By Jim Rossignol on April 21st, 2010 at 6:31 pm.
Free Left 4 Dead 2 DLC The Passing is out tomorrow. It’s got lashings of content, including new infected and new weapons. But here’s the really interesting bit:
The Passing also introduces a series of weekly game mode events dubbed “Mutations.” These week-long runs of new gameplay modes range from “Realism Versus” mode to “Chainsaw Massacre,” which gives all players chainsaws with an unlimited supply of gasoline. There are over 20 Mutations planned, each playable on all L4D2 Campaigns. Mutations are exclusively available to owners of “The Passing” DLC.
It’ll be interesting to see how those things play out. Warming up my cricket bat tonight, in anticipation.
21/04/2010 at 18:34 Miker says:
Hmm. Will these “mutation” gametypes be available for play after the week has passed? I’d probably like to revisit something like Chainsaw Massacre after the week that they feature it on Steam.
In other news, I just purchased L4D2 and I’m finding myself really bothered by the lack of headbob and the giant weapons. It makes the game feel a lot more arcadey than the first, which is probably what Valve was aiming for this time around. Still, my kingdom for a viewmodel fov slider.
21/04/2010 at 18:56 Heliosicle says:
Yea those were the criticisms I had when I first played the demo, completely forgotten now.
21/04/2010 at 19:22 Senethro says:
viewbob causes motion sickness for some people and generally makes it difficult to aim. Better that its out than in imo.
21/04/2010 at 19:46 skinlo says:
Didn’t notice that the first had head bob in it, so not at all bothered by that. Weapons didn’t bother me either, never noticed until people starting complaining about it.
21/04/2010 at 20:51 rocketman71 says:
To each their own, I guess. I can’t stand bobbing, and any game that doesn’t let me disable it (via menu or console) goes directly to Uninstall World.
21/04/2010 at 21:02 Miker says:
So much hate against head bob. I personally like reasonable amounts of headbob, as it makes me feel like I’m playing as a person instead of a turret with hands rolling around on well-greased wheels. I’m slightly surprised to find myself in the minority here.
21/04/2010 at 21:11 Vinraith says:
@Miker
FWIW I agree completely, there’s something offputting about FPS games where you’re supposed to be human but the camera glides along smoothly like it’s flying. To each their own, obviously, but while head bob is a minor thing to me is does help ground first person games where it’s appropriate IMO.
21/04/2010 at 22:35 Doctor Doc says:
No Valve games got head bob. I don’t remember L4D1 having it either but if it did it was an exception.
22/04/2010 at 05:29 Nerd Rage says:
Am I the only one who doesn’t bounce all over the place when I walk or run? Every time I see headbob I feel like I’ve been placed inside the body of the Lost In Space robot.
22/04/2010 at 08:52 TheApologist says:
I’ll pretty much join the against head bob movement. It always seems exaggerated to me when the camera is wobbling around everywhere. A little bit of it for atmosphere maybe but generally against
21/04/2010 at 18:36 robrob says:
Do they mean mutations like they used to (and probably still do) appear in Unreal Tournament? Because that was a good system.
21/04/2010 at 18:50 westyfield says:
From the poster on the blog, it looks like Francis, Bill and Zoey in the background, which means that it’s probably Louis who dies (unless it’s all a trick). Boo! Who will grab pills now?
21/04/2010 at 19:08 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
@westyfield
It is a trick. The missing character in the background has been changing for some time now.
21/04/2010 at 20:40 westyfield says:
Aaahhh, thanks. I thought it was unlike Valve to give it away that easily, the cunning swines…
21/04/2010 at 22:37 Doctor Doc says:
Louis is a obvious choice though, he’s the most plain and forgettable character only remembered because of an unfortunate meme.
22/04/2010 at 02:25 skinlo says:
I disagree, Louis was the best character I always tried to play.
Bill was the most boring character for me.
22/04/2010 at 09:00 phuzz says:
@westyfield
Myself and a friend were arguing over email yesterday about who the missing character was, and both getting increasingly irate with each other, I couldn’t understand how he couldn’t recognise Bill’s beret, and he could clearly see Zoe’s hair.
Eventually we emailed the actual image files, and both apologised to each other.
Ah valve, you tricksy tricksters…
Now our argument is whether the fallen survivor will be predetermined, or randomly picked on each play through…
21/04/2010 at 18:51 Out Reach says:
reading the blogs it sounds like there will be 20 mutations, which will be on an endless loop, a different one every week. So yeah, if there is a really amazing one, you just need to wait 19 weeks to play it again >>
I’m sure they will eventually release something so we can play them whenever we want.
21/04/2010 at 19:00 Lilliput King says:
Hope so. Rotating them seems a strange thing to do.
21/04/2010 at 22:44 Gorgeras says:
Strange but not too strange, there is a method in the madness.
If it rotates people will be exposed to game-modes they might enjoy but never would have considered it. Complete choice has unfortunate side-effects: not sure what to get, always play the same thing etc.
