• 18Nov 09

  Left 4 Dead 2 My first impressions

  I have to say the day I got the game was a pretty good day. I got the game on Monday night at 10 PM with a GameStop preorder bat and midnight release questionnaire (I guess you call it that) that could make me win 2,000 dollars. The best part of it is that I didn't preorder the game and got it two hours early. For some reason my local GameStop was giving out the game early my friend worked there contacted me and said "COME DOWN NOW!! L4D2 SELLING NOW!!" Even though I hate GameStop with a passion (past problems) I had to swallow my pride and get the epic game. Ok I should really shut up and give you guys the impression and I will.

  

  To be completely honest there is nothing revolutionary with the game. If you didn't like the first game there really isn't anything else to say other than try it out maybe this time you will like it. But that doesn't mean the game is horrible and a cut and paste of the original and just added a "2" on the cover because the game is far away from that. There are subtle tweaks in the engine and new weapons and objectives the game feels fresh and exciting as the first game when it came out 1 year ago. They changed some things around so that even hardcore vets of the first game will still be thrown a surprise here and there.

  In the final chapters in L4D there was always a hold the ground until rescue arrives moment. Those were the finales of a campaign to hold out against waves of zombies, 2 tanks the rescue vehicles arrive you rush over to it while a whole horde of zombies (a tank too) are chasing you. In this game not all finales are like that. The first campaign ends with a race car sitting in a lobby. The problem is there is no gas for it. You need to find 13 gas cans fill it up and get out of there. The problem is the gas cans are easy to reach but hard to get to. There are just waves and waves of zombies, special infected, and "spitter goo" (makes gas cans explode that are on the floor) that makes collecting gas harder than it should be. The finale is just frantic it's all based on you and your actions. There is no waiting for a rescue vehicle you have to move and get gas. Another finale is you need to start a rock concert up with lights, fireworks, and a stage show. The problem is the music is so loud you have no idea where the special infected is or even the tank until it's too late.

  Another aspect that changed are the special infected. Now you have the same special infected in the last game (hunter, boomer, smoker, witch, and tank) but they are smarter and will even throw vets into a surprise. But there are new ones too (spitter, charger, and jockey) and I will be honest they are a very welcomed addition to the game. Every special infected work well together. You can have the cIassic duo smoker and boomer while the smoker has you the boomer will vomit all over you and attract the horde to you. Or you can have the charger come run all 4 of you down on the ground while you are getting up(and your friend is getting killed by the charger) a boomer will vomit on you or a hunter and jockey combo will knock two players out at once. Long story short the new infected do not feel tacked on they will make you play the game differently and keep you on your toes.

  

  "Yes this is a picture from L4D1 I am sorry"

  Valve also promised more story into the game. Well sadly there are very little cutscenes and even then they aren't really cutscenes. The story element they promised is more the survivors talking to each other during scripted events. For example the first level of the fist campaign everyone is on a elevator. During this segment they all talk and introduce themselves and what is their overall plan to escape this mess. I mean even though it's not much it's still more than the first game. Now speaking of the characters I have to say they do grow on you a bit. When I played the demo I did not like them one bit. Yet the more I played the game and the more dialogue I hear from them the more I grew attached to my character and liked them. (Coach FTW)

  The game also has a ton of modes from single player to local and online co-op, survival, versus, scavenge, and realism. Now these modes are all fun. I did not play both realism (way to hard for me yet) and survival (I am dying by myself in co-op a little too much). But from what I am hearing and reading they are fun. I can't imagine how hard realism mode is me and my veteran L4D friends can barely beat a campaign on advanced. Now scavenge mode is pretty fun when I first saw it I thought I would only play it for achievements but no I will play this mode for a long time. Now this mode is simple there are gas cans scattered all over the place, something that needs gas in the center and a time limit. There are two teams human and infected. The humans have to collect the gas cans and fill up whatever it is and gain time for it. The infected need to stop them. The humans win if they get all 16 cans into whatever it is that needs gas. Yet if they fail the infected team gets to play as humans and need to get 1 more gas can than the other team to win. For example the human team only got 5 gas cans and either died or ran out of time. The previous infected team now humans need 6 cans to win the round (1 round is both teams playing as infected and human.) Now this mode is very fun and competitive and will last for quite some time. Also the versus mode is basically the same but you play as the new and old infected and there are little meters and notifications telling both the survivors and infected how much longer the survivors have to travel to get to the safe house.

  

  "Why won't the gas go into the car faster!! arggg!!"

