Be Excellent To Each Other

I think a lot of it's down to "Coool look what I can do now I'm a [boss zombie]" at first.

I haven't had this level of giddyness while playing a game for a long time. That's what does it for me.

Yeah, that wore off fast for me the fifteenth time I was killed before getting anywhere near the survivors.

This game has been playtested and balanced and polished to a level I have rarely seen.

Will anyone be around for a game at stoopid o'clock?

I probably will be. I'm working late tonight, playing late, then fucking off work in the morning.

Indeed. It's not easy being creepy, but it's incredible how fast you can bring down the survivors when you perform a well executed attack. Get a couple of them on the ground, keep spawning and attacking to confuse and agitate them. If you don't finish them that time, at least they'll be significantly weakened for the next attack. Pure guerilla warfare

Despite the boomer being incredibly easy to use, my preferred specials are the smoker and hunter. There's a sadistic sort of pleasure you get from stalking the survivors like a wolf till one strays too far from the flock and you can seize the opportunity to attack.

I still haven't settled on a favourite yet — I love playing them all.

The Hunter I enjoy because it's up close and you're fragile. You have to time it perfectly, and you can strike from a distance by aiming upward before you jump, or sit at a high vantage point and strike weak players as they fall behind.

I love the Smoker because I've always been fond of ranged attacks. You can pick stragglers off from a distance, and with much less noise than the Hunter's attack; you can often drag people from the pack without the others noticing.

The Boomer I love because if you manage to sneak up on the survivors, you can cause absolute havoc in a single attack. It doesn't matter if you get blown up after that; your work is done. And in one respect, getting blow up saves you having to wait for their monstrous cooldown to finish.

And the Tank? Well, what isn't fun about storming into the survivors and pummelling them or throwing rocks/cars at them from a distance? Run into a straggler and they're utterly screwed, and even a well-coordinated group can find themselves crushed if they mess up.

I love it.

I can't decide if the Hunter is better used to jump into a tight pack of survivors and scatter them. I think his pounce knocks people back. If you can combine that with a horde rush, you open up the survivors.

You touched on another little tactical delight Wullie - deciding, as infected, if you should spawn and attack on your own (to keep the survivors off-balance) or pull back, wait, and regroup. Rarely a simple decision, but one you have to make in seconds.

The smoker is easily my favourite. Offers the best opportunity for breaking up a cohesive pack of survivors, and for taking apart a well-defended position.

I was getting almost nothing but hunters until the last level last night.

Thanks guys, lots of help and protection from all and I really enjoyed playing. Going to go through it on single player a bit more I think so I can get the hang of the controls a bit better.

Yeah, it's even fun playing with people who are new to the game as you get a real sense of achievement helping them through it.

The best advice I can give, though, is: use your melee attack a lot.

Use it to knock hunters off people; use it on your team-mate if they're in the grasp of a Smoker's tongue; use it with your back against a wall to fend off incoming zombies as you reload; use it to shove a boomer to a safe distance before you kill him, so nobody gets splashed; use it to stop a pouncing Hunter dead in his tracks. It's a fantastically versatile and useful attack.

Don't try it on tanks or witches though!

Malibu!

Thanks for the advice though, I need to think more tactically.

Damnit!

You're good at that. A number of times as a boomer, I couldn't wait for the vomit to recharge, so I ran in hoping someone would snap-shot me. You never fell for it!

Heh. And every time I did that, I'd yell "Take that, Gaywood!" down the mic.

I have the Horde, Tank, and Witch music on my phone now. Trying to decide which will be ringtone and which alarm. The Tank music works great for either of those, but the Witch music has her crying over the top of it, so might get some funny looks in public.

I'll put mp3 and m4r versions up tomorrow for anyone who wants it.

You're the biggest nerd I know.

Incorrect. I'm actually quite short.

as the only game was full tonight, I went through the dev commentaries on No Mercy.

Quite interesting. Apparently each person has their own music, depending on whats happening. And the game measures stress levels of the players, and backs the horde off when they're too stressed, creating quiet bits for tension and a breather.

Crikey, that was a bit mental. Well done to Grim... in his initiation tonight.

I am tired and grumpy today because of you twats (good fun though).

Had a late night game with Wullie last night. Unfortunately his headset was borked so we couldn't get co-ordinated. Still fun though until the final act of no mercy when the AI were next to fucking useless, after about 5 attempts to finish I had to give up (sorry Wullie!)

Highlights though were finding the Tank stuck in a vent in the lift shaft posing no threat at all PEW! PEW! MOFO! & managing to startle EVERY witch in the game.

LOL being punched clean off the top of the building by the tank.

NONLOL Wullies headset. Myps being a fanny.

Pfft, I was already three hours up past my bedtime.

Oooh, what's mine?

DIDNT STOP YOU PLAYING FALLOUT3 THOUGH EH? EH!?

"All Night Long" by Lionel Ritchie.

Pfft, I played it for about 20 mins before passing out. I couldn't do an hour of L4D.

Our responses are out of sync

Fearne Cotton.

Now I've become cross-threaded!

I was going to come on, but I fell asleep

Fuck yeah, that game is fun. Apparently, no-one wants to be stuck with me when the real zombie apocalypse comes.

Craster: Okay, they're all shut behind this door now. Let's get going. Who needs health?
Me: Wait, there's still more behind the door? Let's go and finish them off!
Craster: We don't need to go...
Me: HERE I COME, MOTHERFUCKERS! [dakkadakkadakkadakkadakkadakkadakka]

That was great. We had Grim...'s crazy "WE MUST KILL EVERY ZOMBIE IN THE GAME" gung-ho charging, myp's uncanny ability to ensure there was someone between him and the bad guys the whole time, and me and Morte in the middle looking confused.

I SAVED YOUR ARSES SO MANY TIMES.

Well you could see our arses, what with you being twenty paces behind the action at all times.

43 bloody Hunters I killed!

Wullies Shopping List:

Haggis
Irn Bru
Smack
Buckfast
String Vests (3 pack)
New headset
Tartan paint

That's because I was nowhere near you when you kept setting her off. I'd already crept round!

Where are the zombie kids? Packs of the little sods would be great.

There should be a zombie zoo level too, or theme park (with obligatory route through the ghost house - that would be ACEBEST)

I should work for Valve.

Finding more survivors on the way, patching them up and sharing the weapons and shepherding them to the pick up would be a good game type too.

Really simple to implement I'd have thought as the finding respawned buddies in cupboards is already in there.

To be honest, they've got a really well-tuned game as it is. I'd rather them have got it spot on (which they have), than added loads of different game types that they couldn't spend the time getting right.

Yeah? Well I want more. So shut it.

Never happy.

Lets face it, everything is better if I'm involved, yeah?

Let's put it this way: why do you think we all made our excuses and left after you came online?

...I bet Wullies headset worked really too