my lil' 2-cent on Source MODs

andylawcc

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
18,183
3
81
for those who don't know, as long as you own Half Life 2, HL2 eps 1, OR HL2 eps 2, you are entitled to these 5 games. Just fire up Steam and these games should be on the front page. If not, just search for them by name.

anyway, I just finished playing all 5 briefly for an early impression.

Age of Chivalry: quite fun, a slight departure from the FPS genre cuz in this game Melee is your main mode of attack, but you are still in FPS point of view. You can still "shoot" if you re an archer or toss "grenades" if a soldier. You also get to control trebuchet and battling rams. All in all it was an alright experience. It is kinda like Control Point mode in TF2.

Insurgency: I just plain suck at those "Rainbow 6" / "one shot kill" type FPS, where patience and accuracy is far more critical than the physical property of your balls. Got powned many times without knowing where the enemy is. Anyway, I blame this as personal suckage.

Synergy: didn't work out quite well, since I stuck in one map with sporadic enemy respawning, our team never advance to the next point. I will give it another try since I only played one map. Another problem is not enough servers. On paper this should be one of the best out of all 5 mods.

Zombie Panic: Team based, each team has an objective (Human, get out alive by doing such and such / Zombie: stall Humans from doing those such and such). Zombie is melee attack only but Humans get quite limited ammo. Team work (just as the ones above) is utmost crucial. Overall I enjoy this one the most as it is the most polished.
blurry adds: Highly addictive, provided your team KNOWS what to do. IMO, not very noob friendly - since there are so many maps, many beginners will feel lost, etc. Teammates have a tendency to bash these newcomers.

DIPRIP: didn't play this, it's a vehicle-based FPS.
 

Jules

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,213
0
76
I tried Age of Chivalry and Zombie panic and i liked Zombie panic alot. Its pretty damn fun but the one thing i didn't like about it was that i pumped 4 shells with a shogun into a zombie and he was still coming after me lol.
 

Canai

Diamond Member
Oct 4, 2006
8,016
1
0
I haven't played the new Synergy yet, but if it's anything like the older versions online play is pretty much useless, due to many people having no clue what they are doing. HL2 campaign co-op is awesome if you are playing with a couple friends on Vent or something.
 

andylawcc

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
18,183
3
81
Originally posted by: Canai
HL2 campaign co-op is awesome if you are playing with a couple friends on Vent or something.

yes, I agree that's the only case where synergy could work its magic. Most "servers" have only 4 people slot and password protected.
 

andylawcc

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
18,183
3
81
Originally posted by: Oakenfold
Thanks for the mini reviews andylawcc!

well, I actually want to see what other ppl think about these games too. Free games are always good, and if they are backed by Valve even better !
 

Eeezee

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2005
9,922
0
76
Originally posted by: Canai
I haven't played the new Synergy yet, but if it's anything like the older versions online play is pretty much useless, due to many people having no clue what they are doing. HL2 campaign co-op is awesome if you are playing with a couple friends on Vent or something.

Which is depressing for those of us who are closet gamers :( My friends like to do stuff outside. It's a bunch of bullshit.

No Synergy for me :(
 

Canai

Diamond Member
Oct 4, 2006
8,016
1
0
Originally posted by: Eeezee
Originally posted by: Canai
I haven't played the new Synergy yet, but if it's anything like the older versions online play is pretty much useless, due to many people having no clue what they are doing. HL2 campaign co-op is awesome if you are playing with a couple friends on Vent or something.

Which is depressing for those of us who are closet gamers :( My friends like to do stuff outside. It's a bunch of bullshit.

No Synergy for me :(

I'm sure you could find a couple people from AT who'd be willing to play a bit. A lot of Synergy maps are really big, complex, and unnecessarily difficult. The HL2 campaign is a different story though.

I might get a chance to fire it up tonight, not sure yet.
 

andylawcc

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
18,183
3
81
Originally posted by: Eeezee
Originally posted by: Canai
I haven't played the new Synergy yet, but if it's anything like the older versions online play is pretty much useless, due to many people having no clue what they are doing. HL2 campaign co-op is awesome if you are playing with a couple friends on Vent or something.

Which is depressing for those of us who are closet gamers :( My friends like to do stuff outside. It's a bunch of bullshit.

No Synergy for me :(

which is utmost ironic that if we want to play Synergy, we must become one of those closet gamers.
 

skace

Lifer
Jan 23, 2001
14,488
7
81
Originally posted by: andylawcc
which is utmost ironic that if we want to play Synergy, we must become one of those closet gamers.

Or check a site like Penny-Arcade for a forum run server with a password on it.
 
Oct 9, 1999
19,632
38
91
i've tried to DL synergy and it stalls at 'starting download'

i've tried deleting local content to no avail.:(
 

IEC

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jun 10, 2004
14,600
6,084
136
Damn it. I spent 3 too many hours playing zombie panic late last night when I should have been studying.

Stayed up all night anyways but seems I over-studied for the exam... yet another A+ mwahahaha.
 

chorb

Golden Member
Oct 7, 2005
1,272
0
0
Originally posted by: DeePee
i've tried to DL synergy and it stalls at 'starting download'

i've tried deleting local content to no avail.:(

I had the same problem, but it was my peer-guardian blocking Steam. maybe same for you?
 

shlemielo

Member
Feb 10, 2008
124
0
0
Originally posted by: chorb
Originally posted by: DeePee
i've tried to DL synergy and it stalls at 'starting download'

i've tried deleting local content to no avail.:(

I had the same problem, but it was my peer-guardian blocking Steam. maybe same for you?

Try this fix -- it worked for me.

Close Steam completely. Go into your Steam directory, look for "AppUpdateStats.blob" and "ClientRegistry.blob" Now delete those two files and restart Steam. Try downloading again.
 
Oct 9, 1999
19,632
38
91
Originally posted by: shlemielo
Originally posted by: chorb
Originally posted by: DeePee
i've tried to DL synergy and it stalls at 'starting download'

i've tried deleting local content to no avail.:(

I had the same problem, but it was my peer-guardian blocking Steam. maybe same for you?

Try this fix -- it worked for me.

Close Steam completely. Go into your Steam directory, look for "AppUpdateStats.blob" and "ClientRegistry.blob" Now delete those two files and restart Steam. Try downloading again.

:beer: for you

dang it now i have to decide to study for an exam tomorrow or synergy:(
 

XMan

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,513
49
91
Can you just join a random server to play ZP? Or does it support single-player with bots?
 

thecoolnessrune

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2005
9,673
583
126
Synergy is my favorite followed by Zombie Panic.

If you haven't tried Synergy in a while, try Synergy OB, it's an entirely different beast and very well put together.
 

Blurry

Senior member
Mar 19, 2002
932
0
0
My take on ZPS:

Highly addictive, provided your team KNOWS what to do. IMO, not very noob friendly - since there are so many maps, many beginners will feel lost, etc. Teammates have a tendency to bash these newcomers.

As I mentioned, teamplay is absolutely crucial, but with so many servers allowing ranks, etc, there tends to be waaaay too much Ammo whoring = bad experience for all.
 

andylawcc

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
18,183
3
81
Originally posted by: Blurry
My take on ZPS:
Highly addictive, provided your team KNOWS what to do. IMO, not very noob friendly - since there are so many maps, many beginners will feel lost, etc. Teammates have a tendency to bash these newcomers.

that exactly sums up my thoughts on it (which I didn't mention above)