RF Generation Community Blogs

E3 2009: Left 4 Dead 2 Hands-On
We've been to Valve to play the sequel, and we've got plenty of details about what's new and what's different.

by Jason Ocampo

June 1, 2009 - By the time you read this, Valve will have announced the existence of Left 4 Dead 2 at Microsoft's E3 press conference. By watching the announcement trailer, you'll discover that there are new characters, special zombies, and even melee weapons like a chain saw. But if you want to learn more, read on, because we were at Valve last week to actually play through one of the sequel's campaigns (the E3 demo only features the first two levels of the campaign that we played), and we got all the bloody details.

Now it might seem unusual for Valve to be rolling out a sequel to Left 4 Dead so quickly; after all, the original game shipped on November 18. The sequel is due out on November 17, almost one full year later. However, Valve's Chet Faliszek (known almost universally in the industry as just Chet) told us that when they finished production of Left 4 Dead last year many of the developers had ideas they wanted to pursue for a sequel. And since Valve employees get to choose their next project, it quickly paved the way for Left 4 Dead 2.

Here's the quick summary: Left 4 Dead 2 will feature five new campaigns, as opposed to the original's four. Each campaign will have support for four-player co-op, as well as Versus mode and Survival mode. There is one new gameplay mode that is not being revealed at this time. There are four new characters, new weapons, entirely new melee weapons, and new items. On the flip side, there are new zombies, new special zombies, and a bunch of new gameplay mechanics designed to disrupt many of the tactics and exploits that players have discovered in the first game.

Left 4 Dead 2 is set in the American South; there's going to be more of a narrative thread that connects the campaigns this time around, as opposed to just the seemingly random campaigns of the first game. The story starts in Savannah and works its way to New Orleans. The Savannah campaign is intriguing because all Chet would say is that it's a city where the zombie infection hasn't hit yet. We played the New Orleans campaign, called The Parish. It represents the final map in the narrative: the goal is to battle your way through the city, including the famed French Quarter, to reach a military helicopter for extraction. In between, it sounds like there may also be a swamp-based campaign, but that's all we know for now.

The first thing that surprised us about The Parish is that it takes place in full daylight. Yes, the zombies may like to come out at night, but they're apparently not indisposed to tearing your guts out in the middle of the day. While it's weird to be battling zombies while the sun is still up, it's certainly pretty; there's something about the friscalating dusklight that makes you want to stop shooting zombies for half a second and just soak it all in. Not every campaign is set during the day, but it does make for a nice change of atmosphere. It also affects the gameplay, as zombies can behave differently during the day. The biggest example of that is the Witch; during the night she likes to sit and cry. However, during the day she likes to wander around like a homeless old woman and cry, and that's a big recipe for trouble. Chet says that the Wandering Witch has a nasty habit of showing up at the worst possible times -- say the middle of a frenzied zombie horde. You might not even notice her until it's too late.

Much of Left 4 Dead 2 is designed to shake the existing gameplay up. The crescendo moments from the first game turned out to be too easy to defeat. These are the times that you have to hit a switch that alerts the zombie horde; most people simple holed up in a corner with their teammates and simply rode out the storm. To eliminate camping as a tactic, the crescendo moments have been rethought. Now you might have to hit a switch that alerts the zombie horde, but then you have to battle your way through a mess of undead in order to hit a second switch that actually stops the zombies from swarming you. In another crescendo moment, there's no switch. Instead, there's a parking lot stuffed with cars, and every one of them has a car alarm. Now imagine that a swarm of zombies hits you while you're in the middle of this lot; you have to be very careful, or else a stray shot could make your predicament a lot worse, and things can cascade from there.

The finale of The Parish campaign is also a change from those found in the original game. There's no last stand while you wait for rescue; instead, you must battle your way across a lengthy highway bridge that's cluttered with cars, trucks, and zombies. It's a ridiculously fun blast to run through, as there are all sorts of hazards, including a lack of railings that could send you dangling off the edge (or, more likely, have a tank or charger send you flying off). There are also different routes that you can try and take, like climbing atop the tractor trailers.

The director will also have spatial control over parts of some levels. Yes, it can and will change the layout of the map to challenge you. The example in The Parish campaign is the cemetery; if you're familiar with New Orleans, you know that they don't bury their dead because the water table is so high; instead, cemeteries are full of crypts. Now the director can alter the layout of the cemetery based on how well you're doing. If you're doing poorly and need help, the route through the cemetery might be as simple as a straight line. If you're doing well, the cemetery is more like a maze and can lead to dead ends. The idea is you can't know the pattern beforehand every time you play.

While we're busy pouring on all the "good" news, let's mention the new zombies. There are going to be at least several new special zombies, though Valve is only talking about one for now: the Charger. The Charger is designed to defeat the tactic of the human players getting into a small room or other tight space and camping from there. Do that against the Charger, and you're in trouble, because he's a bull. He will get a good head of steam running and just slam into you; anyone he hits is knocked to the ground and vulnerable for a few seconds.

