By Kieron Gillen on November 6th, 2008 at 5:14 pm.
Those who have pre-ordered Left 4 Dead will hopefully have noticed that the demo’s actually gone live. We only just managed it, as jetlag is preventing me noticing anything other than the taste of tea and Hobnobs. The demo is one and a half maps of NO MERCY – worth noting that the saferoom where it ends is one that’s been added for the demo – the full version of that level is a lot bigger. You can play single-player or co-op, but there’s no access to the versus mode. And everyone else gets a shot on November 11th.
However, it’s not entirely a smooth launch.
Firstly, there’s the usual bunch of PC launch technical problems – there’s a lot of complaints about bluescreens floating around. In fact, I just had one when I quit out of the demo – and, I stress, this is after I’d updated my drivers, as requested. Also, having some trouble joining servers. Or finding them.
Secondly, there’s a little bit of a furore over its server system. Left4Dead411 reports, quoting a mail from the HLDS mailing list explaining the new system:
Left 4 Dead will use the new matchmaking system we’ve been working on.
The new matchmaking system replaces the traditional server browser. By running a public dedicated server your server will be added to a list of servers available for clients to use when playing. Games are started from a Game Lobby by clients, who are then connected to a dedicated server when they start the game. When they’re done, your server is added back to the list of available servers. Clients will be able to “Quick Match”, “Play Online”, and “Play With Friends” when they want to play a game.
You will still have access to the traditional Message of the Day for your server. For Left 4 Dead, we’ve added a banner ad you can create that will be displayed to clients when they’re playing on your server. There is also a ranking system to show the popularity of your server.
This is the first version of what we’ve been working on, and we’re going to want feedback from all of you once things start turning up tomorrow.
In other words, there’s no traditional browser or explicit way to join a set server, etc. Which has caused 411 to get uppity – though, to their credit, they do add that, “This is about all the information we have at this time, so we warn you that the following is an overreaction caused by lack of knowledge of the situation.”
You will not be able to select a specific server to play on. If your clan pitches in for a dedicated server, it will just be added to the system. You will have no easy/intuitive way to just connect to the server you’re paying for. You could spend $100 a month on a super high-quality server while some other guy runs one out of his basement, and instead of enjoying what you paid for you’d be equal with everybody else.
Anyone got any thoughts on the matter?
06/11/2008 at 17:19 cHeal says:
It’s Rubbish?
Why not a dual service, where you can join any server you like and your ranking then affects the listing of that server on the matchmaking service?
06/11/2008 at 17:21 Dan Dickinson says:
My immediate thought is, what’s the point of having a popularity ranking system if the choice is forced on players?
06/11/2008 at 17:22 Roman Levin says:
Too bad you can’t preload the demo.
06/11/2008 at 17:25 Sweedums says:
it’s caused nothing but problems so far, but i will admit i’m glad it’s all going down now rather than on release day, they still have 12 days to fix these problems which should hopefully be enough time for valve to work their magic. I will say that from what i have been able to play so far, it is just as amazingly good fun as it was the previous 2 times i got a chance to play it. Personally i think it would be a good idea to have a server list AND a matchmaking system… I mean, why not cater for everyone?
06/11/2008 at 17:30 Pace says:
I suspect the answer lies in the affirmative.
06/11/2008 at 17:30 Ian says:
“preventing me notice anything other than the taste of tea and hobnobs.”
Heaven?
06/11/2008 at 17:30 the affront says:
Current system is just utterly stupid… I’d like to know their reasoning behind this. I simply can’t fathom what made them go with something like this.
Although there still is the /connect ip command via console… anyone know if you can set a password to a dedicated server? I’m guessing it should be possible – would only be half as bad then, this system (which is still too much) – but I haven’t messed with that yet.
06/11/2008 at 17:32 Gurrah says:
So it’s basically like the CoD4 server-”browser” on the XBOX? I’d say for a game that relies on 4 players working as a team, matchmaking isn’t a bad idea in general, but it shouldn’t be forced upon the player and should rather be an option if none of your mates are online.
06/11/2008 at 17:33 MacBeth says:
Any thoughts? Yes, a few…
Reports say you can’t determine server latency until you join, and that people get ‘matched’ across the world so they end up laggy as hell.
Our gaming community has been planning and costing setting up several L4D servers – we have a thriving TF2, DOD and INS community and planned to add L4D to that. No way will we go ahead and spend cash on top-end, low latency servers if we can’t play on them, and end up getting randomly assigned to someone’s spare linux box. Apparently you can connect via console but that’s clearly not going to work properly when games have started etc.
