Left 4 Dead 2 gets patched on PC

There's nothing wrong with the difficulty. The increased difficulty makes the game much more fun.

I don't think it is broken at all. I was quite shocked by the review here (that is not a shot at Richard at all, I agree with his opinions most of the time). I never was a hardcore L4D player, and never beat a campaign on expert. On L4D2 I can make it through campaigns solo on normal without any trouble. With friends it is even easier, so I don't know what the talk about the fun factor being removed is all about. Again, I can't stress this enough, I am just an average L4D player. I enjoy L4D2 a good deal more than the first installment, and I think most other people do as well.

IT has as much to do with the level design than the director. If you play L4D2 like you did L4D, you probably won't make it. As long as you:

1) Stick together, work as a team, have each others back
and
2) Keep moving, don't stop to look at the scenery.

It's not any harder than L4D. The last few games I played actually seemed easier than original L4D. The big difference is that you can't just back up into a corner and wait for the infected to stop coming, because they won't. You have to keep moving to escape and survive.

The original AI was a little too easy, even on advanced settings (and for some people, expert was considered easy!) so the difficulty has been ramped up. Valve had said in the past that the Survivors are meant to feel challenged/stress and experience relief when they make it to the safe room; and this is what happens now in Left 4 Dead 2.

The new special infected also balance the game nicely - with the spitter and charger both working against shiva stacking and corner camping.

All that being said - the increase hordes and multple special infected attacks do tend to get get quite exhausting after an entire campaign, if your team isn't very coordinated.

I listened to the justification for the review on the podcast, and it did make sense. I was just looking for other opinions.

Probably buy either it or Demon's Souls. I'm looking for a good, difficult experience. Beating SMB3 without using the whistles was so rewarding.

Boy I tell ya, If you want a hard game, Demon's soul all the way, Awesome game. If you want a less hard but little bit more fun defineatly left for dead 2. I own both so I know what I'm talkin about.

I may get both, if the BF deals are good enough.

I won't say how many times I died on Bowsers fucking castle, though...

Me and my friend picked up L4D2, we were pretty mediocre to sub-par at L4D1. We never won when we played multiplayer. Like seriously, never.

Last night we played with a couple other buddies who had never played L4D1 and just picked up L4D2. So we didn't exactly have a stacked team or anything. Far from it, in fact.

We played the Swamp Fever campaign and beat it with one restart. Some of the other campaigns are supposed to be more difficult, but still if we could get through it, I'd imagine the only people that can't are those that don't work together at all, because we're definitely the laid back gamer type, not the "l337" type. It's definitely harder than L4D1 but if you play on easy it's basically the same as L4D1 was on normal. Even on normal it's very doable, but still takes coordination.

And, we had a blast doing it. The final run to the boat was awesome. We all 4 made a run for it, I got grabbed by a smoker and dragged back and incapped. I told them to leave me but they came back, got me back up and we made another run for it. The guy who had saved me got pulled back and a tank and a whole horde stood between him and us. We were right next to the get-away boat, with no pipe bombs left. He yelled for us to leave him, but no way I could leave him after he came back for me. We lit the tank on fire and laid into it, taking out the horde when we could at the same time. We were able to clear a path to him, but he was almost completely dead at this point. One guy was close enough to get to him in time, but literally when he was mere inches away he got grabbed by a smoker.

The original guy had died by now, and we were now in a black hawk down scenario where in trying to save one guy we had put 3 others in danger. The guy grabbed by the smoker also had zombies completely surrounding him, just wailing on him. I cleared them off and got him up, now for the run back to the boat. I started running and then turned around and noticed that he was way behind. I was still green and he had just got up so he was a lot slower. Running while trying to point backwards and shoot was also slowing him down. So I told him to turn around and I would backup and shoot to cover him. He limped to the boat as I sprayed bullets everywhere, at the last second we dodged a huge chunk of concrete that a tank had launched at us and made it on the boat alive.

As we three sailed off into the subset, I apologized to the one guy who died that we couldn't save him and he didn't make it. His response?

"No problem man, that's what makes this game so f***ing awesome".

I agree with Cody completely. I never beat any of the campaigns on expert in the first game but haven't had any issues playing through L4D2 on normal. The few campaigns I've done on easy with just bots have been an absolute breeze and I've yet to die during any of them.

