Still seems a bit pointless for me with all the zombie mods and servers for different source games.

Dommyboy:
Still seems a bit pointless for me with all the zombie mods and servers for different source games.

IMO Source zombie mods just don't compare to L4D. I have played a few of the HL2 / Source zombie mods available and nothing has come even close to the fun, the teamwork, the atmosphere and the carnage I've experienced in playing Left 4 Dead. Probably sound like just another fanboy but it's really the funnest game I've played in years.

The AI director does so much more than give out health and ammo, its is in control of the entire game, it places zombies, special zombies, sets up the timing ot horde attacks, coordinates combo attacks between hunters and boomers. If you've watched the commentary, the game is fully dynamic, theres no set spawn points, the AI director can spawn zombies anywhere, around a corner, inside a closet, on top of a building. It just depends on the situation.

mda:

It's a little more than for your average game, but I agree it's not *that* much more. Most of it could just be put down to clever game mechanics and not necessarily need to be titled "Director" and be given the kind of silly sounding status of AI entity.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I had it down as doing. I'm sure it's amazingly complex under the hood, like all their AI stuff, but I'm bearing in mind how proud they were in the preview videos of the AI friendlies in HL2, and what they turned out like. "Follow Freeman" indeed.

Well he nailed this game to a T that's for sure. Its a ridiculously fun simple co-op game and nothing more really.
Honestly though I am kind of sick of zombies and shooters so I cant see myself playing left4dead for that much longer.
Luckily I bought it cheap via pre-purchase on steam. I was amazed to see it for 80 dollars in eb. O_O

Not sure if that was even a review, but it was a nice ride.

It's a shame Yahtzee didn't show any love to Left 4 Dead's developer, Turtle Rock Studios. I read his bit at the end about people that use numbers for words and laughed heartily. Good vid.

well that sucked!

I'm suprised he didnt say anything about the tanks. I love L4D but I really think the tank system needs to be reworked, somtimes one team will get a tank 5 seconds after the start and the other team won't get one at all.

nice review :)

At least he wasnt pointlessly bashing the game. Nice to see you've gotten your morals back. Good review.

This was a nice review! Good job, Yahtzee!
I was really looking forwards to this one.
Hot college girl+long tongue!
On a side note, are the admins ban-happy today?

Worm4Life:

So, import. Oh wait that means less content for the videos nix that idea.

Actually if imported it he probably would have ended up paying more money for it.

Let's go to Amazon.com, one of the cheapest I could find after a brief perusal of the net, probably one of the most well known. US$56.99 for the PS3/Xbox360 version. Sounds good, right? Oh, postage and handling? Well we'll go for the cheapest and wait for a month, that's only an extra US$5. So, US$61.98.

Now, we run it through an international currency converter (going from USD to AUD) and today we AUD$94.16. That's excluding any customs duties that may be charged, and it's more if he didn't want to wait anywhere up to a month. It would have been worse a couple weeks ago when it was about US$0.61 to the dollar. If he'd jumped forward in time imported it from the UK today (who've cut their prices for it in half) he'd get a good deal, but at the GBP57.97 (inc. cheapest p&p) it was when he would have bought it he would have been worse off. If he wanted to tought it out in German, French or Japanese, then he'd be close to over AUD$120 out of pocket.

Importing is not always the cheapest option.

man i am scared to post cause those guys were banned but what did they get banned for any way?

also this review was funny and i liked the end even though i would be the freind to spaz out under pressure i am sure lol

Major Tom:
So, US$61.98.

Now, we run it through an international currency converter (going from USD to AUD) and today we AUD$94.16.

Uh, no we don't run it through a converter. You've just proven he could pay as much as us GOD ORDAINED AND ANOINTED AMERICAN CITIZENS. Game over man. The problem is with the Dollarang, or whatever the fuck they call it.

This would be like if I converted my paycheck into AUD and then complained that I just paid 100 bucks for a video game. It is absolute fucking garbage and completely indefensible.

my favorite yet, nj
i was srsly considering getting mirror's edge but NO LONGER

Was one of the better vids he has done as of late. Just played L4D for the first time today. Man that shit was intense.

i find funny how he used a Obama pic smiling for Louis.

It amazes me a bit that he didnt mentioned the tank (like some sort of hulk with enanism for example)

and i think he mentiones that the AI director in fact launchs zombies to attack you.

