There is something about the Left 4 Dead series, something that draws me to it, something that id difficult to describe.

Maybe its the team work, maybe its the atmosphere, maybe its mowing swarms of zombies down with an AK-47?  I don’t know what it is, but for some reason I just can not get away from Left 4 Dead or Left 4 Dead 2.

When I first heard about Left 4 Dead I was a little sceptically, but then again, valve software has a reputation of making great games.  It seemed that everyone on my Steam friends list was raving about how awesome L4D was.  I took the reviews with a grain of salt.  After being burned with Quake 4 and Doom 3 I promised myself not to buy games until after the reviews came out.

Best Buy in Beaumont Texas was the  first place I saw that put Left 4 Dead on sale, so that is where I bought the game from.  The first map I played was No Mercy.  Lets just say I was hooked right off the bat.

Left 4 Dead was released November 2008.

Left 4 Dead 2 was released November 2009.

One of the really cool things about Left 4 Dead is that you get to play mutated zombies. In most zombie games players usually play survivors. In the Left 4 Dead series players can play between several zombies that have mutated special abilities. Its being able to play the special infected that helps make Left 4 Dead what it is.

How can you tell the difference between a cheater and a legit player with real skill? Honesty, its not that difficult.

The first thing you want to do is look at their steam profile. In game its shift + tab – view players – view profile.

1. If the persons profile is private, we have to assume they have something to hide.

2. How old is the account? If the account is less then 2 years old, then we have to assume they are creating new accounts after their old account received a VAC ban.

3. Only 2 or 3 games on their account. When the hacker receives a steam ban, they create a new steam account, buy the game again, and keep on cheating.

4. VAC ban registered on their account. The VAC ban will be listed on the top right of the steam profile. VAC bans are visible if their account is private or public.

5. High win rate. This is one of the main reasons why we want to look at the steam profile. Click on “view stats” under the game name, then click versus stats, then look at the win rate. A win rate above 60% or 65% is above average. A win rate above 70% rate is outrageously high. There is no way someone can have a win rate of 60% – 70% by playing random public games. Either they only play with stacked teams, or they are cheating.

6. Spectate the player while you are waiting to respawn as the special infected. If the player is tracking infected through walls, then you know something is wrong.

7. Skill level way above their playing time. Skill comes with experience. If someone has 100 hours and playing like a pro, chances are they have multiple accounts. Why do they have multiple accounts? Because their other accounts have a VAC ban.

8. If you have someone on your team that you think is cheating, ask. Some cheaters are proud they cheat and like to brag.

VAC = Valve Anti-cheat. Its a program that is ran on secure servers. If a cheat is detected, the person is banned from playing on VAC secure servers.

The Steam holiday sale is just about over; when this article was posted there is only about 23 hours left.  There were some good sales, there were some crap sales and some games did not even go on sale.

L4d/L4D2 – went on sale for 75% off.  But then again, that package goes on sale all through the year.  I bought the L4D/L4D2 package a couple of months ago, stored it in my game inventory, then gifted it to a friend.

ARMA 2 – went on sale for 50% off a couple of times.  I finally bought it just to play Day Z.

Fallout Series – it sucks that the Fallout bundle did not go on deep discount.  I ended up buying Fallout: New Vegas from Green Man Gaming.

Witcher / Witcher 2 – went on deep discount, I almost bought Witcher 2, but decided not to at the last minute.

The Elder Scrolls – Morrowind and Oblivion both went on sale at 75% off, while Skyrim went on for 50% off. To me, that is a good deal. Skyrim is well worth $29.99. I was lucky enough to catch it on sale a few months ago for $19.99.

Quake Package – Quake I went on sale, but the Quake package did not go on deep discount. What pissed me off, when a game goe son sale, the game package usually goes on sale as well. When Quake won the community vote, the Quake package did not go on sale. I started a thread on the sale at the steam community forums, but the thread was locked by a heavy handed moderator.

Unreal Package – one of the biggest letdowns of the Steam sale was Unreal did not go on sale. None of the Unreal games went on sale, nor did the Unreal pack go on sale.

Borderlands – Borderlands I went on sale for 75% off, while Borderlands II went on for 50% off, which is inline with Skyrim.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R Series – went on deep discount; I think the package reached 75% off? 75% off is a great price for Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat. Clear Sky on the other hand, I would not waste my time or money on it.

Torchlight – went on sale for 50% and 75% off. Torchlight for $3.74 is a good deal. I just wish Torchlight I had multiplayer.

