Hamz

This post relates to: Left 4 Dead

So the highly anticipated survival-horror-coop-orientated-zombie-shooter from Valve was released today at 5am, in the UK anyway, and i was one of the brave, or sad, folks who stayed up to play it as soon as the game unlocked on Steam. And i haven't really stopped playing it since, infact its now nearlly 5pm and i've only just logged out to write this blog and share my thoughts.

First of all this game is intense and one thing i cannot stress enough is play it with people you trust. When there is so much going on, whether its a screaming horde of regular zombies or some devious zombie jumping out the shadows with a blood curdling howl as it pummels you to the floor. You really need to have people on your team to back you up when things get tough. I've been fortunate enough to play alongside a bunch of friends on Steam aswell as being unfortunate enough to play alongside a bunch of random people aswell. L4D is a game that really relies heavily on players knowing, trusting and being familiar with one another to achieve success against the undead. To use a term from MMO's it just doesn't end well if you have to PUG (pick up group) your way through the game.

The AI Director in the game is very clever and you find yourself experiencing a different style of gameplay each time you play one of the chapters in the 4 campaigns. I also found its very unforgiving too stupid players. In true horror movie style you'll get ripped apart if you stray too far ahead of the group or if you stray too far behind and hold the group up. One unfortunate French player in a group i was in kept straying behind to try and find pipebombs while the rest of us kept moving. Needless to say he was set upon by a group of somewhat pissed off zombies and we had to come back and rescue him a number of times. Sure we could have waited for him but like the old saying goes, "We can't stop here, this is bat country!"....or something along those lines. No two playthroughs ever really feel the same and you'll find yourself really saying "oh shit" when you walk outside the safe house into the loving arms of a Tank. And when you try to run back into the safe house and close the door you find the loving AI director has decided the door cannot be closed....

My only real gripes with the game, if you can consider them that, is that it left me wanting more. I didn't really feel satisfied after playing through each campaign and while yes i still have to go through them all again to get some of the campaign specific achievements. I really wished it was a little longer but i imagine thats where the higher difficulty settings and friends will add a lot of replay value to the game. The other thing is the variety of weapons on offer to help you ease the suffering of the ravenous hordes of undead you encounter. In a word there is very few weapons to be honest. You have the tier 1 set consisting of a basic pump action shotgun, uzi submachine gun and pistol(s) where as the tier 2 set consists of an M16, automatic shotgun and scoped hunting rifle. While secondary weapons such as pipebombs, molotov cocktails, petrol tanks and gas canisters can also be found dotted around the place.

It just seems a little boring at times when you come across the same suspiciously placed M16, hunting rifle and automatic shotgun in every safe house or obscure room in a building within each campaign's chapters. All the while starting off with the same choice of basic shotgun and uzi. I like variety in my options to kill the undead and L4D is somewhat limited in what it offers to carry out such mass slaughtering. I really do hope Valve bring out some updates before the new year to add in some more weapons and perhaps afterwards add in some more maps and campaigns to lengthen the experience. Because L4D is an awesome experience, it has such great atmosphere and replay value that the addition of extra content like new maps and weapons would increase that replay value and general great experience you have when you play the game.

If you've ever played Portal, another of Valve's creations, you'll probably remember the various hidden rooms and areas with messages written on the walls. Ramblings of previous participants in GLaDOS's cruel game like rats in a maze. Well L4D is similar to this in that if you take time to look through the many safe houses and levels you'll come across some entertaining messages such as "We waited for as long as we could, headed to Mercy Hospital, meet us there, Love...." and its these minor little details to the level design that help build up this atmosphere of solitude and despair. Even though you have 3 companions with you at all times you really can't help but feel alone in what is a city full of death, or undeath if you want to be picky.

Dialogue in L4D is immense. There is just tonnes of it and if you look in the games directory you'll see just how many sound files of dialogue each suvivor has. Like many of Valve's games the dialogue is of top quality and the voice acting is spot on. Facial animations and the general appearance and feeling you get from the survivors is very reminiscent of Alyx Vance in Half-Life 2 yet greatly improved. If there is one thing Valve does really well its bring a great deal of life and personification to its NPC's and characters in their games. Even the zombies have a degree of quality to them that makes you think "ok that could be a real zombie, even though i know its a bunch of pixels and code in a game". The general tone, feel and atmosphere within the game is greatly enhanced by the music that tends to pick up in a dramatic crescendo to let you know that something bad is coming your way.

