L4d update. BFD.

Left 4 Dead has been updated to include a lobby browser. The lobby browser (under Play Online) will show you a list of optimal games available for you to join. The browser pares down the thousands of lobbies and games currently being played to show you the best list of games available to you. This list includes official and add-on campaigns, including add-on campaigns you have not yet installed, making it a great way to discover them. You can filter by difficulty, official and/or add-on campaigns and by lobbies and/or games in progress. The specific changes include:

 Play on Steam Group Server-  screen now displays which Steam group it’s searching while updating the list After calling a vote to change difficulty in game it is now correctly updated in matchmaking.

 Add-on Campaigns- When downloading a new version of an add-on and installing it (by double clicking the .VPK file), it will now correctly overwrite the previous version, even while Left 4 Dead is currently running.

Addressed a crash when two mission files with the same name are installed.

 Steam Group Servers now will now correctly offer download links when running add-on campaigns.

The server will now warn if the public or private tags exceed their limits. Public tags are limited to 63 characters. Private tags used for matchmaking are now limited to 1024 characters. Note that the private tags include the name of each add-on campaign installed on the server, so an excessive number of add-on campaigns can hit this limit.

 The VPK tool should be able to handle campaigns larger than 500MB now.

 You can now drag and drop or pass a VPK file to the vpk.exe tool to have it extract the contents of the add-on to a folder. This mirrors the functionality of passing a folder and having it create a VPK file.

Detail.vbsp and lights.rad have been added to the distribution.

L4D update, let the crying begin!

Waahhh, no matchmaking, no custom models, no new content, no punishment for ragequitters.  Gaben should boycott cheeseburgers and cupcakes wahhh.

Client
Removed an infinite ammo exploit for molotovs
Add-on Campaign Support
Players download third party campaigns as single .VPK file
Players can manage and select add-on maps and campaigns via game UI
Added matchmaking support and download/update prompt for add-on campaigns
Custom campaign support in Leader boards
If not already registered, left4dead.exe registers .VPK extension to allow automatic install of add-ons

Servers and the steam API have been extended to allow servers to send up a list of keys for matchmaking up to 1200 bytes in size

Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools
Fixed missing fgd error
Added vpk.exe command line tool for extracting, creating, and appending .VPK files
Removed info_versus (not used)
Added info_gamemode which fires outputs for Coop, Versus or Survival depending on what game mode the map is loaded in
Updated tutorial_standards example map, repackaged as ‘Dead Line’ campaign example add-on
Sample content now includes source files for official maps

the 960.gs Grid System

Prototyping a quick web page?  Pehaps you have heard of the 960.gs grid system, a grid system used to rapidly prototype a web design with alot of the heavy lifting done ahread of time. Avialbale in either 12 or 16 columns, this design tool helps create a working model quickly. Not to be mistaken for a template, the 960.gs is simple yet brilliant.

Left4Dead2 Announced, Nerd Rage Up 73%

Valve announced the L4D sequel yesterday, and it seems the only ones who are happy are the bankers. With promised updates not appearing and the expectations that the new game will be around $50 retail, the steam forums are rocking with hate.

The new game looks fantastic, but there is one point that made this a must buy for me- Cutty from The Wire voices one of the characters.  If the characters were based on Stringer Bell, Cutty, Snoop and Chris, this would be the greatest game ever created.

Here’s the announcement:

• Game Information
  

  - Release: November 17, 2009
  - Platforms: Windows and Xbox 360
  - Engine: Source
  - Price: $59.99 for Xbox 360. Unknown for PC.

• Highlighted Features
  

  - 5 new campaigns
  - 4 new characters
  - 4 new melee weapons: axe, chainsaw, frying pan, and baseball bat.
  - New ranged weapons: pistols, silenced SMG, new shotgun, new sniper rifle.
  - New (heretofore unknown) game mode
  - Updated “AI Director 2.0″
  - New Infected types (e.g. Charger)
  - Missions in full daylight

• Other Features
  

  - Will work with community maps from the current one
  - A more coherent storyline between campaigns with more tie-ins
  - Round characters: over the campaigns, their personalities and relationships will change.
  - Still no backstory to the infection.
  - Left 4 Dead 1 content may be included in the DVD, so that Xbox players will not have to switch DVDs to play the old content.
  - All current game modes will (most likely) be included.

