Whole Article for those that are to lazy to click links (But no pics)
So far you’ll have seen details of two of Left 4 Dead’s four campaigns, No Mercy and Blood Harvest. Today we have a world exclusive first look at a third campaign, Dead Air. What follows is a detailed photo “essay” (using that term loosely) of our experience in the campaign - reveling and revealing details from its quiet beginnings to its climactic conclusion (i.e. SPOILERZ). It’s a terrifying journey through a town complex to reach the airport and escape the city. It starts in a shattered commercial greenhouse with a plane going overhead. The team decides to set out and try to get picked up by the military craft…
Greenhouse
Jim: We begin this session, like every other, by saying “Oh my God, I think there a zombie here!” Everyone looks mock-startled? “What? Zombies!” Once up out of the greenhouses we start clambering through the wreck of the city. Valve are obviously enjoying creating ruined environments - as if the Half-Life episodes haven’t already given them enough practice.
John: The large greenhouse makes for an immediate broad battle (should the Director wish it so). Standing on the wall above the main building is a way to pick them off, but it doesn’t stop them surprising you by pouring in from behind. Erk.
Alec: This reminded me of the climactic setpiece in Pineapple Express, the gunfight in the cannabis greenhouse. I didn’t like that film much, so I’m disappointed with myself for not having a smarter reference.
Kieron: During the greenhouse bit, rather than holding our ground with the rest, I ran around the back and went crazy with my shotgun. Yeah, keeping close to the group is essential, but the infected can be one-minded beasts so that sort of skirting-around-the-edge manouvere can pay dividends. By which I mean allow you to kill more people than your team-mates. I’m not very good at this co-operative thing, me.
Jim: These moments - when you look down on a street you just know is going to be a mass kill-zone - provide fun moments of tension. Although our plans were somewhat thwarted when a flood of zombies started pouring out of the windows behind us once we’d got down into the street.
John: That red splurge in by the hotel is a pipe bomb exploding. These are invariably my favourite moments in the game.
Kieron: I actually remember this one - John’s lobbed his down, and it actually got caught on the car so only a few infected were in its blast zone. So while we got a lot of splendid goo, there was only a few casualties. I then lobbed mine, which took down the rest. Tip: Don’t throw pipe-bombs at cars.
Alec: It’s really hard to resist lobbing some manner of explosive into a scene like this. The trouble being it tends to set off a car alarm or six, which results in a swarm of hyper-fast, hyper-angry deadheads. Curse my pyromania.
Offices
Jim: Like every other campaign, Dead Air has little “Get Ready For the Horde!” moments where a task must be performed (using a crane in this case) where baddies just surge in from nearby streets, rooftops and windows. Back to back fighting is pretty useful - also crouching. People really can benefit from firing over your head, while you benefit from increased accuracy.
John: Please note that Alec (BAMBAMBAMBAM) is currently dead. Weak.
Alec: I’m only having a lie down. And anyway, I can almost guarantee I’m dead because Kieron shot me in the back AGAIN.
Kieron: Or that he’s disturbed the Witch. Again. Oh - can I note that the zombie at the front is the spitting image for the old PC Gamer art guy, Andrew “the Beast” Hind.
Jim: We head into the offices and the great piles of corpses from charging zombies do not block doorways, but nor can they be kicked about after death a la Dead Space. What a shame.
Alec: This is so similar to the scene I often fantasised about during the final, miserable months of my last job that it scares me.
Jim: As the gang moves across the tower-block we end up charging through a number of cubicled open-plans. Office dwellers will see little difference between these environments and the shambling horrors of their everyday working lives… (Except the zombies move faster than office workers.)
John: I primarily enjoyed jumping on the desks, and then over the barriers of each cubical, which is how I’d ideally like to cross real offices. Stupid complaining people and their stupid precious staplers.
Alec: Notice all the funny/sad/mad little messages written on walls. This is a theme throughout L4D - evoking Portal quite a bit - and I suspect there’ll be a terrifyingly exhaustive wiki page somewhere documenting each and every one of them before too long.
Kieron: I really can’t get enough of Left 4 Dead’s blood and vomit. I had to regularly stop to take screenshots of friends whenever they’ve been totally covered with pus and blood.
Jim: The capacity of the zombies to climb means that they can enter the level from convincing “out of sight” reinforcement zones. Meaning you never really see them pop into existence.
Alec: Which is a relief, after Ravenholm’s Magic Zombie Holes.
Garage
Jim: For some reason videogames seem to lead us into alleyways more than you’d expect from real life. It’s not often RPS ends up in an alleyway, late at night, covered in blood. No sir.
