I just played for 3 hours

[Iced_Eagle]

And it was freaking ace :thumbs:

We didn't finish the campaign (played on the cornfields campaign). We were so freaking close, but failed at the end twice, and then we had to stop so they could get a chance to get some more feedback from us. So... freaking.... close, ugh I've played the game three times, and have yet to actually finish a campaign!

No, I didn't get a chance to play as the infected.

I guess I'll try to answer people's questions if they have any, which I'm sure people do.

*Edit* Also, the AI Director was killer. Every time we barely finished the chapters with just enough health that it felt like we barely made it, which Valve said was exactly what they were going for.

 

[Lucid]

How do guns actually feel? Are they beefy enough?
Also, do headshots insta-kill?

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Yes, the guns are awesome. Auto-shotgun is my favorite.

Yes, headshots are an instant kill (because of the dismemberment in the game, their head gets blown off )

 

[Lucid]

Awesome.

The locational damage thing was one thing that put me off, but if headshots are instant kills... that's really awesome.

 

[Cpt Tenacious]

How did you get to play?

 

[Headcrab Pie]

Hear of somthing called E3? Thats my guess.

 

[ktimekiller]

iced eagle is a pretty big figure is my understanding from my years around hl2.net

Grats on the chance to play, lol

 

[tschumann]

did you play with the new models?

 

[Iced_Eagle]

did you play with the new models?

Yes.

How did you get to play?

*points to location data*

 

[Hectic Glenn]

He broke into the 9th, 10th and 11th floors overnight

Let me think of some random questions....Melee attacks, how useful and often were zombies up close where you were swinging for them? How effective was it?

How many times did you find yourself thanking someone you were playing with for team work or helping you out? Is it completely necessary for someone to have your back at all times?

Did you have plenty of ammo or where you conserving certain weapons?

Due to the random nature of enemies were you on edge at all times / scared / apprehensive? Or do you get comfortable and familiar?

Encounter the witch? Or did you get covered in slim from the boomer?

How well suited are the main campaign map designs? A bit of choice with getting from A to B? Extremely linear? Easy to get pushed back and forward due from zombie swarming?

 

[Iced_Eagle]

He broke into the 9th, 10th and 11th floors overnight

Let me think of some random questions....Melee attacks, how useful and often were zombies up close where you were swinging for them? How effective was it?

They came up close VERY often. Melee is essential, and they are fairly effective. When we were in the final chapter once, there were a swarm of zombies all over us, and I saw my friend was in trouble with a hunter. There were probably 20-ish zombies all around me, I didn't want to reload since I thought that would take too much time, so I tried just pushing forward. I was just spamming melee trying to get the zombies away from me so I could get to the hunter. It failed unfortunately since my friend died from the hunter and I died shortly thereafter from the horde.

How many times did you find yourself thanking someone you were playing with for team work or helping you out? Is it completely necessary for someone to have your back at all times?

I said thanks a hell of a lot. This game highly encourages teamwork because if one person dies, that's one less gun that is firing at the zombies and helping you out. The funny part is, sometimes you'll have one member who just wants to go ahead of the group, and within a minute, you'll usually see him running back to the main group, with an entire freakin' horde behind him (and if you could change the emtion your character has, at this point he would be screaming and crying for his life ). It's 100% essential you have everyone together at all times, especially as you get closer to the end.

Did you have plenty of ammo or where you conserving certain weapons?

I felt I had plenty of ammo most of the time. Mostly because at each safehouse there was ammo to restock on. At the final chapter, you will probably run out of ammo though, at least I did with the assault rifle. Trouble is, the ammo is downstairs, which is where the zombies like to hang out. So it's a risk getting ammo at times. Pistols have unlimited ammo though.

Due to the random nature of enemies were you on edge at all times / scared / apprehensive? Or do you get comfortable and familiar?

They can freaking scare you at times. It happend a lot actually. For example, during the campaign there's a part where you're in some sort of industrial building, and there's an emergency exit door that says "Open this door". Well, it told me to open it and I did as my roommates were in the next room still looking for stuff to pick up. Then as soon as I did, the text on the screen said "Fight the horde!", red lights started flashing, sirens starting going off, and I said out loud "OH SHIT!" I thought I screwed the team over with that since there's tons of zombies now rushing you from everywhere. My roommate who playtested it with me also jumped when on the final chapter we had to jump off a small ledge about 6 feet off the ground, and below that was a boomer hiding, who right before he got to the edge, peeked out and threw up over him. It was hilarious actually watching him freak out as projectile vomit went all over his screen. At that point, the AI Director will send a horde of zombies after you, and you need to defend those who got vomited on, which can be rough at times with zombies from everywhere. It was great though. You never feel comfortable because you never know when they are coming, or where they are coming from.

