Left 4 Dead-

Anyone else hearing anything about this one? It's a zombie themed FPS from Valve, the dudes behind the orange box. There's 4 player co-op and some multiplayer modes as well. Given their track record, I expect good things from this one. However, the gameplay video doesn't look all that special. I guess Half life 2 doesn't look great now either, but it is still a really good game. I'm also a sucker for all things zombie, so take all this with a grain of salt.

Here's some more info-

Wikipedia Link
Some sort of fan/info site (don't ask me)
Youtube gameplay video

I've always been a pussy when it came to zombie/horror games; in other words, "I hate freakin' zombies"! Something about mutilated-bodies of flesh walkin' around eating whatever just scares the shit out of me. I think it's b/c my dad use to make me watch "Night of the living dead" when I was like 4 years old.

But anywayz, this game looks good and I'm definitely a half-life 2 fan. So, I dont mind trying it out.........




if someone co-ops with me.

Wicked Ninja might find it very interesting. He's been spending some time prepare for the Zombie infestation that is going to happen.

Yeah, I thinkin' he's makin' his anti-zombie suit as we speak.

wraith_calling wrote:Wicked Ninja might find it very interesting. He's been spending some time prepare for the Zombie infestation that is going to happen.

And sharpening up his Ninja Blade and Watching Night of the Living Dead for pointers. lol.

After getting the new Game Informer I am getting really excited for this one. Which valve making it I have a very good feeling about it.


Here is the homepage for the game.

http://www.l4d.com/

Just checked on the Game Stop website.

Reserve Left for Dead and receive early access to the demo. The early access will start on 11/6/08 and will end on 11/11/08. Offer valid only while supplies last.

In-Store and Online Customers: Codes and instructions will be emailed beginning 9/5/08. You must provide a valid e-mail address at time of online order or in-store reservation in order to receive an early access code.

In-Store customers who did not provide an email address at time of reservation mayclick here to receive information on how to receive their early access code.

You guys know me to well...

This game does look pretty sweet me thinks I will have to pre-order this one.

Careful. I read somewhere that the controls kinda suck for this one.

Well I hope there will be a demo so we can check out the controls.

I also heard the controls were going to be inadequate. I think I read that here- (Ars Link)

Also, about the demo- I'm kinda pissed at Valve and M$ for this one. I don't know the full details, but it looks like you can only get it if you preorder through GameStop. I understand where GS would be coming from, and they should certainly try to get some sort of exclusive rights to the demo to boost sales at their stores, but for M$ and Valve to cave in is total BS.

With COD, it makes sense not to put it in the marketplace. They want to control the number of people who have access, and make sure they're actually playing the game, so making people work to get into the beta is fine. Plus, it's a "beta" so it's not polished like a demo should be. But L4D is a DEMO! Why limit access to that? There's no server load concerns or anything. M$ and/or Valve should have told GS to shove it up their zombie holes.

Maybe I misread whatever story it was about the demo being exclusive, but whatever. Maybe they're limiting access becasue they know it's broken and thay don't want a lot of people playing it prior to shelling out the $60. I was pretty pumped for this, but now I think I might wait and see...

Well this looks to be some of the problem right here but this was from early september and I think they may have remedied the problem (not sure though)

"The game bucks trends of modern Xbox 360 shooters in terms of button
layout and control, and not for any particular reason. The B-button
reloads, left trigger is melee, and right trigger both shoots your
weapon and heals players."


healing and killing w/ the same button is pretty damn ridiculous

Lostst8ofmind wrote:Well this looks to be some of the problem right here but this was from early september and I think they may have remedied the problem (not sure though)

"The game bucks trends of modern Xbox 360 shooters in terms of button
layout and control, and not for any particular reason. The B-button
reloads, left trigger is melee, and right trigger both shoots your
weapon and heals players."


healing and killing w/ the same button is pretty damn ridiculous

Yeah, I was hoping they'd fix it too. A lot of time has passed. Valve seems to be a pretty responsible developer, and I'm sure they realize broken controls = far fewer sales.

