Players attempting to engage in the online modes of Left 4 Dead 2 on the Xbox 360 yesterday, including Co-operative Campaign, Versus Mode, Survival, and the all-new Scavenger Mode, probably found the zombie apocalypse to be much laggier this time around. We have yet to receive word from Valve regarding the issue, but all the evidence points towards the Official Dedicated Servers as the culprits behind the lag. We’ve heard whispers that the Official Dedicated Servers are too few in number to accommodate the throngs of players attempting to play, but once again, this has yet to be substantiated. Thankfully, there’s a legitimate workaround available in-game: when launching a multiplayer game, players can use their own connection to host by selecting the Local Server option from the game settings found in the lobby. We tried this solution ourselves and were able to play through an entire Co-Operative Campaign online without problem. However, playgroups that don’t have a stable connection amongst them may still be out of luck.
Whether more Official Dedicated Servers are needed, or the current ones are malfunctioning (infected, perhaps?), it blows this journalist’s mind that a game so focused on online multiplayer could launch in this state. With the Xbox 360 version of the game costing $20 CAD more than the Steam version, fans have good reason to be upset.
We’ll keep on this story and report on any response we receive from Valve.
Richard Mitchell is a video game addict living in Toronto. He has been gaming for more than two decades, and despite multiple interventions, continues to game today. He has an Xbox 360, a PS3, a Wii, a Nintendo DS, a gaming PC, and a life, and does his best to juggle them all. 