Left 4 Dead 2-details

[darthraidr]

i was really hoping that L4D would head in towards the microtransaction route (like guitar hero). every month a new campaign comes out, costs $2-$5. maybe some new weapons (costing $1-$2)... i'd have been happy with that. i'd still be playing. but as it stands now, i'm kinda over the game... i've been over it for a long time. maybe when the sequel comes out i'll get excited about it.

but i'm also wary of yearly sequels. i figure i can just wait a year or two and be behind the curve and saving money.

 

[CommodoreKong]

i was really hoping that L4D would head in towards the microtransaction route (like guitar hero). every month a new campaign comes out, costs $2-$5. maybe some new weapons (costing $1-$2)... i'd have been happy with that. i'd still be playing. but as it stands now, i'm kinda over the game... i've been over it for a long time. maybe when the sequel comes out i'll get excited about it.

but i'm also wary of yearly sequels. i figure i can just wait a year or two and be behind the curve and saving money.

Actually Valve gives that sort of stuff away for free in Team Fortress 2, I would say chances are pretty good we wont be charged anything for the upcoming DLC they just announced.

Of course it's impossible to say if it will be free on the 360 or not since Microsoft wont let them release the TF2 updates for free. It's possible the only reason the survivial pack was free on the 360 was because there was only one new level, all the other new content was based on content already on the disk.

 

[darthraidr]

i figured it might be paid DLC because it would require new voice acting and probably totally new art assets... instead of another desert dust bowl environment....

 

[CommodoreKong]

i figured it might be paid DLC because it would require new voice acting and probably totally new art assets... instead of another desert dust bowl environment....

Actually they've added a new environment to Team Fortress 2, and a bunch of new voice clips. The Sniper vs Spy update included 70 new lines for the spy and 54 new lines for the sniper. Valve also continues to release their Meet the Team videos for free, which often require new art assets, lots of animation and new voice acting. I'm a little disappointed that they haven't done a similar series for the L4D survivors, but I imagine that most of their animators too busy working on HL2 Episode 3 and L4D2 and they only can spare a few animators for the videos, seeing how long it took for Meet the Spy to come out.


Like I said chances are good it will be paid DLC for the 360 since it's unlikely Microsoft will let them release it for free, but they aren't going to charge PC gamers for it.

 

[Mistral]

Paid or not, the y announced new stuff for the end of summer, latest.

 

[Reverend]

I'm not sure if I'm sold on this. Aside from it coming a little quick after the first game, I found said first game to be good fun in and of itself but the "community" very quickly seemed to turn into a bunch of kick-happy elitist snobs, which for a multiplayer game can mean certain death. I don't want to have to spend 30 mins finding a team that won't kick you after 3 seconds because you don't have a mic or they want their mate to join instead. Sort of defeats the purpose of games as a recreational activity.
After two attempts I usually think "bugger it, I'll go play TF2 instead". Of late I haven't even made the attempt, which is a shame.

 

[Goliath]

I found said first game to be good fun in and of itself but the "community" very quickly seemed to turn into a bunch of kick-happy elitist snobs

You're not the only person who has commented on this.

Judging from their behaviour online, and now their behaviour toward Valve, I would say the players are the real monsters. Some of them, at least.

 

[Reverend]

I imagine it stems from the relatively small teams - at least compared to something like Team Fortress 2. Larger teams make bad or inexperienced players a minor problem, but when there's only four of you, it gets magnified, along with the "OMG U NOOB!" whining that comes hand in hand with multiplayer games. It's just unfortunate that the booting system has been allowed to ruin the experience where it when it was meant to deter griefing. Perhaps if they altered it so that a player is only allowed to votekick so many times per day and a failed vote automatically boots the one that started the vote.
Just an idea mind, I'm by no means an expert in game balancing.

 

[Goliath]

^I think it might be better to weight each player's votes according to the number of points they have earned in a campaign.

That's not a perfect solution, but it would ensure that players who have invested a lot of time and energy in a campaign do not have their experience ruined by griefers and johnny-come-latelies.

That's my main gripe. I once played my way through the No Mercy campaign, online, from the first level to the last. In the process, my teammates dropped out, one by one, and were replaced by others. Finally, on the very last, rooftop level, my new teammates decided that I wasnt good enough to play with them, and kicked me.

I was so angry, I could hardly see straight.