• Campaigns
  

  The Parish
  The final campaign in the main story sequence. Set in New Orleans, LA, it features daytime gameplay and a primarily urban setting. The goal of the map is to battle through various parts of the city (including the French Quarter) to escape on a military vehicle. Gameplay footage reveals building-to-building tactics as well as an elaborate scene where the Survivors must race across a bridge littered with cars, Infected, and dangerous drops. There also appears to be a much greater emphasis on other humans, as fighter jets can be seen in the background. This comes in stark contrast to the current L4D, which has a decidedly more bleak outlook with almost no show of a cohesive defense against the outbreak.

  Other Campaigns
  Very few details are available about other campaigns right now, but there are five, total. The first campaign is set in Savannah, GA , where the infection has not completely taken hold yet. Between Savannah and New Orleans, there may be some swamp-based campaigns.

• Characters
  

  Coach
  A high school football coach who used to play for a college team until he had a career-ending knee injury and decided to get his degree. He’s from the Savannah, GA area, and is used to handling kids and parents. Coach is voiced by an actor from “The Wire”. When asked about whether or not the character is based on the “Survivor” contestant, Chet Faliszek, the leader of the L4D team, had this to say: “[He's] not based on the world’s biggest ♥♥♥♥♥♥bag. We made that design choice.”

  Rochelle
  A northerner from Cleveland. She has a degree in communications and always wanted to be involved in the news. After working for a cable news station as an associate manager, doing meaningless tasks, she was promoted and sent to produce a story in Savannah, where some kind of odd occurrences were happening.

  Ellis
  A smart, fun-loving, beer-loving, goofiness-loving mechanic with Southern flare. Need we say more?

  Nick
  A gambler, conman, and all-around picaresque personality in a slick, expensive suit, Nick joins the other three and is unsure about whether or not he can trust them. He’s the most cynical and bitter of the Survivors, and is still trying to figure out the best “angle” to get from the recent zombie apocalypse. Over time, he begins to value his new compatriots.

• Weapons
  

  - The axe will be able to crown a Witch if used properly.
  - The pan will make a CLANG sound when used.
  - The silencing of the SMG (a Mac-10) makes no difference in gameplay.
  - The game appears to have multiple types of sidearms. Currently, two 9mm models have appeared in the videos: the Glock 17 and Sig Sauer.
  - The new shotgun model appears based on the SPAS-12, but it is unclear if it has any effective difference from the Benelli M4.
  - There will be a chainsaw. A chainsaw. Say it again. Chainsaw.
  - New ammunition type: incendiary. After picking this up, your first clip will set fire to all Infected hit.

• Infected
  

  The Common Infected and current Special Infected will still be in the game. However, there will be some noticeable differences. Common Infected will be harder to kill. In the daytime, they won’t be able to see you from as far as in nighttime, and they will behave differently. They also have a different appearance. Clothing will be more in line with Southern appetites.

  The Witch will behave differently during daytime. Instead of sitting, she will stand and wander around, making her much more difficult to crown. She may also turn around randomly.

  Two new zombie types have been revealed: the Charger and the uncommon “suited” Infected. For information on the Charger, you may want to look at this thread.

  The Charger is designed to defeat camping tactics by rushing Survivors. He is not as strong as a Tank, but can do serious damage. From some accounts, there is less warning when a Charger appears, so he may surprise you and your group, especially from the flanks. He has a habit of charging groups like a bull, tossing and stunning anyone he hits. However, he has trouble turning, and it may be possible to side-step him.

  If the Charger grabs you, he picks you up (disabling you) and slams you to the ground repeatedly. Other Survivors must rescue you.

  The suited Infected is a type of “uncommon Common” Infected who is immune to fire-based attacks like Molotovs.

• Gameplay Changes
  

  The developers have said that they want to change things up and throw off current tactics and exploits without changing too much of what made the original game so enjoyable. This means that there will be some game mechanics changes and some new challenges.

  The AI Director (2.0) will have significantly more control. In addition to “his” current tasks of controlling spawns, item locations, and music, the new AID will also be able to control the layout of the map itself, changing the location of obstacles and available pathways. It can also control weather and other effects to completely customize the experience.

  In addition to crescendos, the new experience will include “gauntlets”. These are designed to force Survivors to move by placing an objective at the end of a path. This objective must be reached to stop the hordes from coming. Stacking and camping will no longer be viable options for these.

• Superficial Changes
  

  - Increased gore
  - More complex location damage (shearing of limbs, part of the chest, etc.)

Left4Dead -FREE!!!!!!!!

