt)

Balance changes:
– Reduced the health penalty on The Sandman.
– The Force-A-Nature knockback on target now:
– Only applies to hits that deal more than 30 damage and are in close range.
– Factors in the firer’s angle of attack when determining the knockback direction.
– Has less of an effect on grounded targets.
– The Dead Ringer now:
– Reduces cloak to 40% when uncloaking early.
– Has a 35% cap on the amount of cloak it can gain from an ammo pack.
– Has a quieter de-cloak sound.

Changes / Fixes:
– Fixed a performance & stability issue with AMD processors.
– Improved the stability of the game server -> item backend connection.
– Fixed a rare server crash related to dispensers.
– Added min/max values to viewmodel_fov convar to match the settings in the slider.
– Reduced the number of moons in ctf_doublecross, sadly.
– Demo playback now ignores sv_pure settings, allowing demos to easily contain custom content.
– Fixed a crash related to sv_pure and the wireframe_dx6 shader.
– Players can no longer shoot while stunned.
– Fixed a bug that caused movement speed reductions to not work on stunned players.
– Soldier Rage bar no longer resets when touching a resupply cabinet.

Achievement fixes:
– Fixed the “Second Eye” Demoman achievement.
– Fixed a bug in the “Play Doctor” Medic achievement.
– Changed the requirements for the “Medals of Honor” Soldier achievement.
– Updated description for the “Blind Fire” Demoman achievement to better explain the requirements.
– Fixed an issue that affected several achievements requiring the use of the Equalizer.

Community requests:
– Added “skip_next_map” server ConCommand to skip the next map in the map cycle.
– Added “Play a hit sound whenever you injure an enemy” option to the Multiplayer->Advanced options menu.
– Added server “tf_use_fixedshotgunspreads” convar. When set, shotgun & scattergun pellet spreads will use a non-random distribution.
– Added a “show_htmlpage” command to allow server operators to display custom web pages to clients.

Changes to the TF Bots:
– In KOTH mode, Bots are now:
– More likely to roam around and hunt enemies if there is lots of time left.
– Become more likely to push for the point as time runs down, or their teammates start to capture it.
– Medic bots now:
– Opportunistically “overheal” nearby friends when they can.
– Prioritize healing of injured nearby friends more.
– Don’t focus on Heavies quite so exclusively.
– Don’t spam their Medigun continuously at round start.
– Won’t choose cover far below their heal target so much (koth_nucleus).
– Fight back with their syringe-gun appropriately.
– Various improvements to combat behaviors.
– General bot improvements:
– They no longer stand still on the point when capturing or defending it.
– They choose more varied routes now.
– They choose better defensive spots around captured points.
– They fall back to another weapon when they entirely run out of ammo.
– They adjust their FOV when using zoomed in sniper scope.
– They treat in-range Sentries as the most dangerous threat.
– They fire their weapons is more realistic bursts.
– Engineers use their shotgun properly.
– Added a “virtual mousepad” concept to rework how bots track enemy players:
– They now periodically estimate the position and velocity of the enemy they are tracking, instead of “locking on”.
– After rotating beyond a maximum angle, they will pause for a fraction of a second to re-center their “virtual mouse”.
– Allows for over/undershoot “slop” in aiming. Looks more natural, and allows skilled players to dodge.
– Addresses the “180 spin around and fire”, “Heavy bot is OP”, “Sniper is OP”, and “I can’t fight a Heavy bot as a Scout” issues.
– Tuned Sniper spot finding algorithm to generate more diverse locations, partially addressing the “Predictable Sniper camping spots” issue.
– Soldier bots are more careful to not fire rockets that will explode on nearby geometry and kill them
– Fixed a bug where bots tried to heal from a Dispenser being carried by an Engineer.
– Tuned scoreboard logic to guard against malicious server operators spoofing bot pings to hide the “BOT” tag.
– Added more bot names as suggested by the TF community.

