Ty
Mass Media Casualty
+2,398|6992|Noizyland

Left 4 Dead

I keep an ear to the ground with this game, have done ever since the teaser was released in Feburary 2007, (with a release date initially hinted at September '07.) At E3 Gabe Newell offered a quick presentation which included the new survivors.
https://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t280/left4dead411/e3-2008-newcharacters.jpg
[Image taken from left4dead411.com]

I'm not sure if you're familliar with the old survivors; from the left - Bill is a Vietnam vet, they've given him a shave, made him look more like John Wayne and less grizzled. Zoey was the teen daughter of a wealthy family, now she's more in the line of the generic video game chick. Francis was the tattoed biker, while he used to look incredibly grizzled with a beard and long black hair they've given him a hairut and a fab 5 makeover which makes him look well... queer. At the bottom Louis used to be the everyman, a clerk at a retail store, they've now seemingly modeled him after Dave Chappelle, (I love Dave Chapelle but I simply wouldn't trust him in a Zombie outbreak.)

Most people in the "we're desperately waiting for you to release this" Left 4 Dead communities are less than happy with the new characters, mostly I imagine because the average gamer is a young white middle-class male and already it was difficult enough to identify with the survivors. Over the past year and a half though they've grown accustomed to them as they were, picked their favourites and really started to, well, like them. Suddenly out of the blue these characters are revamped in such a way that only their names remain meaning the community has to come to like the survivors all over again. As of yet it is undecided whether Francis is in fact gay but judging by Valve seemingly wanting to have a Planeteer-type group where everyone's different, (old, female, gay(?) and black,) and the noticable refusal to include the generic young white guy, (the Planeteers comparison remains, Wheeler was a ginger,) he probably is a bit... camp.

Characters aside the E3 showing of Left 4 Dead revealed the incredible re-vamping of the Source engine which the game has gradually been doing over the time it has been in development. However the difference between this and the last revealed gameplay footage is noticable - it's looking incredible and the Source engine is looking very attractive given it's age.
The game still looking awesome and remains my top title of 2008 but mostly because it was going to be my top title of 2007 and I'm a sucker for Zombies.

Full presentation including some gameplay footage, (minimal but includes an awesome explosion and trailer-type thing,) can be found here.
[Blinking eyes thing]
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/tzyon
Poseidon
Fudgepack DeQueef
+3,253|6755|Long Island, New York
I don't think the Survivors have been changed...I think that's concept art. I don't think Valve changed the characters to look like that.
Defiance
Member
+438|6888

*Maybe NSFW* Generic Video Game Chick

Valve has a enough integrity in that regard, and it's good they're moving away from the classic VG character stereotypes. For comparison, the old characters:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/L4DP.JPG

The army guy looks less like the classic army guy in every game.
The black guy looks more like a business man and has less of the typical short hair and goatee. Remember the black guy in the Resident Evil movies? He looks just like that.
The "biker" looks less like he hasn't showered in years and spends all his time on the road.
I agree the girl has more sex appeal in the newer, but I can't escape the thought of "she looks like she does this all the time" look in the old one.

They all look they have their own real character and less purposefully manufactured for a specific purpose. They look like they were randomly chosen from a crowd. If my understanding of the game is that these guys are fighting of a zombie attack, they were just regular people and looking like such would be a very good thing.

Edit: Poseidon, watch the presentation. They were redeveloped to look like what Ty posted.

Last edited by Defiance (2008-07-15 00:28:49)

Poseidon
Fudgepack DeQueef
+3,253|6755|Long Island, New York
I watched it before I posted that...I where's the proof that they changed them? I only see that one shot of the black guy as the in-game footage of the "new characters". In-game, it looked as if the biker (Francis?) still had long hair...
Ty
Mass Media Casualty
+2,398|6992|Noizyland

They haven't changed them in-game yet - with the game footage even Louis was the same as he'd always been. However Gabe Newell expressly said that there were new designs and from what he's said since it's clear that these are replacements.
[Blinking eyes thing]
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/tzyon
Defiance
Member
+438|6888

Poseidon wrote:

I watched it before I posted that...I where's the proof that they changed them? I only see that one shot of the black guy as the in-game footage of the "new characters". In-game, it looked as if the biker (Francis?) still had long hair...

Newell wrote:

So one of the last things we're doing with the game before we ship is we're redoing all of the survivor characters. This'll be the first time anyone has seen these new survivors.
Poseidon
Fudgepack DeQueef
+3,253|6755|Long Island, New York

Defiance wrote:

Poseidon wrote:

I watched it before I posted that...I where's the proof that they changed them? I only see that one shot of the black guy as the in-game footage of the "new characters". In-game, it looked as if the biker (Francis?) still had long hair...

