Left 4 Dead 2 Impressions--Hands-On With Hard Rain Campaign

[capncnut]

Right, just clocked it. Fantastic game, a massive improvement on the original but if there's anyone who's just done Dark Carnival thinking, "how much better is this game going to get?" The answer is not a lot. I played the first two levels last night and saved the rest for tonight. I wish I had banged it all out yesterday because my expectations were too high. Some amazing weather effects in Hard Rain pump the 'nads for a bit but ultimately the level is just one big   'arrive on boat, wade through two confusing levels, get fuel can at the end of level three then backtrack back to the boat in level one where a hoarde fight awaits' mission. Final slog, The Parish, has some good moments too but people who downloaded the demo already have half of it. But the long and short of L4D2 is Dark Carnival - an epic funfair massacre which ends with   a concert bloodbath (complete with pyrotechnics)! Why they decided to place the level so early on I have no idea because I think it shits on the rest of the game big time. L4D1 was about 4-5 hours on Normal, this is maybe 6-7 hours. I'm hoping to get some Live life out of it though and it's going to be a blast with a few pals. One last thing. playing solo on Normal wasn't as difficult as I expected and I only died once throughout all five campaigns. I know folks will be all like, "well play it on Advanced or Expert then!" (which I will) but I died about twenty times playing L4D1 on easy. Are these new powerful weapons a good or a bad thing? Probably good because it makes for an easier game. Edit: Went on XBL and tried to rouse a game with no joy. So I had a blast through Dark Carnival again but on easy (carrying that gnome and fighting zombies is too much on any other setting for a solo person) and managed to get my Chomsky, Moustachio x2, clown honk and head honcho achievements. Okay, now where's the Midnight Riders DLC? I reckon it's gonna kick ass all over the main game!

[Danny]

yeah the parish was a shite finale, hard rain was superb in terms of level design and dark carnival was hard as fook and felt like a finale, i was the only one to escape on the chopper on that one.

[CoinReturn]

How do you get the Moustachio achievements? I'm tired of him calling me a peanut.

[mista_mo]

to get the strength one- use a melee weapon (i used an axe) and take a shot of adrenaline. Whack the thing and you win. For speed one- simply whack the shit outta the heads that pop up, use a faster swinging melle weapon or one with longer reach.

[Danny]

to get the strength one- use a melee weapon (i used an axe) and take a shot of adrenaline. Whack the thing and you win. For speed one- simply whack the shit outta the heads that pop up, use a faster swinging melle weapon or one with longer reach. dammit mo', i was getting close to taking the #3 spot again!

[mista_mo]

Damn, i still got some versus achievements to get- why oh why must i suck with the charger. And you shall NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER GET NUMERO 3 POR FAVOUR

[Danny]

"robbed zombie" is an annoying one, because whilst you may not get them all, there is at least enough mud men in swamp to get the to kills, here the ten ceda zombies with bile samples are rare as fuck, on my 7th playthrough and im up to 4!

[Danny]

Is anyone actually managing to play it online? im searching for versus, realism, survivor or scavenge and just getting "nothing found, setting up lobby" and never getting anyone to join, every other game i have is working fine, whats the deal?

[CoinReturn]

Valve's dedicated servers have went to shit. I've been able to host my own games will little to no lag with three others, thankfully.

[Danny]

apparently this game is just shit online unless your hosting it, much as i like it the more i play makes me think valve pushed it out too early. -and ive been hosting matches and instantly some douche yells over his mic "MELEE USERS WILL BE SHOT" and other people who will, if you take the weapon they wanted, kill you for it because its a different model. So right now its a dickhead online community and im sticking with friends lists or the first game still.

[capncnut]

How do you get the Moustachio achievements? I'm tired of him calling me a peanut. Yeah, same thing happened to me. I was smacking the damn thing for five solid minutes until Coach handed me an adrenaline shot and said, "can we get this over with?" The other Moustachio simply requires fifty hits in five continues. Use the sub. Is anyone actually managing to play it online? im searching for versus, realism, survivor or scavenge and just getting "nothing found, setting up lobby" and never getting anyone to join, every other game i have is working fine, whats the deal? Was working fine for me and Mohammed this afternoon so god knows what was going on.

[mista_mo]

Well, i usually try and join vs games allready in progress tbh, as I hate waiting. the onlien is indeed really laggy, and like most other games with similar online lobby systems (halo 3, call of duty) the host has a great advantage over pretty much everyone. Still fun, and I seem to find more games that aren't laggy then are, but I see what you mean.

[darth los]

I had a terrible connection on friday night. I would shoot/melee a zombie and they would keep beating on me for a second or two before the damage i dealt took effect. Very unfun. But I've gotten about 700 achievement points out of it in less than a week and that's not too shabby. Now I've gotta get cracking on some scavenge achievements...

[CoinReturn]

There shouldn't be any lag when everybody is connected to Valve's dedicated servers, which is the puzzling thing for me. It's a shame that people are being relegated to P2P matches when they shouldn't have to, so hopefully they'll get that sorted out. I'll gladly host a few games, but I'm sure members from across the pond will notice some lag spikes. Also, I tried an expert run through Dead Center yesterday with 3 totally capable players, and we could only make it to the second stage. I'm loving the challenge but I don't think the "Still something to prove" achievement will ever see the light of day on my console. Realism mode is cool too, but sticking together is more essential than ever. Zombies take a lot more damage if you don't go for headshots, and special infected lose the red outline. If somebody is getting pummeled by a Charger or pounced by a Hunter, the only way you'd know is by the "helphelphelp!!" coming through the mic.

[darth los]

There shouldn't be any lag when everybody is connected to Valve's dedicated servers, which is the puzzling thing for me. It's a shame that people are being relegated to P2P matches when they shouldn't have to, so hopefully they'll get that sorted out. I'll gladly host a few games, but I'm sure members from across the pond will notice some lag spikes. Also, I tried an expert run through Dead Center yesterday with 3 totally capable players, and we could only make it to the second stage. I'm loving the challenge but I don't think the "Still something to prove" achievement will ever see the light of day on my console. Realism mode is cool too, but sticking together is more essential than ever. Zombies take a lot more damage if you don't go for headshots, and special infected lose the red outline. If somebody is getting pummeled by a Charger or pounced by a Hunter, the only way you'd know is by the "helphelphelp!!" coming through the mic. I don't doubt it. My usuall crew are pansies when it comes to the difficulty settings. If i let them have their way we'd always be doing the campaigns on easy. I normally host so i'll only let it be advanced or higher. We got stuck on the third level of dead center, so after about 6 tries on advanced even i decided to lower it to normal. I must commend valve for changing it up so the tactics we would normally run through expert on are for the most part ineffective. Back to the drawing board i guess. But there has to be a way to do it, otherwise why make it an achievement? It takes dedication though and i doubt my crew has the fortitude to undertake such an endeavor. I guess i need to find a new crew then, huh?