Updates to Left 4 Dead 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Addons

• Client's custom HUDs will be reloaded when changing between Official and Non-official servers.
  

GamePlay

• 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.
  

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.
  

Tank

• 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.
  

SDK Tools

• Fixed crash whenever a VMT was loaded in L4D2 tools mode.
  

The image above is from our friends at the IP Factory. This Friday they are releasing their Left 4 Dead 2 range of strictly limited high end collectibles. First up is the Tank. Pre-orders go live Friday July 30th.



Today’s update covers quite a few subjects so we thought we should touch on a few of them.



When we did our blog poll on rage quitting we mentioned we would be working on some of the underlying issues. Left 4 Dead 2 doesn’t have a more rage or less rage button – well not directly…



We checked some stats, did some testing, checked more stats, and did more testing. We have many more changes we are working on, some ideas failed, some were exploitable, and some were just bad ideas. What we are releasing today is not the sum of our answer to the problem but simply some of the updates that are ready to ship. More are coming.



While we were testing other changes with the Charger, we were bothered that doing the right thing did not give you the best score. New players were often confused by this lack of feedback, so we fixed that.

• 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.

Friendly fire is never fun, especially when it really isn’t friendly fire. So in both Versus and Co-op we wanted to remove those times when you receive a friendly fire warning for shooting through an infected.

• Bullets that first pass through an infected character before striking a Survivor are now ignored as friendly fire.

Failing at the Tank is miserable experience. We all know the feeling when you are trying to explain to your team - but he was already on fire! So we did some work there.

• Tanks go into a stasis when they spawn and leave stasis when the human player takes over.


• Tanks do not attack when they are in stasis.


• Tanks in stasis are invisible but still show a glow to the infected team.


• Tanks in stasis cannot be set on fire.

The updates aren't over and you should expect to see some more shortly. As for the blog, besides the regular Friday update, next week we will be going into details on the Mutations, why Realism Versus was made permanent and other Mutations have not been. Plus what gets played more - Versus, Co-op, Survival, Single Player, or Scavenge?

Mutation Week 14: Healthpackalypse!, What else are you playing?, Pick Your Mutation, extra updates.



Healthpackalypse!

No health in this versus game.



Grind down the Survivors and don’t worry about them bouncing back. With no Health kits in Versus, their permanent health is on a one way ride to zero.



What else are you playing?

Last week we asked, what else are you playing? On the Left 4 Dead 2 team, our own poll winners are Modern Warfare 2 and Team Fortress 2. Red Dead Redemption would have won a few weeks ago.



With None of these Winning the PC poll and coming in second on the Xbox, what else are you playing? Let us know in the forums or on Facebook.



Here are your votes by platform.

Pick Your Mutation?

It's time to pick your favorite Mutation! Vote for next week's Encore Mutation.

To vote enter the game, view the in-game blog, and click to vote.



Extra Updates

PC players will also be getting some Versus updates this coming week. We have more updates coming so don’t think this is all we are going to do. These changes will show up on the Xbox 360 in a later update.



Next week's Mutation: ????