World Cyber Games 2007 Left 4 Dead Coverage

From October 4th through the 7th in Seattle, Valve had a booth set up at the World Cyber Games with Left 4 Dead on display for all to play. From Steam Update News:

Next week, over 700 players from 75 countries (along with an expected 70,000 attendees) will gather in Seattle for the World Cyber Games, one of the world's most prominent professional gaming competitions. If you're headed to the festival, stop by Valve's exhibit to playtest Left 4 Dead and register to win cool prizes.

Besides Mike Booth stopping in for a little bit, no developers from Turtle Rock Studios were there, but Valve employees were to get gamers' reactions to the game.

Shrubberyjsc's Hands-on Preview

In preparing for this trip to Seattle, I wanted to make sure everything would work. I tested each style of recording XP, SP, LP. Unfortunately, I didn't get much experience in filling up the disks and going through every step necessary to post it on the internet(s). Every time my brother said the disk in the camcorder had ten minutes of space left, I would say to put the next disk in, because I was afraid that it would run out of space right during a really cool spot. It turned out that some of the disks didn't have much on them at all. In hindsight I kinda wish I would have set the quality to the middle range the whole time, to get more footage. Anyway, what's done is done.

The trip itself was great fun. The drive was totally worth it. I played Bioshock and Portal as far as the demos would go. Left 4 Dead was, needless to say, Fan-Freakin'-tastic. I really wish I would have stayed longer on Saturday (Mike Booth showed up), but oh well. I expected this game to deliver truly co-op play, and it sure did. Giving and getting medkits is quite an experience. I got used to giving them, and when I needed one, it was an entirely different feeling to receive one. It was very cool. In SWAT 4, the co-op is restricted to covering the group's flank, or communicating the location of suspects, but giving and receiving health, as well as picking each other back up again, that is co-op.

When people have said great things about this game, they weren't lying. The thing that really gets me is every movement looks completely lifelike. Who says the source engine can't look great?

This game is difficult. (See video: "I Fail At L4D") I did win the game once, along with Chet, and it is a great experience. I did lose, but I never got mad, I just learned from what I did wrong. The thing I love about this game is that it's not who can shoot the best, but it's who can shoot the smartest. Go ahead go for the headshot, just not when it's a boomer that's right next to you. I saw Chet shoot the boomer twice. It's easy to learn, but difficult to master. You'll notice from the "Fail" video that even if I hadn't shot the boomer who appeared where he shouldn't have, I would still have been royally screwed. I could have just gone off alone, it would have been the same result. I've heard that if you go off alone you'll die, but I saw firsthand exactly why that is. Simply put, if you're alone, all it takes is one hunter, boomer or smoker, and it's over. Even the regular ol' horde can kill even the savviest player. "Not me!" I can just hear you say, but it's true. The thing is that they surround you. When you can't run backward, reloading means death. I noticed that the Director does an excellent job of making you feel safe, and then ruining your winning streak. I only noticed one Director goof as far as spawning goes. It seems that most of the time things are perfectly realistic.

The animations for the horde running and dying are so cinematic, you feel like you're in a movie. The checkpoints are so inviting that I find it hard to leave. When some teammate is out there Ramboing it up, and I'm inside the checkpoint, I like to watch his outline spin around in circles as his health bar goes down. You'll notice in my footage that Chet gets a little anxious to have that door closed. I did see one Security Demerit, when a hunter pounced in, but one time the normal infected storming in didn't give a demerit, leaving me wondering what the rules are concerning that demerit. I hope upon release that there's at least a readme that explains the specifics on the demerits.

The Finale. You know you're on a roll if you get here, and the pressure's on. When I made it through the finale the waves of infected seemed fairly light, and the tanks attacked individually. This may have been because the difficulty was on easy for that run-through. In any event, It was still great to make it out alive. Also note that the map has changed significantly. The tower is no more. This may have been done to make the players more exposed. The radio room's windows make it easy for many infected to swarm into it. This is the first we see of the mounted machine gun. The newer version heats up relatively quickly, (See the video) so don't depend on it. Also since the map change the gun isn't in a "small room" it's right out in the open, making you a prime target. The helicopter arrived, and I yelled "Get in tha choppa Charlie!" as I boarded. It's true, I really did.

