L4D: What a wonderful Z-Day

This is a pretty great L4D trailer. I wonder when the new campaign, crash course, is going to hit.

The last 15 seconds of this video (the finale of Dead Air) is great with the soundtrack.

L4D Survival Mode: Graphs!

They know what I like at Valve: L4D, graphs.

Today at the official L4D blog, they cover the new survival mode (released late April 09) and then address my first question graphically: how do you create the smooth linear increase in difficulty necessary to make survival mode work? Since survival mode teams are scored by the time they survive, scores will be useless if difficulty increase isn't smooth ... and making it smooth can be hard when the addition of 1 extra special infected (and certainly 1 extra tank) creates a big spike in the difficulty for the team, especially during a horde or in combination with other specials.

They explain how they did it at the blog, and they post this snazzy graph. I can't wait for it to release. I can quit playing payload maps and braid and go back to left4dead .

At the 14 minute mark, they are spanwning tanks & hordes every 15 seconds, and specials practically constantly. Wow. I think I heard the valve team never lived past nine minutes. I wonder if I can find a crew to get beyond 5. I need some L4D regulars to game with.

Francis: I hate rapping

I'm ripping this to MP3 for my playlist.  Francis of Left 4 Dead lets us know how he feels about Ayn Rand with some good beats.

Here's the MP3, ID3 tags by me: francis-i-dont-hate-vests.mp3

I have a 32% chance of surviving the zombie apocolypse

How well will you do on Z-day?  Take the quiz to find out.

I guess I need to buy some canned goods and do some weapons training soon.

32%

For Christmas, I got Untouchables

For Christmas this year, I got my Untouchables achievment.

It was with a bunch of randoms on Blood Harvest on normal difficulty.

Boomercharged must be flooded with traffic

I'm starting to think I should convert clockcleaners to a Left4Dead-only blog. I reviewed my google analytics charts recently, and found that no one knew my blog existed until this game hit and I commented on it. See for yourself:



That's an increase of UNDEFINED % over the last month. My calculator won't give me a percentage increase that's defined; something about dividing by zero is the problem I think. We could express it as a limit, I guess. Let's try it: The limit of my traffic increase is equal to positive infinity over the above time period, as the time period approaches the current date.

Can I even mark it up with MathML? Apparently not. I inserted it here and got total gibberish, despite having the MathML library for mozilla installed. Oh well.

Anyway, boomercharged must be flooded with traffic. They deserve it. Make sure to save that boomercharged RSS feed, L4D fans.

These Are My Friends Now is Train to Miami by Steel Pole Bathtub

I've gotten a whole lot more traffic since I've started posting about L4D, including this post, which got about 320 times more hits (320) than I expected (1) last week.

I'm pretty sure those googling for "These are My Friends Now" want to know what song it is and where to get it, though, so here's some help:

"These are my friends now" featured in the L4D TV trailer #2 is Train to Miami by Steel Pole Bathtub.

Current Music: Flobots, No Handlbars

I guess this is part two in my thousand-part series where post what music I'm listening to now.

Today it's Flobots - No Handlebars. With a great rotoscoped/animated video, good music, and inspired lyrics, this one is an obvious hit. Mix that with my recent TF2/L4D obsessions, and some clever rewriting of the lyrics at ubercharged, and I'm hooked.

Here are the gamers lyrics:

I can play my game with no voice commands

No voice commands, no voice commands

I can play my game with no voice commands

No voice commands, no voice commands

Look at me, look at me

Pushin’ the cart like it’s good to be

On BLU, and I’m a Payload champion

Even when I’m outnumbered 10 to me

I can show you how to pop an uber

I can show you how to eat a Sandvich

I can dominate an entire team

Even when I’m playin’ on my crappy bandwidth

I can stab and run without gettin’ shot

I can outmaneuver any Sniper dot

I know all the routes to the final point

And I can flank any defence you’ve got

Me and my friends, we never lose

Me and my friends got “Cook the Books”

And guess how long it took

I can dominate who I want, ’cause look

I can kill heavies with a bit of lead

A bit of lead, a bit of lead

And I can see you’re playin’ some Left 4 Dead

Some Left 4 Dead, some Left 4 Dead

Look at me, look at me

Just typed to say that it’s good to be

Alive, with hordes of zombies

Tryin’ to stop my victory

I can dodge Hunters without getting leapt on

I can stop a rush, don’t matter how large

I can jump on that wall fan

And I contribute to Boomercharged

I can take out 3 Tanks at once

I can make up for the team dunce

I know how to hold my own on Expert

And I can make a zombie player ragequit

Boomers, Hunters, Tanks and Witches

Me and my crew can wipe out those b*tches

I can outwit the AI Director

I’m one guy you can’t infest, ’cause

I can lead my teammates with a microphone

A microphone, a microphone

And I can win a match with a Molotov

A Molotov, a Molotov

Look at me, look at me

Making zombies go POP!