John: This time please note that the others are all but dead, while I, the green on the right, am healthy as chops. I am best.
Alec: OMG HAX
Kieron: Worth noting that John has just used his last health pack, while Jim is still packing his. John Walker is a terrible healer.
John: Actually, Kieron, you bumface liar, you can see in the screenshot that I still have my medkit in my inventory. And your mum is a terrible healer.
Kieron: Man! I totally misread that screenshot.
Jim: Anyway, zombies get shot as things explode, and Jim generally gets dragged away by a smoker for lagging behind. I’m pretty sure that happened five times in this alley alone.
Kieron: I’d like to take a second to direct you at the Zombie’s teeth. The state of dentistry is in sad decline.
Jim: BAMBAMBAMBAM, in case you were wondering, is Alec. He did startle the Witch. Several times.
John: I found myself strangely reluctant to help someone up after they’d startled the Witch. It seemed somewhat deserved. Alec should tell you all about how he stood next to a Witch and waited for it to attack him.
Alec: It’s only because ladies love me. Dead-eyed, crying, betaloned, diseased, mad ladies, admittedly.
Kieron: My favourite thing about Alec’s Witch-problem was that it was a classic example of a negative feedback loop. He wakes one up, and then every single time we come across one, he wants to have a crack. Because this time - oh, yes, this time - he’ll finish them off. Except he never did.
I just stayed well clear of the crazy bints.
Jim: Finally, with several hundred zombie corpses under our belts, we reach the airport itself. We bust our way inside the terminal building. Less Heathrow Terminal 5, more Luton Airport, this is a tiny regional airport, albeit with a decent number of commercial airliners burning in wreckage across the front parking lot.
John: This is something I love about Left 4 Dead: familiarity. This is an airport. And it’s such a drastically different location compared with, say, a farmhouse or a hospital. There’s an amazing sense of place.
Alec: Best game airport after Tony Hawk’s 2 (or 3, I forget). I yearned for a skateboard here.
Kieron: Yeah, was awesome. All the zombies modeled after the luggage handlers were splendid. It’s probably worth noting that there’s an impressive variety of infected, varying from zone to zone. The open-backed-gown hospital patients were a joy with their vile buttocks.
Terminal
Jim: Throughout Left 4 Dead the walls are littered with conversations via graffiti, which is actually something we’ve not seen done since the walls of the school toilet when we were 15.
John: Like it says above, conversational graffiti is one of real life’s best things, but games never get past the monologue scrawl, generally repeated fifty-seven times in the level. Not so here. In fact, you get most of the story from the writing on the walls.
Kieron: There’s also hints written on the wall. Believing all the hints isn’t exactly recommended.
Jim: The Terminal’s wide-open spaces allow ample opportunity to use the pipe-bomb. Zombies sure do love that bleeping fella - just don’t throw it where they can’t get to it.
John: I think the completely huge arenas will surprise stupid-faced Source sceptics.
Alec: As will the sheer number of zombies it throws at you. Clearly, it’s cheating a little - constantly reinforcing the undead ranks rather than throwing ungodly amounts at you at once - but it really does nail the sense of swarm. You can tell it’s a Source game if you look closely (or foolishly attempt to alt-tab), but it really feels so different this time around that it’s not immediately obvious as it was with, say, Portal.
Kieron: Graphicability? High!
Jim: Pipebombs are efficient, but they’re also 100% less fun that the molotov, which spews fires all over the joint. Here we are on fire.
Kieron: I actually prefer the pipebombs, because you get a chance to see the silly desperate scampering of the zombies after the bleeping thing - kind of the sort of thrill you get by throwing a stick off a cliff when a yappy dog is passing.
Jim: The airport itself a complete mess, thanks to having been hit by falling aircraft. It seems that zombie passengers didn’t understand the seatbelt sign. Or perhaps they all left their mobile phones on.
John: Sigh! Atlas carried the heavens on his shoulders, not the Earth! I take back everything good I’ve said about this game!
Kieron: There’s lots of statues of Atlas carrying the earth, man.
Runway
Jim: Once the final saferoom has been breached, we’re heading out onto the runway, where a military transport plane is waiting. Zombies have seen it too, and come a-running.
John: This was an amazing moment. Kieron called out, “Is that plane landing? Or crashing?” And we all stood still and watched the distant aeroplane come toward us. It was a sign of hope, of other survivors, someone to rescue us. And then it became horribly clear it was out of control.
Alec: Me! Me! It was me what spotted it! The rest of you were all blind idiots until I pointed it out.
