Left 4 Dead News - Lombardi Interview and L4D2 Hands On

[Blink]

There's been a small flurry of Left 4 Dead 2 news recently so I'll condense it into one post.

First up is Eurogamer who had the envious task of playing L4D2 in London:

What plays out is an astonishingly relentless trek down the bridge, clambering over upturned cars and crashed trucks, while crashing waves of zombies burst towards you in a seething, ceaseless flow. There is no respite. There is nowhere to hide. There is only forwards. And if you die, you die. It's up to the remaining party members to push on regardless.

Check out the full article at Eurogamer.

On top of that we also have an interesting interview with Doug Lombardi from CVG. It's good to see Doug re-assuring the masses that L4D has not been forgotten:

We plan to keep supporting Left 4 Dead 1. There will be some announcements coming before summer's out about what's coming there, and then we haven't shown everything that's in Left 4 Dead 2 yet.

I think 8, 9 months from now once everything's been out for a while and everyone's had time to see the complete product of Left 4 Dead 2 and see continued support for Left 4 Dead 1, they may sort of see what we were up to and what the method of our madness was there.

Be sure to read the rest of the interview.

[Zipfinator]

Interesting reads, they are releasing more information that shows how it's different from L4D. It's fucking stupid how all these people are still mad over it. Get over it, Valve hasn't done anything terrible before without fixing it.

[TheMiede]

thanks for the summaries.

[CrowbarSka]

At the end of the article Chet seems to hint that there may be a new campaign coming for L4D1, or am I just being hopeful?

"We love those four, we love their story, but we think there's some other place to go as well. They're not dead, they're still going on. So definitely... We'll see what happens in the future."

[joe_dirt976]

too bad i wont be stateside to play it this fall [l4d2]. I'll still find a way to get my hands on it to play with

[source-maps]

At the end of the article Chet seems to hint that there may be a new campaign coming for L4D1, or am I just being hopeful?

"We love those four, we love their story, but we think there's some other place to go as well. They're not dead, they're still going on. So definitely... We'll see what happens in the future."

yeah my thoughts exactly

[no00dylan]

I hope the original 4 crosses paths with the new 4, that would be great.

[nub]

Yeah and then we could have like 8-player campaign mode that's harder than balls. That's sounds really cool.

[ThePain]

Yeah and then we could have like 8-player campaign mode that's harder than balls. That's sounds really cool.

Actually it kind of does, but I think he means more you'd run across the other 4 NPCs, perhaps escape the city with the NPC's help. The NPCs of the original repair the truck while the players keep the horde off.


As for Valve's claims... we'll see.

[Comrade Suhov]

I wonder how much owners of L4D1 will buy L4D2. I'm personaly not going to do it because I don't want to be foouled 2nd time by Valve. L4D1 is a game with no support, no patches and no new content. Look at TF2 - 3 patches @ month + content updates every 2-3 months. It may be bad patches, good patches, buggy patches minor fixes but still there is always someone working on TF2. As for L4D1 we got 16 patches since release and only 3 of them are not minor (Janyary update, that make game not looks like a pre-beta, April content update (with 1 more map and very boring game mode) and June update wich allowed to use custom content). Strangely, but even Crysis Warhead (multiplayer-only game) got updated more since it's release and Crysis is a EA game.
And you already fogot that prior to L4D1 release there was promised:
1) A.I. Director that can change paths for players (now annoynced as L4D2 feature) and weather effects and lighting (also now announced for L4D2)
2) "Additional characters, infected, weapons and even campaigns" (from interview with Doug Lombardi)
3) Improved Matchmaking (promised to be avalible for L4D1 "soon" after release). Now promised as L4D2 feature.
Also, L4D1 is a game with loads of problems: gameplay problem, balance problems, technical problems and simply bugs. And these problems is not yet adressed and looks like not going to be fixed ever because Valve working on siquel since game was released. For instance, CS:S or TF2 was fixed (I mean no critical bugs or gameplay problems) in about 2-3 months since release.
Buying L4D2 from Valve? Thanks, no. There is no proof that Valve will not start working on L4D3 after L4D2 release and forget to fix L4D2 and add some content for it.

