Gaming Left 4 Dead

Yes, they turned off the online multiplayer aspect when the full game was released. I wouldn't advise playing through the demo on Expert for single player, the bots really aren't good enough to back you up and absolutely refuse to take point. You'll have to take my word for it, the game gets much harder after the demo levels. I could whip through the demo on Advanced without breaking a sweat and Expert, while difficult, wasn't so hard you couldn't beat a level. On the full No Mercy campaign, I died about 10 times or so and my full team was wiped out at least 8 of those times.

Despite what the reviews say, the AI director has a talent for kicking you when you're down in the middle of a horde, and there's no greater feeling of dread when a Tank appears and you're all in middle health. If you're not constantly keeping an eye on your teammates and your collective status, the game can and will annihilate you. I have a couple friends who are FPS veterans, and they have yet to beat a campaign on Expert. The final rescue portion of the campaigns are unbelievably tough, with the computer raining down horde waves on you and barely giving you enough time to restock your ammo. It's beautifully balanced, but you need good friends to play it with. Having one guy without a mic who keeps running through his primary ammo halfway to the safe house will just slow you down, and once he's dead you're pretty much going to be overrun. Bar none the closest you will get to being in a zombie movie; can't stop to catch your breath, can't split up, can't do anything but keep moving and hope your health and ammo holds out.

 

Man the A.I. Director is truly unforgiveable. Lastnight we had 2 waves of zombie horde, along with a hunter, and a tank just as the APC arrive in the Blood Harvest campaign. Everyone die except myself because I just had to suck it up and leave them to die as there was too much chaos going on for old man Bill to handle.

 

I'm still tempted by this but I'm not sure if I should go PC or 360 however it appears the demos for both platforms are now gone anyway

 

But Steam is lovely and perfect and never makes any mistakes and is never used to mess you about like that.

Is it?

 

The demo was always limited its not the fault of Steam, just that valve chose to stop the demo on a certain date. Of course no one else runs time limited demos do they

 

For me this game was clearly a PC purchase both due to the cheaper price tag, and the custom maps I have been told about. A friend of mine has already told me there is a custom map up for LFD based off one of the Team Fortress 2 maps (I think Dust Bowl).

Not to mention being able to play on privately hosted servers that are local eliminates any lag issues I could potentially have.

 

just out of interest what does this look like on the x360 is it pretty much like very high on the pc but less aa?

 

What happened to Left 1 Dead, Left 2 Dead, and Left 3 Dead?

 

I'm a bit of a wimp (and not really that good a player tbh) so I've only played it on Easy so far. I played through the first 2 campaigns single-player just to get the feel of them, the co-op bots are pretty useless as most people have realised and I ended up having to do almost all of the shooting.

I had a go at online co-op last night, again on easy, with 3 human players. We were waiting for the APC to arrive at the farmhouse and the director was just pure evil. It sent wave after wave of zombies at us, including 3 tanks one after another. One of the tanks made mincemeat of one of the players, so we were down to 3.

As the APC pulled up, one of the other players managed to get inside but then was incapacitated. As I tried to get off the roof and help him out (and get in the APC in the process), I was overwhelmed by zombies all around me and was also incapacitated... the last player standing was trying to help me up, as I was blasting away at the zombies surrounding us from the ground (love that).

Once I was revived, I dived into the APC and tried my best to revive the poor guy who was laying on the ground, but too many zombies were charging at me, and before the last guy could get in, who didn't seem to know where he had to go, we had to leave him behind or we'd all be dead. As I discovered, if you're incapacitated inside the APC, you don't count as a survivor, so I was the only one who got out alive - albeit with only 3 health!

Damn good fun! Can't wait to play it again tonight.

However, I seriously dread to think how many times I will die on Expert!

 

An issue was EA and Steam has finally been resolved and I can finally play my game, problem is i've got work in the morning and need to go to bed

Typical bloody EA even when you actively avoid them they still bite you in the arse.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=755188

 

After playing for a while, I'm starting see some improvements that could be made. Hopefully some of these will get addressed in a major update.
1) The hunting rifle is beyond useless. There's just too many enemies for sniping to even begin to be a viable option, not to mention the assault rifle having near perfect aim when used semi auto.
2) The game needs an "uber" primary and "uber" secondary weapon to shake things up a bit. For a primary, I'm thinking a chainsaw. Fast and bloody kills, but overheats if you use it too long. For secondary, a machete. It could only be used with a single pistol, no knockback, and FF always on. Both of these would only be available one at a time, so no team of chainsaw wielding Ash wannabes

 

Am I only the only one disappointed with this game. The game play its self is ok but the fact that none of the campaigns seem linked in any way is kinda disappointing.

 

They aren't supposed to be linked. They are episodic.

Back from holiday, I got my first real taste of it last night with Hannah and Bindi. I love it to bits - but I do have to say that the finales are just ridiculous to the point of not being fun. On advanced we got hit by a succession of hunters, smokers, tanks and hordes so fast that there was no way to react.

 

Words fail me.

 

yeah we tried playing advanced last night. 4 of us, 3 of us fairly decent FPS players, the other a generally decent gamer. hospital level, we probably got about 2 safe houses in, and that took us nearly 2 hours.

i think our tactics probably need sorting out, we're not really ever in a formation, but suffice to say we'll be playing normal until we are any better

 

The annoying thing about it is that I can do all the levels on Advanced except for the finales and even then, with three damn good players, we can't survive for more than a few minutes. The AI just goes mental.

 

I've actually found Advanced to be about right for me, until the finale at any rate. I can blast through most levels on Normal in a few minutes with a buch of people keeping up.

It's true, the finales are difficult, but not that difficult. A couple of nights ago we very nearly finished Blood Harvest on only our second attempt on Advanced, only getting smoked by the last tank. Personally I like a challenge. Expert on the other hand I imagine is frankly impossible, but that's kind of how it should be if you ask me.

Three tanks? Lol, you were too good! Remember the AI Director adjusts the game to suit your play style, if you're doing stupidly well (which on Easy I imagine you were) the Director will spawn more and more enemies in an attempt to balance the game. Playing it on a harder difficulty setting (which above everything else gives the enemies more health and you less), you'll enivitably do less well with the standard number of enemies, so the Director won't need to send three tanks after you. Remember the game adjusts to you. Expert will always be impossibly hard and in Easy the zombies are target practice, but it will vary depending on how well your coping (health, ammo, number of incaps etc. etc.)

If anyone hadn't noticed, I'm mildly addicted to the game. The other night I had a "quick go" before going to bed, and my girlfriend dozed next to me until I finished. Needless to say she wasn't too impressed when I finally woke her up to go to bed at 3:30am.

 

Ah, the "adjusting to your ability" thing makes a lot of sense.

I had a lot of fun just on my own last night, with sv_cheats turned on, playing with the console commands.

Huge endless mega mobs are so much fun.

I might have to have a go with this particular config - making expert look like easy!

 

I'm starting to think it may just be broken. Four players on normal skill, whittled down to one and then I as the last player am hit with literall a tank, smoker, hunter and two boomers all at once? That's not an AI director, just broken AI.

 

I agree sometimes i dont think it is really taking much into account, having baul and joe leave us, thanks to some horrendous laggg, ( tims mothers fault i think? ) we got hit by a tank which took out Han, and then another one spawned when i was ALONE. ie everyone else was dead!