I’m a some-time reader of webcomics. There are a fewthat I followreligiously, and couple more that I have on my feed but don’t really pay all that much attention to. I would hardly call myself an expert on the subject. That said, I do enjoy a good webcomic when I see one. Here’s a quick round-up of the Left 4 Dead themed comics that I’ve found myself looking at over the last few days. I have no doubt that there are more out there so if you’ve seen one that I haven’t please post a link in the comments. Thanks!
Rooster Teeth (Red Vs. Blue):
Backward Compatible:
VG Cats:
Nerf NOW!! (There is actually a short series of L4D comics here, beginning with the following):
Came across this yesterday, but forgot to write about it. Apparently someone’s 9-year-old cousin has written a review of L4D. Here’s the reviewer’s impression of the logo:
I suspect foul play here. I mean, that 9-year-old has suspiciously under-developed MSPaint skills. Besides, L4D has already reached a much younger audience:
I think this clip is hilarious, but if you want to complain about bad/irresponsible parenting you can do so on the original blog post. It also features another video of the same litte boy (whose name is Aiden) playing Garry’s Mod.
Just came across this marvelous video which dispenses valuable advice about playing the Smoker in versus mode. Great advice, watch out for the brilliant elevator drag about 2:30 in.
More youtube trawling lead me to the following two videos which I think deserve more attention. They’re both by a player called ‘Metal’ and he has a particular talent for dropping onto survivors from a great height. If you can stand loud thrash metal music, these videos are well worth watching:
Personally, I’m looking forward to the days when most players are this good at Hunter-ing. Right now spawning as a hunter usually results in groans of ‘not again‘, as most of the time hunters are the first to die in an infected assault. Mastering jumps like this will definately add a little spice to gameplay. In fact, I’m off to practice right now!
Ok, so this isn’t L4D related. It’s TF2 related though, and that’s close enough. Plus, I have a soft spot for 8-bit looking flash games. I give to you: Buddy Base II!
Going through the videos that have been popping up left, right and center since L4D was realeased reveals quite a lot about the player base. There are those whose sole aim seems to be to break the game in as many ways as possible. The cheapest of these are the 360 cheat videos. I will concede that setting this up on a console requires some degree of knowledge and dedication. Using cheats in an online match though? Not cool. Thankfully this has mostly been stamped out with a recent update. The video embedded below is only really worth watching for the gigantic Francis at the beginning:
In an adjacent sub-group to the outright cheaters are those who love exploits and glitches. By now, I suspect that every single ledge, piece of rubble and telephone pole has been climbed on, scrambled over or edged down by intrepid survivors. While I have to admire the tenacity and ingenuity of the players who find these map glitches/exploits, those who take them and use them to skip large sections of the map confound me with the action. Here’s an example: On No Mercy 3 (Sewers), the crescendo event is a marvelous spectacle. You’ve got the slow climb of the lift, followed by a rooftop dash across a loading dock into the warehouse opposite. Brilliant. Sure, you can use your melee attack to break down the rolling garage door at the bottom and bypass that entire section… But why? One of the major draws of L4D for me is the cinematic nature of the encounters, as well as the stories you end up having to tell afterwards. The huge set pieces are the entire point of the levels, and definately not something that you should be proud of skipping. At least when people post these glitches up on sites like youtube it publicizes them, so hopefully they can be fixed in an upcoming update. Here’s hoping.
That video also made me go ‘huh?’ by putting the TF2 music over a L4D video. Huh?
Call your friends, break out the champagne and party! No, not because it’s Christmas, Festivus, Kwanza or any other of those generic Winter holidays. You should be rejoicing because this blog, Francis Hates Everything, has gone live! Yay!
Ok, there isn’t much here to celebrate yet but over the days, months and maybe even years to come I will be posting articles, links, videos and thoughts about Left 4 Dead, Valve’s fantastic zombie shooter.
If you’re looking for something to do while you’re here, try clicking the ‘Random’ button up at the top of the page. If you have your speakers turned on, you’ll quickly discover why this site is called Francis Hates Everything!
