Left 4 Dead PC for $40 - 11/20/08
Amazon.com has a deal on the PC version of Left 4 Dead, get it now for only $40.
L4D Hardware Benchmarks and More - 11/20/08
PCGamesHardware has posted a nice Left 4 Dead GPU and CPU benchmark review. See how different processors and graphics cards stack up on different resolutions for L4D. They reached the following conclusion:
If you want to play Left 4 dead in 1,280 x 1,024 with maximal details, an X2 5000+ and a Radeon HD 3870 are enough. With less powerful hardware Left 4 Dead is degenerated, depending on one's personal perception, to a washy zombie hunt. With a Geforce 7 the shooter is almost unplayable.
To supply a 22 or even 24 inch monitor you should, besides a very fast Core 2 or Phenom, have a Radeon HD 4850 or Geforce 9800 GTX+. AMD's Radeon HD 4870 or Nvidia's Geforce GTX 280 are powerful enough to smoothly display Left 4 Dead even with 8x MSAA or special Anti Aliasing modes.
Big Download Blog is having a Left 4 Dead Steam PC Giveaway Contest where five lucky people will get free copies of L4D. All you need to do is comment on the story and you have about a 100% chance of possibly winning. For all of you that have come into our nice and peaceful Steam Community chat to beg for free copies of L4D (and are now banned), go there and comment.
Community member Sebben has posted a comprehensive video guide on getting the cr0wned achievement in Left 4 Dead. Get out a pencil and paper, you'll need it.
Slyguy42o has a L4D dedicated server guide post going in the official forums which looks pretty helpful.
If you have Vista Ultimate, Samuelgames over at facepunchstudios.com has created a DreamScene wallpaper of the L4D menu video. Thanks to CS-Nation for the heads-up.
Planet Half-Life has a History of Valve article celebrating the 10th anniversary of the original Half-Life.
More L4D Reviews - 11/20/08
Given that game reviews have a margin of error of about 15%, it looks like Left 4 Dead is getting a lot of perfect reviews!
GameStop: 8.5/10
Check out their text review here and their video review below.
GameStar/GamePro
In the last set of reviews, I tried to decipher what GameStar.de said. Apparently you need to know German in order to translate it, but at least I tried. Michael Obermeier from GameStar sent us an e-mail with the actual translation for their personal opinion in the article:
My shopping list in November possibly contains the following: 1x Left 4 Dead, 1x family size package of earplugs and an jumbo-size packet of sore-throat pills. I already know: I'm going to scream again. Scream a lot. Shout, cry, bellow and cheer. From the first map on I will shout warnings to my comrades about boss-infected. I'll cry for help like a little girl whenever a hunter pounces me. I'll bellow for every successful ambush in VS. And cheer when the final shotgun-blast takes out the tank on the heliport. By the way: the earplugs are for my neighbors - because the next Left 4 Dead LAN-Party won't be over soon.
Close enough. GamePro posted their review, giving it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.
UGO.com: B+
This is my favorite review. For "Value" they gave it a C+, yet the concluding paragraph begins with this:
Left 4 Dead is the best multiplayer game of the year.
Click here for the whole thing.
Random Gamer: 8.5/10
I only got so far as reading "Single player" as the first category under "The Good" and decided that was enough of that.
Eurogamer: 9/10
Eurogamer.net liked it.
In short, Left 4 Dead is another deeply professional, personality-filled and progressive take on the shooter from Valve. In a cultural landscape that has as many zombie touchstones as ours, it takes something special to make them shamble appealingly, and Left 4 Dead, both literally and metaphorically, makes them run. In this new co-op landscape, it'll be interesting to see whether anyone can catch up.
SnappyGamer: 5/5
Review was down as of this posting, forgot what they said. 5/5 sounds like they liked it.
PC GAMER: 9.3/10
Craig Pearson is hopeful for more maps.
Gaming Nexus: A-
I'm going to attribute the A minus to their use of months-old screenshots throughout the article. Mark it down as an A.
Game Revolution: B+
This review also suffers from extremely old screenshots and one of the two negative points was "no real single-player story". Also count as an A.
Some Spanish Site: 8.8/10
Click here if you read Spanish.
Another Spanish Site: 8.5/10
Go for it.
Go go L4D. Discuss in our forums!
L4D Comics, Blog Posts, Versus Mode - 11/19/08
The official L4D blog has been updated with two posts. The first one says that L4D is live and shows a picture of Gabe pressing the big red button, with Mike dressed up in the background.
The second post announces the winner of their picture contest, which was Aren Roberson pictured below.
They also show that the L4D four pack is available once again. Four copies for $150. Awesome. Now if only we could set servers to be co-op only!
Two L4D-inspired comics have shown up, the first one is from Ctrl+Alt+Del entitled "Chest Area". The second one from Monday Night Crew is good too.