There’s a fair bit of ‘this is just a demo’ talk on the Steam forums etc. but it does clearly say “The new matchmaking system replaces the traditional server browser.”
Time for Valve to show they are still awesome by dealing with this rapidly…
06/11/2008 at 17:39 Chris R says:
I haven’t had any problems at all yet. Played through both maps of the single-player mission, and joined a friends multi-player game before heading off to work this morning.
The game runs SMOOOTH (it feels like 60+ frames, and not one bit of slowdown or lag) on my 8800GT and ancient AMD 3700+ cpu with the graphics turned up to 1920×1080, everything on highest settings, and 4xAA and 8xAnistropic.
I’m really amazed at how smoothly the game runs at those settings honestly. MY CPU is very low end, and the game runs fine on it with all the settings maxed (except for AA and Anis).
Also, this is crazy fun… I’m having a blast, the weapons feel great, movement is right on, and mowing down 20-30 zombies in 10 seconds is quite a thing to behold.
This. Game. Is. Awesome.
06/11/2008 at 17:40 Downloads_Plz says:
Granted I haven’t played the game yet, but to me “Clients will be able to “Quick Match”, “Play Online”, and “Play With Friends” when they want to play a game” sounds more like Quick Match will just match you up with random people while Play Online will let you specify a server to join. Could be and probably am wrong though, but I would assume there will still be an option to join a dedicated server if there isn’t yet.
06/11/2008 at 17:41 the affront says:
Yeah, dropping in/out during a game in progress seamlessly replacing the bots with players (and vice versa) should be a given with this kind of game in this day and age.
If that was possible I don’t see any need AT ALL for a needlessly consolized (yes, I said it) “matchmaking” system.
06/11/2008 at 17:42 Nero says:
I gotta say that the matchmaking system is rubbish. I’ve been able to connect to games 2 times out of maybe 15 tries. You don’t see any ping just these damn bars. And I like to play in certain communities in TF2, and since I don’t have many of these people on my friends list I would still like to play them, but now it’s impossible to find. Matchmaking could stay on the consoles. The whole menu system and such feels like Rainbow Six Vegas to me, and that is not a good thing (horrible online service).
06/11/2008 at 17:43 A-Scale says:
The game is stunning. Any issues with server hosting not being encouraged will be sorted out in the coming weeks, I’m certain. Valve is not a stupid company, and they will not push a game that no one wants to host servers for. That said, L4D has a max of 8 human players, meaning much less server traffic, meaning that traditional private box servers may be unnecessary. I also think that the ranking system is brilliant for a game like this, and I hope that it takes whether people use their boody mics into the calculation.
Preorder and go play it now. L4D will not disappoint.
06/11/2008 at 17:45 eswat says:
I should probably hold my tongue until I have booted up the demo, but I can’t see this being a good thing for people paying for dedicated servers, at all.
I wanted to fool around with setting up a DS on my webserver, but what’s the point if I can’t connect directly to it (AFAIK connect command doesn’t work in L4D) and can’t build a healthy community on it?
And yes, it replaces the server browser, as mentioned in the mailing list. Can Valve add a compromise before release? I hope so…
06/11/2008 at 17:58 Little Green Man says:
So is there no way to connect to a dedicated server your friend is hosting? If so that sucks almighty balls.
06/11/2008 at 17:59 qrter says:
I preloaded it yesterday.. or do you mean for people who haven’t pre-ordered?
Maybe Valve’ll do the same thing they did for the pre-orderers, making a preload available the day before the demo goes ‘live for all’.
06/11/2008 at 18:06 RichPowers says:
Heh, I was just gushing over Valve’s server browsers in a different topic. Hopefully they can fix this snafu before the official release.
So many decent online games have died solely for lack of a good server browser (not suggesting this will happen to L4D, but one should never underestimate the need for excellent matchmaking tools)
06/11/2008 at 18:14 Drakkheim says:
Hmm, yuck?
How about Lan play? is that still there or do you have to go find someone’s empty server on the net to play locally on?
So how do you get 4 friends on a server since you won’t be matchmade into an empty server…
06/11/2008 at 18:24 Dorsch says:
Matchmaking with friends works, there is a lobby system. However, you have no control over what server you and your friends play on. Since there are very few servers right now, almost every game lags.
