Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[0bsessions]

That sounds like a personal problem to me. Are you playing it on PC? I played the Xbox demo and I dealt with nothing of the sort. I was also playing on a pretty damn large screen, so I was clearly just being dogpiled by a superior force rather than shit just coming out of nowhere.

Another big part of it is the flashlight aspect. The limited field of view in extremely dark areas makes it seem like shit is coming up on you much faster.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

i fucking love the way shit comes at you all strobe-y when you're firing your gun with your light off

[Nodaisho]

Ah, yeah. The buckshot flashlight. I wasted so much ammo in quake firing the shotgun at dark corners that I had thought I heard something from.

[Spluff]

I agree with all of those tips above.

Never know when will one special enemy boss lurk behind or a horde even.

However, paying attention to audio cues will let you know when there is going to be a boss or a horde. So you don't always have to waste one person putting him in the back.

[Nodaisho]

The hunter bit I disagree with partially. In close range, you aren't going to hit your ally, if you are almost close enough to bash it off, go ahead. That way, when you do bash it off, it is already pretty heavily damaged and another shot ought to make it dead.

[est]

sometimes there will be a group of them hiding in a closet

That sounds utterly fucking dumb.  Why would a bunch of zombies cram themselves into a closet then just wait?

Anyway, thanks for all the ideas guys.  I'll test it out a bit more when I get home and try to see if it's a tech problem or if I am just not noticing things until the last minute or what.  I have a fairly beefy machine so I doubt it is a graphics lag issue, but I will knock the graphics down a bit just to be sure.

[Nodaisho]

Why do they stand still just staring at the walls? And you have to admit that it can be pretty awesome. you go poking in closets for molotovs and pipe bombs and right as you are about to open the door- Oh shit! They're clawing through the fucking door! Shitshitshit! They aren't much threat, since they can't actually hit you until they get through, but it makes you feel skilled to blow apart a huge amount of zombies in that span of time without getting hit.

[OneoftheLost]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9CdFBohFCk

I thought you guys might like this. The beginning part I mean, maybe something to try? Not sure.

[est]

The staring at the walls is one thing, that implies a lack of intelligence or maybe boredom or lack of focus.  To me getting into the closet and waiting is at odds with normal zombie behaviour because it's like, ok let's be intelligent and get into this closet and then wait on the off chance someone comes along.  And how the fuck did they all get into the closet in the first place if they can't open doors?  If this were a movie it would be an unbelievable plot device.  In this setting it is (I guess) an unbelievable game mechanism?  Something to that effect.

[Spluff]

I don't think I've seen any in closets.

[est]

And I know it's kind of strange to be complaining about believability in a zombie game but I don't think it's too much to ask for a movie, book or game to have an internally consistent setting.

[est]

Anyway, I know that I am complaining a lot in this thread but I think that is because from the little I played this morning the game looks potentially awesome and I would hate for some shitty thing to turn me off it.

[Nodaisho]

Ehh... the zombies in the closet were hiding from the other zombies, and they got infected. Not sure if it is airborne or bite-borne, incubation time, stuff like that would make a difference.

Basically, what is necessary is for the zombies to come from someplace off-screen, so they can throw hundreds at you without them constantly climbing out of the same hole or something (the hole in the floor behind the minigun in no mercy 2 doesn't count, that attached to a previous room). And I am pretty sure it is standard zombie fare for them to be hiding in the one place in the building you haven't cleared.

[KvP]

Don't give up just yet, your experiences are clearly anomalous and (hopefully) correctable.

And try to resist picking nits with these things. You know what almost ruined Fallout 3 for me? The fact that bottle caps were currency. Who regulates this currency? How the hell do these things have worth? In a post-apoc setting you'd have to have either commodity- or (more likely) barter-based economics.

But obviously, they include currency because it's that much easier on the player. Nonsensical shit ought to be excusable if it offers a clear advantage over alternatives. Zombies can spawn in rooms they wouldn't be able to get into because it creates suspense for the players.

[Emaline]

Grrrr! We have missed our last two game orders at work! Thus no Left 4 Dead for me yet.

[PizzaSHARK]

Hmm, so the demo is now locked. Not so good. No way am I dropping $50 on a game if I can't tell if it'll run or not on my pc. I guess I'll have to wait a wee while before I can try it.

Well, being a Source game, it SHOULD run on most anything made in the past three or four years, and even longer before that if you spent a little on upgrades between here and now.