THQ package – The THQ package was probably the best deal of the holiday sale. The entire package of 22 games was on sale for $24.99, which is an amazing deal. THQ is having some financial problems and is on the edge of bankruptcy. I suspect the package is an attempt to get some money into the company.

For the past few years the Quake package and the Unreal package have gone on sale, so why didn’t they go on sale this year?

After playing Left 4 Dead 2 for almost 3 years, I think its past time for a break. L4D2 was released October 17, 2009, then it took Valve another week – 2 weeks to get the crash to desktop fixed.

Its been a fun 3 years, but the time has come to move onto something else.

On Columbus day I tried playing a few games. The games went terrible. There seem to be more noobs then skilled players. Unless you are playing with friends the game usually turns into a pub stomp.

During a sale a few months ago I bought Skyrim. I probably need to go play something like Skyrim and get away from the Left 4 Dead series for a little while.

Borderlands 2 was just released, but I do not want to pay $40 – $60 for a game. I usually wait until a game goes on deep discount before I buy it. I preordered portal 2 and was a little disappointed.

Left 4 Dead 2 is an awesome game, but its not for everyone.  In games like Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike people can break off from the team and do pretty much what they want.  Due to the small team size in Left 4 Dead 1 & 2, one playing doing their own thing can seriously impact the game.

Its gotten to where L4D2 is no fun anymore.  Its the same maps over and over and over and over,,,,,.  Its the same attack points and choke points in the same maps over and over.  How many times can you get pulled going over the dumpster in Dead Center before it starts to get boring?

Do you have a steam account?  If so, join the Survivalist Boards Steam Community.

My time with Left 4 Dead 2 has been fun, just as much fun as Diablo, Diablo II, QuakeWorld, Team Fortress Classic and a few other games.

As with everything else in life, all good things must come to an end.  I think its time to sever my relationship with Left 4 Dead 1 & 2.

QuakeWorld came to an end.
Quake Team Fortress came to an end.
Diablo came to an end.
Diablo II came to an end.
Warcraft II came to an end.
Team Fortress Classic came to an end, at least my time with TFC did.
Command & Conquer came to and end.

As with all of the epic games before it, my time with Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 must come to an end.

Also, its not just that Left 4 Dead 2 is getting old, I am getting tired of all of the trolling, such as team switching and team killing.

A few weeks ago I was in a game where the opposing team threw every round.  On the finale the team switched sides while my team was loading, which put us on the losing team.  The developers never added a way to mute other players, or to stop team switching until everyone was loaded.

Then there are the bugs in L4D2 that have not been fixed in 3 years, such as the tank spawning at the bottom of the elevator on Dead Center 1.

What makes the Left 4 Dead series so awesome? Just about everything. I have over 1,600 hours in Left 4 Dead 2, and almost 700 hours in the original Left 4 Dead.

When the original Left 4 Dead was released I put off buying it until it went on sale. The first place that had it on sale was Best Buy in Beaumont Texas. I think best Buy had Left 4 Dead on sale for something like $10 off.

Got Left 4 Dead home, installed it, steam updated the game to the newest version. From the first couple of minutes I understood why people were raving about Left 4 Dead. It is a perfect mix of atmosphere and teamwork.

In most multiplayer games people can run off and do their own thing. In Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, one person can affect the outcome of the game.

The storyline of the Left 4 Dead series is quit simple. A virus has turned mankind stark raving mad.

The virus has been compared to rabies, in that people lose the capability of higher thought.  I compare it to the rage virus of 28 days later.

Survivors start at a certain area, then have to work they way to a rescue point. In the map No Mercy, the survivors start on a roof top. They work their way through various maps such as alleyways, subway, warehouse, streets, hospital, then to the rooftop rescue point.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

As much as I want to preorder Borderlands 2, I just can not bring myself to do so. I have been burned so many times when buying a game, I guess I am trigger shy.

Quake 2 was a major letdown, at least to me anyway.
Doom 3 was a joke. It did not come close to being as good as the original Doom.
Quake 4, how many times do we have to find a key to open a door? Talk about terrible level design.
Left 4 Dead 2 crashed on start up for 2 weeks after release. The problem came down to left 4 dead 2 would not work on the Fat32 file system. Valve did not fix the problem until 2 weeks after release. Nobody knew what was causing Left 4 Dead 2 to crash until right before the fix was released.
Homefront, 70 metacritic rating.
Brink, 70 metacritic rating. And Brink had video card driver issues on release day.
Duke Nukem Forever, 54 metacritic rating.
Rage, 79 metacritic rating.
Diablo III and its always on internet requirement.
Dead island and all of its release day bugs – like uploading a developer version to steam.

