Left 4 Dead Update Released

Today sees a nice batch of updates for Left 4 Dead, the latest game from Valve. Biggest updates to note are that the boomer kill exploit has been vanquished, the game’s matchmaking system has been cleaned up and random and versus has permanently locked down itself in the normal difficulty. The versus update will probably wind up being the most controversial, because I’d like to choose how hard or easy I want it to be. Anyway, here’s the full list:

• Finding a dedicated server when starting the game from a lobby is now faster and more reliable
• Versus mode is now locked to Normal difficulty
• Difficulty on a server is now locked to the one set by the lobby reservation
• Fixed lagouts/spikes after level transition
• Fixed directory issue with spray logs in some cases
• Fixed video settings not saving after closing video options dialog
• Corrected a boomer suicide exploit
• Several minor localization fixes
• Fixed disabling cheats incorrectly resetting data

On the Left 4 Dead blog, there’s a very interesting piece on the production of the game’s outstanding intro sequence, which you can read here.