Multiplayer in L4D comes in the form of Versus mode which i dabbled in briefly. It was fun to play as one of the infected and try to totally lick Zoey with my super long tongue, she was having none of it, but i couldn't help but feel it was way to one sided in favor of the infected. But it was somewhat fun when we utterly destroyed the survivors just outside their safe house and found ourselves suddenly in the same situation when the teams swapped over. Versus was fun but i think i'd much rather play coop on expert as the Versus mode just seems to me to be the player vs player, the multiplayer aspect to appeal to those few who must be able to play against other people and not a clever AI system. It just after awhile felt boring to either A.) Be constantly ripped apart only a few feet from a safe house door or B.) Keep spawning as a Hunter and wait 20 seconds sometimes to respawn.

Even though i have a few issues with L4D i think they can really be sorted out by further updates and support from Valve to both balance the game yet add too and extend the replay value of the game much like they have done with TF2. A few regular updates to add new maps, chapters or campaigns aswell as weapons and i'll be happy. Perhaps they can improve on the Versus mode aswell by maybe adding more maps or gameplay modes, who wouldn't want CTF with zombies? Overall though L4D is fucking awesome and if you haven't bought it or played the game yet then you suck and should hang your head in shame. Buy this game now and get in on the zombie killing action because its boat loads of fun!

Anyway here is a list of weapons i think would be cool to have in L4D, even if they are available for specific chapters or campaigns....

• Chainsaw - Iconic weapon of any zombie game and a powerful one for close combat. Refueled by using the contents of the many petrol cans dotted around the levels in the game and providing a small dilema for players. Is it worth them refueling the weapon or saving the petrol cans to use against waves of zombies?
• Revolver - Upgrade the pistol(s) to a more powerful handgun thats a little slower at reloading and obviously has fewer shots to fire.
• MP5 - Used by most police and security forces worldwide it would make sense to come across it in various levels of the game where we find police cars and such like.
• Flashbang - Again used by police forces as a method of crowd control it could provide a group a few seconds extra to reload, regroup and such like as it stuns the zombie hordes.

Hamz

Hey all its your friendly neighbourhood moderator here, just felt like writing up a little open letter style blog to you all. The community here is the lifeblood and pulse of the site, its what keeps it running and going forward. Its probably the most important aspect of the site because without you, us, all we wouldn't have a place to call GiantBomb. So i guess i felt like writing a blog to share a few things with you all, mainly how the site and community from my perspective has changed into what it is now....

On July 21st 2008 the internet witnessed the birth of GiantBomb. A one of a kind and truly unique website for video game enthusiasts where they could all contribute to amassing a vast and varied amount of knowledge on video games and gaming culture. From Hamburgers, Princess Debut, Tea-Bagging and Mario to Double Jumps and Sega and much much more. In a Wikipedia style the site offers users the chance to really contribute to its development by submitting content in the form of images or details to a page of the Wiki. Attracting users from all over the globe and from other gaming related websites, GiantBomb became a new home for many.

In its initial days of launch the site was crazy, chaotic and full of such a positive energy. Everyone was psyched for what this place would have to offer and what its community would be like. The first thing everyone seemed to notice was a big lack of moderators on the forums as excitement soon faded to trolling and posting of images that made you wish you were blind so you could not see such horrors. But a few choice users from the community were chosen as the first Mods on the site, these guys are the current Forum Mods with the exception of TheBeast who we later had added to our small organised group. We were the first line of defense in trying to control the massive community on the forums and site in general.

As the site picked up pace so did the level of submissions coming in for the Wiki and our attention soon turned from focusing on the forums to helping the Staff deal with submissions in the queue. I remember they were crazy stressed out with the work load so we brought on some more users who are now the people you see as Wiki Mods. Even with the extra hands the submissions queue refused to decrease, it seemed at times as if every single submission we had to deal with had another five take its place. The main attraction of GiantBomb was begining to expand, take shape and become popular amongst the community.