  Finally the game just has subtle tweaks here and there to make it awesome. The levels feel more claustrophobic. You can revive a dead teammate with a defibrillator unit. The special infected without a doubt in my mind got a A.I. tweak. The new melee weapons and normal weapons feel great and are powerful. The game does have other humans in it and they do help you (but you don't see them). The campaigns are much longer and have different finales and are bigger and require more exploration. The new explosive or incendiary ammo is fun for the short while it lasts. Also having the game both at night and daylight is awesome because some zombies act differently and makes it either harder or easier. Also they really tweaked the difficulty me and my friends barely beat a campaign on advanced. We usually have to cry to ourselves and change the difficulty. It takes us at least 2 hours to beat a campaign while in L4D 1 it took us 30 minutes even less. You really need to fix up your strategies from the previous game or like us you will die a lot.

  Yet there are some problems with the game. The main problem is the special infected A.I. got a tweak but the survivor A.I. got downgraded. I don't know what happened but they are just awful you will not rely on them in the least. They will either die a lot or just do horribly stupid things. For example during a finale we were waiting at the rescue vehicle we were right there. Rochelle decided not to run towards the car but into a horde of zombies. She survived me and my friend got killed by a angry tank. Another example was at another finale involving a helicopter we all got on but the A.I. Nick didn't. We sat on the helicopter for a good minute and Nick had no problem fighting the endless waves of zombies like there is no tomorrow. My friend decided to kill him with a nice sniper round in his head and we won. I don't understand it I really don't the previous survivor A.I. wasn't that bad they were competent not that reliable but competent. Another problem with the game is the dialogue is VERY repetitive. I have heard the same 3 lines of dialogue in the safe rooms to the point of annoyance. This depresses me because L4D 1 was full of amazing dialogue that could last for hours..hell even days. Also finally there are a few bugs and glitches like you are healing yourself and the character doesn't do the animation but he does heal himself.

  Overall I am really liking this game. Already on our 2nd day of having the game we are having great unforgettable moments. The game really isn't a sloppy cut and paste its fun, frantic, hard, and at times funny. I would not pass this great game up especially if you loved the first one…thanks for reading.

  PS. The gnome from Half life 2 episode 2 is in the game and it requires you to win it from a carnival game and take him all the way to the finale for a achievement. It's harder than you think.

  

  • Posted Nov 18, 2009 2:40 pm GMT
  • Category: Opinion
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• 16Nov 09

  1 more day

  So here I am at work almost 10 AM and all I can think about is Left 4 Dead 2 I can't wait for it to come out. I mean I sunk so many hours into the original Left 4 dead (both single player and multi). I can't help but wonder how many more will I sink into this title? will it live up to its hype?will my friends be home when I get it too? argg so much suspense!!Also I had a psych test today and all I could think about was left 4 dead 2. it was like

  Question 1 What is the participant variable in this experiment?

  Answer: pills here!!!!

  all I have to do is survive a Bio quiz tommorow and no work ( I cleverly took off) and go home and play.

  so ya excitment and bordom made me write this all at work idk hopefully I will have mroe to say towards the end of the week on the game.

  • Posted Nov 16, 2009 7:04 am GMT
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• 9Nov 09

  Why I prefer Treyarch over Infinity Ward

  So in honor of Call of Duty Modern warfare 2 being released in a few hours I decided to ruin everyone's parade and explain why I favor Treyarch over Infinity Ward. And I can promise you it's not because the P.C. port of MW 2 is a overall worse game because my $1,000 dollar computer can barely contain a old 2004 game without shuttering. (sigh all that money*cries*) But before I do that lets break down both companies and their accomplishments shall we?

  Infinity Ward

  Rough Average of reviews *

  Call of Duty: 9.2

  Call of Duty United Front: united offense: 8.7

  Call of Duty 2: 9.1

  Call of Duty 4: Modern warfare: 9.4

  Call of Duty Modern warfare 2: N/A

  Treyarch

  Rough Average of reviews*

  Call of Duty 2: Big red one: 7.9

  Call of Duty 3: 8.3

  Call of Duty World at War: 8.5

  A planned gamed about the cold war: N/A

  *= not the exact measure but what I read from gamespot's overall score that adds every online score from other websites..also COD finest hour has been omitted because it was made by Spark interactive..I don't think that was treyarch

  Now I know what you are thinking…"payne you just shot yourself in the foot..this proves Infinity Ward is the better company look at the scores there is no doubt in my mind you sir are wrong." well I have to admit I did in a way shoot myself in the foot…but actually no wait..I didn't.

  

  First let's get things out of the way. There is no doubt in my mind the first call of duty, the expansion united front and Call of Duty 2 are one of the best WW II FPS games of all time. To me they were fun and portrayed a realistic W.W.II setting and just awesome. I remember some great moments from Cpt. Price and killing the endless waves of Nazi's..ahh good times. But then the "other" call of duty games came out and to be honest they sucked yes even COD 4. I didn't like them the things I loved about the franchise were either tossed away or reused so much that I got bored of them. To me COD is a less than stellar franchise that is too overly hyped for its own good…but anyway back on track. I honestly do believe that Infinity Ward isn't trying anymore to make great games like COD2. All they did was give the franchise a fresh coat of paint add faster weapons and change the Nazi's to terrorists.

