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Left 4 Dead 2

Will Smith — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0600

Does the world really need a Left 4 Dead sequel already?

We love killing zombies. When Left 4 Dead came out, we feared that eventually we’d tire of returning the walking dead back to the hell from which they spawned, but it turns out we didn’t. However, we did quickly tire of the lame “optimal” ways that hardcore gamers developed to beat Left 4 Dead campaigns in the most efficient—yet boring—manner possible.

Enter Left 4 Dead 2. The biggest change to the established formula is the redesigned finales and crescendos—those mid-level events that attract unending hordes of zombies. Instead of simply finding a good closet and holing up for 15 minutes, popping out only to kill the occasional tank, the crescendos now require you to keep moving—either to reach a goal or collect and deliver items. The zombie closet is no more, and we don’t miss it at all.

Additionally, the five campaigns are more connected—one picks up where the last left off—and more dynamic, with multiple paths through key bottlenecks in the levels. The available paths—as well as rain, fog, and other dynamic weather effects—are controlled by the improved AI Director. As before, the Director monitors the overall status of your party—health, weapons, ammo, and progress through the level—and automatically adjusts the challenge to maintain tension while not overwhelming your party. The Director does this by sending zombie hordes, limiting ammo and weapons, and spawning the special infected.

This lovable uncommon is ready to entertain the young ’uns by juggling, riding unicycles, and eating your brains!

And the special infected are back—with friends. In addition to the classic hunter, smoker, boomer, witch, and tank, Left 4 Dead 2 adds three new specials: the charger, the spitter, and the jockey—all designed to force players to keep moving and make it easier for infected to split up even good human players, which is important for both single-player and versus. Additionally, each campaign has a unique type of uncommon common zombie. These undead are not much stronger than garden-variety zombies, but each has a unique power, making the uncommon common more difficult to kill.

In Left 4 Dead 2, the zombie models are much more dynamic—taking damage, losing limbs, and acting much more ragdoll-y.

Naturally, there’s a host of new assault rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, and pistols; but L4D 2 also adds special ammo types, grenade launchers, and melee weapons. Whether you’re talking about the katana, machete, cricket bat, or chainsaw, we love the melee weapons. While you give up your pistol slot to carry a melee weapon, it’s dead useful for one or two members of your party to go melee to serve as the frontline against big hordes.

With a stomach full of deadly, deadly acid, the Spitter’s job is to put a stop to your forward progress.

Last but not least, there are a couple of new game modes. For aficionados of versus mode, which pits a team of human-controlled humans against a team of human-controlled zombies, there’s Scavenge mode. Scavenge puts the combatants on small maps with tight time limits. Human players must collect fuel and return it to a generator, while the zombies try to prevent that. Because the action is condensed in a relatively small area, it’s much more intense than more traditional versus battles we’re accustomed to. We also really dig the new Realism mode. Realism requires players to headshot zombies, while removing the auras that make it easy to identify friendly players, weapons, ammo caches, and other items from afar. Because you can enable Realism at any difficulty level, it helps bridge the jump from Advanced mode to Expert, although we don’t recommend turning on Realism if you’re not playing with your regular group.

Each campaign has a unique uncommon common zombie, which you’ll find mixed in with the rest of the horde.

Our only real complaint with Left 4 Dead 2 is that the Source engine is beginning to show its age, especially in areas where there’s any kind of ground cover, uneven ground, or foliage. While the new character animation system and ragdolls are amazing, it can’t hide the fact that this engine is approaching its 10th birthday. Despite some graphical shortcomings, the game is a blast to play, and delivers an experience whose only real rival is its predecessor.

The bad news is that finales in Left 4 Dead 2 force you into the open. The good news? Pyrotechnics!

No BS Podcast #123: The Toledo Effect

The Maximum PC Staff — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:11:01 -0600

Remember, remember the fifth of November! Topics discussed this week: On a slow news week, Will fueled Gordon's rage by briefing him on the Call of Duty PC controversies, then the guy discussed Left4Dead 2 a bit more, and closed the show with an extra-long Doctor section and another vitriolic episode of Rant of the Week!

