Left 4 Dead

[divine]

There are tricks to dealing with tanks, such as on the roof of the hospital, if you find any explosive gas cans, place them near an edge and get someone to lure the tank past them, shoot it as the tank runs past and you can often cause it to fall off the roof. Also, the best item for tank fighting is the molotov. Set it on fire then run and don't stop running. It'll die eventually.

[Haly]

Originally Posted by Davey_Pitch

FNAR! You after Jen's filth title?

It's mine, all mine.....mwahahahaha

[Toby]

Got this just before I left for the WRC last week and only had a chance to play it briefly.

Up for some games later tonight though

[iCraig]

Originally Posted by divine

There are tricks to dealing with tanks, such as on the roof of the hospital, if you find any explosive gas cans, place them near an edge and get someone to lure the tank past them, shoot it as the tank runs past and you can often cause it to fall off the roof. Also, the best item for tank fighting is the molotov. Set it on fire then run and don't stop running. It'll die eventually.

Or in the hospital level try and lure it within range of the minigun and force feed it that, it will shorten its lifespan nicely if you can keep focused fire on it for a good few seconds.

[iCraig]

Originally Posted by Belmit

I only really have one gripe about the game (everyone has to have one!), and that's the amount of zombies after the rescue has arrived. I expect a final wave, the idea being that the place gets overrun just as you escape in the nick of time I guess, but there's so many that if someone gets overpowered it's barely worth going back to help them. Even if you have a pipe bomb there's always a Tank as well, who doesn't seem to have the same affinity for the bomb as the regular infected. Yesterday I finished the second chapter, we ran for the boat, and I was the only person that made it back - it just goes mental. Hopefully human players have more sense; I guess it's really how the game is meant to be played after all.

Actually, I do have one further gripe. If you jump at the same time as the Tank hits you in the first campaign, you will fall off the roof of the hospital. Twice it's happened now. The huge ****.

I must admit I love that, escaping by the skin of your teeth. It certainly adds to the cinematic feel of it IMO and you just know you wouldn't have survived if you hadn't got out when you did. Also rather cinematic the other night on the rooftop legging it for the chopper, my flatmate got backed into a corner from a horde and the rest of us were in the chopper, we tried to cut through the horde for him, but the director really means it when he wants you off the level and we couldn't save him. Going back would mean certain death. He told us to go and he beat enough away to get on an air conditioning unti and then to drop a molotav, killing as many as he could on his way down. He was incapacited and the chopper left, leaving him to his inevitable fate.

The things that bug me about the game is the AI. Bill especially, I assume they all have the same programming but Bill just keeps annoying me. I'll be crouched, with the M16, cutting through zombies in a corridor and Bill will just walk straight across into my fire, getting himself knocked down and then demanding help. He also has a hard-on for medpacks, healing himself and others when we're at 40 health but haven't even been knocked down yet. Then, later on, when a few of us are in black and white mode, guess what, no health packs. We could of done with them about now Bill?! He even got himself killed the other night. I was sniping a few stragglers after a rush whilst the rest healed and re-armed, a split second before I fire at a sauntering zombie in my sights, his stupid beardface pops up right in my scope and he eats bullet, dying instantly due to his appalling health (we took the medpacks for ourselves this time, he can't be trusted)

He also has a knack of ruining our plans. We strategically position petrol cans around a map ready for the impending horde, and he finds a lone zombie and opens fire, hitting a petrol can in the process and igniting the ground, including himself, thus requiring rescue, healing and now we have a hole in our defence. He also got me killed whilst sneaking past the witch, I was doing great, medpack, pills, pipebomb, loads of health, no knockdowns, and had just finished a careful sneak around the witch in the sewer. Beardface then comes running up, bellows "WITCH" startles her, gets killed, then she turns on me, ripping the hell out of me until I had no more organs left and I simply collapsed into a mushy pill. *sigh* BILL!!!

[Belmit]

Sounds fun! The co-op/multiplayer sounds quite a bit different from the standard campaigns. I find the AI for the campaigns surprisingly good. Absolutely no friendly fire from them and quite often saving my skin.

[Daz]

Has anybody tried going online and playing as the infected? Bet there's tons of fun there, plenty of strategy too.

[iCraig]

Originally Posted by Daz

Has anybody tried going online and playing as the infected? Bet there's tons of fun there, plenty of strategy too.

Yep it's good fun. You're randomly assigned an infected out of the smoker, boomer and hunter the key is to stay hidden and stalk the survivors, waiting patiently for one of the them to stray from the others. Normally people go back for ammo or something, and it's great fun to grab them and inflict damage whilst their team mates run back to help. Attacking them as a group is suicide as they just pick you off as soon as you go for one of them. Boomer is different, you want to get them all with the bile if possible. Jihad tactic works well, jump out at them, get as close as possible and let them shoot you, causing you to explode all over them.

Witch is always AI controlled, but that's fair enough. It would be pretty boring to spend 90% of the level sitting in a dark corner doing nothing. Tank is randomly assigned and is a lot of fun. Naturally the survivors flee from you, and the main tactic is to run backwards if possible (less damage is taken this way) and knock the survivors down with your attacks. Avoid molotovs, they suck your health quickly.

[divine]

There are two main problems with the versus though, which are problems inherent to this kind of online gaming in general.

The losing team always quits after the first map. Every game i've played, the losing team just vanish and I often find i'm the only one left if I happen to be on the losing team, or we're fighting bots again if it's the other way round.

Also, getting a lobby going can take ages. Everyone wants to be the infected, quite why I have no idea as it rotates but the amount of time ive spent in lobbies whilst 4 players have selected the infected and people join, see the infected are all taken and then leave again is astonishing.

[Toby]

Originally Posted by divine

There are two main problems with the versus though, which are problems inherent to this kind of online gaming in general.

The losing team always quits after the first map. Every game i've played, the losing team just vanish and I often find i'm the only one left if I happen to be on the losing team, or we're fighting bots again if it's the other way round.

I can imagine that happening a lot when playing with other random people and is why the game is so much better played with people you know and who won't push off at the first sign of defeat.

This game was massive at the last LAN I attended but I didn't have it myself then. Expect it to be huge at my next one this coming weekend