Want to play Left4Dead, but are so cash-strapped you split the plys on your 2 ply toilet paper? Good news! Left4Dead will be FREE for 24 hours. This is a great way to check out a hilarious game- hilarious when it all goes to shit that is. You can start downloading from Steam and the game will be live As of 00:01 GMT this Friday. You then get 24 hours of non-stop zombie killing goodness.  This is the type of game you can jump right into. Valve hopes to boost sales with this promo, but we all know that this is to propagate the Swine Flu that turned everyone into zombies.  If you missed out on the demo, this is your chance to try out L4D. 

Get going, try this awesome game, and enjoy puking on Zoey.

Left 4 Dead: F The Lighthouse- Get the Old Menu Back

Too good not to share: The following method ( from the Steam L4D offical forums, credit: Warchamp7) outlines the way to return to the classic menu, banishing the lighthouse menu to eternal darkness. Follow along, and be far less annoyed when the game finds a full server every 5 minutes.

Navigate to the following folder

Steam\SteamApps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead\media

For restoration purposes, make copies of l4d_background.bik and l4d_lighthouse_bg01.bik

Rename l4d_lighthouse_bg01.bik to something else
(I renamed the copies and put them in a “Backups” folder within the media folder.)

Change the name of l4d_background.bik to l4d_lighthouse_bg01.bik.

Your menu is now the original, enjoy.

Left4Dead Patch Notes, Why you suck at Survival Mode, Annoying Lighthouse

First and foremost- the patch is out. Here’s the skinny (my commentsin red):

New gameplay Mode- Survival
16 maps including Last Stand
Leaderboards- oh yay, epeen++, which one of my friends is exploiting for bragging rights?
7 new achievements -Achievements need to be skill based or unlikely to occur- like smoking someone out of the elevator.

Versus Changes
2 new versus campaigns
New- lol
Fixed a case where versus team score would continue to be recalculated after the score panel was displayed
bugfix
Fixed an issue with recalculating the versus score health bonus for a player when they are rescued from being incapacitated
bugfix
Fixed being able to start a swing as an infected, then teleport to the survivors and have the claw swing hit a survivor
Oh noes, ghost swipe killed!
Fixed a case where teleporting to the survivors would not reset the ability timer
Bugfix.
Fixed an exploit where you could load the chamber of a weapon with bullets by holding down the melee key
Oh noes my charged shot!
Fixed a case where it was not possible to join a game while it was in a finale
could be good, testing needed.
Fixed a rare case where listen servers would speed up the game over time
Don’t play on listen servers very often
Removed convars related to melee fatigue
Good for standardization
Fixed a case where infected players would get a respawn time on their initial spawn into a map
THANK GOD

Server Changes
Made ms_force_dedicated_server not require cheats
Good stuff
Add a message when queuing a heartbeat
bugfix?
Simplified setting of game mode
Good for admins who like control
Removed convars director_no_human_zombies and director_holdout_mode
No more practice as infected against bots, youtube braggers can’t cheat in their 1337 pounce videos with shitty music soundtrack
Added mp_gamemode [coop,versus,survival]
Good for admins who like control

Why you suck at Survival mode
Stop playing with pubbies.

Annoying Lighthouse
I need a way to get the old menu background back, because that lighthouse graphic is driving me nuts  FLASH……..FLASH…..FLASH….

Left 4 Dead Survival Pack!

Eagerly anticipating the release of the survival pack for Left 4 Dead?  Aren’t we all. It is due to come out TODAY, and indications point to sometime after 2PM PST. The survival mode for L4D seems like it may be fun, but the real star of the update is the Dead Air and Death Toll campaigns. Having the opportunity to play the single player campaigns in Versus mode lately, I can say that map changes will have been made, but overall the campaigns are good quality.  Also, the few public exploits that still work ( charged shot, ghost slashing, and spiderwalking ) may be fixed, but there is no indication that this is in the patch due today- check back later for the full skinny.

Make Your Own Carey Price Origami

Like papercraft? You too can make your own Montreal Canadiens Carey Price origami! Pretty true to form if you ask me, this instruction set walks you through all the steps. A must see for those awaiting the start of the playoffs.

SAS70 – How to choose an audit firm

Good post over here on how to choose a SAS70 audit firm.  The auditor can make or break your experience, so picking a good one can make the audit go smoothly.  Pick the wrong firm, and you will be overrun by the “junior associates”, while the big boys hang back and pick up a check.

