Really? I’ve played almost nightly since it was released (Er…well I played the demo for about a week, too), and I’m still enjoying it a lot.
Granted, I probably play less because I’m spoiled now and don’t want to play with pubs anymore.
Learned something new last night. I thought that holding out in the ammo/gun room of the Blood Harvest finale was the best strategy. Now I know that you can knock the chair in from the next room and then one-shot everyone in that room with it, as the tank. I’ll be moving outside during the tank phase from now on.
Also, anyone notice that tanks are learning that they can’t charge into four people in a corner with auto-shotguns? I’m seeing a lot more people stay at max range and throw boulders.
I try not to play with pubs, and in the campaign mode, I almost never do.
I learned a new exploit on No Mercy, 3rd Stage! Man, stuff is coming out every day. It’s crazy. I’ve no idea what those leagues that’re trying to start L4D competitions are going to do… CAL and MLG’s GameBattles. GameBattles is especially screwed since they’re Xbox-focused and can’t patch this stuff.
I ran with some pubbers who were talking and knew how to zag when I zigged. We played against a seriously green group. Ended up with my highest No Mercy score yet. Crazy. My regular crew only broke 6,000 once! I’m sure we’ll break 8,000 before too long, but we need to seriously tighten up and get the right group to pubstomp.
Right now, I think I know an way to stop the survivors on every map of No Mercy except the first one. I guess 4 out of 5 ain’t bad.
Yeah, I played the demo a bunch of times, too. I’m going to need more than just 4 boards. 4 more would be a good start. 4 more without getting stuck on trashcans and without nooks that anyone can hide in in Versus and score big.
It’s fun to play with people I have on my Friends List. Even then, Versus is bad.
I’m cutting back the amount of it I play unless someone sends me an invite or I get ornery.
I dunno. I think it depends on your personality some. I like to switch it up a lot, so I’ll play versus randomly on pubs. Then have some friends get together for a few co-op achievement runs. Then finish out the night either trying for expert campaigns or doing semi-organized versus (like smdb group) as a lark.
Even though the game doesn’t change much from one replay to another, the personalities of the people and the styles of play make it entertaining for me. Plus, given it’s nature to promote cooperation, I tend to enjoy most of the games I play. You actually tend to talk to the other players and laugh and joke while you play. Even with random pub players. And that makes it a lot more fun. For me at least.
But…I do that with other games. I agree with you on the point about every co-op game being a little different with the peoples’ playing styles and such. I like that. That’s why I’ll play by invite.
I think **labtrash **and I (whatever your Doper name is) have some Call of Duty to play.
So I resisted this game for a month or two.
I loved the premise - but I’m a total wuss. I simply don’t like scary games.
Thief: DS? Loved it, until I got to Shalebridge Cradle. I had to quit then, because damn it that level was just too intense. I’m not even joking, I played it maybe 20% through - then I got to an area where I was more or less cowering in a dark corner, watching the horrible buzz-box wearing undead shamble past me on patrol every 20 seconds, and I just couldn’t take it. Never finished that game, and that’s a big regret. I really enjoyed it.
Bioshock? Similar. Just too atmospheric. I love the art deco design and story and it’s a better-than-average shooter, but I get into a place where I’m low on health and ammo, and some freaking splicer is wandering about muttering and ranting and I just can’t do it. I damn near had a heart attack In one of the early levels, you’re in a dentist’s office I believe, you are alone in the room, you pick up an audio journal, listen to it, and when you turn around a splicer is right there breathing in your face. Great game, I just can’t play it..
But L4D…I needed a Christmas present for my brother. I usually get him games for Christmas, games that we usually enjoy playing together. Last year I got him TF2, and we spent many hours in 2008 having a blast playing it. Now I knew L4D had been well received, so I decided to get him that. In the store - I just couldn’t do it. Couldn’t get him a game I wasn’t playing as well. So I took a deep breath and picked up two copies.
Tonight…I took a deep breath. Took a shot of rum. Promised myself - if it’s too scary, just go to bed and play it when the sun comes up.
…loading…
Surprise! I really like it. It’s not scary at all. It’s a blast. I was a real CS junkie, and still play a lot of TF2 so the movement and weapons feel very natural.
I also loved Serious Sam, so the moments when the horde of infected are trying to swarm you give me a happy feeling. There are surprises, but it seems that even having AI partners mitigates a lot of the panic for me. Sure, I can get pinned without warning by a hunter, but with Zoey there to smack it off the fear factor is gone.
The four available scenarios are all great. Valve needs to release some more to keep interest up, but considering how they’ve done just that with TF2 I’m confident we’ll be seeing some great new levels in a month or two.
My conclusion? Fun game. Really fun. Can’t wait to play it with my brother after I give it to him on Christmas. Not scary, but consistently intense.
Agreed with one of the last points. Valve needs to release more for this game. Pronto.
