In a nutshell: Players will have access to new animations, dialog, achievements and melee weapons. Valve has additionally baked in some competitive balance adjustments, bug and exploit fixes, UI improvements and plenty of "other surprises" for gamers to discover.

Valve's latest update for classic zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 is now available. To celebrate the occasion, the developer is hosting a free to play weekend.

The official Left 4 Dead 2 update is years in the making and was created by the community, for the community. Dubbed The Last Stand, it adds 26 new survival maps, four scavenge arenas and a new campaign based on the lighthouse survival map.

In total, there are more than 1,000 changes across the entire game. You can check out the full changelog over on the Steam website.

The Last Stand is available for free to all PC players. What's more, Valve is hosting a free play weekend starting today and running through Sunday in the event you don't already own Left 4 Dead 2. Should you decide to purchase the game, it's available at an 80 percent discount right now, bringing the cost of ownership down to just $1.99.

Based on Steam's stats, gamers are welcoming the update and free play weekend with open arms. As of writing, there are 88,771 gamers playing the game, making it the seventh most active game on Steam right now.