L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

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davefp
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L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby davefp » 28 Oct 2009, 18:45

Ok, so the L4D2 demo has finally gone live for those who pre-ordered (including meeee!).

When the original came out, I played it to death. Every lunch hour I would hop into a game with my friends/colleagues and play as much as possible. Play dwindled after about 6-7 months.

Now that the demo of L4D2 is out, I'm in love again. What the demo does really well is show off all the little changes. It gives you a taste of the new special infected, the Uncommon Commons, a running crescendo event and a subset of the melee weapons. There are other tweaks that I loved too, like the old music reappearing with a Southern feel. Or the female Boomer model.

What do others who have played the demo feel about it? I know that Tom Francis (Pentadact) was disappointed, so I'm curious to see if anyone agrees with him.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby Genghis Ares » 28 Oct 2009, 18:51

I hate this stupid "pre-order and get the demo" crap.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby davefp » 28 Oct 2009, 18:55

Genghis Ares wrote:I hate this stupid "pre-order and get the demo" crap.


Everyone else is getting it on Nov 5th. I agree that it's not much of a 'reward' for buying the game early though.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby InsaneFool » 28 Oct 2009, 19:11

I enjoyed the demo, it definitely retains the feel of the original (which I still play) but all the additions really shine.

My favourite was the moving crescendo, and the machete + the new dismemberment system is BADASS.

And the uncommon commons were a nice addition, but a serious pain in the ass...stupid bullet proof zombies.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby iEatNinjaZ » 28 Oct 2009, 19:33

Genghis Ares wrote:I hate this stupid "pre-order and get the demo" crap.

How come nobody complained when they did this with the original?
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby Matt » 28 Oct 2009, 19:42

I'm with GA - if I'm middling on a game, I'm goign to want to try the demo BEFORE I order it.

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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby Corax » 28 Oct 2009, 19:44

i think the pre-order and get the demo system is just there for those people who are definitely going to buy the game and cannot wait to play it.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby iEatNinjaZ » 28 Oct 2009, 20:11

Matt wrote:I'm with GA - if I'm middling on a game, I'm goign to want to try the demo BEFORE I order it.

-m


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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby TomBrend » 28 Oct 2009, 20:22

If you're on the fence don't preorder, just wait until it comes out and play it then. It's not really an incentive for people who are on the fence as much as a reward for the hungry masses who were going to preorder it anyway.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby InsaneFool » 28 Oct 2009, 20:22

Corax wrote:i think the pre-order and get the demo system is just there for those people who are definitely going to buy the game and cannot wait to play it.


QFT

The public demo does drop well before the retail release of the game.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby TomBrend » 28 Oct 2009, 20:23

Oh also I preordered the game and installed the demo I WISH I HAD TIME TO PLAY IT.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby Genghis Ares » 28 Oct 2009, 20:50

InsaneFool wrote:
Corax wrote:i think the pre-order and get the demo system is just there for those people who are definitely going to buy the game and cannot wait to play it.


QFT

The public demo does drop well before the retail release of the game.


Except that the whole point of a demo is to demonstrate the game to propective buyers. If you have to buy it in order to demo it, it defeats the intent and purpose of a demo.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby Lavos » 28 Oct 2009, 20:54

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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby InsaneFool » 28 Oct 2009, 21:31

Genghis Ares wrote:Except that the whole point of a demo is to demonstrate the game to propective buyers. If you have to buy it in order to demo it, it defeats the intent and purpose of a demo.


Prospective buyers aren't the only people interested in having games demonstrated to them. Also don't forget that there is a public demo coming out for all the people that didn't pre-order on November 4th, and the actual game comes out on the 17th, so there is TONS of time to get the demo and play it before deciding if you want to pay for it.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby Unlucky » 28 Oct 2009, 23:22

I've all ready requested a refund. I'm working with the Penny Arcade forums to circumvent this censoring bullshit in Australia, so I should have an uncensored version soon enough. Then, all will be sweet.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby InsaneFool » 29 Oct 2009, 06:10

Yeah, you definitely want to try and get your hands on the uncensored version...the new dismembering system is pretty sick. Plus the Pipebomb no longer just vaporizes any infected near by, some of them, but definitely not all.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby InsaneFool » 02 Nov 2009, 19:43

http://kotaku.com/5395571/aussie-l4d2-g ... oplay=true

Okay so the Australian version is barely even worth playing.
That is the most insane level of censorship I've ever seen.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby Unlucky » 02 Nov 2009, 21:00

InsaneFool wrote:http://kotaku.com/5395571/aussie-l4d2-g ... oplay=true

Okay so the Australian version is barely even worth playing.
That is the most insane level of censorship I've ever seen.

Yes.

Yes. It. Is.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby Darkobra » 03 Nov 2009, 00:15

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/11/whats- ... -uncut-it/

Uncensoring the Australian version. It works in the demo but we don't know if it works in the real game yet.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby Unlucky » 03 Nov 2009, 00:21

Indeed, I read up on that but it's A: Very risky, there's a high chance of getting your account banned (Because you're changing files, meaning there's a chance of tripping VAC) and :B Not sure if it'll work on full version, like it said.

