L4D2 Update: Week 15

Left 4 Dead 2
It's Friday, which means another new Mutation for Left 4 Dead 2. It's sort of weird doing this "newsblog" thing when we're almost done with the planned 16 Mutations that came with The Passing DLC, but I might as well start now. (Speaking of which, I do kind of feel bad about starting this after the Engineer Update finished the TF2 class updates. I may do a retrospective on all the major TF2 updates later.)

The layout is a little confusing on the Left 4 Dead blog, as it opens with the Four Swordsmen picture, so for a moment I was in disbelief wondering how it won after seeing so many people on the Steam forums complain about it. It turns out that the XBox360 community and the PC community voted up different mutations. Four Swordsmen won on the Xbox360 and Versus Survival won on the PC.

I didn't mention the previous update back on Wednesday, but I might as well acknowledge it now. It changed the point systems for the Infected in L4D2 and improved the friendly fire system and the Tank spawn system. Honestly, the point system changes seem nice, but I don't think it'll really change much about how people play. I've never seen anybody really care about their points as an Infected, as the only thing points really do is increase your chances of becoming the Tank when it spawns.

As for the Tank changes...why don't they apply to Left 4 Dead? These Tank spawn changes have been something the Left 4 Dead community has been asking for since 2008, and now that they're finally happening in 2010, they're only being applied to Left 4 Dead 2? I mean, I sort of understand that the guys at Valve may want to ignore Left 4 Dead's existence, but it's still pretty insulting to all the L4D fans. Then again, considering that many of the additions in L4D2 such as the Bile bomb and the Charger bare a startling resemblance to ideas for L4D DLC suggested by people on the L4D forums, the Left 4 Dead fans may already be used to these kinds of things.

Tank statue

As mentioned in the Left 4 Dead blog, Gaming Heads released their Tank statue, the first of their L4D line. If you didn't know, Gaming Heads manufactures collectibles, and they've got a deal with Valve. They seem to only be just starting up, as the only products I can find on their site are statues of the Heavy from TF2 and the aforementioned Tank.

Their products also seem to be only for the real hardcore, considering the statues are really high-quality and really expensive. The Tank statues costs about $300, and the Heavy statues cost about $250, and both have "exclusive" versions that's also more expensive.

References:
http://l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=4139
http://l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=4125
https://www.gamingheads.com/index.php?option=com_myphp&Itemid=3&product=85
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1383508

Picture Version of Timeline

Here is picture version 1.0 of the timeline. It doesn't contain as much detail as the text-only timeline, but it looks prettier and gives a better sense of scale about how much time passed between events

Miscellaneous Theories Added

-Added a new section of Miscellaneous Theories based entirely on speculation and therefore can't fit into the main timeline. Current version has two entries "Ellen McLain" and "Appeasement."

Additional Information Update

Added Additional Information focused on describing the main series in further detail and also providing additional speculation on how each series relates to the main overall Valve Universe. So far only Team Fortress, Half-Life, and Portal are available. Other series will be added later.

The Valve Complete Saga Launched

A loose timeline connecting the different games in The Valve Complete Pack has been released. Later updates will improve the timeline and add more information, especially as future games are added to The Valve Complete Pack.