Special thanks goes to Necross at the Steam Forums for allowing this Left 4 Dead 2 Charger walk through to be posted here.

A Charger Walkthrough

==Preface==
Okay, so this was obviously inspired by that “Enzymicide” walkthrough for the Spitter for a while back, and considering how I didn’t see a Charger one (didn’t SEE one; even if one exists I’m still posting my own), I decided to whip one up. Enjoy, whine about TL;DR, do whatever, I’m just posting some tricks and tips that I came across as a Charger.

==Introduction==
The Charger, in terms of design, is a bulky, malformed Infected. Its head has been caved in and eroded by the constant onslaught it suffers from ramming face first into rough walls and objects. It makes distinguishable muttering and growling noises that distinctly warns Survivors when one is in an area.

The Charger is one of the most overrated Infected in Left 4 Dead 2, only second to the Tank in terms of inflated perceived power. The Charger might be able to bowl through opposition, but he can also have his 600 HP blasted away in seconds, be beaten to death while he’s preoccupied with a Survivor, and be halted in his charge by a mere garden chair or a slightly small doorway.

That being said, when used correctly, the Charger can be considered the most powerful Infected in the game (sometimes even more so than the Tank); the Charger can drag a Survivor down to a swift watery grave or a huge plummet, it can plow through and scatter a tightly packed group of Survivors, and can claw a weakened team to death single handedly, thanks to his immunity to bashing. However, the Charger does require a learning period, considering how different his modus operandi is from his Infected brethren, and it can be rough, but stick with it and you’ll become a relenting onslaught against the Survivors.

==The Basics==
The Charger possesses 600 HP (350 HP more than the default Special Infected, and still far more than the 325 HP Jockey), is resistant in every way to shoving (not melee attacks, however), and has an immensely powerful primary ram with a relatively small regeneration. It also has a very powerful secondary claw attack, when you need to take down a low health Survivor quickly.

The Charger is meant to scatter clumped groups of Survivors across the map and cause general chaos and disorder amongst Survivors as a whole. To accomplish this, a player needs to have a honed sense of intuition and a strong perception of their surroundings. Due to the Charger’s extremely linear attack method, the player needs to compensate for three primary things: what objects stand in the Charger’s path, where their target currently is, and the movement pattern of the target(s) in question.

What objects that stand in the Charger’s way are crucial; a single good charge can be ruined by a poorly placed dumpster or pole. Unfortunately, the Charger has no physical capability of destroying said objects within the game, and the player must be vigilant of these, regardless of their size or whether or not an actual Charger in our reality could destroy it or not.

Where the target is is also crucial, especially in wide open areas. In enclosed places, it’s not as much of a problem; for example, in a cramped room, you can charge at a Survivor, and chances are at the sound of your howl s/he’ll panic and try to duck out of the way (usually directly into your path), and in a stairway or escalator the target it generally doomed. However, in wide open ares, targets will often be leaping around and being difficult to pin, therefore, you need to pay attention to their movement patterns.

Very rarely will a target be moving generically back and forth at any given time; usually they move in circles, shift around to face a surfacing threat, et cetera. Therefore, you need to be craftier. Usually you can wait until one of your allies (for example, a Boomer) spooks them, and when they’re leaping/running away, you can thunder out and grab them. You need to make youir first attack count, though; if you miss, chances are you’ll be shot to death as you’re stumbling away from the object you collided with.

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The people at Valve software have a saying that they have stood by for years – a game will not be released until “its finished”. Well, it seems that someone dropped the ball with Left 4 Dead 2. Lets see if we can list some of the problems:

Crashes to desktop with no error after introduction video is over. Players can not even get to the menu to start the game. It seems that a patch released on November 21st, 2009 caused this problem.

Crashes to desktop with no error anywhere from 5 seconds – 15 minutes after joining a game. Anything such as friendly fire, shooting the witch,,,, can trigger the crash.

Poor performance with multiple core, high end gaming machines.

All this points to several things:

Left 4 Dead 2 was not finished when it was released.
Left 4 Dead 2 was not play tested thoroughly.

Or, the game was released with known bugs and was not a finished product.  How could the developers at Valve have overlooked such serious and numerous crashing problems?  In my opinion – they were overlooked on purpose.

If you are having problems with Left 4 Dead 2 Crashing with no error, post your comments in this thread of the Left 4 Dead 2 Forums.

On a personal note, I have been playing first person shooters since the days of Doom and Quake, back in 1995 and 1996. Never in my gaming career have I ever seen such a crappy release of a game.  Especially from a company with such a good reputation like Valve Software.  Where is the quality control?   Was L4D2 pushed out the door just in time for Christmas sales?  If so, that reflects very poorly on the company and the management.

