Left 4 Dead

L31mr0d

pixelburp wrote: »

I don't have a mic unfortunately, but even so it's the limited nature of the game that leaves me cold. A2B, bang bang bang. Most games are more fun with people you know anyway, so I just don't see what'll separate Left 4 Dead from the rest. It doesn't seem worth paying for; maybe 6 months down the line if Valve pull a TF2 and update the game to the same extent i might rethink it though.

On expert it's pretty simple to complete the demo on your own. I found the NPC's made good fodder to distract the zombies. I could pretty much just run through the level leaving them behind and resurrecting them at the next spawn point... I completed it but it wasn't fun. What makes it fun, is the unpredictability of the game, you need to couple this with the unpredictability of real people.

The difference with this coop game compared to others I've played is that there is no real strategy, you can't predict where a witch will be or when a tank will appear in your path... this randomness to the games leads to random reactions from people on your team, which leads to some great lol moments.

I've experienced too many to list. needless to say this will be the game I'll be putting in the most time with over the next couple of weeks.

Call Me Jimmy

maybe it's just me, but if you try to take this game seriously as simply a shooter, you will be disappointed because as the guy above said, there are no ways to plan ahead or to have any over-arching strategy, there's no l33tness about it. It would need to be played with mics with friends or people you know for it to reach its full potential.

Retr0gamer

The voice coms add a lot, most of the best moments was the banter from other players.

Stephen

God dammit, this is the time my PC chooses to die on me

/waits for new CPU and motherboard to arrive

pixelburp

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The voice coms add a lot, most of the best moments was the banter from other players.

Hmm perhaps, I was playing without it (and there was none coming from the other players). What's the decent mics to get these days anyway?

Fanny Cradock

Anyone know the returns policy from Steam?

One week and 5 patches later I've not been able to play the demo on-line once. This doesn't fill me with any confidence for the game. In fact, if they are still making radical changes to the demo so close to the official release of the game you could imagine that all is not yet well with the full game.

pixelburp

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

Anyone know the returns policy from Steam?

One week and 5 patches later I've not been able to play the demo on-line once. This doesn't fill me with any confidence for the game. In fact, if they are still making radical changes to the demo so close to the official release of the game you could imagine that all is not yet well with the full game.

It's the way Valve operate & I like their style; at least Valve actively tend to their products post-launch. I take it you have never played TF2 much? That game (until L4D came close to release) was getting an update / patch every few weeks. Did you try doing a search on the official forums to pinpoint your problem

Fanny Cradock

I have indeed and it appears that other people are experiencing the same "connection failed after 10 attempts" problem. In my case (again, like others), no servers are being displayed at all via 'openserverbrowser'. (This is not a firewall or router issue.) I've also sent Steam support an email outlining my problems, but there has been no reply.

In the last week they have released 5 updates. Yes, fair play, but this has done nothing to address my issue. To me this suggests that there are some rather large problems still outstanding with the game. In fact, if there wasn't only a day till release I wouldn't be surprised if the put the release back.

Now, I don't mind waiting a week or two for them to solve any issues that prevent me and others from connecting, but only if I know that they will definitely be resolved. This seems like a more than reasonable position for me to take.

What I am going to do is send Steam an email signalling my intention of getting a refund should the game release (give or take a week) not solve my issues. Although it might seem like jumping the gun, I worried that my chances of getting a refund are decreased if I don't make some sort of noise before the release of the game. To this end, I's appreciate hearing from anyone else who has had any experience with refunds from Steam?

Retr0gamer

pixelburp wrote: »

Hmm perhaps, I was playing without it (and there was none coming from the other players). What's the decent mics to get these days anyway?

I'm just using an old crap one that I got years ago with my first PC, a gateway P100, forgot I had it but set it up for this game. Have to put it down my shirt to use it It's not as much fun with annoying americans but having Azza call you a 'f*cking coward' when I closed the safehouse door and left him to die was pretty funny. Also when we were sarcastically saying that valve made the game too easy after our 20th attempt at the subway level only to get mauled by smoker, boomer and a tank within the space of 10 seconds. My reply, 'minor setback lads'. Doesn't work as well with random annoying americans.

Can't wait for tuesday evening when I finally get to play the full game after guitar lessons.

isn't this out tonight in america 12:00 am and out tomoro here at 10 am on steam?? just bought it there gonna preload now.

L31mr0d

pixelburp wrote: »

Hmm perhaps, I was playing without it (and there was none coming from the other players). What's the decent mics to get these days anyway?

I literally dusted off an old mic from maybe 10 years ago for this game. You cannot play it properly without being able to communicate. I was constantly shouting "crap there's another wave behind us", or "hold up, I hear a tank breathing upstairs"...

However the mic died within 10 minutes I think the last time I used it was for Counter Strike 1.5. I ended up buying a desktop logitech mic from Argos for €16, I went for the fancy one as the last 2 cheapo mics I've bought died fairly quickly from very light use

Wormy001

the banter that comes with this game and 4 mics in unlike any game iv played. i played with 3 mates the other day and one of them killed two of us while tryin 2 kill the horde rushing at him. we were all going crazy and him and just the general amusement of the whole demo. looking forward to the full game. less then a day now

Cuddlesworth

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

I have indeed and it appears that other people are experiencing the same "connection failed after 10 attempts" problem. In my case (again, like others), no servers are being displayed at all via 'openserverbrowser'. (This is not a firewall or router issue.) I've also sent Steam support an email outlining my problems, but there has been no reply.