Jason

Posted in Team Fortess 2 News | Leave a comment

INX Gaming Tutorial: Add admin with Sourcemod (Simple Method)

In this tutorial we are going to go through adding admins to your server with Sourcemod. There are two different ways of adding admins to your server. There is the ‘Simple’ method which is… well, what can i say? Simple. There is another method called detailed which i will go through in another tutorial.

Firstly, login to your INX control panel and select the server that you want to add an admin to.

Once you have entered the control panel for the respective server, click on ‘File Editor’.

Once you are in the file editor, locate the file called ‘admins_simple.ini’ and click ‘Edit’ next to the file.

When you have clicked edit, you will be shown the admins_simple.ini file. You can connect to your server via FTP and make any amendments to the file that way, but it will be far more beneficial to you to edit the file through the control panel as it keeps a backup of each change that you make to the file. If you happen to delete the wrong admin, you can open up a previous version of the file and re-instate the admin before anyone realises that there was a problem :P

Any admins that you add to the admins_simple.ini file should be kept all in one area of the file so that is it easier to find when making amendments in the future. The ideal place to enter all the admins is in the highlighted area below.

Now, here is where things can be mis-typed and cause things to not work when you expect them to. The piece of text that is entered here is known as a string. That is a string of text and not a piece of string that you tie things up with! We are now going to go through how you structure this ‘string’ in order for the server to be able to read it and allocate the correct permissions to the correct user.

There are three ways in which the server can authenticate users who you have allocated admin to. The server can authenticate by SteamID, IP address or name. The best method for adding admins is to add them using their SteamID and not the IP address or name. This means that admin will only be allocated to that SteamID and nobody else. If you were to add an admin by name, someone could change their name to what you have in the file and use the password (if known) to gain admin rights on the server. As i mentioned above, my recommended way of authenticating admin is by using the players SteamID.

The next thing that you will need to know for each of the admins is what level of access they are to be given. This is determined by Admin Levels or Admin Flags which is specified as part of the string to be entered in the admins_simple.ini file.

Here is a list of all the admin flags that can be used for allocating permissions:

“reservation”    ”a” //Reserved slots
“generic”        ”b” //Generic admin, required for admins
“kick”            ”c” //Kick other players
“ban”            ”d” //Banning other players
“unban”            ”e” //Removing bans
“slay”            ”f” //Slaying other players
“changemap”        ”g” //Changing the map
“cvars”            ”h” //Changing cvars
“config”        ”i” //Changing configs
“chat”            ”j” //Special chat privileges
“vote”            ”k” //Voting
“password”        ”l” //Password the server
“rcon”            ”m” //Remote console
“cheats”        ”n” //Change sv_cheats and related commands

Once you have determined what level of access they are to be given, you are ready to enter the information into the admins_simple.ini file. Your string that you will need to enter into the file should look something similar to this:

“steam_0:1:2345678″      “bcdefghijklmn”

This is the core information that is required for allocating admin permissions. There will be a problem when you start adding more admins as you won’t be able to identify which admin is which on the list. You can get around this problem by adding a little more to the string which the server will ignore. If you put // before any text in a command file, the server ignores what is in that line after the two slashes.

My string will now look like this:

“steam_0:1:2345678″      “bcdefghijklmn”               //bob – full admin

I can now easily identify that this string is for ‘bob’ who has full admin. We are now going to enter this into the admins_simple.ini file.

Once you have entered the information into the file, click ‘Save File’ and then restart your server. You have now successfully given admin to someone on your server.

Here is what the file would look like with multiple admins:

Yes, please excuse the names of the admins that i have chosen in the example above :)

Posted in Tutorials | 9 Comments

INX Gaming Tutorial: Installing Sourcemod

This tutorial is also available in a video. Click here to view the video tutorial.

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We are going to go through the motions of installing Sourcemod onto your server. Please note, before installing Sourcemod you need to have Metamod: Source installed on your server. Don’t worry though as we will be showing you how to do it in this tutorial :)

Firstly, login to the control panel and select the server that you want to install Sourcemod on by clicking ‘Control Panel’ under the respective server.

