Left 4 Dead 2

[The Quasi Juice]

Stop being naive. Games are made primarily to make the companies that make them money.

Personally I would rather have a new game than some minor fixes and perhaps some small add-ons to the old game.

I prefer keeping my 60 euro, thank you.

Also, yes, Episode Three, where the feck is it?

[alldaws1]

IGN has a preview of L4D2 up.

In regards to the 'boo, they abandon us for more money' argument, Valve are not ignoring the first game and they are planning new updates in the future.

Ellis will have to get the game because there's a character called Ellis in it, he's a mechanic. Suit-wearing Nick, big black guy simply named 'Coach' and Rochelle. Apparently one of the voices is done by someone from The Wire, I'm hoping for Bunk doing Coach's voice

Five campaigns instead of four and they're considering putting the original game's four campaigns on as well for convenience so you don't have to switch back to the first game disc if you feel like playing one of those levels again. All campaigns playable on versus, survival mode and another new game mode yet to be revealed. New zombies, new special zombies, new weapons including melee weapons (chainsaw, baseball bat, frying pan and axe).

Some levels are set in the daytime in which the Witch won't just sit and cry, she'll wander around the place and apparently has a nasty habit of showing up in the middle of a zombie horde.

Advanced AI director that will change the layout of the maps depending on how well you're doing. Do crap and you'll get a straight run through, do good and there'll be various ways to go with some leading to dead ends.

Sounds good to me.

[Gongsun Zan]

Advanced AI director that will change the layout of the maps depending on how well you're doing.

I hate how they keep advertising the AI director like it actually means something. For all it's hype, L4D turned out to be very predictable. It pretty much became a RNG crapshoot whether a molotov would appear, and the tank had what? two or three different fixed spawn points each stage? Meeeh.

[Fitzy]

Ellis will have to get the game because there's a character called Ellis in it, he's a mechanic. Suit-wearing Nick, big black guy simply named 'Coach' and Rochelle. Apparently one of the voices is done by someone from The Wire, I'm hoping for Bunk doing Coach's voice

It's the guy that plays Cutty who starts in season 3 that will be doing Coach's voice. I don't know what season you are at, though, so you might not have seen this guy yet.

[alldaws1]

Ah right.

Just finished Season 2 of The Wire over here. Season 3 starts in a couple of weeks.

[apsham]

Stop being naive. Games are made primarily to make the companies that make them money.

Personally I would rather have a new game than some minor fixes and perhaps some small add-ons to the old game.

I'm.. not being naive, don't talk to me like I'm five years old.

But seriously, do you know anything about Valve and their development history? They have litereally a handful of people working on these games and it HAS been their mission statement and business plan over the past few years to do exactly as I laid out above, and that's what has gotten them such a hearty following over the past few years. And it's not even that they stated that they were going to be doing something this time.. because that's not it at all either. As mentioned, they JUST released the tools that people need to make their own levels with Left 4 Dead on the PC and it's going to be something that would usually have taken off to retardedly awesome extremes (CounterStrike anyone?) and with the AI on the Left 4 Dead game.. people are doing some pretty fun and interesting shit.

I'm aware of the way that businesses work.. I'm not complaining about something in the wrestling forum after having played an EWR marathon.. I'm simply stating that this is a turn for what Valve has always stood to be, and although I'm not a fan of Left 4 Dead I'm not all that excited for what this might mean when it comes to other games.

And continued support of L4D is all swell and dandy, I didn't think they'd stop that.. but having two games out there is going to cause people to choose one or the other and... pfft, that's not even my argument and this isn't even worth it.

Edited June 3, 2009 by Apsham Koopa

[alldaws1]

Yes because I go around telling five year olds they're naive all the time.

I don't really care about Valve's development history. They've made an enjoyable game and are making another one that looks to be even better. It's like you think they're insulting you by bringing another game out for people to enjoy. So what if it's only a year after the first came out? You don't know what kind of things can be patched into the game. And if they bring out more levels and whatever they're probably going to cost so in the end it'll probably be about the same as buying a new game anyway. It's not even like they brought out L4D, left it as it was on release and immediately set about work on another one. Free maps, a free game mode, more updates to come, PC tools to create your own levels. That's more than a lot of games get.

I don't get what kind of argument you're making of having two games out makes people choose between them. Especially when they might be putting all of the levels from the first game onto the second.

[Cactus Drags]

I don't care for the argument much, you're all coming across as a bunch of twats with your HOLY VALVE talk and patronising posts. Yes, it would be nice if not every game had to be a money-printing franchise, but it's not like Valve have never made a douche move before. Hell, look at the L4D GOTY edition, exact same game bundled with free DLC, and they tried to charge extra for it.

Besides, no one plays the fucking first game anymore anyway, how is it "too soon" to release a new one?

[Haloheadfire]

I still play it.

