Left 4 Dead 2

First things first, Valve announced Left 4 Dead 2 at the E3. The game will have plenty of new things over the first:

• A new and improved AI Director 2.0 for even more scary hordes of zombies.
• Many new zombie models (they look better and more dynamic than the ones in the first part, too).
• One new kind of super zombie, the charger.
• Dynamic weather (courtesy of said AI Director 2.0).
• Dynamic pathing through some areas (courtesy of said AI Director 2.0).
• 20 new weapons, among them, melee weapons like baseball bats, chainsaws and frying pans.
• A new setting, in the daytime instead of the night (meaning, few reusable assets).
• New survivors with different backstories and even more dynamic lines of small talk.
• One big campaign, in which the survivors get to know each other, and a feeling of progress throughout the different movie plot scenarios.
• Better Crescendo events that reduce survivor’s ability to exploit closets (I hate closets) by making them have to move.

That certainly does look like a list of changes that is a lot longer than the one you see in an EA sports title, or Call of Duty for that matter. The fact that it’s going to come out November 17th, a mere year after the first? Hooray! Gee, Valve is fast in producing quality content.

More on IGN, they have a preview.

Nerd Rage

Anyway, I promised you that I will also be talking about nerd rage. Well, here you go: There is a Steam group called L4D2 Boycott with now nearly 20k members -- and gee, how unexpected, they call for a boycott of that new shiny new game. I leave you to read the full list of their protest bullet points elsewhere, but want to point out that among the things those folks hate so much are the new music and “the game is too bright”.

Funny enough, the same folks also complain that L4D wasn’t worth its money for them. That is, after the game got multiple discounts and weekend sales, and many of them probably got it for the price of an indy game. Personally, I got more playtime out of L4D than out of many, many other full price titles, I have no clue what those guys are talking about.

We’re Spoiled

Yes, we’re spoiled. TF2 is awesome and got huge amounts of updates over the past years. New maps, new game modes, new weapons and “meet the …” videos. But what Valve seems to have done for L4D here goes way beyond these updates for TF2. Personally, I trust them enough to believe that when they think it’s worth buying a new game, then it’s worth buying a new game.

And when they say that there will be new content for the first L4D still, then the experience with TF2 made me confident enough in their abilities and their trustworthiness to believe them that as well.

Where the Protesters are Right

It is true, L4D2 could be an expansion. A standalone, tie-in expansion, a bit cheaper for those who already own L4D, with a bundle offer for those who want both.

It is also true that L4D didn’t get a huge lot of added content so far -- although we did get a new gametype, a new map, Valve enabled Versus mode on the remaining two campaigns (which meant reworking them altogether, since infected can reach many places survivors can’t). Still, there could be more. According to Valve, there also will be more -- so what exactly is the problem? Anyway, L4D got slightly less updates than TF2, point acknowledged.

But beyond that? No way. “We want to keep the old characters” and “we don’t want this new setting” and then at the same time “there’s not enough content here to justify a sequel”? That sounds an awful lot like “waah waah” to me.

Update 2009-06-09 19:53: There’s an interview at the Negative Gamer that is well worth the read. Seems that with size, they also changed to the better. Mr.Pancakes:

We changed our manifesto because we wanted to keep it in line with what most people in the community had concerns about. The first manifesto was there from the beginning. It contained our gut reactions to the new game and why we disliked it. But as the community grew, people began to focus their concerns on the content issues with Left 4 Dead 1 and the timing of Left 4 Dead 2, more than the fiddle-music or the visual aspects of Left 4 Dead 2. It became more about Left 4 Dead 1, and many of our members wanted us to drop the complaints about the fiddle-music and the Left 4 Dead 2 aesthetic.

Left 4 Dead Survival Pack

Left 4 Dead did get a new update a couple of weeks back, which improved the balance a bit. I liked the Smoker changes, but other than that, it was a bit less spectacular than I hoped. However, the slightly more spectacular update is coming: The Survival Pack, supposed to come out “sometime in March or April”. Careful, watching those videos might hurt if you’re allergic to spastic gamepad shooter movement like I am.

