More Left 4 Dead Shennanigan-ary…

I had a couple screens in the ol archive from the game that we all love to love so I thought I’d share

it with the gaming public:

Is it that time of the month Zoey?	Paris or Nicole?
Another day at the office	What the??
he’s still alive!!	ok nvm
It’s Jingle Bells the Christmas Tank	hehe bum bum…

And last but not least, this mashup from Your The Man Now Dog where Zoey and Lewis try to repopulate the Earth, one moloto baby at a time:

More Left 4 Dead Wiki Advertisements

I was further perusing the Left 4 Dead Wiki page, looking for more information on the various Boss Infected like the Smoker, and the Hunter, and the Tank. I thought the ad I saw on the Boomer page was coincidental …

Then I flipped over to the Tank page, and thought this is just getting ridiculous!!

Okay, so these aren’t actual advertisements, but this one is.

Apologies and Bitch Slaps are in Order (or: This Week, Jon Hates…)

First off, to anyone who actually listens to the Secondary Fire Oddcast and cares, we’re very sorry for the lack of podcasting. With Amrit with his nose buried in books and myself still playing Jobhunt 3.0 (now patched), we’re a bit swamped in the ultimate game: the game of life.

If all is well in the universe, I’m sure you’re aware by now that Left 4 Dead is like, totally the most awesomest co-operative and multiplayer experience in like, totally, forever, like totally. But there is one thing that really bothers me about this game’s reception.

I’ve heard that despite glowing reviews, a lot of people refuse to buy L4D because “it’s too short.” This is a complaint heard mainly by console (well, I guess it’d be Xbox 360) owners. Is that what we’re equating game value to be nowadays? I pay $59.99 plus taxes for a video game, the campaign component must be X number of hours long?

That’s undead horseshit and you all know it. How many people play through an 8 hour campaign of Gears of War, only to spend 102938125 more hours playing online? Some people bought Halo 3 and didn’t even bother playing through the story boards. And yet, for some inane reason, people are ready to dismiss one of the best cooperative experiences we as gamers have seen so far? Suck a rotting crotch.

It is true that without friends or online multiplayer, this game might be a bit of a waste. But we’re not looking at people without internet or silver Live memberships, we call those people “cavemen”.

And speaking of cavemen (I know you love the segue), I’m also really sick of wannabe-cool video game writers and reviewers. “But Jon,” you’ll point and ask “… isn’t that what you and Amrit do? or, at the very least, without succeeding and making money, try to do!?!” Well, yes and no. Yes, because we love talking about video games. But our conversations revolve around gaming naturally.

No, because Amrit and I don’t give a shit whether or not we’re cool. I mean, don’t get us wrong, we’re cool as fuck, but when I browse published and paid-for gaming ‘journalism’ on the net, I hear, read, and see a great number of game journalists trying to portray their game-related job to be this uber-cool, uber-witty, occupation. And they do this by throwing in game-related buzzwords, and try to be enthusiastic about the game they’re discussing, but ultimately, all I hear is “blah blah gameplay. blah blah gameplay mechanics. blah blah bump mapping. Now give my money.”

Take, for example, the following video from IGN/Gametrailers:

I know I’m rambling and probably over-hating (that’s what I do, right?), so I’ll cut it short. I’m just going to end this post by making a special note of Alison Haislip’s articulate description of Prince of Persia’s gameplay merits:

“A lot of games are kind of running and shooting, running and shooting… in this game, you’re constantly active. The battles are fun, the story is great, but i think its the actual … play of the game … that will keep you coming back.”

- Alison Haislip, Hero Factor, November 2008

Left 4 Dead Outbreak Achievement?

There’s been a lot of chatter about the Outbreak Achievement in Valve’s latest success Left 4 Dead (Thanks again Valve, you’re super.) The achievement is very vague in its conditions, and has spawned some debate over its meaning.

The Outbreak achievement’s description reads as follows:
Catch a rare strain of infection, then pass it on to someone else.

This is very ambiguous in its interpretation, while every other achievement appears to have a very straightforward requirement. It’s been speculated that the achievement occurs when a survivor makes contact with another player while covered in Boomer bile. Others say all developers start with the rare infection and “tag” it to other players as they play throughout the community.

I think we all respect Valve here. We recognize them as smart and playful developers. People who like playing and making games. So for them to just fuddle around with a single achievement’s definition is simply out of character for them. I’d guess that a handful of players started with the infection in their Left 4 Dead games, and are passing the “infection” to other players on their steam lists. I think it’d be very interesting to see Valve post up some stats on how quickly we were all infected. I think it’d also be very cool to see who didn’t get the achievement. In other words, who didn’t become infected, and are ultimately, the infection survivors.