Basically it’s taking us back to being children where we all hate nachos and cheese but we’ve never had nachos and cheese before and then we try nachos and cheese and love nachos and cheese. Then we want to eat nothing but nachos and cheese all the time and parents say “NO this time it’s prawns in stir-fry” and you try prawns in stiry-fry and hate prawns in stir-fry and glad it’s gonna be another twenty meals before you have to eat that again.
But in a good way.
21/04/2010 at 19:08 futage says:
Hooray.
21/04/2010 at 19:19 Vandelay says:
My guess is that they will just do a mutation a week until they have used them all up and then release them to allow you to play when you want, possibly with a new DLC. 20 weeks would be about 5 months, which isn’t too much shorter than the length of time ‘The Passing’ has taken them.
The one a week is an interesting way of keeping you playing. I can imagine a large proportion of people will be coming back each week to see what it will be.
Personally, I would rather they did just release the lot right away though. Having said that, they would really have to make a decent lobby browser that would allow you to see which were being played before entering. Would probably mean stripping away what they have right now and starting from scratch. The system they have in place now means that Mutations will probably just be a new game mode on the main menu.
21/04/2010 at 19:49 skinlo says:
The problem with releasing all the mutators at once would be that it would spilt the online community. Inevitabley, some of the less popular mutators would probably have no servers that play them, so if you want to play them, you couldn’t.
21/04/2010 at 19:50 Chiablo says:
I’ve been begging for realism versus for a while now, this is going to be a good week!
:D
21/04/2010 at 20:20 mateus says:
I read cricket bat and imagined a baseball bat that chirps like a cricket, and that it would be an awesome weapon for the hidden zombie hunter, to activate the chirping when close to a zombie, and hit it straight in the face as it turns towards the sound.
21/04/2010 at 20:34 Alexander Norris says:
I imagine the weekend deal will be 25%-50% off L4D2 with a free weekend or something similar, then.
21/04/2010 at 20:37 Amadeus says:
I cannot wait for a ‘full toss’ mode in which you can only use the cricket bat to fight all zombies. The whole reason for me buying left 4 dead 2 was the cricket bat. I hope we get a cricket ball as one of the projectile weapons soon !
21/04/2010 at 21:10 jockey says:
Jockey races, please be there Jockey races!
21/04/2010 at 21:11 Discordance says:
“Warming up my cricket bat tonight”
how rude Rossignol
sorry for bring down the sophistication level of public commenting
21/04/2010 at 22:15 toni says:
so mutations back from ut and quake are called “new game modes” now ? they sure are desperate, those marketing guys
21/04/2010 at 22:24 JonFitt says:
New infected and new weapons, that sounds like it should be a new game…
*ducks*
More seriously, when is L4D2 going to hit $20 so I want to buy it? It was close but no cigar recently.
21/04/2010 at 22:40 Sev says:
So wait…they’re saying “exclusive to the owners of” makes me wonder if they’re going to charge for it…
21/04/2010 at 22:48 Hidden_7 says:
Clicking the link will reveal that it is 560 Microsoft points on the Xbox, and free on the PC.
22/04/2010 at 01:03 billyboob says:
@ Miker if reply doesn’t work… Does headbob have any basis in reality? I know there is a passion for bringing a certain amount of reality to FPS gaming but I also notice that as I walk around in real life there is a distinct lack of the rest of the world moving up and down and side to side. So all i’m saying is if this lack of movement does not apply to you, then for crying out loud man, go see a doctor!
22/04/2010 at 05:52 Miker says:
http://www.youtubedoubler.com/?video1=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5VpNFohSqHw&start1=30&video2=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DCeQ7uF73_gw&start2=3&authorName=Real
Hopefully that shows the difference in head bob between L41/2. L4D1 had just the right amount of it, and 2 doesn’t really have much. At all.
22/04/2010 at 05:52 Miker says:
http://www.youtubedoubler.com/?video1=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5VpNFohSqHw&start1=30&video2=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DCeQ7uF73_gw&start2=3&authorName=Real
22/04/2010 at 06:54 Davie says:
Dammit. I STILL don’t own L4D2. This feels like a failure at life.
22/04/2010 at 09:04 MarkSide says:
How much money will have to part with for this? Any guesses?
22/04/2010 at 10:03 phuzz says:
@MarkSide
from TFA: “Available for 560 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360 and free on the PC”
22/04/2010 at 18:31 MarkSide says:
Thanks! I scan read the post and missed that. obv.
Also,turns out my brother and I read different halves of the blog posts. He was able to tell me it was free, I told him it’s out tomorrow. We made each others lives better.
22/04/2010 at 10:18 subedii says:
And the promo trailer’s out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW8IwkPIrAU
22/04/2010 at 13:52 MinisterofDOOM says:
I’m excited for the public release. I ran the beta for a while, but ditched it because it was screwing up the Shattered Horizon server browser. Assuming that’s fixed now, I look forward to getting all the features I had to give up back. Oh, and no more Internet Exploder. That’s what I’m most excited about. I’ll never have to look at another IE window again. JOY!
22/04/2010 at 13:56 MinisterofDOOM says:
Well…I posted on the wrong article. That’s what I get for trying to read multiple RPS stories at once. I have to feed my hunger, though!