Yesterday saw the release of L4D 2 and although I still want to air my thoughts on Modern Warfare 2, I have just been too lazy. However I just wanted to briefly say a few things on L4D2.

5 campagins. 3 of them played.

Upon first loading it up and jumping into Campaign mode with Ben and Craig, I wasn’t that impressed. I just wanted to play more Spec Ops on MW2.

Dead Center was the first campaign, and although I like the setting of the first level, I found my mind wandering all too much. It didn’t capture me. I was almost bored like. Maybe I been playing to much MW2. I wasn’t prepared to give up on it as L4D served as my primary multiplayer for the last 10 months. The campaign got better throughout and the finale was ace.

The second campaign was Dark Carnival. Now this campaign I enjoyed. It was fun and frantic and a few whacky achievements to get. Yes, I did prove that I am stronger than Moustachio. Oh and let’s not forget Gnome Chompski from HL2. The finale was good too, although it did seem easy until the end. It would of been nice to get the completion achievement for this campaign, however rescuing me from a tank seemed a lower priority then saving the Gnome.

The third campaign was Swamp Fever which was a darker setting in swamps and wooden huts, enjoyed the campaign but felt it did not last as long as the other although the finally was definitely longer than the others, and was more of a L4D 1 finale, but with three  tanks – 1 on it’s own then 2 together.

The other two campaign I’m sure I will try tonight, and then their is the main event for me – Versus. I can see some really good games played out on these levels.

The new special infected worked well, no more camping, although I felt the AI director over used the Charger. The Spitter was great for breaking up groups, and the Jockey actually does a good job. The original three are under used and the Boomer is now useless in campaign mode. I can only remember being Boomed once in the entire 3 campaigns played. Although no changes have been made to the  Boomers since L4D 1, players are just too quick to react to them now. Their noises give them away too easily and are too slow to get near the party to produce a vomit.

All in all, by the time I had to drag my self away from the PC, I was back into L4D mode. I can not wait for more action. Just please don’t let me be Rochelle.

Euugh. Hate colds. Bed ridden and PC ridden (not so bad eh?) for the last 3/4 days.

I finally took the plunge on Sunday and persuaded the Missus to pre-order me Modern Warfare 2 as a early birthday present. Yay! I feel 13 again. £24.99 from coolshop.co.uk.

Since I was feeling all Call Of Duty like I thought I would play the original as I have never played it! Gosh! (only played 4 and 5). How I miss these old shooters. Rambo style. Untouchable.  Although I have not finished it yet, I certainly have made very good progress.

Just as I’m writing this thinking today is the release day of MW2 I heard the postman. Surely that can not be. I only ordered late on Sunday, with postal delays expected… oh look it fucking well is. My copy of Modern Warfare 2 just laying there at the foot of my front door. Lets activate that bad ass on Steam. A full 15 minutes later of an 11GB installation it’s finally finished. I know all the problems of the multiplayer I’m going to face, but I do not care, I got this for the single player. Besides I got a feeling they will sort it out with patches.

Now time for some Lemsip and to watch last nights Heroes. I can wait. I can be my Hero later. Right now I just want to feel better.

I did chuckle.

I suppose I better announce that I got round to playing the delayed L4D2 Demo at the end of last week. It was short. Too fucking short. Two levels of a campaign, the first level which can be completed in about 1 minute. The second level, granted is more challenging (must be played on Expert). Overall I like it, and feels like a different game to the first, but the same, if that makes sense. I love the updated graphics and physics – pipe bomb ahoy! The new guns are a welcome and I didn’t expect to like them but I did. Only thing I don’t like or make any sense of is the bile bomb. I mean come on. How does it work? You don’t see hordes racing after each other when a Boomer explodes on them. Seeing zombies in the daylight is very nice change and I genuinely like the 3 new Special Infected.  But please please please, I want the old characters back, I already don’t like one of the new characters, can you guess which? I think it would be more wicked if the Left 4 Dead was migrated over to Left 4 Dead 2 (better graphics, physics, new weapons and special infected).

I have been toying over the idea of Modern Warfare 2. No doubt about it I loved the first one and would welcome more of the same. I can’t help but feel that Infinity Ward is forgetting it roots and Activision are being more greedy than they usually are. First they announce there will be no dedicated servers to play on, only Infinity Ward servers, this stop any custom content including good maps released by the community. The second thing that ticks me off is the price of the game. I must admit I don’t feel as bad as for console owners who will be charged a huge £45.

Steam has the game on pre-order for £34.99. This was the normal price a few days ago, not a pre-order price. I then notice today that it is a pre-order price and the normal price would be £39.99. What cocks. Not Steams fault, as they don’t control the pricing, the publisher Activision in this case does.
I was reading around on the Steam Forums and discovered this post. Steam will be required to play the game as it integrates SteamWorks. Brilliant! A retail copy you have to activate on Steam. Now you are talking. My mind is changing already. I am more encouraged about this due to the fact that ironically you can usually find retail games cheaper than they are on Steam, (once again cocks).

A quick Google Product search came up with startupmedia being the cheapest (who I hear you say?!). Price being a more respectable £28.97. Now I am tempted.  Google Checkout supported.

*Update*
Well spotted Tom, coolshop have it for  £24.99. I have heard of them before so should be ok.

Are these posters for the final two levels of Left 4 Dead 2? If they are indeed real then it looks like you do battle in a shopping mall (Dead Center) and some kind of industrial plant (Hard Rain).

Pre purchases for Left 4 Dead 2 appeared this weekend on Steam. I opted for taking a slice of the Four Pack. This pack enables 1 person to buy 4 copies (@ £80), keep 1 for themselves and then give the remaining 3 to friends.
Ben very kindly done this and after I paid the tidy sum of 20 notes to his paypal, I had a copy of Left 4 Dead 2 on my games list.

You also get early access to the demo (out October 27th) and a exclusive in game item; the baseball bat.

Rock the fuck on.

Well actually the only thing I done last night.

I got home from work last night and jumped on L4D Crash Course. I setup a single player campaign on Advanced. Me and three bots. Thirty Six minutes and over 500 Zombies kills later it was over. That was quick. It was good, but short.

Now for Campaign, with real people, on Expert. I rounded up the troops and set about jumping on our L4D Server, except we could not connect. I spent must of the evening talking to Mark @ Dustworld (kudos to him) trying to fix the problem. In the end we had a new server set up for us. I must say I missed playing expert Campaign mode, it was a laugh and can not wait to try Versus out this week (after installing and configuring the mods again!).

OK, so Crash Course (for L4D) was finally released last night, I still not had the chance to play it due to Steam servers being so overloaded. I am dedicating tonight to play it. Think I will play the Campaign first before jumping onto Versus. Been mixed reviews about it, but hey it’s a freebie, it will be enough to last another month or so before L4D 2 arrives. I know a lot people whine about L4D 2 and that we were promised updates for L4D (but instead a we get a sequel). There even a boycott group regarding it. Here what I feel. I think I have gotten my money’s worth out of L4D so I’m more than happy to buy L4D 2. Only thing I don’t like is the different characters in L4D 2. I will miss Bill, Francis, Louis and Zoey.

On another note, I have not done much blogging recently, but this is down to me working on a new Theme for my blog. What started as a simple skin color change is turning into something a bit more. I hope to finish it by end of play Sunday.

This weekend we have F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin for half price – £12.49. A bit more than what I usually pay for weekend deals, but have been after  a new single player FPS game for a while now. I was a bit hesitant as I have not even played the first one but I’m sure I will like it anyway.

Now come here little girl.