Kieron: We were probably just ignoring you.
Jim: The runway is wide-open, but provides plenty of cover for smokers and hunters to lay their traps. Ghastly fates await us.
John: Of course, we weren’t spared zombie attacks for the spectacle of the plane crash.
Jim: We watch a plane arc in from miles away, before crashing into the runway, exploding, and sliding to a halt just short of where we are standing. Spectacular stuff.
John: Just completely amazing. A real moment of loss and panic.
Alec: This is hands-down one of the most cinematic games I’ve ever played - though I do worry a little about the diminished impact second, third and three hundred and forty-seventh time around.
Kieron: Next time I play, I’m totally going to see if I can get splatted by the plane. Or if I’m playing Versus as a smoker, try and drag one of the survivors into its way.
Jim: The final battle sees us man the minigun to fend off endless waves of enemies, as we slowly refuel the plane from a nearby fuel-truck. Not as tough as the end of Blood Harvest, or as thrilling as the helicopter rescue at the end of No Mercy, but an awesome conclusion nonetheless.
John: This was my favourite ending. It definitely wasn’t as exciting a battle as No Mercy or Blood Harvest thanks to the area being slightly too open. But the rush of the plane crash, combined with the spooky familiarity of an airfield, just made it all the more frantic and real to me.
Alec: I do adore the minigun. Normally mounted turret sections turn me right off an FPS, but here it’s very much a reward for all that constantly endangered slog. Of course, the minigun’s no use whatsoever if someone else isn’t guarding your back. Also, one of the campaigns’ climaxes has no minigun, at least not that we could find. It was dramatically harder for it - and I suspect there’ll soon be mods or options to remove them from the other campaigns in order to please the more hardcore players.
Kieron: What I most liked about them was the amount of feedback you get from the use - the slow gradual heating up of the barrel, before smoke drifts off it… I’ve never actually carried on past that point, because the gun was clearly in such a terrible state that I feared it was about to blow up any second. I stress - I have no idea whether it actually can blow up, but it worried me enough to take precautions.
For this ending I just stuck with my autoshotgun.
Also 40 servers off one linux box (including how to)
On this configuration I have been able to run 40 instances of the L4D dedicated server supporting 120-140 players simultaneously. With Vs mode, this number will increase with no noticeable change in performance.
The typical command line I am using to start up the servers in -fork mode looks like this:
I think what Chris forgot to mention was that the ## syntax can be used in an expression. So here rather than just substituting the instance number in, I am using it to add the value to an existing number.
Someone asked about why -exec ##.cfg didn't work. I would suggest using +exec ##.cfg instead. This is the format I am using and this appears to function correctly. Also, make sure that your files are zero padded to two digits (i.e 01, 02, etc...).
I also had to do a lot of shuffling around of port numbers to allow 40 server instances to run correctly. This is because many of the default port numbers are too close to one another to support more than about 5-10 servers. The ports you need to worry about are:
I control the first two from the command line since they are not convars, the rest I put into my config files. Just space the port nunbers apart so there is a gap larger than the number of dedicated servers you intend to run on the same box.
I have to say pipe bombs are a bit silly. I like the idea of them attracting zombies, but it seems odd that zombies that were chewing on the group a second ago would suddenly cease their attack and run off to pile on top of the explosive.
I have to say pipe bombs are a bit silly. I like the idea of them attracting zombies, but it seems odd that zombies that were chewing on the group a second ago would suddenly cease their attack and run off to pile on top of the explosive.
It's got the zombie attracter device attached to it.
What follows is a detailed photo “essay†(using that term loosely) of our experience in the campaign - reveling and revealing details from its quiet beginnings to its climactic conclusion (i.e. SPOILERZ).
PeregrineFalcon on
Looking for a DX:HR OnLive code for my kid brother.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
They are made out to be quite brainless. They just stand around until something that they feel like beating to death comes along. No other strategy than run at you in a straight line. The beeping the pipe bombs make is just a larger attraction.
I have to say pipe bombs are a bit silly. I like the idea of them attracting zombies, but it seems odd that zombies that were chewing on the group a second ago would suddenly cease their attack and run off to pile on top of the explosive.
It's got the zombie attracter device attached to it.
Yeah, but I thought living flesh attracted zombies too. If they come running looking for food and see a pipe bomb, that is one thing. If they already have their teeth buried in Zoe's tender arm and someone throws a pipe bomb around the corner, that is another thing.
They are made out to be quite brainless. They just stand around until something that they feel like beating to death comes along. No other strategy than run at you in a straight line. The beeping the pipe bombs make is just a larger attraction.
many of them dont run at you in a straight line actually
It's a rage virus. They beat you death, not eat you to death.
