Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

[Phobia]

Re: Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

That is a really good trailer

[MachoMyers]

Re: Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

Awesome stuff. Wish it was out now!

[Pete1210]

Re: Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

With all the other games, I thought I would wait to pick this one up. Now that trailer has got me wanting it on day one.

[bvb24]

Re: Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

The chainsaw was ridiculous in that trailer. I'm excited now.

[Brandwin]

Re: Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

So for those who preordered, how are we getting the demo this Tuesday?

[Flawless]

Re: Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

I like the sound of this campaign.


Gamespot: Hands-On With Hard Rain Campaign

With Hard Rain, the focus isn't so much the setting as it is the nasty weather conditions. Things start out harmless enough. You found your way onto a rescue boat at the end of the previous campaign, but with fuel running dangerously low, your group of survivors has decided to dock and head inland to find a gas station. This quest for diesel begins in a nondescript suburban town as you make your way from zombie-infested backyard to zombie-infested backyard. Aside from having to fight your way through dozens upon dozens of the ravenous undead--an act aided by new melee weapons like the katana, fire axe, and chainsaw--things don't look too bad. There's even a yard sale where VHS copies of '80s comedies have been replaced by ammo caches and silenced Uzis.

Then things go south. Soon that suburban town leads to a series of dilapidated industrial buildings, culminating in a trek through a witch-infested sugar mill. (When we say infested, we mean it. It turns out those witches are attracted to the scent of sugar.) Worse yet, your reward for safely exiting this sugar mill is a blind dash through a sugarcane field with nothing more than a neon gas-station sign peeking up in the distance to let you know you're not running in circles. Think of this scene as a follow-up to the cornfield in Blood Harvest.

It's once you get to the gas station and complete the second chapter of Hard Rain that this campaign's clever design becomes apparent. Rather than head off to a new location, completing the point-A-to-point-B gauntlet of other Left 4 Dead campaigns, you need to retrace your steps and take that gas back to the boat you arrived on. But in the time it has taken to fill up those cans of diesel, what began as a light rain has turned into an outright downpour, resulting in a ground covered in deep pools of water that were only small puddles earlier. Suddenly that quick run through the sugarcane field becomes a terrifyingly slow march through deep water without the ability to see where you're going.

On the run back to the boat, retracing your route step for step means drastically reducing your speed and leaving yourself an easy target for any boss infected waiting around the corner. The best approach is to take the aboveground alternate paths that were there the first time around but you may not have noticed. Catwalks and raised platforms offer a safer but trickier path through the sugar mill, while the best means of quickly making it through the suburban town is to stick to the rooftops and jump from house to house. It's a deviously clever way to take you back through familiar terrain, yet have you totally rethink your path.

There's also a new storm mechanic that will trigger a zombie horde in a scary new way. At certain points, the game's AI director will trigger a sudden increase in storm conditions, which picks up the rainfall and drastically limits your visibility for a short duration--all while sending a new wave of zombies your way. The best strategy during these storms is for everyone to quickly hole up in the smallest building nearby and wait for conditions to pass, because that reduced visibility makes it easy to get separated. It's especially hilarious if you do this with one teammate standing at the doorway to greet every incoming zombie with a revving chainsaw--sort of like the world's least friendly bouncer. If there was ever a melee weapon designed for keeping control of choke points, it's that one.

All this wetness means that fire-based weaponry like Molotov cocktails and the new incendiary round ammo are suddenly much less effective. Thankfully, Valve has seen fit to add a number of new weapons and equipment to help keep you in the game. One that caught our eye was the jar of boomer bile, which lets you play the role of the boomer by attracting the horde anywhere you throw the jar. Want a quick laugh? Throw the bile on the tank and watch his zombie buddies suddenly turn on him. There's also an adrenaline shot to help you run superfast when things get desperate and a defibrillator to revive fallen teammates.

With some persistence and a healthy dose of teamwork, you'll make it to the fifth and final chapter of Hard Rain. Here the team has to turn on the neon sign of a fast-food joint to act as a signal to let the boat know where to dock, but of course that triggers a swarm of common and boss infected that will last for minutes on end. The final battle here is done much like those in the original game, which contrasts to some of the other Left 4 Dead 2 campaigns, such as the Parish, that end in a point-to-point dash to safety instead of the traditional standoff.

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...

More on realism mode:

Realism Mode, said Swift, is for advanced players only, a way to make the game more interesting for players who don’t feel challenged by the expert difficulty level.

Turning on Realism turns off the glow that normally haloes players and special infected creatures. “Communication becomes really important,” said Swift. “Players need to stick together.”

The game is designed such that getting separated from the three other survivors is life-threatening. The glow normally helps players find their way back to the group, or helps find team members who may be incapacitated. Swift said that when players need help in Realism Mode, they need to be able to accurately and clearly describe where they are in the game environment so that the other players can locate them.

Health and items “don’t glow until you are right on top of them,” said Swift, which means that while regular gameplay might involve dashing from one safe area to another, in Realism Mode searching and exploration are essential to survival.

Swift said that Realism Mode also affects damage, so chest shots on the infected are not as effective, and players need to make head shots. “Just like in the movies,” added Valve’s Yasser Malaika as his Left 4 Dead 2 character killed a zombie that was about to finish off my character.

[Brandwin]

Re: Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

So for those who preordered, how are we getting the demo this Tuesday?

Anyone?

Left 4 Dead 2's demo will hit in early November, but people who pre-order the game will get it a week early, Valve announced today.
The Left 4 Dead 2 demo will include gameplay from The Parish campaign, set in the New Orleans' French Quarter. The demo will let one to four players game together online or locally on both the Xbox 360 and PC versions. The Xbox 360 version of the game will include split-screen mode. The demo will also feature all of the new boss infected zombies and melee weapons found in the full game.
The demo will be available to everyone on Nov. 10. PC gamers and Xbox Live Gold members get to check the demo out starting Nov. 3 and people who pre-oder the game will get access to the demo on Oct. 27.
Left 4 Dead 2 will be hitting the PC and Xbox 360 on Nov. 17.

[Brandwin]

Re: Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

Nevermind. Gamestop has the demo codes in. I can't wait to play this tomorrow night.

[Brandwin]

Re: Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

I just picked up my code.

[Spectre]

Re: Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

Just watched Zombieland

Want this... now

[Brandwin]

Re: Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

Is the demo out yet? I checked this morning before I went to work and it wasn't out yet.

Since it's a multiplayer demo, are we going to be able to play as infected and survivors just on a team as survivors?

[ExtremeGamer]

Re: Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

I have the early demo, but think I may pass on it. I know what the game will contain, know how it will play, I'm going to just wait for the real release of the game.

[Brandwin]

Re: Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

Not me. I'm looking forward to the new weapons (I hope I can use the chainsaw in the demo) and seeing the new infected.

[ESPNdeportes]

Re: Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

I just picked up my code.

Do you just call gamestop and get the code if you preordered from them? This is weird

[Brandwin]

Re: Left 4 Dead 2 (360/PC)

Do you just call gamestop and get the code if you preordered from them? This is weird

Nah, they won't give it to you over the phone, or shouldn't. I just went into the Gamestop I have it preordered out and their is a card that has the code on the back.