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First Look at Left 4 Dead 2's Dark Carnival Campaign

Norman Chan — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:41:42 -0500

Valve has released the first screenshot of Left 4 Dead 2's third campaign, Dark Carnival. Following The Parish and Swamp Fever (revealed at E3 and Comic-Con, respectively), Dark Carnival will be playable at this year's Penny Arcade Expo, taking place September 4th through 6th in Seattle. Valve will also unveil a few more of Left 4 Dead 2's 20+ new in-game items at PAX.

Fun fact: Coulrophobia, or the fear of clowns, inflicts one in every eight Americans.

Will Smith's Terrifying Zombie Transformation

Florence Ion — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:00:00 -0600

In our March 2009 issue, we dressed our illustrious Editor-in-Chief up as a one of the ravenous antagonists from our Game of the Year, Valve’s Left 4 Dead.

The transformation from living human to decaying dead took almost two hours, though in the end it made for an amusing, but slightly horrifying, photo shoot. Read on to find out how we managed to turn this famed zombie slayer into one of his victims, or follow along to attempt your own zombie transformation.

It took a variety of ingredients to emulate the undead’s rotting flesh, including Mold Builder Liquid Latex, Vaseline, a roll of toilet paper, fake blood, and glycerin-based make-up pallets from Kryolan.

Secret ingredients: make-up remover, various make-up pallets, Mold Builder latex, and Vaseline.

Before using the liquid latex, our makeup artist, Nick Katich, tested a bit of it on a fresh area of skin to make sure it wouldn’t cause an allergic reaction. Then, he prepared Will's face for zombification by greasing up the eyebrows and hairline with a wax stick and Vaseline, so that the latex could eventually tear off with a bit of ease.

To achieve the scaly texture of undead skin, Nick applied a thin, even layer of Mold Builder to the face and arms, and then strategically applied torn up pieces of tissue paper to the top of the latex. After fifteen minutes of waiting for the latex to dry, Will's skin was covered with a bluish-white base coat, on both the arms and face, to make him look as if he had just risen from his grave.

Will's arm, covered in toilet paper.

Splotching paint on top of dried up tissue.

Next, the latex/paint combo was torn with fingers to imitate flesh-tear, and then separated it with a spatula, using the flat edge so as to not accidentally remove all the tissue. Then, we had to make the rotting flesh look believable. After applying red makeup base on the inside of the tissue paper and the top of the exposed skin, Nick dumped fake blood over those areas, making sure it looked like Will was covered in boils and cuts.

Looks like the revenge of the Black Plague!

The transformation was finalized by dusting gray powder with a blush brush all over Will’s face so as to remove shininess and make him look truly lifeless.

Voila! A zombie editor!

At the end of the photo shoot, Will had a hard time taking off the latex from his arms, so remember to shave before attempting this gory feat.

Would you trust your children with this man?

No BS Podcast #88a: The We've Got Zombie Fever Edition

The Maximum PC Staff — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:07:46 -0600

Zombie Fever rages on at Maximum PC. We put aside our constant discussion of Left4Dead to answer reader questions. Little did we know, but the question queue had been invaded by... you guessed it -- Zombies. Honest folks, we tried to get back to talking about tech, but about 75% of the questions in the queue were undead-related. So, we pulled out our auto-shottys, loaded our akimbo pistols, and settled down to answer a whole boatload of reader questions about the upcoming zombie apocalypse, and give a little upgrading advice along the way. Join the podcast gang as we answer your tech questions, take a trip to the Lab, and get another dose of Gordon Mah Ung's Rant of the Week!

Do you have a tech question? A comment? A tale of technological triumph? Just need to get something off your chest? A secret to share? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337--operators are standing by. For the love of all that's holy people, if you guys don't start asking tech questions, we're going to change the name to the Nothing But Undead podcast...

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The Top Five Zombie Timewasting Games!