I'm slightly confused about this as well... How then, do our friends not get the Infection? And how is it passed anyway?
I hope we get to find out in later chapters.
Maybe it's like normal zombies. They bite you, you become a zombie. In this case, they punch your lights out, you become an infected. Or maybe it's like a STD :winky:
It's a rage virus. They beat you death, not eat you to death.
I'm slightly confused about this as well... How then, do our friends not get the Infection? And how is it passed anyway?
I hope we get to find out in later chapters.
Maybe it's like normal zombies. They bite you, you become a zombie. In this case, they punch your lights out, you become an infected. Or maybe it's like a STD :winky:
Given how widespread the infection is, it seems more likely that it's airborn or transmited through contact with bodily fluids. Which could include sex, depending on how long the incubation period is, but that's how I see it.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
if they were true rage zombies (like in the movies) no one would be able to beat this game
I am constantly covered in blood and the zombies usually get close to me all the time. In the movies, if you get any part of the zombie in your system, you get converted into an infected in like, 10 seconds.
These are somekind of mix between traditional zombie and rage zombie
if they were true rage zombies (like in the movies) no one would be able to beat this game
I am constantly covered in blood and the zombies usually get close to me all the time. In the movies, if you get any part of the zombie in your system, you get converted into an infected in like, 10 seconds.
These are somekind of mix between traditional zombie and rage zombie
Not entirely true. It seems that the survivors just happen to be immune to the infection, possibly by some genetic fluke, or by having a tough as nails immune system.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
They punch and kick but most likely scratch and bite too. Some of the graffiti around the demo mentions the virus not being airborne. But maybe it reached the populous by water or food supply.
if they were true rage zombies (like in the movies) no one would be able to beat this game
I am constantly covered in blood and the zombies usually get close to me all the time. In the movies, if you get any part of the zombie in your system, you get converted into an infected in like, 10 seconds.
These are somekind of mix between traditional zombie and rage zombie
Not entirely true. It seems that the survivors just happen to be immune to the infection, possibly by some genetic fluke, or by having a tough as nails immune system.
Thats what I'm guessing... they're immune. And possibly it is indeed spread by fluids and what not...
It isn't airborne, I'm pretty sure there are writings on the wall in the game that state this.
They punch and kick but most likely scratch and bite too. Some of the graffiti around the demo mentions the virus not being airborne. But maybe it reached the populous by water or food supply.
if they were true rage zombies (like in the movies) no one would be able to beat this game
I am constantly covered in blood and the zombies usually get close to me all the time. In the movies, if you get any part of the zombie in your system, you get converted into an infected in like, 10 seconds.
These are somekind of mix between traditional zombie and rage zombie
I like to think that some people are just naturally Immune to the zombie "virus".
Also I'm not sure if I should get this game or not.
Cons:
I don't have many online friends, I'm often busy doing shit at home and this doesn't seem to be game where you can go idle for a minute or two, the game seems short and there is basically no single player
Pros:
Zombies! Seems like it could be reeaaally fun if you get a good team. It looks good and runs well on my computer and is something I can play if the PS3 is tied up.
How long are the matches supposed to be? I can't often commit to a full hour with absolutely no interruptions.
I’ll tell you what happens in Demon’s Souls when you die. You come back as a ghost with your health capped at half. And when you keep on dying, the alignment of the world turns black and the enemies get harder. That’s right, when you fail in this game, it gets harder. Why? Because fuck you is why.
Cons:
I don't have many online friends, I'm often busy doing shit at home and this doesn't seem to be game where you can go idle for a minute or two, the game seems short and there is basically no single player
There is single player, with 3 quite competent AI controlled teammates. Also, if you idle in a MP game then an AI takes over for you until you return.
Played round of advanced with Leitner and some other dudes , shit that was easy.
I went and did all kinds of stupid shit like startling witches on purpose and shotgunning the tank point blank for 2 magazines while he beat another guy to death and i didn't die once.
I wouldn't mind seeing something harder than advanced but easier than expert, right now it feels like advanced should really be normal difficulty.
So, I 've played both the PC and 360 demos, now, and this may make me some sort of heretic, but I think I like the 360 version better. The framerate is consistently high, pretty much everyone has a mic, and there seem to be fewer douchebags with names like AlpaSize21~~ORELY*_* that think they're playing Quake.
this doesn't seem to be game where you can go idle for a minute or two
Incorrect.
There is, in fact, an option to go idle, at which point the computer will take over the character until you're free again.
