Looks like they made a few tools available to the new SDK to keep campaign file sizes down and add some flexibility. I really hope they added some sort of mechanism for the host a of a lobby to share their custom game because the system where everyone had to download it seperately was stupid.
You got lucky. The chopper lands in one of two locations in the stadium. Good thing Gnome Chompsky wasn’t at the wrong one.
I’m fairly underwhelmed with it. Team play doesn’t seem to exist. Every single game I’ve played has one player that sprints off on their own, abandoning the rest of the group. Usually, they’re also triggering events before anyone is ready. Was a rare problem in L4D1, non-stop in L4D2. Also sick and tired of the events that involve racing along a trail through a hoard of undead, where if you stop for any reason, such as helping a downed teammate, you’re toast. I’m finishing the campaigns for the sake of finishing them, but I’ve not found any incentive to replay them. I’m looking forward to seeing the custom maps that are made instead.
Another annoying point. I’m having more reload failures in L4D2 than I ever had in the original.
I’m thinking that being attacked by the dead throws off your aim with pipes/mollys, too. I wiped out my team last night when a molly didn’t go where I threw it while I was being mobbed. Not the first time, either, but only happens in L4D2. 
This is less a complaint than an observation, but it does appear to be a game difference.
I’ve only had time to play through two of the campaigns so far. There are things I like, and things I don’t like.
Likes: the new characters are growing on me. I particularly like Ellis, who I was worried would turn out to be a parade of dumb redneck jokes, but instead is really funny (especially the oddball stories about his friend Keith). For the most part, I’ve liked the campaigns, too; I appreciate that they’ve made the crescendo events more dynamic, forcing you to run from one place to another instead of holding one position. The new Special Infected are interesting, though I haven’t played Versus yet, so I don’t know how they’ll play. The Spitter especially was something the game needed. Melee weapons work pretty well. The Uncommon Infected were a great idea and mix things up really well.
Dislikes: Some of the new additions have really ramped up the complexity, the use of adrenaline in particular, and the learning curve seems steep. While I like the idea of having more weapons in theory, it once again adds to the complexity, and choosing the wrong weapon can really screw up your game. I have yet to learn the “outline” of every weapon to make choosing easy. Occasionally, the hordes are way too damn big; running through a thick, endless horde sometimes seems just impossible. The whole dynamic feels different, too; in the original, you’d get mobbed if you were Boomered, but other than that, the hordes felt manageable. In L4D2, the hordes can get overwhelming without warning, whether you’re puked on or not.
My biggest complaint is the lack of direction cues, which were clearer in the first game. In L4D1, since it was night and you used your flashlight almost all the time, the game used your flashlight to guide you in the correct direction, quite subtly: if you went off track, the light from your flashlight narrowed, but widened and brightened as you headed the right way. In the daytime, I can’t rely on that cue anymore; the flashlight often narrows for no apparent reason, even when I’m on the only apparent path to the end. It’s irritating to have to un-learn the cues that the first game taught me.
There’s a rumor going around that the campaign director makes things less difficult if you have fewer humans and more bots. Supposedly, there are more simultaneous special infected if you have four humans.
However, I haven’t been able to find any concrete information about the veracity of this. Anecdotally, there is some evidence to support that, but I can’t be sure. Is anyone aware of that rumor, or any official line on it? If not, what have your experiences been re: difficulty with more or fewer human survivors?
It’s the same basics as the original set of weapons, there’s just a bit of flavor within each weapon class.
Shotguns: The classic pump & tactical auto (the L4D originals) have wider, meatier spread while the chrome & SPAS (the new ones) are more focused with fewer, tighter & more powerful pellets.
Submachineguns: The Uzi (original) favors accuracy while the MAC (new) goes for power. The silencer is just for show.
Assault rifles: The SCAR “desert rifle” is the most accurate under all circumstances, but is limited to burst fire, making it the weakest for sustained damage. The AK47 is the most powerful (significantly so) but has monster recoil, making it difficult to focus fire at even a medium range without stationary crouching. The M16 is a balance between the two.
Snipers: Infinite overpenetration and one-shot-kills on common infected. The hunting rifle is more accurate on the move and quicker to respond to movement changes (much more so than in L4D1) but the G3 (“military sniper”) has twice the magazine capacity, which is a big deal considering the long reload they both have.
Pistols: 9mm is more accurate in all cases and has much larger capacity. The magnum is practically a handheld sniper rifle, with the same penetration and one-hit kill mechanics, but has a hefty penalty to accuracy and recoil. The magnum also replaces the 9mm when you’re incapacitated, which I personally find a downside, but it’s nearly a primary on its own.
