There’s only room for one..

In a normal game you would be looking out for your team mates, helping them as they would be helping you.  With ‘Room for One’, those other survivors become a threat the closer you are to the end of the level..

I played this with a friend on The Parish’s Bridge level, as we already have a rather set route and plan for rushing to the end.  I won, but it felt rather a hollow victory..

I was prepared to save him up until the last stretch, but I can easily imagine that if playing with randoms you could find yourself abandoned to the first thing that grabs you, regardless of distance through the map.  I’m quite sure this means plenty of random groups not making it very far at all.

There might only be room for one in this newest mutation, but I don’t want to be alone.  Aww, I know..  This game mode feels like a lose-lose proposition to me. If I’m playing with friends I want them to survive, and don’t particularly want to leave them behind.

Next week, I believe we have ‘Headshot’.  I think this will be a bit more of a challenge, as my weapon of choice is the auto-shotty, however:  bring it on!

Tarithel and Erilas

So I had my trial of WoW, and enjoyed it enough that I went ahead and got the game.  I managed to pick up the game plus expansions (Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King) for just under £30, and for the play-time I’ve had so far, I figure it’s worth it.

Thanks to the Recruit A Friend bonus, I’ve been levelling with a friend at a rather breakneck speed, as well as the now obligatory sight-seeing.  I’m loving the damage I can do as a fire mage – well, it’s hard to go wrong with fire, really!
We’ve ventured into a few dungeons, and so far the randoms we’ve met haven’t included too many idiots, though there always will be a few.

Here are Tarithel, destructive fire mage, and Erilas, awesome priest healer, posing just a little bit 😉

As for the few concerns I’ve had about becoming addicted – we’re still finding time to play other games, and go out and see friends, so it can’t be quite that bad 😀

Chainsaws

The seventh week of Mutations brought us loads of noisy chainsaws!

This was a much more hectic game, with a lot of friendly fire and thus best played on normal difficulty to avoid people getting annoyed at this 😉

Our group played a few rounds of this mode, though after a while the noise began to wear and it had to be turned right down.
The fact the chainsaws don’t run out of gas made this a much easier game to play, and I couldn’t resist the temptation of running through Dead Centre’s Hotel, sawing everything in reach.  My run was ended by a hunter, who I just hadn’t heard over the noise.

I’d vote this my third favourite of the mutations, following Realism Versus and Bleed Out.  Maybe not a game to play for long periods of time, but it was great fun 🙂

Last Man on Earth

After a second week of Last Gnome on Earth, we have Last Man on Earth.  One survivor, only special infected.

Valve made some tweaks to prevent the incapacitating special infected from being game-ending.   This meant that when I was pulled by a smoker, my health went down as he struck me, but at the point I should have been incapacitated, he just let me go and stood around rather aimlessly.  Personally, I would have preferred they behaved as normal, even if that had meant a shorter game.  I imagine it was done so that people had more of a chance of making a good run through a level, but I think it could have been done differently – maybe with less range on attacks, less health, or slowing them down a little.

All in all, I thought this game mode was more strange than fun to play, and being the only survivor felt a little lonely.. especially running along the road as Coach with him calling out for other survivors.  I really have come to prefer this game with friends.

Trialling WoW

As my gaming friends are now back in the clutches of Blizzard’s WoW, I figured I should maybe take a look at the game, under the premise of “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it”.  So I signed up for a free 10 day trial, with the intent of buying the game if I liked it enough.

Here’s my first character: Snagglehorn, a Tauren Druid.

The referral system, Recruit a Friend, allows for an existing player’s account to be linked to the new player’s account.  This gives a few benefits in terms of increased experience and a nice Summoning ability.  This meant I got to go sight-seeing as well as figuring out how to play 😉

Flying between places reminded me of my quick foray into Aion, and while the graphical detail isn’t as high here, I was still quite impressed at the amount of detail which has been put into the game.

The subscription model was something I had rejected this game for, years back. I felt that buying a game should be enough, never mind paying for it month after month.  However, I understand that Blizzard are reasonably good at updating their product, and good companies deserve support.  There are also plenty of other games I’ve got my hands on which haven’t had the play-time to justify their price, so if WoW gets even a few hours play each month, it will be worth the fee.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

I was looking for something else to play when a friend suggested WAR.  As there’s a free trial, nothing to be lost in trying it out.

So, it’s a fantasy MMORPG with two factions, Order and Destruction.  Going with friends, I joined the Destruction faction and rolled a Witch Elf, who was wearing very little.  As it turns out, there isn’t much in the way of clothes for her later on either.. though maybe the phrase “If you’ve got it, flaunt it” applies here.

There was a lot to pick up, and I ended up following friends rather than striking out on my own, which might have been better for learning the game, but would definitely have been less entertaining.  We also didn’t play for too long before comparisons were made to World of Warcraft.. which might be another game to try at some point.

