| (Pages: 1, 2) | |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2146 Joined: 7 Sep 2008     | |
Contributor  Posts: 20 Joined: 9 Jun 2008     | Thanks! Unfortunately, my computer is a Macbook, completely lacking in gaming ability. On the one hand, I definitely agree that WASD/mouse is the ideal control for most types of games (excepting side-scrollers, shmups, fighting games, and flight sims). On the other hand, I sit at a computer all day for my job. I don't even have a computer desk in my apartment -- I lounge on my couch. Which is also the location I play my video games from. And I also agree, not everyone is an asshole online. Earlier today I had my first truly great team in the game, a group of people who were all totally awesome, who worked together well. It was glorious, and I felt like I was experiencing the game's full potential. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 3923 Joined: 15 Aug 2008    |
Well it IS a multiplayer game, that was supposed to be understood if you knew anything about it, 10x more fun with friends. |
Contributor Posts: 20 Joined: 9 Jun 2008 |
I'm a bit confused by this, Jamanticus, but I think it may involve a much larger (and probably totally pointless) discussion of what the term "survival horror" means. Beyond the zombie-film atmosphere, I don't really see this game as survival horror at all. To me, a survival horror game can only be a single-player experience -- it needs to be solitary, lonely. Having three buddies' voices in your ear takes that away, at least for me. Don't get me wrong, Left 4 Dead does an incredible job of bringing the "generic zombie movie" atmosphere to life. I just don't think the game's format makes it possible for it to be genuinely scary. Creepy? Certainly. Nerve-wracking? Yes. But that sort of dreadly, what's-around-the-corner feeling? No, at least not for me. Because I know what's around the corner: Zombies. Also, I call dibs on the word "dreadly," because I totally just made it up. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1850 Joined: 31 Oct 2007   |
A survival horror has no other meaning, other then a horror in which the individual is trying to survive. It really isn't exclusive to single-player games. What's a horror? Well, I suppose that's in the eye of the beholder, but it certainly tries to pass itself as a horror. Besides, you can play it single-player, which would get rid of the microphones in your ear and give you that loneliness you spoke of. But, I completely see where you're coming from. |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 724 Joined: 5 Jul 2008   | I've played L4D on both the PC, and the 360; and I have to come to one singular conclusion: They also hate people who like melee. |
Contributor Posts: 20 Joined: 9 Jun 2008 |
Here's a pretty interesting and decently-written article on this topic: I don't agree with everything she says, but I do agree with her basic definition of the genre:
You have to remember that "survival horror" is a marketing term cooked up by Capcom to promote Resident Evil/Biohazard when the first game was released. "Survival horror" has come to mean something (more or less) to some people (and, obvi, other things to other people :) ) but, whatever that meaning was, I think L4D has drifted pretty far away from it. Lots more interesting questions here, though: is this even a "horror" game? It's a smart, squad/tactical-based multiplayer FPS with a zombie-movie skin. But there is no narrative, no characters (since they are stereotypes defined by four-sentence descriptions and a handful of lines of dialogue). The game's four scenarios COULD have functioned as bare-bones narratives -- "Some people fight their way to this rooftop, and have to get from here through an infested city to a hospital helipad" -- but when you play that over and over, the narrative becomes the story of how you built a rapport with some strangers online that enabled you to win the game. In other words, L4D is a ping-pong table and paddles. The game itself -- the activity of playing it -- is a compelling story (if you're one of the players, of course). But in the absence of a real narrative, all L4D does horror-wise is to mimic the tropes of movies you've seen before to get you to feel the way you did when you first saw those movies. Combined with the tooth-grinding anxiety of the game itself, this can be pretty effective. But I don't know if it counts as a decent work of "Horror." |
Press Junketeer  Posts: 357 Joined: 8 Sep 2008   |
Sorry to say, but you'll get raped in the ear...without lube, or even breakfast the next morning! I found it to be pretty hard on expert, and I'm pretty good at shooters. (beat Crysis on max difficulty first time around) You'll want to get a feel for things on meduim or so, just in case you set off a car alarm and get swarmed. |
Muckraker  Posts: 260 Joined: 17 Nov 2008   |
You'd really want to have a selection of melee weapons in L4D? You'd be a liability.