Melee: Slight differences in the attack rate, and the angle & density of the attack arc between the different weapons, but mostly interchangable.
The biggest catch in weaponry between 1 and 2 is that ammo is a bigger deal. You get less reserve ammo to carry and ammo piles are very sparse. You usually wind up having to reload by grabbing a new weapon, so it becomes a bit of a game to anticipate which weapons might show up where and how much ammo you’ll use. It’s a lot harder to always carry the “perfect” gun for the situation unless you’re careful about it.
Pleh.
We were just discussing that this weekend… A buddy and I play campaigns with 2 bots on a regular basis. Our 3rd finally got started in the game and the difficulty seemed to ramp up, especially during horde events. So either the game ramped up with the additional player, or our 3rd player is not as good as the bot. 
We’ll know for sure when our 4th player gets off his butt and starts fighting the good fight against the infected!
Bumping an old thread to say that L4D2 is on sale on steam for half off this weekend ($25) or a 4 pack for $75 ($18.75 each). If you get the game, make sure you’re signed up for the SDMB Steam Community since we play together.
Bumping to say I finally bought the fricking game and please add me as a friend in Steam if you’d like a player. My steam ID is also fluiddruid.
I’m new to the sequel but a pretty old hand at the original (played mostly on Expert by the end, but it’s been a few months since I was really active).
I have to say, though, that the gas-gathering finale completely whupped us last night. I was playing with a friend and his co-worker, plus a bot, and having a bot that wouldn’t take instruction got us killed again and again. Yikes. We finally wimped out and switched to Easy, and we still only made it out with 3 survivors and by the skin of our teeth. Maybe we were doing something wrong, but we tried a bunch of different strategies. Either stuff took too long and we’d get worn down to nothing, or we’d get separated and picked off. Frustrating.
One tip is to not grab the canisters and carry them all the way to the car. Grab the ones on any given floor and throw them over the ledge onto the ground floor, then go down and use them after you’ve cleared the floor.
If you’re daring, the first floor usually doesn’t have anything crazy happen so you can split up into two teams of two, one team throws canisters down and the other fills. Obviously this is a risky strategy, but if you’re finding endurance a bigger worry than sheer survival it can work. I want to reiterate that this is only really viable for the first floor, by the second floor you’ll probably start encountering more special infected and need to stay as a full group.
It CAN work for all three floors worth of gas, mind you, I’ve done it. It’s just that it’s probably more of a headache than it needs to be if you just stick together for most of it.
Amazon has a sale on it this week-not sure how long it will last.
Tossing down cans works fine for the campaign, but be cautious in Versus mode; a wise Spitter will spit on the cans, causing them to ignite. Tossing the cans onto the roof of the information booth or just spacing them widely will help somewhat.
And don’t go up that staircase to the third floor in a big pack; that’s Charger bait. I’ve seen an entire team taken out with a single charge on that staircase, flying over the banisters to their deaths below.
Another sale through Steam right now.
I don’t know if I’m up for spending $20 (horror and FPS are not typically my genres, but I keep hearing how amazing this is), but if somebody else is looking to save a few bucks, they have the 4-pack purchase for a total of $60.29, or just a shade over $15 a person. I think I could give it a try at that price.
Anybody?
Bueller?
I’m playing on Normal/Advanced (no way I can play Expert), and don’t do any of the Versus/Scavenge stuff. Still having great difficulty getting a mic to work.
I’m finding the custom maps a lot more fun than the originals.
We get a week per mutator, so tonight is the last night of versus realism. We should definitely get a full SDMB game going, it’s a really fun game mode and I’ll be sad to see it gone. I’ll start looking to see if we have enough people on in about an hour, so if you want to play be sure to be on steam.
Realism versus is indeed awesome, especially on Hard Rain.
New mutator is up, called “Bleeding Out” for campaign mode. Your health is constantly ticking down, and there are no health kits, but lots of pills, gotta keep the pace up.
And more importantly, in-game there’s apparently a poll as to whether or not to make realism versus a permanent game mode. Please go vote yes if you play this week, since, IMO, playing that way is better than regular versus.
Hate to turn this thread into a zombie (har har) but the latest mutation for L4D2 is up – “Headshot!” in which common infected will only die from a decapitation or headshot. It definitely makes the infected much more zombielike and is well worth checking out.
Just make sure you keep that katana handy…