Left 4 Dead

[Derrick Heyoka]

I meant to do this a while back, sadly I forgot.  On Nov 18 a new Valve game is coming out for the 360 and the PC called Left 4 Dead.

This is important because:

a)  It's published by fucking Valve (Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress)
b)  It's a zombie uprising survival horror
c)  Specifically designed (and this is the holy-shit-zomg-new bit) for cooperative, survive together play
d)  The game automatically monitors how the group is doing and reacts to it by constantly raising or lowering the difficulty if we're getting too slaughtered or yawning as we cake-walk through it.

This has epic-awesome potential.  It cannot sadly (I've read) allow both pc and 360 players to play together, so if this happens it'll take some coordination (probably everyone getting it for the PC).  Any takers?

[Dietrich]

I'll grab a coopy for the pc..  but I am lost in Fallout 3 right now.

[Derrick Heyoka]

Yeah it'd have to be more like Sins games or something, just a scheduled play session now and then (probably until we won). 

[Lucy St. Jude]

I am interested in what you are saying and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[Lucy St. Jude]

Here's the intro movie.

According to Steam, the demo will be out for Xbox 360 and PC gamers at 8PM EST, November 11th.

[Derrick Heyoka]

Tycho from Penny-Arcade on L4D:

I was glad to see that the PC version lets you select between Push To Talk and Open Channel for voice, because it's not really a Push To Talk experience. If Donkey Konga is a game that is, at root, about "Clapping With Your Friends," Left 4 Dead is very much about "Saying Oh Shit In A Very Loud Voice." When a torrent of ravenous dead are running down on you, there's no opportunity to extend a pinky and daintily initiate conversation re: your collapsing skull.

In general, the concept of The Director - an omniscient entity that dynamically alters game flow - is a very interesting concept. But I don't really play games strategically, I play them intuitively, reacting to whatever happens to be occurring, so that encounters of the form

abaB aBAB bAbB

all have more or less the same texture to me in the same environment. A director that altered the "set" or inserted an "alternate scene" would provide for me the kind of dynamism they have described. I got the dynamism I was looking for from its Versus mode, a four on four experience where players play the entire "movie," alternating sides. There's a kind of algorithm it runs through at the Safe Room checkpoints, determining score, but the main factors are how many people survived and how much health they had when they got there.  This means that you begin the level with a perfect score already:  you are carrying this score gingerly throughout the level, and the enemies are there to beat it out of you.  Shooting enemies is relevant only because it allows you to retain more health.  In co-op, getting everyone to the safe room would constitute victory: I don't pay attention to score in that context. Also, I'm likely to shoot zombies just because they're zombies and that's what you do with those. But when you're being hounded by four players in concert with their nefarious Director, and you're being scored exclusively on health, you run from one end of the level to the other - and you never look back.

This versus mode is only available on two of the four "movies," which is a shame, but this being Valve I'm certain they'll remedy the situation.

[Nalroth]

I could see myself playing this game.

[Lucy St. Jude]

Their fucking demo was limited time only.  I was going to download the demo and see if I could run the game on my PC, but since I can't do that, doesn't look like I'll be playing L4D.

Fuck Valve.

[Derrick Heyoka]

Nooooo.  Love Valve.  Fuck them for the demo, yes, but otherwise <3!!!  >  From 1up:

While it still won't operate on our trusty Macintosh Performa 5200, PC gamers with less-than-stellar rigs will be pleased to know that Valve recently lowered the previously announced system requirements for Left 4 Dead. Well, okay -- the only thing they lowered was the video card memory requirement from 256 MB to 128 MB, but we imagine that this will allow access to a much larger number of casually outfitted PCs. To find out if you'll be able to join in all the zombified reindeer games upon Left 4 Dead's Nov. 18 release, check out the full list of requirements we've posted after the jump.

    * OS: Windows XP, Vista, Vista 64
    * CPU: 3.0GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 or AMD64X2 (or higher)
    * RAM: 1 GB for XP / 2 GB for Vista
    * Disc Drive: DVD-ROM Drive
    * Hard Drive: At least 7.5 GB of free space
    * Video: DirectX 9 compatible video card (Video card must be 128 MB or more and should be a DirectX 9 compatible with support for pixel shader 2.0)
    * Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

[Lucy St. Jude]

Right, which is why I needed to test it, to see if my 2Ghz AMD would actually run it or not.  If I can't try it out with a demo, I'm not going to shell out $$ for the full non-returnable game.   Fuck Valve.

For that matter, fuck MS too, for not coming up with a way for Xbox and Windows to multiplay.   If the Xbox version could play with the PC version, this would be a non-issue.

/shakes fist

[otter]

Considering the way AMD processors were released, I'd guess that if you had a dual-core AMD you would be fine.  If you don't, you probably can't.

On the other hand, if anyone else gets the game, one advantage of steam is that someone who does buy it can play it on any computer just to test it out.