06/11/2008 at 18:30 Sweedums says:
iv been hosting a dedicated server from my machine for the last half-hour… i have a 24mb line and a fairly decent rig… it has been full ever since, the problem is now i can’t join it, though i wouldnt be able to anyway since there is no direct connect….
06/11/2008 at 18:34 cyrenic says:
I think once they start grouping people by continent and more dedicated servers go up things will get better. I still hope they include some kind of server browser by the actual release. I suspect they might be forcing people to use the matchmaking for now to give it a good testing.
06/11/2008 at 18:43 Shadowmancer says:
This is the worst decision that Valve has done to date, this console crap needs to be removed its fine for the xbots and other console tards, but I was hoping for a proper server browser on which I could join servers with FRIENDS on not random people, also the game only detects so far LAN’s and not internet games for which I can join couple with the fact that Silent Hill Homecoming was today announced by Valve to be US only I’m in a seething mood, however the game runs fine and the single player mode is great especially on expert mode, the game should get 86% its not super great its just ok.
06/11/2008 at 18:53 Mman says:
When did 86% become merely “ok”?
Unfortunately I seem to get the same modem-related connection problem in L4D I get in TF2, which makes online play a pain in the ass even without the matchmaking system to make things even more awkward. Of course every other steam and online game has to work except for the ones I give a damn about.
At least the SP AI seems to be pretty well implemented; they could handle themselves on Advanced at least (although I did seem to get some super-lucky run with barely any bosses).
06/11/2008 at 18:53 rocketman71 says:
The demo is only for Steam preorders.
I don’t really like that server browser replacement. They should at least give you the option to choose whichever method you want, the old one or the new one.
06/11/2008 at 18:53 eswat says:
Update from Erik on the mailing list.
06/11/2008 at 19:06 Andrew Wills says:
Me and the guys from ModDB have been using Hamachi to create LAN servers, then joining those through the Lounge system and it works flawlessly and very fast, considering we’re split between the US, UK and Aus.
06/11/2008 at 19:10 Masterdog says:
GCF files should really be available on torrent sites. Steam’s crawling along downloading the demo for me.
06/11/2008 at 19:10 cyrenic says:
@eswat
I’m assuming the “support for what you describe” is referring to setting up a private server?
06/11/2008 at 19:12 Blake says:
I have requested a refund on my preorder. The quality is just not there. :( Disappointing.
06/11/2008 at 19:22 StormTec says:
@Blake
Care to elaborate?
06/11/2008 at 19:25 Mythrilfan says:
Really, Blake? Although I’ve only been able to play perhaps three games this evening, it’s basically not even out yet, so I’m not complaining.
06/11/2008 at 19:30 eswat says:
@cyrenic
Yup, it’s a response to admins not being able to join their own servers or being able to set a password on them.
06/11/2008 at 19:34 Blake says:
I am very disappointed in some technical aspects. First and most obvious is the lobby system; I’ve been successful at even getting into a game less than a third of the time. Once you’re inside the game, lag seems a fact of life even on dedicated servers with good pings… any time zombies spawn, the game lags. This happened even on my local computer, which is a high-end gaming rig.
The gameplay is also… well, I just don’t find it very compelling. Even on Expert there’s not a great deal of tension, and failure feels more like random chance than a failure of the survivors. This probably has something to do with the weird spawning system, honestly. I was fighting with my back to a small alcove with a bath-tub in it, and a pile of zombies spawned in the bath-tub.
I wasn’t initially particularly excited about this game, but pre-ordered when some of my friends started hyping it, with the intention of playing it with them. I think, maybe, it’s just not for me.
06/11/2008 at 19:34 StormTec says:
Also, how it played out for me and my friends was like this:
I started a lobby, and everyone else joined on me via the friends list (r-click contact > join game). Once we were all here, I let the game try to find us a server. This was attempted about 3 times before it finally loaded us all into a server.
And that was how I managed to connect to a L4D server, playing with only my friends, and not randoms. Not sure if this will work as well with everyone else, but it’s not impossible to play with just your friends =P
06/11/2008 at 19:36 Optimaximal says:
Doesn’t the concept of a random matchmaking system make a total mockery of Valve’s Steam Community?
06/11/2008 at 19:36 Heliocentric says:
Don’t fuck up valve. If they haven’t added a regular browser by a few days before release i’m cancelling. I’m refuse to be at the mercy of match making. Stuck in high ping servers with massive choke. It’d turn l4d into a single player game.
