• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

The Official Left 4 Dead Thread

Beavertown said:
It didn't work for me when I threw 1 pipe bomb.

So I did it again and didn't even pick up another weapon and got it.
Click to expand...

I got it last night and I threw loads of pipe bombs. Not picking up another weapon is definitely the way to go, though, since it's too easy to fire with something else when the game auto-switches you to it after pills/health/etc.
 
RetroGamer42 said:
I think of it as "I'm not playing a story, I'm playing an experience." These four people, they don't care how it started, and they're not interested in finding a cure or anything. They're interested in finding a safe, non-zombie-ravaged place to go to. In the same instance, I think most of us would be the same.
Click to expand...

This.

I like the fact that the stories aren't connected, but are in fact, four different stories on their own (as I understand it). It's four ways of experiencing the zombie apocalypse with these characters.
 
Just beat it today!
What was IGN talking about? 30 minutes each map? Right. Took us about 5 hours to beat all 4 maps on Normal. Awesome game btw, probably the best co-op game I've ever played.
Oh, and praise Valve for the "Take a break" option, which lets an AI take over your character anytime you want if you need to go somewhere. Every co-op game should have that option.
 
Red Scarlet said:
You can help up a survivor as any of the special types, I've tried it as others before, but only got it to go all the way w/ a Tank. It's almost like a 'mercy play' or 'taunt'.
Click to expand...
Fuck being merciful!

l4d_vs_hospital01_apartment0004-sm.jpg
 
Valve is going to get so many of my MSpace bucks :D

I haven't even beat No Mercy (playing through on Advanced) because of how bad ass the rooftop finale is... but I'm still hyped for more content.
 
jon bones said:
Valve is going to get so many of my MSpace bucks :D

I haven't even beat No Mercy (playing through on Advanced) because of how bad ass the rooftop finale is... but I'm still hyped for more content.
Click to expand...
DLC from Valve is free.

EDIT: Wait. MSpace. I feel stupid. 360. NEVAHMIND.
 
elguerosinfe said:
i understand that they constructed the game as they did for a reason, but I really wish that L4D had a coherent story to connect the different episodes. There are times when the whole world and gameplay feels kind of...empty - just you against the torrent of undead. I know that's the whole point, but still, i somehow want more...
Click to expand...
That's exactly what I feel is missing here.

Or they even could've left the '4 movies' format intact, but really run with it, not just having a mockup poster on the loading screen, but a proper intro cutscene to each movie, maybe trailers you could watch, the works.
 
I agree, that is the only thing that upsets me.

The commentary explains that their original plan was to connect each one, but having the end of each campaign inevitably turn sour (to explain why the survivors were back on their own) made playtesters feel unrewarded. (For example, the helicopter pilot at the end of No Mercy was supposed to comment that he was feeling sick, turn into a zombie, and force the survivors to kill him and crash land the chopper)


I dunno, they could have left the endings themselves upbeat and rewarding while explaining "what went wrong" at the beginning of the next campaign.
 
Holy shit, that mall looks kick-ass. I'm going to have to double dip for this, methinks.

The commentary explains that their original plan was to connect each one, but having the end of each campaign inevitably turn sour (to explain why the survivors were back on their own) made playtesters feel unrewarded. (For example, the helicopter pilot at the end of No Mercy was supposed to comment that he was feeling sick, turn into a zombie, and force the survivors to kill him and crash land the chopper)
Click to expand...

Only problem I could see with this is that that would imply episodic level structure and nature. While with more time, I'm sure Valve could have made a system that implements this (which I would love, a coherent story is always better than next to none), they appear to have wanted each of the 4 campaigns to be available from the start.
 
TheOneGuy said:
DLC from Valve is free.

EDIT: Wait. MSpace. I feel stupid. 360. NEVAHMIND.
Click to expand...

yepp, all my boys have 360s and my laptop is just awful. i'm OK with spending money on DLC when it's for a game this amazing.
 
Haunted said:
That's exactly what I feel is missing here.

Or they even could've left the '4 movies' format intact, but really run with it, not just having a mockup poster on the loading screen, but a proper intro cutscene to each movie, maybe trailers you could watch, the works.
Click to expand...

I'd love to see more things like the intro cutscene that I could watch at my leisure.

But Valve covers a lot of these issues in the commentary. They had originally intended on making the experience more cinematic, with longer intros and such, but playtesters complained that, on repeat runs through the campaigns, they didn't want to watch the cutscenes again. They had originally intended on linking everything together, but having the peak of each campaign end in disaster felt really unrewarding for all the effort the player goes through.

