Left 4 Dead... 2.

Fnz

5uspect wrote: »

Kev_ps3 wrote: »

Played the demo for a bit yesterday. First time playing L4D. Gameplay was fun but the graphics were poor, ps2 standard imo

How so? Low texture quality? Poor animations? Low poly count?
I have to say the graphics are pretty good. They're also a significant improvement over the first game in terms of detail you get in the infected without even talking about the gore.

Granted it's no Crysis but Valve keep their requirements to a System friendly low. They're hardly PS2 standard.

Menengroth™ wrote: »

looks pretty good if you put everything to max inc AA and AF and go 1920*1200 - tbh.

Textures, I believe (iirc), are what my mates thought were sub-par; particularly noticeable on buildings. I can't say I was paying enough attention while playing to notice, myself.

Nick_oliveri wrote: »

If i do buy the game I will be comparing the gameplay and not the shiny shiny! Crysis was bloated and ****e!

5uspect wrote: »

Indeed. As a game Crysis is poor.
You have to give Valve credit for making scalable games.

That's fine, gameplay is paramount, but there's nothing wrong with comparing this to the original on a number of fronts, including graphics. It can be argued that Crysis was poorly optimized but it's also true that it is, now, a 2-year-old game that you're kicking around for being too focused on graphical fidelity.

pixelburp wrote: »

When I was young, gamers looked for gameplay, not shiny graphics

Lies make gay Jesus cry. You contend that gamers cared less about graphics in the past then they do today?

pixelburp

So I tried the demo anyway, no harm seeing how it plays, even if I'm 75% likely not to buy the game.

Is anyone else getting severe stuttering? As every 30 seconds the game freezes with the audio looping?

Fnz wrote: »

Lies make gay Jesus cry. You contend that gamers cared less about graphics in the past then they do today?

It's not a universal truth of course, but I don't believe for one minute that graphics were the driving force that they are now.

Growing up in the 80s, good graphics were an option, developers had to use their imagination & compensate the lack of graphical horsepower with ideas & gameplay. The hardware just didn't exist back then; sure we marvelled at innovations - like gosh, 256 colours - but the staying power was in the games.

OK-Cancel-Apply

I think back in the day, good graphics impressed us more on a sub-concious level. Though it should be said that better graphics usually meant slower games. Now, whenever a major leap in graphics quality happens, the next generation of hardware is out there ready to buy.

Fnz

pixelburp wrote: »

It's not a universal truth of course, but I don't believe for one minute that graphics were the driving force that they are now.

Yeah, I guess greater realism is an important feature to some - bringing into the net a crowd who wouldn't have otherwise played 'abstract' games. As a counter though, graphics have reached a point of diminishing returns, to where many consumers find that pretty much anything released on current gen systems to be perfectly acceptable in the graphics stakes.

I reckon, on balance, graphics' role has not become more or less important over time.

Retr0gamer

People also have to remember that amount of AI and character models the game is turfing out as well as the AI director that is taking a strain on the CPU leaving less for fancy graphics. Character models are a much bigger strain on CPU than level art.

witnessmenow

Im over in sccotland at the moment, logged into steam. L4d2 is £27 (~€31), am i right in saying its €45 back home?

Steam is not letting pay with my credit card or paypal (they have all corners covered!)

Seifer

witnessmenow wrote: »

Im over in sccotland at the moment, logged into steam. L4d2 is £27 (~€31), am i right in saying its €45 back home?

Steam is not letting pay with my credit card or paypal (they have all corners covered!)

I and a few others I know with UK contacts, purchased the the four pack over there for the handsome sum of €23 each

witnessmenow

now thats an idea!


now where is my girlfriends credit card!

Overheal

pixelburp wrote: »

It says a lot about the mentality of some gamers when something that looks 2/3 years old is deemed prehistoric.

Go play star wars empire at war. Theres a few effects (I think it was gasses and explosions? Heat distort too) That still look really crisp. Im sure they're probably just sprites or something low poly, but the effect is very nice. And you cant make that argument about HL2 either

ProjectColossus

Anyone know of a way to hook up with English (or American) Steam users to get in on one of these deals for a fair price?