EDIT: Did anyone noticed that in the list at 3:37 he has reloading in his list?

haha great review. i cant believe i paid for mirror's edge either

Wow, Yahtzee must've really liked it, he couldn't come up with anything poignantly bad to say.

Worm4Life:

Uh, no we don't run it through a converter. You've just proven he could pay as much as us GOD ORDAINED AND ANOINTED AMERICAN CITIZENS. Game over man. The problem is with the Dollarang, or whatever the fuck they call it.

This would be like if I converted my paycheck into AUD and then complained that I just paid 100 bucks for a video game. It is absolute fucking garbage and completely indefensible.

If you are being sacrcastic, my meter didn't go off.

You do realise that Yahtzee lives in Australia, right? Regardless of what it costs in US dollars, the Australian dollar is only worth US$0.65. Australians don't pay in USD, we pay in AUD and the price is converted according to what the AUD is worth in USD. If Yahtzee imported Mirrors Edge, his bank balance will show a deduction of AUD$94.16 (more than likely with an additional conversion fee the bank will charge him) to Amazon. Either way, he's out of pocket ~$100. With the current exchange rates importing or going down to the shop doesn't matter, you're paying about the same wither way.

If it had been out at the beginning of the year, when the AUD was worth something like USD$0.95 he would have gotten a sweet deal. But not now, now is a bad time to buy something that you can get for about the same price locally.

Oh, I get what Worm is saying now! Yes, in that context you are correct, he is paying USD$61.98, just like all you other Americans. But my point was for those complaining about paying AUD$100 for Mirrors Edge, importing it isn't going to help, taking into account exchange rates and such, you will still end up paying ~AUD$100 (probably more, definately if you get from anywhere outside of the US) for it.

He didn't seem to utter despise this game, yet wasn't exactly thrilled either. So, it might actually be worth buying.

Zombie games can't really have a story, because, let face it, all zombie plots are now overly clichéd. Either it's a government plot, aliens, nuclear waste/virus, or a government plot using nuclear waste/virus and aliens. The only thing left would be if mother Earth decided that our decaying dead bodies were a toxin, and spat out all our corpses in order to clean herself. Unfortunately, even there, the government would find a use for it, and it would loop right back to a government plot.

Simple fact is that zombie movies and games can't really have an original plot. If you're tired of the repetition, don't play it. If you're just looking for a mindless game (pun intended), then with the rest of the review, it should be worth the purchase.

Unless, you have something better to play that is.

I bought L4D from amazon.co.uk for about 24€ including VAT (21 pounds or something) as they had it in Pre-Order cause they have special Pre-Order deals...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Left-4-Dead-PC-DVD/dp/B001GIOGDW/ It's still 26 pounds, which is still under 40 USD...

Mirror's Edge (for both XBoX360 and PS3) is available for 24.50 pounds http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electronic-Arts-Mirrors-Edge-Xbox/dp/B001GIOGDM/ , which is 55 AUD... even with shipping etc. still far less than 100 and then you really can't compare currencies like that because other products are priced differently and general salaries may be higher or lower in said countries... if he REALLY meant AUD then some people could say they spent several Million in some Eastern European or Arab/African countries with high inflation rates and that wouldn't make it any more true xD

I usually compare stuff before I buy it with Amazon.uk nowadays because the pound is getting weaker and weaker by the hour (wouldn't be surprised if the Euro overtakes it in a year or two) and they also generally seem to sell stuff a lot cheaper there than in most other European countries nowadays... From movies, software, games to books and other stuff...

mda:

Dommyboy:
Still seems a bit pointless for me with all the zombie mods and servers for different source games.

IMO Source zombie mods just don't compare to L4D. I have played a few of the HL2 / Source zombie mods available and nothing has come even close to the fun, the teamwork, the atmosphere and the carnage I've experienced in playing Left 4 Dead. Probably sound like just another fanboy but it's really the funnest game I've played in years.

I totally agree.
I started off on CSS zombie mods, moved onto Zombie Panic! Source, and whilst I find them both fun, Left 4 Dead really takes the cake.
I've been trying to do the campaigns on Expert with some friends (the hardest setting), its such a thrill, you really need to work together in order to survive.

I loved the description you gave for Louis.

I'm actually pretty scared that L4D got a good review given how easy it would be to bash it and Yahtzee's general "I don't do multiplayer" stance. I guess he's ill.

