Left 4 Dead Outbreak Achievement?
There’s been a lot of chatter about the Outbreak Achievement in Valve’s latest success Left 4 Dead (Thanks again Valve, you’re super.) The achievement is very vague in its conditions, and has spawned some debate over its meaning.
The Outbreak achievement’s description reads as follows:
Catch a rare strain of infection, then pass it on to someone else.
This is very ambiguous in its interpretation, while every other achievement appears to have a very straightforward requirement. It’s been speculated that the achievement occurs when a survivor makes contact with another player while covered in Boomer bile. Others say all developers start with the rare infection and “tag” it to other players as they play throughout the community.
I think we all respect Valve here. We recognize them as smart and playful developers. People who like playing and making games. So for them to just fuddle around with a single achievement’s definition is simply out of character for them. I’d guess that a handful of players started with the infection in their Left 4 Dead games, and are passing the “infection” to other players on their steam lists. I think it’d be very interesting to see Valve post up some stats on how quickly we were all infected. I think it’d also be very cool to see who didn’t get the achievement. In other words, who didn’t become infected, and are ultimately, the infection survivors.
If you’re reading this, what are your thoughts on this whole Outbreak thing? What do you suspect it could be?
Left 4 Dead Demo Screens
Some time last year, I made a statement that Zombie culture was making a comeback. Amidst the popularity of the Walking Dead comic series and movies like Quarantine and Diary of the Dead, Left 4 Dead was just one of the big clues.
I just finished playing the Left 4 Dead pre-order demo, solo, and then online with a full team of survivors. If you haven’t been following, Left 4 Dead is a first person shooter, and will be featuring four Movie Campaigns, a set of stories/scenarios from which you must escape, playing as part of a team of zombie infection survivors. Your object, I believe, will never change: dont die and be get rescued. But the journey to safety will be an arduous and life-threatening (did I mention morbidly scenic and memorable?) one.
Maybe these screenshots might paint a better picture…
This one’s already dead
Pop goes the weasel!
How many licks does it take to get to the 
This one had a run in with R. Kelly
Haters wanna hate, Lovers wanna love
That red ain’t part of the tattoo
New Orange Box Juice, made with 100% pure Vitamin V
I’m sure all the crackheads and car thieves learned I forgot. I’m sorry.
Ok, ok. I’m sorry. I got all caught up with the “best time to be a gamer” thing and have been too busy playing Fallout 3, Gears 2, Little Big Planet, Far Cry 2, and Super Job Search 3 (to name a few games) to remind myself to keep tabs on Left 4 Dead. But luckily it caught up with ME, and reminded ME that this was November. The best time to be a gamer as all the Quadruple A titles – I’m coining the term – launch a full out offensive on store shelves in preparation for the holiday season.
Anyway, this post isn’t really concerning Left 4 Dead. It’s more about what’s being shipped out with Left 4 Dead. Valve has recently announced Steam Cloud, an upgrade to your existing Steam client that will allow users to save their config and save files to one of their many servers. Well ain’t that something? Now you can game on any computer running Steam.
I find this heartening too, because it encourages people to get out of the house 
DON’T BE A SLAVE TO YOUR SAVE FILE. Wow I feel gay.
You can read a more profession article about it here.