Not something I'd necessarily want to see in a teamate regularly on Expert runs, but if you're playing with friends, something that you could easily accomadate.
Edit: beat'd.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
So i recorded an online match.
It just a test recoring so it takes some time to get started but there ar some very good moments later on.
might be interesting to add this to the OP since it pretty much showcases how your average match can go. http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=-1726973862166064690&hl=nl
EDIT: skip ahead to 5min in. i had orginally kept the chat portion in because there was some funny discussion going on, but the compression makes it unreadable
I have the demo on both PC and 360. Tried the PC version last night and it looks like ass for me (because I have to keep things low, barely scraping the minimum), but it worked. I was surprised.
Will have to try the 360 version tonight, but.. damn, I don't need more games to buy. Also I figure the 360 version will be easier for me to get a game going (for me at least, I know people on my friends list better, voice chat is easier and just ready to go), but probably anyone from here will be getting the PC version.
I don't understand statements about voice chat being easier on Xbox. I don't see how it could be any simpler. You plug in the microphone, you test it in the in game options and adjust the transmit volume to a suitable level and then you press the button to talk in game. Hell. L4D even has the option to automatically transmit whenever you're speaking.
Well for me personally, I plug headset into controller and I'm done. I pull up my friends list, see someone playing, and I'm in.
On the PC, I've got to find people on my friends list who are playing, see if they're in a game or ready to go, go into chat and try to find some other people who are wanting to play. As for voice chat, I do have a microphone, but my choices for sound output are either everything through the speaker on the headset (bad) or everything out my PC's speakers (not great, as voices will get mixed in with everything else). I've not got a good way to split the outputs.
Basically for me, it's a hell of a lot easier to do things on the 360.
Well since I only ever use a headset, I've never had that problem, but now that you mention it, it is an issue that could do with being addressed. If you've got a good surround sound setup you don't want to have to sacrifice that to be able to talk to other players.
Should probably e-mail Gabe Newell asking about that actually. It might simply be the case that they never thought of that.
As for the "friends list" thing, it sounds as if a lot of the problems you describe are just as easily applicable to the 360 version (depending on the size of your friends lists on XBL and Steam).
However, the Steam group actually sidesteps that issue. There's a huge community of like-minded players we've got right now, and there's always people online and up for a game. It's really awesome.
Most newer sound cards support having multiple input/output devices (especially if you have front ports) so you can have voice going to your headset and the rest going to your speakers. I've had mine setup alike this for a while.
You can play as long as you want, the computer will step in for you when you leave until someone else joins.
Also about the immunity,
they find out that they are the real monsters all this time.
I was talking about this with a friend, and we somewhat joked around that the players are in fact infected too, but have not lost their mind. Think about it, they are amazingly strong, durable and fast.
I went and did all kinds of stupid shit like startling witches on purpose and shotgunning the tank point blank for 2 magazines while he beat another guy to death and i didn't die once.
Posts
Whole Article for those that are to lazy to click links (But no pics)
So far you’ll have seen details of two of Left 4 Dead’s four campaigns, No Mercy and Blood Harvest. Today we have a world exclusive first look at a third campaign, Dead Air. What follows is a detailed photo “essay” (using that term loosely) of our experience in the campaign - reveling and revealing details from its quiet beginnings to its climactic conclusion (i.e. SPOILERZ). It’s a terrifying journey through a town complex to reach the airport and escape the city. It starts in a shattered commercial greenhouse with a plane going overhead. The team decides to set out and try to get picked up by the military craft…
Greenhouse
Jim: We begin this session, like every other, by saying “Oh my God, I think there a zombie here!” Everyone looks mock-startled? “What? Zombies!” Once up out of the greenhouses we start clambering through the wreck of the city. Valve are obviously enjoying creating ruined environments - as if the Half-Life episodes haven’t already given them enough practice.
John: The large greenhouse makes for an immediate broad battle (should the Director wish it so). Standing on the wall above the main building is a way to pick them off, but it doesn’t stop them surprising you by pouring in from behind. Erk.
Alec: This reminded me of the climactic setpiece in Pineapple Express, the gunfight in the cannabis greenhouse. I didn’t like that film much, so I’m disappointed with myself for not having a smarter reference.
Kieron: During the greenhouse bit, rather than holding our ground with the rest, I ran around the back and went crazy with my shotgun. Yeah, keeping close to the group is essential, but the infected can be one-minded beasts so that sort of skirting-around-the-edge manouvere can pay dividends. By which I mean allow you to kill more people than your team-mates. I’m not very good at this co-operative thing, me.
