Be Excellent To Each Other

It annoys me how non-randomly the game selects players to become the Tank.

I played against a group tonight who were so on form I would have sworn they were cheating somehow. But they were so coordinated it put my team to shame. They were like an impenetrable fortress.

I managed to get my Big Drag achievement though, so I'm one small step closer to maxing out the list. Now, if only the survivors would stay close and turn their backs on me so I could puke on them all at once…

I think I need to play campaign for a while longer before I chance with versus. It sounds complex.

That and I'm really looking forward to playing it on hard or expert. If normals anything to go buy it will be amazing. And impossible.

Expert is nuts. It only takes a few hits off the normal infected to become incapacitated; run into a tank or witch and they'll knock you out or kill you in one hit. I wouldn't even really bother unless it was with bezzies or friends, and certainly not with people who don't speak!

Expert truly is nuts, but how about the three of us have a crack at the campaign on hard sometime later this week? I miss Death Toll and Dead Air from playing too much Versus, and it'll be good preparation for Dr Lave before he throws himself to the wolves in PvP. What's more, we can talk excitedly about it in this thread afterwards, which will persuade more forumites to get the game, and we'll move another step closer to the dream of the Beex versus game. Before you know it we'll be FORUM HEROES for helping everyone to realise that £35 IS NOT TOO EXPENSIVE for something this good.

You're an evil genius!

Not wanting to open a can of worms again, but I really didn't get on with the demo. If I'd have loved it, I wouldn't have cancelled my pre-order.

£35 is too much for a game that I didn't like the demo of. This is why I still haven't bought Dead Space or Mirror's Edge, despite them being considerably cheaper.

Hmm. I loved Dead Space and I hated the demo of it. Does that mean by your logic I can buy L4D now?

You played the demo after the full game, though. I have nothing else to work on plus Zardoz is lending it to me.

Also, I didn't hate the L4D demo, I thought it was pretty cool. I am concerned that four levels is enough -- I'm sure it'll get boring playing the same level over and over. That's why we never play Horde for more than an hour at a time.

I didn't hate it either, but lots of games I already have/want to get + £35 price tag is putting me off so far.

I can see it being something I'll get and really enjoy in about 12 months time.

Hell yeah. I'll bring it. Is there only 3 of us? If so I can probably bring the GF to bring it up to a nice 4. She's a bit obsessed by it at the moment.

How about 9pm Thursday? And run through either Death Toll or Dead Air?

I can't really comment on the price as I got it for free. But the content is rather light I suppose. But then I value originality over quantity really. It's about 5 hrs of levels - but that's like calling the ten or so levels on CoD4 a '100mins of content'.

As you haven't played GoW2 with us, you might not have realised I was being sarcastic. Horde mode involves a gang of players fighting off waves in increasing difficulty on a small level; we've played it for at least four hours back-to-back on the same map.

I didn't actually see that post - it was just a comment off the top of my head & not aimed at anyone.

And horde mode sounds awesome.

It really freaking is.

The four maps (20 individual ones, mind) have kept their freshness surprisingly well so far, and I've ploughed many hours into this game. The spawns aren't the same each level, so you never quite know what you're going to be up against from minute to minute.

Add in Versus mode, and it's absolute chaos. Lag behind for even a few seconds, and your opponents are sure to notice (they can see your outline through any walls). If you get attacked by one of the special infected, you have to rely on your team-mates to save you, so communication and attention is paramount. An unorganised team is quickly picked apart and destroyed.

There's DLC coming soon, apparently, in the form of new maps and maybe something else. Though when and for how much I don't know.

edit: and Thurs 9pm is fine with me!

Left 4 Dead on Xbox 360, £27.89 from ShopTo (£26.77 after quidco). Dimrill has ordered it, as have I. Note they are currently out of stock. It's also £30 from Game (less 9% quidco).

Hmmm, I'd have bitten for that price were I not completely skint for the rest of the month.

I'll see how much it is after I've finished Fable 2 and bought and completed RE5.

I'm going to continue to Bezzie it up with Gears, alterna-Bezzie (Lave, Jonarob, Malabar) with L4D, and co-op my way through RE5 with myp. I'm a total slut.

Valve's DLC has always been free, hasn't it? Certainly on the PC side, I doubt they'd change that for 360. And it tends to be less DLC and more just a bunch of extra goodness thrown in with the newest patch.

Hmmm. When I look at the DLC state of play with TF2 and L4D, I am concerned.

Especially when you lob one of those grenades and about fifty of them all rush over to it, seconds later becoming a cloud of red spray and chunks

Wait, are we still talking about Gears of War 2? That's the Horde mode I was talking about.