Steam stats is showing L4D peaking at 32,128 concurrent players today.
Finally, some thoughts on Versus mode. I got home today and played two full Versus matches, one on each map.
Versus mode is amazing, especially when you crush the other team:
The screenshot shows that we did not finish the finale, and I'll tell you why. When my team reached the finale roof, I had nearly full health and jumped off the tower and it automatically made me grab the ledge. My team was already all down on the bottom so they could not rescue me. We all had to watch me tick down for about a minute and finally die, since there is currently NO WAY TO JUST DROP YOURSELF DOWN. This is a bug/system that makes me rage. At least have it so that there's a CONSOLE COMMAND to drop yourself, because in the cases when you grab on when you shouldn't, it kind of ruins the entire Versus match. Please Valve.. :(
Also, running Versus mode on a private server is a bitch. Running anything on a private server is a bitch, and I really hope that getting the server system worked out is the #1 priority for Valve right now. There's no easy way to just vote switch over to a Versus match. When you have a private server and are already in game (using connect ip in console), the only way to switch over to Versus mode that we could find was to just rcon changelevel versusmapname, which is a huge pain. Why isn't there a "vote to switch to Versus map"? If there is, we couldn't find it. Maybe we're just a bunch of idiots.
We also ran into a problem with Versus mode in regards to "vote to restart campaign". We started playing, and then a person dropped so we had to fill the spot and then restarted the campaign. After one team got to play through as the Survivors, it automatically went to the next map. This sounds like a bug, because it didn't let the other team play as Survivors even though they had no chance to which meant we had to changelevel to the first map yet again.
It'd be really great to be able to just restart a map in Versus mode. Versus matches last 2 hours+ and people usually leave after a map changes. With the automatic "door unlock" that takes place in Versus, it's impossible to get a fair start for the team that needs a player to be replaced. Please give us a vote option to "restart map and current map scores without messing up the rest of the scores", because Versus is not fun with bots.
On top of all that, as soon as Versus campaign is over with on a private server, everybody gets booted from the server since there's no lobby to return to. This is pretty lame and we wish there'd just be an indefinite final score screen until somebody votes for a new map.
Did you know that you don't get to choose where to spawn in finales as Infected?
The fun part of Versus mode is when everybody on the losing team starts hating each other.
Even with all the private server crap (when not using the matchmaking system), Versus mode is so much win. So, so, so much win.
One last thing: Sebben, you're a freak. He was playing Versus with us. I'm wondering when he has eaten/showered, because he has only about 2 hours less playtime than L4D has been available. And he wasn't one of the bitches that hacked their Steam accounts to get all the achievements, so congrats on that.
Lots of L4D Reviews - 11/19/08
Lots of L4D reviews for you. If you've already bought Left 4 Dead (sure hope you have), you can use them to weed out which reviewers know what they're talking about.
G4TV: 5 out of 5 stars
Watch it below. These guys get it.
Kotaku
Kotaku's review gives you what they loved and what they hated. If you buy L4D for the single player, you're not doing it right. What they loved:
Substance And Style: The game's deep well of replayability clinches Left 4 Dead's spot on the list of best multiplayer games of the year. It's arguably one of the best multiplayer games of all time. I'm longing to end writing this review and play some more. The game is as pretty as it is playable. Well, it's pretty in its ugliness, with dirty, dark visual effects and gorgeous, understated design. The Source engine may be getting a little long in the tooth, but Valve has tweaked it and polished it to stay graphically competitive.
1UP: A-
Thierry Nguyen gives a short review that mainly talks about the awesomeness of the Director.
Simply put, every time the Director brings down a swath of Infected, who then pound me into hamburger, and every time my team and I manage to survive against incredible odds until the end, and we hoot and holler about besting the Director, I do the same thing: I jump into another lobby and wait for a match to start. I love this damn game.
GiantBomb: 4 out of 5 stars
Ryan gives a detailed account of what he thought of the game, and all on one page!
Beyond its categorical success in establishing a vivid picture of the zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead's biggest breakthrough is the way it blurs the lines between the often compartmentalized pieces of a modern first-person shooter. It makes for a game that's unlike any other, and while the limited amount of content is admittedly unfortunate, that shouldn't keep you from experiencing this fast-paced, nerve-wracking game.
Maximum PC: 10/10
This review has a bunch of great screenshots in it, the negative point they had was that only two of the four campaigns were available for Versus mode.
Game Informer: 9.25
Short review, both opinions are favorable.
If you are even thinking about playing this game, pony up for the Xbox Live Gold membership. It’s just as necessary as the controller. While light on content, Left 4 Dead needs to be in everyone’s library, not only because it innovates in ways that will shape the future of gaming, but also because it’s so damn fun.
