L4D2 Boycott Funnies Continue

[Queasy]

Comes away impressed. Fellow boycotters now hate them. LMAO. This whole episode would make a great mockumentary.

Over the last week or so, we've been hinting at something big. A few days ago, a potential technical difficulty forced us to say that this announcement might be postponed ? which we took even more heat for. Facta Non Verba is a Latin phrase meaning quite literally ?Deeds, not Words?, or ?Actions speak louder than words?. This is ironic in more way than one. We've been hearing from a lot of folks because people just didn't see us getting an official response from Valve and that kinda makes people think we're not doing our jobs. Meanwhile, we've been giving Valve a hard time because of their lack of action in providing DLC and bug fixes.

This is difficult on our front as well as Valve's. We have been talking to them for the past few weeks trying to get some info on the upcoming DLC and what they might be doing for bug fixes. Meanwhile Valve can't release a whole lot of info on the subject either; because believe it or not, they don't want to promise anything that might not be able to happen.

Valve took the course of Facta Non Verba in dealing with myself and Agent of Chaos. Rather than trying to explain everything via email, they invited us out to their offices in Bellevue, Washington. That alone speaks of a developer that really does care about its fanbase. So, after making arrangements and booking the time off of our jobs, we flew down for a day to take a quick tour and talk with the guys at Valve.

We got a chance to take a look at L4D2 (including the version that was shown at PAX) as well as ask questions to the L4D/L4D2 team.

The good news: 4v4 matchmaking is supposed to drop before the release of Left 4 Dead 2. We have also been told by one of the fellows there that Crash Course is NOT supposed to be dropping this Thursday, but will be dropping 'soon'. We can't get into details, but we can definitely say that support for L4D is NOT being dropped by Valve and that they are actively pursuing bug fixes for Left 4 Dead. We're going to continue to talk to Valve and ask questions as needed, however if the frantic pace which we had seen people working at is any indication, we're not going to be left in the dust. The staff seemed to honestly love the original 4 Survivors and many said that ?we're not done with them yet?.

As for L4D2, things seemed balanced and 'tight' and did not feel like a rushed job. While we were visiting their offices we personally witnessed what can only be called a small army of artists, coders, mappers hard at work, which explains the rapid transformations in artwork that we've all seen.

What we can say with confidence is that the quality of gameplay in Left 4 Dead 2 is not in question; and it will only get better (from what we understand, almost daily testing of game builds by most of the staff at Valve).

http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/9682/p1010136k.jpg

We're not giving up just yet though, we will both be here up until our individual concerns are addressed and sticking with you folks.

We'll be doing write ups about this tomorrow, Thrusday and Friday as well as answering questions. We will not be around that much tonight as we both have to fly back early tomorrow morning.

Thanks for your continued support!

-The Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott Staff

 

[NGC_604]

Most of those dumbasses are going to end up buying the game once it comes out and all of their friends have it and are playing it.

 

[Yreka]

Wow, even in my nerd prime, I never had time for that kind of $hit.

 

[Howard]

Solution: never allow for DLC in upcoming games.

 

[zerocool84]

Ehh I don't care still not going to buy it. Just too little content for a whole new game.

 

[viivo]

Originally posted by: zerocool84
Ehh I don't care still not going to buy it. Just too little content for a whole new game.

You seem very emotionally invested in a game you're not going to buy. Do you do this for all games you don't plan on buying? It must take a lot of time.

 

[A5]

I hardly played L4D, so I won't be getting the new one. I'm just surprised that Valve can turn around a game that quickly 😛

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: A5
I hardly played L4D, so I won't be getting the new one. I'm just surprised that Valve can turn around a game that quickly 😛

Go tell that to the Half Life 2: Episode 3 team..

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: viivo

Originally posted by: zerocool84
Ehh I don't care still not going to buy it. Just too little content for a whole new game.

You seem very emotionally invested in a game you're not going to buy. Do you do this for all games you don't plan on buying? It must take a lot of time.