All the while Jeff, Vinny, Ryan and Brad were trying to get editorial content up on the site while keeping us Modlings as we were back then under check, making sure they were there when we needed them. And i have to say they really did a great job in keeping us feel supported when things got tough with the Wiki queue. They really have done a great amount for GiantBomb and its community in both the quality of their reviews and the coverage and content they post in the form of news, bombcasts and videos. I came to GiantBomb after following the fantastic four, as i call them, from Gamespot, it was awesome to be asked to Moderate on their site and even more amazing to actually get to chit chat with them and see them build this place up to what we have today. So to these fine chaps i say thanks, thanks for the awesome content you provide.

The dev team who helped create the site also deserve a lot of praise as without them the site would just not exist or be of such a high quality as it is now. These guys really do put a lot of work and long hours into thinking about how they can improve every minor detail and fix every little bug you, the community, come across. Without their dedicated work we wouldn't have a working GiantBomb like we have now and i think its great that even now months after launch they are still working on new features, still tweaking and playing around with things like the forum layout to improve it and still fixing every bug as it creeps up. I tip my hat to these fine gents who work mostly behind the scenes!

Praise also needs to be given to you guys and girls, the people and users who make this site what it is. Without you all we wouldn't have such a great site as we have now. We wouldn't have a Wiki where every slight detail, however small, of a game is recorded, posted and appears within this massive database of knowledge. Its you guys that make this site worth coming back to time and time again and its why i continue to take part in the community, moderate the forums and interact with you all. There is such a great community here, a community that is ever expanding and evolving to greater heights.

However things haven't always been so smooth as some of you may remember. When the site first launch it was both energetic and yet chaotic. No moderators mean't anarchy on the forums and people generally acting like dicks as they trolled them. This was largely down to our focus being on the 90,000+ submissions in the queue and spending every moment of our time fixed on the task of reducing the turn around for submissions to twenty four hours and below. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into moderating that queue and at times a lot of sleepless nights were had just dreading how much the queue would have increased by the time we got up in the morning.

But with all of our attention focused on the queue we, the Forum Mods, had let things slip on the forums. We all remember the fantastic four saying they wanted the site to have a very relaxed and chilled out approach to moderaiton and that was a cool feeling for a lot of people coming from more stricter websites. But some felt that was a nod towards posting and acting how they wanted on the forums. Some decided to abuse that privilege of freedom we granted the community and in part it was our fault for focusing a little too long on the Wiki queue. A lot of things went on in the forums for too long unchecked and we should of put a stop to them earlier but we were otherwise preoccupied and i won't make any excuses, it was largely our fault certain activities went on when they shouldn't have.

After weeks of reviewing the forums carefully we decided to put an end to said activites and we struck hard with the moderations. It caused an uproar with accusations of power abuse, fascism and the phrase "nazi mods!". With the closing of a certain topic it seemed a small group of the community was livid with the Forum Mods and specifically a select few of us. And it seemd a day didn't go by where a new topic, private message or wall post was sent by that small group sharing and showing their dislike and hate for us. It became pretty difficult to feel motivated enough to take part in the community when all we got was negative vibes from them.

We half expected such a feeling but not for so long or so strong. And it came to a point where, for me personally, i just got really angry at the way people reacted in such a negative and in some cases rather volatile manner. It became hard to really feel motivated to actually take part in anything as it seemed every second comment somehow turned into an argument about the same old subject. And then Jeff popped in one day into the Mod IRC channel and had these inspirational words to say....

"Being a moderator is just like being a video game reviewer. People will always criticise your work and say they can do a better job. The trick is to just accept you'll get such responses and don't dwell on it"

Wise words indeed and words that seemed to cause a spark of motivation in the Forum Mod team. We began to take a more active role again in the community as it seemed the community had began to accept a specific topic would not be returning, anytime soon atleast. And the communication breakdown between Mods, Staff and Users seemed to pick up again as everyone become more well informed amongst the community as to what was going on. Things were perking up and have done ever since, the community here at GiantBomb has just gone from strength to strength.