I'm running it on an AthlonXP 2500+, a Radeon 9600XT 128MB AGP, and 1GB PC-3200 RAM.  It's not pretty, and it drops to about 16-22 fps in heavy areas, but it's still playable.  Just make sure you're running the latest drivers for everything, and put everything on as low as it'll go.  If you still want more frames, start dropping the resolution.

EDIT:  Just a notice for people on the fence about picking up L4D - Valve's added L4D to their little "everything Source" superpack on Steam without increasing its price.  It's still just $99 for every single Source game out there; there isn't a better deal in gaming anywhere, folks.  If you already own one or more of the games, you'll be able to "gift" those extra copies to a friend, as long as they have a Steam account (they're free.)  Buy the Source pack and give the gift of gaming to some folks that've been missing out

[est]

Ok, I have sorted out what was going on now.  Hunters really are quite fast and leap on you in a flash, so that was what that first thing was about.  The next thing was due to a bunch of zombies busting in a wall to get to me, hence them seeming like they had appeared out of nowhere.  The zombies still move faster than I expected them to, but at least knowing that there is no tech problem has allowed me to play the first two levels and enjoy them!

Oh also, I had no sound when I was playing it this morning, so I missed out on all the audible cues you guys were talking about.  With those in the game things are a lot more manageable.

[0bsessions]

There's multiple ways to explain the closet thing:

The aforementioned hiding factor. Someone may've gotten bitten and not known what was going on and chose to hide in a closet, eventually turning. This falls in especially if there's a group hiding in there and a couple of them turned and attacked the others before they could get the door open.

Another possibility, one that actually pops up in the Walking Dead, is that someone may have corralled a couple of zombies into the closet assuming there was some cure out there and not wanting to shoot their friends and family members. This was a major plot point in Walking Dead when they encountered a heavily religious farmer who'd been corralling zombies into his barn in a refusal to kill them.

Again, I know way the fuck too much about the ins and outs of the zombie holocaust thought process.

[Noct]

That just means you'll be that much better off when the zombie apocalypse finally hits.

Back to the game, anyone else spend some time with the Versus mode yet?  Playing as the zombies can be incredibly gratifying.  I mean sure, you die a lot... but when you finally isolate a survivor from the group and slowly strangle the life out of him while cackling maniacally... okay maybe that's just me. 

If all else fails, beating the shit out of their entire team as the tank is fun as hell.

[ackblom12]

Man, Kat told me the game came in today. I am so eager to get on to brush up on my Zombie Apocalypse survival skills tonight.

[KvP]

Anybody want to throw out their Steam names if they're playing PC? Mayhaps we could get some games going on tonight, if we're all on at the same time.

Mine's "thepopstalinist".

[est]

Mine is "est_xplosif" but I am not sure if I'll have time to be online tonight.  I'll add you guys to my friends list and look for you when I do get a chance though.

[Noct]

<---Steam name right there.

[Melodic]

Pix3Ls

Or just add the "Pfriends" Steam group and join any of the three servers we're running.

[PizzaSHARK]

Don't give up just yet, your experiences are clearly anomalous and (hopefully) correctable.

And try to resist picking nits with these things. You know what almost ruined Fallout 3 for me? The fact that bottle caps were currency. Who regulates this currency? How the hell do these things have worth? In a post-apoc setting you'd have to have either commodity- or (more likely) barter-based economics.

But obviously, they include currency because it's that much easier on the player. Nonsensical shit ought to be excusable if it offers a clear advantage over alternatives. Zombies can spawn in rooms they wouldn't be able to get into because it creates suspense for the players.

Bottle caps were the currency for the first game.  It's likely a nostalgia thing for old school players

[Scandanavian War Machine]

so finally got a chance to sit down and play a couple of hours of Left 4 Dead last night and man, this game is sick. it's sure as shit ain't easy though. even on normal difficulty, the last stage of a campaign is always a pain in the ass. i've yet to go through an entire campaign without having to restart (we always get slaughtered at least once on the last level). maybe i've just been unlucky with the teammates i've been getting but that seems a little too coicidental.

anyway, Versus mode is fucking sweet. it is so so so satifsfying to snare/pounce/vomit on some idiot who straggled behind the group or ran too far ahead. but only two of the campaigns are available for Versus mode? laaame.

[PizzaSHARK]

I hadn't heard that.  Can anyone else - preferably with the PC version - confirm/deny?

Best advice is to find a good group of people to play with... I play with (or, rather, will when I can afford to buy L4D next month) the same folks I've played CS, DoD, Battlefield, and TF2 with

Word on the street is that a team of them recently beat No Mercy on Expert with nothing but explosives and melee attacks 

[Emaline]

So, our shipment of this finally came in yesterday! And of course, before it was even scanned in, I had to get my copy.


