Hacking the Left 4 Dead Demo: Split-Screen Co-op, Playable Zombies, and Custom Maps

32
Fans have had a field day with exploring what's possible in Valve's Left 4 Dead since the demo for the PC version was unlocked for pre-order customers yesterday. After less than 48 hours, a bit of trickery has yielded split-screen play, playable zombies from the versus mode, and even an old friend of Counter-Strike fans, the classic map de_dust.

User TheBusGuy on the Steam forums has written a "guide" to playing with two players on one PC. It requires the use of an Xbox 360 controller connected to the PC, but assuming the player has a controller it's a relatively easy process.

Meanwhile, fans anxious to test drive the zombies from the versus mode can get their fix--in the single-player game, anyway. Another Steam forum thread by user Scuzball explains how to switch over to the undead side and start a game against 4 AI survivors using just a few console commands.

Some players, like Steam user TIHan, are anxious to get started on custom mapmaking for the game. He discovered that Left 4 Dead already has rudimentary support for custom maps when he loaded up Dust, the timeless Counter-Strike map. The result was the video seen below:

[videofeature]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SlXeiRH8VI [img]http://www.shacknews.com/extras/faylor/l4d_prev.jpg[/img][/videofeature]

Filed Under
From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 7, 2008 3:43 PM

    who will play zombies with me tonight? I want to be tongue duder!!

    • reply
      November 7, 2008 4:10 PM

      Can't wait to try this out...

    • reply
      November 7, 2008 4:11 PM

      No playable zombies yet.

      • reply
        November 7, 2008 4:11 PM

        Oh, DUH, I missed that this can be hacked in in the main article. :P

        • reply
          November 7, 2008 4:44 PM

          it looks like it only works in single player though

          • reply
            November 7, 2008 10:31 PM

            Works in MP, you need to enable sv_cheats though. So you need rcon access.

        • reply
          November 9, 2008 12:08 AM

          eventhough i wouldn't consider using a regular console command as a 'hack' :)

      • reply
        November 8, 2008 12:29 AM

        huh they still haven't enabled player controlled zombies? like less than a week from full release?

        does not bode well - the last few months have really painted the impression they never managed to finalize that part of the game.

        • reply
          November 8, 2008 12:37 AM

          Versus mode is not officially enabled in the demo. It's ready to go for the full game come Nov 18.

    • reply
      November 7, 2008 5:28 PM

      I just tried it out...very awesome. But the spawns are fucked up so it doesn't work like a normal game of Versus. Just fun to run around though.

Hello, Meet Lola