  Yes Infinity Ward is content using the same engine that to me has gone stale. For example in COD 4 how many times do we have to push ahead while both allies and enemies constantly spawn and take up the same positions as their fallen comrades? COD4 is about modern day combat. Seriously I killed about 40-75 terrorists (that would make the cover of any news paper) who were content about standing over their dead comrades bodies and taking up the same formation as them. Also it's amazing that when you move up everything changes. The enemies stop spawning, and you and your team moves on..sorry not buying it terrorists are not a army like the Nazis. There is no way that I could take one 40-75 by myself and combat a few hundred more. I tolerated it back with COD 2 because I said (more like lied to myself) "its ok Germany had a huge army." I am sick of the game waiting for me the game feels more like a controlled battle than a frantic one.

  Also when you make a sequel to a game I want some better visuals. Ya I know I sound petty I know. But the little blood cloud "pff" sound you get when shooting people got old and fast. Plus why can't you open doors? Seriously…and there is a very little lack of support from Infinity Ward. They made one measly map pack for COD 4 (their highest selling game) and even then the maps sucked. You play right now and no one plays those maps they always veto it. When I (rarely usually to test my connection) play I rarely ever get to see the new maps. And I never found the multiplayer fun I always found it average at best. It had horrible spawn points and I just never enjoyed it as other FPS games. Also they scrapped both the Co-op and vehicles which to me seems to bring the series down, because the previous installment included it. Now I could go on but I still have another company to talk about. (and I can see you rolling your eyes screaming NO MORE!!)

  

  So Treyarch the one gaming company that gamers love to hate for some reason. Now I will not be a hypocrite and say their games don't suffer from the same faults as Infinity Ward's games. Because they do but they don't roll their eyes and go "whatever" they sit there and go "well…we have a crappy engine but let's mix some things up so the gamers won't have that bad of a time." COD 2 big red one was their first COD game and a great game. The main problem though was the fact Call of Duty 2 just came out and no one paid attention to it that much. COD3 was a less than interesting game that really stayed in the minor battles of the war. (I mean who cares about Canada..lol j/k) But it did have the inclusion of vehicles, co-op (both online and offline) and huge maps. But Call of Duty World at war was to me a major breakthrough for the series why? Well I will tell you.(oh the suspense)

  The game is once again bogged down with the typical you move enemies won't spawn thing. BUT it was gritty it portrayed war as horrible, sick, inhumane and more…yet isn't that war? Isn't war one of the worst things humans can do to each other? The game was violent and as I have said before a more gritty experience than past games. The opening scene you see a fellow marine getting his throat slashed and a cigar burnt out in his eye. Or how about towards the end of the Russian campaign you see German soldiers who hung themselves. Also you hear the word f*ck more times than I can count. (now I am not saying it's a good game because they curse) It also had removable limbs you shot someone in the face with a shotgun the only thing left was their legs and a bit of their torso. The game also had both local and online co-op which was the only time I can remember me cracking a smile while playing a COD game. It once again had vehicles and a new mode that COD has never seen before. That new mode was the zombie mode.

  

  Now you can say whatever you want about the zombie mode. Either "It's stupid" "a left 4 dead knock off" "not fun" etc etc etc. But no matter what you say you have to admit it's different. Throughout all of COD lifespan it was a serious balls to the wall action shooter. Their idea at humor or fun was adding the Mp 40 into COD MW and giggle like school girls over how "crazy" they were. But here's this idea where four people can play together online and kill zombies and add fire power, defense and power-ups with each zombie death. It was awarded to players who beat the game. (ahh a incentive to actually beat the single player I see what you did there) But in the words of the late Billy Mayes "there's more!!"(did I really just write that?)

  

  Finally Treyarch actually supports its game it has a total of 3 map packs out each consisting of new multiplayer maps and zombie maps. Now that's awesome the zombie maps are creative and filled with creepiness. Sure you could argue that they are milking the gamer but I see it more as they want the game to last a bit longer. The last map pack came out in September of this year and I find that pretty cool. They also port their games over to the wii…but who cares it's the Wii.

  Finally what am I saying? What does this massive overly long wall of text mean? What I am trying to say is basically Treyarch is trying to mold the series and make advancements in it. While infinity ward is basically taking all the tweaks that were made and throwing them out the window scoffing at the peasants that are Treyarch employees. "Don't tell us how to make our series better!!" they bellow "We are happy with the same old same old." I feel Infinity Ward takes the series a step back (no co-op, vehicles dismemberment, etc etc), while Treyarch is trying to take it forward but missing some key elements. All I can say is I am slowly rooting for the underdog that is Treyarch they are slowly improving their games they went from a 7.9 to a 8.5 in a few year who knows what they can come up with next…thanks for reading now go play MW2 since I know that's what you are all going to do.

  • Posted Nov 9, 2009 8:38 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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