And it feels so good to be alive and on top

My gun is loaded, my saferoom secure

My win is noted, my victory sure

I can own zombies across the nation

Kill ‘em with bullets or immolation

Turn ‘em into a mass cremation

Whatever guarantees my team’s salvation

I can make boss zombies lose their patience

Send them to exasperation

My team fulfil my machination

To achieve complete pacification, ’cause

I can guide players like a flock of sheep

A flock of sheep, a flock of sheep

And I can leave one dying without a care

Without a care, without a care

And I can board the copter and leave them behind

And leave them behind, and leave them behind

And leave them behind, and leave them behind

And leave them behind!

I can play my game with no voice commands

No voice commands, no voice commands

I can play my game with no voice commands

No voice commands, no voice commands…

L4D Achievments

So they give out a few achievements for the most basic game maneuvers in l4d, which is cool, and then they have super-advanced ones, too.

I'm *all over* brain salad:

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197993331175/stats/L4D

"BRAIN SALAD: Make 100 headshot kills."

They should list a quanitity on each achievment, because I think I could get 100 brain salads.

There are 2 reasons:
1. I'm scared of running out of ammo. Headshots save bullets
2. I love the M16, pistols. They are both very accurate at long range, especially plus kneeling

I wonder what "catch a rare strain of infection, then pass it to someone else" means. Can survivors get zombified later?

I'm getting used to the idea that anticipation of upcoming threats is pivotal in weapons selection. If you're facing the Horde and you can back into a single room (your back is safe), shotguns are the way to go. It gives scattered shot with stopping power at close range. Perfect.

For open spaces with sniping ability, the M16 is awesome. When you slow, stop, or kneel, the accuracy gets real tight for sniping, plus it's automatic and has a little more stopping power than the Uzi.

...but I see no use for sniper rifles in anything but single player, and single player is boring.  The weapon may as well not exist.

L4D: These are my friends now

I really like the 2nd TV spot for L4D featuring the song with chorus "these are my friends now." It captures what's key about the game: the survivors don't mingle because they're in the same military or part of an assocation, or because they signed up for some common cause, or any typical reason to unite. In the zombie apocalypse, any un-infected human with a gun is your best friend. I bet Louis detests Francis in a dozen ways, but neither of us are zombies, so hey, these are my friends now.

I have found that, just like in TF2, where people start to associate themselves with their player class (see FYI, I am a spy - though I am actually Engie). In l4d, I've found that I'm Louis. I don't know why, but now it's stuck, and I don't like connecting to servers where Louis is already taken. I rely on voice chat, but when user 1337dood is playing as Francis, I'm never sure if I should speak "dude" or "Francis" when addressing him. I think I've been switching off. When the username is "=P" or "416328", though, it's pretty clear which name to use.

I've gotten used to playing on expert mode, even though it's impressively difficult. Expert mode makes all the other modes feel like target practice. When I revisited an advanced server the other day, Bill decided to just shove zombies around instead of shooting them. After a half-dozen shoves, he yelled "melee only!" and we pushed some zombies around a bit, laughing at them.

In expert mode, though, there are no games, no jokes.  We only fight and die.

Update: See this post if you just want to know who wrote the song and get a youtube link.

What I'm Playing Now: Left4Dead

Left4Dead was released by Valve for $50 this week, or $100 in the better whole-valve-catalog deal. Unable to raise that much cash for a mere video game when I've got kids to feed, but needing to play it, I reviewed my options: hawk my electric guitar, make an early withdrawal from my 401k, or ask my wife to prostitute herself in Danville's seedy red-light district.

Luckily, a friend gifted me the game, which may have saved my marriage.

Before L4D was released, I joked that it was going to be just a stupid FPS with zombies. Not so. This game forces teamwork on people in ways that even Team Fortress couldn't manage. Working in this foursome against the clever AI director is really a blast. You can't afford to have a jerk on your team, but it's even worse for him; get caught alone in this game and you're dead, period. You simply cannot fight the hunters & smokers without teammates, so you have to coordinate, and that's what makes this 20 times better than any FPS on the market since quake.