[The Wanderer]

I wonder how much owners of L4D1 will buy L4D2. I'm personaly not going to do it because I don't want to be foouled 2nd time by Valve. L4D1 is a game with no support, no patches and no new content. Look at TF2 - 3 patches @ month + content updates every 2-3 months. It may be bad patches, good patches, buggy patches minor fixes but still there is always someone working on TF2. As for L4D1 we got 16 patches since release and only 3 of them are not minor (Janyary update, that make game not looks like a pre-beta, April content update (with 1 more map and very boring game mode) and June update wich allowed to use custom content). Strangely, but even Crysis Warhead (multiplayer-only game) got updated more since it's release and Crysis is a EA game.
And you already fogot that prior to L4D1 release there was promised:
1) A.I. Director that can change paths for players (now annoynced as L4D2 feature) and weather effects and lighting (also now announced for L4D2)
2) "Additional characters, infected, weapons and even campaigns" (from interview with Doug Lombardi)
3) Improved Matchmaking (promised to be avalible for L4D1 "soon" after release). Now promised as L4D2 feature.
Also, L4D1 is a game with loads of problems: gameplay problem, balance problems, technical problems and simply bugs. And these problems is not yet adressed and looks like not going to be fixed ever because Valve working on siquel since game was released. For instance, CS:S or TF2 was fixed (I mean no critical bugs or gameplay problems) in about 2-3 months since release.
Buying L4D2 from Valve? Thanks, no. There is no proof that Valve will not start working on L4D3 after L4D2 release and forget to fix L4D2 and add some content for it.

Could you whine any more?
Seriously, i think some are forgetting that 2 versus campaigns were added after release and an entirely new game mode with 16 maps.

Comparing L4D to TF2 is like comparing apples and oranges. There's only so much you can add to a game and even with all of TF2s updates, there is still a backlash of a portion of the community.

What are these "balance issues" then? Because last i knew, something i read long before L4D came out, was that the game favors Infected to increase difficulty for survivors to survive.
Where is this supposed interview with Lombardi where he's stating new weapons/infected/characters for DLC in L4D? And i don't recalling anyone being able to look into the future...

Crysis isn't an EA game, it's a Crytek game, it's only being published by EA.

And using CSS in your arguments, lol, seriously, that's like the black sheep of the Valve game flock.

May i also add that some games just don't require 50 new guns, 20 new survivors and 10 new infected. You are trying to change L4D into something it isn't, atleast that's what you mean with your tf2 comparison.
In the end, the number of patches dont mean shit, thats like saying "ha i got 5 x 5 euro and you only got 1x 20 and 1x 5 euro"...

Oh well, it doesn't bother me the slightest you're not going to buy it, i'll be enjoying it and i'll preload it the minute it comes out. But it does bother me you are basing most of your claims on "assumptions", comparisons that just dont work and claims without proof to back them up (namely the gameplay bugs, technical issues, etc...).

[CrowbarSka]

Seriously, i think some are forgetting that 2 versus campaigns were added after release and an entirely new game mode with 16 maps.

I had to just comment on this. This is what Valve have been telling us, but it's really not true. OK they added 2 campaigns to Versus mode, but these are the same 2 campaigns you could play in Campaign mode since release and were mysteriously omitted from Versus. They didn't add anything, they just made it all accessible for all modes.

Secondly, 16 survival maps. That's a joke. There is 1 survival map, and the rest are all areas from Campaign/Versus maps. Considering that what you do in survival mode (sit in a corner and shoot zombies) is the same as what you do in crescendos, there's barely any difference between the maps in survival and the maps in campaign. The only change is there are more zombies and it never ends.

I love L4D, and I'll buy L4D2, but Valve are really treating us like idiots. They rebut complaints of a lack of content with these same excuses, but they don't hold much weight in my opinion.

[source-maps]

ehr... l4d1 is still being updated....
valve is not treating us like idiots, most of us are acting like idiots

[Valar]

ehr... l4d1 is still being updated....
valve is not treating us like idiots, most of us are acting like idiots

common sense above.
BTW @Wanderer; css is eons far from being a black sheep at any rate man. try the jewel in the crown. revenue wise. ('m btw not a css fan at all. i never play it.)
as for am i getting what i paid for? of course i am and so do everyone who spent their money on L4D.
is everything peaches with Valve and Steam? - of course not. but you're still enjoying a super cool game and in the case of Valve - whatever valve game it is your playing - it's always the best in the industry at its time.

[CrowbarSka]

ehr... l4d1 is still being updated....
valve is not treating us like idiots, most of us are acting like idiots

I think they are treating us like idiots when they say things like "16 new maps" when it's just 1 new map and 15 old ones with very minor revisions. I'm not saying it's a dead game or anything: I still play it every day. I'm just saying that the hype they try and create is see-through and falls flat on its face when people realise they're not getting what they were promised.