Left4Dead updated yet again, Game killed lol

Here’s the straight, my comments in red:

Game and client changes
Introduced fatigue to the melee attack in versus mode. You will see a HUD display when your melee swing is cooling down.
Broken. This doesn’t kill corner camping, but makes being the last survivor alive fucked. No use for the uzi or assault rifle anymore, its shotty or nothing.
Boomer vomit will now pass through common infected -
Its about time.
Addressed some surround sound detection issues
Never had this issue so bugfix I guess.
Fixed a rare crash when exiting Left4Dead on Windows Vista
Had this problem daily, so good job.
Fixed a case where the complete all expert campaigns achievement was not being rewarded
People play campaign? lol
Dedicated server changes
Corrected an issue where Windows based dedicated were sending spurious shutdown notifications to the master causing them to delist temporarily
OK, bugfix.
Fixed dedicated servers not resetting the versus team swap correctly–you could join a dedicated server that had a previous game that was swapped and arrive on the other team than what was selected in the lobby
Fix for the stuff the last patch broke.
Renamed the tags for sv_search_key to use “key:” in the server tags instead of “sv_search_key.” This should help with issues of the 63 character limit of server tags
Bugfix.
Fixed an occasional server crash related to voting
Now if we could only fix the asshats who call votes when they are bored.

Overall, things are better, but the melee nerf doesn’t really help in the right way.  One strat to pick up a downed teammate was to melee while you pal picked up the one on the ground, this is now ineffective. If you get boomed as the last left standing, there is no long term chance of survival.  They should have addressed the problem of corner camping by making survivors not clip each other.

L4D Survival Pack Dated -April 21

The Left4Dead survival Pack has been scheduled for release on April 21, 2009. This announcement was made regarding the xbox 360 version ( lol), but previous Valve statements have been made indicating that the content release will be made at the same time for both platforms. 

This is good news, the Survival Mode sounds like fun, but the more important news is that Death Toll and Dead Air will be playable in Vs mode without workarounds. The maps out there are getting a little stale.  Also expected is the SDK, which should release a flood of user-created content- which should give buyers of the PC version a lot more to choose from.

Left4Dead Patch Released, Smoker Doesn’t Suck Anymore

The new patch details follow, my comments in red.

Versus Mode Changes
Tank melee attack can now hit multiple Survivors in one swing -
Awesome!
Fixed Tank punch being able to hit targets behind walls
Not sold on this one yet…
Fixes to ‘Tank parking’. The Tank will now run back and attack the Survivors if he becomes AI due to two players expiring the frustration meter -
This is going to suck. Teams ready for the tank = instant tank death
Fixed a case where a Tank frustration meter could run out right as he was in his death animation and he would come back to life-
OK, bugfix I guess, but never actually saw this happen.
Fixed a case where the Tank was moving too slowly while crouching and being shot-
Good, hope this solves the vents problem.
Tanks now have the possibility of spawning in a slightly different position for the first and second teams -
Great, this was needed since the last patch screwed it up.
The order that the teams play as Survivors is now determined by which team has the higher overall score. The winning team will play as Survivors first. 
Is this better then ABBA rotations? Time will tell.
The Smoker tongue can now target and grab victims through common infected
YES!!!!!
Increased the cone in which a Smoker can grab a target
YES!!!!
The Witch no longer cuts Smoker tongues in a radius around her
  YES!!! Makes the witch at least somewhat useful.
Boomers that explode in mid-air will now hit Survivors directly below them with Bile
Everyone should be happy about this.
Reduced the damage that burning Hunters do to pounced victims
This depends on the reduction, could make the flaming hunter move worthless.
Adjusted the time at which players take over from bots to avoid 5 seconds of the bot standing idle while the player finishes connecting.
Thanks Valve!
Fixed some cases where versus score was not being recalculated properly. It is no longer beneficial to pass pills between players at the end of the round or heal other players and then shoot them-
Bugfix, pubbies seldom saw this anyway.
Fixed a case where it was possible to spectate an AI infected and hit +use to take them over-
You do learn something every day, I guess.
Server Changes
Added convar sv_gametype that allows server operators to limit the types of games that will start on their server. Default value is ‘coop,versus’. Can be changed to just ‘coop’ or just ‘versus’ to limit to those game types
- Cool, thanks Valve!
General changes
Fixed a case where players would join as a dead Survivor when a living Survivor was still available
OK, bugfix
Fixed a case where restarting a level due to the team dying would give more than the max primary ammo on restart
OK, bugfix
Fixed the speaking icon showing up on the local player during level transition if voice_vox was set to 1
OK, bugfix
The scoreboard now shows the numeric value of a player’s ping
Awesome, thanks!
GameUI
Quick match will now try to match to any campaign. Removed the preference to match to games according to the player progressing through all campaigns-
This was needed for campaigners
Games in a finale are now joinable via the Friends and Steam Group games list 
Very needed!
Some things that still need addressing- Melee spam, too easy to cr0wn witch in Versus, the hunter- under-the door (Still hilarious!) and more spawn places in some of the rushing maps. 