Anyway, what’s gonna be in it for us PC users:

• The SDK, so people can create their own maps (exclusive to the PC)
• Versus modes on the Dead Air and Death Toll campaigns (finally!)
• A new Survival game mode, where the survivors are pitted against wave upon wave of infected
• Lighthouse, a new level for that new game mode

I am really looking forward to this, being the old Versus nut that I am. I actually never played the Dead Air campaign yet, with it not being available in Versus.

There also was a minor patch on the 11th that brought some further balance fixes, in particular, who plays the survivor side first in Versus is now determined by who is leading -- those get to play first, as the ones coming second know where all the weapons are, and have a rough idea of where tanks and witches will show up.

Update 2009-03-14 09:45: Just now, new post on boomercharged.net, with essentially this very information, plus they say that Valve named “before April 21st” as release date.

Quake Live Open Beta

It’s running for a couple weeks already, and the comments on my most-commented-on post ever have dwindled ever since the beta was made public and no longer invites-only. Quake Live is still a perfect reenactment of one of the two core roots of today’s online shooters, Quake III (the other one being the original Unreal Tournament).

If you haven’t checked this out, maybe you should do yourself a favour and relive some good old school fun

Team Fortress 2 Scout Update

Ah, the big one. This update for Team Fortress 2 is a few weeks old already, in fact. Like the Goldrush/Medic, Pyro, and Heavy updates, this one features tons of achievements and three new, unlockable alternate weapons for the Scout, and a couple community maps. Have a look at the goodies!

Unlike with the previous updates, Valve themselves didn’t provide own maps or even new game types this time. I have played all the maps they officially release now months ago, too -- although an official release like that gives them more exposure of course. On the other hand, with payload, control point, capture the flag and arena, there’s plenty game types in TF2 now.

Sandman User Guide

As before though, the unlocks aren’t necessarily better than the original weapons, but different. For example, the Sandman allows you to knock out an opponent, but foregoes your double jump. And you give up your ranged weapon, the pistol, for the Bonk! energy drink. If you’re using the Force-A-Nature and the regular bat over the Sandman, you’ll have a triple jump even, counting the gun’s knockback -- which is awesome, I love it, it gives the Scout even more flexibility and speed and allows you to reach places way faster or even at all. Just watch:

Sorry about the distinct lack of sound, I didn’t switch the recording device for Fraps

Anyway, that’s it for now -- we’ve got plenty of shooter goodness to get us over the coming weeks.

Team Fortress 2

My first review on this blog, and I’m starting off with something easy: Team Fortress 2, the most recent hype shooter by Valve. This game was released October 10, 2007, and originally available only as part of the Orange Box or through Steam. Meanwhile you find it solo in stores as well.

So, it’s a shooter. What is it that makes this game special, what makes it stand out?

As a sidenote, I’ll try and lay out a couple of generic review structure categories for games here, bear in mind it might change in the future but I hope it won’t.

Graphics:

Well, obviously, they’re comic graphics. However, there’s more than one kind of comic graphics; this one here still is hard work for the graphics card. There’s plenty of particle effects for flying rockets and shots, critical hits are visible from miles away, the textures are high-res and not washed out anyway, and there’s tons of polygons everywhere.

What distinguishes the art direction in TF2 from other shooters are exactly those comic graphics: Whenever you see an enemy, you know what class he is – quite a feat with 9 classes (more on this later); the outlines are distinct enough to make it clear at a glance.

Alpine Concept Art

The game just got another theme with the Heavy Update last week, an alpine setting in addition to the desert theme the game originally featured already, expanding possibilities of course. Community maps are being produced all the time and, because the assets Valve provides are so flexible, look great.

Sound:

The sound is definitely above average: The levels themselves have good soundscapes, with croaking birds and beeping computers where appropriate. Weapons have distinct sounds as well, with unlocks often getting their own, they sound fat and meaty. Shouts and voice chat have the right volume, the voiceover speakers did their job well, everything fits together nicely.

