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Left 4 Thumbs 2

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Having a higher level makes little in game difference and only serves as an indication of one's lack of social/any life. Indeed, by being a lower level, one should feel able to claim a loftier moral ground.

I for one am glad "m not a high rank, then people would expect me to be good at a video game.

Which I am not.

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Ok... Is anyone else slightly shellshocked by the fact that one of the original Left4Dead foursome actually dies in The Passing DLC released for L4D2 in a short while???

Or am I just insane...

:violin:

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I think it's very cool, although I'm sad that I will have the entire thing spoiled a million times before I'm able to play the sequence for myself.

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^^ Who is it? Pirate mentioned this and I forgot about it. I have to say that I am not that sad. Sort of.

I don't think it's been announced.

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I think it'll be Bill and his death will be due to tertiary syphilis he picked up in '52 in Korea. Love you loooong time soldyaah. I be your Lovaaah.

syphilis > zombie plague

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I think it'll be Bill and his death will be due to tertiary syphilis he picked up in '52 in Korea. Love you loooong time soldyaah. I be your Lovaaah.

How does it go?

Make you hollaaa for a dollaaaaa!

I think it will be Francis. He hates people who chicken out of self sacrifice...

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Ok... Is anyone else slightly shellshocked by the fact that one of the original Left4Dead foursome actually dies in The Passing DLC released for L4D2 in a short while??

I guess that's probably why they call it "The Passing."

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Well I'm not sure if it was the same for everyone, but last night it felt less like we were gaming because we like it, more because we felt we should?

I think we need a couple of new ideas.

Firstly, perhaps we should pick a balanced team in an attempt to avoid a total, spirit crushing defeat of one team which makes you feel you never want to play L4D2 again. I don't think it would be unfair to do this, we are a varied group and therefore have peeps who play a lot more than others are able. It would seem logical to choose a team based on this.

Secondly, James, Pirate, Skratche, illeria and I were all in Skype together last night (because we left Skype running from playing BC2; on opposing teams in L4D2).

We felt that this made the game more lighthearted and fun. We all know the game well enough I think (correct me if I am wrong) to have a rough idea of where to organise an attack etc to do it without explicitly communicating that to the team. By being in 'alltalk' we were able to rib each other for laughs such that it felt, to me at least, it didn't really matter what the score at the end was.

Summary:

1. We pick teams to a large extent in an effort to have a more balanced game.

2. We all join Skype and chat together, tell jokes and inject some fun back into L4D2 which I feel it needs (together with a new map).

Your thoughts Gentlemen please.

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I might not be the best judge for yesterday's game considering I was disconnected at least three times. Still I agree, it has come to the point that teams should really be fixed beforehand. I kinda wish there was some sort of ingame rating for each player which Valve could use to organize teams properly. But then again, how would one rate a person's ability to play L4D?

In any case, since most of us are familiar with each other, we should be decent judges of everyone's relative "skill". Setting up a team then, shouldn't be much of a hassle unless someone were to protest being forcibly dumped into one.

Being on skype for all of yesterday's match was a bit surreal. I mean all this while I have been playing L4D and L4D2 avoiding alltalk servers like the plague. But as you put it Armchair, amongst friends it was quite amusing and in a way brought new life to the game.

So...

1. We pick teams to a large extent in an effort to have a more balanced game.

Yes.

2. We all join Skype and chat together, tell jokes and inject some fun back into L4D2 which I feel it needs (together with a new map).

And yes.

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I look forward to being tactfully told how shit I am.

But yeah, all-talk is how we play GTA, and it keeps things relaxed.

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I look forward to being tactfully told how shit I am.

But yeah, all-talk is how we play GTA, and it keeps things relaxed.

James you are poo, please go on the other team. This is the sort of the tact level you can expect ;p

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James you are poo, please go on the other team. This is the sort of the tact level you can expect ;p

Don't worry James, you can be in my team. I have even named it, we will be called Team "oh my god i cannot believe you just set me on fire for the third time in a row you bastard."

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I wasn't too sure about the Skype at first, I'll be honest, but yeah, I'm willing to give the all speak the benefit and give it a try - perhaps it'll be that little injection that the game needs?

I'm happy to look at pre-set teams as well, although I do feel sorry for the poor saps who get me on their team...

Overall - Im in support of the motion being passed by my honourable and learned friend, Sir Armchair General...

Looking forward to next week's play - although we are back to BF2 by then, no?