Just put in the half life 2 death match browser, your so close to greatness.
06/11/2008 at 19:38 fishmitten says:
This game is currently unavailable. Please try again at another time.
No, you shits. I pre-ordered so that I could try now.
06/11/2008 at 19:57 Nny says:
Having fun with 3 of my irc buddies there now – expert mode is hard and awesome, we can’t finish the appartments level :D
06/11/2008 at 19:59 Kadayi says:
Back so soon Kieron? Did you manage to wangle some big interviews as well as the play testing?
06/11/2008 at 20:02 yns88 says:
Expert mode is really great. Advanced requires cooperation, but you still mostly make it through to the end. Expert, on the other hand, is like having a guy punch you in the gut, and while you’re reeling in pain he kicks you in the balls.
And losing is so much fun.
06/11/2008 at 20:07 Broseph says:
I’m waiting to get off work to actually play it, but I’ve always LIKED the idea of matchmaking for PC games. To get a game going with similar skilled players there’s no reason you should have to: play awhile, get involved in a community, join a clan, get on Vent, organize a pickup game, set the rules on the server, then have everyone join it. Matchmaking streamlines that entire process into “click button.” It’s not dumbing it down, it’s called making it easier. Go install Gentoo from scratch if you just want extra steps to make yourself feel more leet than everyone else.
Along with that though I agree that yes, it should be easy to join games with friends/teammates as well as have the option of specifying a server.
+1 for implementing both systems.
06/11/2008 at 20:10 Tei says:
We don’t need to consolize Steam. Valve is a PC company, and we love his work. This crap of not having support for a proper server browser is amazing retro. Valve already have a rock solid server brownsing, so activelly avoiding it is failwhale.
06/11/2008 at 20:15 qrter says:
I believe the proper verb is “to consolerificise”, from the full “consolerification”.
06/11/2008 at 20:15 Dave says:
I’d been hoping for improvements on the current server browser. Examples:
- I want to be able to blacklist particular servers and maps.
- no server should be able to lie about how many players are online… several times I’ve joined TF2 servers that report 28/32 players and there are really 6.
- this is more minor, but it’d be nice if, when a server has reserved slots and you can’t actually log into it, it shows up somehow.
06/11/2008 at 20:18 Nick says:
It’s extremely awful and a terribly stupid idea from Vavle. I can’t understand what posessed them to force this awful matchmaking crap upon people rather than just having it as an option, it’s truely rubbish.
06/11/2008 at 20:28 cheeba says:
@Nick: It IS just an option, you people make it sound like there’s no other choice but to play with random people.
Yeah, the whole server management thing is a mess, but I don’t see any problem with the actual matchmaking system itself. Just add options to play on your own dedicated server or whatever and they’re there.
06/11/2008 at 20:31 cyrenic says:
I can’t confirm it myself, but players are reporting you can bring up a server browser from the developer console using the command “openserverbrowser”.
Proof: http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t135/Cremefrog/games/l4d/left4dead2008-11-0620-26-15-32.jpg
06/11/2008 at 20:33 The_B says:
There is a workaround!
If you open the console and type openserverbrowser then you can actually see a list of servers and connect to the one with the lowest ping. You have to be on the Custom tab though for some reason.
06/11/2008 at 20:34 Squiff says:
Friends! Rejoice! A quick stalk of the steam forums reveals this – http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=744540 – the coveted server browser!
Is that exactly what it looks like or am I getting excited about nothing? Maybe everything will be ok after all!
06/11/2008 at 20:34 qrter says:
Old news, The_B! That’s like sooo 2 minutes ago! ;)
06/11/2008 at 20:35 Little Green Man says:
Uhmm. It’s basically a beta people. If it’s not fixed by release, then go on a crazy bitch fest. I will play the demo, and I will tell Valve what I like and what I don’t like. Bitching won’t change anything.
06/11/2008 at 20:44 SuperMatt says:
It seems to me that if you want to play on a LAN, or you want to play on a specific server with your friends, then you have to run a dedicated server and join it using Steam’s built in server browser, rather than through the game. It’s not ideal, but it will work.
I can see why Valve made the decision they did though – it’s not like these are 24 player servers and you’re going to jump in with randoms – they want L4D to be a game you play with buddies – servers don’t need to be powerful for 4 people.
06/11/2008 at 20:46 frymaster says:
direct connection to a server works via the console and always has, if you set the server variable “only allow lobby connections” to “off”. There’s also a variable that determines whether or not your server asks to be listed in the global server list.
The thing that isn’t here in the demo only is the ability to password a server, which has been confirmed as appearing in the full game. As a workaround, me and my mates are just firewalling all IPs but our own from connecting to one* of our servers.
so, basically, storm, meet teacup :P
*one of many, because the linux server performance has undergone an astonishing transformation: l4d is described as being more cpu-intensive on servers than tf2, yet on linux, due to the improvements, it’s about 3 times faster. Yes, 300%
06/11/2008 at 20:50 Rob Zacny says:
Thus far I would have to echo Blake’s post above. At this stage, I strongly discourage anyone from pre-ordering. There are quite simply too many issues that need to be fixed.
I have had terrible luck getting into games. The matchmaking is fine, but when it comes time to find a server and get into a game, everything goes to hell.
I’ve been playing all morning so far and have not had a single round where every player who started it manages to finish it. It’s very unreliable.
And still not polished enough. Clipping has been problematic. As has spawning, which is quite arbitrary at times.
Wait to hear the all-clear on these issues before you consider buying this. Single player is fun for a little while, but this game absolutely requires a smooth and reliable online experience.
06/11/2008 at 20:54 Dorsch says:
With expectations this high, the backlash from angry internet men seems predetermined. I just wasn’t expecting it so early. I sympathize with the 3 last posters who show some common sense. Calm down people, it’s not like Lobby systems or random games are stupid console stuff. Have you ever heard of a little genre called rts?
06/11/2008 at 20:58 manintheshack says:
My God. For all the praising of this game, it’s such a shame the demo’s in such a state. I haven’t connected to one solid game yet. Lagging and disconnects abound. I just want one decent match… However, for all the annoyances, I can see how much fun this will be when it’s running properly. Everyone I’ve matched up with so far have been friendly and good with the teamwork malarkey, despite the issues. It’s just not the first experience I wanted from the game.
Ach, back to trying to like Fallout 3 then…
06/11/2008 at 21:05 Nick says:
When it works, it amazing, I’m only angry because having been trying for 6 hours, we have only had 3 games that have worked.
06/11/2008 at 21:06 Blake says:
I really hate the “angry internet men” meme. I’ll be glad when it goes away forever. Expressing unhappiness with a product is not an example of irrational anger.
06/11/2008 at 21:20 Dorsch says:
“this console crap needs to be removed its fine for the xbots and other console tards, but I was hoping for a proper server browser on which I could join servers with FRIENDS on not random people”
Enough irrational anger for you?
06/11/2008 at 21:23 Noc says:
I dunno, he’s meeting Internet standards. We’ve a quota to fill, after all.
06/11/2008 at 21:27 Blake says:
Well, okay, Dorsch. He might be angry internet mans.
06/11/2008 at 21:30 Dorsch says:
Well, now that I re-read the comments, there is really less anger than I thought at first. I apologize to everyone I called AIM except for the one I quoted. Sorry for selective reading.
06/11/2008 at 21:37 Brian English says:
ITS CALLED HAMACHI, L2 PLAY GAMES ON THE INTERNET
06/11/2008 at 21:37 Bhazor says:
Reply to Blake
No but doing it anonymously, to strangers with no connection to the company or product whilst being all indignant and dickish. That aint exactly helping now is it?
06/11/2008 at 21:44 Blake says:
It depends; it could help someone make a decision about pre-ordering.
06/11/2008 at 21:58 dishwasherlove says:
1. Enable dev console
2. ~
3. openserverbrowser
Enjoy your server browser.
06/11/2008 at 22:01 the affront says:
Actually it works acceptably with the workaround now.. just bind openserverbrowser to a key via console or cfg. There are enough servers that allow connections without going through the lobby – can take 5 mins to find one with the right ping and not full, but when it works, it works – not like that idiotic matchmaking crap.
Now what I DON’T get is why they didn’t simply add an option for this in the menu, would have axed this complete shitstorm before it had time to reach dozens-of-pages-thread/newspost proportions. Probably their try to let the early demo access players betatest their needlessly developed matchmaking abomination backfired in a big way.
06/11/2008 at 22:07 dust says:
Intense, this game is.
06/11/2008 at 22:08 Tek says:
Unfortunately, the workaround is exactly that. It’s a bugfest, and at least in my case as soon as a connection fails for whatever reason, the browser window just locks up and you have to restart the entire game.
06/11/2008 at 22:12 Calm Internet Man says:
Maybe next time you decide to engage in a pointless display of hysteria you’ll all have one of those lovely free browser dictionary plug-ins installed so there’s only one thing to feel ashamed about in the post knee-jerk-off calm.
06/11/2008 at 22:22 Nick says:
Being arrogant and patronising certainly helps things.
06/11/2008 at 22:23 Radiant says:
“I’m FILLED with RAGE WITHOUT DIRECTION.
L4D demo doesn’t live up to the standards I have set in my head?
THAT WILL DO”
Rumours aside; can you really not connect to a server of your choice without using a workaround?
But if the servers are ranked by popularity surely that can’t be right.
Can people who have the demo confirm that?
06/11/2008 at 22:28 lemming says:
@Radiant: using the “quick match” or “connect to game in progress” buttons inevitably leads me to a server with high ping and/or disconnects. The workaround is a server browser exactly like the one you’d find in any other Valve game. Since I found that, its been ace hav’nt had a problem with it.
06/11/2008 at 22:30 dishwasherlove says:
Work around works fine. Just fired it up, found a low ping server and double clicked it. Guess it has to be a game in progress though, not a lobby.
06/11/2008 at 22:30 jonfitt says:
I bet they didn’t really mean: “The new matchmaking system replaces the traditional server browser.”
as in non-matchmaking is gone for ever. It’s probably just been hidden for the demo so that everyone will beta test the matchmaking.
Also, “By running a public dedicated server your server will be added to a list of servers available for clients to use” kinda suggests that there will be a private dedicated server option too.
06/11/2008 at 22:34 Nahual says:
Guys, i think the deal is they want to test out the matchmaking, hence why they’re “forcing” it right now, remember, they really hadn’t had a chance to test this out till now.
I also kindda hate the matchmaking as it is at the moment, but I have trust in Valve. Remember, they’ve made multiple patches on the same day before.
After all the awesome games and over one year of continuous, free and excellent support for TF2 I think they deserve a get out of jail card for once.
Their stated missions is to support the community and i really doubt they’re about to break away from it with their biggest release yet.
06/11/2008 at 22:35 Saul says:
It looks like they’re working on it, so I’m not too worried. In my very short play experience last night, I was first told by the matchmaking system that the server I was trying to join was full (which does seem rather counter-intuitive, when I didn’t choose it!), but I got in the second time and had a smooth-as-silk game, which was lots of fun until right near the demo’s end, when Windows firewall decided to block the IP and booted me.
Still, was very promising, and Valve have a history of going above and beyond to fix things as quickly as they can.
06/11/2008 at 22:35 Fazer says:
Please update the news, it is now possible to choose individual servers.
06/11/2008 at 22:43 Nimic says:
Has the console key changed, or something? I enabled it, but my trusted | key wouldn’t open it. Maybe I should have tried after I had to reboot (both the computer and the game, that is).
06/11/2008 at 22:47 Nick says:
the workaround is fine.. unless you want to play with 4 of your friends. You invariably can’t connect to the same server that way.
06/11/2008 at 22:52 Radiant says:
@jonfitt that’s what I thought too. If the server browser is hidden that would make sense too. [also to stop people from just playing the demo ala Q3 demo.]
How so?
06/11/2008 at 22:58 Blake says:
When you use the server browser, you have to join a server that already has people in it. I have been unsuccessful in joining any servers that have 0/4 people.
06/11/2008 at 23:00 Nick says:
Radiant: Because other people can join it before you do, it might get snagged by the matchmaking system before you have everyone ready to hit join at the same time, stuff like that. Unless it is passworded and you all know the PW, it’s pretty tough to do.
06/11/2008 at 23:27 TooNu says:
I have played it for hours, I only just turned it off, I can still hear the dry throaty Donald Duck-esque screaming :( I need to try to sleep now….I want my Mum
06/11/2008 at 23:54 isolated1 says:
tried 8 times, could not get in a multplayer match. Very disappointed in Valve, hope they fix it fast. I would prefer a server browser also. It is fun though.
07/11/2008 at 00:04 Down Rodeo says:
ZOMBIES ZOMBIES ZOMBIES ZOMBIES
You get the idea. I found it to be a lot of fun; but for the brief games I played I stuck to SP just to get an idea of what was happening. We’ll see what the online is like on Saturday maybe.
07/11/2008 at 00:06 Monchberter says:
Single player is fun, and it has that good old familliar ‘Source-yness’, although i’m not massively impressed by the look, which as nice as it is, just doesn’t match TF2′s brilliance.
It has the feeling of a mod, such as Sven Co-op and feels totally stripped down, the director feature is great too, although the music can take the surprise and suspense out of the game as much as it can add it. I do like the mouse gesture voice commands which i’m surprised that noone has mentioned. would like to see them in tf2.
Same probs for me, massive lag, no real chance of reliably joining a stable game, but then i put this partially down to auto server choosing of servers that aren’t appropriate.
Glad to see a half implemented traditional browser but i’m not too keen on the front end myself preferring Valves usual tried and tested and modest menuing since HL days.
07/11/2008 at 00:09 crozon says:
its fucking brilliant this. though you got to play it on the harder settings or its too easy.
07/11/2008 at 00:53 Unrein says:
Expert difficulty is mental. And fun.
That is all.
07/11/2008 at 01:07 manintheshack says:
Christ, just played through impossible difficulty on a fast server (courtesy of McWorkaround) and finally finished it. Took the best part of two hours to complete with people coming in and dropping out. Glad I was stubborn enough to stick it out although that bloody preview vid at the end of the levels is no kind of reward. I’d prefer not to have something advertised to me that I’ve already bought…
07/11/2008 at 01:22 Nimic says:
Can anyone tell me what the console key is? My favourite (|) doesn’t work =P
07/11/2008 at 01:45 LactoseTheIntolerant says:
Sadly I could only get the single player to work. Myself and a friend each tried launching a game from a lobby only to have the game fail to find a dedicated server. With a third friend it found a server but when it tried to load the game our connections repeatedly timed out. Attempting to join via the server-browser, things again failed (though I was going only for servers with 0 people in – would this have an effect? I’ll try again later). So poor marks for reliablity.
I wasn’t too fond of the matchmaking either, but I’m confident this, as others have suggested, is simply Valve testing the system. I’m in no doubt that we’ll have a normal server browser when the full release hits. I would, however, like a return to the normal, minimalist menus.
As for the single player I found it good fun, but the meat of the game is surely in the multiplayer.
07/11/2008 at 01:45 The_B says:
It is ` but you have to enable it in the options.
07/11/2008 at 02:33 qrter says:
Look at that, Steam Cloud has started – just restarted Steam and it started “synchronizing”, which is part of Steam Cloud. Apparently. It said so in a little box. Which was nice.
07/11/2008 at 03:50 EyeMessiah says:
Anyone getting memory leakish degrading performance? Sometimes my game starts off fine only to gradually turn into a slideshow. Otherwise, when I can get a game, its great fun.
07/11/2008 at 04:31 DB says:
I pre-ordered on steam and cant open the game due to “game is currently unavailable” wtf?? I dont want to delete local content and re-download and waste bandwidth again.. how did you people make it work?
07/11/2008 at 07:29 Rob Zacny says:
@ EyeMessiah
Yeah, I was wondering about that. It’s pretty awful, and it never get better. My computer can handle this game with no problem, but every once in awhile the game just tanks. Eventually the program just locks up and I have to go to Task Manager to kill it.
There is a long list of things I hope to see fixed soon.
07/11/2008 at 08:37 SlappyBag says:
Originally there was no server browser and no connect command, they updated the CVARs when everybody complained.
This is why I love Valve – Yes, they dropped the ball but they responded instantly and have provided a work around until they create a better solution.
07/11/2008 at 08:45 Cashii says:
The “Game currently unavailable” error indicates that there has been another patch for the demo – autopatching doesn’t quite work yet… So far there were none below 100MB. Restart Steam and it should start loading.
07/11/2008 at 08:56 An Innocuous Coin says:
I haven’t had any lockups or the like yet, but I have been dropped from well over half the games I’ve attempted to play – that said, when I can get into a game, its quite a lot of fun. Way, way too short though; normal mode is basically worthless once you know what you’re doing, at least for me. Hoping there’s some kind of dedicated server option in the full game, though I have to say I don’t necessarily mind the system going now.
07/11/2008 at 09:01 Malagate says:
When I was playing last night I pretty much never found a dedicated server, it seemed I always had to use the lan option which sometimes failed spectacularly with only me making it into the game. Even with my online friends living very close it sometimes timed out for them, when it worked it worked brilliantly though.
I’m totally going to try this workaround later, but it does really annoy me how at the end of every game you’re forced to watch the advert and then booted off the server so that you have to find another one. It’s so frustrating to not be able to just stay on the decent server that you found randomly through the lobby system.
