By Alec Meer on September 29th, 2009 at 7:21 pm.
Yaaaaarrrrrr – Crash Course, aka L4D1:DLC2, as Valve themselves succinctly put it, has just gone live. It’s a new map, new storyline stuff and, in theory, a full Versus argy-bargy contained within a mere half hour. And all for free, not that this seems to placate the vengeful. Exit and restart Steam and it should download and install itself for you. If you don’t already own Left 4 Dead (and aren’t planning on picking up L4D2 instead on 20th November), there’s also a celebratory 50%-off sale on from now until October 1st.
Weee! ^_^
But I’m going out tonight.
Booo! :(
report
Servers are taking a hammering, as expected.
report
They gave her Angelina Jolie lips in that picture. Why!!?!?!?!
report
Every new picture makes her look even more retarded. The “special” survivor.
report
not enough to make me want to reinstall l4d. ever.
report
Need a hug, hug_dealer?
report
I can *feel* the rage!
report
Seriously. What does this even mean?
report
LOL Thrills, Chills, Pills, Skills.
I will give this a try this friday
report
Goddammit new achievements
report
Gah more new achievements to appeal to my OCD
report
Lets do some L4D <awesome>:-)</awesome>!!
report
I don’t know. Maybe they couldn’t get the regular model for Zoey, but she looks practically deformed in that picture.
report
Fuck achievements, Valve had better made the original game better, instead of milking it’s arguably odd commercial success.
Yes, I’m going to boycott L4D2.. and any other Valve product for as long as they don’t come with a brand new Half-life 3 and new engine.
Whatever happened to Episode 3 anyways?
report
I reckon Valve will announce something about Episode 3 at a large gaming convention, probably PC based. Just wait. :P And why do you want a new engine? Source still runs on mine and looks pretty good, I’d rather it didn’t jump to an advanced engine that kills my PC. :<
report
That’s the million dollar question. I don’t particularly care about a new engine, but I’d like to see episode 3 clearly on its way to release and some kind of indication that the series will be continuing beyond that. HL3 and Portal 2 announcements would also be welcome.
report
Aren’t the HL2 episodes actually HL3? I vaguely remember Newell saying something to that effect when Ep 1 was being announced.
report
@jsutcliffe
Now that you mention it, I faintly recall that as well. They can put whatever number they like on it, I just want to see an announcement for Ep 3 followed by an announcement for the next Half Life game, preferrably in non-episodic form.
report
While we’re at it: Portal 2. With multiplayer!
report
A multiplayer game involving portal guns would be fun, but it should be a separate game from Portal 2. In general, Valve seems to have a pretty good grip on the fact that a game designed solely for SP is best left as only an SP game.
report
IIRC Gabe said that there will be three eps and the last one will be the end of the current Half-Life story arc. He specifically did not say, however, that the Half-Life franchise would end. There’s way too much potential in the Black Mesa/Aperture Science/Portal/Borealis/what-Eli-would-have-said-if-Alyx-didn’t-make-tea-so-damn-fast area to be resolved in just one episode.
report
I’m outraged!!!1!!1!
report
I don’t particularly love Left 4 Dead, but there is still nothing odd about its success.
report
My money is on them revealing that ep. 3 is being built on an entirely new engine, which would explain why it has been taking so long for us to see anything past a couple thingies of concept art.
report
“If you don’t already own Left 4 Dead (and aren’t planning on picking up L4D2 on 20th November)”
I don’t get it – is Valve gonna include L4D1 with L4D2 or what? Why would you write it like this?
report
Not that I’m aware of. I wrote it like that because it seems odd anyone would buy the first game with just a month and a bit left until the second.
report
yeah that would be me alec
report
Geeee :-) …servers are under heavy load :-) can’t play now :-)
report
http://store.steampowered.com/stats/content/
report
“Steam servers too busy … blah blah blah”
OUTRAGE!
PRAM SANS TOYS!!!
report
“PRAM SANS TOYS!!!”
LMAO!! Mental note.
report
Before *more* people start…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Drop_the_stick_and_back_slowly_away_from_the_horse_carcass
report
That is actually a great link… I’d love it if it worked…
report
Wait… Wikipedia still has a sense of humor!??!..
report
(and aren’t planning on picking up L4D2 on 20th November) says it all really, who is that person who wants to play l4d but doesn’t want to own l4d2?
report
servers are crushed.