Jim: These moments - when you look down on a street you just know is going to be a mass kill-zone - provide fun moments of tension. Although our plans were somewhat thwarted when a flood of zombies started pouring out of the windows behind us once we’d got down into the street.
John: That red splurge in by the hotel is a pipe bomb exploding. These are invariably my favourite moments in the game.
Kieron: I actually remember this one - John’s lobbed his down, and it actually got caught on the car so only a few infected were in its blast zone. So while we got a lot of splendid goo, there was only a few casualties. I then lobbed mine, which took down the rest. Tip: Don’t throw pipe-bombs at cars.
Alec: It’s really hard to resist lobbing some manner of explosive into a scene like this. The trouble being it tends to set off a car alarm or six, which results in a swarm of hyper-fast, hyper-angry deadheads. Curse my pyromania.
Offices
Jim: Like every other campaign, Dead Air has little “Get Ready For the Horde!” moments where a task must be performed (using a crane in this case) where baddies just surge in from nearby streets, rooftops and windows. Back to back fighting is pretty useful - also crouching. People really can benefit from firing over your head, while you benefit from increased accuracy.
John: Please note that Alec (BAMBAMBAMBAM) is currently dead. Weak.
Alec: I’m only having a lie down. And anyway, I can almost guarantee I’m dead because Kieron shot me in the back AGAIN.
Kieron: Or that he’s disturbed the Witch. Again. Oh - can I note that the zombie at the front is the spitting image for the old PC Gamer art guy, Andrew “the Beast” Hind.
Jim: We head into the offices and the great piles of corpses from charging zombies do not block doorways, but nor can they be kicked about after death a la Dead Space. What a shame.
Alec: This is so similar to the scene I often fantasised about during the final, miserable months of my last job that it scares me.
Jim: As the gang moves across the tower-block we end up charging through a number of cubicled open-plans. Office dwellers will see little difference between these environments and the shambling horrors of their everyday working lives… (Except the zombies move faster than office workers.)
John: I primarily enjoyed jumping on the desks, and then over the barriers of each cubical, which is how I’d ideally like to cross real offices. Stupid complaining people and their stupid precious staplers.
Alec: Notice all the funny/sad/mad little messages written on walls. This is a theme throughout L4D - evoking Portal quite a bit - and I suspect there’ll be a terrifyingly exhaustive wiki page somewhere documenting each and every one of them before too long.
Kieron: I really can’t get enough of Left 4 Dead’s blood and vomit. I had to regularly stop to take screenshots of friends whenever they’ve been totally covered with pus and blood.
Jim: The capacity of the zombies to climb means that they can enter the level from convincing “out of sight” reinforcement zones. Meaning you never really see them pop into existence.
Alec: Which is a relief, after Ravenholm’s Magic Zombie Holes.
Garage
Jim: For some reason videogames seem to lead us into alleyways more than you’d expect from real life. It’s not often RPS ends up in an alleyway, late at night, covered in blood. No sir.
John: This time please note that the others are all but dead, while I, the green on the right, am healthy as chops. I am best.
Alec: OMG HAX
Kieron: Worth noting that John has just used his last health pack, while Jim is still packing his. John Walker is a terrible healer.
John: Actually, Kieron, you bumface liar, you can see in the screenshot that I still have my medkit in my inventory. And your mum is a terrible healer.
Kieron: Man! I totally misread that screenshot.
Jim: Anyway, zombies get shot as things explode, and Jim generally gets dragged away by a smoker for lagging behind. I’m pretty sure that happened five times in this alley alone.
Kieron: I’d like to take a second to direct you at the Zombie’s teeth. The state of dentistry is in sad decline.
Jim: BAMBAMBAMBAM, in case you were wondering, is Alec. He did startle the Witch. Several times.
John: I found myself strangely reluctant to help someone up after they’d startled the Witch. It seemed somewhat deserved. Alec should tell you all about how he stood next to a Witch and waited for it to attack him.
Alec: It’s only because ladies love me. Dead-eyed, crying, betaloned, diseased, mad ladies, admittedly.
Kieron: My favourite thing about Alec’s Witch-problem was that it was a classic example of a negative feedback loop. He wakes one up, and then every single time we come across one, he wants to have a crack. Because this time - oh, yes, this time - he’ll finish them off. Except he never did.
I just stayed well clear of the crazy bints.
Jim: Finally, with several hundred zombie corpses under our belts, we reach the airport itself. We bust our way inside the terminal building. Less Heathrow Terminal 5, more Luton Airport, this is a tiny regional airport, albeit with a decent number of commercial airliners burning in wreckage across the front parking lot.