In the last week they have released 5 updates. Yes, fair play, but this has done nothing to address my issue. To me this suggests that there are some rather large problems still outstanding with the game. In fact, if there wasn't only a day till release I wouldn't be surprised if the put the release back.

Now, I don't mind waiting a week or two for them to solve any issues that prevent me and others from connecting, but only if I know that they will definitely be resolved. This seems like a more than reasonable position for me to take.

What I am going to do is send Steam an email signalling my intention of getting a refund should the game release (give or take a week) not solve my issues. Although it might seem like jumping the gun, I worried that my chances of getting a refund are decreased if I don't make some sort of noise before the release of the game. To this end, I's appreciate hearing from anyone else who has had any experience with refunds from Steam?

Vista? I had that the first day of the demo, imaged my system and now no longer have the problem.

Fanny Cradock

No, good old trust worthy XP. I've asked other NTL users in the same area as myself if they've had similar problems. They don't.

Steam diagnostics tool comes back saying that all UDP and TCP ports are opened correctly and I've also disabled the firewall and AV programmes when attempting to play on-line. I assume that others experiencing the same problems have tried similar things.

It's frustrating because I can get into the lobby, chat with people and then eventually get kicked. I can also start my own local server, but with only myself and the bot players.

Ah, well, maybe it will all be sorted by tomorrow.

L31mr0d

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

It's frustrating because I can get into the lobby, chat with people and then eventually get kicked. I can also start my own local server, but with only myself and the bot players.

I had this issue myself a while back with Steam. Turned out to be a dodgy NIC dropping packets. Does your motherboard have 2 ethernet ports? If not can you get your hands on a spare NIC? Someone you know will have one, they are a dime a dozen.

Have you tried the known fix? i.e. open up the console when the game has loaded and type "mat_queue_mode 0"

Fanny Cradock

Cheers for that, I do have a second ethernet port and I've switched it around - no joy. I've also tried that command and it didn't do anything. Funnily enough, when I downloaded the HL2 mod 'Zombie Panic' I had the same problems. Never got that fixed.

grizzly

Speaking of mics, does anyone know if I can use a 360 mic setup through the 360 controller (on my XP PC)?

Stev_o

Anyway else having troubles connecting to local servers set up by people based in the UK me and my mate cant connect to our other mates servers who are all English.

Stephen

Might be their routers dropping inbound traffic from you - they will need appropriate ports forwarded to host games. Although I'd imagine Left4Dead is clever enough to use something like UPnP to open the ports it needs for itself, but if their routers have UPnP turned off or if they don't support it it won't work.

PogMoThoin

This is the mic i'm using and having absolutely no problems with, available in Argos for €8.99 for anyone needing something cheap quickly

Link

Stev_o

Speed run. no shooting. no stopping. expert. endless fun and screaming

PogMoThoin

Ha good one. Must check that webby out.
By the way, i'm curious to how the pc version works with setting up games with your freinds. like i mean is there dedicated servers going to be set up like say a normal css server r some10. i can't see how your gonna seperate from all the randomers.

pixelburp

PogMoThoin wrote: »

This is the mic i'm using and having absolutely no problems with, available in Argos for €8.99 for anyone needing something cheap quickly

Link

Haha; ok, that's exactly the type of mic I used to have on my old machine before it (the mic) broke. Does the job I guess!

Cunny-Funt

Which is the cheapest option for buying the game? Steam? In smyths? Or off a website such as play? Probably gonna buy 2 copies...one for the laptop and one for my main pc.

Fnz

Cunny-Funt wrote: »

Which is the cheapest option for buying the game? Steam? In smyths? Or off a website such as play? Probably gonna buy 2 copies...one for the laptop and one for my main pc.

Play.com was cheapest when I checked a week ago.

Mr E

Its live on Steam now.

Stephen

M!Ck^ wrote: »

Ha good one. Must check that webby out.
By the way, i'm curious to how the pc version works with setting up games with your freinds. like i mean is there dedicated servers going to be set up like say a normal css server r some10. i can't see how your gonna seperate from all the randomers.

It uses the Steam friends system. You can start a game that actually runs on a dedicated server and you can set it so that only your friends can join. And if you're short a person after your friends join, you can open it up to the public and have one randomer to make up the numbers

Retr0gamer

I have to wait til 8.30 for this hope the servers aren't being raped by then.

brianon

Stephen wrote: »

It uses the Steam friends system. You can start a game that actually runs on a dedicated server and you can set it so that only your friends can join. And if you're short a person after your friends join, you can open it up to the public and have one randomer to make up the numbers

How do you open it up to the public ?

I presume you make it private by putting the password on it ? and public by removing the password ?

I bought (rented) a dedicated server on teamhost. Anyone looking for a game or access to that server...just add me to your Steam friends list... "brianon".