Now we are in the control panel, we are going to navigate to ‘Mod Central’. Mod Central is a repository of all mods that INX Gaming have in their control panel. Once we have clicked on Mod Central we are shown a list of all the available mods for the type of server that you are running. In the example shown below, there is a list of mods that are available for a Counter Strike Source server. The first mod that we are interested in installing at the moment is Metamod: Source. Locate it on the list and click ‘Install’.

Once the install is successful, you will be prompted to restart the server. Failiure to restart the server when advised could cause problems with the installation and therefore the mod may not function.

Click ‘Start/Restart’ to restart the server which will complete the installation.

To ensure that Metamod: Source has installed correctly, we are going to check to see if the server is back online. If the server is not online, then there may be a chance that Metamod: Source did not install correctly. Click ‘Home’ to return to the summary of your server. As you can see from the example below, the server is online. We can now go ahead and install Sourcemod onto the server.

Navigate to Mod Central like we did earlier. This time we are going to locate Sourcemod in the list and then click ‘Install’.

Once the installation of Sourcemod is completed, you will be prompted to restart the server again. Simply click the ‘Start/Restart’ button as shown below.

Once the server has restarted, i need to check to see if the mods have installed correctly and are currently running. The simplest way to do this is to view your server through HLSW. If the mods have been installed correctly and are running as they should be, you would expect to see what is highlighted below. Please bear in mind that the version numbers may differ from the ones shown in this tutorial.

Posted in CS Source tutorials, Tutorials | Leave a comment

INX Gaming Tutorial: How do I update my server?

This tutorial is also available in a video. Click here to view the video tutorial.

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We are going to go through the motions of updating your server. This is a very quick and simple process, but i will demonstrate all the steps that you need to do.

Firstly, login to your control panel and select the control panel of the server that you wish to update.  You now need to click the ‘Update’ button as highlighted below.

The server will go away and look for any updates that are available for your server. Once it has finished this process and was successful, the update button will show the word ‘Done!’.

It is now necessary to restart the server to ensure that the new update takes effect on the server. To do this, click the ‘Start/Restart’ button.

Once the restart has been completed, the Start/Restart button will show the word ‘Done!’

Your server has now successfully been updated and restarted. Your server should now be online running the latest server version.

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INX Gaming Tutorial: Control Panel Overview

This tutorial is also available in a video. Click here to view the video tutorial.

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We are going to go through logging into your control panel and access your server(s). You will now need to login to your INX control panel which can be located at http://www.inx-gaming.com/myinx

To login you need to enter your email address and your password as highlighted below. Once you have entered these details, click ‘Sign-In’.

Once you have successfully logged in, you will be presented with three areas in which you can access. You now need to click ‘My Services’ which will show you all the services which you are renting from INX Gaming.

You will now be shown all of the services that you are renting from INX Gaming. As you can see from this example, there is a web hosting package and a 12 slot Counter Strike Source server.

You can access the control panel for each of the services by clicking on ‘Control Panel’ under each service. We are now going to proceed to the control panel of the server. To do this, click ‘Control Panel’ under the game server as highlighted above.

You are now shown details of the selected server and its current status. There are pre-set links available to access your server via FTP, HLSW and Game Monitor which are shown under the ‘Access Your Server’ section.

You also have the ability to carry out basic tasks at the click of a button. You can start, stop and restart your server all by a click of your mouse. If you think that your server is out of date you can click ‘Update’ which will check for any updates that may be available for your server.

You can also modify your server through the links on the right.

