Guys - lay off the jackassery and keep it on topic, ya?
Ninja, totally valid points. It's not the greatest game visually, thats a no brainer, and thats really what Valve is known for, isn't it?
This isn't a game that was made to knock your socks of visually, nor should it be considered under such a light. Playing it nightly, I get this feeling it was never meant to blow our minds with its visuals but rather impress us with its unique gameplay and approach to 4-player co-op. And I think it did a damn good job at that.
I think its obvious that Valve, from the get-go, has been about making stellar game experience than it was about making stellar visuals. That's not to say they suck, they just aren't the greatest.
So ya, valid points on the quality of the visuals in the game, but I sort of read them and thought to myself 'duh, this is Valve.'
Valve games run on a shoebox, and you guys expect bevelled edges all over the place and dynamic lighting?
I personally find Valve games to be pretty, even if they're lower-spec than other recent first-person shooters. I think they do a lot with little resources, and I think their lighting is very appealing.
I was thinking HL2: Ep2 was looking pretty hot when it came out, but a lot of the strength was in art direction and badass realtime cutscenes.
I think part of the problem was that I got stuck in the first level running around in circles with no idea where the exit was, fighting endlessly respawning zombies. Maybe my expectations were unreasonably high because I have loved every other Valve game.
The subway, like Bill says. You only played single-player, as the AI only follows you. Play with some good friends, and watch the level difficulty change based on your progress. And at least play on Advanced. Then teamwork is key to survival.
Also, instead of making sarcastic comments or personally attacking me, you guys could try pointing out why I am wrong.
It's more that what you point out is either unspecific or oddly specific. i.e., you talk about "Extremely low rez textures" without elaborating, and then point out a smoothing error under the ejection port on the pistol which is only seen when holding two of them and there's a specular highlight on the side of the left one. Sorry if I offended you or something.
I'll agree that L4D's boxy environment art (which isn't always the case, but most of their maps are mostly brushwork and it shows), effects, and weapons leave something to be desired visually (they're serviceable, but not up to Valve's usual standards), but the biggest issue I have with the game is not being able to see other people's flashlights. Even if non-player flashlights were dumbed down, seeing them would add a lot. Not being able to see them significantly affects gameplay, and for that reason I think it hurts the game. The rest of it is strictly visual. The whole matchmaking system is pretty fucked up (half the time my group gets stuck on a foreign dedicated server and everyone suffers, and about a third of the time its been switching campaigns on us, making out 8 player versus game become a 4 player co-op game on a different campaign, plus dedicated servers having different rulesets, etc), too, and that's my biggest complaint about the game.
None of this changes the fact that the game is wicked fucking fun, though. It is unfortunately heavily dependent on having a good player base, so I can only play it with my friends, though - pick up games are pretty frustrating.
My biggest complaint about the game isnt even directly the fault of the game, its the fucking dicks who play it. This is a good example of a game that REQUIRES skill / teamwork failing because people dont want to be penalized for being shit? TF2 also annoys me because its the opposite end of the spectrum, its so shallow skillwise that if youre coming into that from any other FPS game with a rocketlauncher you have next to nothing to learn besides maps.
Its so frustrating to get 2-3 people together to play some versus only to play one round - I always make a point of going survivors first because at least then it fills them with some hope that they may be able to beat our score.... Alas half way through the count is down to 2 people and we are contemplating returning to lobby.
This game could do with a Karma system, although thats probably going to make more haters than friends, or it might just make people grief/idle so that the game becomes dull for those who are trying to play properly.
We play during lunch at work every day, and a bit after work as well, and we always have a blast. Seems like there's always new experiences being shared in the after-talk, which is a really good thing. Every game played seems to have at least enough different in it for things to constantly feel fresh.
Since I've become a professional artist, I have a bad tendancy not being able to just enjoy a game as it is and instead analyse every aspect of the game, constantly. In Gears 2 I remember getting annoyed at having to play the game, when I wanted to look more closely at the environment and characters.. This never happens in L4D. All I'm experiencing is pure fun. Texture seams, low geometry, shadow artifacts; all that irks me in other games, but not in this one.
So ya.. Awesome fun. Mostly because of the people I play with, I suppose.
