giant_frying_pan

That's because I've been lazy and/or unavailable. I should be free tonight. For next week, I'll make the effort and send out reminders ahead of schedule. Patch coming before the end of the month to fix everything on PC up to and including the latest update.

In the red button clip, Iannucci was basically wondering what will happen to the characters in the next series, using the words '...in the next series..."

It's that time again! Pop in the Steam RLLMUK chat room for L4D2 versus!

Oh and his name isn't Walter and it's not an alias. It was going to be his name early on in production, but it was changed to Arthur Mitchell. There are so many ways they can play the start of the last episode and I really don't know what way they'll go with it. As for the 'big twist'... (speculation, no confirmed spoilers or anything. Sorry mobile viewers!) Whatever happens, it promises to be a stonking finale...the question is...just how stonking?

Or election night just as the polls close!

They listened to feedback and season two didn't suffer from this. Locations and some characters. * * * Full-sized adventure game: can't happen and won't happen. The episodic model is why these games have been successful. Telltale have been able to produce regular content and more importantly in my opinion, more quickly address criticism and improve on experience with earlier episodes. A two year cycle on one game and one story which wouldn't produce much more gameplay content than five or six episodes, wouldn't be as successful commercially. Players would whizz through it as well and the wait would be much, much longer for the next game. Telltale has proved that the current model works. Abandoning it would kill adventure gaming all over again. I think the positives of the episodic schedule outweigh the negatives of not having a bigger, one-time game. It's not worth the risk for a potentially better game (and I disagree that a game with an increased budget and development time would be significantly better than the current situation where the developers can quickly react to trends and not go too far down a path that would result in lower quality). 2D, hand drawn visuals: I'd prefer it too, but it's *significantly* more expensive to do and again, not worth the risk. It would completely prohibit an episodic model too as they games wouldn't be able to be turned around quick enough. The best way forward is to improve upon, iterate and perfect the current model before wishing a return to the glory days of adventure gaming which also resulted in its inevitable demise. It's short-sighted thinking and annoys me that Telltale don't get the credit for what they've done and instead, they get criticised or judged for what they won't do (and can't do).

Consider it immortalised! I managed to get the .dem file working in the end. Here is the madness in all its glory: Click the direct link and then HD for 720p: I'll try and get videos from the rest of that match up at some point.

Couldn't tell you how to host a game. Just look for a server doing it on Game Monitor or Game Tracker.

You should try 16 player Versus.

A few spots left for Versus on Steam! Get in the RLLMUK chat room so I can easily invite you!

Yes and I think the timing's different to L4D 1. I haven't got it sussed just yet. In L4D 1, the hunter's hitbox was around half a second ahead of the visible model so you need to melee before you think you have to. Spamming melee in L4D 2 is not very helpful, even if it was early on in L4D 1. I think the hitbox is even further ahead of the model now, but I'm not sure.

Some more videos that I did get: I try (and fail) to get frumious at the point of no return, but am a little too slow in positioning myself. That and the red petrol can right at the door would have killed me anyway culminating in an almighty Charger fail by my good self. We take it down eventually, but we're too battered to recover. * * * Remember and click HD for 720p.

Well I was the charger in that scenario so I didn't see it from my point of view first time around, but, thanks to the handy-dandy drive feature of demo playback, I can fly about for a better view and now that I've seen what happened myself...oh my God what a one in a million series of events that was! The video of this will definitely be coming (but I'm going through the levels chronologically for now). No-one could ever do that on purpose again! Also, it was in no way planned. Nor was the apparent 'everyone get Rudi' edict on the last level! [EDIT - And of course, as soon as I type 'one in a million', something catastrophic had to happen to prevent the video from coming to light and indeed it has. Even though I immediately set my copy of L4D2 to NOT automatically update, it has done just that, rendering my recent batch of .dem files unusable (some game updates will break dem files recorded under previous engine versions). This is all Gabe's doing! I'll hang on to the dem files as there are ways to get them working even after updates. Still some video from the second level to come but for now, levels 3 and 4 are in limbo. Sorry!] You switch on 'full captions' in the audio menu. I actually forgot to turn them off when recording the footage.

In the end, Rudi axed that thing on his back

Got a few videos of tonight's game up. Would have more, but I got called in for another versus match elsewhere. More videos to come! (was a constant barrage of attack from the lift to the saferoom!)Again, I'll put more up from the other three levels tomorrow night. You can have priority next time. I got on the kiosk all right, but it was a standoff - the tank was between me and...well...the car's tank! I think if I had adrenaline I could have pulled it off. Video of this will be forthcoming!

Two spots as of RIGHT NOW! Hurry, hurry, hurry! [EDIT - One spots!] [EDIT 2 - No spots! Unless 8 more come!]

That's the plan! Be in the chatroom at quarter to.

Sorry for barely being on tonight - Steam took a strop followed by another and then another... Well I think I identified and solved the problem. Had a lengthy Versus session afterwards and didn't get chucked off once. So fingers crossed for tomorrow. I think how we'll do this is the first eight in the chatroom from 19:45 onwards are in the first group and anyone else on top of that can form another group if there's enough people. It was Scavenge today, so it'll be Versus tomorrow! * * * On another note, Valve has finally addressed the 360 dedicated server issue and as suspected, the problems were due to overwhelming demand, which is a bit short-sighted from Valve given how it frequently touted strong pre-orders on the console. They've added loads of new servers and increased the infrastructure, as announced on the blog here. I haven't tried it out for myself yet, but the response on the Steam forums of doom seems reassuringly positive. So those interested on the 360 Versus/Scavenge night, put you're name down here. Starting from 19:30 this week!!! (Note that this is on Sundays) [EDIT - Also, if you've declared an interest in playing in the weekly games, please make sure your Steam ID is either in the forum spreadsheet and correct (and make sure it's your actual Steam ID and not your screen name or user name - it'll be an ID you set yourself or a long number!) OR your ID is part of your signature. If your ID is just in a post body, it'll eventually get lost in the shuffle and the RLLMUK group is fairly big to sort through manually.]

Starting a new set of eight! Since I was playing on Sunday, I'll only add myself if needed to make up the numbers. Starting from 19:30 this week! Good news is that the dedicated server issue has reportedly been fixed according to the L4D blog and anecdotal evidence. Names down now!

I'd say I'll be on after 19:00-ish, but whatever suits everyone else is good!

I'll be playing on Steam tonight if people want some preliminary Versus Well, if you were really good, you could use a molotov or pipe bomb to free them before they get incapped. The larger pipe bomb radius compared to L4D 1 makes it a little easier, too. Not as straightforward with a Jockey, though.

Organised (I use that term loosely) Versus / Scavenge mode games kick off tomorrow at 20:00 and hopefully every week thereafter until everyone loses hope / interest. This is the RLLMUK Steam chat room that you'll want to be in to join the games! You'll need Steam to open that link. I myself may be online for a time, tonight.

Reminder! Versus and/or Scavenge modes games on Steam tomorrow at 20:00! Pop in the RLLMUK Steam chat room at around 19:45-19:50 to join the actionfun!

*head explodes*

Good games tonight all, despite a few connection and attendance issues For next week should we do 19:00 or move to 20:00?