LEFT 4 DEAD

[schild]

5 minutes bitches.

[Triforcer]

5 minutes bitches.

So, 10 minutes until we hear about how grossly over/underpowered one/some of the Infected are?

[bhodi]

This game will be short lived. It's got no staying power, not with only 4 levels. Once you memorize them you know exactly where all the safe zones are, where to run, where to pause, and what to do.

I expect moderate popularity for the first 2 months and then tapering off to only the super hardcore. It's a casual game that's priced out of casual play.

If it was retailing at $30 or less, I would extend that time by several months.

[Falconeer]

I said elsewhere that 2 weeks is a lot of fun. 2 months is four times that amount of fun. Sign me in!

More seriously, I see your point, but who cares? Without a REAL versus system it'll have the typical staying power of a single game. Doesn't matter how fun is to play together, it's still a "story mode" from point a to point b. You can replay it, but there's no competition so it follows the fate of every single payer game. Your prediction is realistic to me but what's wrong with it?

Box sale ---> 1 to 8 weeks of fun ---> done with it.

Isn't that the same with any non-(100%)-multiplayer game?


Oh, and updates/new maps/chars/modes for the win.

[NiX]

Once you memorize them you know exactly where all the safe zones are, where to run, where to pause, and what to do.

I think a lot of people around here keep underestimating the Director. Playing for a couple hours last night with random people produced some interesting results and not just from them. The director really is a thing of beauty. My point is that you only know where to run, if that. The rest can change just based on the monsters you encounter.

I agree though, as with any game, it'll taper off after 2-3 months. I don't think it'll be that significant though especially considering they already have TF2 maps working with L4D.

[Big Gulp]

My problem with the game is the pacing.  Everybody runs too fast, there's no communication, and for the most part it's a mad dash for the safe rooms interspersed with a little bit of gunplay.  I'm actually having more fun in single player than I am in pick up groups.

[Prospero]

Are you playing on expert? That runs I spent on Dead Air last night on expert were amazing. We never made it beyond the third leg, but howdy it was fun. Mad dashes won't help you against swarms of undead with a witch just on the edge of the fight.

[schild]

My problem with the game is the pacing.  Everybody runs too fast, there's no communication, and for the most part it's a mad dash for the safe rooms interspersed with a little bit of gunplay.  I'm actually having more fun in single player than I am in pick up groups.

I don't know what you're playing >_>

[NiX]

You know as well as I do Schild that it all depends on the group of people. Some people refuse to communicate and just play it like a shooter. I encountered 2-3 groups like that last night.

Gulp, once you land a fully voice chatted group, you won't have a problem. If one person becomes the "leader" and starts calling stuff out, the game hits a whole new level of awesome.

[Mrbloodworth]

I hear that Xbox users can play with PC users. Confirm?

[kaid]

This game is a blast in a lan environment so you can throw things at the guy next to you who thought throwing a molotov was a good plan to get that zombie swarm off me.

[NiX]

I hear that Xbox users can play with PC users. Confirm?

AFAIK, Neg.

[Samwise]

Nobody is ever going to be fool enough to make an FPS that lets consoles play with PCs.  There's no way to balance the two.

[NiX]

Didn't Shadowrun allow that?

[KallDrexx]

Patches is a bigger issue that keeps PC and console games separate.

[Viin]

But with the 360 you can force a game to get patched before you allow online play ..

[KallDrexx]

But with the 360 you can force a game to get patched before you allow online play ..

Doesn't matter.  Console manufacturers require a much higher level of QA (both from the manufacturer themselves, i.e. Microsoft, and from the developer itself).  It's a much slower process to get patches approved for console then it is to get them approved for pc games (whcih just requires the developer to give the go ahead).

This means that if they find a issue with cheating on the pc, they can't immediately release a patch due to the console version.

[Lantyssa]

Didn't Shadowrun allow that?

With an install base of five Vista gamers, it didn't really matter.

[MahrinSkel]

Didn't Shadowrun allow that?

Fury tried it, it took about a week for them to segregate them because the 360 players were getting completely destroyed.  Boom, Headshot!  I just can't play shooters on a console, it drives me batshit trying to strafe my crosshairs across the target and thinking "With a mouse, I'd be picking 'right eye, or left?'"  Mass Effect is a completely different game when you get headshots more than half the time (I played it both ways).  If it doesn't come out for PC, I usually don't play it, I don't even play most of the sneakers because without the mouse "head flick" to find a vector for a sound while it's still playing, it's just not the same.