  • ‘Switch/Reinstall’ – This will allow you to reinstall your server back to the default settings at any time. You can also switch to another game of your choice free of charge.
  • ‘Fix-Me Tool’ – Is your server not working? This will attempt to repair certain parts of the server.
  • ‘Mod Central’ – This is where you can install mods/plugins for your server. No more downloading files and uploading them to your server as it’s all done with a single click.
  • ‘File Editor’ – Here you can edit certain core files of your server. For example, the main server configuration file is accessible from here instead of logging into your server via FTP, downloading the file, editing it and then uploading it again.
  • ‘User Manager’ – Want to give someone else access to your control panel when you are not able to? Here you can give someone access to your services; but more importantly restrict what they can do within the panel.
  • ‘Startline Editor’ – Want to execute an installed mod when the server boots up? Simply add the details in here and voila!
  • ‘HLTV/SourceTV’ – You can now add/remove HLTV/SourceTV at the click of a button any time you wish.

Posted in Tutorials | 1 Comment

Installing HLStatsX:CE

HLstatsX Community Edition is free Real-time stats and ranking for Source engine based games. It can also be rather tricky to install. Here we’ll provide a guide to installing it on your INX-Gaming webspace.

Installing your web space

The first thing to do before setting up your stats is to setup your web space, to do this simply goto your MyINX control panel and, provided you’ve got the correct package, select ‘install‘for your web hosting. Fill in the details as necessary and proceed.

Getting the correct files

Point your browser towards http://www.hlxcommunity.com/ and grab the latest files (1.6.3 at the time of writing this). Download them to your local hard drive and save them somewhere easy to remember. Once done, unzip all the files and you should have the following folders: amxmodx, heatmaps, scripts, sourcemod, sql and web. The web folder is the one we’re interested in at the moment.

Uploading the files

Connect to your websites FTP server and browse to the ‘public_html‘ folder (or the www) folder. Once there, create a new folder (this varies from client to client, however right clicking should give you this option). Name it something relevant – for example ‘stats’. Once done, upload the entire contents of your web folder from the HLStatsX:CE .zip file.

Creating the database and uploading the .sql file

Now it’s time to give the stats a place to be stored. Go back to your MyINX control panel and browse to your web hosting service, you should see the option to goto the control panel for your web service (called cPanel). Click this. Once there you should be presented with lots of controls for your website, we’re interested in the database section. Scroll down until you see ‘MySQL Database Wizard‘ and click it. Give your database a name (again, make it something relevant) and assign a user to it. Give this user ‘full privileges’ (using the wizard will show you how to do this). Now that we’ve created the database, we need to populate it with tables.

Go back to the home page of your cPanel (the web hosting one) and select ‘PHPMyAdmin’. On the left hand side you should see your database name, click it so we can add our tables. If you now look towards the top you should see the option to ‘import’. Select this tab and select ‘choose’. This will bring up your browser, so goto the location where you unzipped your files and goto your ‘sql‘ folder. Select ‘install.sql’ and press OK. This will now upload the file and add all the necessary tables to your database.

That’s the database bit done now, we just need to configure our stats.

Configuring your Stats

Go back to your local hard drive and goto your ‘web’ folder. In here you’ll see ‘config.php‘, edit this file with notepad. The lines we’re looking for are the following:

// DB_NAME – The name of the database
define(“DB_NAME”, “”);
// DB_USER – The username to connect to the database as
define(“DB_USER”, “”);
// DB_PASS – The password for DB_USER
define(“DB_PASS”, “”);
// DB_ADDR – The address of the database server, in host:port format.
//           (You might also try setting this to e.g. “:/tmp/mysql.sock” to
//           use a Unix domain socket, if your mysqld is on the same box as
//           your web server.)
define(“DB_ADDR”, “localhost”);

define(“DB_NAME”, “”);

define(“DB_USER”, “”);

define(“DB_PASS”, “”);

define(“DB_ADDR”, “localhost”);

The first line is your database name – this is the one we setup earlier and will follow the format <your username>_<database name>. So, for example, my1234_stats.

The second line is the user we assigned to the database, the third line is the password.

The 4th line can be left as localhost, however if that does not work try ‘195.242.236.15‘. Save and close the file, then upload it.

