Has Counter-Strike died at the hands of Left 4 Dead?

While in a game of Left 4 Dead a few months ago, two of the guys on my team were talking about the state of the Counter-Strike community.  It seems that they were gaming buddies that played several online games together.

They were saying, that just last year it was easy to find full counter strike servers. But ever since the original left 4 dead caught on, the Counter-Strike and the Counter-Strike:Source communities have been slowly dieing. Instead of being full of human players, the servers are full of bots.

One point needs to be addressed, has the era of Counter-Strike come and gone? Has the game gotten so old, that people were losing interest and already moving on? If so, this would not be the first time that a gaming community has been killed by a new game.

Quake II killed Quakeworld and NetQuake
Half-Life killed Quake II
Team Fortress Classic killed Quakeworld Team Fortress
Left 4 Dead 2 killed Left 4 Dead

Regardless of how great a game is, its time comes and goes.

Doom, probably the greatest PC game of all time, now mostly lives in the memory of those that played it.

Quake and Quakeworld, probably the greatest deathmatch game ever made, is now only a memory.

Half-Life, one of the greatest single player games of all time, now only a memory.

Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike:Source, two of the greatest team based games to ever grace the internet.  Are they slowing dieing because of L4D and L4D2, or has their time passed and they were already on their way out?

CS and CS:S have had had a good run.  They were 2 of the most successful muti-player games to ever grace the internet. But like all other games, their time has come and gone.

Post your comments in the Left 4 Dead killed Counter-Strike thread of the forums.

In the epic battle of terrorist and counter-terrorist VS zombies and survivors, it looks like the zombies might have won.

Tags: Counter-Strike, counter-strike:source, Left 4 Dead

For some strange reason, I’am starting to miss the original Left 4 Dead. Last night I was playing through a versus game of L4D2 The Parish and thought to myself “I should go play some left 4 dead 1.” Then, I thought, “why am I thinking about l4d?”

Some of the things that I miss about the original Left 4 Dead:

How dark it was – the darkness added to the atmosphere of the game. To me, there is nothing in l4d2 that compares to the “eeriness” of the subway in No Mercy. There is just “something” about being inside the subway map of no Mercy,,, I dont know exactly what it is. Maybe its the darkness, the massive hordes that come out of nowhere, I just can not put me finger on it exactly.

Its not just the No Mercy maps, its all of the original Left 4 Dead maps. There is just something about them that adds a whole level to the game. This is something that left 4 dead 2 has failed to do.

The hordes that came out of the darkness – it was like the zombies were in the darkness waiting for you, waiting to attack, waiting for that boom, waiting for the signal to attack, waiting to tear you limb from limb, waiting to stomp your head in while your laying on the ground,,,, waiting for their lust for blood to be satisfied.

The characters of l4d had character – the new characters of l4d2 seem stale and do not have any “character. Its as if Valve software had some ideas for new characters, but that was about it.

The stuff that francis and bill would say in the elevator would crack me up.

Bill – “if I start to turn into a zombie, yall go ahead and shoot me” – or something along those lines.

Francis – “how about if your beard starts to turn, can we shoot that?”

Hearing the monologue of the characters not only added some humor to the game, it developed the characters personality.

In left 4 dead 2, all we hear about it the rock band, the race car driver, that thing is riding him, watch out for the smoking thing,,,, it gets really boring listening to stuff like that. Its a “smoker”, not a smoking thing – get the names straight please.

I miss having more then 1 hunter – If there is one thing I liked doing in the original l4d, that is getting 2, 3 and maybe even 4 hunters and team pouncing the survivors. Its one of those AWESOME moments when the whole other team is taken down in seconds.

Why cant we have 2 hunters, 2 chargers, 2 boomers, 2 smokers, 2 jockeys,,,,,. Could you just imagine the damage that 2 chargers could do?

I miss those “oh crap, I’am gonna die” moments: In l4d2 it seems that you go down rather quickly, but you die slowly. I kinda miss watching the survivors limping along, barely alive, knowing that the end is close.

In away, I kinda miss those black and white moments. Where you are really fighting to stay alive – knowing that just one more hit and your dead.