Woooo Gaywood!! And Dimmers will be ace in this game. We are getting a decent number of people then it seems.

Sneaked in a cheeky game this morning and it was ace. Because of the setting Annoying Live People are actually quite fun. Especially children.

It was me, an american and a brit, and this young kid who must have been 12 -14. But he was amazing. He was punching this gate to try and glitch it open rather than open it properly (which summons the horde) and so we opened it and chastised him.

That and whenever the Specials attacked he absolutely shat himself. It was a total 'he's not going to last the movie' moment.

At the end we've snuck past a Witch (though we don't know exactly where she is) and made it to the safe house. Our idiot boy doesn't enter though. He's starts telling us that we can 'take the witch.'

BOY: Come on, we can take her! It will be awesome!
US: No. Come inside.
BOY: COME ON!
US: Don't be stupid - come inside.
BOY: No one else is gonna spawn - it's just us and her.
US: ...
BOY: Fine - I'll do it myself. Wait here.
US: You'll get yourself killed kid.
BOY: Losers.

At this point I think we've used up his med kit and we stand in the doorway watching him walk down the corridor. He gets about half way down the corridor and The Director can't wait no longer. A Hunter bursts out the darkness and pins him. The boy shreaks madly.

AMERICAN: Leave him.
BRIT: Laughs.
BOY: Help me! Help me! Help me!

After a moment or two I wander over to him as the hunter is shreading him.

ME: Will you come back to the room?
BOY: SURE SURE HELP HELP!

I punt the Hunter off and run back to the room and lock myself in. Leaving him to fight the hunter and meakly enter.

It was amazing.

Nah.. I'm sure it was called Horde mode on L4d (being the very hardest difficulty setting where there are effing thousands of them).

Either that or Im used to my mate screaming over his headset "ROB WATCH YOUR BACK HERE COMES THE HORDES"

Awesome. The ball is rolling.

Tomorrow at 9? I'm there.

Awesome.

I think the GF is up for playing so that makes 4. Unless Jonorab fancies it?

I bagsy Bill.

£24.99 from play (thanks LewieP)

My youngest got this for Christmas, but the demo didn't move me much so I haven't really bothered with it.

My resolve is wavering in the face of Forum Enthusiasm, though.

Annoying. Something has come up. I won't be able to make the game tonight- but please do talk about it excitedly on here afterwards all the same.

Bah. No worries.

Though it is time to step up then Rodafowa.

The GF is still playing so me and her will be on line regardless. From 9 till 10 - or whenever one full chapter is done.

If there is a space once I've had dinner I'll play with you gentlemen (oo-er)

DLC NOOZ:

http://kotaku.com/5147229/left-4-dead-s ... k-unveiled

BALLS!! Sorry man.

Didn't see thing Morte. Otherwise would have invited you. We could really have done with a fourth player. Got to the third level of dead air, where you have to burn down a barricade and hold out for a while.

I can't bring myself to explain the ways it went wrong. But lets just say the first attempt envolved me burning my GF to death, getting snared by a smoker whilst Malabar got pinned by a hunter.

This was all within maybe ten seconds of alerting the horde.

Next Time TeemBeex. Next Time.

An admirable attempt by Lave, Miss Lave and myself, but the AI-controlled Louis and a few hilariously timed Tank spawns thoroughly buggered us for five attempts of one of the many scripted zombie horde encounters on Advanced difficulty. With a worrying almost-inevitability, Lave ended up on fire for most of the encounter each time.

Still, it was a good laugh, and it should be even better when more people get it.

Bugger. I didn't check the forum after 9pm, sorry! I've added you to my friends list now though, seeing as apparently you weren't on it already. Feel free to give me a shout for zombie genocidal action.

I still need to kill 40,000 more for the achievement. That's a lot of zombies.

Does anyone want to buy a Left 4 Dead serial for a tenner + shrapnel?

So have we got three more players who are prepared to give it a go on Expert this weekend? Are you guys good? Expert is fucking tough.

I need a bit more practice on advanced first. I'm okay. Made the rookie mistake of shooting a car when the tank spawned last night and set its alarm off. Arse.

My copy has been posted from Play.

Awesome. So we'll have a Gaywood in four weeks.

and a Wullie

And an Dimrill!

We can probably string together a full 4v4 versus match with that! Ace.

If it's still £25ish at the end of the month, count me in.

I've enough to be getting on with at the moment, but I'll probably pick up the ZOMG pack when it gets released with the DLC.

Thanks to my green travel scheme at work, I've managed to tot up £28 worth of Bonus Bond vouchers, which can be spent at Game. I don't mind paying £2 for L4D.

I have my copy!