On November 21, 2009 another patch was released for Left 4 Dead 2.  For some people the patch might have fixed some problems, but for others, the Left 4 Dead 2 Crash to Desktop bug just got a lot worse.

Now, instead of being able to actually play L4D2, the game just crashes after the cut scenes /introduction videos are over.  The game is not even making it to the menu to even be able to play the game.

So much for the developers at Valve waiting until the game “is finished” to be released.  In short, it looks like we have yet another product that was pushed out the door to pump up Christmas sales and shore up 4th quarter profits.

On a personal note, I have been playing first person shooters since 1995 and the days of Doom and Quake.  Never in a game life have I ever seen a game that crashes as much as Left 4 Dead 2.  This is an embarrassment to Valve and a slap in the face to their customers.

This makes me wonder if the game was even play tested before it was released?  Or was it just pushed out the door and let the customers be the play testers?

Even though the Left 4 Dead 2 demo ran fine, the full game has been crashing to the desktop.  There is no error message, there is nothing in the windows event viewer, the game just disappears and goes to the windows desktop.

If you are having problems with Left 4 Dead 2 crashing, visit that link and post your problems or fixes in the forums.

So far the crashes have been reported on Windows XP service pack 2 with an AMD CPU and ATI video card.   Updating the video card drivers did not fix the problem.

Another suggested fix was to verify the game files, that did not fix the problems either.

One of the big questions is, what changed between the demo and the full game?  Why did the demo run fine for several weeks, and then all of a sudden the game started crashing?

If there is one thing that really makes Left 4 Dead 2 stand out from the original is the selection of weapons. While the original only had about 5 weapons, L4D2 has a wide range of options to pick from.

So lets say that your playing along and find a table with certain weapons on it, which ones do you pick and why?

Lets say your playing Left 4 Dead 2 and come up to a table that has an AK-47 and MAC10 on it, which weapon do you pick and why?

AK-47 or MAC-10

AK-47 – fires a 7.62X39 round. The 7.62 is the diameter of the bullet. 7.62 = .308, which makes the actual bullet the same size as the sniper rifle bullet. But the AK-47 round is shorter and has less energy then the sniper rifle round.

The AK-47 can be effective at long range shots when in a kneeling position and does a good job of clearing out rooms, hallways, roads, streets,,,,.  Unlike the M16, the AK-47 does not have a bolt hold back feature after the last round is fired.  If the magazine is emptied, the bolt must be cycled when reloading.

MAC10 – Lightweight, easy to carry, silencer so it does not draw attention and high rate of fire.

The 9mm bullet does not have a lot of knock down power, so more then 1 round will be needed to take down a blood thirsty zombie – unless you aim for the head.

Assault Shotgun or AK-47

Assault Shotgun – 12 gauge with a folding stock makes this weapon lightweight, portable.  Iit packs a lot of firepower in a medium sized package

The folding stock makes it easy to point at close ranges and easy to navigate in close quarters.

Each 00 buckshot pellet is about the same diameter as a 9mm bullet. However, buckshot losses its energy faster then a 9mm bullet.

In real life, firing a pistol grip shotgun can be a little hard on the wrist as well.

AK-47 – Its used by Russian and Chinese armies for a reason – until it was replaced by the AK-74 that is. Regardless of where you are at, when you are there, what the weather is like, the AK-47 will work. This is a work horse of an assault rifle.  It was designed to work even in the most extreme Russian winters and adverse conditions.

The 7.62X39 round makes gives it light recoil, and accurate in a kneeling position.

Auto Shotgun or AK-47

Auto shotgun – lots of knock down power at close range, slow to reload, good penetration, limited capacity magazine, not very effective at long ranges.

If the shotgun i firing 00 buckshot, each pellet is about the size of a 9mm bullet. Even tough the pellet size is about that of a 9mm, it looses velocity and energy faster then a regular pistol round.

AK-47 – fires a 7.62X39 round. The 7.62 is the diameter of the bullet. 7.62 = .308, which makes the actual bullet the same size as the sniper rifle bullet. But the AK-47 round is shorter and has less energy then the sniper rifle round.

The AK-47 can be effective at long range shots when in a kneeling position.

Melee weapons – Machete or baton and why?

Auto Shotgun or Sniper Rifle

H&K G3 / H&K 91 / PTR 91/ Sniper Rifle with a scope – Fires a 308 Winchester round, lots of knock down power, accurate at long ranges, slow rate of fire with moderate recoil.