In l4d2, it seems that more rounds are won by the team being down, then being dead. You might be taken down by the spitters acid, but then you linger until your picked up or killed. Its that “lingering” that I really dont like.

Maybe I’ll play some of the original left 4 dead tonight?

While your here, be sure to visit the Left 4 Dead Forum.

Tags: Left 4 Dead

It seems that ever since Left 4 Dead 2 has been released, the people at Valve have been running sales, and Christmas time is no exception.  For the next 22 hours and 31 minutes, Left 4 Dead 2 is on sale for 33% off the regular price.

The sale is supposed to end sometime Christmas morning, so if you have ben holding out, now might be a good time to pick up L4D2.

Post your comments in the Steam Holiday Sales thread of the forums.

Tags: left 4 dead 2 on sale

This sure did not take long.  Left 4 Dead 2 is less then a month old, and the first add-on (or expansion as some people might call it) is already announced? Something just does not seem right.  What happened to the good ole days when it took 6 months – 1 year for an expansion to be announced?

http://store.steampowered.com/news/3237/

“”The Passing” Brings L4D1 Survivors Down South

December 14, 2009 – Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the first game add-on for its co-operative zombie thriller, Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2), is in development and targeted for release in early 2010.

Dubbed “The Passing,” the first game add-on for L4D2 brings the original Left 4 Dead (L4D1) Survivors down south for a meeting with the L4D2 cast, while delivering new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay for the PC and Xbox 360.

Targeted for release in early spring, “The Passing” takes place just after the Dead Center campaign of L4D2. Set in a small town in rural Georgia, players assume the role of the L4D2 Survivors as they meet with the L4D1 characters.”

I wonder if its going to be a free expansion, or if its going to cost? I’am betting its going to cost $9.99, or somewhere around there.  The same price the new Borderlands expansion cost.

Is this going to be a full blown expansion like episodes 1 and 2, blue shift and opposing force. Or is it going to be a couple o maps like crash course?

If its anything like crash course, Valve can keep it.

Ok, and now get this next part,

“”The Passing will become the most important campaign in the Left 4 Dead story, as all the Survivors are being called together in one campaign,” said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. “It will also be a huge offering of new gameplay content, with something new for every game mode plus a new uncommon common and weaponry.”"

The news release clearly says “all survivors” – its going to be really cool to see the first 4 survivors back in action.

Now for the big question, are there going to be 8 player teams?

Post your comments in the Left 4 Dead 2 add-on announced thread of the forums.

Tags: l4d2 The Passing, left 4 dead 2 add-on, left 4 dead 2 expansion, left 4 dead 2 The Passing

In case someone forgot to tell the people that play Left 4 Dead 2 – its a team based game.  Its a lot like Counter-Strike:Source, Team Fortress 2, Team Fortress Classic,,,, and all of the other team based games.

Rambo Syndrome – There no place for John Rambo on my team.  Rambo usually runs off by himself, gets pounced or smoked, them cries for help.

When someone says – “hey Rambo, dont run off”.  The usual reply is along the lines of “keep up then.”

Typing Kills – since the days of Quakeworld (mid-1990s for those of you that do not know your gaming history) its been a known fact that typing kills.  Left 4 Dead 2 has built in voice support – so buy a mic.

Mics are cheap, sometimes they cost as little as $10 – $15 US dollars.  If you do not have the money, go get a job or something.  Pick up cans on the side of the road, wash a car, cut some gas – but get some money to buy a mic.  Not having a mic makes you look like your poor or something.  If you can afford to buy Left 4 Dead 2, you can afford to buy a mic.

Autoshotties have been nerfed – regardless of “what” you have been told, the autoshotty from the original Left 4 Dead was overpowered.  In L4D2 Valve fixed that problem.  They are no longer the weapon of choice.  Pick up an AK-47 and learn how to actually aim the weapon.

Everyone that played the original Left 4 Dead and used the noobtube is going to have to learn how to aim a weapon.  This point in the general direction of the zombie and click is not going to work.

As sad as it sounds, your going to have to learn how to aim a weapon.  Yea, I know, its pretty sad.  The days of just pointing in the general direction and shooting are gone for good.  All of you noobs that never used anything but the noobtube ruined it for everyone.

