Left 4 Dead... 2.

nix

Ok can someone confirm that all thats new is;

3 new infected
melee weapons
new game mode


Is that it??

Ciaran500

nix wrote: »

Ok can someone confirm that all thats new is;

3 new infected
melee weapons
new game mode


Is that it??

New maps
New characters.

Essentially its what you get with any other sequel.

L31mr0d

nix wrote: »

Ok can someone confirm that all thats new is;

3 new infected
melee weapons
new game mode

Is that it??

Also, dismemberment and gore effects on the Zombies (when you shoot them you can see their ribs, intestines... etc). Graphically, its looks like they've made some improvements, but it's hard to tell tbh, probably because daylight in the source engine at this stage is going to make everything look bad.

It just feels like what L4D should of been. It feels more polished and balanced.

If you break down any game to just "what's new in the sequel" you are going to have a short list. Most game sequels are about taking the aspects that worked before and polishing off the rough edges.

leninbenjamin

thebman wrote: »

So the survivor AI needs work not the infected :P

no, they both do. The survivor AI is broken, simple as. But the Infected AI is still very weak. It should not be possible for an individual to complete an entire section of a map on their own. Seems all their efforts into preventing camping have put some serious holes in the AI director. All the smokers and spitters the game sent me were on the ground in the path ahead of me. By the time they readied themselves to fire I was hacking them down. Boomers just wander out into the open. Hunters make themselves easy targets. Oh, and the bug where zombies climb over anything in the way to get to you has gotten much worse in this release it seems. So if you have a horde coming at you, all you need to do is stand behind a lamppost and shoot them down as they try to climb it.

Considering the main focus of this release was revamping the AI director, it's pretty disappointing imo.

Kinetic^

It's decent. I doubt I would've paid the full €50 for it though, the 4 game deal is decent enough.

nix

Cheers lads, I'm just trying to justify paying extra money for something they could/should have done for free.

Support a game and its community instead of milking us, y'know ? I dont wanna buy this only to see L4D3 announced a few months down the road.

They are the reason i stopped playing cod/BF games, just making us pay for the same **** over and over

I wanna play a game that will be supported by its developer, kinda like the way they look after TF2


But yeah may give this a whirl, new stuff sounds like it will add alot to the game tactics

grizzly

I don't understand why people begrudge the idea of paying for a new game one year after the first one. If you get it under the 4 pack deal it's about €35. For that money I'll get about 50-100 hours of entertainment. About 40c per hour – what other media (apart for maybe music) would you get kind of return on? In comparison a trip to the cinema is 20 times more expensive!

Overheal

grizzly wrote: »

I don't understand why people begrudge the idea of paying for a new game one year after the first one. If you get it under the 4 pack deal it's about €35. For that money I'll get about 50-100 hours of entertainment. About 40c per hour – what other media (apart for maybe music) would you get kind of return on? In comparison a trip to the cinema is 20 times more expensive!

Well its not like paying $15 for a Foo Fighters Album only to have them release a brand new album next year. That album will be a completely seperate entity from the first.

You do have a much more annoying problem if they then go and decide to release the 2nd album and have it contain all or most of the first album. Then things get muddy.

You also have to understand the PC gaming community that was set down by our forefathers in the greatness that was Quake, and Doom and Duke Nukem. But especially Quake, given its very successful multiplayer. Times were simpler back then.

grizzly

Overheal wrote: »

You do have a much more annoying problem if they then go and decide to release the 2nd album and have it contain all or most of the first album. Then things get muddy.

Sorry, I can't get on board with that. I the example you've set, I personally, would still remember the joy of a year with that music. Even it was given away free, my experience if it wouldn't diminish.

That said I do understand that community elements are important for great games and need to be nourished or people will go elsewhere.

Davidius

Now you can get Bill's hat in TF2 if you pre-order this.

Makes me think their whole hat rarity and punishing idling business was to secure the marketability of hats in TF2. :pac:

Anyhow, this game is probably as overpriced as the first so I don't think I could be arsed.

But free hat!

But money.

But free hat!

:pac:

nix

grizzly wrote: »

I don't understand why people begrudge the idea of paying for a new game one year after the first one.

I like to play at a competitive level, im not a pub player ya see. So when a new game is released it cripples the game community as a large majority will swap over for something fresh. Its not a bad thing, but i think its unnecessary to do when you can just simply freshin the current game with new content.

Lets face it, everything new in L4d2 could have been added to the current game in a patch.

The only thing new that couldnt be done is the updated gfx, but lets face it. its not alot better and l4d1, and l4d graphics are not in any way dated/****

L31mr0d

nix wrote: »

So when a new game is released it cripples the game community as a large majority will swap over for something fresh.

While I don't agree releases like this will hurt the gaming community around L4D I do agree that it will likely damage the modding community.

One of the great things about playing HLDM and CS:S in college in the compsoc was that each day a member could bring in a new map that he found on some German website by some 4th year Uni student and we could load it up and try it out, and if it was good it would go into the rotation. There was always new content coming in from the community that kept the game fresh.

With L4D it feels like they tied the modding communities hands with the first one, and then kicked them in the teeth with the second. Even if the current community WIP campaigns will be forward compatible with L4D2, it stills means they have to now modify them to account for the different game dynamics.

L4D has been the first Valve game I can think of that is pretty much parched, even now, of community supplied content.

Menengroth™

grizzly wrote: »

I don't understand why people begrudge the idea of paying for a new game one year after the first one. If you get it under the 4 pack deal it's about €35. For that money I'll get about 50-100 hours of entertainment. About 40c per hour – what other media (apart for maybe music) would you get kind of return on? In comparison a trip to the cinema is 20 times more expensive!

i got CSS free with HL2 and have played it for several thousand hours over the last 5 years, now thats value for money!!