The only thing I can really think of for the reviewer having such a hard time is that they reviewed the 360 version instead of the PC version. The game can get frantic at times and I can't imagine trying to use a controller instead of a m + kb combo but I've never really liked using controller's for FPS' anyways so maybe I'm a bit biased.

If you are looking for a good game to play through with your friends it's hard to go wrong with L4D2.

"Beating SMB3 without using the whistles was so rewarding."
I don't think I've ever made it without them =(

It took forever.

Me and my 2 friends aren't great at L4D2 or anything, but we still easily clear campaigns on normal in about 1 hours time. Advanced I feel is a bit harder than advanced in the original, but normal and easy are still easymodo.

@ Darth: My local Target has L4D2 on sale for $44.95 until Wednesday. I picked it up today and love it.

If you're interested, they also had Dragon Age, Beatles: RB, and most 2010 EA Sports titles for the same price.

Already bought Dragon Age (managed to get the CE before it sold out), but I'll wait on L4D2 until it's 35 on BF.

Since Microsoft so handily sent me the wrong power supply, then screwed with me on sending me the right one, and didn't ask for the wrong one back...I've got some credit coming up. :). Probably use that toward Demon's Souls.

There are still a few kinks that need working out, like Tanks and Witches spawning in the safe room or the Director bypassing the special infected cooldown timer (leading to scenarios like 4 Chargers spawning within 5 seconds of one another).

I've got the game for the 360 and the PC. I've gotten much more enjoyment out of the PC version, I don't know if I have just had bad luck, but every game I've joined over Live has had horrific lag problems. PC, otoh, has been one of the most fun experiences I've had, well, since playing L4D for the first time.

The grievances against the AI director are overblown. It's more difficult, sure, but it's not as unmanageable as some of the reviews/posts would seem. This is assuming you have teammates who understand that:

a) you ARE part of a team, and
b) lone wolfing will get your ass killed

Happened to me too, I lost a few achievements I already got. Namely the beat the bridge final in under 4 minutes, i somehow did it on my 3rd try, but now I can't get it back to save my life! Also lost my melee campaign achievement but thats a fun one.

To get the bridge achievement I set the difficulty to expert, killed the bots (you don't have to wait for them this way and the AI director sympathizes with you), then set it back down to easy. Right before the bridge opens take an adrenaline shot so you run faster. I used an automatic weapon and ran along the left side of the bridge cause it provides fairly good cover. When given the opportunity, run along the wood parts that stick off the bridge (it helped me avoid the tank). If you're feeling particularly overwhelmed at any point, throw a pipe bomb. Took me a few tries but I found that was easiest.

Also, I lost a few achievements by shutting down too. Luckily they were all easy ones like Armory of One and the ones you get for surviving the campaign, but it's still kind of annoying.

My 'cheevo get wiped daily, yet somehow, the global stats seem to persist... how many times must a guy deny a ride already?

What the hell are you playing that on, a netbook?

No, I've seen my netbook run better graphics than that...

Unless the game requires HT&L?

All the settings are down due to troubleshooting. It runs fine looking better.

The problem is, on the steam store page, it lists L4D2 as requiring Shader model 2.0, when in reality it requires 2.0b.

Right click on the game on steam, and then click properties, then go to local files. then click verify integrity of game files. that should work.. worked for me.

For a minute there I thought you were showing us a PSP version of the game. *Whew*

They already made a patch for that, it's called a gun. Instructions: you put it in your mouth then pull the trigger.

I wish the game had the option to do that instead of watching the slow bleed/burning/puke long drawn out crap when hope is lost. Get it over with quick.

LAWL, trophies, PS3, LOLOLOLOLOLlololol

You know what I meant. I emailed Valve to make sure they are aware of the situation. I also asked for a TF2-themed Pyro plushie.

Yeah I know, I was just being a dickhead. Anyway, Valve knows already, as there is about a 100 page thread about it and I'm sure the people on there have also sent a million angry steam tickets. Happens to me once a day too.

My favorite way to kill a Tank in L4D2 is with a boomer bile. If there's a car alarm handy, shoot it, then throw a boomer bile on the tank, then just sit back and enjoy.

I rely on the ancient art of assault rifle + molotov. Light the tank, run far away, and just take potshots at it till it's dead. It's also a bit safer than running up to its face to unload your shotgun.

I am a fan of everyone running up to the tank and beating it over the head with cricket bats.

While listening to don't stop me now?

"Oh who the f*ck put this on?!"