A World on Fire - A Zombie Blog

If you have never heard of Zero Punctuation, you should do yourself a favor and check it out. Each week, Zero Punctuation – helmed by Ben “Yahtzee” Crenshaw – produces a five minute video review of the latest video games. The reviews are told in rapid fire sentences, detailed with amusing stick figures on a yellow background. The commentary is hilarious and often times, quite witty. Yahtzee has a gift for words and coupled with the attitude of a man with a constant head cold, he skewers everything with almost sadistic glee. Long story short, whether you like video games or not, you are sure to enjoy his reviews of them.

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Last April, Valve released the remaining two versus maps for Left 4 Dead one, thereby finishing a game that it had launched in November 2008. People expected new campaigns, new weapons, and new special infected, but what they got was an entirely new game with the announcement of Left 4 Dead 2. I’ll admit that I wasn’t thrilled with the news, but I wasn’t irked enough to add my name to boycott.

What is truly shocking is the turn-around time for a game company that is not known for its development speed. It took around five years for Valve to produce a sequel to its flagship title, Half Life. (more…)

Technology focused Ars Technica posted their review of Left 4 Dead 2 the other day, and instead of breaking down the game for analysis, the review focuses on the reasons of why you should buy this game on a PC. The article concludes that the only reason you should not buy the game is if you dislike playing online. This is a funny point because if you have the XBox 360 version, god know, you’re probably cursing Valve at this moment. I haven’t checked the versus lag in a couple of days, but it sounds like it’s still raising hell.

If my friends had a copy of this on their computers, I would certainly play this on my PC. The user mods alone make this game worth the price. Alas, we are all XBox fiends and really, I’d rather play on the couch than slumping over a desk.

The reasons you need to buy Left 4 Dead 2 on PC (arstechnica.com <- new window)

After a long wait, Left 4 Dead 2 has finally arrived and man, I got to say it is pretty hard. I got punished playing the game on normal. There are some pretty wild set pieces like a full on zombie bloodbath in the middle of a rock concert. There’s also a great bit where you have to retrieve a pack of cola for a holed up survivor which sounds like a simple task until you realize you can’t fight while carrying coke. There’s a lot of “wow – that’s cool” moments. I’ve played straight to the Swamp campaign, it is was the level I liked the least. Mostly because of a ridiculous amount of lag. At times, it was simply unplayable. Not sure whether it was Xbox’s network, or even my own, but I felt like I was back in the old days on dialup.

More to come … if you any of you have it … what do you think so far? Worth the price of admission?

It’s actually not a surprising score. After all, this is Valve we are talking about here. This review, reported by CVG (Computer and Video Games), comes from the print edition of the Official XBox Magazine and they give it a hard sell.

“The first Left 4 Dead proved a handful of campaigns could provide months of replay value; the extra variety this brings could last years. It’s up there with MW2 as a must-but multiplayer game for Xbox Live.”

The only complaint is the lack of dynamic maps. I gotta tell you … dynamic maps are the future in multiplayer. Granted, at this stage of the game, it’s only a few different routes, but you can imagine in the near future where the entire level will be generated on the fly, making for some wild matches.

UPDATE: If you want to see the full video that CVG embedded in their page, head over here (youtube.com <- new window). It's the same video albeit longer and on a faster server.

Left 4 Dead 2 review in: “Must-buy multiplayer” (computerandvideogames.com <- new window)

Technical website Ars Technica decided to give the recently released Left 4 Dead 2 demo a test run, and in doing so, stirred up a little controversy. Overall, Ars gave the demo two thumbs up whereby Ars reviewer Ben Kuchera states,

This may be a controversial statement, but this does feel like a sequel to me, not an expansion pack. The new infected and items are going to add significant wrinkles to gameplay, and you’ll need to manage what you carry and why. There are harder choices to make, and more ways to die. And yes, it all looks and sounds better than the previous game.

Needless to say, this ignited a little firestorm in the forms. Although the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott is in the past, it appears there is still a lot of ill will towards the new game. One poster wrote:

I’ve had some people express the same sentiment to me. There’s not much I can really say except that if you don’t feel the game is worth sixty or fifty bucks, then either wait for the price to drop (and trust me it will drop) or avoid buying all together. If it still irks you, write a letter to Valve. I would like to say more on this, but I find the whole debate has grown stale. In any case, love it or hate it, Left 4 Dead 1 isn’t going anywhere and I’ll certainly continue to play long after Left 4 Dead 2 has been released. God knows, I have eight thousand more zombies to kill for the genocide achievement.

Teaching the controversy: the Left 4 Dead 2 demo is live! (arstechnica.com <- new window)

If you pre-ordered Left 4 Dead 2 then you’ve probably played a few rounds with the demo. If you haven’t, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts having logged at least a couple of hours in the zombie strewn streets of New Orleans. Granted, the experience ends right as you are getting into it, but hey, that’s the nature of the demo. Leave them wanting more goes the old adage. And trust me, once you do manage to survive the zombie apocalypse, you’ll want to do it all over again.