You know the weapons are balanced well when you can't make up your mind which is your favorite. I kept going back and forth, and I'm still not sure which first tier weapon I prefer. I know that for the second tier weapons, it's between the M16 and the Auto Shotgun, (at least for a medium-close range city map). The Auto Shotgun is a must when going up against boss infected, and the M16 is great all-around. My brother wanted to see the scope of the hunting rifle have a real view when it's unscoped, (currently it's just grey). I don't know if I care that much, but it would look cool.

I wish the game's sound would have been turned up more, because it was drowned out by "3-5-2-7 You've won a FREE T-SHIRT!!!" At one point, I was Zoey, and I was helping a teammate back up. I could barely hear that the conversation they were having was meant to be funny, but I couldn't hear the exact words. As it was, we were shouting "reloading!" ourselves some times. On the easiest setting, friendly fire was a joke. An infected's punch does 5 HP of damage, while a bullet does 1 HP. A 'team' of particularly inept players unloaded entire magazines at each other immediately after they spawned. However, I'm sure that on harder settings one stray bullet will make you look really bad.

I love the achievements system. It will make this game shine. Here are a few I noticed while playing:

• A white hand on a red background. You blocked a teammate's escape and they took damage because of it.
• Two black hands reaching out. You let a teammate die by not helping them.
• Forgetful. You had a medkit but didn't use it. (It's really a slap in the face to get that one.)
• Security demerit. I'm wondering if it only counts boss infected.
• Reckless. I'm seeing this one less, I wonder if it's undergoing changes?
• Shooting the boomer close-range. Even if it only hurts you, you still get this demerit.
• Boomer vomit stopped with melee attack. I was surprised to get this, and very proud of it.
• Tank Shut Out. This means your team killed the tank without it doing any damage to any of you. It was very cool to see.
• Flawless team. Your entire team didn't get any demerits. Very encouraging to see that one.
• Ambush. You kill an infected with a melee attack (usually happens when you sneak-attack them)
• Cold Blooded. You killed many infected that didn't see you.
• Sniper. Many long-range kills
• Self tongue stop. This one seems pretty easy to get if you know where it's coming from.
• A yellow background with a Black hand / White hand / White hand with White outline. You died/ You never died/ You never went down. ( I think)
• Exterminator. My brother got this when he threw a pipebomb to kill a waiting boomer that we noticed.
• I also noticed a Black outline of Francis holding his gun up in the air against a yellow background (achievement), but I don't know what it's for.
• Possible exploit I noticed was already fixed: Someone could load quickly, and grab a health kit, give it to another player, rinse and repeat to gain many merits for doing this. Except TRS has already thought of this. In my footage you can see that Louis heals and forgets to grab another health kit. Before he can get too far, I give him mine and get the one he left. BUT I don't get a merit for it. Good on you, TRS.

The health system is really shaping up well. Not dying from one hit in the back is a good thing. The temporary health is an innovative idea. I'd like the pain pills to have multiple uses. As is, they give you 80 THP all at once. I noted that the hunter can withstand a shotgun blast or a burst of bullets, so hit him with a melee attack if he's close. The amount of time that it stuns him is more than enough to blow him to hunter hell. One question I had in the back of my mind was "Does a melee attack just stun or does it actually do some damage to an infected?" And so I tested it out. It takes 3 or 4 hits on easy to take down a regular horde member, so if there's only one wandering infected coming at you, slap it to death to save bullets. (My brother did run out of his main ammunition once). One other notable thing, if you are rescuing a dead friend who spawned in a closet, make sure your crosshair actually points at him. The door can be open, but they won't actually get to play until you look directly at them.

Being able to see your teammates through walls is good. One time I noticed that someone was still at the spawn while we were almost on the ground floor!