Major Tom:
Oh, I get what Worm is saying now! Yes, in that context you are correct, he is paying USD$61.98, just like all you other Americans. But my point was for those complaining about paying AUD$100 for Mirrors Edge, importing it isn't going to help, taking into account exchange rates and such, you will still end up paying ~AUD$100 (probably more, definately if you get from anywhere outside of the US) for it.

Now if you're going to tell me the various US publications that employ Yahtzee multiply his paycheck by .65, then he might have a reason to bitch, but I somehow doubt that.

I didn't at first realize he meant 100 dollars in crocodile teeth, but even then he's getting the same deal we get here in America, so if 100 bucks AUD = 60 bucks USD why doesn't he just say "paid for this game"? He's either being actively disingenuous or just isn't aware his currency is in the toilet. If the AUD was up then my points about how he should be importing before bitching would be valid.

Dexter111:
I bought L4D from amazon.co.uk for about 24€ including VAT (21 pounds or something) as they had it in Pre-Order cause they have special Pre-Order deals...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Left-4-Dead-PC-DVD/dp/B001GIOGDW/ It's still 26 pounds, which is still under 40 USD...

Mirror's Edge (for both XBoX360 and PS3) is available for 24.50 pounds http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electronic-Arts-Mirrors-Edge-Xbox/dp/B001GIOGDM/ , which is 55 AUD... even with shipping etc. still far less than 100 and then you really can't compare currencies like that because other products are priced differently and general salaries may be higher or lower in said countries...

The only problem with that thought is that you are looking at prices as they are now. If Yahtzee had ordered them from the UK in time for him to make the review when he did, he would have been paying 49.99 pounds for Mirrors Edge which is in raw terms (without shipping fees etc.) AUD$113. Unless they also did some preorder deal but frankly, I don't think Yahtzee is the preorder type. Though even at 26 pounds without shipping and stuff that still comes to AUD$58, which is more that what Yahtzee payed for L4D. He payed AUD$50 (I'm guessing steam, AUD$50 for a new release is almost unheard of!).

So I've scrolled through the comments and I seem to be the only one OCD enough (or perhaps just slow enough not to get the joke) to point out that Yahtzee used the wrong cover shot for L4D.

The actual cover has a "left" hand on it ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Left4Dead_Windows_cover.jpg ), Yahtzee's is the old pre-release teaser cover with the right hand ( http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/07/21/left-4-dead-cover-art-revealed/ ).

So is it I'm just OCD or dense? I.E. am I missing some sort of injoke here?

Either way, thank you for this review. From one of the folks who spaz out over zombies. ^_^

Worm4Life:
I didn't at first realize he meant 100 dollars in crocodile teeth, but even then he's getting the same deal we get here in America, so if 100 bucks AUD = 60 bucks USD why doesn't he just say "paid for this game"? He's either being actively disingenuous or just isn't aware his currency is in the toilet. If the AUD was up then my points about how he should be importing before bitching would be valid.

I suppose the general perception here in Australia is that Americans buy their games for dirt cheap, and we have to forfeit our souls or hunt crocodiles to extinction to get enough teeth to buy them. Whether or not this is true, I don't know. You'll have to start comparing cost of living and average salaries and stuff like that and this talk about exchange rates has given me a big enough headache.

It was true at the beginning of the year (and your import point perfectly vaild) when AUD$1 was sitting at almost USD$1. I'm kicking myself for not buying some stuff then.

A special circle in hell for anyone who does 1337 speak hey!

Anyway great review again.

About the end comment: Smoker was the chosen name back when the smoker could emit poisonous gas on will, and it stuck until, during the demo, they changed him into the worthless-in-most-scenarios long range infected with the (slight) benefit of making it impossible to see any zombies for about a half second after he dies (along with messing up voice chat, and provided the smoker was, for no apparant reason, in the middle of the survivors or pulling them towards their next objective). So... yeah.

Good review, although not as venomous as some have been.

I did like his point about nerds talking about zombies WAY TOO MUCH. They're like vampires (another horror theme which has been overdone the last few years) except with no intellect or personality. Maybe people just like all the gory zombie movies . .

This game is so much fun! I love mowing down the horde with the auto shottie! I hear rumors of more "movies" being released via steam or xbla sometime in the future, and I can't wait! Many, many kudos to Valve on this one :)

Oh and I liked the slick obama reference he put in there. I'll have to think twice now about helping louis when he gets incapped by the tank :P