How can a game go through years of development, and still be released with bugs that should have been found in play testing?

Why should I have to wait weeks after a game has been released for patches to make the game playable?

The day Left 4 Dead 2 went on steam for pre-order I bought it. Release day, game crashes on start up. Raging in the Steam forums along with thousands of other people do not get a fix for 2 weeks. Two whole weeks? Really?

Brink had video card drivers on release day. Really? Video card problems? Why wasn’t that fixed in play testing? When the public buys a product, we expect that product to be finished, unless other wise noted.

There have been some good examples over the past few years – Skyrim is one such good example.

For every good game, there are probably dozens of bad games.

I have the original Borderlands, and I think its a good game. Hopefully Borderlands 2 will be better then the original. But I am going to wait a few months for patches to be released. I do not want to go through the same frustration like what happened with Left 4 Dead 2.

I am going to hold off on Borderlands 2 until it has been patched and it goes on its first sale.  $60 for a game is a bit much, especially in todays economy.

About the Author:

Kevin Felts has been playing video games for over 30 years. He first started playing arcade games such as Donkey Kong and space Invaders in the early 1980s. From arcade games he moved to an Atari and Super Nintendo.  Kevin currently uses Steam as if primary gaming platform.

I first started playing video games in the early 1980s.  My buddies and I would ride our bikes to a corner store by the name of Cecil’s grocery in Bridge City Texas. Cecil had put in a Donkey Kong arcade next to the front door. My buddies and I would buy a coke, then spend what felt like hours pumping quarters into that machine.

Shortly after Cecil put his Donkey Kong arcade in, Howards grocery store in Bridge City put a Space Invaders and I think a missile command arcade game. The bike ride to Howards was long then the ride to Cecils. for some reason, riding the bikes all the way to Howards made the games less enjoyable then going to Cecils.

I guess it was somewhere around 1981 or 1982 mom and dad bought my brother and I an Atari. We must have played Pong and Pac Man for hours on end.

Fast forward 10 years. I got married, had kids and bought a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).

Between 1995 – 2000 is when gaming really got interesting. My family and I bought a Packard Bell computer with windows 3.11, 75mhz processor and 8 megs of memory.

Join the SurvivalistBoards Steam Community

[Read the rest of this entry...]

Third day of the Steam Summer sale (Saturday, July 14, 2012), and finally some games go on sale that I have been watching – Dead Island, Skyrim and Left 4 Dead 2 is the community puck for 75% off.

A few weeks ago I created a steam account for the grandkids – it sure beats buying console games at full price. The steam sales are when I stockup on the games. Why pay full price, when you can wait a few months and get the games on sale?

Even though Steam has a great sale every 6 months or so, I still buy new games when they come out. I preordered Left 4 Dead 2, and I am going to preorder Borderlands when it becomes available on Steam.

The games on sale on Friday July 14, 2012:

Indie bundle III – $9.99
Dirt Showdown $24.99
Skyrim $29.79
Tropico 4 – $7.49
Two worlds – $7.49
Orcs must die – $3.74
Borderlands – $4.99
Frozen Synapse – 44.99
Dead island – $10.19

Payday the Heist – On Saturday July 13 Payday the Heist was on sale, so I bought the four pack for $15. I already have Payday, the extra copies will be gifted out to my kids.

Dead Island – I want to buy the 4 pack of dead island to gift out to my kids, and Left 4 Dead 2 to gift to the guest account.

Left 4 dead 2 – goes on community choice sale of 75% off in a couple of hours. I want to gift a copy of Left 4 Dead 2 to the guest account.

For the guest account, I want a mix of multiplayer games, and a couple of single player games. It would be nice for the kids or grandkids and I to play games over the LAN.

Video about Skyrim, not actual gameplay

Skyrim gameplay trailer

As we approach the 2 year anniversary of l4d2, in retrospect, I think the boycotters were right.   The presales L4D2 hype failed to live up to a lot of things.

Dynamic paths – removed
Dynamic weather – removed
Dynamic night and day – removed
Some of the best versus maps ruined due to glitches, bugs and a buffet bar of health kits and pills.
Why has it taken Valve almost 2 years to fix the tank glitch in Dead Center 1?
Why doesn’t the tank spawn in No Mercy 1?
Why doesn’t the tank spawn in No Mercy hospital map?
Why does the charger move around survivors instead of hitting them?
Why is the walking witch so difficult to set off?
Why hasn’t the one melee kill of the jockey been fixed?
How can some survivors see when they are boomed?

