Left 4 Dead 2

[SM47]

I wonder who that mysterious Smoker was? The amount of skill and discipline it took to pull off a grab like that. I wonder what was going through his mind? Guess we'll never know.

[Tom*]

Bravo sir, whoever that was.

Check out the Spitter doing sod all while the amazing events unfold, then missing a spit on the escalator and getting killed!

[Rudi von Starnberg]

To be fair in most situations it is better to save the pounced fellow first. In Left 4 Dead 2, priority targets for saving fellow survivors go as follows: Charger, Hunter, Jockey, Smoker. In order of damage/threat, with a few exceptions when jockey/smoker are somehow wildly effective.

That doesn't excuse people yelling at you though, that's just not on.

[Tom*]

the lame tank keep-away tactics

What does this involve, just hiding as tank? Don't you lose control after a while thus making it useless?

[mayor_mike_haggar]

I love how the people who take left 4 dead the most seriously are also clearly the ones who have the least fun.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

What does this involve, just hiding as tank? Don't you lose control after a while thus making it useless?

I think it's the method by which the tank keeps out of line of sight and tosses chunks of concrete for ever. It's generally not very effective unless the tank player has preternaturally gifted blind aim, but it's very tedious and is sometimes considered borderline griefing.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

OK, here's a question of eiquette for you.

I was playing versus on dark carnival last night on the rollercoaster level, and 3 of the team survived the coaster, shut it down and were on the home stretch into the safehouse when 2 of them got incapped. I managed to get inside the saferoom and everything, but the other 2 guys were just outside sloooooowly dying, and the infected were clearly massed ready to bum me the minute i stepped foot outside. Obviously I went outside and died a glorious and heroic death in a doomed rescue bid, but would it have been twattish of me to just camp in the saferoom till they died, ensuring at least one of us made it though?

[mayor_mike_haggar]

We were completely bumming the other team, but that's not the point.

[Riccardo]

Oh pan, that was a crazy combination of good reactions and great coincidences. Nice work!

[mayor_mike_haggar]

christ, can't valve find a way to punish players who quit out? Just had yet another game where the entire losing team quit after it was their turn as the infected on the finale first. I don't think i've finished a versus campaign at all in the last week

[Tunisia]

I don't understand how slow out of the blocks people are in the 'run like fuck' bits. In the Parish gauntlet, I could stand well back from the door, suggest that we peg it as soon as it's open, let someone else open it and still go straight through the other 3 players and hit the crowd of zombies at the end of the first straight before some of the others were round the first corner.

[The-Plethora]

Having fun with this so far, usually play with 2 other friends regularly. We do turn into the microphone police though, amazing how many people who say they have a microphone but "it's broken", I cant see the point in playing without one especially when they have a mode specifically made for people without mics called single player. You can get a mic for about 3 quid from ASDA at the moment, we usually ask at the lobby screen if they have one or not and just wait it out if they dont speak or type that they have one till they leave.

Only had to boot one person from a game so far "OK EVERYBODY LISTEN TO ME" in type, after saying we couldnt hear him (no mic) he launched into a tirade of abuse and got the boot. The setup of survival is always good though, had a very funny scottish guy who was highly vocal and a German guy who spoke no English whatsoever but I just about managed to ask him where the youth hostel was and tell him that the patato salad was terrible which he found funny.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

You don't need a mic at all, though. The characters basically say 90% of what you need to know anyway, and if someone starts shooting at a roof it's not hard to guess that there might be a special up there. The best tool for communication in this game is the laser sight, by miles.

[Exit Chamber]

Co-ordinating a team is made infinitely easier when everyone has a mic though, surely you can't disupte that?

[vcassano]

True, but you can type out simply messages anyway and most of the time it is obvious to any competent player what the hell is going on. Unless you are in realism mode, of course, where clear and rapid communication is vital.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

It makes life easier, but it's not a necessity. The game itself does a very good job of telling you what's going on.

Also, does anyone notice how much the atmosphere changes when rochelle dies, and it's only coach and ellis and nick left, and things get a bit more tense. Suddenly it becomes hugely homoerotic and every time you tenderly heal another survivor, you can see exactly what they're thinking, and as they get closer to the safe house ellis maybe starts to get a bit nervous, because staying outside means zombies and terror, but going into the safehouse means that coach and nick will tearfully take their frustrations out on his tight, unblemished backside.

[Riccardo]

I had not noticed that... but now I'm concerned that's the only thing I'll be able to see.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Also Nick obv gets sloppy seconds.

[giant_frying_pan]

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

[revlob]

bump

[Pistol]

I just picked this up on the 360 as I'm off sick today, anyone fancy schooling me in how to play? I figured I'd just dive into some co-op story mode, played the demo a bit but I'm definitely still a n00b. Gamertag's Pistol 451.

[Professor Puzzles]

Argh, stupid bloody goo stuff!

[Tom*]

nevermind, good games!

I think I was downed more times trying to hit the various tanks with an axe. I hate that sugar mill so much.

[frumious]

I was playing campaign in the sugar mill the other night, it was all kicking off, I turned a corner into one of the little huts and reflexively shot the witch standing there in the back of the head with my shotgun, killing her, which as it turned out was really the only option. I've never done that before even on purpose...

[poppa_f]

Anyone up for a spot of campaign action Tue or Wed night?

PF

[Pistol]

For everyone getting cheap Tesco deals don't forget to add the gamertag - rllmukL4D2

Added this tag as a friend - how does this work then? Is it just one person's tag who is online a lot, or some sort of buddy club where you can see all the rllmuk bods who are online? I are confuse

I'll probably just add a bunch of you if that's OK - I don't get to go online an awful lot, but when I do it'd be nice to be able to jump in to some action with friendly types I do have a headset, though I am a bit shy to begin with

[tobert]

Is anyone mildly disappointed with this? I played the first a lot with a couple of mates and we all brought L4D2, played a bit but where largely unfussed. Its not that it does anything bad, its just that its not that different and, because our interest has tailed off playing the first one, there didn't feel like there was enough here to re-ignite the fire.

We only play Survivor so that might explain it but are we missing something?

[vcassano]

Is anyone mildly disappointed with this? I played the first a lot with a couple of mates and we all brought L4D2, played a bit but where largely unfussed. Its not that it does anything bad, its just that its not that different and, because our interest has tailed off playing the first one, there didn't feel like there was enough here to re-ignite the fire.

We only play Survivor so that might explain it but are we missing something?

No, it is utterly superior to the first. In 1 it is largely static and predictable - there is really only one strategy required to be successful (a strong phalanx). But this is completely different. You need to be mobile, ever-aware and skillful. It is a genuine test. Combined with vastly superior campaigns, in terms of having more interesting and exciting settings, 2 is clearly the better game.

You do want to be playing Scavenge though. With some balanced teams it can be tense and exciting.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Left 4 Dead 2 is a great game and I have a lot of fun with it. I agree that it's a better game than the first in pretty much every way; however, it isn't that different from the first game, which I played to death over the course of the past year. It's an entirely new game and at the same time I've seen it all before.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

It's also a hell of a lot more fun to play as infected this time around.