 

[Mistral]

^I think it might be better to weight each player's votes according to the number of points they have earned in a campaign.

That's not a perfect solution, but it would ensure that players who have invested a lot of time and energy in a campaign do not have their experience ruined by griefers and johnny-come-latelies.

That's my main gripe. I once played my way through the No Mercy campaign, online, from the first level to the last. In the process, my teammates dropped out, one by one, and were replaced by others. Finally, on the very last, rooftop level, my new teammates decided that I wasnt good enough to play with them, and kicked me.

I was so angry, I could hardly see straight.

I had some fool try to vote me off of my own game-while playing splitscreen with the wife. I gave him a piece of my mind-and let him stay. He stopped trying to kick me-and turned out to be the weakest player in the room.

 

[Reverend]

^I think it might be better to weight each player's votes according to the number of points they have earned in a campaign.

That's not a perfect solution, but it would ensure that players who have invested a lot of time and energy in a campaign do not have their experience ruined by griefers and johnny-come-latelies.

That's my main gripe. I once played my way through the No Mercy campaign, online, from the first level to the last. In the process, my teammates dropped out, one by one, and were replaced by others. Finally, on the very last, rooftop level, my new teammates decided that I wasnt good enough to play with them, and kicked me.

I was so angry, I could hardly see straight.

Bit of a two edged sword that one. On several occasions I've been a johnny-come-lately (I tend to go for quick starts rather than tracking down a lobby that has 3 others ready to go) and been kicked because 2 mins in I got snagged by a smoker and the one person that came back for me got ambushed by a boomer. Then a tank spawed near the other two and killed them. For some reason muggins got the blame for not being clairvoyant.

That's another thing, tanks. The first time I played as a tank I didn't have the slightest clue what to do and I'd spawn on the hospital roof some distance away from the survivors so I made a beeline for them, got set on fire and killed rather quickly. For that, I was kicked and the fact that I managed to knock one of the buggers clear off the building apparantly meant nothing. Put me off playing vs matches for months. It would be nice if the game had some sort of tutorial or practice mode, especially for the special infected. It takes a while to master their abilities, never mind figure out some effective tactics and the aforementioned elitist attitudes aren't exactly conducive to a positive learning environment.

 

[Jim Steele]

Is that from a review?

Yeah it's from an episode of Zero Puncuation.
Someone on Neogaf made it into an animated gif avatar and I stole it for that post, I need to go find what episode it was and make a full sized version.

Hopefully your version preserves the irony that the original joke was steeped in.

 

[Cutter John]

I've gotten to the point where I don't even play Versus anymore. Its just too stressful having to concentrate on fighting the other team, finding the 'perfect' spawning point, and at the same time trying to keep up to the 'standards' of the other players so as not to get booted.
Screw all that. I just have fun playing Campaign mode on Advanced with other random players. I've met a lot of good people that way.

 

[Goliath]

^I hope you won't refuse an invitation to play Versus from me and my clanmates.

 

[Cutter John]

^I hope you won't refuse an invitation to play Versus from me and my clanmates.

Nah, I'd never refuse an invitation. I just don't go actively inflicting myself on other players.

Versus can be fun, but it can be just as easily frustrating.

My username is Tank bait btw. I've thought about changing it to Special Infected Bait, Smoker Magnet, or something else more descriptive of my general playing experience. But none of those have the same ring.

 

[Mistral]

^I hope you won't refuse an invitation to play Versus from me and my clanmates.

Nah, I'd never refuse an invitation. I just don't go actively inflicting myself on other players.

Versus can be fun, but it can be just as easily frustrating.

My username is Tank bait btw. I've thought about changing it to Special Infected Bait, Smoker Magnet, or something else more descriptive of my general playing experience. But none of those have the same ring.

Boomer Hugs

(saw) RedHot Zombie Lover, ImPinnned, and OuttaAmmo

 

[Rowan Sjet]

I can only play Versus with mates. Otherwise, it's just no fun at all.

Nothing better than finding that perfect spawn point and ninja-boomering all the survivors though!

 

[Goliath]

^Indeed. I was quite pleased when I finally scored the "Barf Bag" achievement.

 

[Rowan Sjet]

Actually I lied. I should have said, nothing better than incapping the whole enemy team 10ft outside the starting saferoom.

 

[Mistral]

Nothing better than using a tank to knock a healthy survivor off of the NO MERCY rooftop to their death. Aaaaahhhhhhh......