I was planning to host locally anyway, but if the dlc does not get here…
In the meantime I have looked at the new achievements and they look awesome. One of them demands you to incapacitate 3 survivors in the first 5 seconds!
report
The crashed helicopter in the background always looks like a giant ant.. at least it does to me, anyway.
Looking forward to playing this! Just as soon as I get into L4D..
report
Oh, wow. No bug fixes? Just the new map and something to make going second even easier?
No 4v4 matchmaking? Nothing?
I'm too busy to really play and check out if they just didn't list stuff in the patch notes, but wow. I am disappoint.
report
You may be the only person disappointed at free stuff. :(
report
I wish he was the only one… stories about Valve always exist in their own weird dimension.. a dimension where free stuff causes anger and a bunch of new campaigns, new PCs, new enemies, new weapons, new play mechanics, and new graphics is defintiley NOT something you should have to pay for.
You have now entered…
…the Valve Zone (cue music)
report
I’m quite happy with what we got. I haven’t actually played it yet, however. I like free stuff.
It’s just that every major content update I’ve ever seen from Valve (TF2 updates, L4D survival mode update, etc), there’s been an entire slew up bugfixes. I understand that 4v4 matchmaking is coming “soon,” but people have been hoping for bugfixes for ages. Vs is still horribly lopsided in the Survivors’ favor.
To be honest, while free content is good, weird gameplay and balance issues have had me looking forward to this update more because of the fixes I assumed would come with it than the actual maps. Since those fixes are nonexistant, I find myself disappointed.
I hope that explains it a bit better.
report
My advice is to take the token gesture for that it is, recognize that Valve’s lost interest in supporting L4D1 beyond this, and adjust your future expectations (and purchase price points) accordingly.
report
slew up = slew of
@Clovis
I’m not a boycotter. I’m not planning on boycotting L4D2 because of a lack of content updates. I had hoped to get some decent updates, since those were promised at release. Those are slowly trickling in, which makes me happy.
However, Valve keeps balancing versus in the wrong direction whenever they do bother patching it, and the lack of support (NOT CONTENT), is making me lean very heavily towards not getting L4D2 until it goes on sale.
I don’t want to bring the boycott into this, but your comment just makes me sound like I live in a dream world, merely because I want bugfixes. :/
report
Whoa… Someone with… rational complaints about Left 4 Dead! We HAVE entered The Valve Zone!
Is it just me, or does anything related to L4D or Bioware = Instant Flamewar on RPS?
report
LOL. It seems I’m not the only one who feels that way.
I like the “I feel afraid whenever I post about L4D” tag on this post! XD
report
I’d love to see Valve up the gambit on the orange box and turn the Nov20th release into HL2Ep3 (plus the others for free) with L4D2 as the multiplayer alternative to TF2. Big middle finger to all the naysayers.
Though, to be honest, I’d just like to know that I’ll get to play Ep3 at some point, ever. Please?
report
I’m trying to figure out how giving us “naysayers” exactly what we want would constitute a “big middle finger” but hey, whatever floats your boat. I hope Valve surprises the hell out of us with something like that too, I just don’t think there’s any real chance of it.
report
nah, i dont need a hug. I dont regret my purchase of l4d much, but i expected survival horror out of the game. Not arcade zombie shooting rampage with infinate ammo and easily exploitable maps.
I think killing floors pulls off the horror aspect perfectly, and based on the sales of it. tripwire is going to be doing a legit full release of it with plot and everything.
Whats with the love of HL 2. It is no where near the masterpiece that was HL1. The story, the gameplay all better in the first. HL2 wasnt bad, but it wasnt a worthy sequel.
report
” but i expected survival horror out of the game.”
Your mistake here.
Rule #1 of 2009 gaming: Appreciate a game for what it is. Not what is not.
Rule #2 of 2009 gaming: If you like a game, It don’t mean is good.
Rule #2 of 2009 gaming: If you hate a game, It don’t mean is bad.
