Left 4 Dead

[Llyranor]

Half-Life doesn't matter because it has co-op.

 

Left 4 Dead fixes that glaring problem.

[alanschu]

Hey, cool. How's the AI?

 

 

I have no real issues with the friendly AI. They aren't as good and dynamic as my friend, but they are excellent for avoiding friendly fire, as well as making sure to not hit things that might alert the zombies. If you get tied up by a hunter or a smoker, they do a good job of freeing you. One time when I died and respawned (in a locked door) one broke off from the group to come and rescue me, which was good.

 

 

Biggest beefs with the AI so far are:

• A bit too focused on healing human players, even if they needed the healing more. Minor gripe.
  
• When a player is incapacitated and "dying," with lots of zombies nearby, they spend a bit too much time trying to rescue the downed player (of which the progress bar is reset if they or the downed person gets hit). They should just eradicate the zombies first, and help the guy up for free, but at the same time, sometimes the guy that is down isn't getting mauled, and reviving him might be better. A minor gripe again IMO.
  
• I need an ability to tell them to move. I set up some traps with some gas cans, and it's not uncommon for a guy to be standing next to it...well...that means he gets cooked when I shoot it. There's one part of the demo where I try to set up traps and this would be sooooo handy
  
• Sometimes they will run in front of me while I'm shooting. Though I find this usually leads to me laughing...and I won't be tooooo critical, since I do the same to my friend haha. However, if you run in front of them when they are shooting, they are pretty good at stopping their fire.
  
• A minor gripe, but sometimes they can get confused if two human players are not too far apart, but not too close, and they'll kind of run back and forth between them.
  

 

 

I love the "dead" music...it's soft and angelic, and it fits sooooo perfectly after you die, and you see the rest of your squad getting wiped out one by one by zombie hordes haha. Very cinematic.

Edited November 8, 2008 by alanschu

[alanschu]

Okay there is one major issue with the AI...though I usually find myself laughing at the absurdity of it:

 

They don't recognize fire, so they haev no problems running into areas that are on fire to get better LOS or whatever. It's really funny when one bot is incapacitated in the fire, and the other goes to rescue him, burning himself alive too haha.

 

Though I think it's only really an issue on expert and advanced since everyone takes more damage.

 

My friend and I usually laugh, but it is pretty annoying.

[Zoma]

Managed to finally download the demo, but its Russian >.< (Don't ask).

 

The game is fun. No kidding. Serious. This may even set off the baseline genre of how Coop games ought to be made. Unlike many coop games, Rainbow Six Vegas for instance, no same game will always be the same for Left4Dead thanks in due to the Director's Mode in action.

 

So what does director's mode actually do?

 

Firstly, it randomise the placing of items across the levels. One game you may find painkillers or pipe bombs behind the wardrobe, the next it might be an extra hand gun, a deskful of powerful weapons or if simply nothing. The same goes to the enemy placements and triggering of the horde.

 

Unfortunately my demo is only capable of playing single player mode but I can imagine that in a multiplayer, it will be just simply pure awesome.

[Strix]

Managed to finally download the demo, but its Russian >.< (Don't ask).

 

I see that ye have been raiding the bay...

 

Anyways, try this:

 

If you have the game in English language, and you want to play in Russian, then create a *. reg file (open notepad, paste the code below in and select all files when saving as and type in english.reg)

 

Code:

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Valve \ Steam]

"Language" = "russian"

Then, run this file to apply changes to the roster.

Those who want to play in English, respectively, replace "russian" in a file on "english".

[alanschu]

My friend and I found a way to change teams and play as infected. Needless to say it was awesome challenging him and all in all being a jerk.

 

It's with enabling cheats, so it's not the true vs. mode. It also meant I was a cheap ass and would spawn tanks when he was about to win, but I mean...I was laughing hahaha (actually what was really funny was when Louis the bot decided that Bill could be saved from the 5 tanks beating on him, and leaves the secure safe room, letting me and a horde of zombies flood in haha).

 

However, once I started to learn the 3 primary zombie types (boomer, smoker, hunter), it was a ton of fun. Getting some bile on the guys and watching the horde come is awesome. You can always see an aura around them, and you can tell their health as it's green/yellow/red. Usually I wait for a mob to come running in if I am hunter or smoker, and hope to get the jump on someone in the confusion. I pulled my friend down off a ledge and into the mob one time as the smoker and he get wasted pretty quickly haha.

 

With just the two of us the hacked versus mode was a ton of fun. I loved jumping off of buildings with the boomer and landing between the squad and exploding in gooeyness haha.

[Zoma]

Hurry up demo release. I'm getting tired of playing with retarded AIs. Even though they are incapable of committing friendly fire, they are so capable of running into the line of my fire. Ugh.

 

Another beef of mine is that there are lack of variety of weapons in the game. Its simply a 2 tier weapon system instead of each with their own weakness and strengths. What about sawed off shotguns? Improvised home made weapons like making a flamethrower with a spray can? Would be nice if the gasoline tanks in the game can be used to pour flammable liquid on the floor to set a trap rather than just shooting it to work.

 

The game can be so much more. But I credit the game for being one bloody polished product with incredible animations and graphics that a source engine could provide.

 

Awesome game nonetheless. Hurry up!

[alanschu]

Even though they are incapable of committing friendly fire, they are so capable of running into the line of my fire. Ugh.

 

Haha you'll find that issue even with human players

[Nick_i_am]

If you're playing with AI you're doing it wrong.

