Left 4 Dead 2 Gets Huge 'Last Stand' Update, But Mac Version Remains 32-Bit

[MacRumors]

After almost a decade since the game's release on Mac, Valve's iconic co-op zombie shooter "Left 4 Dead 2" has just got a huge update thanks to new content pack "The Last Stand."

It has been many years since the infection first hit. Radio silence, no sign of life, nothing but lingering hopes... CEDA is not going to save us. But there is hope! A few brave souls have continued the fight against all odds, and soon we can all benefit from their resilience.

Created by the L4D2 community and officially endorsed by Valve, the update includes over 1,000 changes to the game, including 26 new survival maps, new weapons, new enemy types, new animations, and unused dialogue. There are also several new achievements, many bug fixes and a handful of user interface enhancements to make the game feel fresh again.

The only downside to today's development for old-school gaming fans is the dawning realization that "Left 4 Dead 2" for Mac remains a 32-bit game, which means it's currently incompatible with macOS 10.15 Catalina and later, and the chances that Valve will update the title to 64-bit anytime soon don't look great. (Aspyr, it's worth noting, stopped selling 32-bit Mac games last year.)

If your Mac is still running macOS 10.14 Mojave or older, then you won't have a problem playing 32-bit games like "Left 4 Dead 2." For everyone else, Valve suggests a couple of remaining options:

• After upgrading to macOS 10.15 Catalina, consider installing macOS 10.14 Mojave on a separate APFS volume on your computer along with Steam. This will allow you to flip over to macOS 10.14 on restart of your computer where you can continue to play all of your 32-bit Mac games. More information here.
• Use Bootcamp on Mac to launch your games in Windows on your Mac computer. More information about Bootcamp can be found here.

It bears repeating that Boot Camp will not be supported on forthcoming Apple Silicon-based Macs and likely never will, with Apple preferring to emphasize virtualization going forward. Ultimately though, the hope is that the performance gains of Apple Silicon will prompt developers to make triple-A games native for Mac.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1309186922359656449

As a launch promotion, Valve has made "Left 4 Dead 2" free to play for the duration of the weekend, and for anyone who wants to keep playing beyond Sunday, the game is available for just $2 on Steam.

Article Link: Left 4 Dead 2 Gets Huge 'Last Stand' Update, But Mac Version Remains 32-Bit

 

[johannnn]

Releasing a 32-bit game/app for macOS in September 2020 is just LOL. I doubt a developer made that call.

 

[TantalizedMind]

Will this DLC be coming to Xbox?!!!

 

[ruka.snow]

Doesn’t make sense to update the game to x86-64 for Mac when Mac is just about to switch to Arm. Hopefully they are spending some resources in this.

 

[Aluminum213]

If you’re into gaming you don’t get a Mac, simple as that

 

[urgs]

Doesn’t make sense to update the game to x86-64 for Mac when Mac is just about to switch to Arm. Hopefully they are spending some resources in this.

Apple Silicon based Macs will be able to run x86-64 code via Rosetta 2

 

[TFK.]

Mac ⛔️ Games.. unless it’s Arm then we may see some improvements regarding games on Mac OS

 

[urgs]

If you’re into gaming you don’t get a Mac, simple as that

You seriously belive that?

 

[psingh01]

Releasing a 32-bit game/app for macOS in September 2020 is just LOL. I doubt a developer made that call.

This is a content pack for an existing 32 bit game.

Plenty of perfectly good games are unplayable because Apple decided to drop support. Not that it matters much anyway, since many of those games were already years old before a mac port was available. There will be less effort in the future for ports to an ARM Mac platform.

 

[ruka.snow]

Apple Silicon based Macs will be able to run x86-64 code via Rosetta 2

That is not viable long term and is not worth putting development resources into.

 

[AndiG]

If you’re into gaming you don’t get a Mac, simple as that

If you’re into 3D graphics or machine learning you don’t get a Mac, simple as that - did you want to say this? Since this is what it's all about.
No NVidia, damn old OpengL driver (deprecated, to be removed), no Vulkan, no CUDA - just proprietary Apple Metal. Wrappers like MoltenVK are lame - I don't see a future für Apple in the 3d or machine learning world.
If you really want to use some Apple proprietary stuff for visualisation or ML - you'll never be able to use it in a car or any embedded platform just because it is Apple only and there is no such thing like an embedded platform from Apple.