The Smoker's tongue, whilst not complete, now has saliva dripping from the extended length. It seemed that the smoker had only a few choice buildings to snag us from, and that while I didn't know where the horde would come from, I knew where the Smoker was likely to be. I hope that all map-makers include enough rooftop accessibilities to keep the Smoker from becoming a whack-a-mole game. Also, one review claimed that to get someone down from the smoker's grasp, you could perform a lengthy use animation. Chet refuted this quickly, saying that it's always been a melee swing. One player tried to shoot the tongue itself, spraying up and down its length. I wonder if in the future it will be possible to shoot down the person by hitting the tongue, but for balancing reasons, I can understand why that wouldn't be a good feature.

What is it about the Boomer that makes everyone want to shoot him? Is he that ugly? I've noticed that even after I tried learn what not to shoot up close, that he surprised me, and I let him have it. I noticed that sometimes, the boomer would hide above where the players would go, and vomit down on them.

The Hunter now has his shredding effects. They look grisly, just as promised. Speaking of grisly, I also noticed that the blood textures are no longer on loan from CS:S. They now look much better. The blood spatter on the screen is still toned down, just like we asked for. (Don'cha just love them listening to our feedback?)

The Tank. When I first heard of him, I expected to not like how tough he was to kill. In practice, however, I noticed that it really brings the team together when you hear those footsteps. Nothing like forming a rudimentary plan in 2.4 seconds to get your blood moving.

One time, I kid you not, my brother walked right over the witch. It was simultaneously hilarious and devastating. I think a cameraman was there at that point and filmed my reaction. "Oh! It's over! It's over." Because she moves so erratically and she can drop the whole team in an instant, she is the worst boss to encounter. At the time I played, there was no cool-down on her attack. I hope they keep her like this. From the last footage I've seen of her(QuakeCon), she appears much more distinctive. A bit taller, more shredded clothing, definitely longer claws, and overall she's more gaunt. You'll know it's the witch when you see it. I mean, there are some infected lying around before you rouse them, but she is distinctive. When Chet said, "I hear a witch!" never before have I had such a reaction in playing L4D.

The graphics are great. The glowing ammo glitch and the flashlights are still being worked on but the fire looks superb.

I wish I could have heard the sound/music better. I was very happy to see how you can move things around by holding "e" while pointing at them. Barricading a room won't be that much of a stretch. Also I noticed that there are many, many vote options. Once when the 'team' thought it was funny to kill each other and fall to their deaths, Chet brought up the menu, and I caught just a glimpse. He initiated a vote to restart the map, and made everyone vote yes. (F1).

Overall I can't wait. While I was at the L4D booth, some guy from Valve told me that I could visit the HQ and play it again sometime. I might hafta make another pilgrimage.

Shrubs videos

Shrubberyjsc took a camera along with him to WCG and has returned with about an hour and a half of footage.

Click here for the footage on Google Video.

OR

Click here for to download high quality versions (Xvid codec required)

Booth setup and location

GGL Wire is posting plenty of video taken from the World Cyber Games. Part 3, which you can find here, shows a walk-around of the setup that took place yesterday. At about 2:05 they show the Valve booth (at least part of it), with the monitors and computers hooked up.

The booth is located in some prime real estate, right next to the seating for the main event stage. Pictured below is the floorplan, the Valve booth is marked with a red target. The number 5 booth is Razer.

Booth pictures and Shirts

Arcadeblender.com has been posting pictures from the World Cyber Games, including two pictures of the Left 4 Dead booth.

The second picture shows the shirts that they are handing out, different from the ones at QuakeCon. The earlier shirts were black with a small logo on the front with a large, mostly transparent "4" blood logo also on the front. The new ones, at least what we can see of them, are red with the silhouettes of the Survivors on the back. Looking good.

More booth pictures

A Flickr album has gone up with more than a dozen pictures featuring the Valve booth at WCG. More pictures of the shirts (front and back this time), people playing, workers working, and Chet getting interviewed by Gamekings out of the Netherlands.

The pictures show the other non-L4D side of the booth also, which is dedicated to the upcoming Orange Box. And some more gamers we're jealous of:

Click on the pictures to head on over to the album, thanks to Doug Valente who posted these great pictures!