That’s it for the website side. The last remaining thing to do is login as an admin, to do this goto your stats URL and click ‘admin’ at the bottom. Log in with the following details:

User: admin
Pass: 123456

Setting up Perl

Now that the website is setup, we’ll need to make sure we can send and receive logs. Goto your unzipped directory and browse to your ‘scripts’ folder. In here you should see a file called ‘hlstats.conf‘. Edit this file (like you did with config.php). The database information should be pretty simple, you will notice this line further down the file:

BindIP “”

You can leave this blank if you want to, however we like to ensure we’re checking the correct IP so enter ’195.242.236.15′ in here. The next line down is very important and must be changed to suit you.

Port 27500

Change ’27500′ to something individual. There will be other users running stats programs on here and will likely be using the default port, in order to ensure you receive the correct logs change this. We recommend using the numbers from your username to keep it individual. Close and save this file.

Go back to your website FTP and goto the root directory (the directory above ‘public_html‘). Now upload your ‘scripts’ directory here, upload the entire folder so you now have a scripts folder on your FTP.

So far so good, we’ve got all the core files setup. You will now need to contact INX support. We need to make  the files an executable on the server (the .pl files), we will also setup a cronjob for you so your stats are updated regularly.

Configuring your game server

This is the final step. You can either use your FTP client to access your game servers FTP server or your control panel, but we need to edit your ‘autoexec.cfg’ file. Simply add this line:

logaddress_add 195.242.236.15:<port from before>

Change ‘port from before’ to the unique one you used when setting up HLStats.conf. Save your autoexec.cfg and upload it. Now reboot your server.

Your stats should now be online!

Posted in Tutorials | 3 Comments

What makes the best game servers

We get a lot of questions asking us, ‘Why are you best?’, ‘What makes the best game server?’. Well here’s my unofficial take on it. If you don’t agree with me, tough. No, seriously- leave a comment below please and tell me where I’m wrong :)

There are so many factors that make a great game server. If we look at the technical specifics- anything from the hardware, to the connection. The configs- rates, tweaks etc. To the aesthetics- if you are going to have a good game server, the better the tools, the easier the job.

With a struggle, here’s the top five factors (in no particular order) that make a good game server:

The tools

To configure a game server, you need the full access. And to do it properly, you don’t want to be faffing around. This is where a good control panel comes in. As well as the control panel, full FTP is a must. The control panel should do everything the FTP does, but my making 101 clicks, one click! The ability to save config, install mods, change the start line on the fly, are all a must

The hardware

Game servers will run on:

  • Desktop PC’s
  • Crappy specs

However, don’t expect performance. Desktop PC’s aren’t made for stress, and can overheat (I’m talking about those that host them in a datacentre for some weird reason- must be cost cutting). Quad Cores are a must these days- Dual Cpu’s will do for running a few servers. Anything less and you are going to see horrible performance degradation.

Hosts should skimp on their hardware.

The best connectivity

Connectivity is perhaps the most important part of a game server. One bad route, and your pings will sky rocket. An ip transit provider should be incredibly stable. If you are finding the network going offline every few days, that’s a sure way to scare off players. So look for a good network. Goscomb connectivity is highly rated in the UK for example.

The configs

A CS Source game server needs rates set correctly according to those using the server. If you don’t set your rates correctly, expect horrible packet loss, choke, and lots of ‘OMFG’.

The provider

Of course, it goes without saying. A good control panel, good connectivity and the rest. But you are stuck without a good provider. There are a number throughout the world. Things to check for

- Are they a real company, or after school operation?
- Does their pricing scream desperation?
- How long have they been around
- How quickly do they respond to sales emails?

For now, that is just about enough to get you started. Be careful….it’s a warzone out there :)

Posted in Random thoughts | 2 Comments

How to disable Zblock on a CS Source server

Zblock is a cool anticheat tool you can install onto Counterstrike Source game servers.