But I'm happy with a new game. I'll buy it, especially with the inclusion of melee weapons, daytime, etc. Also, they're a business, they're in it to make money. Not everything a company is going to do is for the consumer, nobody should expect it to be either. L4D has fallen exponentially in popularity over the last few months, people have gotten bored with L4D, it makes perfect sense to bring a new game out knowing this. They aren't going to wait to release a new game because a small cult of gamers still play it sporadically at best.

[EddieRuckus]

I'll definitely be getting it as well, even if it just ends up being Left 4 Dead 1.5. I'd even argue against those who say the first would have a longer life if they keep releasing new content(which they still are), because when the first Left 4 Dead came out a LOT of EWB people played. It got to the point where if you didn't join in right away, you were locked out during a game which had 8 people playing in versus. After a month or so that dwindled down. Then the new DLC was announced, and everyone said they would be getting it, but since then the only people I've played with are Ellis, Ruki, halo, and Maxx. Even now we don't play at all that much.

[Maxx]

Well they ruined the game with their "support" for it.

The AI director WAS good and the game was unpredictable and sometimes in versus one team would get a far easier run through than their opponents. It was unpredictable, it was different every time. Where's the tank going to pop up? How many times is he going to pop up? Are we going to encounter the witch? Are we going to find advanced weapons this level or do we have to wait until they're auto assigned to us on the next stage? And holy crap I need health, where's the health!? When will there be health again!

And then came the patch, turning versus mode into:

Okay, we're' getting one tank here, one tank there. No witch this round. Advanced weapons midway through, health pack hidden off in the corner. They destroyed the unpredictability of the game and unbalanced it even further because whatever team starts as the infected has the distinct and obvious advantage of knowing where EVERYTHING will be when its their turn as survivors. Alot of the fun of L4D for me was in the spontaneity of it and the patch obliterated that.

Survival mode was fun, but it became rather repetitive itself. I'd have preferred if it was a competition between 4 players to see who could survive the longest, or a direct competition against another team of 4 to see which could survive the longest.

L4D2, I'll probably wait till its price gets slashed to pick it up, and I encourage everyone else to do that. I didn't get L4D until around Christmas because they'd dropped the price to $40 and with a trade in of one game I only had to pay $20.

As for Valve, its PC fanatics come off as spoiled brats who've become accustomed to getting everything they want, now they aren't and they can't handle it. Gee that's gotta suck. I've only ever played Valve games on a console and they've been fucking atrocious at supporting their game. Team Fortress 2, the PC brats get update after update from Valve on top of the ability to mod it themselves, while those who bought it for 360 are still waiting on a single fucking patch. Took Valve 6 months to make two levels in L4D playable in Versus mode, when they should have been like that in the first place. So forgive me if I get tired of the PC Gamers constant complaining that waaaaah Valve isn't supporting the game I like.

Boo fucking hoo.

[EddieRuckus]

Definitely agree with the AI director thingy, was challenging and fun and made me feel more accomplished when we kicked the other team's ass, especially when they had it easier than us. Now it's really boring to be honest.

[Maxx]

Oh and look, the PC gamers are getting level creation tools next week. There you go, that's all the support for the fucking game you need. Meanwhile, console gamers get nothing (shocking!) But lets let the PC Gamers continue to talk about how much of an injustice it is that Valve is putting out a sequel so soon. Fuckers.

[Toe]

I don't play L4D online anymore because we moved the XBOX to a different TV, one I can't use at night because people will be sleeping.

[The Quasi Juice]

Oh and look, the PC gamers are getting level creation tools next week. There you go, that's all the support for the fucking game you need. Meanwhile, console gamers get nothing (shocking!) But lets let the PC Gamers continue to talk about how much of an injustice it is that Valve is putting out a sequel so soon. Fuckers.

It's not injustice, it's unneeded.

[apsham]

Sooo, in the end due to the petition and the stink raised over the announcement of L4D2, Valve has come out to say that;

1. They're making the levels created with L4D's editor easily transferrable over to L4D2 annnd;

2. Looking into making the two games cross-compatible with each other.

I'd say that was upheaval worth doing to get a result like that.

[abundant]

Valve will be showing off a new campaign "Swamp Fever" at the San Diego Comic-Con.

[Nimrodic]

Valve will be showing off a new campaign "Swamp Fever" at the San Diego Comic-Con.

Must find out when they will be doing that, as I will be at Comic-Con, go me.

[abundant]

2-9 pm Thursday through Saturday, and 12-5 pm on Sunday at the EA Gaming Lounge at the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter Hotel.

[abundant]

A few new infected will be shown at Comic-con. The first one is the Uncommon Common infected for Swamp Fever, Mud Men. They run real fast on all fours and because you're in a swamp, they are hard to spot.

The second one is a boss infected, the Spitter. It spits/tosses slime that will hurt anyone who steps in it.