This game is never going to be truly CAL worthy, so any changes to make it more pub friendly are fantastic.

PIFTS.exe

Norton’s PIFTS.exe is causing quite a stir in the security community.  Norton community support  forums is allegedly wiping any trace of it, and it seems to call home.   The isc.sans.org  blog has been assured it is part of the update process and not harmful, but ISC has already found at least one website keywording PIFTS.exe trying to spread malware. That brings us to this post, and although this site is not spreading malware, intentions are somewhat devious. This post is designed as search bait to bring in PIFTS.exe researchers. If you are one of them, leave a comment and say hello. A good conspiracy theory is a wonderful thing.

IGN : Details on L4D Survivor Mode

IGN has details on the upcoming survivor mode and DLC for Left4Dead. Expanding on wheat we already knew, the article flushes out the new mode, detailing a period before the game begins to load up on ammo and supplies, and tells us that you may face multi-smokers, hunters, tanks, etc during the match. Apparently the matches go quickly, anything past 8 minutes seems like its almost impossible to do.  11 of the survivor mode maps are reworks of existing scenarios, the 12th is all new and called “lighthouse”.  Hopefully the lighthouse is also part of an upcoming campaign!

You can read all about the new mode and DLC here: http://pc.ign.com/articles/959/959549p1.html

Left4Dead (Finally) patched on the 360

Seems like the suckers who bought L4d for the 360 are finally getting stuff patched that PC users got fixed a while ago.  Here’s the valve list:

General
Fixed Survivors being able to climb surfaces marked for versus infected only
Fixed a class of SurvivorBot bugs dealing with rescuing downed players
Players can no longer grab ladders while flying through the air after a Tank punch
Shooting near a car with an alarm that has already fired the alarm will no longer make chirping noises
Fixed mini-gun physics exploit
Fixed propane tanks (and other physics objects) causing players to fall through elevators
Fixed rare achievement bug issues
Fixed several map exploits

Versus Changes
Added HUD elements to show status of other infected players
Fixed instance where a Survivor changing to the infected team would be attacked by infected bots
Normalized special infected melee damage
Fixed exploit where infected players could run away and teleport back to gain health
Players can only change teams once per map
Players can’t change teams while other players are still loading
Tank spawns at the same % through the map for both teams in versus mode
Made the Tank and Witch spawn directly on the escape route
Increased chance of getting the Tank or Witch
Fixed team swap issue

Hunter
Easier to pounce a Survivor who is meleeing
Increased Minimum damage a Hunter pounce does

Smoker
Fixed Smoker tongue tolerance
Smoker now has to be killed or the tongue destroyed for the tongue to break
Survivors cannot bash someone off the tongue until the Survivor being pulled is paralyzed or hanging
Tongue attacks that fail to paralyze or hang a Survivor will use the shorter ability delay timer
Fixed cases where the ability timer was not using the correct time
Fixed case where you could point at a Survivor but not register a tongue hit
Fixed Smoker tongue not targeting and landing properly through PZ ghosts
Smoker tongue does damage every second while dragging paralyzed Survivors

Tank
Bashable objects now appear with a red glow
Tanks hitting a car with an alarm disables the alarm permanently
Tank frustration timer is only reset by hitting Survivors with rocks or fists
Reduced autoshotgun damage against Tanks

Witch
Witch spawns at the same % through the map for both teams
Avoids spawning within a certain % of the tank
Fixed an exploit where the Witch could be woken up and tricked into attacking Survivors

L4D DLC to be free

Rejoice XBL users the downloadable content for Left4Dead will be free. PC users, business as usual. Here is the press release:

Valve has announced that the L4D DLC will be free for both PC and Xbox 360 users.

The recently announced Left 4 Dead Downloadable Content (L4D DLC) will be delivered to Xbox 360 and PC gamers free of charge.

Due for release this spring, the DLC for 2008’s best-selling new game property on the PC and Xbox 360, is dubbed the L4D Survival Pack and introduces a new multiplayer game mode entitled, Survival, plus two complete campaigns for Versus Mode (Death Toll, Dead Air). A Critic’s Choice Edition of the game will be heading to retail stores this spring, and will include access to all the content introduced in the L4D: Survival Pack.