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Don't worry James, you can be in my team. I have even named it, we will be called Team "oh my god i cannot believe that guy is just using a frickin' frying pan?!."

Fixed.

...Looking forward to next week's play - although we are back to BF2 by then, no?

Yeah, it's BC2 Sunday coming....well, that's if the servers don't crap out on us again.

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Having a proper back channel makes sense. I read briefly something about Skype in the lobby, but didn't realise the majority were still in there.

To be honest, there was so little verbal communication in our team that I'd lost most of my interest by about round 3 and was just going through the motions.

As James points out, having a proper back channel with everyone in it for games like Grand Thumb Auto - as well as Formula Thumb (as I'm sure Patters and toblix would attest*) - really changes the experience and makes it a lot more sociable. But I'm wondering if it's actually a good idea for something as tactical as L4D2 can be at times?

Can you channel hop easily in Skype? Or would something like Ventrillo be more appropriate, with a public channel and then a team channel? Doesn't the Steam platform have something built in by now that replicates in-game text chat, but for voice? It seems like an oversight that you can either broadcast to the whole game in text, or just your team mates, but not do the same for voice. I suppose this is a DRD**.

Maybe we use team text chat for tactics and Skype for voice?

Picking teams, though... that's baby talk! :tdown:

* It's mostly just Patters and me verbally fapping over cars, however... :shifty:

** Douchebag Restriction Device

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But I'm wondering if it's actually a good idea for something as tactical as L4D2 can be at times?

I don't think it matters. I don't think we've talked about strategy the entire match, besides the ocassional "Hunted, smoked, charged" message. We still wooped your asses. :mock:

I'd be for picking teams. We hardly ever get to play with evenly balanced teams, which means that there is one team getting decimated most of the time. That means for half of the players, that's an hour and a half of shit in which all of them are questioning why they're even playing.

The times I've played a good, balanced match I can count on one hand and those were an absolute blast. Although the one with the drunk guy and the 2 stoned guys were pretty good too. :grin:

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Doesn't the Steam platform have something built in by now that replicates in-game text chat, but for voice? It seems like an oversight that you can either broadcast to the whole game in text, or just your team mates, but not do the same for voice. I suppose this is a DRD**.

I'd vote for that, since every time I try to use skype with games like TF2 I get around 2500 ping.

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Steam's voice system sucks, because it doesn't work properly. Not only can it behave in crazy ways, like only transmitting sound between some of the people connected, and sometimes only one way, but the user interface and game integration is horrible. There are separate settings for voice in the game (e.g. L4D, L2D, etc.) and in the Steam UI. The connection, and how they affect one another, seem to be determined by a completely stochastic process. I wonder how much of the problem is caused directly by horrible software, and how much is caused by my having two sound cards (making the software horrible indirectly, which is no better).

Not that Skype is perfect. I've been disconnected a couple of times, and the mic has auto-muted at occasions, although that might just be the intelligent compression algorithm that noticed that it could just as well deactivate the sound transmission altogether.

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Voice chat in Valve games works just fine for me... if there's a problem it's most likely to be in the user end.

I got L4D2 cheap at Amazon, I shall install it this weekend.

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Voice chat in Valve games works just fine for me... if there's a problem it's most likely to be in the user end.

I got L4D2 cheap at Amazon, I shall install it this weekend.

Cool. You should know that we play on alternate Sundays at 3pm EST. This Sunday we'll be playing BC2 if the servers don't go down again. I believe you have BC2 as well. Hope to see you there!

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...Maybe we use team text chat for tactics and Skype for voice?

Agreed.

I don't think it matters. I don't think we've talked about strategy the entire match, besides the ocassional "Hunted, smoked, charged" message.

The times I've played a good, balanced match I can count on one hand and those were an absolute blast. Although the one with the drunk guy and the 2 stoned guys were pretty good too. :grin:

You are right we didn't and yes I can too.

Voice chat in Valve games works just fine for me... if there's a problem it's most likely to be in the user end.

I think it's more a server problem actually, as it seems very sporadic and unpredictable. If it was me posting that it was a problem, I would accept that it could be an end user issue, but it's Toblix and he knows shit.

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Voice chat in Valve games works just fine for me... if there's a problem it's most likely to be in the user end.

Sure, the problem appears on my computer, but the problem is the software, not me (the user). I've seen this stuff happening on too many different computers to believe its anything but sloppy coding.

UI-wise I don't even know what's going on. What link is there supposed to be between the Steam voice settings and the in-game settings? The control panels are very similary, although in the Steam one you can choose the mic device.

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