So here are some thoughts in no real order.

Tighter Menu Options / Controls
I gotta say, the menus feel focused. The organization is quite good. Information is displayed in a consistent way so you’re never really lost amongst all the different features. That said, even playing the game had a tighter feel.  I have no idea what was changed, but whatever Valve did,  it works great.

Weapons, Weapons, and More Weapons
Choosing a weapon in Left 4 Dead 1 is a relatively easy affair. Grab a shotgun, and if playing versus, upgrade to the auto-shotgun. Otherwise, switch to the assault rifle.  In Left 4 Dead 2, you now have three “levels” of weapons and bigger isn’t necessary better. For example, the new combat shotgun blows all the zombies to hell but its bullet supply seemingly runs dry pretty fast. And reloading it is bastard.  The second level submachine gun kicks ass.  And believe it or not, the sniper rifles are actually useful.

Melee Weapons Make You Psychotic
The first weapon I used was a frying pan, and it sucked. The second was a guitar which worked all right in the decapitation department, but it was still kind of slow. So I avoided all the melee weapons until I discovered the machete. The beautiful beautiful machete. Now I find myself charging into the midst of the zombie horde, getting shot in the back from my team members while getting pounded in the front by the zombies. But I don’t care.  I get the rage and I all can think is kill, kill, kill.  And my oh my … when the blood obscures almost all of my vision I just want to kill more.

Good Looking Zombies
Much better variety. And get this, they actually have color. In the last game, the zombies were all kind of washed out almost blending in with the background. It’s nice to actually see their features for a change. Better yet, they have reflective animal like eyes so you can even see them in dark rooms.

Uncommon Common Zombies Make for an Uncommon Pain in the Ass
You only face the swat zombie and he is friggin pain in the ass.   He’s covered in body armor, so you have to knock him around to show his ass, then shoot him in it.  One swat zombie is no problem to kill, but when you have a bunch of them charging at you, the trouble begins.

New Special Infected Models Look Good
Sure, the hunter, boomer, smoker, and tank return in all their glory, but they look much better. The smoker lost the shady pedophile look and now resembles an honest to god mutated zombie. The tank still looks like a Gold’s Gym reject but now with  brighter bronzer cream.  The boomer seems to have acquired more flab and his death explosion is one for the books.

Mixed Bag for the New Specials
The charger is the definite winner. He freaks me out when he attacks then quite literally, wipes the floor with me. The spitter is all right. She’s not so good as an offensive unit, but she’s great at creating logjams. Her acid spit is perfectly timed. It lasts the perfect amount of time before it fades. The jockey is the weakest of the bunch. He needs to get close to do any damage, but we almost always bag him from a distant since his laugh gives away his location. It’s also pretty funny when he rides someone. Most of the time, we just laugh at our screaming friend as he gets jockeyed away since it looks so ridiculous. I’m guessing the jockey can be pretty lethal on versus, but for now, I’m not impressed.

WITCH!
I’ve never been a fan of the witch. She makes for an irritating obstacle although it is fun to trick people into “activating” her on versus. The new witch is still annoying, but her new mobility throws a wrench thrown into the machinary.  As a team, my friends and I never set her off (unless she blocks a corridor) but now we are constantly stumbling into her which makes for unexpected adrenaline rushes.  They also changed her theme music.  Personally, I like the old music better.

New Items
The boomer bile is cool. I love seeing the zombies kick the crap out of each other. There’s also a speed shot which works well. The defibrillator feels unnecessary on co-op since survivors just respawn. On versus, it’s a necessity. In short, there are lot more choices than just a pipe bomb or a Molotov.

Better Pistols
They feel much better this time around. The sound is awesome and they have a higher rate of fire. They feel like a bonafide weapon instead of an “oh shit” fallback choice. Vale also made a tiny adjustment.  You can only have a gun or melee weapon. Not both. It’s a tough choice because if you choose a melee weapon and you are incapped by a horde, you are screwed in every sense of the word.

Great Level Design
I was disappointed with Crash Course. The entire map consisted of moving from warehouse to warehouse, until you reached the ultimate showdown … in a warehouse. The old Valve is back where the environments tell a story. You get a real sense of last minute panic as humanity was swallowed by the infection.  There was also a cool bit where you stare through a chain link fence at the next level and vice versa.  Granted, it’s only an unreachable background but it makes the two levels feel physically connected.

Great Climax Sequence
In this one sequence, you have to run through a labrynth of gates while an alarm alerts all the nearby zombies. There’s no waiting or you’re toast. It’s a great sequence. Once you do manage to shut off the alarm, the zombies keep coming. It’s an awesome sequence that leaves you struggling to breath long after it is finished.

Overall, Left 4 Dead 2 is looking great. While the game may feel and even look similar to the first one, there are so many new options that will change the way you play the game. The demo is being released next week to everyone. Do yourself a favor and downloaded it up. You won’t be disappointed.