So after defeating a ridiculously incompetant pug team (6000 to 500… but we started at map 2, so the score for a full campaign probably would’ve been 7200 to 700ish), I thought up an easy to implement feature that would substantially improve the value of the game:
Create an arranged team matchmaking mode where it attempts to match premade 4 man teams against other premade 4 man teams. This would prevent the problem of having 4 people together who want to play versus but don’t get challenged from facing a random pug team… there’d be organized 4v4 matches without needing to find 8 people.
This is Dark2 posting from Cinn’s laptop:
Holy Crap! Where did you find that? 
That’s awesome.
Dark2phoenix posting from Cinn’s laptop:
I’ll absolutely agree with you that 3 rifles is a recipe for disaster. One person with a rifle is not, however. I can’t count the number of times we’ve survived the final missions in any campaign because specials are wiped out fast with a sniper rifle. It’s perfect for getting hunters off people and killing smokers from a distance. It’s OK with boomers too if you can see them. When Campaigning, I will use the sniper rifle against tanks. I run to a high point and pump rounds into the Tank as fast as possible. If you’re scoped and aim for the head you can do an amazing amount of damage in a short time. Not as much as the auto-shotty for sure, but if someone is just running in circles in front of the tank I can usually get him down in under a minute. And, because it’s the sniper rifle, I can also get any specials that attack other players from just about anywhere on the map.
Biggest drawback to the hunting rifle, in my opinion, is that when you’re moving you can’t hit anything. Also, for reasons I don’t understand, it seems to miss intentionally from time to time. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had something dead-to-rights in the scope and I have to fire 8-9 shots (waiting for the recticule to reset) to hit it.
The sniper rifle is a great situational weapon, you just need to understand what situations it is/is not good for.
It is, for example, excellent for shooting coffee mugs.
I’m with phoenix; I feel that campaigning on Advanced or Expert is definitely helped if one person has a rifle. It’s the best weapon for peeling hordes off of people, due to the high accuracy and damage. That’s especially important in Expert, where a close range shotgun blast can incap someone with full health.
Agree, and you’ve also hit another one of my pet peeves with the game; horrible shot detection.
God, I love the shot detection. I find it very realistic. In fact, with one friend who is absolutely HORRIBLE about friendly fire I’ve demanded he carry the hunting rifle. The only way to use it is to be patient. It’s reload is too long for 15 rounds and its accuracy is terrible unless you sit still and shoot… which makes it an excellent training weapon for this stuff. You have to make every shot count. Most stages I prefer the assault rifle, which also requires some patience to use well, but there’s still some excellent maps for the hunting rifle (death toll post-church, for example).
I notice my zombie kill numbers are drastically decreasing on public games because of friendly fire issues. Typically some hero takes an autoshottie and I just sit back. I’m not getting shot just to save him a few score HP.
Found a good strategy for Blood Harvest finale that could work on expert. I’ve come close with two pub humans and an AI, so four humans should make short work of it. The closet/washroom strategy sucks for Blood Harvest. Inevitably someone gets boomered when the tank comes and that spells death. Instead, the barn is surprisingly defensible. The zombies only come up the ladder and through the hole in the roof, so being upstairs in the corner opposite that hole is awesome. Two watch the ladder, and the two closest to the haystack watch the hole. Perfect. Boomers and smokers are rarely problematic. The key is getting to the finale with flammable shit for the tank and not getting too far from the barn after the first tank falls. Sometimes there’s molotovs in the barn but it is really unreliable.
ETA: what I’m lacking is a reliable way to get through the damn cornfield. Typical team attrition rates approach 50% for me on that stage, which blows the health packs in the house. F that cornfield.
There are only three plans for the cornfield that I know of.
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Get on the hood of the tractor and fight from up there
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Run past the cornfield to the pile of hay and fight from up there.
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Stay as far to the left as possible and use the fence as a rear guard.
Whatever path you decide to do, it’s very important to stick together. The nature of the corn makes it too easy to separate people and pick them off. A tight bunch is a requirement.
I completely agree. I strongly recommend running through the cornfield down the left side to the bales of hay.
If possible, you’ve GOT to bring that gas can from just before the cornfield, too.
Is it just me, or has anyone else fantasized about TF2 playable characters in the role of survivors? Zoey as the scout, Francis as the heavy, Bill as the demoman, and Louis as the Sniper. That would be awesome.
At first I was kind of disappointed that each survivor didn’t have a specific trait or specialty. In a way, though, I think it would have taken too much work to implement and not added much to the game. The gameplay itself creates tremendous focus on teamwork without having to add specialties into the mix.
WOOT!
I got the What Are You Trying To Prove? achievement, the one for beating all 4 campaigns on expert.
Expert blood harvest is really damn hard.
I’d like to thank Gambit who I think was around for all of them, or at least 3, and he’s the best SDMB player out there.
Only 1.4% of L4D players have the achievement.