Also, since white fog was added, it was clear the idea “balanced” from horror to arcade. From “Alien 8″ to “Aliens”.
report
I thought HL2 was a worthy sequel. It added a lot to the game and the immersion was great.
report
Did you see the Survival Horror mod for L4D? I believe it was pistols only, the infected have reduced speed, but it takes headshots to kill them. Maybe this would satiate your horror gland?
report
HL2, was silly gimmick after silly gimmick.
well, valve did market the game as a co-op survival horror. But thats not what was delivered.
report
Gotta download this NOW!
report
That fact that this L4D update seems to have broken Valve for the time being really demonstrates how popular L4D is. Never had a problem getting hold of a TF2 update, which are usually much more substantial than this.
I really hope we get a big HL2:Ep3 announcement once L4D2 rolls out. Perhaps saying that we will get to play it the other side of Christmas (wishful thinking.) The silence on the project has been completely bewildering and I would say it has been a far bigger PR mistake by Valve than anything to do with L4D2 (even though few seem to complain about it.) Keeping us in the dark for so long on a game that will probably only be 4 or so hours long seems to be a big mistake and unless they come up with something that is really going to surprise us, I can imagine there are going to be many annoyed people when we finally get to see something. I loved HL2, loved Ep1 and loved most of Ep2, so I’m still very much anticipating Ep3. But Ep2 was really starting to feel behind the times. I think with Ep3, Valve really need to do something special or else the series will end on a bit of damp squib, which would be real shame. Time is ticking away more and more, and with each passing month Valve need to make something even more special to impresses.
@Hug_dealer – it is the most perfectly paced linear shooter that keeps giving constantly fresh gameplay. Truly the best FPS ever made.
report
The @Hug_dealer at the end was in regards to his comments on HL2, not L4D.
report
HL2: Ep3 is the last episode so i’d like to think that Valve has something huge planned. Maybe a portal gun for Freeman?
report
I’m currently finding the silence from the Black Mesa: Source camp to be somewhat suspicious, and it makes me wonder if Valve has snapped up that project for a _real_ HL1: Source remake, to be packaged with Episode 3.
A boy can dream, at least.
report
Actually. BM:S has been horrible in regularly posting PR updates since I first heard of it, so I wouldn’t be too suspicious. They posted a small update on their twitter the other day, too.
report
I haven’t played L4D much since I bought it, but these news made me yearn for some zombie slayage action.
report
thats as much opinion as mine. But your idea of refreshing gameplay is my idea of stupid gimmick.
half life 1 refreshing gameplay = oh shit the army isnt you friend, oh shit head crabs falling out of places. half life 2 refreshing gameplay= oh great, i get to ride on a stupid boat thingy, or dune buggy. oh great i get to throw crap at guys and have bugs kill people. gimme a break.
report
Portal was just one big stupid gimmick then too, I suppose?
report
You must play like 4 games if you only play the one with truly “refreshing” gameplay.
report
Hissy fit much?
report
HL2 constantly changed things up, and threw something new at you…
These are stupid gimmicks how?
In addition, how does someone not like having their own personal antlion army?
report
That was just a brilliant part of a brilliant game. HL2 is the only linear shooter I’ve ever played that actually demands regular replays, it’s that good.
I sure did miss those pheromone pods in Ep 2. :(
report
L4D3 confirmed from a map in the safe zone:
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/565/l4d2map.png
Possibly in the midwest or northwest.
Definitely not paying full price for L4D2 now :)
report
L4Lunch, it says L4D2map.png in the link.
report
1)Even if that did have anything to do with anything, you do know whats “jokes” and “sarcasm” are, right?
2)Please, tell me how a map showing military bases in any way “confirms” L4D3.
report
OH NOES!!! That map has 10 bases on it!!!! Valve are planning at least 10 versions of L4D!!! I bet each one will be yearly. They will probably move to Europe after they have done US!!!!!!!!
report
Using your logic, if that maps says anything, it is that there won’t be a L4D3, as there are only two safe zones not overrun.
report
HL2: Episode Duke Nukem For3ver, amirite?
report
I remember when people were saying that HL2 would never come out, or that DNF would be first.
Then they replaced HL2 with Team Fortress 2.