Its great to see how the forums have turned from a somewhat spam orientated place for trolls to a more "quality over quantity" style of posting topics and replying to them. The quality of the forums in general has increased, discussion that takes place is more mature, more organised and all round better than it once was. And i put that down to a combination of cutting out the, for lack of a better word and because its dramatic, cancer that had infected the forums in the form of trolls and users with the sole purpose of being dicks on the forums for no reason other than "lulz" according to them. And the fact that through better Mod and User interaction through the community IRC and regular stickies regarding issues and such like things have been made clearer for everyone.

Overall i guess what i'm trying to say is i love the GiantBomb site, i love its content and most of all i love the community here. Its all just really bloody awesome and i look forward to seeing what the future holds for us all. And god knows i've moderated a number of you in the past and you still speak to me so really i have to say thanks for being awesome about that, its always difficult to moderate someone you know or are friendly with. But its made easier if the other person understands, so GiantBomb community give yourself a pat on the back, you've all done a fine job. Whether your a User, Moderator or member of the Staff, congratulations to all for making this place awesome!

Community made stuff you MUST take a look at!

• The Community is still a threat - A topic dedicated to many community features, originally started by the community manifesto topic created by Lies, MattBodega, TokyoChicken and DualReaver.

1. Bomb Should Have a Face aka BSHAF - The official second best podcast here on GiantBomb. Started by MattBodega, TokyoChicken, Jensonb and Disgaeamad. Its continually improved every episode and had such famous faces from around the site on as guests like Dave Snider, MB, Sweep, Jayge, Lies and myself to name a few! I strongly suggest if you haven't listened to this podcast yet then you totally should because otherwise....your so 12, or just a big derelict!
2. Bombing Run - A Community game night originally started by MattBodega but has since been passed onto the hands of Systech to organise and handle. If your interested in playing some awesome games alongside your fellow users here at GiantBomb then i recommend you keep an eye out for the weekly topic relating to the next Bombing Run and get your details posted in there if you want to take part. Great fun to take part in for sure!

• List of GiantBomb users Spore Tags - Created by SuperMooseman to provide users here who are fans and players of Spore the chance to share each others content and have general chit chat regarding Spore and such like. Worth looking into if your a fan of Spore.
• 360 Gamertag Topic - A place for all Xbox360 users here on GiantBomb to share their gamertags and get added to each others friend list so you can all chill out and play some games together. If you own a 360 then i strongly suggest you look into this topic, always some friends to be found here. Started up by Kindgalaxy.
  
• Gamerscore Leaderboard - This topic contains the gamerscore of GiantBomb users on the Xbox360, chuck in your details and see where you rank compared to your fellow users here on the site! Created by Gorillawhat.
  
• Playstation Networkd ID's - Just like the Gamertag topic this one focuses on users sharing their PSN ID's to others within the community so people can hit each other up online and have some fun. Created by Flam3Thr0w3r.
  