Learn how to use melee weapons – for you script kiddies out there, the double pistol is no longer a personal machine gun.  It looks like the double pistol rate has been limited.  So pick up a melee weapon and whack them zombies across the head.

In other words, this aint the original Left 4 Dead, this aint a deathmatch game, this aint a race, so learn how to play.  And improve the quality of public Left 4 Dead 2 games.

Tags: l4d2 public games, left 4 dead 2 noob players, noobtube

2 1/2 weeks after release, the developers at Valve finally fix the crashing to desktop problem.

See this thread at the Left 4 Dead2 forums for the details.  It seems that there was an issue with Left 4 Dead 2 and the FAT32 file system of windows.

Maybe someone forgot to tell the people at Valve, but end consumers are not beta testers.  When a product is released to market, it should be pretty much finished.

Tags: crash to desktop problem, l4d2 crash to desktop issue

For those of you that do not know, Left 4 Dead 2 suffers from some serious crashing to desktop problems.  There is no error, no nothing, just a crash and your back at the desktop looking at the background.

But the thing is, the demo ran fine. So  wWhat” is the problem?

Here are some of the ideas that crossed my head:

The demo was fine tuned to show at exhibitions.  If you go back over the past year, just about every time L4D2 was shown to the public, it was the levels from the demo.  And “why” was that?  Maybe the rest of the game had problems?

L4D2 was pushed out the door just in time for Christmas sales.  With a nice surge in profits around November – December, the company can better afford to hand out Christmas bonuses.

What ever happened to “a game will be released “when its done”"?  Was L4d2 really play tested?  Did it go through all of the quality control measures like other Valve games, or was it rushed?

Regardless of “what” the problem is, the release of Left 4 Dead 2 has been ruined.

Tags: crashing to desktop, left 4 dead 2 crashing

Left 4 Dead 2 turns 2 weeks old today – and its still crashing to the desktop before the game even gets to the menu.

Happy 2 week birthday L4D2, your still the worse game I have ever installed.

Hopefully Valve can get this crashing to the desktop bug fixed and people can actually play the game.

One last thing – good job at waiting “until its finished” to release L4D2, bravo, bravo.  The people at Valve released a bug filled game that is not even playable for a lot of people.  Whats next, a game that will not even install?  Oh wait, I think Left 4 Dead 2 is having that problem as well.

Tags: crashing problems, l4d2 crashes, l4d2 crashes to desktop, left 4 dead 2 bugs

How long do you wait on something?  Lets say its an hour late, a day late, a week late,,, how long do you hang around and wait for something?  I think a week is plenty long.

Left 4 Dead 2 has been just that – dead for almost 9 days now.  So I did what any gamer would do – count my losses, gave up on l4d2 and bought Borderlands.

At the very least:

Borderlands will start and is actually playable, unlike Left 4 Dead 2.

Borderlands offers great gameplay, unlike L4D2 that crashes to the desktop.

Borderlands is playable, unlike L4D2 that crashes to the desktop.

Its been 9 days since the November 21st crash patch, and the people that have has yet to fix the problem.

As far as I’am concerned, this shows exactly what the management of Valve thinks of us.  Just hand over your money and do not expect anything in return.

Having played just about every Valve game since the release of half-life 1, l4d2 is the worst.

Having played computer games since around 1995, l4d2 is probably the worst game I have ever installed.  Never in my life have I seen such a buggy game released to the public.  Now that I think about, I have never even seen a beta test that is worse the l4d2.

Most gaming companies will test their product to make sure its stable and ready to release.  l4d2 more looks like it was pushed out the door just in time for Christmas – with little regard to the quality of the product.

Right now, at this point in time I feel ripped off, cheated and lied to.

Post your comments in the I gave up on Left 4 Dead 2 thread of the forums.

Tags: borderlands, l4d2 bugs, l4d2 crashing, l4d2 crashing to desktop, left 4 dead 2 crashing to desktop

Its been 8 days since the famous November 21st “patch” that broke Left 4 Dead 2, and still no update.

Whatever happened to Valve Software not releasing a game “until its finished”?

Whatever happened to Valves’ quality control?

Whatever happened to Valves’ play testing a game “before” it was released?

Tags: l4d2 bugs, l4d2 crash to desktop problem, left 4 dead 2 bugs