Encounter the witch? Or did you get covered in slim from the boomer?

Yes, I encountered the witch a few times. Usually, your characters will automatically talk, so a character would say "Shhh, there's a witch up ahead. Flashlights off." Unfortunately, my fellow playtesters didn't like that idea, so they went up to the witch and we all just started giving her everything we got. Most times we all went away without a scratch. However, on the final chapter, there was a witch right in the path we needed to go. I told everyone flashlights off and we'll sneak around. I started sneaking around, and all of a sudden you stood up and looked straight at me, which was really really freaky. All of a sudden I had to make the choice of whether to shoot her or not, or see what happens if I don't, since she wasn't attacking... yet. Being the trigger happy guy I am, I immediately opened fire, and she promptly gave me a swift hit to the face, and I was then on the ground. My roommate yelled at me for that cause he had her in his sights for a headshot but I told him no because I was sneaking around... Whoops!

How well suited are the main campaign map designs? A bit of choice with getting from A to B? Extremely linear? Easy to get pushed back and forward due from zombie swarming?

Yeah they are fairly linear levels. It never tells you where to go, so it sort of feels like you're discovering the safehouses and such as you move forward, though I doubt it will be like that once you play it more times. It will obviously get harder though if you play better due to the AI director. A lot of times, it seemed like you are going from point A to point B, but you never know where that point B is. Then along that path you're going to have hordes you have to fight off, so you usually just camp out where you are, and kill them off. It's not constant swarming, but they do come in waves. You're not often going to be getting pushed back, except maybe on that final chapter where you have to hold out on the farm until rescue comes (and they don't give you a timer either, at least not in the build we had).

My responses are inline in bold.

One REALLY nice feature they have in the game is that your character will actually point to where things are. So if your character spots a hunter, he will point and say "I see a hunter". It's one of the most helpful things in the game actually, since there's a lot of chatter, but when you see them point, you will take a look, and sure enough, you'll see that hunter or whatever.

I hope everyone else on here will pre-order :thumbs: It's a gret game, and there should be some awesome stories by the time this comes around.

 

[Lucid]

Eh, I'm holding off on pre-order until I atleast try a free weekend or demo of sorts.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Eh, I'm holding off on pre-order until I atleast try a free weekend or demo of sorts.

Make sure you play the game, with microphones, preferably with people you know. It's the best that way.

 

[Headcrab Pie]

Eh, I'm holding off on pre-order until I atleast try a free weekend or demo of sorts.

Don't think there is a demo.

EDIT: @ Eagle, was the sniper rifle worth taking or was it outclassed by the shottys and SMGs/Assualt Rifles? Also, what starter weapon did you choose most of the time?

 

[hool10]

Did you get to see any of the other maps or maybe some Episode 3 material? :upstare: How about some Infected gameplay? Also Iced-Eagle was the first person to ever talk about L4D. Even before the official announcement on the "secret" Valve game he went to Valve last time. He didn't say anything Valve, it was just a secret game for then lol.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

No other maps, no Ep3, didn't even ask about that stuff since I was there to talk about L4D.

No Infected gameplay (I did that when I first played it over a year ago but it's changed a lot since then).

My roommate loved the sniper, it was his weapon of choice. Mine was either shotgun or assault rifle. My friend did really well with the sniper though, so it's not outclassed by any means.

 

[Headcrab Pie]

Another question, can you get ME in there?

 

[McGooTheWise]

Were there parts of the game that made you jump in surprise? Was the atmosphere Eerie, creepy, or did you just feel that you wanted to take on the whole horde by yourself?

Were the weapons balanced, or did it seem that one weapon was the weapon of choice?

Did you ever get severely wounded where your character couldn't move? If so, how does that work?

How long would you say an average play though of each level will take?

Is there a single player with bots?

That's all I got for now.

 

[Sheepo]

Why are you so damn lucky?

 

[hool10]

Another question, can you get ME in there?

Yea, go ask Valve in an e-mail.

Were there parts of the game that made you jump in surprise? Was the atmosphere Eerie, creepy, or did you just feel that you wanted to take on the whole horde by yourself?

Were the weapons balanced, or did it seem that one weapon was the weapon of choice?

Did you ever get severely wounded where your character couldn't move? If so, how does that work?

How long would you say an average play though of each level will take?

Is there a single player with bots?

That's all I got for now.

Google all of that or go on the l4d411 site.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Thanks for taking the time to reply to those Iced Eagle, much appreciated. I was hoping the questions would unearth some random anecdotal moments which you could retell and you delivered those too!

The pointing sounds like a nifty idea too. Also did you get your hands on any explosive weapons? Or the molotovs for that matter, do they block paths effectively, or will zombies aimlessly run through?

edit: Hool...I think he'd rather get the impressions from a fellow forumer. Sure he could check L4D411 but a personal reply is much nicer. Funny how you support that site considering the amount of bad things I've heard about you from L4D411.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Oh man, molotovs are amazing. Great path blockers.