Shooters played on single-player aren't really that hard. The only one i found the least bit challenging was CoD4 (That freaking ferris wheel event was a biiitch). Besides, you can't really compare Crysis to L4D in terms of difficulty. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1181 Joined: 21 Oct 2008  |
Yeh thats why I'm always going to stick to PC for online multiplayer, the level of retards and kids is much lower. I luckily have 3 decent friends to play with on l4d, it just makes the experience so much better. |
On the Record  Posts: 6227 Joined: 10 Mar 2008    |
I'd be setting off dozens of car-alarms and getting barfed on many many times then >_> Obviously I'd play on lower settings to see which character I liked the best and what weapon, and I promise to you that if I could get this game I would, but since my PC's crap and there's no PS3 version in sight, I'm going to have to wait till I can upgrade my computer somehow. |
BANNED  Posts: 3535 Joined: 11 Oct 2008   |
TsunamiWombat is playing it in a very bad computer (at least that's what I understood). User was banned for: FUN FORUM GAME THX FO PLAYIN :3. (Permanent) |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1672 Joined: 31 Mar 2008     | Actually the demo was discontinued by Valve the day that the full game was released. While I'm sure there are more nefarious ways to still get it, the demo is no longer supported by Steam. |
On the Record Posts: 6227 Joined: 10 Mar 2008 |
The demo is still out? I thought it was gone when the game is released? Though, now that I think about it, I probably should have tried to download the demo >_>; Though it's my graphics card and RAM that are crap, the graphics card is intergrated in my Dell compy and I need about 1GB or RAM or something to meet minimum requirements. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2873 Joined: 25 Aug 2008 | I and my friends found out that I make a great coward, as shown by the fact that whenever we get mobbed my zombies I throw a Molotov at my feet set everything on fire(including my companions) and then run screaming in a random direction, and occasional I flee the right way |
Press Junketeer Posts: 357 Joined: 8 Sep 2008 |
Can you run any other source games? like half life2, portal? and other assorted goodies |
On the Record Posts: 6227 Joined: 10 Mar 2008 |
Nope, all bullshit. My computer struggled to play the Half-Life 2 demo so I'm fairly sure that most things are out of reach for my poor computer. But hey, I can wait, I've got LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2 to keep me occupied till then. |
Press Junketeer Posts: 357 Joined: 8 Sep 2008 |
Damn that sucks, it's pretty easy to upgrade though if you ever felt like it. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2085 Joined: 23 Jan 2008  |
If there's a demo or you have a friend who can borrow you the game a day (and steam account) give it a go on minimum... Might work) |
Infamous Scribbler  Posts: 547 Joined: 16 Nov 2008   | Graphics aren't too much of a problem for me, I cope with them at about 20-40 FPS but w/e. As for the difficulty of the game, expert IS extremely hard. On advanced each hit from the normal canon fodder infected do 5 damage. On expert they do TWENTY!! It's like crawling, standing, learning your first steps, and then being thrust into a 24 hour marathon with the intention of running 80 miles minimum at a constant pace (for me at least). If any any of you actually managed to beat one of the two levels you can play on versus on expert, WITH human's playing as the zombies, I tip my hat to you. |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 724 Joined: 5 Jul 2008 |
I'm pretty sure they increased the difficulty of expert from the demo....and made the NPC's a bit more stupid. I tried going singleplayer in No Mercy, on expert. I got killed fifteen times before calling it quits. |
Muckraker Posts: 260 Joined: 17 Nov 2008 | Expert is definitely doable. I tried a few rounds of Death Toll with a friend of mine and two comps to see how we'd go. We were doing really well until Bill and Zoey (Note: computers) decided to be retarded and spread out a little too much, especially during hordes. Needless to say they became a liability and a tank ended up killing them, and by the time we got to the second tank we were limping around and weren't fast enough to outrun it. Moral of the story; never do expert with computers. A competent group can do expert without finding it too difficult, just as long as you don't startle any witches (One hit from them incapacitates you), get barfed on, or trigger any car alarms. |
| (Pages: 1, 2) | |
Reply to Thread
|
|
Not registered? Sign up for a free account! |
No shame in that, my good Larenxis!
I love the sounds.....So visceral and satisfying...
An M-16 with a subwoofer=pure perfection.
Another thing that's fantastic about L4D is how perfect a blend of survival horror and tactical fps it is.......I was awed at that, and still am.