L4D1 gets 4v4 competitive matchmaking

By Tom Bramwell Published 10 November, 2009

Plus: XBL Silver users get L4D2 demo.

Valve has finally patched Left 4 Dead 1 on PC to introduce competitive matchmaking for groups of four players.

This means that you and three of your friends can search for games against another group of four. Less faff, basically.

The update also fixes a bug relating to a Crash Course achievement and one where bots and CPU special infected were being reported via "View Game Info".

Meanwhile, that Left 4 Dead 2 demo, featuring a section of The Parish campaign, is now available to Xbox Live Silver subscribers in addition to Goldies.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • kangarootoo #1 2 years ago

    The L4D2 demo left me with mixed feelings. Maybe its because I've played a lot of L4D already, but I don't think the choice of level helped either (daylight, and lots of open spaces). It just didn't have the tension I remember from L4D. Hoping the full game is better.

  • Invisible_Cow #2 2 years ago

    I.. just... gaaah!
    Been waiting for them to fix this for a year, and they do it less than a week before the sequel comes out!
    I want to love you, Valve, but sometimes you make it hard.

  • giant_frying_pan #3 2 years ago

    Better late than never. They did say it would be out before L4D 2...!

    At least the sequel has it from the off. I think.

  • Kapo! #4 2 years ago

    I personally thought the demo was much better than the original game. Perhaps it's due to the fact that, because it's a new level, the randoms I play with don't tend to sprint from start to finish which was a major sore point of the first game. The first game lacked any semblance of team play - it really was every man for himself, which became incredibly boring incredibly quickly.

    I just hope the sequel doesn't go the same way with "L4D Rambos" spoiling the tension and fun for the other players by constantly tearing ahead of the group and single-handedly dominating the game. It becomes a snoozefest very rapidly.

  • Hog-lumps #5 2 years ago

    @Kapo!

    That seems like a strange statement to me - in my experience, the 'L4D rambos' die very, very quickly when separated from the pack - one pounce of a hunter or tongue lash of a smoker and its game over for them - that's pretty much the purpose of the special infected as they dictate that teamwork is essential. :)

    What difficulty are you playing at? Maybe you should try increasing the difficulty as good teamwork/coordination is paramount to completing campaigns on the higher levels.....
    Edited by 3 at 10/11/09 @ 11:31

  • cianchristopher #6 2 years ago

    God, Valve had a great track record all the way up to June, 2009. Then they went and shot themselves in the foot!

    No matter which way you look at it (and I'm getting L4D2, I don't really care too much) - but they've really taken some of the shine off their name this year, haven't they? Could be good in the short-term but bad in the long-term.
    Edited by 2 at 10/11/09 @ 12:13

  • FogHeart #7 2 years ago

    They really have....regular players have been screaming for this since shortly after launch. Instead they concentrated on things like Survival that no one plays (or at least played once per map and never again, even according to Valve). How can you have an online game where it's practically impossible to arrange a team versus team game? And how can you wait until the sequel is about to be released to do something about it? Normally Valve display an uncanny knack of giving players what they want...this was rather the opposite!

  • Bremenacht #8 2 years ago

    Will they ever patch TF2 on 360?

    Hearing a fair bit of criticism of the L4D2 demo. Perhaps it's a little too open and easy, but that's kind of perfect for anyone who hasn't tried it before. Versus is where the fun is at, imo, and we'll have to wait another week or so to enjoy that. I hope they re-release the demo with versus enabled.

    Oh - and here's hoping that versus isn't full of game-killing exploits, again.

  • smoison #9 2 years ago

    Its too bad they still won't add the damn Server browser!!!

    There are alot of things that needed fixing or tweaking, and they haven't been done in L4D 2 either :(

    Too bad

    Edited by 1 at 10/11/09 @ 14:27

  • giant_frying_pan #10 2 years ago

    smoison:

    1.) Open the console
    2.) Type 'openserverbrowser' (no quotes)
    3.) Done!

  • kwesleyb #11 2 years ago

    Hurah!....
    Oh wait... i didnt have a problem with the original way to set up a VS game, oh well, great stuff anyway :)