L4D: Elevator Action 2: What?

Saw something unusual last night, and it answers the eternal question:  What if you don’t want to go the roof in NM4?

All 4 survivors loaded into the elevator, and hit the button. Suddenly, Louis decided he wanted more ammo or something, so he ran for the bed…and the elevator left without him. This must be possible because the button had already been hit?  The end result is that the louis player was all alone, and killed off the remaining zombies, and was doomed to wander the halls of Mercy Hospital forever.  Or so it seemed.

The rest of the survivors made the saferoom. The Louis player left, and a bot took over.  The infected ran down to see what was going on, as the match would not end. The Louis bot returned to the saferoom, then took to roaming the halls. Players, one after another, joined the game in progress only to see no infected, no special infected, no teammates and no elevator. Since the kill command was nerfed out, there was no easy way to kill himself.   Finally, the special infected killed him to move the match on to the next level.

So its possible to run out of the elevator. Try it next time you feel like greifing.

Left4Dead: New maps,survival mode coming this spring

I hope spring starts in March. Here’s the press release:

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced a series of content and development releases for its latest title, 2008’s best-selling new game property for the PC and Xbox 360, Left 4 Dead (L4D).

The first L4D DLC – dubbed the L4D Survival Pack — is due for release this spring and introduces a new multiplayer game mode entitled, Survival, plus two complete campaigns for Versus Mode . A Critic’s Choice Edition of the game is also heading to retail stores this spring, and will include access to all the content introduced in the L4D: Survival Pack.

In addition, for PC gamers and aspiring developers, the first Left 4 Dead release for the Source Software Development Kit (Source SDK) will allow the creation of custom Left 4 Dead campaigns that will be discoverable via L4D’s matchmaking system. The SDK update is also due for release this spring, and is free of charge to all owners of L4D on the PC.

“Since Half-Life launched in 1998, Valve has made continuous efforts to expand the offering of its products beyond what’s included on the day of launch,” said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. “With Half-Life and Counter-Strike, and more recently Team Fortress 2, we’ve learned that we’re no longer making stand-alone games but creating entertainment services. With Left 4 Dead we’re extending that tradition by creating additional gameplay and releasing our internal tools to aspiring developers so they may also create and distribute new Left 4 Dead experiences.”

Left 4 Dead is a survival action game from Valve that blends the social entertainment experience of multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress with the dramatic, narrative experience made popular in single player action game classics such as the Half-Life series of games. Released in November of 2008, L4D has earned over 25 industry awards from outlets around the world.

Left4Dead – Elevator Pull

Just like in real life, when things go sour for the survivors, other bad things then crop up immediately.  Getting a kill without the help of  infected teammates is tough, but there are some very situational places in Versus that allow a hunter or smoker to isolate a victim with almost no hope of rescue, and having a trap work in one of these areas is awesome.

This brings us to the elevator in NM4.  As the smoker, at exactly the right time in the perfect situation, it is possible to pull one of the survivors out of the elevator when the doors are just beginning to close.  Of course, the survivor could shoot themselves out, or the other players could melee the victim, or the door could shut on the tongue, or a zombie could get in the way, or a million different other things could screw up the pull.

But if all the stars align, and its a Tuesday, and the gods are willing, it happens. The victim is dragged  off the elevator, and the  doors are shut and the remaining survivors are gone, and Zoey and the Smoker settle in for some quality time. The only thing left to do is taunt the other team, and read the shocked comments from other players who can’t believe what just happened.   All those meaningless achievements Valve put in the game? This is what should qualify as an achievement.  The pinnacle of Smoker play.

I’ve pulled this off exactly ONCE. The smug smile on my face lasted thoughout the weekend.

New England Revolution MLS Home Schedule

The New England Revolution has announced its home schedule for the upcoming season.  This is subject to change, and at least one date has not been confirmed. Nice to see that some games are on the way, after winning superligua, things went downhill fast last year.