  Picture courtesy of Ravey after i accidently lost my first edition of this blog by hitting the back button without saving a draft.....shame on me!
• Beta Code Topic - Created by fellow Forum Mod, BoG, this topic is for users to post requests for beta codes for games or to share extra codes they may have recieved so more of the community can get in on some beta action. Worth a look if your having a hard time finding a code for a games beta.
• Defusing the Bomb - The Forum Mod's very own community sticky where we provide a link to the recent and brand new yet still shiney Forum FAQ. Plans are also to include news, announcements and a thought of the week to it aswell. A FAQ for the Wiki section of the site is in the works aswell and will hopefully be added once its finished so keep an eye on this sticky. Also we would seriously appreciate some feedback from you guys and girls on the Forum FAQ, either leave the feedback as a comment to this blog or send me a PM, either way all criticism and such like is appreciated. But i strongly recommend you read that FAQ, if only so you know some of the basic rules we have here.
• Community IRC Channel - An IRC channel set up by the community for the community, suggest you go check it out. Lots of friendly people in there plus some of us Mods make a venture in on a regular basis. And guess what? Its not moderated by the Moderators on the site so feel free to chat to us in there without worrying about anything!
• The Force Unleashed Mega Guide - A mega guide for the game TFU created by Lies, Systech, Pyromaniac and SpikeDelight. Proof that this community can achieve great things with a little effort. Just utterly amazing, if ever you needed a guide for this game then this is the one to use!
• Trivia - Another great feature on the site is the trivia quiz which has user submitted questions. Can be a helluva lot of fun if you find yourself bored, also a great way to make use of the Wiki feature on the site and improve your gaming knowledge. Definately worth checking out.
• Guides - Aswell as having a highly detailed and devleoped Wikipedia of gaming related knowldge on the site we also have an awesome feature for users to write up and create their own guides for games or aspects within a game. Got a tip on how to beat that final boss in a game? Then write a guide on how to do it, publish it and let the community rate and respond to it!
• Lets Play! - Play a free game, come back, discuss and rate. The new revamped version, worth checking out and having a look at!
• GiantBomb Caption Contest - Something thats just started up, and something worth taking a look at for a few laughs and some fun. Pictures, captions, contests, nuff said! Created by SuperMooseman
• Friend Codes Topic - Much like the PSN ID's and 360 Gamertags we also have a Wii Friends Code topic for all you Ninty fans out there to share and hook up and play some games people. Created by Arkthemaniac
• GiantBomb Staff Photo Edit Topic - A topic created by the much loved and now less active BiffMcBlumpkin for users to show off their photoshops using pictures of the Staff. Sort of creepy yet mildly entertaining none the less.

Big thanks goes to TokyoChicken for providing me most of the links and usernames for the creators of the various Community topics and projects, even if he laughs like a little 12 year old girl. Also a thanks to Virago for thinking it would be a good blog to post, just sorry i didn't get that picture onto my PC like i said i would. Anyway i hope you all have some fun reading this and realise your all apart of something epic here, so enjoy it!

Hamz

EDIT! - Totally forgot to thank everyone who has left a wall comment or sent me a PM supporting my new attempt to give up smoking. Cheers for all the support people, i shall hopefully overcome the nicotine!

This post relates to: Call of Duty: World at War

So after recieving a code for the beta and putting a few hours into the game i figured i'd write up a small summary of how i feel about it based on the four or five hours i've spent playing it. And i have to say my initial impressions of the game based on this beta are pretty low, i'm not feeling the love at all for COD:WaW if i'm being perfectly honest with you all. I know that its a beta and having taken part in a large number of them i know the quality of a game in its beta stage is never really that great. But a beta is essentially a demo of sorts and as the saying goes, first impressions are everything.

WaW is pretty similar to COD4 in terms of its performance on my PC and its visuals which are really good. Thats always a big plus in my book, a game which runs well and looks good when settings are turned up on an older and somewhat aged PC like mine is. The WW2 setting is also pretty cool aswell, i didn't think i would enjoy it that much as i tend to fall into the anti-WW2 games camp most of the time.

However thats really all i did like about the beta for WaW. The gunplay, kill streak awards, perks and general gameplay is far too similar to COD4, infact i think the best way to summarise WaW is that its COD4 with a paint job. A lot of the perks are similar or exact copies of COD4's, the challenges aswell, the way in which players can call in recon planes, artillery strikes or dogs, yes dogs...but having been killed by them a few times i can only assume they are hounds from the pits of hell itself. All very reminiscent of COD4.

The artillery strikes i can deal with, they can be useful and provide some "lol" moments if you are killed by them, especially if a leg or arm gets blown off. But the recon plane seems weird in a WW2 setting and calling in dogs to essentially hunt down and kill the other teams players is frankly just fucking absurd. Surprisingly the dogs can be killed rather easily and didn't pose that much of a threat like the helicopter in COD4, but the constant barking they make and the fact there are killer dogs in WaW just put me off. Honestly who thought dogs would be an awesome kill streak reward?....fucking dogs?...why not just have Cerberus or Werewolves?

Then of course there is the gunplay and oh boy was this annoying for not only me but  a large number of people on the server i was playing on tonight. Generally aiming, recoil and the "feel" of the guns is all very strange. The gunplay in WaW's beta seems for lack of a better word, inconsistant. When a thompson SMG going "full auto" at long range can be more accurate than a rifle you have to question the ballistics physics in the game or the general hitbox issues it might have. Then of course there is the fact that rifles become 1-shot-kills instantly when a scope is attatched to them but require multiple shots when no scope is attatched. Strange to say the least.