 

[oldmacs]

This is a content pack for an existing 32 bit game.

Plenty of perfectly good games are unplayable because Apple decided to drop support. Not that it matters much anyway, since many of those games were already years old before a mac port was available. There will be less effort in the future for ports to an ARM Mac platform.

And supposedly to make MacOS better and more stable, yet Catalina has been the worst release of MacOS/OSX I’ve ever used.

 

[Plutonius]

Releasing a 32-bit game/app for macOS in September 2020 is just LOL. I doubt a developer made that call.

I think that it's more likely that the developer decided it wasn't worth recoding the game for 64 bits.

They probably kept the same game engine and just made changes to the database.

How much of a change could be expected for a $2 game ?

 

[Stevez67]

If you’re into 3D graphics or machine learning you don’t get a Mac, simple as that - did you want to say this? Since this is what it's all about.
No NVidia, damn old OpengL driver (deprecated, to be removed), no Vulkan, no CUDA - just proprietary Apple Metal. Wrappers like MoltenVK are lame - I don't see a future für Apple in the 3d or machine learning world.
If you really want to use some Apple proprietary stuff for visualisation or ML - you'll never be able to use it in a car or any embedded platform just because it is Apple only and there is no such thing like an embedded platform from Apple.

Those are some serious blinders you have on.

 

[Plutonius]

There will be less effort in the future for ports to an ARM Mac platform.

I don't know if I necessarily agree with that.

Many developers count on bootcamp to account for some MacOS users sales.

Without bootcamp, there might be more incentive to produce a MacOS version.

 

[Plutonius]

Catalina has been the worst release of MacOS/OSX I’ve ever used.

I'm sticking with Mojave until I eventually get a new Mac.

 

[MauiPa]

Doesn’t make sense to update the game to x86-64 for Mac when Mac is just about to switch to Arm. Hopefully they are spending some resources in this.

LOL, not a programmer? Moving to 64 bit from 32 is not a hard task. any competent programmer could do it in short order

 

[MauiPa]

And supposedly to make MacOS better and more stable, yet Catalina has been the worst release of MacOS/OSX I’ve ever used.

Not me, that would be any version of Windows. Plus Catalina was great. If you are so convinced Catalina had all these "problems" can you please list them for me, because I absolutely loved Catalina, very stable worked great.

 

[Plutonius]

Doesn’t make sense to update the game to x86-64 for Mac when Mac is just about to switch to Arm. Hopefully they are spending some resources in this.

A current 64 bit MacOS version would be playable on ARM Macs because of Rosetta.

 

[Plutonius]

LOL, not a programmer? Moving to 64 bit from 32 is not a hard task. any competent programmer could do it in short order

Much of it depends on the libraries that are used.

 

[ruka.snow]

LOL, not a programmer? Moving to 64 bit from 32 is not a hard task. any competent programmer could do it in short order

If you truly believe it is that simple, you have no clue. It is not just a bloody checkbox and rarely just your code.

 

[Somian]

Libraries could be stuck at 32 Bit. Newer versions might be available but they might not be compatible (for example the physics engine). And high performance parts of Game Engines are often written in assembly for each supported platform.

 

[ruka.snow]

A current 64 bit MacOS version would be playable on ARM Macs because of Rosetta.

Playable yes, but would it be worth the development resources to update a old game to 64bit for a version of macOS that is on its death bed? Even if they had started, anyone is charge would have promptly put a halt to it and ether abandoned the project or shifted the resources to macOS 11 and ARM.

 

[Shirasaki]

32-bit in 2020 is indeed an interesting call, but not too surprising. I feel valve will drop Mac support later on when switching to ARM Mac.

 

[jinnj]

Doesn’t make sense to update the game to x86-64 for Mac when Mac is just about to switch to Arm. Hopefully they are spending some resources in this.

Resources on what? An ARM version? Not likely unless they are planning a re-release.