Posting a little line about a game doesn't meant I'm emotionally invested in it.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

Gabe has a giant ass sweat stain on his shirt.

Can't he afford to have hot women towel off his belly sweat every 4 or 5 minutes?

Saved!

 

[fatpat268]

Meh, I don't like L4D1 enough to buy L4D2 right away.

I bought L4D at full price on launch day, and I never really felt like I got my money's worth. I just didn't like the overall lack of gameplay modes and repetitiveness to the game. I'll probably eventually get L4D2 once it goes 50% off.

 

[CZroe]

What about Half-Life Episode 3? What happened to their promises of episodic gaming? Lies. I will not buy it until they get back to work on what they should have been doing instead of the original L4D. :|

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: CZroe
What about Half-Life Episode 3? What happened to their promises of episodic gaming? Lies. I will not buy it until they get back to work on what they should have been doing instead of the original L4D. :|

Left 4 Dead was being developed by a company named Turtle Rock when the company was purchased by Valve at the beginning of 2008. Turtle Rock worked with Valve and L4D was shipped in Nov 2008.

Turtle Rock was completely absorbed into Valve after L4D was released and some team members went to work on other projects and some Valve people went to work on L4D2 (one of the Portal developers if I remember correctly.)

So no, it's not like Valve was ignoring HL E3 for L4D. There was a completely different team working on it.

 

[cyphilis]

Queasy, your my hero.

 

[I4AT]

Originally posted by: fatpat268
Meh, I don't like L4D1 enough to buy L4D2 right away.

I bought L4D at full price on launch day, and I never really felt like I got my money's worth. I just didn't like the overall lack of gameplay modes and repetitiveness to the game. I'll probably eventually get L4D2 once it goes 50% off.

Same here, except I got in on the 4 pack deal, so I only spent $37.50 and still feel like it wasn't worth it.
Might get L4D2 when it drops to like $10 or less, that way between the two games I may end up getting enough content to actually warrant the full purchase price of one game.

The sad thing is even if you played the demo and thought it was fun, it's not until after you purchased the game that you realize you already experienced everything in a nutshell. A horde here and there, the occasional infected/boss spawn. Add in the fact that there's only 4 campaigns and you've discovered every weapon in the game within the first 10 minutes and you walk away feeling like you paid full price for expansion pack value.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

I have put an ungodly amount of time into L4D on the PC, well over 150 hours total, got my $50 out of it and then some. L4D2 will be a Day One purchase for me.

 

[cyphilis]

Originally posted by: Krakn3Dfx
I have put an ungodly amount of time into L4D on the PC, well over 150 hours total, got my $50 out of it and then some. L4D2 will be a Day One purchase for me.

I'm right with you there, but on the 360. Since I bought it,.. late December I can honestly say that there might only be 1, maybe 2 days each week where I don't play it. Its almost nightly that I play it,.. and would be nightly if my wife wouldn't get upset because I do play it all the time.

I got my $50 worth, a can't wait for crash coarse to come out,.. will pay for that in an instant. L4D2, will be a day 1 buy for me.

 

[crownjules]

Originally posted by: fatpat268
Meh, I don't like L4D1 enough to buy L4D2 right away.

I bought L4D at full price on launch day, and I never really felt like I got my money's worth. I just didn't like the overall lack of gameplay modes and repetitiveness to the game. I'll probably eventually get L4D2 once it goes 50% off.

I'm in the same boat. L4D was fun for all of a few hours. I was quite frankly shocked when news that L4D2 was being developed first came out. It seemed like Valve nailed the coffin shut on L4D way too soon and left it's player base out in the cold. I got the impression when L4D first came out that support would be closer to what we've seen with TF2 than the token amount it has actually received. Many more maps, perhaps a new game mode or two, more weapons, etc.

It's going to take outstanding reviews and a good sized catalog of features above what L4D offered to sell me on L4D2.