David Murphy — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:30:36 -0600

Left 4 What? If you're not one of the legions to be playing Valve's newest zombie shoot-em' up, fear not. Just because you aren't killing the undead with your friends doesn't mean that you can't partake in the best open-source and freeware zombie titles! Better yet, fire up some of these games while waiting for your big Steam download to finish. Because nothing gets one in the mood to kill zombies like, well, killing zombies.

Facewound

Why it rocks: This 2D side-scroller is full of blood and guts. Enjoy battling the legions of the undead using all sorts of colorful weaponry. The game's beautiful particle effects and "unfunny 'in' jokes" will keep you coming back for more -- especially helpful, given that zombie hordes never really stop... coming. The only bummer about Facewound is that its a title that will never actually be finished -- you're playing a build of the game, not the imaginary final product.

Black Shades

Murrgh: Is it a zombie game? No. But this title, which pits you as a psychic bodyguard tasked with protecting VIPs each level, does come with a super-special zombie mode after subsequent levels of gameplay. Just what you need when you've finished protecting the imaginary president from assassins: Protecting the imaginary president from zombie assassins.

Election Year: Zombies versus Pirates

Urhrhhgh: No, this is not a joke. In this independent title, you're going to be mashing the spacebar to raise support for your Zombie senate candidate over the dastardly Senator Birdbeard. We only include this game on the list as its hilarious story (and suggestion of a Zombie/Pirate governmental system) totally outweighs any other flaws the game might have. It's up to you to do you undead civic duty and install this immediately!

Zombie Smashers

Braaaains: With three successive iterations under its belt, this 2D side-scroller is barbaric in its zombie bloodletting. The premise is simple: Use a bunch of weapons to bash zombie brains in. The weapons themselves can consist of anything from the mundane (trash can lids) to the creative (frying pans) to the squishy (severed spinal cords). And your character grows the more you kill, earning tattoos as upgrades to increase the power of you undead pulverization. You can even cast magic spells, including one that summons a fully-loaded Uzi to your hands--not exactly the D&D wizardry we're used to, but hilarious nonetheless.

Cottage of Doom

Jamboree: Board up the doors. Zombies are attacking your little cottage, and it's up to you to keep them at bay! But we're serious: Board up the doors, the windows, and stack anything you can against the entrances of your little hut! This game gives you a lot of creative leeway in protecting your domain from the undead, reminding us a lot of our favorite desktop time-waster, Tower Defense. This should give you a lot of practice for the strategic elements of Left4Dead

Super-Secret Zombie Flash Game Bonus

Huh: Zombie Baseball. 'nuff said.

No BS Podcast #87: The Zombie Defense Initiative Edition

Tom Edwards — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:25:18 -0600

Zombies. The best weapons to use against them. Where to hide from them. Is zombie middle management a good career path? We tackle these important isues--and all the latest tech news!--in this week's podcast. Join the podcast gang as we answer your tech questions, take a trip to the Lab, and get another dose of Gordon Mah Ung's Rant of the Week!

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Left 4 Dead

Norman Chan — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:00:00 -0600

Hide the children and shield your brains — zombies have risen to claim the earth.

We’ve relished the movies about it. We’ve daydreamed about it happening in our own lives. We’ve even drawn up detailed plans for how to survive the admittedly unlikely event of a zombie apocalypse (answer: barricade ourselves in the local Costco). There’s just something so tantalizingly thrilling about the prospect of fighting for survival in an undead-infested world.

Left 4 Dead, Valve Software’s new multiplayer first-person shooter, delivers that awesomely terrifying experience to us. Abandoned metropolises, a ragtag band of hapless strangers, and an endless horde of infected humans—all the staples of a nail-biting George A. Romero zombie epic—are present and accounted for in this ambitious cooperative adventure. But how does this game hold up to our obsessive zombie fantasies? We busted a few thousand undead skulls to find out.

