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.

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]

Mods

For a long time, I wanted to create my own games.  Lacking the skills of a game developer, and to some extent the time and patience to figure it all out, I turned my attention to map making and level design, as the really hard work has already been done.  There are also plenty of tutorials around the web, taking even more of the pain out of it.  So far, I’ve not devoted the time required to create anything I’d want to show beyond my closest friends though..

Others though, have the time and patience (and the skill!), and there are some great works out there.  I’ve been recommended a few HL2 mods over the last week or so: Awakening, MINERVA: Metastasis, and Dear Esther – and the latest in the list, Korsakovia, is downloading now.

Awakening was described to me as a good game with awful voice acting.  You play as Adrian Shepard, from Opposing Forces, somewhere between Half Life and Half Life 2 in the timeline.
It starts off with a rather long trailer – Combine troops attacking some kind of facility – which pans around the fighting then inside the base, and eventually comes to rest where you wake up from stasis..  Simple enough game – shoot them all!  It’s quite a short game too – I completed it in about an hour.  The level design was great, and battles seemed to be well balanced, although I found myself seriously low on ammo for quite some time..  but yeah.. the voice acting was somewhat amusing.. 🙂

MINERVA: Metastasis really stuck in my mind as the best of the three mods, although all three were quite different from each other.
You begin the game strapped to the underside of a stolen Combine helicopter, being shipped into an island to spy for Minerva.  She communicates with you only via radio messages which appear as text – no dodgy voice acting here, although the language is strangely poetic and could put some off.   Exploring the island, and finding out exactly what the Combine are up to, requires plenty of shooting and some puzzle solving.

The map design here is very open, and although there’s really only one way to go to further the story, you’ll return to the same places a few times during exploration.   I was also quite impressed with the quality of the graphics – at least on a par with the official game itself.

Dear Esther is a strange sort of interactive ghost story, rather than a game.  Had I come across this myself, without recommendation, I might not have paid it much attention – especially as it started off so slowly, and you’re confined to a very slow walk – but that wouldn’t have done it justice.

The game begins with a portion of a letter being read out, to “Esther”, as you look on a deserted building.  Exploring the island triggers other portions of letters, or rambling thoughts, which only seem to become more rambling, more confused as you get deeper into the island, and markings on the walls only add to the atmosphere.

I discussed this with a friend afterwards, comparing notes on our understanding of what happened – an accident on a motorway, drink driving, the loss of a loved one, self-imposed isolation.. mixed with long lost shepherds, stolen bibles, monks and syphillis – all ramblings of a man delirious with a broken leg who somehow feels he deserves his fate..

Having looked around the internet for this one, I find that parts of the script are actually randomised, so if someone else were to play through this, they might have a slightly different interpretation.  Dear Esther made me feel rather sad, stirring up memories of my own, but that doesn’t stop me from admiring it.

I also mentioned I was downloading Korsakovia..
This is another mod from The Chinese Room, the team who created Dear Esther.  This game – experience? – is not meant to be enjoyable.. the whole intent was to explore what happens when you push boundaries and subvert what people expect from a game – with flashing lights, disturbing sounds, and the oh-so-creepy tagline:

“The paramedics report that they were unable to find his eyes. We think he may have eaten them.“

Left 4 Dead 2 Demo

I’ve just had my hands on the Left 4 Dead 2 demo, after looking forward to it most of the day 🙂

I pre-loaded this last night, so I’d be able to play once getting home from work.. glad I did as I hear the Steam servers are struggling – oh, what’s new?  I’ve come around to Steam and the whole digital download thing (getting at my games from multiple locations helps!), but seriously, the servers really need some work.  Every time there’s an update, add-on, free weekend or demo of anything fairly high-profile, chug, chug, chug..
As for chugging, I think I need to reinstall my machine.. performance isn’t great at the moment, and it was really noticeable when I loaded up the demo.

So, as to the demo..

It feels like a completely different game to the first, more like HL2 and episodes.  It feels less serious, less creepy.  I think that’s due to the daylight – but it probably isn’t helped by my current pc performance issues making me turn the settings down a touch.  Other than that, the bodies seem to disappear too quickly, which again makes it feel less serious.  I’m glad I don’t live in Aus though, with the censorship issues going on there at the moment.  I’m not a fan of censorship used in place of parenting 😉

I don’t know how much the demo can be relied on as a sample of the full game – the new specials were interesting, and I was relieved to see that the old ones were still present – but has the tank been downgraded a bit?  It seemed a bit too easy to kill, somehow.  One fun instance already though – being jumped by a jockey while entering a maze and fighting off a small group of infected: the jockey quickly dragged me round a corner, and I was taking a bit of a beating till my team mates fought their way round the corner too.

Looking forward to versus mode!

Crash Course

I love this new DLC for Left 4 dead.. I was almost starting to feel a bit fed up with the same maps, so this came at a great time for me.

Once downloaded – and that took a while, with everybody else hammering the servers!  I took my time playing it through and examining everything.   I see they’ve sneaked in a few additional comments here and there.. the dead helicopter pilot (shot by Zoey, because he turned!) and new dialogue.. one little exchange in particular shows they all LOVE Steam! 😀

Holed up in the safe room at the start of the second chapter, there’s a whole wall of poetry, and a bunch of comments too.. made me giggle 🙂

Versus mode though – that’s where it’s at!  So far, it looks like the map is heavily in favour of the Infected, for reasonably balanced teams of course.
I don’t know about ridiculously skilled teams – I’m going from personal experience as always – but somehow, despite the whole thing being shorter, there just seems so much more packed into it.