[Morgoth]

If you're playing with AI you're doing it wrong.

Although I must say the AI is sometimes more sophisticated than some actual players.

 

Anyway, the game makes, despite shooting hordes of brainless zombies, a lot fun. But only if the team's really working together well. I also wish the game would be a bit harder.

[Purkake]

Okay so the demo is out. Played some single player and then some with other people. It was fun, but something felt wrong. I can't put my finger on it, but it felt like a Half-Life 2 mod. The controls are kinda loose, you can't aim with "iron sights" so most of the time you will only hit stuff directly in your face, it also feels a bit arcady I don't feel the recoil or the bullets hitting the zombies.

 

i should probably play some more, but at the moment it feels a little overhyped, Valve or not.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

 

 

 

[Morgoth]

It's actually astounding how well the aged Source engine still looks. Especially the superb dynamic shadows, the lighting and particle effects. Not to mention the smooth framerate despite having a few dozens high-poly zombies rushing at you.

 

Edit: And it's the first game that uses film grain that doesn't look like crap.

Edited November 12, 2008 by Morgoth

[alanschu]

Haha yeah I like the film grain too. I remember playing one of the Silent Hills and it looks pretty distracting.

 

 

I agree that Source has aged really well. I still feel that the characters in Half-Life 2 still look pretty damn impressive.

[crakkie]

It's actually astounding how well the aged Source engine still looks. Especially the superb dynamic shadows, the lighting and particle effects. Not to mention the smooth framerate despite having a few dozens high-poly zombies rushing at you.

 

Edit: And it's the first game that uses film grain that doesn't look like crap.

 

Well, technically the Source engine is 10 years old and at its core a heavily modified Quake 1 engine. Valve is always updating it, adding HDR, swarming AI, multicore support. I think the Source engine in HL2 is roughly equivalent to UE2, while in HL2:E2 and L4D it's more comparable to UE3.

[alanschu]

It's actually astounding how well the aged Source engine still looks. Especially the superb dynamic shadows, the lighting and particle effects. Not to mention the smooth framerate despite having a few dozens high-poly zombies rushing at you.

 

Edit: And it's the first game that uses film grain that doesn't look like crap.

 

Well, technically the Source engine is 10 years old and at its core a heavily modified Quake 1 engine. Valve is always updating it, adding HDR, swarming AI, multicore support. I think the Source engine in HL2 is roughly equivalent to UE2, while in HL2:E2 and L4D it's more comparable to UE3.

 

Is it? It thought that Source was a new engine.

[Nick_i_am]

I also wish the game would be a bit harder.

 

If you're playing on normal you've only got yourself to blame. If not, if you're finding expert easy then you're some kind of gaming god as far as I can see.

[alanschu]

Expert is usually a tough go, but often beatable. For two levels anyways haha. Usually I am limping my way into the last safe room, often with one or more group members dead.

[alanschu]

you can't aim with "iron sights" so most of the time you will only hit stuff directly in your face

 

Meh, I pop heads with the assault rifle at range quite a bit. I often take down zombies at range with liberal use of dual pistols as well, which have pretty decent accuracy if you're crouching.

[Llyranor]

We could do expert with a good team of 4. The problem is really our counterparts, and Nick setting off alarms and shooting the Witch all the time. Moron.

 

I finished the first level on expert in one go with randoms. Then I got disconnected on the second run!

 

We should also do more crouching maneuvers, not only for better accuracy, but also to allow the back row more room to maneuver their shots.

Edited November 13, 2008 by Llyranor

[alanschu]

Yeah we learned early that the person in front needs to duck if they plan on stopping to shoot, to let the person behind them help shoot as well.

 

After some fun (and sadistic) times by myself as the replacement AI director, my friend has gotten pretty good at the game (though he still struggled with 4 tanks at once hehehe). Don't underestimate the power of the melee attack for keeping the horde off you (especially if you've been boomer juiced so you know that they are all coming after you). If you have good timing (and are in a corner) you can keep the horde off almost indefinitely, letting your allies shoot the crap out of them (full auto with Uzi/M16 is good times here). Of course sometimes you can't back yourself into a corner and 360 degrees of zombie munchies is game over haha.

 

 

I find random very beatable (especially if you are able to avoid a tank encounter), but it still provides enough tension that some sloppy play (or bad luck) will lead to a wipe and restart. Sucks getting a mob summoned right after you deal with a tank...(or one time, getting a mob summoned just before we met the tank!!!)

Edited November 13, 2008 by alanschu

[Llyranor]

We learned early that we could shoot through our teammates and it'd still hit the zombies. Hence why we really haven't needed to crouch much.

[alanschu]

We learned early that we could shoot through our teammates and it'd still hit the zombies. Hence why we really haven't needed to crouch much.

 

Odd. When I do that I rip my teammates to shreds. A single shotgun blast pretty much always levels them. For us FF is a real killer when playing on expert (not so much at higher levels). No way I can do a full auto on mob if the person is standing in my way.

 

 

While playing around I shot a boomer through a wall by mistake, which was pretty entertaining haha (I tried using the shotgun to see if I could blow a hole in one of the destructible walls that the zombies rip through when they get frenzied).

[Llyranor]

Odd. When I do that I rip my teammates to shreds. A

I think you may have missed the point.

[Hell Kitty]

I enjoyed the demo but it's all a bit too fast for me. Which I expected. Sure was pretty though.