Lesser Mutations

The first two mutations, Realism Versus and Bleed Out, both appealed to me as challenging new game modes.  I enjoyed playing both, and would quite happily return to either.. so I was quite happy to see that Realism Versus is to be added as a permanent game mode.

On to the newer mutations..

The third mutation was Follow the Liter, a mutated Scavenge mode in which only one group of cans appear at a time.  Testing out this mode on the last section of The Passing, I found it made the level a little too easy.

Normally, my group communicate using mumble, with the exception of the odd one or two who don’t have voice.  We’re fairly good at working together, and on this level at least, are quite efficient at clearing out groups of cans while still being able to defend ourselves.

I feel that this mode just removes the need to communicate.  Everybody knows where to go, reducing the need for communicating to simply dealing with the infected.  I’m afraid to say this mode didn’t really get much of a replay during the week.

This week’s mutation involves my favourite little guy, Gnome Chompski!

In Last Gnome on Earth, the mission is much the same as when completing the Guardin’ Gnome achievement – carry the gnome through the level to the finish and thereby rescue him.  The difference is that this time, Gnome Chompski is a beacon for the common infected, and they will swarm to anybody carrying the gnome.
We found this added to the difficulty a little, which was nice, but having rescued the gnome so many times in Dark Carnival, this felt a little bit too much of the same.

Next week’s mutation will be an “encore week”, with either Bleed Out, Follow the Liter or Last Gnome on Earth coming back for another showing.  I’m voting for Bleed Out 🙂

Free Portal!

Steam is now available on the Mac – and for the next few weeks, are planning on releasing a new set of games which will run on the Mac.

Along with this update, they’ve also announced that Portal is free until the 24th of May, on both PC and Mac.

Portal is awesome – so if you’ve not already got the game – go and get it now.

First Mutations

With the release of The Passing, Valve also started on their series of Mutations; weekly game modes with changes in gameplay which could turn out to be very interesting, and some of which may be made permanent in the game..

The first mutation was Realism Versus, combining the multiplayer versus mode with the rather tough Realism mode.   I wasn’t convinced when I first heard of this game mode, expecting it might be a bit too hard to be really fun.  However, with some awesome friends and a voice server, it was a decent challenge, though the infected side of course had the edge.  A quick attack could easily lead to valuable time ticking away while other survivors located the downed player.. fantastic for infected, frantic for humans, but great fun all the same 🙂

Bleed Out was the second mutation, this time for the campaign mode, and released via slightly temperamental update on Friday evening.   This game mode was billed to allowed the use of temporary health only: characters start off with their health ticking away from the off.  I didn’t expect this mode to be too difficult: when playing with friends, we’re used to rationing our health and surviving on pills for some time anyway, and this is how it turned out for us here too.

We discovered a slight flaw in the final level of The Passing, though, with the original survivors throwing down health packs.  However, you don’t have to use them 😉

I’d be quite happy for either of these modes to be made permanent.. both were a different challenge from the usual game.  Looking forward to seeing the other modes over the next few weeks too..

The Passing

Valve’s new DLC for Left 4 Dead 2 was released tonight – free on the PC, but rather later than the 360 version.  This meant avoiding the forums for the majority of the evening, as others would have played the game and knew which of the original survivors died.  As is normal with any popular release, the Steam servers seemed to be struggling to cope with demand, but eventually the download was complete and we were able to play.

So..  The Passing takes place between Dead Centre and Dark Carnival, in an odd little town where you come across the original survivors.. or three of them at least.  One of the original survivors, [spoiler]Bill[/spoiler], sacrificed his life to save the others.  We’ll find out how this happened in more DLC said to be coming for the original game..

The campaign starts off on a riverbank, sends you underground through some sewers, and then back above ground for the finale, where you have to scavenge for gas while the remaining original survivors watch your back from nearby buildings.  [spoiler]Bill’s body can be found in a room close to the generator.[/spoiler]

There are a few additions – suitcases and footlockers containing weapons, the golf club – I have yet to get the achievement related to this – and the powerful M60 machine gun.  This weapon is already causing a little friction..  This is similar to when we first discovered how easy it is to take out witches in L4d2 (see how in videos here and here), and became rather competitive, running on and trying to get to the witch first. 😉

Speaking of witches.. I’d cry if I had to walk around in those ugly, grey granny-panties too, you know!
She’s been given a new Bride model, and we first encountered her here, at the site of what appeared to be a wedding.  Wonder what happened to the groom?

Due to the lateness of the download, we didn’t get to the first mutation yet – Realism Versus.  That said, we have a week to play it before the next comes out, so plenty of time yet 🙂

Check out Gamecrit’s walkthrough of the new campaign on YouTube: Part 1, Part 2, Part 2.5, and Part 3.

Spoilers:

[spoiler]Bill died.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]You can give Louis your pills when you meet the three remaining survivors.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]You can find Bill’s body through the doorway to the right of the generator, after you’ve come down in the lift.[/spoiler]