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Left 4 Dead 2
Does Left 4 Dead 2 give new ideas for zombie madness!
I don’t need to give you more information regarding the gameplay as you can probably find more information over the internet if you are interested enough. I like the savage mode as well as the new difficulty levels set for the new game – the “Normal” in Left 4 Dead 2 is kind of like “Advanced” in Left 4 Dead 1, and what seemed to be an easy task for L4D1′s finale missions in “Easy” does not turn out to be the same over at L4D2. While towns and suburbs in L4D1 seemed static and bland, like “You are the last 4 uninfected within a 500km radius”, L4D2 is “livier” with more vibrant colours, which is more appropiate given that some campaigns take place in day and light, while other campaigns like “Swamp Fever” get the dread and drone of whatever swamps are supposed to look like.
The new finales also give the concept of L4D teamwork, which used to be “stay in one room and blast the hell out of the door” into something most engaging, like collecting cans to fill up the escape vehicle (aka Salvage Mode) in Dead Center, or to run like hell in The Parish. These modes give more life and drama to the original L4D finales which, once you figured out how the best way to survive, becomes more of a waiting game than that of drama.
Realism mode seems to be a lot more.. realistic~ people do not have outlines around them which SERIOUSLY hardens the game up a couple of notches because your pals don’t know where you are if you wander off and get hunter-pounced. I predict a lot of deaths in that one mode. Maybe people in rescue closets do not have those outlines either? I have yet to find out.
Weapon count is also upped, with submachines ranging from homemade (I think Valve should make them jam occasionally like STALKER does, heh heh heh) to tactical, army-ish, special-mission-like. I like the variety, though it is pretty obvious that some guns are much better than the others, and near the end the choices for guns are pretty similiar (hint: more big-ass the better). Some weapons can easily replace each other, which i think is kind of a duplicate. My personal favourite is the camoflagued semi-automatic that shoots 3 bullets a trigger, and I can almost be certain I can have one of those end-game. Maybe a fraction of guns should be allowed for a game so that some guns do not appear in this play, while they appear in another play, when other guns are not spawned.
Melee weapons are awesome. Do they all deal the same amount of damage? Like the baseball bat and the machete? Suprisingly the chainsaw is not a favourite with my fellow L4D2 gamers, because “they can run out of gas”. Probably 100+ zombies later..? They are great in bomber bile madness, and does not have delay time after the initial startup. They seemed to have a lot of those in Swamp Fever though, I played one game where my other pals have chainsaws strapped to their backs. Me, I prefer the plain old machete. Simple and effective as heck.
More special infected, more weapons, more ways to take down those zombie drones. I like the new version of L4D2, but it seems to increase the minimum requirements for the game to play smoothly (I had freezes now and then which totally ruins the atmosphere), and I wonder if Valve will keep up its promise of maintaining support for L4D1, which seems less and less likely given the success of L4D2.
And Valve, do tell modders if they can “upgrade” custom map add-ons from L4D1 to L4D2!
2 Comments | By Jack in Games
Here’s a complete (promotional?) movie in Ubisoft’s promotion of Assassin’s Creed 2, due to come out next Tuesday over here in Singapore.
Unless my eyes fail me, the movie is part live acting as well as immersive CG. Quite a big effort in a way. The lengths Ubisoft is going to promote Assassin’s Creed makes me think that they are going all out to make AC2 one of the big hits this year. Makes me want to get a gaming PC! I’m so out of touch with game news.. Itching to get back into game development again.
For more moving pictures of Assassin’s Creed, visit Assassin’s Creed’s Youtube page.
Comment on this | By Jack in Games
Just prepurchased Left 4 Dead 2 over the weekend. It’s cheaper than prices in-stores, which is pretty convinenient before the time to actually download the game is factored in. My connection is pretty low, so I am taking about two full days to download the demo that pre-purchase people get via Steam.
I got a sneak preview of Left 4 Dead 2 at VivoCity due to a gaming event there supported by Microsoft to promote the XBOX 360 (I’m bad at console FPS), and at first glance all I can say is it’s a pretty good make, though there’s plenty blood and gore, which kinds of take the focus away from the gameplay. The game also features melee weapons, which to my surprise includes guitars! Most probably a nod to Rock Band or Guitar Hero.
oh, and I picked up Mirror’s Edge too! Another classic example of “If I buy this then why not that as well” sales strategy.
A busy week awaits!
- Jack
Comment on this | By Jack in Games
Its been some time since i last entered a game lan shop for a bit of multiplayer fun.
The last time I did that was in the counterstrike era.. which was about four years back. How the quality of the game (and the lan shop) has changed! Now instead of a series of (slightly tweaked) computers put together side by side, there are private rooms where we can just chill and play a game hysterically while being confident in the knowledge that none of the embarrassing things that happened then will be captured by someone and put on youtube.
ah, the joys of privacy.
I arrived at Cineleisure at 6.00, a good 2 hour ahead of the rest cos jolyn’s group has to rush work and work overtime for a system. Those two hours are spent wandering Cineleisure and the nearby Herren shops. Theres a japanese food street at B1 of the Herren Shops, and I just recieved a phamlet advertisting their presence, so I’m going to take a closer look later this or next month.
So 2 hours passed before the crowd gets younger at Cineleisure, which began to flood with youngsters. The rest arrived and after a nice dinner at B1 of Cineleisure, we went all the way to L9 to get our room.
the room where we played in
All in all, its a very fun game. Most of us have not been sharpening our gaming skills and so it resulted in a lot of laughs and confusion as we tried to figure out how to get the things going. Its pretty funny actually. Luckily we are in a private room so we did not disturb other people with our craziness.
We tried L4D which is the current craze now ( the public computers outside are all playing the game) which is really fun to play, the girls were screaming and the guys are all shouting. we can scream at each other and be like high school kids again.
Lets go again! Hahahah!