John: This is something I love about Left 4 Dead: familiarity. This is an airport. And it’s such a drastically different location compared with, say, a farmhouse or a hospital. There’s an amazing sense of place.
Alec: Best game airport after Tony Hawk’s 2 (or 3, I forget). I yearned for a skateboard here.
Kieron: Yeah, was awesome. All the zombies modeled after the luggage handlers were splendid. It’s probably worth noting that there’s an impressive variety of infected, varying from zone to zone. The open-backed-gown hospital patients were a joy with their vile buttocks.
Terminal
Jim: Throughout Left 4 Dead the walls are littered with conversations via graffiti, which is actually something we’ve not seen done since the walls of the school toilet when we were 15.
John: Like it says above, conversational graffiti is one of real life’s best things, but games never get past the monologue scrawl, generally repeated fifty-seven times in the level. Not so here. In fact, you get most of the story from the writing on the walls.
Kieron: There’s also hints written on the wall. Believing all the hints isn’t exactly recommended.
Jim: The Terminal’s wide-open spaces allow ample opportunity to use the pipe-bomb. Zombies sure do love that bleeping fella - just don’t throw it where they can’t get to it.
John: I think the completely huge arenas will surprise stupid-faced Source sceptics.
Alec: As will the sheer number of zombies it throws at you. Clearly, it’s cheating a little - constantly reinforcing the undead ranks rather than throwing ungodly amounts at you at once - but it really does nail the sense of swarm. You can tell it’s a Source game if you look closely (or foolishly attempt to alt-tab), but it really feels so different this time around that it’s not immediately obvious as it was with, say, Portal.
Kieron: Graphicability? High!
Jim: Pipebombs are efficient, but they’re also 100% less fun that the molotov, which spews fires all over the joint. Here we are on fire.
Kieron: I actually prefer the pipebombs, because you get a chance to see the silly desperate scampering of the zombies after the bleeping thing - kind of the sort of thrill you get by throwing a stick off a cliff when a yappy dog is passing.
Jim: The airport itself a complete mess, thanks to having been hit by falling aircraft. It seems that zombie passengers didn’t understand the seatbelt sign. Or perhaps they all left their mobile phones on.
John: Sigh! Atlas carried the heavens on his shoulders, not the Earth! I take back everything good I’ve said about this game!
Kieron: There’s lots of statues of Atlas carrying the earth, man.
Runway
Jim: Once the final saferoom has been breached, we’re heading out onto the runway, where a military transport plane is waiting. Zombies have seen it too, and come a-running.
John: This was an amazing moment. Kieron called out, “Is that plane landing? Or crashing?” And we all stood still and watched the distant aeroplane come toward us. It was a sign of hope, of other survivors, someone to rescue us. And then it became horribly clear it was out of control.
Alec: Me! Me! It was me what spotted it! The rest of you were all blind idiots until I pointed it out.
Kieron: We were probably just ignoring you.
Jim: The runway is wide-open, but provides plenty of cover for smokers and hunters to lay their traps. Ghastly fates await us.
John: Of course, we weren’t spared zombie attacks for the spectacle of the plane crash.
Jim: We watch a plane arc in from miles away, before crashing into the runway, exploding, and sliding to a halt just short of where we are standing. Spectacular stuff.
John: Just completely amazing. A real moment of loss and panic.
Alec: This is hands-down one of the most cinematic games I’ve ever played - though I do worry a little about the diminished impact second, third and three hundred and forty-seventh time around.
Kieron: Next time I play, I’m totally going to see if I can get splatted by the plane. Or if I’m playing Versus as a smoker, try and drag one of the survivors into its way.
Jim: The final battle sees us man the minigun to fend off endless waves of enemies, as we slowly refuel the plane from a nearby fuel-truck. Not as tough as the end of Blood Harvest, or as thrilling as the helicopter rescue at the end of No Mercy, but an awesome conclusion nonetheless.
John: This was my favourite ending. It definitely wasn’t as exciting a battle as No Mercy or Blood Harvest thanks to the area being slightly too open. But the rush of the plane crash, combined with the spooky familiarity of an airfield, just made it all the more frantic and real to me.
Alec: I do adore the minigun. Normally mounted turret sections turn me right off an FPS, but here it’s very much a reward for all that constantly endangered slog. Of course, the minigun’s no use whatsoever if someone else isn’t guarding your back. Also, one of the campaigns’ climaxes has no minigun, at least not that we could find. It was dramatically harder for it - and I suspect there’ll soon be mods or options to remove them from the other campaigns in order to please the more hardcore players.