The reason why I only give 3 stars here is, 3D audio positioning is far from perfect. Comparing it to UT3, where the flight path of every rocket is clearly audible, the sometimes crude positioning here is bugging me. Also, Valve could have done more with audio effects – hall, reverb, frequency dampening. There are some few effects, but they’re used very sparingly only. And finally, occasionally the sound bugs out and the computer in the basement is audible in the entire level.

All those things don’t really break the immersion that much (except for the bugs), but they are something that could’ve been done better.

Gameplay:

Engineer with Sentry

While the levels do have quite some complexity in detail, the stock levels’ layouts are very clear, bordering blocky, and without much fuss – which is exactly what I’m looking for in a multiplayer shooter: No edges to get stuck on, no places where an enemy can hide between some filler bushes in the scenery, still plenty of obvious cover for both attackers and defenders.

Map play styles are reasonably varied, and with play styles goals also differ: Either you’re pushing a bomb into an enemy hideout (followed by a big explosion of course if you succeed), capturing secret files from the enemy (aka CTF), you try to take control points or kill the enemy team in last-team-standing type arenas.

Ubercharged Pyro

The 9 classes are very varied too, with differing weapons (of course), but also hitbox sizes, speeds and hitpoints (comparison), and still balance is great: The Pyro might be fast and deadly up close, but from afar he has nothing but a pea shooter. The Heavy has a huge bullet throughput, but is lumberingly slow and can barely avoid incoming rockets. Engineers have strong Sentry Guns, but are rather weak themselves.

User Interface

Whenever you’re killed, you get a freeze screen with the player who killed you – particularly interesting when this is showing Sniper hideouts. There’s hotkeyed voice commands and shouts, ingame voice chat, a working and fast server browser with favourites and “my friends are on there” list, extensive online stats overall and per player, Steam integration (and thus friends list and text chat ingame), everything you’d expect from an up-to-date PC game.

My only gripes would be the pretty long respawn time, although luckily there’s servers who lowered that. Some few maps aren’t all too awesome (Warpath, Hydro), and after playing too much the gameplay does get a bit repetitive. Since most weapons have quite the spread, and there’s crits, precision while shooting plays a smaller role than in other games (well, maybe that’s a strong point with my skills). Alt-Tabbing occasionally crashes the game. But still, those things are minor.

Fun:

Pyro

I already mentioned the Heavy Update. Regular updates are then when makes this game special, too. Not only does the game get patches on a very regular basis (every couple of weeks, more often after a big update), but it already got the third class-specific update meanwhile, with the Medic and the Pyro having gotten love before the Heavy. Every one of those adds class-specific achievements, like “ignite a rocket-jumping Soldier while he’s in midair”, and special weapon unlocks.

The additional weapons aren’t really must-have upgrades or stronger versions of the same weapons, but rather sidegrades that enable alternate playstyles – a prime example is the Medic’s Kritzkrieg, sacrificing the famous Ubercharge (a short-time invulnerability for the medic and his healing target) for a 100% crit charge – letting Soldiers and Demomen in particular reign destruction from afar when the Medic properly uses it, instead of letting a Heavy breach enemy fortifications or a Pyro set everything in its wake ablaze.

With every update also comes additional content, and Valve selects the best community maps and packs them along.

Then of course there’s the awesome voice taunts and shouts where every class has its own style too (the Russian Heavy, the German Medic, the Scottish Demoman), the Meet the XY video series, things like the new Heavy unlockable Sandvich, and overall a very humorous approach, all of which make the game tremendously fun to play.

Overall:

I told you this review is easy: A community that’s active and supported (and likes doing comics and machinima for their favourite game, or invents silly achievements that are more like big DON’Ts), a developer team that still likes its product, a game that in and of itself is fun and draws more people into the flock by the day – what is there not to like?

Top grades for this one, and add me to your friends list

Some more links to get you started with class strategies: The TF2 Wiki, and some Slightly Less Than Conventional TF2 Class Strategies I like.