Generally i just felt the gunplay in WaW was not that great, the weapons are not that exciting and aiming seems easier if you close your eyes completely. It pays more to just spray n pray and hope you hit something infront of you, and the chances are the bullet will go through 2 wooden doors, a sheet of metal and still grab you a headshot. Thats also another issue i found with WaW, the same issue i have with COD4, bullets going through the enviroment. It just seems too hit or miss and often left me thinking that nothing was safe to take cover behind which is annoying as FPS games need reliable cover. I refuse to reload my gun in the open and get killed by that god damn Xanos233 guy again!

But i will give WaW one big piece of praise over COD4 and thats the low amount of grenade spam i witnessed. In COD4 its almost guaranteed most of your deaths will be caused by grenades, not players actively shooting you with guns. In the case of WaW though i found pretty much all of my deaths were caused by bullets and not someone chucking grenades about like crazy. However i think WaW needs a new perk, the "Tent" perk, because god damn is it full of campers. So much so that i was too scared to leave my secret spot for fear of having 10 campers all pepper me with bullets. So in the end i just camped myself and waited for someone to walk past my explosives, but everyone else was too busy pitching tents and camping.

Overall i really feel from this beta that WaW is too similar to COD4 in a number of ways but yet isn't as good as COD4 in a number of ways so to put it in a more simple manner WaW for me was like a poor mans COD4. Its like pepsi to coca cola, we all know they look and taste the same but cola is clearly and obviously the better choice out of the two. I know its only a beta and things will likely improve but as i said at the start, first impressions are everything.

Hamz

This post relates to: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Mount & Blade, Team Fortress 2, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, Peggle Deluxe, Crysis Warhead, Are you going to give up World of Warcraft for Star Wars: The Old Republic?

Been bloody ages since i blogged so figured i'd make one, let those interested know what i've been up to and i've been up to a lot. From gaming to working to becoming single again, yeah nearlly 5 years sort of finished last week so ladies, i'm taking names and numbers :P. Trying not to dwell on it too much but rather difficult anyway...

What i've been playing...

• Crysis Warhead
• Peggle
• TeamFortress 2
• Age of Conan
• Mount & Blade

Warhead's single player was pretty good and the game overall i felt was better than Crysis by a long shot. Plus it runs better which is always a big positive for any PC game. The multiplayer was a bit of a headache as i couldn't get it to run in Steam then it just worked one day, not played much of it but i did enjoy the brief minutes i played.

Started playing Age of Conan again after a recent patch on Sept17th, the games major bugs seem fixed and its now just up to FunCom to balance classes and add more content to the game. Cancelled my subscription until they release the huge patch they've been testing on the Testlive servers.

Decided to shell out the cash for Mount and Blade since its a little gem of a game in my opinion and one thats usually overlooked or shunned by most gamers. A very simple game with some great combat to it and plenty of mods out there to add extra content and generally make it a more fun game to play. Overall a good game and if you can spare the money then buy it, support the devs and help make this a better game :D!

Other than that i have just been working like a crazy fool to save up those pennies and now that i'm a single guy again i have to pay for everything myself, no 50/50 on the bills etc now. Started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender and finally finished it on Sunday night i think, really good TV Show and one of the few "anime style" cartoons i've enjoyed.

Now onto some more exciting news the KOTOR MMO has finally been announced with the official title of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I have to say i'm excited, really excited about this game and will be following it closely i think. I don't play World of Warcraft anymore but if i still did then yeah i'd stop playing it for this game, even though it'll be some time till its officially released. The more Star Wars games made the better i say.

And to finish i'd like to point everyone to a really kickass and awesome guide for The Force Unleashed thats been getting a lot of attention here at GiantBomb. I don't often say things like this but man, GameFAQ's eat your heart out, this guide really does crush a lot of the guides GFAQ's has to offer.

Link to the guide
Link to Jeff's news editorial

Credit goes to Lies, systech, pryromaniac congratulations guys for the awesome job.

Anyway see you all in room 0 on Thursday!