# Left 4 Dead 2 **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 11, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123 "2009-11-11T01:17:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/61 "2009-11-17T14:24:07Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > I actually don’t like the approach with more ammo - I’d like to see a game where scavenging and conserving resources was necesary, rather than just a straight shoot em up where you can blast away all day, and this is a step in the wrong direction. But at least if they toned down the shotguns somewhat and buffed other weapons you’ll feel like you have a choice rather than being forced to take the autoshotty every time. > > Weapons now spawn individually too, and the AI director can change that up. I wish they’d have changed it so that individual weapons spawn, where if you picked it up - that was it, you actually picked up the weapon, like it does for throwables and melee weapons. I don’t like the weapons being essentially infinite spawn points where your whole group can take the same weapon 4 times, or grab a new instance of that weapon to reload. There is some difference here. I picked up the…I don’t know what (do not know my weapons but it was a three round burst automatic). It seems only a few of the standard weapons tend to be somewhat ubiquitous. For my gun I mostly had to find an ammo pile to reload and there were several times I found myself being careful and husbanding my remaining ammo. Further, upgrading your weapon with (say) a laser sight makes you less inclined to just pick up any old weapon lying about when you run out of ammo (although I am dubious how helpful the laser sight actually is). As for the melee weapons I am unable to discern if there is any actual difference between them beyond cosmetic (although the cosmetic differences are fun). It seems the chainsaw is quite powerful but special in that it takes “ammo” for a melee weapon (gasoline). ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/62 "2009-11-17T15:17:00Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Weapons now spawn individually too, and the AI director can change that up. I wish they’d have changed it so that individual weapons spawn, where if you picked it up - that was it, you actually picked up the weapon, like it does for throwables and melee weapons. I don’t like the weapons being essentially infinite spawn points where your whole group can take the same weapon 4 times, or grab a new instance of that weapon to reload. Sure, it’s unrealistic, but it’s also the internet. L4D may have less of a jerkoff-to-normal ratio, but it’s still not that good. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/63 "2009-11-17T19:46:13Z")
Had to re-install steam, as it was just sitting there refusing to build a game list. Lost all my game installs as a result, and now the servers are too busy to download anything from. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Captain\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_C)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/64 "2009-11-17T20:05:28Z")
Fun stuff, I hope we can get another campaign or two under our belts tonight. It was cracking me up on the Carnival level how the clown zombie’s noses squeak and draw in more zombies. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/65 "2009-11-17T20:13:04Z")
Arrrg, I’m in class all day today so I haven’t been able to play this yet. I waited until 12:30 or so last night, then decided it might be better to not be a zombie myself today and went to bed. I’m really looking forward to the carnival level. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/66 "2009-11-17T21:30:52Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Arrrg, I’m in class all day today so I haven’t been able to play this yet. I waited until 12:30 or so last night, then decided it might be better to not be a zombie myself today and went to bed. > > I’m really looking forward to the carnival level. FYI: Last night on the Carnival level I noticed you can bash out vent grates and presumably crawl through them. I tried telling my team about this but they ignored me. I thought they were just being jerks but turned out my mic was off. :smack: Anyway, something to maybe check out. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Captain\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_C)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/67 "2009-11-17T21:50:31Z")
Yeah, we wondered why you were so quiet Whack-a-Mole. After you left we tried those grates, they are a separate path than running through the tunnel of love. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/68 "2009-11-18T10:00:15Z")
We had a full SDMB game of scavenger tonight and it was really fun. It’s something you can do for versus type gameplay if you don’t have enough time for a full campaign, and it’s really intense. You’re always working against the clock and one mistake can win or lose the game. There also seems like there’d be a variety of potential strategies you can use. One nice little feature is that they let you switch between lobbies of compatable type without having to recreate a lobby. So you can change a versus game to scavenger, or campaign to realism mode, or team versus to team scavenger. The team versus/scavenger mode by the way is a feature they really should’ve had from the beginning. There’s a lot of times I want to play a competitive game but there aren’t 7 other people I know around to fill one, which means I have to play with pugs. Either you split your friends up and play 2 pubs and 2 pubs to keep it balanced (but then you can get stuck teamed with annoying idiots), or you go 4 friends vs 4 pubs and usually just stomp them. This is definitely a better way to approach the issue. ---
