A few weeks ago during GDC 2011, Steam heart-throb Gabe Newell announced an upcoming Steam security feature called Steam Guard, an additional level of account security to protect your virtual game safe. To use the service, you just need to update to the newest Steam client and be sure that your primary email address is verified. Then, any time you log in from a new computer, Steam will email you a code that you'll need to enter to register that computer on your account. If you get an email from a computer that you didn't lot in from, then you'll know someone else is trying to access your account. Easy peasy.
The launch of Left 4 Dead 2 is right around the corner. To add a little bit to the hype, the official Left 4 Dead blog has been updated. The update brings some sweet concept art wallpapers (all in glorious 1920x1200), and a contest.
Gamestop is also getting in on the L4D2 action, with their "Leave Yourself 4 Dead" activity on their pre-order site. It allows you to upload a picture of your face, zombifies you up, and then puts you in a video along with Nick from L4D2.
Last but not least, if you're looking for just the right thing to wear next week for the release of Left 4 Dead 2, then glitchgear.com has just the thing for you:
As you've probably heard, the Australian government had previously banned Left 4 Dead 2 from being sold in the country. This forced Valve to either censor it, or lose out on a nice chunk of change. They chose to censor their content. Here's a playthrough of the first map of the demo on the Australian version, in all of it's non-gore glory.
As you can see, the blood has basically been completely taken out. Dead bodies almost immediately disappear, the fancy new limb dismemberment of the sequel is completely disabled, and the infected are unable to catch fire. Bad news for L4D fans from down under, as this version looks pretty dull compared to ours.
Luckily there's a way to bypass this censorship! At least if you're a PC gamer that is. Thanks to the PC's nature of being open and moddable, you can edit some files to bring all the blood and gore back to where it should be. No guarantees that this will continue to work on the full version, but for now have fun and check out the process HERE.
Valve has officially announced the open release of the demo for Left 4 Dead 2. Fans that had pre-ordered have had it for about a week now, but it's now available on Steam for PC Gamers or on the Xbox Live Marketplace for the consolers.
So anybody waiting to play the Left 4 Dead 2 Demo through Steam probably already knows that there was a bit of miscommunication that happened somewhere down the line. You see, the official Steam L4D2 Demo event earlier today said the game would be released at 3pm CST on October 27th. That time came and went, then about 30 min after that (and hundreds of posts/threads on the official forum later), that page updated to say 1am CST on October 28th. Valve has yet to comment on the event, and at this point I doubt they will. But if you spent anytime in the official forum today/tonight then you'd see a huge opportunity for Valve to save some face and communicate what the problem was, and why it happened. Because now the Oct 27th demo date that the pre-orders were given as incentive isn't going to happen save for a few timezones.
To rub it in even more, Xbox 360 pre-order customers were able to download their demo early this morning. So the system that, in the past Valve has criticized because of it's closed nature, and the content delaying approval process that Microsoft enforces, now got the demo first. Almost an entire day earlier to be precise. Not cool Valve...not cool.
On a related note, here's the first Gamestop-sponsored TV spot for L4D2:
Update: The time has now changed AGAIN to 3:00pm CST on October 28th.
Today Valve released the details on the much anticipated upcoming Left 4 Dead 2 demo. The demo will be released for both the PC and Xbox 360, and will feature some of the chapters from "The Parish" campaign, set in the New Orleans French Quarter. The release goes on to say that it will be playable by 1 to 4 players, either locally or over the internet. And all the new melee weapons and new boss infected will be featured as well. Absent from the release is whether or not any of the new guns will be in the demo, and by saying it's playable by only 1 to 4 players would lead us to assumed that only Campaign Mode will be playable, possibly not Versus Mode.
Either way we'll take whatever Valve will give us, and come Oct 27th I know where I'll be.
While 1up was getting their playtime with L4D2's new Scavenge mode, they noticed a new option in the game menu, "Realism mode". When they inquire what it does, Valve's Chet Faliszek tells them that it's a new special modifier that they forgot to hide for the demo. Ooops.
What it modifies is still unknown, although Valve's Doug Lombardi expanded slightly on it and said "it's something for the super hardcore player". If we had to take a guess, it's probably something like the "Realism Mod" made for the original L4D by a 'super hardcore' modder. Some of the tweaks from that mod that would make sense for Valve's version are:
Adjusted accuracy, recoil, rate of fire, clip sizes, etc
Slower survivors and zombies (to slow the game down and make it feel more tense)
Higher density of zombies on the maps, more frequent hordes/ambushes
Headshots only to kill zombies
Increased damage when hit from behind
No in-game music
Removal of health packs (pills only)
Revised HUD (No crosshair, etc)
Removal of flashlight
Will any of these make it? At this point only Valve knows. But I do know that I'm more than ready to start dismembering some Southern US zombies, just a little over a month away...
IGN has posted a new preview of Left 4 Dead 2, and in it they've talked a little about the new game mode that is coming in the much anticipated sequel, Scavenger mode. Scavenger mode is meant to be a shorter game experience compared to Versus mode, but not nearly as short as Survival mode.
Scavenger mode will have maps made up of small sections from L4D2's campaigns. At launch there will be 6 total maps to choose from. The point of the mode is for the survivor team to gather gas cans that are spread around the level and take them back to a generator that is the focal point of each map. Each game has a countdown timer that starts at 1 min 20 seconds, each gathered gas can adds 20 more seconds to the timer. To me it sounds kind of like a mixture of Versus mode, Survival mode, and Capture the Flag. The game lasts six total rounds (3 rounds for each team to play survivor), whichever team has the highest score (total survival time) of all 3 rounds added together wins.
Sounds like an interesting mechanic, we'll see if it ends up being more popular than the arguably dissapointing Survival mode is with the hardcore players.
Remember, the Left 4 Dead 2 demo launches on October 27th for users that pre-ordered. And L4D2 launches on November 17th.
Just a reminder. The Left 4 Dead DLC is now available for both PC and Xbox 360. The Steam servers are currently getting slammed, so be patient PC users. The official patch notes are:
A new campaign, "Crash Course", is now available for play in Campaign, Versus and Survival modes
In Versus mode, all weapons, pills, health packs, molotovs, pipe bombs and other items will now be identical for the second round of a chapter
Matchmaking has had several improvements to make finding and joining games even faster
Ten all new "Crash Course" achievements have been added
Valve finally unleashes the first part of the long awaited Scout Update to TF2. Similar to past updates they are releasing one part of the update each day leading up to the actual release of the new content next week.
Day 1 reveals "The Sandman". A new bat that allows the Scout to fire baseballs at enemies causing them to be stunned (invulnerable enemies included!). Downside is you lose your double jump ability.
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