Wow, this game has taken the FPS gaming world by storm. We love Counter Strike, we love games where we team up with each other to kill the opposing forces who are also played by humans. We love the teamwork involved, we love the fact that we have someone to help us when we get into trouble, cover us, revenge for us and ultimately win the game together as a team.

This is the winning formula for replay-ability. Game that can’t seem to get boring.

Other games tried to copy this formula. Sudden Attack did. Heck, look at its name! What this game does is it oozes a lot of ‘me-too’. Same old same old. It’s fun, but it isn’t any break through.

Then comes Left4Dead. My god this game. It embraces the formula and extend it beyond what is thought possible. One limitation though, only maximum of 8 players. Actually, it only plays well if it is played by 8 players.

Anyway, before I continue to sing praises for this game, here are the steps to get Left4Dead up and running and playable in Malaysia. Most of us uses Garena to play and I suggest you use it too. Don’t worry, just follow the steps below and you’ll be playing this game in no time.

The following step by step guide will patch your Left4Dead game up to 1.0.0.9 (or most of us called it version 9) and disable Steam (or most of us called it UnSteam/DeSteam it).

Step one. Get Left4Dead up and running. Download, buy or copy the game onto your computer. We are not going to explain the steps to grab hold of the game illegally, but you should know your way around, if not, ask a friend who do.

Step two. Install Garena and get it up and running. Register your name in preparation. Installation files can be found here.

Step three. Upgrade your Left4Dead to the latest patch level. Here are the patching files. Patching from any version to 1.0.0.7 : Install this file.

Note: For some of you, there might be a need to install these additional files. Usually if you keep your Windows updated, these files are not required. You will know when you need the file, because on Step Three, the patch will ask for it. Anyway, here it is. Install this file and Install this file. To be on the safe side, install all of the mentioned files, but be warned, the files are large, so downloading it will take some time.

Step four. Patch from 1.0.0.7 to 1.0.0.8 : Install this file.

Step five. Patch from 1.0.0.8 to 1.0.0.9 : Install this file.

Step six. Disable Steam to enable you to play over Garena. Install this file.

Step seven. Setup the Left4Dead settings on Garena. Namely, the Executable Settings and Game Bootstrap Parameters.
Enter the following for Executable Settings : Point it to your left4dead.exe file. Normally it is installed in the Program Files/Left4Dead folder.
Enter the following for Game Bootstrap Parameters : +sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 0 +sv_lan 1.

Step eight. The final step. Go to your Left4Dead installation folder. Search for a file called rev.ini and open it in Notepad. Search for the text PlayerName=. You’ll see a name occupying this space. Replace it with the name of your choice.

And that’s it. Once all steps are completed. Click on Start Game in Garena to begin!