**Author:** ![ElectricZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58f4c7/32.png) [@ElectricZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElectricZ)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/69 "2009-11-18T14:38:30Z")
Played for a few hours last night. The game itself rocks, but did anybody else have problems getting kicked out of servers or audio/video stutters and lock-ups? It never seemed to happen in single player, but when I went online it would inevitably dump out all the players crash two or three maps in. On a completely unrelated note, the achievement I want the most now is “Cl0wned”… ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/70 "2009-11-18T14:40:48Z")
Some people get a “game engine” crash (that’s the error name, or something like it) during scavenger on the mall (happened a few times), but otherwise bug free and runs smoothly. I don’t think my FPS ever dips below 100 and that’s with everything maxed at 1680x1050. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/71 "2009-11-18T14:53:27Z")
> [@ElectricZ](#): > > Played for a few hours last night. The game itself rocks, but did anybody else have problems getting kicked out of servers or audio/video stutters and lock-ups? It never seemed to happen in single player, but when I went online it would inevitably dump out all the players crash two or three maps in. I got booted once last night for an error along the lines of “Can’t authenticate to Steam servers”. That annoyed me. I did actually PAY for the damned thing you know. Apart from that, I have a known error where a bunch of my textures are pink and black checkerboards. It’s pretty annoying. A shitload of the background is that texture. So are the zoot suits and the clowns. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/72 "2009-11-18T15:04:53Z")
I’ve had that bug too. It was related to alt tabbing and usually got fixed by alt tabbing again. Maybe try setting the game from “fullscreen” to “borderless window” … I actually recommend doing this for everyone. I have no idea why games don’t do this by default, but it has the advantage of letting you tab around to other windows without the slow alt tab load process but has no downsides - since there’s no border, the image isn’t resized, it’s not any slower… it’s identical to playing full screen, except with the ability to alt tab much easier and faster. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/73 "2009-11-18T15:14:09Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > I’ve had that bug too. It was related to alt tabbing and usually got fixed by alt tabbing again. > > Maybe try setting the game from “fullscreen” to “borderless window” … I actually recommend doing this for everyone. I have no idea why games don’t do this by default, but it has the advantage of letting you tab around to other windows without the slow alt tab load process but has no downsides - since there’s no border, the image isn’t resized, it’s not any slower… it’s identical to playing full screen, except with the ability to alt tab much easier and faster. Yeah…I’m starting to think I’m not having the error everyone else is talking about: [http://i45.tinypic.com/331oc1v.jpg](http://i45.tinypic.com/331oc1v.jpg) [http://i49.tinypic.com/33l1rfd.jpg](http://i49.tinypic.com/33l1rfd.jpg) And I’m not even sure where to report it. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/74 "2009-11-18T15:16:23Z")
No, I’ve had that effect too. Not with L4D or L4D2, but with other source engine games like hl2. It related to alt tabbing to me, but I can’t say that’s the cause for you. I’d try the borderless window thing anyway, since it’s all upside with no downsides anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/75 "2009-11-18T15:25:58Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > No, I’ve had that effect too. Not with L4D or L4D2, but with other source engine games like hl2. It related to alt tabbing to me, but I can’t say that’s the cause for you. I’d try the borderless window thing anyway, since it’s all upside with no downsides anyway. Tried both windows and a full screen. Even went ahead and disabled my second display and tried all 3 options that way. Still the same. Really irritating! The really screwy thing is I never had this problem with L4D, and I never had it with the L4D2 demo, either. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/76 "2009-11-18T15:46:34Z")
Well, I think the error is the generic texture pattern for “texture not found in video memory” - just a guess. If it’s always on, and not sometimes on/off, maybe the textures aren’t installed properly? I’d give reinstalling a shot. Edit: Actually if you right click the game and then go to local files, there’s an option to “verify the integrity of game cache”… give that a try. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/77 "2009-11-18T15:55:20Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Well, I think the error is the generic texture pattern for “texture not found in video memory” - just a guess. If it’s always on, and not sometimes on/off, maybe the textures aren’t installed properly? I’d give reinstalling a shot. > > Edit: Actually if you right click the game and then go to local files, there’s an option to “verify the integrity of game cache”… give that a try. “Six files failed validation and will be re-acquired”. If this works you’re my new hero. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/78 "2009-11-18T15:58:05Z")
So, I think I saw a couple of people that have this already on the 360. I’ll be picking up the game Friday. We have to find a way to make **psycat90** social, for she always ends up playing by herself. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/79 "2009-11-18T16:01:09Z")
Okay, how would you like your cape embroidered? -Joe ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123/80 "2009-11-18T16:01:25Z")
With bacon. You might want to give your hard drive some sort of thorough scan, like chkdsk /r. I think Steam does error checking when it downloads, so if the files got corrupted after the fact a damaged hard drive may be the culprit. Then again it could just be some quirk. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-4-dead-2/517123.md?page=5)