Davidius

The public demo's out. There's not much to do, it's very hard to get an idea of whether it's worth it or not.

5uspect

The demo has begun to freeze on me now since the Steam client update.
I can't even alt-tab out of it and have to reset the PC, grrr.

Overheal

I thought for a moment "Oh **** the minimum requirements went up or something" because my framerate was atrocious. Then I remembered multicore rendering. Aaaaand were back.

I like it a bit. The daytime thing is weird. There is less of a fear element and more of an action element to it. Lots of space to work with. Too much in places. Miss the tight spaces. But the running crescendo was great, covering the retreat/advance of your teammates with a sniper rifle and then taking your turn to catch up to them while they did the same. Its going to take a little getting used to but it looks good so far. I only wish I had more to go off of than 2 parish levels.

Again, daytime makes it feel less like a zombie game and more like your run of the mill FPS.

Seifer

Overheal wrote: »

Again, daytime makes it feel less like a zombie game and more like your run of the mill FPS.

It is a run of the mill FPS if you're not playing in versus mode.

5uspect

But it's not all in day time. iirc some of the maps may even have AI Director variation in lighting.
Certainly Hard Rain has variable weather and I seem to remember talk about variable lighting. Although perhaps this may be variation in indoors lighting.

I found the constant dark claustrophobia of the first game a little too oppressive at times. It just wore me out after a campaign and I wouldn't want to play it again for awhile.

The Parish is the final campaign I think. Perhaps we'll see progression through one or several day night cycles with each campaign.

I find the new game refreshing. From what I've seen of other campaigns there's still plenty of dark horribleness too .

py2006

Just downloaded the demo now!!! Some of the movement of the zombies is a bit iffy I think, not quite as fluid as the first game! Maybe this will be ironed out in the final version!

Hitting them with the frying pan is absolutely hilarious! :pac::pac:

leninbenjamin

py2006 wrote: »

Just downloaded the demo now!!! Some of the movement of the zombies is a bit iffy I think, not quite as fluid as the first game! Maybe this will be ironed out in the final version!

yeah, not to mention one armed zombies climbing up ledges with an imaginary limb.

L31mr0d

Overheal wrote: »

I like it a bit. The daytime thing is weird. There is less of a fear element and more of an action element to it. Lots of space to work with.

But you could tell in the demo even that it was starting to get darker as you progressed. By the last part of the demo it is getting close to dusk, I'd say the following area will be twilight and then darkness.

A day/night switch in game would be nice though. So you could play the campaigns at night if you wanted.

5uspect

From www.l4D.com

AI Director 2.0: Advanced technology dubbed “The AI Director” drove L4D’s unique gameplay – customizing enemy population, effects, and music, based upon the players’ performance. L4D 2 features “The AI Director 2.0” which expands the Director’s ability to customize level layout, world objects, weather, and lighting to reflect different times of day.

Shiminay

I played through the demo campaign again last night and enjoyed it. I felt that the day getting darker as the maps went on and so this should line you up nicely for day time and night time options as Leimrod has said. I hope that becomes an option.

There are definitely some balancing issues to be addressed (the Machete is pretty awesome, but seems to do more horrific damage than I'd have imagined. The Zombie AI isn't quite there yet (the afore mentioned climbing over everything and anything being a very prevalent problem) and the Survivor AI is just a bit dumb as always.

In terms of the additions, I like the Adrenaline when a swarm is coming at you, you could never reload a shot gun fast enough The Boomer Bile is nice too if you want to take a "fish in a barrel" approach or just run. The new Zombies are fun too, Chargers are a nice middle ground between Tank and Hunter and the Spitter can be a serious pain in the arse The Jockey - I'm not sure about yet, I tend to kill them before they get me, but it seems they just control your movements and walk you into the nearest hoard so you can be slapped around?

I'm glad that I'm in on the 4 game deal with a few mates and that we're not paying full whack as I don't think it deserves to be paid full price for what amounts to L4D1.5 for me rather than a full sequel.

EGriff

Does anyone know if this demo is up on PSN yet? I know its on xbox live but can't seem to find it on bloody confusing playstation store.

L31mr0d

New news, (well to me anyway )

Unlock versus in the demo:

http://kotaku.com/5396591/play-versus-mode-in-the-left-4-dead-2-demo

Seifer

EGriff wrote: »

Does anyone know if this demo is up on PSN yet? I know its on xbox live but can't seem to find it on bloody confusing playstation store.

Valve doesn't like the ps3 I'm afraid.

leninbenjamin

EGriff wrote: »

Does anyone know if this demo is up on PSN yet? I know its on xbox live but can't seem to find it on bloody confusing playstation store.

Valve don't bother with the PS3.
http://ie.ps3.ign.com/articles/993/993592p1.html

In short: they fear that the complication of developing for the Cell is too much of an unknown and would adversely effect the development cycles.

EGriff

Oh so left 4 dead never came out on PS3? Thats news to me. Xbox it is then.

Overheal

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Valve don't bother with the PS3.
http://ie.ps3.ign.com/articles/993/993592p1.html

In short: they fear that the complication of developing for the Cell is too much of an unknown and would adversely effect the development cycles.

Well in fairness, theyd have to effectively rebuild the Source engine, wouldnt they?

leninbenjamin

Overheal wrote: »

Well in fairness, theyd have to effectively rebuild the Source engine, wouldnt they?

Exactly. They'd have to redesign almost every component from scratch to fit it into the SPEs.