One thing to remember about the whole "not being able to see other flashlights" thing is that while rendering 4 dynamic lights is not bad, rendering 4 dynamic lights that cast shadows through 30 zombies is really, really harsh.
Like MightyPea said, the game runs on a shoebox. It would be a huge advantage for people who had better rigs if they allowed you to see other flashlights, so I don't think they were out of line for choosing not to do it.
rendering 4 dynamic lights that cast shadows through 30 zombies is really, really harsh...so I don't think they were out of line for choosing not to do it.
Bingo. Valve's games run well on my Quad Core desktop, and my old beat up used laptop. And the lowered graphics settings do not affect the gameplay experience. It's accessible. When I play games of larger engines, my desktop cries. Lower the settings and you can barely play...or once the eye candy is gone, you realize the game really isn't fun at all.
One thing about the flashlights. You can see whose flashlight is on, even if it isn't lighting the environment. I'm not aware of any engine that has multiple moving dynamic lights attached to other players. Am I missing something?
Bingo. Valve's games run well on my Quad Core desktop, and my old beat up used laptop. And the lowered graphics settings do not affect the gameplay experience. It's accessible. When I play games of larger engines, my desktop cries. Lower the settings and you can barely play...or once the eye candy is gone, you realize the game really isn't fun at all.
One thing about the flashlights. You can see whose flashlight is on, even if it isn't lighting the environment. I'm not aware of any engine that has multiple moving dynamic lights attached to other players. Am I missing something?
Faking it with an additive projected decal would do a lot and would be relatively inexpensive - I believe Counterstrike did this with their flashlight (didn't they?).
Replies
Ninja, totally valid points. It's not the greatest game visually, thats a no brainer, and thats really what Valve is known for, isn't it?
This isn't a game that was made to knock your socks of visually, nor should it be considered under such a light. Playing it nightly, I get this feeling it was never meant to blow our minds with its visuals but rather impress us with its unique gameplay and approach to 4-player co-op. And I think it did a damn good job at that.
I think its obvious that Valve, from the get-go, has been about making stellar game experience than it was about making stellar visuals. That's not to say they suck, they just aren't the greatest.
So ya, valid points on the quality of the visuals in the game, but I sort of read them and thought to myself 'duh, this is Valve.'
I personally find Valve games to be pretty, even if they're lower-spec than other recent first-person shooters. I think they do a lot with little resources, and I think their lighting is very appealing.
I think part of the problem was that I got stuck in the first level running around in circles with no idea where the exit was, fighting endlessly respawning zombies. Maybe my expectations were unreasonably high because I have loved every other Valve game.
That's just sv_cheats being on, it shows up when they turn it on. You can bring down console and use godmode then too.
None of this changes the fact that the game is wicked fucking fun, though. It is unfortunately heavily dependent on having a good player base, so I can only play it with my friends, though - pick up games are pretty frustrating.
Its so frustrating to get 2-3 people together to play some versus only to play one round - I always make a point of going survivors first because at least then it fills them with some hope that they may be able to beat our score.... Alas half way through the count is down to 2 people and we are contemplating returning to lobby.
This game could do with a Karma system, although thats probably going to make more haters than friends, or it might just make people grief/idle so that the game becomes dull for those who are trying to play properly.
Since I've become a professional artist, I have a bad tendancy not being able to just enjoy a game as it is and instead analyse every aspect of the game, constantly. In Gears 2 I remember getting annoyed at having to play the game, when I wanted to look more closely at the environment and characters..
So ya.. Awesome fun. Mostly because of the people I play with, I suppose.
Like MightyPea said, the game runs on a shoebox. It would be a huge advantage for people who had better rigs if they allowed you to see other flashlights, so I don't think they were out of line for choosing not to do it.
Bingo. Valve's games run well on my Quad Core desktop, and my old beat up used laptop. And the lowered graphics settings do not affect the gameplay experience. It's accessible. When I play games of larger engines, my desktop cries. Lower the settings and you can barely play...or once the eye candy is gone, you realize the game really isn't fun at all.
One thing about the flashlights. You can see whose flashlight is on, even if it isn't lighting the environment. I'm not aware of any engine that has multiple moving dynamic lights attached to other players. Am I missing something?
Faking it with an additive projected decal would do a lot and would be relatively inexpensive - I believe Counterstrike did this with their flashlight (didn't they?).