GameDaily: 8/10
Worst review ever. It's literally one paragraph long, and the shit of it is that metacritic.com counts this as much as any other review. BOO!
GameStar.de: 87/100
It's all in German so I'm only guessing at what they say, and the quote below is my interpretation.
LEFT 4 DEAD IS THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER CREATED IN THIS WORLD, WE ARE SHUTTING DOWN GAMESTAR SO THAT WE HAVE MORE TIME TO PLAY THIS GAME.
Cheat Code Central: 4.1/5
Pfttt.
Left 4 Dead is largely successful at bringing players a uniquely exhilarating, arcade-like zombie shooter. The eye toward multiplayer fun is definitely appreciated, and the accessibility is great. However, the experience is best taken in short bursts, as the repetitive action gets monotonous after awhile. But, if you need to go on a zombie killing spree ahead of RE5, don't hesitate to pick up Left 4 Dead!
Pffft.
The Xbox 360 version has a metacritic score of 90 right now after 12 reviews. Again, the shitty review from GameDaily counts as much as any other.
Need for L4D Server Slot Limits - 11/18/08
Currently, Left 4 Dead servers cannot choose their own limit for players. There is no way to specify that you want a Campaign-only server so that only that mode can ever be played.
We believe strongly that this needs changed, and our view is apparently held by many from the mailing lists. As it is right now, server companies charge only two prices per server: private and public. For those of you that aren't even interested in Versus mode, at least for the time being, you must pay a higher price. Your server must also handle 8 people due to there not being a way to specify which modes you want your server to be able to run.
we believe this is terribly unfair to those of us that just want a private server for four friends to play campaign mode together a few times a week, but now must pay a higher price because Valve has not implemented the correct options.
Valve, please give the server companies and customers more options so that we only have to pay what we are going to use. FRREEEDDOMMMMM!
In other news, IGN UK has released their preview of L4D, giving it a 9.2!
One of the finest zombie games ever made, and one of the finest co-op games ever made. The potential for everything to go so, so wrong without warning, or conversely to pull off the most spectacular escapes against all odds, means this is an online shooter you can tell your finest anecdotes about without boring everyone else to tears.
Right now the only stats you can see on Steam for L4D are which achievements somebody has achieved (example). Since Valve is already keeping track of how many infected you kill for the "Zombie Genocidest" achievement (kill 53,595 infected) and how many incapacitated Survivor you revive ("Helping Hand" achievement), it'd be really cool to be able to see total counts of those, and also records for how many Infected blown up in a single explosion and things like that.
Finally, Valve had put up a Left 4 Dead 4-pack up on the Steam page for only $150 which was awesome, unfortunately at this moment it's no longer available until they fix the gifting problem.
Hope you're all enjoying Left 4 Dead!
Shacknews Review, 51st Achievement - 11/18/08
Shacknews has released their review for Left 4 Dead, go read it now.
There's a new achievement in the achievement list that has to be something very unusual. If you happen to get it, let us know on the forums!
We had our chat contest launch party and unfortunately only 250 people at a time can fit in a Steam Community chat room at once. It was a spamfast (idiots on the internet, nowai) for a lot of the time, but it's hard to keep order with 250 ravenous fans in one spot. Congratulations to the winners of Left 4 Dead private servers Goldkills, Trinx, TP500, Lawlhat, Felios, Traitor, The Deerhaunter, AMT, SatoChan, and Sebben!
The initial download of the Win32 dedicated server files had an error, but it looks as though it has been fixed so we should begin seeing more servers going up!
L4D Dedicated Server Available - 11/17/08
Jason Ruymen sent news that the L4D dedicated server is now available.
Left 4 Dead is now available, which also means that the demo is no long available. So if you would like to run a dedicated server, please run hldsupdatetool with the game parameter with "left4dead".
Jason
Go Go server companies/admins!
LEFT 4 DEAD COMETH - 11/17/08
Left 4 Dead is out! Currently decrypting very slowly. I don't believe the dedicated server files are out as of this post, which leads to the same problems we had with the demo (crappy first night).
Win L4D Private Servers in Chat - 11/17/08
With an hour left to go until Left 4 Dead is released to the world, we're giving out 10 free private servers in chat! All you have to do is show up and get lucky, we'll probably ask some trivia or give other directions.
Exploding Barrel Review: 9.5 - 11/17/08
The Exploding Barrel has released their Left 4 Dead review, giving it a 9.5.