Then 3D Realms imploded hilariously. So, where does that leave us now?
report
that leaves us with HL2:E3. Are you even paying attention? :-p
report
Eh, just rabid fanboy speculation I wanted to throw out. :D
(I meant “safe room” in the post …damn freudian negligee)
You have to admit it is intriguing (the other two circles are L4D, and L4D2′s settings if you didn’t know)
report
I think I may be that lone outcast who buys L4D despite 2 coming out soon.
When L4D2 hits, will the price of the original go down or up? Because if I could nab the first boxed for around £13 I’d be a happy chappy. Steam is nice, but for big releases I like boxes.
report
I’d wait. If Valve actually does pull off some kind of L4D1/L4D2 integration, they may put up a package deal that would be cheaper than buying either game individually. For that matter, that kind of integration might render the need to own L4D1 completely moot. On the other hand, if there’s no integration L4D2 may well be the only game getting played, and L4D1 is pretty miserable with bots.
In short, hold off a bit and see exactly how things work out. I think there’s no chance at all that L4D1 is going to cost MORE after L4D2 is released, so there’s no harm in being fully informed when you decide to buy.
report
That makes sense. I shall hold back then, as I imagine an offer will be made when 2
report
…comes out. You saved me £13 I shouldn’t spend, so thanks!
report
Valve are clearly just waiting for a decade to release episode 3, so they’re not accused of not supporting episode 2 and just profiting by releasing a game that is exactly the same, just with new levels, soon after episode 2.
report
All the cool genre-defining series wait decades for sequels!
report
It is a pretty good map. I seem to have been caught by every damn smoker in the game. I found some new graffiti in a non-saferoom area and I got jumped by a hunter as I read it.
The thing I liked the most was that the crescendo event and the finale were big epic events. I won’t give them away but I found them far more movie-quality than some of the other events has been.
report
The Steam Forums are a place of hilarity currently, lol
report
The two maps are very different to the usual L4D1 fare; versus is going to be a whole different game.
report
I really like L4D. I think it’s great. I don’t understand why everyone seems to hate it.
report
I played Crash Course a while back and it was fun. Pretty intense too, but honestly, it was nothing spectacular. The bridge and the finale events were nicely done, but after playing this, I really do feel like I’m ready for L4D2 with it’s new goodies to try out.
report
What people don’t seem to get is that this, free or not, isn’t a “bonus map”.
Valve wasted a carefully built decade of consumer goodwill to sell a nice-gameplay/lacking-in-content game with the promise of continued large-scale updates a la every multiplayer game they have released till then. Millions of Valve fans trusted them. Now all that arrives are ho-hum 30 minute maps (yes, yes, I know you can play them a million times and they will be a little different each time), a few new game modes that are essentially endless loops of a certain aspect of gameplay you already got in the original campaigns and an SDK that arrived half a year late. That’s just weak. For most companies, it would actually be pretty neat, but for the league Valve plays in, literally a league of their own, it’s disappointing.
I will get L4D2. Yes, I’m not a “boycotter”. The only reason I’ll get it, though, is that I wanted to buy the Valve Complete Pack for a while now, and I’ll wait till L4D2 is out.
I’m saying all this neutrally. I’m not enraged. I just feel like Valve is loosing its touch and is slowly turning into another, faceless EA minion. At least they’re realizing what’s at stake. The whole “Gabe flies to Australia” story, the continuous updates for TF2, how eager they are to proof that L4D isn’t abandoned yet (but probably will after Crash Course?)… it shows they still care. As an avid PC gamer and (therefore almost mandatory) Valve fan, I would hate to stop caring about Valve. It’s not like there are much alternatives left, especially if you like action gaming of the flavor Valve delivers. Of all the companies, Valve has always been the gold standard, the better-than-good top of the top that other companies had to keep an eye on in their fight for gamer sympathy. If Valve drops even the slightest bit in the position they’re in, it will lower the standards as a whole. Suddenly the scale would go from bad to “totally fine” instead of “super-awesometastic”. And that’s… disappointing. No more, no less.
report
So, to summarize your wall of text: ‘I didn’t particularly like L4D, so Valve are ruined in my eyes’.
You know what? I didn’t like L4D that much either. I’m not going to bother buying the sequel. I’m not the slightest bit upset at anyone over this. L4D is my brothers favourite game, and he’s getting the sequel the moment it’s available for preorder. He’s happy, that’s cool. I’ll just play something else until Valve release something more my speed.