However, you might find you want to remove it. For one reason ZBlock can be a bit of pain when it comes to custom content (although you can make use of the whitelist). We wouldn’t therefore recommend it on public servers.

So how do I remove ZBlock from my CS Source server?

  • Firstly log into the FTP of your game server. The details are clearly displayed on the home page of your control panel
  • Navigate to the following folder:- srcds_l/cstrike/addons/
  • Now delete the following two files:- zblock_css.vdf & zblock_i486.so
  • You can safely close the FTP program now :)
  • Finally go back to your control panel and restart your server.

ZBlock should now be successfully removed from your Counterstrike Source server.

How do I re-enable ZBlock on my CSS server?

Pretty easy :)

Jump back onto your control panel and click on Mod Central. Here you should see Zblock- just click and the panel will automatically install for you. Wow ;)

  • For any comments or suggestions- or have we missed something? Please leave a comment below :)
  • You get it but you’d like to know more? Please visit our game server forum – there’s a specific Counterstrike section
  • Need help fast? For official support, please visit our support desk.
  • Stumbled across this page randomly while searching? Have you checked out our low priced, shockingly good quality Counter-strike Source servers? We have hundreds of articles like this one that makes Cs Source hosting easy.

Posted in CS Source tutorials | Leave a comment

How to lock a Left 4 Dead 2 server via a steamgroup

One of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to administrating Left 4 Dead 2 game servers is how to lock it! By default if you start a Left 4 Dead 2 server up, you’ll find magically people joining the L4D2 server and choosing their campaign. Which kind of defeats the object if you are renting a server for you and your mates, and you want to run it by your rules.

BTW- it’s also quite useful to lock the Left 4 Dead 2 gameserver if you are like me as a gamer- entirely intolerant and incredibly angry of anyone on Left 4 Dead that rambos it by themselves, running off like a noob.

Anyway, back to the Tutorial..

There are two ways of locking a Left 4 Dead 2 server.

NB whatever you do – don’t try and use sv_password – it will break the server horribly

In this tutorial we’re going to tell you how to lock the server if you have your own STEAM group.

Create your STEAM group

Of course, if you already have a group with your friends in, you can use that.

Otherwise, if you aren’t already, fire up and login to STEAM.

Once that has launched

  • Click on the community button, which will open a new window.
  • You should see a tab for ‘groups’ – click on this.
  • This should open a new option – create new group.
  • Fill out the details – this is your group, you choose :)
  • IMPORTANT – at this stage you’ll get the ID of your steam group. Make a very careful note of it as you’ll need it in a bit ;)
  • Finally invite all your mates to join the STEAM group.

Setting the Left 4 Dead server to be exclusive to this STEAM group

Here goes the config bit.

  • Firstly, log into your INX control panel
  • Bring up the File Editor
  • Edit server.cfg.
  • You should see the following lines:
  • //sv_steamgroup 00000000
    // sv_steamgroup_exclusive 1

    For the no techy savvy, a couple of things.

    Firstly, you made a note of your STEAM group ID earlier. You should remove 00000000 and replace it with your STEAM group ID. This tells the server- ‘Only let people who are in this STEAM group use my server’.

    Secondly the // means in server talk ‘ignore this’. So to make those two lines, you need to delete the two trailing slashes (these //). So if your STEAM group ID happened to be 123456789, your game server config should look like this now:

    sv_steamgroup 123456789
    sv_steamgroup_exclusive 1

    NB- remember to remove the // – it won’t work without them!

    Once done, save the config.

  • Restart the server – as soon as you’ve made these changes restart the server

Now, as long as you did this all right, you should have stopped anyone else but your mates in your STEAM group from joining your server.

Still stuck? Still doesn’t work?

  • For any comments or suggestions- or have we missed something? Please leave a comment below :)
  • You get it but you’d like to know more? Please visit our game server forum – there’s a specific Left 4 Dead 2 section
  • Need help fast? For official support, please visit our support desk.

Posted in Left 4 Dead 2 tutorials | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment