Ah bad news. I can't play the demo anymore. Apparently the DL limit has been reached this month (I don't get unlimited) so I can't DL the demo. Well I could, but I'd have to pay extra.

On the flip side, I won third place for most $'s in this year's balance transfer contest at work so I am getting a $200 gift certificate at BB. I'll most likely just get the full version instead. I probably won't be able to get the cert. until after my trip though.

I was amazed at how much easier the lower difficulty levels are compared to Expert. I joined an Expert game with a few friends and we did a pretty good job of getting raped repeatedly, but then turning down the difficulty one notch we were able to make it through pretty fine.

Hopefully some of the later levels in the full version will even out the difficulty.

The randomization can be a huge bummer in Expert, and I'm not exactly sure it makes for a great game, which is why I ended up holding off on a purchase. I realize the randomization in general is a large part of the game's appeal, but it's not exactly a good idea to randomize certain factors. Mostly, I feel like questioning the nature of how enemies spawn. I can't describe the irritation that occurred when I was in a party and we ran into a Tank and he slaughtered the entire group before we ever reached the big weapons. Another instance was how a smoker/witch/hunter/can't remember what fat ones are called will stack in certain ways to just create a chain reaction of "you're fucked."

Perhaps we weren't that good, but other than certain scenarios just blind siding us, Expert feels better than the other 3 modes. I just wish that it didn't feel like luck a great deal of the time.

So this was funny: last night in an Advanced PUG we were in the subway where the rails split off (just after the ammo table) and we noticed a Witch just inside the end of the car you have to go through. A couple seconds later, a Boomer and a Smoker appear on the top of the car and we dispatch them without annoying the Witch, then a Hunter shows up behind the Witch and starts attacking her. Flabbergasted, we sit around waiting to see if the Hunter will kill her for us. Just as we're figuring out we should attack her (this took a minute or two), a Horde comes from behind us, I fire on them, the others fire on the Witch thinking I'm shooting at her, fan gets introduced to shit.

Thankfully, we didn't wipe. All four of us had ASSualtKICKER Rifles and though I died and someone else fell down, I was rescued in the next area down, just in time to fight the tank in the upstairs area.

So, lesson learned: don't sit around deciding what to do, because the game may end up making the decision for you.

I have no idea how you motherfuckers survive Expert. Dope was basically babysitting Sass & I through the demo tonight and we swept through Easy and Normal on the first tries.

We push it up another notch to Advanced and we get TPKed four times before we finally made it out (and it's amazing we survived the last run given the fetish these two have for witch-poking and alarm-tripping).

Expert? We'd probably die on the fucking roof.

I've definitely experienced a few wipes inside the building the first few times on Expert. Just takes practice.

Sadly, it's probably possible to die on the roof. I'm waiting for it to happen. You watch. A Boomer is gonna come from the stairs, with a Hunter from another building and a Horde comes just after the Boomer barfs on everyone.

You watch.

A lot teamwork and lots of luck. A tank will wreck people, and sometimes you get the whole boomer/smoker/hunter combo that shows up out of nowhere.

What's the problem people are having? The hordes or the special infected? Are you meleeing copiously during horde attacks?

Does anyone know: do tanks have a weakpoint? I've heard people claim the hands or the head.

A friend watched as we had a swarm, a smoker, and a hunter all come from another roof on top of ours. We didn't wipe, but it's entirely possible to idle on the roof and die.

Fire helps, but I don't think they're particularly weak against it.

I found out tonight that the best thing to do against a witch, IF you absolutely need to kill her to get by someplace, is to have a molotov or some other sort of firey substance available before you aggro her.

If you must kill her to get by, what you need to do is have the person with the molotov chuck it at her, and I mean hit her square with it, and then they need to BOOK IT the other way.

I lit her ass on fire with an exploding tank, and while I pumped several rounds into her before she killed me, she DID die from the fire rather quickly, and this was on expert.

Yeah I figured that trick out too.

So steam has the game in a 4-pack for $150 which breaks down to $37.50 a copy (the game is $50 if you buy just one), but I have nobody to give a 4th copy to. Does anybody want to pool in with Sass, Dope and I and save a few bucks?

I could be interested, how much exactly we would need to pay each?

$37.50! So you're only really saving $12.50, but it's worth doing for anybody who was going to buy it anyway.

well than I'm in, so how do we do this?

Well, just send me your share (via paypal, if possible). Once I've got all the money together I'll gift you your copy (you're also Inhert on Steam, correct)?

yes inhert on steam too and how exactly I send you the money via paypal?

oh. right. the paypal address would have helped, huh?

paypal me at pang@uymail.com

Ok, Inhert PMed me to back out, so....

edit:

found a taker elsewhere :)

Good god, the top of that hospital on No Mercy is ridiculous. Given, we were playing on advanced, but just trying to stay in the same general spot as your teammates is hard.

Smokers seemed to get me more often than not, and they usually followed a swarm in, standing among all the bodies in the confusion. Hell, even taking out the tank wasn't all that hard after a couple of tries, but because the smokers can get you from so far away, there was always that confusion from my teammates about where they were supposed to be shooting.

Still so much fun, though. I mean, literally 10 or 15 times we played the same rooftop scene, and the only reason we didn't keep going until we finished was because we all had to get up early the next day. :(

I played a little bit just now. Already unlocked 5 Achievements, but they were among the easiest (torch a witch, get 100 headshots, shove someone from behind).

I've concluded that playing offline is a waste of time. Sure it counts towards Achievements, but if you die your game starts over. I guess they assume a bunch of bots will see their fallen comrade and shoot themselves out of despair instead of trying to make it as far as possible.

Played through No Mercy on the full version tonight

Easy is the new Advanced :gonk:

The bots don't have any problems with deserting you once the rescue chopper lands, though. I played through No Mercy tonight on Normal, and I stayed by the machine gun for a more seconds to make sure the coast was clear. When I jumped down I was immediately mobbed by so many zombies that movement was completely impossible, but the bots kept running for the chopper and left me to die. I had almost shoved myself free when the helicopter took off leaving me for dead, dedicating the credits in my memory.

Anyone with the 360 version up for a game tomorrow (Thursday) night? I still haven't gotten a chance to try it out online yet.

So yeah, grabbed this game early to get access to the demo. Hella fun, but I don't have a ton of friends who play it a bunch and school's been beating the shit out of me. Still, if you wanna add me to your friends list to play, here's my steamID page: Steam Community :: ID :: Eccitaze | Ubersaw McGraw

I'll probably be playing around 9-10PM. I've fixed my router (even the Wii's connected now.) and I've been playing L4D online. Save for the occasional idiot who winds up getting everyone killed (funny sometimes, unless it's at the end of a level), and a few people with no microphone, it's excellent.