See, that’s how normal people cope with not liking a videogame.
report
“Valve has lost their special status” is not the same as “Valve is ruined.”
report
God damn Valve just cannot win with some people…
If they fix bugs, people complain about no new content.
If they provide new content people complain about no bug fixes.
If they give both new content and bug fixes people complain about Episode 3.
If they do something cool, funny and personal (like fly people in to play the game, or reply in a comedy fashion to a mod maker which sparks a whole load of awesome) people complain that they’re only doing it as a PR stunt to win back the public trust they lost.
Now there are some legitimate complaints, personally I would also prefer Valve to focus on bug fixes over new content, but the level of venom some people have over these issues is just ass-stounding.
Sorry, just came from reading a few threads on the official forum (damn you derFeef, damn you to hell!) and I thought Blizzard forums were bad…
report
So you fall under category two, yes? :P
So do I.
report
@ Dominic
I think your missing lumpi’s point entirely. In fact I assumed they probably did at least enjoy the game from what I read, not that they didn’t particularly like it.
It’s more to do with the credibility of Valve, and gamers trust in them, that is at issue. A lot of people were willing to write them a blank cheque and believe in promises they made on nothing more than blind faith, something that won’t be quite as true after the whole L4D affair.
I highly doubt that anyone who feels so is going to be spending every waking second thinking about the issue, but I get the feeling your attempting to imply they do by what you posted.
report
Switched my download location to Cambodia, left it idle for 5 minutes then it started to download at 500kbs
report
I’m buying Left 4 Dead 2, and I DON’T CARE what any quick to anger boycotter says. I’ll even come round and wave my (ethereal Steam based) copy in front of your house until you’re spitting blood.
Now just all go away and stop moaning.
report
Have you read the Boycott post regarding Left4Dead 2 being banned in Australia? The Boycott admins and seemingly most of the members are against it. Funny that.
See what it’s like not making things up about what other people think for once.
report
Well it took ages for this to come out and to be honest, i find it quite pants. I’ve played better ‘player-made’ campaigns. I’ve tried it on singleplayer and versus so far.
Obviously it’s free for us PC gamers, so whatever. But i’d be stinking mad if i was an x-box’er who had to pay for this. It’s pretty unspectacular, but hopefully it will grow on me at least a little, i was never really a fan of No Mercy for the first week.
Only actually annoying things (it being not-so-great aside)… is that annoying beeping/spaceship sound that repeats for some unknown reason (anyone know what it is?) when you’re dead. That, and the volumes seem to go up and down randomly rather than working on distances. Oh, and in singleplayer, the pathing is a bit crap and the AI speech isn’t it’s usual colourful self.
Aside from that, free stuff! I guess. :)
report
Oh, and roll on Left 4 Dead 2… as i’m sure they’ll have actually put some effort into that. No boycott here btw.
report
Slow or non-existant download? Change your Steam location to “Taiwan” (or somewhere else where everyone is either asleep or at work) and enjoy the lovely download rates!
report
Got it, finished it, bastard generator.
report
I want to set the record straight about comparing support for Team Fortress 2 with support for Left 4 Dead and the sequel.
Team Fortress 2 spent a DECADE in gestation and was a huge labour of love for Robin Walker and many of Valve’s staff being an in house pet project under Valves rather hippyish way of working.
Left 4 Dead was a Turtle Rock Production which Valve bought out. It was undoubtedly produced and released under hugely different circumstances (tiny developer without significant cash flow compared to Valve’s Half-Life money machine) and with undoubtedly limited resources.
Turtle Rock was a very minor dev team having only released a few products to Valve beforehand. It is therefore a fair assumption to make that small dev team = very likely small game.
Valve bought Turtle Rock out to release Left 4 Dead when the game was in an almost ready to release state; minimising Valve overheads and time and final Valve oversight would have gone on playtesting and marketing. Again, a near completed game by small dev team is still likely to be a small game, never mind the polish.