In the Lobby systems favour, it is really good for getting together with friends and getting them all ready for a game, it’s just getting onto the server afterwards that’s a real pain.
07/11/2008 at 09:38 MonkeyMonster says:
There has been a patch already (this morning) to allow you to connect to specific servers etc. and updates for server’s too.
Early days for this as they say but I too am one of the many totally surprised that they didn’t see this coming…
07/11/2008 at 10:13 manintheshack says:
Unloading an entire SMG clip into a horde of undead as they swarm around your downed teammate is immensely satisfying. Youcan easily take down 5-10 at once. Really wish the demo was longer. The Director does make things more interesting, but two levels just ain’t enough.
Most fantastic part of the game so far is the calm before the storm, hearing the many, many zombies screaming around the corner, getting louder and louder until… BAMBAMBAMBAM!
07/11/2008 at 12:41 Thiefsie says:
Comments:
Fun, good with co-op, matchmaking sucks, weapon models suck, gun sounds are weak as, voice is way too loud compared to canned comments (cant hear canned comments at all basically), too easy on the modes I’ve played – first time playing died once then completed the demo on advanced with nobodies.
However… a lot of fun and I can’t wait for more levels and polish.
07/11/2008 at 12:57 cm7 says:
1: Open console.
2: Type “openserverbrowser”
3: ???
4: Profit!
07/11/2008 at 14:17 cyrenic says:
For those of you having weird memory type issues, have you tried going into the graphics options and setting Paged Pool Memory to “Medium”? I was having stuttering issues last night and that fixed them.
Some people have also had luck turning off V-Synch.
07/11/2008 at 15:00 Cooper42 says:
It’s been an arse, as often the lobby chooses a dedicated server with high latency for the players…
I’m glad there are ways around it, but it’s not intuitive. The easiest solution would be for the lobby starter to have an option to select which dedicated, rather than choosing one randomly…
07/11/2008 at 17:41 nakke says:
Well, the demo is going to be disabled on the 18th, so I don’t see how that could happen.
07/11/2008 at 19:21 LactoseTheIntolerant says:
Right, actually made it into a couple of online games with a friend tonight. Verdict? Bloody smashing. Very happy with my order and cannot wait for the full release!
07/11/2008 at 19:56 Nero says:
I’ve been using the server browser to get into games which worked much better, and have been having a blast. Been playing mostly on Expert today, and while we die alot it’s such a great feeling actually finishing the demo at last. Been having a blast with plenty of random people. Great great fun.
07/11/2008 at 20:04 Armyofnone says:
L4D demo–played it for a day. Amazing. Expert difficulty took me and my friends 3 hours to beat, and another hour of failed attempts to beat it again. There was no lag, but if you host it yourself as a LAN, you gotta have your ports forwarded, with a good connection. Regardless, most fun I’ve had with my friends in a LONG time. Totally worth every penny of a pre-order.
07/11/2008 at 21:13 Rob Zacny says:
Most embarrassing thing that has happened to me yet: this morning I started talking to a bot.
We were near the end of our tether at the very last room of the demo, and setting up to defend against the last couple waves. I was trying to figure out what everyone’s assigned roll was, as I started asking, “Hey, Francis, do you want to open the door, while I stay on the minigun?”
He didn’t answer. After a minute, one of my teammates said, “Uh, dude, that’s not a person.”
Which was kind of mortifying.
Haven’t beat expert yet, but I’ve only tried it with one team and they were a bunch of gits. Each time we got killed, one guy would get on the mike and start whining, “Guys, we gotta go slower. We gotta slow down. We’re going too fast.”
Nothing, I mean nothing, would make him understand the concept of the Director.
08/11/2008 at 08:40 Unrein says:
So far I’ve had about a 50% success rate on Expert with random groups. And I’ve made a bunch of friends on the way. The difficulty feels Just Right(tm), so I play pretty much exclusively on it.
10/11/2008 at 16:27 elefaire says:
Well I’ve just played single player so far and I’m surprised at how many criticisms I immediately have. I was expecting this to blow everything else away but right now it’s no TF2. It’s good, it’s unique, and I’m buying it, but it doesn’t seem insta-classic. Haven’t played as infected yet, of course.
24/11/2008 at 12:36 casstheass says:
The game was awsome. donno about not laging.
26/04/2010 at 21:37 bayan escort says:
thanksss admınnn mucksss