[Derrick Heyoka]

On the other hand, if anyone else gets the game, one advantage of steam is that someone who does buy it can play it on any computer just to test it out.

Yeeep good point, Adam's already got it 'n I'll probably pick it up this week.

[Derrick Heyoka]

Damn I"m hearing good shit about this game.  People are telling stories about it like it's old times.  I'll probably DL it tonight, then I'll e-mail my infoz to Joc to try it out.

[Derrick Heyoka]

Zero Punctuation

[Derrick Heyoka]

A'ight I keep hearing podcast people joyfully musing about L4D, so I'm making another attempt to organize something here.  I know Adam has it, if it looks like there's any forward momentum / interest I'm willing to buy it on Steam and hand out my login / pwd for anyone who'd like to see if it'll run on their 'puter.  Otter was saying something about some special 4 people for the price of 3 offer he'd seen, I dunno where he saw that, or if it's still available, or whatever.

Anyone?

[Lucy St. Jude]

Jim's been playing it solo and describes it as "awesome".

[otter]

Like a child with a 4lb block of candy, I think that I have finally made myself ill of fallout.  That is, I replayed fallout 2 and wasteland as well as burning over 300 hours in fallout 3 since it came out.

::burp::

I could go for some L4Dead.

At least, until the DLC comes out....

[Derrick Heyoka]

Yay Wasteland!  Wow, where the hell are you finding the time?  I think my game's up to like 85 hours into Fallout 3, OK I don't much play it on weekdays.

K well fuck it, I'm downloading it tonight.

[Dietrich]

So does this mean I should install it finally?

[Derrick Heyoka]

I've purchased it 'n I'm installing it.  When you go to buy it, I see the 4:3 option to buy so if four of you wanna coordinate that go nuts! 

[Derrick Heyoka]

The sitches, bitches.

Lucy has my steam infoz and will DL and install when she has a chance to test out her comp. 

[Corbin]

The sitches, bitches.

Lucy has my steam infoz and will DL and install when she has a chance to test out her comp. 

My steam account name is darkgarde. 

[otter]

I've caved, I downloaded it, and it's snowing, and if anyone wants to give it a whirl, send me a text.  ID in steam is disoculated.

  Woot!

[Derrick Heyoka]

Soooooooo.  We're all downloaded and installed I think.  Adam we need UR infoz!  Anyone up for a game this week?

[Derrick Heyoka]

I think I've solved my sigmatel l4d sound problem (by which I mean, googling for help and not figuring anything out myself).  I won't really know until I play next, but it looks right testing it how I can.  I doubt it'll matter to you people but if you wind up dealing with a l4d sigmatel sound problem here you go:  http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/left4dead/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-46909599&pid=937406

[Lucy St. Jude]

That was totally epic!  I had such a fantastic time.  Anyone get any caps? 

[Derrick Heyoka]

http://flickr.com/photos/meretricious/3232669677/in/set-72157612840161115/

[Derrick Heyoka]

More caps from Disoculated: http://flickr.com/photos/disoculated/sets/72157613045026517/

[Derrick Heyoka]

Huh, looks like you can maybe toss propane tanks / gas tanks, instead of just dropping them.  Maybe right-click?  Anyone find this?

[Derrick Heyoka]

"Owners of the PC version can also expect the long-promised SDK at some point, which should allow for the creation of custom maps, scenarios and other mods."

!!!

[Derrick Heyoka]

Look.  Whatever.  It makes me laugh. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc9f-VVQK3k

[Derrick Heyoka]

It's.  So... I don't.

Huh.  http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/24/hand-balm-over-here-left-4-dead-gets-erotic/#plot

[Brak Zanagin]

Reminds me of the talk of unsnuff we had today.

[Derrick Heyoka]

Found a page with stats for weapons and infected.  I sadly have no way of knowing how accurate the info is, but here ya go:  http://hellforge.gameriot.com/blogs/Hellforge/Left-4-Dead-Infected-Weapon-Statistics

[Derrick Heyoka]

Wow.  They just announced L4D2 at E3, though I imagine it's a ways off.  Still, good news!

[Derrick Heyoka]

Fucking Valve, uh, L4D2 is going to be out.... this fall.  O_O

[Brak Zanagin]

As I understand it, they re-use their engine constantly.  So basically, they're doing content work.  They can go gold with whatever version of the engine they're using at that time.  I'm surprised, but pleased that they are kicking it out so soon.

[Derrick Heyoka]

As I understand it, they re-use their engine constantly.  So basically, they're doing content work.  They can go gold with whatever version of the engine they're using at that time.  I'm surprised, but pleased that they are kicking it out so soon.

That's true that they do that, but when they do it with Half Life (for instance) they're only putting out new "episodes" for the same game.  My understanding is that this is a whole new revision, surprisingly, but not a lot of info yet.  o_O

[Derrick Heyoka]

Trailer (teaser)

[Brak Zanagin]

Was that a frying pan in that guys hand?