Now. TF2, being the pet project also carried the excitable expectation of extensive DLC once the Medic Updates were promised to make the class played more often and to stop the game dying prematurely, never mind that it is now seen as an artificial way to get continued sales. This was a huge promise and one Valve has struggled to live up to the in past. Remember promises to release Episodes with months not years between them? We all know about ‘Valve Time’. Of all people, Valve are probably kicking themselves for not releasing all the unlockables at one point, but on the other hand the games supports this business model. The maps are mostly small and generic, changes are to characters and game balance. Left 4 Dead was created as a somewhat closed system. 4 Players, 4 Special Infected. Just try adding extra of each and the game falls apart. Team Fortress 2 does not when you go over the Valve advised limit of 24 players. It’s the way the game is designed.
Left 4 Dead 2 is LOGICAL. It”s another closed system which cannot be compared to Team Fortress 2′s constant evolution and balance. Also, it was heavily pushed for XBox where from experience with Team Fortress 2 has taught Valve that a) Microsoft will not even consider free DLC for a prestige game. And b) memory constraints on the system mean that the Xbox will never likely even see the TF2 unlockables. Everyone paying for L4D2 is in the long run fairer and ensures that Xbox players again don’t feel shafted for what PC players seem to expect for free.
So in conclusion, Valve have made mistakes (pricing of L4D was admittedly too high), but you can’t compare like with like when the market covers 2 platforms with different expectations and 2 games with hugely different design philosophies, means of production and balance issues.
Good enough explanation?
report
That’s the most long-winded way to say “I missed the point” I’ve ever seen.
People who are upset about L4D/L4D2 are generally **not** comparing it to TF2. They’re comparing it to what Valve said L4D would consist of.
Valve themselves went out and made a comparison to Tf2, saying basically that L4D would get more, bigger and better updates, and sooner, than TF2 did.
So yeah, you’re right, we shouldn’t compare L4D to TF2. And funnily enough, no one *does*. Those who are upset about L4D(2) are not comparing it to other games, they’re comparing it to what Valve said they’d get if they bought the game.
report
@ Jalf
I think you’ll find my points still stand. The problem is that people seem to have very short memories and that ever since the release of the Orange Box Valve seem to have been put on some unassailable pedestal where everything they say ‘must’ be right and true.
The truth is, Valve always have been bunglers to some extent, they’ve just now got more nous with their products and marketing and the L4D hype was masterfully delivered, but it still doesn’t stop them making exciteable promises that they can’t keep due to not knowing how the game will actually work when released to the public.
Examples of Valve bungling and broken promises which no one seems to mention:
* Promising quick turn around on the HL Episodes – unable to complete due to massive resource implications.
* HL2 release crashes and people can’t play despite reassurances – naievty and under developed digital distribution
* Dynamic Weapons Pricing for Counter-Strike: Source – completely misread the CS’s community inability to change.
* TF2 Unlocks and Updates – Taking much longer than planned due to other projects getting in the way
* Lack of TF2 updates on Xbox – limited knowledge on MS scheming and underpowered Xbox architecture
I am certain Valve had every intention to release frequent DLC for L4D but it just became unfeasable and they were stuck with a millstone round their neck. But hey, you want Valve to remain small, open and exciteable about their own games? Then acknowledge that by being human about their games, they are going to make mistakes and break promises. They just do it more publically than others, and for that we should be grateful for obvious willingness to engage the community.
report
I just like free stuff, baaaah
even though I never play L4D, cause I find it boring …>.>
report
Was pretty fun. And FREEEEEEEEEEE.
Great new dialouge. Especially one of the Louis and Francis’ openers and Zoey and Francis’ discussion over magazines come to mind.
Oh and “I love choppers”
report
Didn’t Chet from Valve say something like “If you put $20 in a box and sell it for $10 people will still complain”.
Its a good bit of free fun, but the “Steam” joke in the new campaign is so bad.
report
I’ll jump in and do my usual thing of telling y’all that I think L4D is the best game ever made and I’m still having loads of fun with it and would pay $100 for the sequel. Unfortunately I live in Australia, so currently won’t be able to get it for any price. Any boycotters want to swap countries?
report
Raaargh! *Shakes fist in rage*
Been busy with the new Monkey Island ep this evening. Will try this out soonish.
report
You know, I spent some time with Left 4 Dead once upon a time. I found it quite dull and repetitive. I have seen other people play it since then, and not only did it further impress itself on me as dull and repetitive, but it was confirmed for me that the people playing it on Xbox Live are complete and utter dinguses. (I cannot vouch one way or the other for the PC community.) So I’m pretty sure I don’t like the game and don’t want to own it.