In that one scene where I described the boomer sneaking on my roommate, I threw a molotov down a path behind us where zombies tried running up. All of them run through, light on fire, start screaming and flailing their arms, and are dead before they get to us.

Pipe bombs also attract the zombies (blinking light and sound), which we didn't know until the end. Those can be pretty useful at times.

 

[scotland1]

Is it easy to shoot your team mates in all the confusion?

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Yup, there was a lot of friendly fire. Just watch each others backs as much as you can, say sorry, and if they have really low health and you have a medpack or stim pills, give it to them.

 

[hool10]

edit: Hool...I think he'd rather get the impressions from a fellow forumer. Sure he could check L4D411 but a personal reply is much nicer. Funny how you support that site considering the amount of bad things I've heard about you from L4D411.

Oh no I definitely don't support the site especially as a new guy to the game as you will be flamed and not welcomed to the fansite. It's actually an anti-fansite and the only reason why they are so popular is because they get the news fast (which is posted on their terrible forum first, days before it goes on the main site, and you must hunt for the news through all the threads), and the mods played an ancient build of the game. But:

Were there parts of the game that made you jump in surprise?

Is pushing it for even me. :upstare: Still, it's wrong for me to put down Van-Halen, especially another "new guy" at l4d411. It's safer here though.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

How would someone who sucks at FPS and regularly gets his ass kicked on CS:S do in this?
Will the director take pity on me, or will it slaughter me quickly.

Can you play by yourself with Bots, just in case your not good enough to play with others online.

 

[AmishSlayer]

How would someone who sucks at FPS and regularly gets his ass kicked on CS:S do in this?
Will the director take pity on me, or will it slaughter me quickly.

Can you play by yourself with Bots, just in case your not good enough to play with others online.

As far as I know, it's supposed to throw enough zombies at you so you can just barely survive if you work with your teammates.

If you're really good, there will be tons of zombies. If you suck, there won't be very many.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

How would someone who sucks at FPS and regularly gets his ass kicked on CS:S do in this?
Will the director take pity on me, or will it slaughter me quickly.

Can you play by yourself with Bots, just in case your not good enough to play with others online.

It's based on how you are doing. It's not going to make it really easy, but it will always remain a challenge.

AmishSlayer is right when he says you're supposed to get to the end and it feels like you barely made it. That's totally intended.

 

[Geogaddi]

Does the AI director adjust difficulty based on how well the group is doing, or how you as an individual are doing? Can you even tell?

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Does the AI director adjust difficulty based on how well the group is doing, or how you as an individual are doing? Can you even tell?

No, you can't tell what's going on behind the scenes at all, and I believe it's based on team performance as a whole.

They also give your team a performance rating at the end out of 5 stars, so I'm assuming the AI director is the one that gives the eventual rating

 

[hool10]

Any news of a mid-October pre-order beta making it 2 and a half month's away? :O Also any NDA's were signed cause if so, then lol, we ain't getting the cream filling in the cookie out of you.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Obviously no NDA's were signed, or else I sure as hell wouldn't be talking about it.

No idea about any sort of beta. I wish they do it though.

 

[ailevation]

So, did you play this on a console or PC? Which one would you recommend this game for?

 

[McGooTheWise]

Is pushing it for even me. :upstare: Still, it's wrong for me to put down Van-Halen, especially another "new guy" at l4d411. It's safer here though.

...But I wanna know! D:

 

[Iced_Eagle]

So, did you play this on a console or PC? Which one would you recommend this game for?

I played on PC, and I recommend it on PC.

Though, there's nothing from stopping you from getting the game on PC and using the 360 controller... It works fine since Source has gamepad support. They gave me the option when I was there, but I just said keyboard / mouse, since that's what I like the most.

 

[ailevation]

Well the controls isn't a big matter for me... it's just for this game I want to have the best experience possible. If they're just about the same as far as gameplay goes I might as well get it for the Xbox 360 because I want to enjoy the game with top notch performance, and my PC is pretty limited as it's old and i'm afraid I won't have the PC i've been trying to get when the game comes out.

 

[KennyJC]

I honestly don't know why people enjoy playing FPS games on a console.

 

[ailevation]

Maybe because some people aren't retarded enough to be restricted to only one type of way to anything?

 

[KennyJC]

That barely made sense.

 

[McGooTheWise]

I honestly don't know why people enjoy playing FPS games on a console.

Some people don't have the money for a ripped up PC. To get a good PC that can play these new games for as long as a console can you'd have to go way up into the thousands of dollars. That's why they enjoy it, because it's affordable.