Survivor’s Journal: How We Lived through the Undead Uprising

In the global zombie apocalypse of Left 4 Dead, our goal was simple: just survive. But reaching a safe haven in hopes of getting rescued was easier said than done. We had to navigate through the crumbled ruins of modern civilization and defend ourselves against a mob of angry zombies that would stop at nothing to see us dead. Luckily, we were never alone in this frightening fight for survival. We were not only always accompanied by three teammates (controlled by either real players or AI) but also equipped with a zombie’s greatest weakness: bullets. Lots of bullets.

Our nerve-racking journey was broken into four story campaigns, each consisting of five sequential levels. These “movies” all followed the same structure: The four of us traversed zombie-infested territory to reach safe houses at the end of each chapter, building up to a lengthy final stand while awaiting rescue at each campaign’s finale.

We started off in the No Mercy act, which challenged us to find a way to the rooftop of a hospital from a distant apartment building. As we made our way through dimly lit hallways and claustrophobic stairwells to the street, we caught our first glimpse of the infected masses—soulless husks of our once neighbors and friends. It was a mistake to agitate them; once alerted to our presence, a wave of the ghoulish goons swarmed our position. These common zombies were easy to put down with our assault rifles and shotguns, but their overwhelming numbers and surprising speed made them formidable foes. Zombies would climb fences, claw through closed doors, and crawl over any obstacle for a taste of our flesh. Shooting off their limbs wasn’t even enough to keep them down—the undead were impressively determined (a well-aimed headshot, though, stopped them in their tracks).

Frenzied shootouts were dynamically timed by the game’s AI Director to give us moments to catch our breath after a slaughter (see the sidebar on the next page). These welcome lulls in the mayhem actually added tension because we weren’t sure how much time we had before the next onslaught.

Even more frightening was the presence of five Boss Infected. More freakish than the common zombie ilk, each boss had a special ability to cause disarray among our group. The grotesquely obese Boomer vomited bile on us to attract hordes to our position, the stealthy Hunter pounced from the darkness to keep us pinned on the ground, the lanky Smoker snagged and strangled stragglers with his tongue, and the hulking Tank swatted us around like we were flies. The only way to stay alive was to work together, communicating frequently and calling out threats to avoid being caught off guard. The necessity for teamwork here is unmatched by any other multiplayer game, and the payoff for surviving the full campaign is incredibly rewarding.

The other three campaigns were just as creepy, taking us through small towns, obligatory graveyards, construction sites, train stations, and even chilling forest regions. Our most memorable moment, however, was when we trekked through a large airport terminal and watched a full-size 747 airplane crash and burn on the runway. Wading through the wreckage of these realistically crafted environments was made all the more compelling by improvements to the game’s Source engine, which uses cinematic filters and so-called filmic effects like enhanced contrast to augment the terror.

We made it through the four acts in about six hours on normal difficulty (advanced and expert modes are also available, and make a dramatic difference) and then jumped into the Versus gameplay mode. Here, four players play as the Boss Infected, terrorizing four Survivor players in the No Mercy and Blood Harvest campaigns. The zombie perspective is a refreshingly unique experience, where you’re actually rewarded for griefing the opposing team. Cooperation is again essential for success, and we quickly learned how to string and combine our Boss Infected abilities to maximize the harassment. It’s an exceptionally satisfying gameplay mode that alone promises hours of joy.

Left 4 Dead didn’t just meet our high expectations for the zombie apocalypse, it exceeded them. And when the real undead uprising arrives, we’ll be ready for it.

Behind the Scenes: Meet the AI Director

Left 4 Dead’s zombie horde is controlled by a technology called AI Director, a complex intelligence algorithm that tracks and monitors your performance throughout the game to dynamically ramp up or tone down the difficulty. Attributes like the health of the team, available ammunition, and accuracy are taken into consideration when the director decides how many zombies to throw at you in each set piece.