It makes sense. A lot of the game is built around replayability. Those sorts of things might be sort of interesting for one playthrough, but they'd be a frustrating annoyance every time afterwards. The decision to make each campaign stand on its own, and essentially begin and end with the player's actions, focuses the attention of the player on the act of survival, which is Left 4 Dead's strength, and something that never really gets old.
 
you say whatever you want about a valve game. then go into the commentary and come out of it thinking you are an idiot and valve is better than you at everything. never question, just enjoy.
 
Am I the only person that thinks the scoring system sucks in versus mode? I like the idea, but the main scoring parameter should "Progress %" rather than "Distance Traveled" In the finale levels, you almost always reach the final showdown, but rarely manage to finish, often resulting in a complete wash for the two teams. That isn't very interesting. Instead, it should give like 30% of the progress points for reaching the end, and the rest based on how long you survive, as well as an incrementing counter during the mini-finales.

The huge multiplier for surviving is also kind of bunk; often completing a single out of five levels is enough to win the entire match, and I'm not a fan of such decisive scoring.
 
sonicmj1 said:
I'd love to see more things like the intro cutscene that I could watch at my leisure.

But Valve covers a lot of these issues in the commentary. They had originally intended on making the experience more cinematic, with longer intros and such, but playtesters complained that, on repeat runs through the campaigns, they didn't want to watch the cutscenes again. They had originally intended on linking everything together, but having the peak of each campaign end in disaster felt really unrewarding for all the effort the player goes through.

It makes sense. A lot of the game is built around replayability. Those sorts of things might be sort of interesting for one playthrough, but they'd be a frustrating annoyance every time afterwards. The decision to make each campaign stand on its own, and essentially begin and end with the player's actions, focuses the attention of the player on the act of survival, which is Left 4 Dead's strength, and something that never really gets old.
Click to expand...

Ok, then where are the intros to the other campaigns? I would love to watch them instead of guessing what happened.

Man, I hate playing Expert mode with random people. Most of them think they know what they're doing and tell you what to do but they're usually the first ones to die. I keep telling them to stay the hell away from the Tank, just molotov and run. They don't listen and they start shooting at the tank and sometimes run and gun which doesn't work so they end up dead while I'm still alive. I stay VERY far from tank and just shoot and then run if he even gets 15 yards from me. When I finally get a good team, the damn server kicks us. Oh and what's with the server defaulting the game to Normal even when we change it to Expert? It stays on Expert until we die or change maps. These servers sure do suck! Are these dedicated servers even from Valve?
 
Ran into a nice little teamkiller/griefer last night (slaughtered_flesh), which was my first such encounter in L4D.

Is there any way to block such players from joining your games in the future or anything along those lines? I try to play with friends, but sometimes they're either all in full games or there aren't enough online.
 
demigod said:
Ok, then where are the intros to the other campaigns? I would love to watch them instead of guessing what happened.
Click to expand...
It's pretty inconsequential what happens before each campaign. The only exposition gleamed from the intro to No Mercy is that the zombies are mutating.

I'm curious if all the people arguing for more story in L4D did the same for HL2.
 
Salmonax said:
Ran into a nice little teamkiller/griefer last night (slaughtered_flesh), which was my first such encounter in L4D.

Is there any way to block such players from joining your games in the future or anything along those lines? I try to play with friends, but sometimes they're either all in full games or there aren't enough online.
Click to expand...

On 360 you just need to set him as "avoid player" through the dashboard. not sure about PC.
 
Great, had another good game and the server kicked us all. This has got to be the worse online game server I've ever had to dealt with.

Also ran into idiots that would team kill. Seriously, what are they trying to prove here? All we had to do was vote to kick him and he's gone.
 
My group has been trying to plow through all the campaigns on Expert. Sucks because unless you do them all in one go, you don't get the achievement for finishing the campaign :(


Anyway, we're on Dead Air. After dying like 20 times on the third level, we got through level 4 on one go and we're at the finale. Does anybody have any tips for this section? Right now we get one on the turret and two protecting either side of him, and then the last person stands on the truck behind them and faces backwards to kill the hunters and smokers that spawn back there.

So far, not much luck. We tried once getting up the stairs and fighting it out in the husk of a plane but that ended poorly as well :lol Any suggestions?
 
re-post from last page...i think my post got dwarfed by big pics above and below it :(

I am sure it must be in this thread somewhere, but how can I set up a dummy game so I can practice as the infected? Or even just explore the map? I played around with some of the Steam sv_cheats stuff and saw the god mode in single player which I guess would be good for exploring the maps....but not exactly what i'm looking for.