Regardless, this is my plan C. Currently running with plan B at the same time. :P

Plan A was to just hope the censorship wasn't that bad...
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby ANeMzero » 03 Nov 2009, 00:50

InsaneFool wrote:http://kotaku.com/5395571/aussie-l4d2-g ... oplay=true

Okay so the Australian version is barely even worth playing.
That is the most insane level of censorship I've ever seen.


Obviously you haven't been to Germany; The land from which this insane level of censorship hails.

You see Valve already had to go and make a censored version for Germany, but thats something the internet doesn't really care about because everyone has to censor stuff for Germany. Anyways, I guess they didn't want to spend the time making another, slightly less censored version, which is reasonable enough. Especially when the censored version itself was/is only supposed to be a stop gap, to make sure the game releases on time so they can discuss the details on dismemberment later.

So it isn't actually the Australian version, per se, so much as the German version, in Australia, with the English localization pack and without the extremely poor attempts to encourage players to actually buy the censored version rather than getting a copy from a neighboring country. Possibly because, while Germany has borders with 9 countries, Australia has oceans and no one cares about New Zealand or boats.. or planes. (Sorry Kiwis, and aviators.. and boat-people?)

Although Aussies shouldn't feel discouraged, the extremely poor attempts being the "exclusive" ability to swap out certain weapon models/sounds for Counter-Strike Source equivalents. Because its a really great selling point that you can choose to make your guns look and sound like they belong in a 5 year old game.

--------------

Anyways, this all doesn't matter, because there are options to get the xbox version from elsewhere and a work-around exists for the PC version that can't really be squashed without making some large changes to how the dedicated server works or how steam loads applications. And the PS3 version can't be censored because it only exists in you imagination and the OFLC doesn't have a ratings board for that.. Yet.

As for the work around it basically involves telling steam that the game is instead the dedicated server, which for the sake of synchronizing data and making consistency checks with players has to be able to access and execute any features you might find in one of the various versions ie: gibs galore. So, by making steam believe you're using a program that cannot be censored, nor has any need to be censored due to the fact actual dedicated servers don't render anything, everything works swimmingly.


--------------

As for tripping VAC, thats not really how it works. VAC doesn't check file changes outside of the executable. Everything else is handled by the game servers themselves through consistency checks, which are on by default but can be disabled. These checks simply look at what you're loading and see if it matches the files on the server. First it checks the game folder (ie: common/Left4dead/left4dead) which is used mainly for custom content. If it finds inconsistencies it then has your game default to the original game files (PAK/GCF/NCF files). If it finds you have edited the files located within the PAK/GCF/NCF file it will refuse connection with an error message informing you that a file differs from that on the server, the same way it would if you had the wrong version of a map.

VACs main purpose is to search for programs attempting to hook into the game, through the executable or its allocated memory, actual cheats and things servers cannot easily check for.

The work around edits the steamapp.txt and steam.inf files, which are not checked by either of these as their main purpose is to inform the steam program itself what game you are running for community purposes (Friends list, played time, etc), what version it is for patching (and by pointing it at the DS you avoid complications here!) and for the odd censorship thing. VAC looks for cheats and well, no matter how often you tell steam you're playing HL2 and not Day of Defeat you're not going to be able to throw barrels at Germans or guide your rockets around with a laser.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby InsaneFool » 03 Nov 2009, 22:10

Also: News flash!

The Demo is now available for everyone on Xbox Live (Gold members only) and Steam (everyone).
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby Alex Steacy » 05 Nov 2009, 00:13

Overall I'm impressed with the demo. I still miss the original 4 survivors, but the new gang are at least not annoying. Lots of nifty new items and guns (Adrenaline, Defib unit, 2 new flavors of assault rifle, boomer bile bomb, melee weapons and more I'm sure I haven't seen like the Deagle and Grenade launcher...) Also, the gore is a lot more detailed in this one which I'm very devilishly pleased about. Before you could shoot arms legs and heads off - now you can gouge out chunks and see even more meaty giblets fly everywhere. I swear I saw a zombie's intestines unravel as he pinwheeled away from a pipe bomb one time. Awesome. Also THREE new special infected plus variations on the originals (the female boomer will make you wish you could un-see her). I don't mind the broad daylight levels as much as I thought I would, but I'm still hoping for some good old fashioned nightttime maps. In all, I think it'll probably be as much fun as the first and I'll play it when I get some money.

The machete is fukken great by the way.
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby Unlucky » 05 Nov 2009, 03:18

So, thanks to the awesomeness of InsaneFool I've got an uncensored version. :mrgreen:

Unfortunately, 4gb is a lot of bandwidth to spend on a tiny demo and unfortunately I'm gonna be spending the 7gb or however big L4D2 is later on in the month so...

Yeah, from what I experienced of everything around the censoring, it looks pretty good. (+Videos look good too.)
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Re: L4D2 demo. Thoughts?

Postby Gordon Fearman » 05 Nov 2009, 10:16

I love the l4d2 demo. Anyway, enough about that fun fact for you folks:

If you have a friend in a game (or yourself, I guess) and you goto your Steam Friends (did I mention this only works on PC?) and select "View Game Info" you can see all the special infected currently spawned. This probably also works on the first game.
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