Left 4 Dead

[Force Flow]

Anyone get a chance to play the demo yet? People who preordered get it early.

One person I talked to mentioned it was basically all hype and wasn't anything special.

Any other opinions?

[TwoRails]

Haven't heard much, but I haven't been out much lately -- Is it "single player" or online... or both?

[Force Flow]

eh, from what I heard yesterday, it's intended for online play, but right now it's a soupy mess as valve really messed up with gameplay design. Basically, server admins have no control over their L4D server. You can imagine how upset this made PC gamers.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...dead-demo.html

[TwoRails]

Too bad it's online only, as that means (most likely) I'll never try it. Too bad, too, that it's screwed up for online play

[tigstah]

welll that takes care of that for me. i just dont like online shooters much.
oh well, thats 60 bones saved.

[Jester]

It is more fun over the net but from what I hear there is a single player. You just have to deal with the AI maybe letting zombies get you.

[Force Flow]

I've been playing the demo the last couple days, and gameplay-wise, it's pretty good. Weapons are reasonably balanced, and you *have* to work as a team to get through.

The server situation is terrible, IMHO. There's no control over what servers you can join / create. I'd rather see the standard server browser back, or something at least similar. I've found myself being pushed onto a server with a high ping a number of times.

Single-player mode is *okay*, but certainly no replacement for decent live players.

Seeing as I rarely get games as soon as they come out, I'll just keep an eye on it and wait for the price to drop significantly in a few months (I got bioshock for $15 a few months back )

[David M]

The Maximum PC holiday 2008 issue gave it a 10...which is rare. They obviously had a great time playing it. They did mention the server issue. I would imagine that issue will get fixed if they want to sell more games.

That's good enough for me to go out and buy it.

In the same issue is a review on an oil cooled computer....not one persons custom computer...but one that comes from a manufacturer intended for mass production. Very interesting.

[nocturnx]

I've only heard great things about it, but I haven't played it. Seems to be getting very high reviews from everywhere. The guys at 1up talked about it quite a bit in their latest podcast, they loved it.

[Prew]

My son plays it in cooperative mode and says it is a blast (not pun intended). He did not mention any server problems. He is able to hook up with friends from around the country to coop together.

[tigstah]

i havent had a problems either. it is a fun game, the best multiplayer experience i've had so far.

[Jester]

I just bought this for the 360. It is fun. I still have not played with friends yet so I might get it on PC too.

[tigstah]

Originally Posted by Jester I just bought this for the 360. It is fun. I still have not played with friends yet so I might get it on PC too.

if you want to play sometime i have it for the 360 also. send me a friend request. gamertag tigstah

[interwebmaniac]

i havent played it, but it as been given high 90s and 9s and sometimes even 10s, so it cant be too bad, and if there is a server issue, VALVe will fix it =D CS:S had issues too, remember?

[tomster2300]

I've been wondering about this game (they did a brief tv ad blitz when it came out). I never got the demo, but I think I might now.

[Force Flow]

The demo was only available for a limited time.

[tomster2300]

Originally Posted by Force Flow The demo was only available for a limited time.

That's kind of dumb. Thanks for the heads up.

[Force Flow]

It was to build interest right before the release date. Makes sense to me, especially from a business and game testing standpoint (ie, how does the world at large like it before we actually release it?)

[tomster2300]

Originally Posted by Force Flow It was to build interest right before the release date. Makes sense to me, especially from a business and game testing standpoint (ie, how does the world at large like it before we actually release it?)

What about the folks who don't have the game but still want to check it out before purchasing it?

[Alaron]

Agree with tomster. I always want to try Demos before buying games. They are expensive!

[Force Flow]

Good point. I forget some people like to do that. I never bother. I usually just read some reviews, check out zero punctuation to see if he points out any obvious flaws that I wouldn't like, and ask other gamers if they've tried it.

L4D was actually the first game demo I've played in several years...and that was only because it pre-loaded the game content for when you actually made the purchase

[Prew]

I've played the game on MP several times now- it's pretty good, but for a purported over the top experience- that's is, being attacked by hundreds and hundreds of mindless mobs, this game does not even game close to the Serious Sam I and II games- the levels and variety of mobs and weapons are not even close- with SS being much better.

[Metalstar]

I think it appeals to a certain type of FPS gamer. I've always been into UT / Quake etc but don't have the time now to dedicate to getting as good as you need to be to play competitively online (Real life and Jobs getting in the way!)

I have been having a TON of fun with L4D though. Currently there are only 4 campaigns but I am not bored of any of them yet, the AI director varies the play enough for them to be fun every time - especially with a good group of players. This is the first game I have played where I have felt voice comms actually added to the experience and in some ways (especially playing expert mode) it becomes almost essential - It literally has me in tears laughing quite often, some of the characters you meet online are extremely funny.

You can all go from panicking whilst laughing and running away from the "tank" to creeping past a witch and telling each other to switch your flashlights off - then laughing your ass off when someone wakes the witch up and all hell breaks loose. It does feel like a zombie movie should feel - slightly OTT but without making it feel like a cartoon.

It's a shame they pulled the demo as I know people who wont buy without trying a demo first - I will say that everyone that has had a go of L4D on my PC has gone on to buy it. The upcoming Downloadable Content (which valve say will be free) should make it worth another look aswell. We need a campaign that goes through a shopping centre

[tigstah]

i've been playing this game and having fun while doing it. i'm about 18k kills from the 53,595 achievement. i agree that if you find good people to play with its really fun. i'm on the 360 version tho.

[David M]

I have been playing Left 4 Dead for a week now. OMG...this game ranks right up there with Crysis. Its even better than Crysis in the fact that I have all my graphics settings maxed out at 1920 x 1200 at 4 anti-aliasing and I am still getting nothing less than 60 FPS.

This is the best 25 bucks I have ever spent.

Playing with three others on the same team is incredibly fun especially if you get some headsets with a microphone and get on a team with some good players on the advanced level. I stayed up until 1AM last night. My wife does not get it. My son gets it though.

[tomster2300]

Originally Posted by David M I have been playing Left 4 Dead for a week now. OMG...this game ranks right up there with Crysis. Its even better than Crysis in the fact that I have all my graphics settings maxed out at 1920 x 1200 at 4 anti-aliasing and I am still getting nothing less than 60 FPS. This is the best 25 bucks I have ever spent. Playing with three others on the same team is incredibly fun especially if you get some headsets with a microphone and get on a team with some good players on the advanced level. I stayed up until 1AM last night. My wife does not get it. My son gets it though.

What kind of rig are you running these days, David?

[David M]

Hi Tom,
Its in my signature. That's in my first post towards the top of the thread.

Edit, apparently this post as well. I'm not sure why the inconsistencies in signatures.

Second edit...now its gone!

[Force Flow]

Signatues appear once per thread (page, maybe?)

When you make/edit a post, the post is added dynamically to the page, as well as sent to the server. What appears on the page is not subject to the same rules as what is sent from the server when you access the page after a post. Make a post, then refresh the page, and you'll see that in action.

[mjkovis]

Anyone else playing this game? What is your Steam ID then???

No one from my gaming group plays it right now and my friends that do have it on Xbox 360.

Steam ID - mjkovis

[Force Flow]

I added you to my friends list