Kieron: What I most liked about them was the amount of feedback you get from the use - the slow gradual heating up of the barrel, before smoke drifts off it… I’ve never actually carried on past that point, because the gun was clearly in such a terrible state that I feared it was about to blow up any second. I stress - I have no idea whether it actually can blow up, but it worried me enough to take precautions.
For this ending I just stuck with my autoshotgun.
Also 40 servers off one linux box (including how to)
Yes.
But that's what the media called it in the book. "African Rabies".
Even though it (apparently) started in China.
It's got the zombie attracter device attached to it.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
Yeah, but I thought living flesh attracted zombies too. If they come running looking for food and see a pipe bomb, that is one thing. If they already have their teeth buried in Zoe's tender arm and someone throws a pipe bomb around the corner, that is another thing.
Except maybe if you have thrown one and a survivor goes down right next to it
But, hey, I'm okay with them being called zombies.
I'm slightly confused about this as well... How then, do our friends not get the Infection? And how is it passed anyway?
I hope we get to find out in later chapters.
many of them dont run at you in a straight line actually
more like a curve
you're right. That does make it better
Maybe it's like normal zombies. They bite you, you become a zombie. In this case, they punch your lights out, you become an infected. Or maybe it's like a STD :winky:
Given how widespread the infection is, it seems more likely that it's airborn or transmited through contact with bodily fluids. Which could include sex, depending on how long the incubation period is, but that's how I see it.
I am constantly covered in blood and the zombies usually get close to me all the time. In the movies, if you get any part of the zombie in your system, you get converted into an infected in like, 10 seconds.
These are somekind of mix between traditional zombie and rage zombie
Not entirely true. It seems that the survivors just happen to be immune to the infection, possibly by some genetic fluke, or by having a tough as nails immune system.
Hopefully it will be explained in some form.
Indeed it does...
As far as immunity goes I believe I read an old article mentioning how they were just immune. Something like 1% of the population is.
edit: so very late
Thats what I'm guessing... they're immune. And possibly it is indeed spread by fluids and what not...
It isn't airborne, I'm pretty sure there are writings on the wall in the game that state this.
I kind f hope they don't explain it. It's usually just something stupid and/or cliche that caused it anyway.
I always kind of preferred the movies where it wasn't explained.
Just had an idea. Someone should combine Mirror's Edge and L4D. Escaping zombies with parkour.
I like to think that some people are just naturally Immune to the zombie "virus".
Also I'm not sure if I should get this game or not.
Cons:
I don't have many online friends, I'm often busy doing shit at home and this doesn't seem to be game where you can go idle for a minute or two, the game seems short and there is basically no single player
Pros:
Zombies! Seems like it could be reeaaally fun if you get a good team. It looks good and runs well on my computer and is something I can play if the PS3 is tied up.
How long are the matches supposed to be? I can't often commit to a full hour with absolutely no interruptions.
Let me tell you about Demon's Souls....
There is single player, with 3 quite competent AI controlled teammates. Also, if you idle in a MP game then an AI takes over for you until you return.
I went and did all kinds of stupid shit like startling witches on purpose and shotgunning the tank point blank for 2 magazines while he beat another guy to death and i didn't die once.
I wouldn't mind seeing something harder than advanced but easier than expert, right now it feels like advanced should really be normal difficulty.
In the intro, Louis only says they're not infected.
Re: Greeble, if you buy the PC version, join Armadeaddon and just idle in there when you want to play with interweb friends. :winky:
That's just in pubbie servers, though, I guess.
Also about the immunity,
Incorrect.
There is, in fact, an option to go idle, at which point the computer will take over the character until you're free again.
Not something I'd necessarily want to see in a teamate regularly on Expert runs, but if you're playing with friends, something that you could easily accomadate.
Edit: beat'd.
It just a test recoring so it takes some time to get started but there ar some very good moments later on.
might be interesting to add this to the OP since it pretty much showcases how your average match can go.
http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=-1726973862166064690&hl=nl
EDIT: skip ahead to 5min in. i had orginally kept the chat portion in because there was some funny discussion going on, but the compression makes it unreadable
smash code (NL): 5112-4921-0268
Most newer sound cards support having multiple input/output devices (especially if you have front ports) so you can have voice going to your headset and the rest going to your speakers. I've had mine setup alike this for a while.
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I was talking about this with a friend, and we somewhat joked around that the players are in fact infected too, but have not lost their mind. Think about it, they are amazingly strong, durable and fast.
They are the real boss zombies
That's how you're supposed to kill tanks dammit.