Kinda like a dating site... for foursomes... but gaming instead of sex!

That UK deal is the best one as far as I can tell.

5uspect

I've heard of Aussies getting theirs gifted to them from friends in the States (cos of the censorship). So I imagine the gift system isn't region locked. You just need some friends in that territory.

ProjectColossus

Yeah that system works, I've heard of people in America offering such a service before (I think Overheal did at one point).

The UK price for L4D2 is the cheapest (by a fraction over the US price) and the 4 pack is the best price again.

Thing is, from playing the L4D2 demo and from pre ordering the original L4D, I'd be happier paying the UK 4 pack price (23).. I'm definetly not keen on paying 45 after last time.

Also, I want that damn hat. And I wish I didn't.

Overheal

ProjectColossus wrote: »

Yeah that system works, I've heard of people in America offering such a service before (I think Overheal did at one point).

Steam has definitely since caught on to this. Whatever method they use its effective, and They'll chargeback the difference.

ProjectColossus

Overheal wrote: »

Steam has definitely since caught on to this. Whatever method they use its effective, and They'll chargeback the difference.

Wow really? As in, if you were to buy and gift a game to Europe, you would ultimately be charged the Euro price? Sneaky.

witnessmenow

Well their rules dont seem to forbid it anyways, the only thing i can see about it is:

My friend is another Country, can they install the game at the same time it is available to me?

Not necessarily. Steam games are tied to the region's release schedule. If another user has a later release date for their country, they will not be able to play their received gift until that time.

ProjectColossus

That quote isn't really addressing the practice of buying a game in a cheaper region and gifting it to a more expensive region though.

Sierra Oscar

The official stance seems to be to turn a blind eye when it comes to people buying gifts off others - you are not meant to do it but its hard for anyone to find out . . .

ProjectColossus

Interesting. So am I misunderstanding Overheal, or did you have an experience whereby you paid an American price for something, gift it somewhere like Ireland, and subsequently be charged extra, to make it equal the euro price?

thebman

ProjectColossus wrote: »

Interesting. So am I misunderstanding Overheal, or did you have an experience whereby you paid an American price for something, gift it somewhere like Ireland, and subsequently be charged extra, to make it equal the euro price?

TBH I doubt thats legal. If you buy something in America and give it to someone in Europe, it would seem unlikely the person you purchased it off could turn around and charge/demand for the difference as the product is more expensive in Europe.

If Valve are doing this, they are most likely breaking the law.

grizzly

thebman wrote: »

If Valve are doing this, they are most likely breaking the law.

I'm sure they cover themselves when the buyer accepts the t&c.

thebman

grizzly wrote: »

I'm sure they cover themselves when the buyer accepts the t&c.

I doubt it would stand up to in court TBH. Such important information about gift purchasing should be shown at time of purchase.

Personally I'd find it completely unacceptable for a company to charge me extra after purchasing an item for gifting it away to a friend.

grizzly

But legally it's probably not refereed to as a "gift", more like "multiple licence purchase with once off transfer permission".

thebman

grizzly wrote: »

But legally it's probably not refereed to as a "gift", more like "multiple licence purchase with once off transfer permission".

Again I don't think you can get away with being that misleading when selling something.

You can't say I'm going to sell you product A and then in terms and conditions say actually I'm selling you product B.

Overheal

ProjectColossus wrote: »

Interesting. So am I misunderstanding Overheal, or did you have an experience whereby you paid an American price for something, gift it somewhere like Ireland, and subsequently be charged extra, to make it equal the euro price?

something i heard in steam forums. could be mislead.

Overheal

Davidius wrote: »

I think the main reason Valve doesn't bother developing for the PS3 is really because they're too lazy. :pac:

Though I never heard all that much of the PS3 version being all that buggy, well no more so than the 360 version which has the advantage in that Valve said they'll do something about that eventually. Which is never.

Valve can be kind of dickish about these things though. As far as they're concerned it's EA's port, so it's EA's job to update the PS3 version including the class updates. EA says otherwise. Everybody is sad.