In conclusion, Left 4 Dead is an amazing game that is an excellent addition to Valve's vast repetoir of quality titles. While it is severely lacking in the single player department, Left 4 Dead isn't made to be one. It's intended to be played cooperatively, and in that respect, you will be hard pressed to find a game that does it better than Left 4 Dead. There may be, perhaps, some concern that the game's four scenarios may not be enough to satisfy the hardcore FPS fan, but I can assure you, Left 4 Dead has a way of bringing you back for one more scenario even after you've played each of them multiple times. Maybe it's because you're playing with a new crew of team mates, or maybe it's because the game just happens to switch up things on you, but each time you play is always unique, fresh, and one hell of a good time.
Another positive review, woo.
New L4D Gear: Mousepad - 11/17/08
Valve has released in partnership with GameRigs a high quality L4D mousepad. Check out the Valve store entry here and the BattleMat Gaming Mousepads website here for some more details.
It's 300 mm x 250 mm and costs $12.95 at the Valve store.
Two New L4D Blog Posts - 11/17/08
Valve's official L4D blog has two new posts detailing their launch night activities. The first one shows off the "Valve Launch Box" pictured below which they actually hook up to release a game on Steam with the press of a red button.
The second post is a quick update:
Good news on the Valve Launch Box test run! There was an electrical fire, and all the bees burned to death. The bad news: several employees also perished in the fire and the game will be delayed.
Just kidding! About the game. There were some burning deaths. But the game's coming out!
We've said too much. Who wants to see our second TV commercial?
Hah hah.. hah.. it's funny because they've delayed the game since summer 2007.
Team Xbox Review: 9.1/10 - 11/17/08
Team Xbox has released their review of Left 4 Dead. They gave it a 9.1 out of 10.
No, Left 4 Dead isn't a particularly deep game, doesn't offer a ton of variety and could use some more polish in many areas.. but it's so immersive and satisfying the majority of the time that you will ignore some of its shortcomings. Not totally forgive them, mind you, but it feels like the good outweighs much of the bad. On more than a few occasions, I pointed out some glitch that came up during a match to a co-worker and the response was, "Yeah, but it was so much fun!" It's like having a 1965 Mustang convertible with a faded ragtop.. you can kind of gloss over the cosmetic for what's under the hood and how it feels driving down the road.
Gameplay: 9.6 It's so immersive and satisfying to sling lead at an infinite number of creepy, crawly zombies! It's not particularly deep, but there are far more moments that'll make you grin goofily and move tensely to the edge of your seat.
Graphics: 8.6 Some of the visuals are fantastic, such as the zombie movement and death animations, but there's also a lot of sloppy terrain clipping and glitchiness that hinders the overall experience a tad.
Audio: 9.1 It gets repetitive (as most games like this do), but there's fun variety in the spoken lines and the sound cues of various boss zombies are great for determining proximity and direction.
Longevity: 9.3 No, it's not a deep journey, such as Fallout 3, but what's there will probably have players battling for quite a while in the game's competitive multiplayer settings.
Innovation: 9.4 Valve takes what could have been a run-of-the-mill shooter and injects enough freshness into it that it should stand well away from the pack. It's a great blend of survival/horror and FPS action.
Overall: 9.1
411er askquestionslater posted what he found on the developer commentary about the Screamer:
The Screamer was a boss zombie who didn't have any actual attacks; he was bound in a straightjacket. You knew when he was around because of his crazed, maniacal cackling. The trick to the Screamer was that if he saw you, you had a moment to kill him before he ran away. Once the Screamer got away from the Survivors to a hiding place, he would emit a loud howling scream that would cause a huge mob of zombies to attack the Survivors. While there were several exciting moments of knowing you had to chase him down to shoot him before he screamed, dodging zombies all the way, ultimately it proved too confusing for Survivors to discover how he worked, or even to reliably notice him in the crowd. He was cut, and his horde-drawing attack eventually evolved into the Boomer attack.
So originally, the Boomer only exploded. They scrapped the Screamer and let the Boomer vomit.
GameSpy Review: 4.5 out of 5 - 11/17/08
GameSpy has posted their review of Left 4 Dead, giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars.
One need only look at Left 4 Dead for proof that the gaming landscape is fundamentally changing. This is a game that was obviously envisioned from the very beginning as a co-op experience, even modeling its single-player campaign to mirror that approach. The inventive and highly entertaining competitive multiplayer mode just adds to the experience, and we're looking forward to seeing what Valve's got planned for the game's future. Out of all the titles that have shaped the Year of Living Cooperatively, this may be the best experience of them all.
Pros/cons:
Pros: Intense, nerve-wracking experience; co-op gets even better as you add players; innovative, entertaining multiplayer mode.
Cons: No real narrative in place; single-player offerings pale in comparion to co-op play; no searching for dedicated servers.
A post in the official forums teaches you how to play Episode 1 in L4D.
411er askquestionslater posted about a possible scrapped feature in L4D called upgrades based on some game files.
Stay tuned to Left 4 Dead 411 as long as the site doesn't crash!