Regardless if you call it a Desert Sniper Rifle, H&K G3, H&K 91, PTR 91 – its basically the same thing.  There are some minor differences between all of those firearms, but its about like a truck.  Regardless if its a Ford, Chevy, Toyota, GMC – its still a truck.

This rife with its slow rate of fire is not really that good at clearing room – thats best left to the shotgun, AK-47, M16, UZI or MAC.

Auto shotgun – massive amounts of damage close range, almost useless at moderate – long range shots.  Also called a “noobtube” in the original left 4 dead because its a basic – no aiming skills needed – type of weapon.  You just point in the general direction of your target, click the mouse button and your done.

This weapon is great for up close work, but losses its effectiveness over longer distances.

Melee weapons – would you pick and why? Guitar or machete?

Be sure to visit the Left 4 Dead 2 Forums.

It seems that there has been some confusion as to what time Left 4 Dead 2 should be released.  Straight from the Left 4 Dead 2 Blog, the official release time has been announced.

* Monday, November 16th, 9:00 PM Pacific Standard Time
* Monday, November 16th, 10:00 PM Mountain Standard Time
* Monday, November 16th, 11:00 PM Central Standard Time
* Tuesday, November 17th, 12:00 AM (midnight) Eastern Standard Time
* Tuesday, November 17th, 5:00 AM Greenwich Mean Time
* Tuesday, November 17th, 8:00 AM Moscow Time
* Tuesday, November 17th, 2:00 PM Japan Standard Time

One question is, why did the people at Valve software pick Eastern Time instead of Greenwich Mean Time? The entire world goes off of Greenwich Mean Time, but for some reason the people at Valve software go off of Eastern Time?

But anyway, post your comments in this thread of the Left 4 Dead 2 Forums.

This video covers some of the ground breaking games that have been released in the past 16 years. Some of the games in the video are Doom, Doom II, Final Doom, Quake, Quake II, Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Quake III Arena, Doom 3, Counter-Strike:source, Half-Life 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2.

Even though games like Duke Nukem, Sin, Blood, Call of Duty, Wolfenstein and Quake Wars and Quake Live were left, they deserve an honorable mention. There are only so many games that can fit into the video and regardless of which ones were included, some have to be left out.

Doom is considered the father of all first person shooters – even though it was not the first. It was the first first person shooter to create an atmosphere that pulled the player into an alternate reality.

Quake was the first first person shooter to have built in TCP/IP support.

Half-Life combined the finer points of Doom and Quake and included TCP/IP support.

Counter-Strike introduced the world to team based, objective based, reality gameplay. Where games like Team Fortress included unrealistic weapons, Counter-Strike used models based on real weapons.

Doom III tried to bring real fear and terror into a first person shooter.

Half-Life 2 introduced the Source engine that used real physics.

Left 4 Dead brought team based game play to a whole new level.

Post your comments in the First Person Shooter Games thread of the forum.

Where are the alt fire modes for Left 4 Dead 2 weapons such as the M16 and SCAR MK17?

The M16 is full auto.

The SCAR MK17 looks like 3 round burst.

Ok, so lets back up a couple of years. Several weapons in Counter-Strike had some kind of alternate fire modes. Whether it was switching from full auto to 3 round burst, or a silencer – some of the weapons had some kind of alt fire mode.

So where is the alt fire mode for the Left 4 Dead 2 weapons? Where are the silencers that draw less attention to the survivors, where are the extra bright flashlights, where are the 3 round burst and full auto weapons,,,,,, where are our alt fire modes?

It seems to me that developers are going backwards in time. The game play standards are going downhill as compared to 5 – 8 years ago.

Post your comments in the Left 4 Dead 2 M16 and SCAR MK17 thread of the forums.

The delay of the Left 4 Dead 2 demo is old news, but the video is still funny.

Hitler heard that the Left 4 Dead 2 demo has been delayed, and he is pissed off. And Valve did not even give the fans a reason for the delay. Thanks a lot guys. Players bought the game on the promise that the demo would be released on a

During a game of Left 4 Dead, I am the only survivor that reaches the safe room – 2 survivors are down and one is dead.

I’am inside the safe room, tank and hunter just outside the door. Hunter spawns right in front of me and pounces me – while we are in the safe room with the door closed. For one, special infected can not spawn in view of the survivors. So how did the hunter spawn in clear view, right in front of me?

I accused the guy of hacking, but one of the other players said it was an exploit.

And – it just happened to be the server owner that spawned inside the safe room. Go figure that one out.

So, was it an exploit or a hack? Post you comments in this thread of the Left 4 Dead Forums.