Gearbox CEO has another more sinister angle on it. And it is how most business work in any other field: so he may very well be correct

While not directly addressing Chet Faliszek's slap at PlayStation 3, the Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford - no stranger to stirring s—t with Valve - has taken a poke at the Left 4 Dead developer's posture toward Sony. Pitchford, speaking to Official PlayStation Magazine, called Valve's posture toward Sony - specifically as expressed by Doug Lombardi - similar to that of fanboys'.
"Doug Lombardi had to take a swipe at the PS3 again, and I thought it was foolish," Pitchford told OPM, according to AnalogHype.

I read it the same way I read fanboys," he added. "Like there's a guy who bought the Sony platform and he's a Sony guy, so he decides he's going to spend a certain percentage of his time bashing Microsoft. And there's a guy on Microsoft doing the same thing. Those guys are childish and narrow minded; It's the same kind of thing.

Pitchford wasn't done there. He also spoke of an "underlying sleaziness" in how Valve has treated the PS3 version of The Orange Box, relative to its support for the Xbox 360 version of Team Fortress 2.

I'm actually kind of mad at Doug because with the Orange Box, he said the 360 and PC versions are the good ones and the PS3 version is like the stepchild because some other developer made it. Well you Valve don't really think that, because look what you've done on the PC side. You've supported that, you've added all this content to Team Fortress 2, and you've left us hanging. It's hard to accept that genuinely, because I know the business, I know you guys make half the money on the PS3 version because you've got other fingers in the pie, and other developers getting a cut. It benefits you if nobody buys that, and only buys the PC version, because you make the most money. There's this underlying sleaziness.

Not that this settles anything but, there you go, equal time for PS3, albeit from a surrogate, in a great three-way Valve/Gearbox/Sony pissing contest.
For the record, we have inquiries into Gearbox regarding the accuracy of these quotes, and any clarification the studio might want to make.
President of Gearbox Questions Valve's Lack of PS3 Support [AnalogHype via Destructoid]

Send an email to the author of this post at owen@kotaku.com.

They make 100% of the profits through steam. A fair amount less through 360 due to licensing, and a whole lot less through PS3 due to cost of third party development and licensing

Not that im all that hurt. When I buy their game through steam the make the most dole. That helps them, and I like their games for the most part. Im a PC gamer anyway, so winz all around.

PirateShampoo

I don't see why they should give a toss, some of the half arsed ports that other company's do for Pc games is atrocious.

thebman

Overheal wrote: »

Gearbox CEO has another more sinister angle on it. And it is how most business work in any other field: so he may very well be correct

They make 100% of the profits through steam. A fair amount less through 360 due to licensing, and a whole lot less through PS3 due to cost of third party development and licensing

Not that im all that hurt. When I buy their game through steam the make the most dole. That helps them, and I like their games for the most part. Im a PC gamer anyway, so winz all around.

In fairness the game is also significantly cheaper on Steam or was at launch as far as I remember and they do special weekends on Steam and other offers like lately where they sold TF2 for 2.50.

None of the other services actually offer any deals like that so attracting people to Valves way of doing things isn't bad as its the best download service around at the moment.

The more people that use it, the more the other companies will realise that Steam is nicking all their potential users and adapt. When that occurs, the consumer can start pushing them to make other changes that they want such as $1 != 1 Eur and the first service that does that will win more customers again etc...

So I'm not entirely upset that Valve are attracting people to their platform since its better than the others for the moment.

5uspect

This is Pitchford's second stab at Valve in almost as many weeks.

Last time he said that Valve were abusing their position with Steam and were exploiting small devs. The small Devs disagreed however.

leninbenjamin

Pitchford sounds like a Sony fanboi more than anything else tbh.

Valve make sh*tloads. They couldn't be arsed with the PS3 because it would significantly eat into their margins. Pretty much it.

witnessmenow

I'm going to get the 4 pack tomorrow from the UK if i can, I already have one other person so if there is anyone who is interested in the other copies send me a message on steam. Im not interested in making any money on it just whatever it costs / 4 .