The list goes on and on.

Just as Valve dropped left 4 dead after the release of l4d2, so has l4d2 fallen to the wayside in favor of tf2 updates.

I just want the product valve told us l4d2 would be like. When you buy a product, you expect it to be like what was advertised, right?

Would you buy a car under the same conditions? If you were told your new car could drive 70mph, but later you found out it only drove 70mph on interstate highways, on state highways it only went 55 mph, would you be happy with that bait and switch.

I bought a product that was not the same as it was advertised to be. If a company representative says a product is going to have certain features, then the product should have those features.

Some people say that Valve is being slow because they are working on good quality fixes. How much slower can Valve be? Are we supposed to be led to believe it takes 2 years to add a ladder to the elevator of Dead Center 1?

Maybe Valve updates should be Duke Nukem Forever slow, and take 10 years to fix something?

Or maybe Black Mesa slow, where Valve talks about the patches, shows videos of the patches, but nothing is released for years, if ever?

Valve pulled a last second bait-and-switch with l4d2. We were told one thing, and got something else.

I had originally posted this the Steam forums, but I wanted to post it here as well. There was a question about Valve being the greatest developer in the world.

Here is my answer:

At this time – maybe so.

In the 1990s – No. Before November 1998, the best software developer was ID software. For those of you that do not know, Half-Life was released in November 1998.

My top 4 FPS games of all time are:

Ultimate Doom
Final Doom (this is really 2 games – The Plutonia Experiment and TNT: Evilution)
Half-Life
Left 4 Dead

Even though the Half-Life series has been great, it’s lacked the dark overbearing atmosphere that Doom had. The one time that Valve came close to capturing the title, was with the original Left 4 Dead. If Doom II Hell on Earth was remade, it hope it would be something very close to L4D.

Valve is a great company, and they come up with some great ideas. But over the past few years I think they have taken a turn towards “fun” games instead of “serious” games. Compare tf2 to L4D. Both games attract a totally different type of player. Valve seems to cater more towards the “fun” player, and less towards the “serious” player.

Why is No Mercy the most played map in L4D2? Because l4d2 players yearn for the return of a dark, serious game with an overbearing atmosphere – like what L4D has.

Now lets go back to the 1990s. Why was Doom so great? Because it created a great atmosphere and attracted a certain type of player. Valve has done a poor job of creating dark games – with the exception of L4D.

When L4D was released, it looked like Valve was going to develop a series of dark games, which would help them become a well rounded company. But instead, they made L4D2, and tried to make it less dark then L4D.

For Valve to take the title of “worlds best developer”, I think they need to offer a wider range of games. The games need to target players looking for “fun” games like tf2, and players that want a serious game with a dark atmosphere like what Left 4 Dead was.

I dont know if its from playing too much Left 4 Dead 2 before I went to sleep, but I had one of my usual “weird” zombie dreams last night.

There was no story plot, just a bunch of people that I did not know and myself were held up in a nice neighborhood.  By “nice” I mean that the houses were nice.  They all had fenced in backyards that had wooden privacy fences.  The house we were in, was in a culdesac.  A group of people and myself went house to house securing the area.  I had my DS Arms SA58 FAL instead of my AR15.

At one point we (the group and I) are out on the street when a guy and a couple of his buddies drive by with a boat in tow.  They stop and we talk for a few minutes.  It seems that they are heading out to the river to live there.  Food has run out in the city, so it was time to find the food.  Since the river can be a good supply of fish, that is where they were going.  When asked about the zombies, the guys going to the river said they were just going to have to deal with it.

It seems that the zombies were attracted to lights at night and sounds.  So we had to take towels and secure them around the windows to make sure that no light got out at night.

Like a lot of my dreams, there was no ending and I did not die somewhere in the dream.

Dreams usually have some kind of meaning.  When I have a lot of worries in my life, those worries usually come out in my dreams.

The other day I had a dream that I was almost crushed to death when an 18-wheeler hit my truck.  The “crushing” is symbolic of the stress and worries that I have in my life.  I feel that I have taken on too much in live and I’am being crushed by that load.

When I was married to my ex-wife, I used to have nightmares all the time that dealt with death.  The death in my dreams was symbolic that the relationship between my wife and I was dying.

So what are the zombie dreams symbolic of?

Post your comments in this forum thread about having zombie dreams.