I got something telling me how to d/l the demo today. I was going to check that out. I figure I'll also try it on the PC given the control issues. Anyone else going to be playing this? I think there is a large part of it that will be co-op, not sure if the 360 demo is as well.

Here's some info about the PC demo-

I love Ars links...

well where i come from the equation reads this: heal+shoot= team killed

Well im looking forward to this game but I am worried about the contols. going to d/l the demo and try it out.

I spent about 45 minutes with the demo last night. Here's how it went-

The demo (and I think the game) is all about 4 player co-op. If you want to play solo, it drops in 3 bots as your teammates. As for friends management you can make a friends only lobby, reserve X spots in a public lobby for friends, or go with matchmaking to pair you up. I had 3 of my 5 games terminate for connection reasons, not sure if the host left or what, but that was definitely lame. At least it was always in the first minute or two of the level, so that gives me hope. In the other games, there was an occasional touch of lag.

As for the gameplay, you start atop an apartment building by a table of guns. You can pick a shotgun or SMG in addition to your pistol. You then move through the building clearing out rooms full of zombies. Many are fast and will charge at you, some are slow and dumb, and others are fat and explosive. There are a few bizarre mutated zombies that shoot blinding goo at you and will try to wrap you up with their long tongues. At many points through the level, you'll get rushed by groups of the living dead. It seems there is frequently a good place to stand back and shoot them- everyone can stand behind a door and shoot outward, everyone can get by an alley, etc. The guns are pretty decent, but not overly "realistic". I was taking down zombies from pretty far with the shotgun. In real life, I would have only damaged them. C'mon Valve!

The graphics are OK, and the action is fast. I usually notch up the controller sensitivity a bit in FPSs, but in this case, it was also necessary just to be able to spin and shoot as quickly as you'll need to. Most zombies seem to take about 3 SMG or Pistol rounds to the torso, or one good headshot. Naturally the shotgun does it with one, but has longer shot cycles and reload times. I found myself frequently using the pistol since you have unlimited ammo with it. Not so much because ammo is scarce- the pistol is pretty good, and if you can fan the trigger, it'll treat you well.

Friendly fire and even zombie damage is pretty forgiving-i.e. you can take a lot of it. If one member of your team goes down, anyone can revive them. If you run out of health, you enter a mode VERY similar to last stand- you can lie there on the ground and shoot stuff with your pistol until revived. Yeah, the medkit and gun use the same trigger, but it's very difficult to confuse the two. You will rarely be able to heal in the middle of a gunfight, and if you try, you'll know you're using the medpack. I think the "broken controls" criticism was overly harsh. Perfect? No, but for the most part, usual FPS control mechanics apply just fine.

It seems to be very "arcade-y" and over-the-top, like a 4-player version of House of the Dead 2 taken off the rails. I haven't decided if I'll get it when it comes out, mostly because there are a lot of games to play in the next couple months, and many of them support co-op. I also haven't been able to get more than an hour or two in with my beloved 360 each week, so we'll see. There are supposedly more game modes than what shipped with the demo, but I know nothing about those. Overall, it's pretty fun, and the situations my team got in were different on each of my plays through, so there will probably be some decent replay value, yet it's not hard to imagine the gameplay being fairly repetitive- Go from A to B, killing stuff on the way.

Certainly d/l the demo, though. It's worth checking that out.

good infos, thanks antagonist.

I downloaded the trailer, there's a hilarious line in there LOL

I will download it the nano second it becomes available!

I played the demo and it's pretty good and IGN reviewed it and gave it a 9.0. I wanna play more of the demo but not with bots. Who else has the demo?

I've got the demo, but I've been laying low recently. I might have some time this weekend/next week since I'm off work, but I've been studying a lot recently.

i downloaded the demo its pretty good their could be things thats could be better like carrying more guns and supplies instead of just one

I have a whole plan for the end of the world zombie infestation bull.... if there zombies from resident evil....all good, from dawn of the dead...im eatin a bullet... and thats basically it

I d/l it on the pc and I think its going to be more of a pc game b/c of the problems w/ the controls.

I think this is a game where we need to decide on a night, everyone who wants to play rents it and then we all jump in and beat the shit out of it.