This ensures that the game not only feels balanced when you’re playing with strangers of varying shooter aptitude but also that no two sessions will play out the same way. Variables that are changed include the number and location of the zombies you encounter, the timing of Boss Infected attacks, and the placement of weapon, health, and ammo drops. So even though you might learn the layout of a level after running through it a few times, you can still expect to be challenged and surprised by the AI Director’s unpredictability. Left 4 Dead will ship with a software development kit that’ll let modders build their own levels and populate them with the AI Director, as well. We can’t wait to see what the community will do with this powerful tool.

Left 4 Dead's Achievements

Dead Stop    Punch a Hunter as he is pouncing.    10
Drag and Drop    Rescue a Survivor from a Smoker's tongue before he takes damage.    20
Cr0wnd    Kill a Witch with a single headshot.    30
Untouchables    No Survivors take damage after contacting the rescue vehicle.        30
Blind Luck    You or another Survivor take no damage after being vomited on by a Boomer.    20
My Bodyguard    Protect any Survivor from an attacking Infected 50 times.        15
Akimbo Assassin    Survive a campaign firing no guns other than pistols.        30
Field Medic    Heal 25 Survivors with a first aid kit.        20
Pharm-assist    Give pain pills to 10 Survivors.        20
Helping Hand    Revive 50 incapacitated Survivors.        20
Hero Closet    Rescue a Survivor trapped in a closet.        10
Hunter Punter    Shove a Hunter off of a pinned and helpless Survivor.    10
Tongue Twister    Kill a Smoker who has grabbed you with his tongue.    20
No Smoking Section    Kill 10 Smokers as they are pulling helpless Survivors.    15
101 Cremations    Set 101 Infected on fire.        20
Do Not Disturb    Sneak past all Witches in a campaign without disturbing one.    20
Man vs Tank    Single-handedly kill a Tank.    30
Tankbusters    Kill a Tank without it dealing any damage to a Survivor.    20
Safety First    Play through a campaign with no Survivors taking friendly fire damage.        30
No-One Left Behind    Beat a campaign with all 4 Survivors.        20
Unbreakable    Beat a campaign without ever using a first aid kit on yourself.        30
Witch Hunter    Kill a Witch without any Survivor taking damage from her.    20
Red Mist    Kill 1000 Infected with a mounted machine gun.        20
Pyrotechnician    Blow up 20 Infected in a single explosion.        20
Zombie Genocidest    Kill 53,595 Infected.        20
Dead Giveaway    Heal a fellow Survivor when your own health is below 10.        10
Ground Cover    Save another Survivor from a Special Infected while on the ground.        30
Clean Kill    Shove a Boomer and then kill him without him splashing on anyone.    10
Stand Tall    Survive a campaign without being incapacitated.        20
Back 2 Help    Leave a safe room to save an incapped teammate and bring them back safely.        20
Zombicidal Maniac    Survive any campaign on Impossible.        30
What Are You Trying To Prove?    Survive all campaigns on Impossible.        35
Lamb 2 Slaughter    Incapacitate a Survivor after he has entered and exited a safe room.        20
Nothing Special    Survive a campaign with no Survivors taking damage from Specials.        30
Burn the Witch    Light a Witch with a Molotov.    10
Towering Inferno    Light a Tank with a Molotov.    10
Spinal Tap    Kill an Infected with a single blow from behind.        10
Stomach Upset    All Survivors complete a campaign without being vomited on.    20
Brain Salad    Make 100 headshot kills.        15
Jump Shot    Headshot a Hunter while he's leaping.    20
Mercy Killer    Survive the No Mercy campaign.        15
Toll Collector    Survive the Death Toll campaign.        15
Dead Baron    Survive the Dead Air campaign.        15
Grim Reaper    Survive the Blood Harvest campaign.        15
Barf Bagged    Cover four Survivors with Boomer bile at once.    20
Big Drag    Drag a Survivor x distance with your tongue.    20
Chain Smoker    Constrict two Survivors on one life as a Smoker.    20
Double Jump    Pounce two different Survivors on one life as a Hunter.    20
All 4 Dead    Kill all four Survivors on one life as a Tank.    30
Dead Wreckening    Dole out 5000 total Survivor damage as a Special Infected.        20