--Dave

[TheWalrus]

Fixes out today

General


Fixed Survivors being able to climb surfaces marked for versus infected only

Fixed a class of SurvivorBot bugs dealing with rescuing downed players

Players can no longer grab ladders while flying through the air after a Tank punch

Shooting near a car with an alarm that has already fired the alarm will no longer make chirping noises

Improved loading time

Fixed mini-gun physics exploit

Fixed propane tanks (and other physics objects) causing players to fall through elevators

Fixed rare achievement bug issues

Fixed several map exploits

Fixed various match making issues

Fixed NAT traversal issues


Versus Changes

Added HUD elements to show status of other infected players

Changed color of infected player name in chat to red

Fixed exploit where players could spawn infected bots

Fixed instance where a Survivor changing to the infected team would be attacked by infected bots

Normalized special infected melee damage

Made the following client commands cheat protected: "Kill" and "explode"

Fixed exploit where infected players could run away and teleport back to gain health

Players can only change teams once per map

Players can't change teams while other players are still loading

Tank spawns at the same % through the map for both teams in versus mode

Made the Tank and Witch spawn directly on the escape route

Increased chance of getting the Tank or Witch

Fixed team swap issue


Hunter

Easier to pounce a Survivor who is meleeing

Increased Minimum damage a Hunter pounce does


Smoker

Fixed Smoker tongue tolerance

Smoker now has to be killed or the tongue destroyed for the tongue to break

Survivors cannot bash someone off the tongue until the Survivor being pulled is paralyzed or hanging

Tongue attacks that fail to paralyze or hang a Survivor will use the shorter ability delay timer

Fixed cases where the ability timer was not using the correct time

Fixed case where you could point at a Survivor but not register a tongue hit

Fixed Smoker tongue not targeting and landing properly through PZ ghosts

Smoker tongue does damage every second while dragging paralyzed Survivors


Tank

Bashable objects now appear with a red glow

Tanks hitting a car with an alarm disables the alarm permanently

Tank frustration timer is only reset by hitting Survivors with rocks or fists

Reduced autoshotgun damage against Tanks


Witch

Witch spawns at the same % through the map for both teams

Avoids spawning within a certain % of the tank

Fixed an exploit where the Witch could be woken up and tricked into attacking Survivors




Excited bout smoker changes. Makes him a little more useful. Team switching changes are meh.

[TheWalrus]

Just went on a test run. Smoker kills now. Survivors have to worry more about getting as far as they can rather than completing the map. Bad teams that used to make it to safehouse through sheer luck will get destroyed in the first part of the map.

To sum up, holy fuck. It's like playing versus on expert.

[NiX]

I wonder if they fixed the bug where online campaign games turned into versus after you reached the first safe room.

[Ookii]

I haven't really run across that one, so I'd say yes.

[NiX]

It didn't happen every time, but when it did, it didn't go away until you restarted or someone else hosted.

[NiX]

Started playing with my brother again. I'm reminded why we stopped. Every server has the worst fucking ping in the world.

[Aez]

You should locally host campaigns on the best machine out of the 4 players.
Don't host a versus, it too hard even for top of the line computer.

[Ookii]

I think you have the worst luck in the world Nix.

[Trippy]

It might help if the matching making/browser wasn't so fucking brain damaged.

[NiX]

I think you have the worst luck in the world Nix.

That too, but for the most part it's either 1 red bar or 2 orange.

Maybe I'll run a dedicated server on my old computer.

[TheWalrus]

openserverbrowser is your friend.

[Trippy]

Still a piece of shit.

[Ookii]

Anyone want to get together one of these nights and plow through expert mode?  I really haven't found a group that was good enough to do it yet.

[NiX]

Anyone want to get together one of these nights and plow through expert mode?  I really haven't found a group that was good enough to do it yet.

Count me in. Don't worry, my brother and his buddy will not be in attendance. They have much to learn.

[DraconianOne]

What a I really want is some strats for playing infected in Versus. We can get totally decimated as survivors by teams working well together but we never seem to be able to co-ordinate as well. Any hints?

[NiX]

Voice chat. It's a must. You have to be able to time the boomer vomit with both the hunter and smoker taking out 2 survivors. That way the other 2 are left fending off the rush.