We actually set up LAN parties for L4D1.

I think the reload times and power of the weapons was made too xbox friendly for the sequel, but it was still good.

Best played with people you know really, the AI can be pretty shite at times - their navmesh system is a joke.

Not sure why they opted for something so deprecated; we investigated here (back in the day) and google showed up handful other methods for doing it that are far more robust. 

L4D doesn't have graphical flash, it has hordes of zombies. And it's awesome.

Although, the additions in L4D2 are enough for me to recommend skipping L4D1. The new enemies and weapons make the game feel more ... complete. 

It's a good game still.

I remember the No Mercy campaign from the first one being very good.

And yeah, Hard Rain obviously wins in the second one.

Here's where I used to get user content from:

http://www.l4dmaps.com/

It's hit and miss though, many custom levels are stupidly difficult. Can't remember the names of any of the good ones just now.

You also need to install some custom content support thing through steam to play the stuff. 

Gon be good. 

But L4D2 rocked more. 

Finished it. I started to look through custom maps but it looks like all the good ones (what few there are some of them look like someone threw up on the screen) were converted to l4d2 anyway.

Did a review but no one much will agree with me, haha, 8/10 being generous.

Also reviewed X-Blades: 5/10, Wolverine: 7.5/10 and Ghostbusters 7.5/10. 

....and she likes a fuckton of particle and smoke effects:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RURQSR788Dg

Not sure which I prefer in the final comparison shots to be honest... 

That back when Quake was being developed the z-buffer was being described as a low-tech means of doing hidden surface removal, while nowadays we do all kinds of absurd stuff inside of it. 

Re Bailey, yeah the final comparison just seems to be an overkill of effects, I can't shit except sparks/light/smoke. 

Really liked them and was lucky enough to play them regularly with real life friends. The only flaw is the aural pollution aspect. The sounds are all extremely annoying and it's a constant barrage of weird ass zombie groans, stupid music firing to alert you of specific enemies or situations- I always found the aural aspect of it "cacodemonic". Just very annoying sounds and musics rapid firing constantly. Does anybody here understand what I'm talking about? 

L4D has the same issues like all of their other games. Lack of individualist playstyles. You're forced to stick to your team, there's no room for splitting up and try new coop strategies from a distance. Same with TF2, I like exhausting the possibilities and trying new ways of doing thing but I'm forced in the same cookiecutter templates with another slight variation on the shotgun. There's no room for creativity, you just stick to your team and do the same routine over and over again. Same with Half Life, the level designs are inventive, the puzzles are a great addition and it's great with economy of gameplay. But you play it a second time and everything is already so predictable you can't be bothered. I really enjoy the production values, but apart from that... meh

I really don't get why most people like their games so much, I got this friend that's hooked on TF2 and play together with her and I can tell she's having fun, but all the while I'm just sitting there hoping it'll finally click for me. And I've logged 150 hours on it so it's not like I didn't try, hah. 

For L4D I agree on the coop a bit, once you've done the campaign once, they aren't as interesting to re-do.
It does become more interesting when changing your playgroup, different people play differently. If you role-play a bit, or just try goofing around it's usually quite fun. Nothing is forcing you to always play the same way, I've had quite a few situations where I've left the group and tried to do something on my own, even if you fuckup and get caught, it's fun to see how the rest of the group will react, leave you to your stupid bravery, or try to save you.

Where it really shines for me is the Versus mode with proper teams, the trap setups you have to prepare as an infected team are really interesting, and nothing like it exists in any other FPS.


For TF2 I just don't know what to say, to me there's no other multiplayer FPS worth playing these days. It's funny, the different classes offer lots of different play-styles, and it has some great maps... Again playing on the right server / with the right people helps. 

Vs was the first version of the game finished, and the version the dev team played to balance the gameplay.

Which is why its the best version of the game to play...

Apparently anyway. 

 

"Re Bailey, yeah the final comparison just seems to be an overkill of effects, I can't shit except sparks/light/smoke."

Well, it's a demo designed to show off the power of the graphics engine. So the fact that the effects are heavy handed shouldn't surprise. 

Is this scampie's map for Race The Sun in this total biscuit video? Starts at 8.56

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4hb3XRuSUM 

I used to work with Aaron San Flippo (1/2 the dev team of that game, the other half being his brother) at Raven, and made that 'map' for the game just after it was released (before the Steam release).

The game has a pretty simple editor where you take basic geometic shapes and put them together into objects which can have some basic scripting, and then you arrange the objects into several large 'patterns' that the game can then string together into it's levels. You can define how early or late a pattern can be spawned too (so you can many simpler patterns for early in the game, or more difficult patterns for later), and also global lighting and sky colors.

As far as the game goes, it's a pretty straight forward deal, you move left or right to avoid objects and collect score and powerups. The random seed for generating the levels changes each day, so there are daily highscores to compete with. It's fun, but nothing that's going to set the world on fire. 

Fun game - on sale on Steam today, I picked it up a couple of weeks ago, I would recommend it :) The gameplay is good in the sense that you can move fast (like in Quake), and there are lots of character upgrades, weapon upgrades, and different combos that you can do with the sword.
There are some good boss-fights too. 

Started the game, in the first 30 minutes of game spent about 20 minutes in cut-scenes (with skipping 3/4) and wandering about with no fight, fuck it, really does not inspire for more effort into it but maybe that changes ? 

Actually I have not played Farcry Red Dragon due to that inane intro/tutorial, that is seriously bad. Seriously after the load times, helicopter gunning I dont have the patience to complete it and its fucking checkpoint shit... Need to find console command to skip it or something 

It gets better! You have to explore quite a lot - there are lots of hidden areas and easter eggs.

And yeah - it picks up pace as you get through it. 

is aces, the annoying as shit tutorial is a piss take of annoying tutorials. It would be nice if it was skippable though. ;) 

Its not even a funny, or fun, or good, or serve any purpose. I think my kindergarten schoolmates had better humor. Fucking pisses me off I dont want to have to sit through these idiots idea of "funny" 30 minutes before I get to fucking play the game....

If they had maybe the narrator standing nearby and you could blow his brains out within 1 minute of the tutorial as a way to skip it then it might of been slighhhhtly funny.... 

I've been wanking around for 6 months about rebuilding my website, always putting it off because it's a few days work. But I finally did it: http://www.electricescape.com/etherealhell/

Same old content, but more focused on game reviews now. It's even responsive now (most of it).