ShowdownLAN 2007 pt. 1 of 2

Part 1 of 2.

Me (Lennox), my GF Sarah (Demona), and my neurotic brother Mike (The_Ruiner) had a blast at ShowdownLAN 2007... the biggest, baddest LAN event ever held in California.

A disclaimer- this was all put together from short video clips taken with my little 3-megapixel digital camera, so the quality may not be fantastic.

Some notes:

-Mechanical bulls are a lot harder to ride than it looks. ;]

-Left 4 Dead is RIDICULOUSLY fun. No trailer I saw of it beforehand even REMOTELY did it justice. I can't WAIT for this baby to come out.

-Mad props to the event organizers and sponsors... the Showdown events have been the greatest, biggest, most well-organized LAN parties I've ever been to. Very polished with lots of prizes, giveaways, tournaments, and random contests throughout. I think it's safe to say you can count on everyone coming back next year. W00t!


Update 10:42am July 2nd:
Some folks have been sending me messages about what my gameplay experiences were like.

Well, first off, let me mention that we had the developers hovering over our shoulders while we were playing- both to give the occasional gameplay tip, as well as to observe any useful player feedback. One guy mentioned to my brother that the pipe-bombs and molotov cocktails were extremely useful for clearing out large groups of zombies. I believe my brother failed to hear the follow-up comment, which was "Just make sure you don't use them indoors". Now, my brother jumps out of his skin and screams regularly when playing doom 3, so he's easily shake-able. At the start of our first run, as soon as 4-5 zombies rush at us, he decides that this constitutes a huge crowd, and lets a molotov cocktail fly. Unfortunately this ignites the entire fucking apartment that we're trying to make our way through, burning us all to death. (At least the zombies didn't get the satisfaction of eating us, I guess.) This was immediately followed by us beating his ass in real life, and racous laughter erupting from the large crowd behind us.

I got several more chances to play over the weekend. If I had to emphasize one thing about the gameplay it'd be how absolutely paramount teamwork and cohesion appears to be. The developers tried to emphasize this on their presentation onstage, and boy is it true. If you try to run off and pull a john-rambo in this game, you quickly turn to zombie-food. You really have to cover one another's backs. If a teammate is overwhelmed by zombies, he gets knocked to the floor, where he tries to stave them off with pistols, as you see in the video. A teammate must "help you back to your feet" when you're in this state.

Another cool touch is that if you are killed, it is possible for you to rejoin the action later in the campaign. What's left of your party can come across an isolated survivor somewhere else in the city, barricaded in a corner or locked in a closet. If they find & release him, you're back in the game. (Albeit with only a pistol to fight with, but as soon as you find a weapons cache, you're back in business.)

The witch boss-character is especially fucking frightening looking.

The hunter boss-character is one of the playable zombies, and the developers did a good job controlling these guys. Oftentimes we'd look behind us to see the silouette of this hunter zombie stalking us by jumping from rooftop-to-rooftop-to-balcony. Very disconcerting.

Getting puked on by the methane-filled, "Boomer" zombie makes all zombies in the area go nuts and focus their attacks on you solely.

Some doors are lockable, so it looks like fortifying areas is an important gameplay element.

A full campaign takes about an hourish to complete, and it's split into 3-4 (I believe) segments.

When injured badly, your movement speed drops and you gimp around. Animation is very, very well done. It is also incredibly satisfying to see the zombies drop when you shoot em. I don't ever recall seeing a repeated death animation for any of em. I'm sure repeat animations are used, but I saw hundreds of zombies die, and it's done well enough that it all looks very dynamic.

The AI Director that the devs talk about works like a charm. I wouldnt've noticed it, but the swells/lulls of gameplay keep things very interesting. Nobody was bored playtesting this game, but nobody was overwhelmed either. You form a really quick camraderie with your other party members.

If you have any other specific questions, feel free to shoot them to me via a comment. I spent a lot of time in the L4D booth so chances are I have an answer. ;]

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• showdown
• lan
• lanparty
• showdownlan
• 2007
• pc
• gaming
• left
• 4
• for
• dead

[wowzerss]

hey lennox how syched were u when u first saw L4D in action?

[dmaksim]

Well, I knew a few weeks before the event that L4D would be playable there, so I had some time to prepare myself. I was still amped up enough to hurdle over other attendees so as to be the first in line to play, though. =)

[12yearoldwithanRPG]

Wikipedia says that L4D's coming out this summer of 2007, IS that true?

[dmaksim]

As of today (July 10th) there's still no official release date. ETA is just "when it's done"... though the devs at the booth made it sound like this year was a pretty sure thing.

[kukbulle]

Is there ragdoll physics? I can see death animations, but when the infected fall down from a building it looks like ragdoll.

[dmaksim]

I was asking about that myself- if I recall correctly the game does use ragdoll physics combined with a buttload of other animation layers.

[DeathDjango]

Plasma pong is more like pong on drugs, lol.

[krhspeedy]

thats chris and carlos at 0:41 nice!

[Catmangamer]

Left 4 Dead is a great game, stop whinning.

[Leonardo6BR]

Im talking serious, dont worry giving me bad "rank", because i know Im right, and valve sux.

[UB3RL33TCHICK3N]

Lol, h8ter

[Leonardo6BR]

L4D was better in the old version, the new version really sux, only the fuckingtards like the new version ¬¬

[lieing619]

whoa... nice@@

[ninethings]

Dreamhack is better.

[Max4T3hW1n]

i wanna find out more about the with boss!

[DeathDjango]

Of which game?