Newell wrote:

So one of the last things we're doing with the game before we ship is we're redoing all of the survivor characters. This'll be the first time anyone has seen these new survivors.
Ah, I see. Well, personally I'm glad. They didn't look very High Quality texture wise at first. This'll be good. I wish they gave Bill back his beard though.
ShowMeTheMonkey
Member
+125|6919
Eventually they'll give in to the fans and give you this:


https://img.costumecraze.com/images/vendors/eloper/LA3576-main.jpg
Spidery_Yoda
Member
+399|6487
I don't mind if they've changed them.

I've been deliberately not watching very much footage of L4D at all so it would be fresh when I got it.

Well if you watched the thingy you'll know why they did it. It was to make each character more easily identifiable in the thick of combat, TF2 style. The old ones all look very similar.

Anyway. It'll be a week or two max before 'beta style survivors' custom models start appearing. So everyone can be happy.

Last edited by Spidery_Yoda (2008-07-15 03:50:56)

Flecco
iPod is broken.
+1,048|6882|NT, like Mick Dundee

Put the biker back to the way he was. Idk hey, I'm not convinced by the changes at all. Before they looked like survivors. People who wouldn't lay down. Wouldn't back down. Wouldn't give up.

Now they all look like normal people. I know normal people......

I do not want them covering my back in the inevitable zombie apocalypse. I want survivors.

Not the normal people I went to school with. They would fall apart. Go hysterical.






Shit I wanna watch 28 days later now.
Whoa... Can't believe these forums are still kicking.
Vilham
Say wat!?
+580|6983|UK
Meh, whos gives a. Its not like the point of this game is story line anyway.
Fenris_GreyClaw
Real Хорошо
+826|6737|Adelaide, South Australia

Vilham wrote:

Meh, whos gives a. Its not like the point of this game is story line anyway.
I do, I like the look of the old ones better
Vilham
Say wat!?
+580|6983|UK
Tbh I thought the old ones look pretty shit.
kptk92
u
+972|6625|tc_london
I am so going to buy this.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/L4DP.JPG

The woman reminded me of the female Merc on Mercenaries:

https://www.gameguru.in/images/mercenaries-2-1.jpg

Also:

Wikipedia wrote:

Left 4 Dead will include Steam's achievements system, which records players' accomplishments and mishaps. There are different awards for the different "teams" in the game:

The Survivors

The Survivors receive merits for accomplishments such as completing a Scenario without using any health items or the flashlight. Survivors will also receive awards for doing things such as helping a downed survivor get back up, or by saving them from the infected.

The Survivors receive demerits for mishaps such as shooting a teammate, or killing a boomer near teammates. Survivors will also receive demerits for walking into friendly fire, or purposely causing one's death without giving the rest of the survivors any benefit from it.

The Infected

The Infected receive merits for accomplishments such as killing a survivor, or poisoning a survivor. The Infected will also receive awards for helping other infected kill a survivor by making a combined attack on a survivor, or causing a swarm of infected to kill a survivor.

The Infected receive demerits for mishaps such as harming a teammate, or killing a teammate. The Infected will also receive demerits for walking into friendly fire, avoiding the survivors for a certain period of time, or purposely helping the survivors.

Last edited by kptk92 (2008-07-15 07:12:43)

Spidery_Yoda
Member
+399|6487

kptk92 wrote:

I am so going to buy this.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/L4DP.JPG

The woman reminded me of the female Merc on Mercenaries:

http://www.gameguru.in/images/mercenaries-2-1.jpg
Did you read the OP? They don't look like that anymore

Last edited by Spidery_Yoda (2008-07-15 07:53:50)

kptk92
u
+972|6625|tc_london

Spidery_Yoda wrote:

kptk92 wrote:

I am so going to buy this.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/L4DP.JPG

The woman reminded me of the female Merc on Mercenaries:

http://www.gameguru.in/images/mercenaries-2-1.jpg
Did you read the OP? They don't look like that anymore
YES BUT I AM COMPARING THE IMAGES NERD
Ty
Mass Media Casualty
+2,398|6992|Noizyland

@ Vilham: According once again to Gabe's presentation they are planning to impliment a story. They said something about mixing the multiplayer re-playability of CS and TF2 with the story-style gameplay of Half-Life. They do say their plan is to make it seem as though you and your friends are playing out a Zombie movie and in an interview with Mike Both I read over at left4dead411.com other characters will be evident, just not in the spotlight as the survivors are.

Don't know exactly what he means though, it is a good thing that they're adding a bit of depth to mindless mayhem though.
[Blinking eyes thing]
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/tzyon
Vilham
Say wat!?
+580|6983|UK
Yeah maybe on their valve maps, its gunna be less than a week till servers start running custom maps which won't need a custom story whatsoever, just some general layout like in ZMaster.
dtacs
say that 2 my face fucker not online
+126|6052|Australia

Vilham wrote:

Yeah maybe on their valve maps, its gunna be less than a week till servers start running custom maps which won't need a custom story whatsoever, just some general layout like in ZMaster.
those will be terrible, all texture maps n shit, just doesn't have the mood.
https://battlelog-cdn.battlefield.com/public/profile/bf3/kit-icon-recon.png?v=3173239

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