2009

APRIL
Sat. 4                      vs. FC Dallas 

 MAY
Sun. 3                     vs. Houston Dynamo
Sat. 16                    vs. Colorado Rapids
Sat. 30                    vs. D.C. United

JUNE
Sun. 7                     vs. New York Red Bulls

JULY
Sat. 11                    vs. Kansas City Wizards
Sat. 18 or Sun. 19    vs. Chivas USA

AUGUST
Sat. 1                      vs. Toronto FC
Sat. 8                      vs. LA Galaxy
Sun. 23                   vs. Real Salt Lake
Sat. 29                    vs. San Jose Earthquakes

 SEPTEMBER
Sat. 5                      vs. Kansas City Wizards
Sat. 26                    vs. Seattle Sounders FC

 OCTOBER
Sat. 10                    vs. Columbus Crew
Sat. 17                    vs. Chicago Fire

Left 4 Dead Updated, QuickMelee is dead

Heres the straight dope:

• Fixed an exploit with melee where swapping weapons ignored the intended delay between swings.
• In Versus mode, the Tanks’ health now reflects the damage he takes from burning.
• Fixed an exploit related to the “joinclass” command

So switching weapons while meleeing no longer gives the superbash ability.  It also seems like the tank lives longer, but a tank on fire that is getting shot dies faster.  I hope you whiny bastages are happy.

Targeted Social Engineering

The Internet Storm Center at SANS has an excellent article detailing and breaking down social engineering into levels, form the mass email blasts to corporate espionage. The author, Maarten Van Horenbeeck goes on to explain the differences in the approach and ways to help minimize the threat’s effectiveness. Another great  read by the ISC crew.

Targeted Social Engineering  at SANS ISC

Left4Dead patch out, Smoker doesn’t suck anymore

Not that the smoker sucked in the first place, but he was very situational.  Here is the straight dope:

General
- Fixed Survivors being able to climb surfaces marked for versus infected only.
- Fixed a class of SurvivorBot bugs dealing with rescuing downed players.
- Players can no longer grab ladders while flying through the air after a Tank punch.
- Shooting near a car with an alarm that has already fired the alarm will no longer make chirping noises.
- Improved loading time.
- Fixed mini-gun physics exploit.
- Fixed propane tanks (and other physics objects) causing players to fall through elevators.
- Fixed rare achievement bug issues.
- Fixed several map exploits.
- Fixed various match making issues.
- Fixed NAT traversal issues.
 

Versus Changes
- Added HUD elements to show status of other infected players.
- Changed color of infected player name in chat to red.
- Fixed exploit where players could spawn infected bots
- Fixed instance where a Survivor changing to the infected team would be attacked by infected bots.
- Normalized special infected melee damage.
- Made the following client commands cheat protected: "Kill" and "explode".
- Fixed exploit where infected players could run away and teleport back to gain health.
- Players can only change teams once per map.
- Players can't change teams while other players are still loading.
- Tank spawns at the same % through the map for both teams in versus mode.
- Made the Tank and Witch spawn directly on the escape route.
- Increased chance of getting the Tank or Witch.
- Fixed team swap issue.

Hunter
- Easier to pounce a Survivor who is meleeing.
- Increased Minimum damage a Hunter pounce does.

Smoker
- Fixed Smoker tongue tolerance.
- Smoker now has to be killed or the tongue destroyed for the tongue to break.
- Survivor's cannot bash someone off the tongue until the Survivor being pulled is paralyzed or hanging
- Tongue attacks that fail to paralyze or hang a Survivor will use the shorter ability delay timer.
- Fixed cases where the ability timer was not using the correct time.
- Fixed case where you could point at a Survivor but not register a tongue hit
- Fixed Smoker tongue not targeting and landing properly through PZ ghosts.
- Smoker tongue does damage every second while dragging paralyzed Survivors.

Tank
- Bashable objects now appear with a red glow.
- Tanks hitting a car with an alarm disables the alarm permanently.
- Tank frustration timer is only reset by hitting Survivors with rocks or fists.
- Reduced autoshotgun damage against Tanks.

Witch
- Witch spawns at the same % through the map for both teams.
- Avoids spawning within a certain % of the tank.
- Fixed an exploit where the Witch could be woken up and tricked into attacking Survivors.

Hunter swipe has been nerfed, but the smoker and boomer swipe has been slightly increased. The hunter pounce and smoker drag being buffed should make both of these attacks a bit more useful.  People have also been reporting that the game feels more sped up, and that closet-camping is not as viable as it used to be.  The new infected HUD is awesome!

Vulnerability in Safari, heads up OSX users!

There seems to be a problem in Safari, in the way that it handles RSS feeds. Brian Mastenbrook has detailed a way that a malicious website can read files from the local hard drive, including “… emails, passwords, or cookies that could be used to gain access to the user’s accounts on some web sites…”

Apparently, this also impacts Safari on Windows, but does anyone run that?