I only had a short amount of time to play, but Jesus H. Christ. I love this game. I haven't played online yet, and just played versus with my brother. Am I the only one not playing on the pc?

[CamusCanDo]

Nope, I picked it up today for the 360 and so far only played an hour since my Wii also arrived today too. What I've played I have fucking loved and am foreseeing any plans I had for the weekend totally being ditched in favour for this game.

Anyone interested in a LIVE game sometime this weekend?

*Edit*

Gamer tag is CamusCanDo.

[Emaline]

My gamertag is andlemonade and yes. I am looking for people to play with.

[Dimmukane]

Man, I need to get my ethernet cord fixed.  On the other hand, though, I'm going up to a friends with some Blue Moon and herb and playing through the entire game in one sitting this weekend.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

i'm definitely down for a Live game.

gamertag's Captain Dino.

[ackblom12]

I'm up for it. Live tag is ackblom12.

[est]

Man, fuck you guyses and your playing it on Live.

(actually, fuck the system for not allowing Live-Steam matchups)

[Johnny C]

JCSunshine is my gamertag. I'll be playing by the end of next week.

[est]

Man, I wish there was a way I could choose the zombie team every time.  It is so much goddamn fun.

[Dimmukane]

Yeah, so I just played through the entire campaign on normal....holy shit.  I've never been legitimately scared of a game that much.  I was doing fine up until the Tank showed up in those really small tunnels in the sewer level.  I don't think anyone in the history of playing video games has ever unloaded 10 shells as fast as I did.

[Blue Kitty]

Holy crap, even better then the demo made it out to be.  Played through the whole first mission with a friend and it was freaking awesome.  Then tried out multiplayer and managed to get all three rounds as humans, and stop the team every time as Special Zombies.  I feel like I need this game now.

[CamusCanDo]

Guys I can't stop playing this game. Well ok, I can, for sleep and whatnot but other than this I don't feel like playing anything else, because nothing is as fun as hiding in a closest with three other grown men shitting your collective pants while horde after horde are thrown at you. Or working with a boomer while you're a smoker, hanging a survivor a few feet off the ground while they're being completely ravaged below by infected.

[Blue Kitty]

Crap, I totally forgot about the human pinata part

[Boro_Bandito]

man FUCK why do I not have any goddamn money for this game?! By the time I'm finally able to get it you will have all moved on towards bigger and better things and I'll be left with the scraps of whatever 11 year old assholes are still playing this in a couple months.

[Dimmukane]

Dude I will be playing this game intermittently for the rest of my life.

[0bsessions]

I won't be getting it until after Christmas. I just have too much other shit to do.

[est]

The versus mode of this game is definitely the new Counterstrike for me.  I'll try playing the co-op game once I have a working mic.

[KvP]

I just wish they'd have more variety with the weapons or the enemies. It's been a week and I feel like I've gotten about as far as I can with the vanilla co-op campaign. Versus is still a blast but it's harder to set up.

[PizzaSHARK]

Man, fuck you guyses and your playing it on Live.

(actually, fuck the system for not allowing Live-Steam matchups)

PC gamers would have an unfair advantage.

[Dimmukane]

Eh.  That's debatable.  I think it's more an issue of getting the systems to play nice together rather than balance issues.  In a game like this, where the objective is not to kill the most but to survive (or prevent survival), the 'advantage' would only mean they would exist a little longer before getting mauled by the denizens.  Plus, the guns are already really accurate anyway.

[est]

Unless I am mistaken and there is something special about the PC version of the game you'll be talking about controls?  People who play console games are as used to the controls on consoles as PC players are the PC controls, so it's a moot point.

[Melodic]

I have to take SHARK's side on this one. It's difficult to argue that controllers have similar sensitivity and accuracy compared to a mouse. I just doubt it's possible to have that same level of coordination on a gamepad.

[PizzaSHARK]

Part of it's control, yeah - a gamepad will never equal the precision of a mouse (particularly high-dpi mice designed for gaming), regardless of how adapted folks are.

The other end is that the PC is inherently more configurable than the console end, to the point of custom .cfg's and all kinds of stuff, though I seem to remember some Source games being really picky about that sort of thing.

I'm not saying I'd be opposed to console+PC interactivity (I'd totally go pick up a copy of the latest Halo to show the console gamers how its done ), but that it'd be tricky to implement it fairly for both sides.