I'm really more interested in practicing controlling the hunter and his jumps. Does anyone know how to set up a versus match w/ only one person so they can dick around as infected?
 
bistromathics said:
re-post from last page...i think my post got dwarfed by big pics above and below it :(

I am sure it must be in this thread somewhere, but how can I set up a dummy game so I can practice as the infected? Or even just explore the map? I played around with some of the Steam sv_cheats stuff and saw the god mode in single player which I guess would be good for exploring the maps....but not exactly what i'm looking for.

I'm really more interested in practicing controlling the hunter and his jumps. Does anyone know how to set up a versus match w/ only one person so they can dick around as infected?
Click to expand...
Just set up a dedicated server set to a versus map and join it through the console. Then use the M key to switch to the infected side.
 
ChunderMan said:
Just set up a dedicated server set to a versus map and join it through the console. Then use the M key to switch to the infected side.
Click to expand...

oh thank you...i didnt think you could play in a 'dedicated' server. i will try this
 
ChunderMan said:
Just set up a dedicated server set to a versus map and join it through the console. Then use the M key to switch to the infected side.
Click to expand...

i cant figure out the command to join once i start a dedicated server. i have tried looking in several places, but none of them mention how to do this. what should i do once i have the dedicated server running and the console window up?

edit:

http://www.left4dead411.com/left-4-dead-servers
 
Valve has the movie posters up for sale at their store. You can buy all four for 15 bucks, or 7 bucks individually. Free shipping on orders $50 or more to a US address. Unfortunately, I am living in Canada and I'm just not willing to spend that much. Still, that Dead Air poster is damn tempting.
 
fallout said:
Valve has the movie posters up for sale at their store. You can buy all four for 15 bucks, or 7 bucks individually. Free shipping on orders $50 or more to a US address. Unfortunately, I am living in Canada and I'm just not willing to spend that much. Still, that Dead Air poster is damn tempting.
Click to expand...

Ah damn....but not enough new stuff in the store to varant a shipment to europe for me. Shirts are kinda meh, but I do need a Francis/I hate everything shirt. :(
 
fallout said:
Valve has the movie posters up for sale at their store. You can buy all four for 15 bucks, or 7 bucks individually. Free shipping on orders $50 or more to a US address. Unfortunately, I am living in Canada and I'm just not willing to spend that much. Still, that Dead Air poster is damn tempting.
Click to expand...
oh shit i need this
 
fallout said:
Valve has the movie posters up for sale at their store. You can buy all four for 15 bucks, or 7 bucks individually. Free shipping on orders $50 or more to a US address. Unfortunately, I am living in Canada and I'm just not willing to spend that much. Still, that Dead Air poster is damn tempting.
Click to expand...
Damn, I think I may have to bite on that poster 4-pack.
 
ToyMachine228 said:
What Witch exploit?
Click to expand...

You just get behind the witch when she's on the ground. She'll get disturbed and go wacko and swing at you, but she can't hurt you for some reason. Even on Expert it'll work assuming she's in a spot where her back is exposed.
 
fallout said:
Valve has the movie posters up for sale at their store. You can buy all four for 15 bucks, or 7 bucks individually. Free shipping on orders $50 or more to a US address. Unfortunately, I am living in Canada and I'm just not willing to spend that much. Still, that Dead Air poster is damn tempting.
Click to expand...
holy shit best thing ever!
 
Quick question:

I'm capped at 56k for a few day as my cable's out. If I buy the retail version do I need to activate it through Steam? If so, is there a setting within Steam that lets me optimize it for dial-up? At the moment it takes about 5 minutes to boot up and then another 15 just to load my games list.
 
I just realized how awesome Halloween is gonna be next year, it's gonna be like when TF2 was released all over again. I can't wait to be like a Hunter or something.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Left 4 Dead Path Tracing with RTX Remix On vs Off - Graphics/Performance Comparison
Analysis Trailer 
49
683
Miyazaki’s Slave replied
Like Left 4 Dead? Co-op games? You should try Warhammer 40k: Darktide
18
2K
Tygeezy replied
The Witcher Season 4 | Review Thread
Cringe  2
51
2K
AJUMP23 replied
  • Locked
Alright GAF. Official Dirty Santa thread. Steam only. Worldwide. $40 cap.
11
160
A.Romero replied
Dead Space 4 Proposed by Glen to EA
2 3
129
1K
Montauk replied
Top Bottom