You can read about the vulnerability here, and find instructions to change the default RSS reader. If you run OSX, you should follow up on this before it gets out of hand.

Useful Left4Dead information

http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/I-thought-it-was-the-brakes

This blog is updated pretty constantly, and features lots of Left4Dead information. Although it seems to be written in the perspective of  someone playing L4D competitively (has there ever been a game more unsuited for CAL/competitive play?), there is lots of good information and strategies that can be applied to a more casual play style. The latest update has some good info on how health bonuses are calculated.

Left4Dead New Content Imminent

Word has it that Left4Dead will be getting new content, Death Toll and Dead Air as versus maps and possibly some bugfixes very soon.  This should alleviate the bored players who are now just screwing around. Here’s a screen shot of the clone glitch in action,  as whole bunch of AI controlled infected spring to action in an attempt to stomp a bunch of closet campers.

attack of the clones

Spectate Glitch In Left4Dead

Here’s how to screw over the survivors in L4d versus:

1) Go infected. Run to the end of the level.
2) Open the console and type spectate. You are now a spectator.
3) Hit the M key. Choose the infected team. Wait for the respawn timer.
4) Repeat.

The end of the level is important- this will give you enough time to build up a small army of computer controlled clones. The more the rest of the team slows the survivors, the better. Also, the telltale Player has joined the spectators/player has joined the infected messages should be a tip off to an alert survivor group.

Results: Hilarious, unless you are on the survivor team- then its somewhat silly. 

Hopefully this is patched soon, as once everyone is doing this, the game is broken completely.  There was a player who was bitching that the pubby team I was on bashed in the steel door in NM3 this weekend, so since he liberally began cursing us out and getting his panties in a bunch, the next round became clone hunter city. Mass confusion, dogs and cats, and a great tirade resulted

Left 4 Dead? More like Left 4 Glitch, amirite?

Some thoughts on Left4Dead

The boss infected’s purpose is to pee in the breakfast cereal of the survivors. That’s all well and good, but there are lots of other ways to exploit the system in other unintended ways that need to be patched.

• Join the survivors and  console kill yourself.  Boom, one down.
• Infected players can avoid the respawn timer by going spectator, then infected, then spectator, then infected.
• Smoker instant kill spots are getting very popular.
• Holding a tank back by attacking inanimate objects is a great strategy, but doing it when a timer requires the tank to die (NM finale, for example) makes the game unwinnable for survivors.

Survivors have some cheap moves too. Avoiding the lift mini-finale by bashing in the steel door sucks, as thats one of the best parts of the campaign.  Melee still needs to be nerfed down a bit, as the normal infected become too easy if there is a closet nearby-especially the closet near the elevator in the hospital map as EVERYONE melees for the full horde rush.  Opening the door in the warehouse is also an abuse point, as you can just back in and rifle-butt the whole way through the map.

Ragequitters are understandable, but for each one that leaves a team, the game becomes worse and worse. Still, autoswitch needs to be able to be turned off, as this causes even more people to leave. Horribly implemented!

Even though the game isn’t perfect, its still a blast. Dying in this game as a survivor is almost always hilarious, when things go bad, they almost invariably go even worse minutes later.

Some final notes: The M key is your friend. A lot of people don’t know they can choose the team they are on. Spectate in the console allows a player to become a spectator. If you find yourself alive as infected but way behind the survivors, just kill in console and you can respawn closer. Finally, buy a microphone you cheap bastards!

Windows Update / Microsoft Update errors out from behind Sonicwall Firewall With Error 0×80072EFF

 

When using Windows Update or Microsoft Update from behind a Sonicwall Firewall with the IPS service running, the update service bombs out with:

Error number: 0×80072EFF
The website has encountered a problem and cannot display the page you are trying to view. The options provided below might help you solve the problem.
This is caused by a signature update that effectively blocks Windows Update. The signature was released/changed sometime around 12/2008. To get this issue corrected and allow Windows update to work again, there are 2 options.

1) Turn off IPS. Obviously, this is not the solution. You can do this temporarily to see if solves the issue before moving on.

2) Disable prevention for the particular signature.

There are 4 signatures associated with Windows update.
220  Microsoft — Windows Update 1
221  Microsoft — Windows Update 2
222  Microsoft — Windows Update 3
223  Microsoft — Windows Update 4

These can be found under IPS Policies, category APP-UPDATE. Number 223 seems to be the one causing the issues.