And yet. The combination of the $15 sale price and the continued collective Internet orgasm over it are seriously tempting me. I am a weak, weak man.
report
“the people playing it on Xbox Live are complete and utter dinguses”
That kind of goes without saying, innit?
L4D is (imho, of course) one of the best bang-for-buck games out there – where bang is fun and buck is time (since money is of no consequence – $15!) – so long as you play with good people. My experiences with joining random servers have been generally good, but almost all the time I spend with it is with friends. With mics. Mics are critical, for success and fun.
You’ve gotta play the right game mode too. If you want slow-pace, tactical survival, the only choice is Co-op Campaign mode, Expert difficulty, where each zombie punch will set you back around 20HP. Anything easier tends to be a waste of time. If you’re looking for more frantic PvP action, Versus mode is where it’s at. Survival mode is like the equivalent of Time Trial in a racing game – only with thousands of zombies and heavy weapons. Single player is not even worth mentioning.
In conclusion, very, very, very worth it if you have friends you can play with. Probably only very worth it if you don’t.
report
If you have three other friends that have it or can be talked into having it on your platform of choice (and all of whom have headsets, which are critical), then it’s good for a few hours of fun and probably worth that price. If you have less than 3 friends, you’ll get stuck with bots that will prevent you from playing expert (which is undeniably the most fun way to play the game) or with idiots.
The PC community is not good, you really need to know folks that are playing to have a good time. Even then, it ultimately gets dull and repetitive because there’s really not a lot to it. Still, with some friends you could easily get your $15 worth out of it, I’d think. Then again, your description of the game after playing it briefly sounds like the way I’d describe the game after having played it for about 30 hours, so maybe you get bored with this particular variety of shallow MP shooter faster than I do.
report
Yes, the game is more fun with friends. Any game is. But it’s not like it becomes unplayable when you can’t play with them. I’ve played a lot of games with random people, and I just added the folks I enjoyed playing with to my Steam friends list and over time, I built up a list of people I could play with any time without any drama. It really didn’t take that long either. Don’t listen to the people who would try to convince you that the game is not worth playing without 3 other friends as well. and 15$ is a great price for the game too.
report
It wasn’t so much that I got bored with it as I never started having fun with it. I need a bit more depth to my shootybang, or a bit more variety, or both. It didn’t help that even though the campaigns are ridiculously short as shooters go, they’re mostly a lot more than I’d really like to play of the game in one sitting. Crash Course might help with that, I suppose.
report
It’s pretty amazing fun when you play it with friends. And use TeamSpeak. Because the in-game voice function sucks. Why do I have to press a button to say something? Gah…
report
You don’t – just set the speech mode to “Open Microphone” or whatever in options :P L4D and TF2 have some of the best voice support (in terms of ease of use and quality) of any MP game I’ve played.
report
Oh, thanks for the info. :-) Well, I only tried the voice function one time when I played with random people on the internet, but with friends I use Teamspeak all the time to just talk, so I never looked through the settings really.
report
“Why do I have to press a button to say something? Gah…”
Because we don’t need to hear you cough, hear your mom come in and ask you something, hear you eat, hear you drink or hear any other amount of bodily functions.
Voice actived is a gimmick setting, and it’s a crime that it’s become the standard for consoles – and that it’s being forced onto the PC.
report
I play with friends I know well and, ehm, from experience I can say it’s only fun if you hear the other ones constantly.
report
Yeah, me and my mates use Skype as it means if the game crashes or whatever we can still communicate and it’s definitely all about voice on all the time. It means if someone jumps you get to hear their immediate reaction rather than them having to press to communicate.
report
I can shall break so far on topic that I fear the comments track might bend:
SQUUUUUUEEEEEEEEE
report
The best experiences I’ve had with L4D were on XBL and the worst have been on PC. Somehow WASD+MOUSE doesn’t feel right on this game (shock, I know!) and worse, the players I’ve found on PC have been major dicks, compared to those on XBL (again, shock, I know.. but…).