If you’re reading this, what are your thoughts on this whole Outbreak thing? What do you suspect it could be?

A little something about Amrit…

The following is an excerpt from a conversation that Amrit and I had over a little Left 4 Dead:

CurryStainCasanova: you cant play as witch either
[DsD]rocklobsta: lol
[DsD]rocklobsta: why? you wanna sit on the floor and cry?
CurryStainCasanova: if i was the witch i would accidentally tear my shirt off
[DsD]rocklobsta: you’re fucked up
CurryStainCasanova: HAHAHAHA
[DsD]rocklobsta: you’re an actual necrophile.
CurryStainCasanova: shes a bad girl but i can change her

Send your hate mail to amritm@secondary-fire.com.

Left 4 Dead Footage

Sorry bout the crappy quality of this youtube video, this was the first one that I’ve ever uploaded.

I took this one off of a demo session I was playing recently (as I was pre-loading the full game actually) and thought it might be fun to post it and see if you guys had any thoughts.

The video showcases a badass Tank zombie, Hunter and Smoker. The difficulty is set to normal on this run so when I get bitch slapped across the train platform I don’t die instantly like I would on expert. You also get some of the audio of my teammates who shout out common place stuff in the game such as “Oh shit they’re behind us!” etc.

Heres a better one:

I will be posting footage of the full game soon and maybe a tandem review with everyone’s favorite Jon: Jon Chan.

Secondary Fire Oddcast – November 12 2008

Our zombie-loving dreams come true as both Amrit and I get to play the Left 4 Dead PC demo. For the most part, we discuss our undying (har har get it?) love for what we’ve played so far, our hopes and dreams, and how we feel completely inadequate playing Gears of War 2… oh, and Kim Jong Bong. It’s a short bus Secondary Fire Oddcast, here … on … Secondary Fire.

Also, Amrit, it was Willem Dafoe?

Left 4 Dead Demo Glitch?

In an otherwise stellar and super fun experience, there often emerges those most dastardly of tricksy creatures known as glitches. Don’t say the word too loudly or you might become sterile. The Left 4 Dead demo that me and Jon are currently enjoying is not immune to such wiley little vagabonds as seen in these images:

Kinda gives the game an 80’s look, which is a plus in my book. Hopefully they nip this in the bud before lunch, i mean launch.

Left 4 Dead Demo Screens

Some time last year, I made a statement that Zombie culture was making a comeback. Amidst the popularity of the Walking Dead comic series and movies like Quarantine and Diary of the Dead, Left 4 Dead was just one of the big clues.

I just finished playing the Left 4 Dead pre-order demo, solo, and then online with a full team of survivors. If you haven’t been following, Left 4 Dead is a first person shooter, and will be featuring four Movie Campaigns, a set of stories/scenarios from which you must escape, playing as part of a team of zombie infection survivors. Your object, I believe, will never change: dont die and be get rescued. But the journey to safety will be an arduous and life-threatening (did I mention morbidly scenic and memorable?) one.

Maybe these screenshots might paint a better picture…

This one’s already dead	Pop goes the weasel!
How many licks does it take to get to the center of a human?	This one had a run in with R. Kelly
Haters wanna hate, Lovers wanna love	That red ain’t part of the tattoo
New Orange Box Juice, made with 100% pure Vitamin V	I’m sure all the crackheads and car thieves learned that the hard way

I forgot. I’m sorry.

Ok, ok. I’m sorry. I got all caught up with the “best time to be a gamer” thing and have been too busy playing Fallout 3, Gears 2, Little Big Planet, Far Cry 2, and Super Job Search 3 (to name a few games) to remind myself to keep tabs on Left 4 Dead. But luckily it caught up with ME, and reminded ME that this was November. The best time to be a gamer as all the Quadruple A titles – I’m coining the term – launch a full out offensive on store shelves in preparation for the holiday season.

Anyway, this post isn’t really concerning Left 4 Dead. It’s more about what’s being shipped out with Left 4 Dead. Valve has recently announced Steam Cloud, an upgrade to your existing Steam client that will allow users to save their config and save files to one of their many servers. Well ain’t that something? Now you can game on any computer running Steam.

I find this heartening too, because it encourages people to get out of the house DON’T BE A SLAVE TO YOUR SAVE FILE. Wow I feel gay.

You can read a more profession article about it here.