report
every review and thier mother talked about how l4d was incredibly low on content. valve was like, hey dont worry we will provide tons afterward.
they provided squat. $20 for the game is a good price.
report
“This book is 500 pages. That book over there is inferior, as it is 200 pages.”
report
A version of Trivial Pursuit containing 20 question cards is every bit as worthy of my $30 as a version of Trivial Pursuit containing 200 question cards because quantity isn’t important.
report
Yeah, I’m sure you can also play through all the maps in Counter Strike in one hour…
report
At least the first part of this campaign is kind of bad and boring, like the worst parts of Death Toll. I didn’t play the finale, so that may be great, but the first level feels rushed and lacking detail – take a look at the safe rooms, they have one or two big graffiti scrawls and a lot of blank walls, not the dense storyline-in-tags that the other episodes had. Truly, their heart is not in this one.
report
The finale is actually quite interesting in what they try to do. Unfortunately, despite their efforts, it’s pretty much a normal finale. The hard part (at least on campaign) is that they put a finale at the end of a 5-10 minute level that you have to do over if you fail.
To be honest, the campaign felt kind of generic and “samey.” And there does appear to be a bug where they turn on almost every single item spawn. I have never, ever, seen so many tier 2 pickups spawned in.
report
Here’s a stupid question, where IS the finale? A friend and I have been playing for about half an hour on the last map, but we’re just going in circles.
report
At the end there’s a mechanic’s garage, and a generator out in the open that works as the switch.
report
Found it, thanks. I’m curious, what did you mean by “what they try to do” with regards to the finale? It seemed pretty standard, to me.
report
Without spoiling too much, I was referring to the bit where you go back out before the escape vehicle gets there. Which, now that I really think about it, isn’t all that different.
report
No. This is just not good enough. Where, oh where, is the trademark polish?
report
Played a few Versus games on it yesterday, It’s not bad. The map has a stupid amount of explosives and items which I thought was a bug first off, but they’re pretty much vital to surviving, given the rediculous number of places for hunter pounces.
The actual finale itself though is pretty poor for the infected. There’s a minigun inside the building which means high damage pounces are out of the question. You can slip round the back to get them through a window, but if they’re guarding it you’re doomed. Director has an annoying habit of spawning boomers and the tank right in the minigun’s line of fire, too, which sucks.
That said, you can use the generator to block line of sight – so you can spawn a boomer right next to the survivors just as they start the finale, which tends to mess them up pretty good :p
report
The item spawns have now been fixed, and by that I mean greatly reduced.
They were in no way vital to survival… and there aren’t that many pounce spots, a lot of building tops are blocked off even. It’s just like any other L4D campaign in that respect… if you learn the map and know how to deal with infected (as a team) you will make it through each map as survivor the majority of the time fairly easily.
report
My thoughts:
Two new props. Both maps visually bare and repetitive. Level design stale and uninteresting, regressing from the original campaigns. Half the building tops shut off to hunters.
You’d think they’d fix it up before releasing it. If they already did that… then… wow.
Piece of shit.
I am not a boycotter, so my hope is that they’re just trying to not upstage L4D2 with this release… but I have a niggling suspicion that L4D2 might end up similarly reusing a lot of set pieces and props and textures and EVERY LAST THING OVER AND OVER AND OVER. Maybe I just play too much? ;)
report
I hate the “fun with friends” argument. Loads of stuff that isn’t fun is still fun with friends. Making honking noises through your nose is fun with friends. The character designer in Tiger Woods games is fun with friends. Playing HL1 deathmatch where everyone’s avatar is a cartoon character is the best fun ever. With friends.
(Gears of Wars, however, isn’t even fun with friends as I discovered. Whadda POS.)
It’s definitely worth picking up L4D at €15; you will get your bang for your buck. IMO, it’s doesn’t have unlimited playability, but I have played many hours through all the campaigns a few times and through the survival maps a few dozen times (the perfect “10 minutes before dinner is ready” online shooter mode). It’s the kind of game which I’ll forget about for a month or two but invariably go back to for a bit more. If I got that much enjoyment out of an offline FPS, I’d consider it a no-brainer. However, people seem to think that if you “only” get 50 hours of enjoyment out of an online shooter, it’s somehow a failure.
P.
report