If the Charger also grabs hold of a survivor, he pile drives them into the ground repeatedly; the only way for the survivor to escape is for someone to help him. The Charger is not as tough as a tank, but he can take some damage. And while he's fast, he's not as maneuverable, so you can dodge him like a bullfighter dodging a bull. On a personal note, I can't tell you how many times the Charger caught me unaware from behind; one moment I was standing my ground and mowing down zombies and the next I was flying through the air. When a teammate yells out a Charger warning your head needs to be on a swivel. Then there are the hazmat zombies. These aren't special zombies; they're just guys who were in hazmat suits when they were infected. The thing is, though, they're immune to fire and incendiary weapons (more on that in a bit).

So you get the idea: Left 4 Dead 2 is going to be tougher. To make things fair, you're going to get new toys to play with. There are going to be new firearms to go along with the old ones; we played with a silenced submachine gun (the silencer has no gameplay affect; it just looks and sounds cool), a new assault rifle that we really liked because it felt tighter and more accurate than the existing one, a new scoped assault rifle that acts like a semiautomatic sniper rifle, and more. These weapons have slightly different characteristics, so it's not just a cosmetic change from the current arsenal.

Next, Valve is introducing melee weapons. We played with an axe and a frying pan, but there's going to be a chainsaw and a baseball bat as well. The idea behind melee weapons is that they can one-hit kill most of the special zombie types, but not the Tank or the Witch. This makes them useful if you're low on ammo or you're in a spot where lots of gunfire spraying around is a bad thing (like that aforementioned parking lot). Finally, there are going to be special items that can give you a temporary boost; in our case we got incendiary rounds that sets zombies aflame when you hit them. The thing is that you only get about 50 incendiary rounds before you run out, and you can't save them for later use. Once you get them, you have to use them.

You'll also play as four new characters. While Chet says that they still have great affection for the original Left 4 Dead four (Zoey, Francis, Louis, and Bill) and that they view them as the series' Gordon and Alyx (the central characters of Valve's Half-Life series), the new setting and campaigns demanded a new set of faces. So there's Nick, the guy in a flashy suit; Ellis, the mechanic; Rochelle, the girl; and Coach, the big guy. Rest assured that their dialogue and commentary is shaping up to be as fun and witty as before, and fans of HBO's The Wire might recognize one of the voices.

When you consider the amount of development time, Left 4 Dead 2 is a pretty impressive achievement. Valve is making a lot of tweaks and changes in such a short amount of time. The fact that there will be five campaigns rather than four is also a big plus, since the one thing almost every Left 4 Dead fan can agree on is that there could always be more campaigns. On a similar note, Chet noted that they were discussing including the original four Left 4 Dead campaigns with Left 4 Dead 2. The thinking is that this would make things easier for consumers. After all, if you and your buddies are playing Left 4 Dead 2 and you all want to play a campaign from the original game, it's an incredibly annoying and disruptive hassle to have everyone quit Left 4 Dead 2 and start Left 4 Dead if you're on a PC, or swap out the Left 4 Dead 2 disc for the Left 4 Dead disc if you're on an Xbox 360. User feedback would probably help sway Valve, so make sure to let the company know what you think. And despite the fact that Left 4 Dead 2 is a reality, Chet said that the company isn't abandoning the first game and that it has plans to support it in the future with new updates, like four-versus-four matchmaking.

We had a lot of fun playing through The Parish campaign; let's just say that there was a lot of screaming and yelling going on as something new hit us. Yet despite all the details we came away with, there are a lot more left to be unearthed. What are the other campaigns? What did Chet mean about Savannah being a city where the infection hasn't hit yet? What are the other special zombies? What are the other weapons and items? What's the new gameplay mode that Valve isn't talking about? Answers are sure to come in the coming months, but until then, we'll wait in eager anticipation for Left 4 Dead 2 on November 17.

A Brave New World As technology has developed through the years, the art of collecting in the video game arena has become a global experience. Our quest for that last game to complete a system library is no longer limited to local garage sales, flea markets and the rare 'Funcoland-type' retail stores. eBay, internet eCommerce sites and enthusiast forums have been the primary channels for these new purchasing gateways. This contemporary international marketplace provides great opportunities for us collectors, but also is accompanied by a bevy of questions, misnomers and technical challenges.
This article will focus on many of these fronts, but not from the typical collector's viewpoint as many posts do. We will be interviewing Eric Krust, a successful video game proprietor based in Japan. Eric is the owner and operator of Japan-Games.com and specializes in the selling of rare and obscure Japanese games and consoles. Many of the systems that you see featured in my collection are a direct result of transactions I have had with him over the past 4 years. He is a trusted ally and has agreed to take part in this interview to share some of his expertise and experience. Before the actual interview, a couple of possible assumptions might need to be dispelled. First, I am not affiliated with Japan-Games.com nor is this article intended to be an advertisement. No - I don't get any deals or commission or anything like as a result of this writing. In fact, it will possibly only increase competition for items that he sells that I want. I asked Eric to do this for the simple fact that I thought his input would be beneficial and a 'good read' for everyone. OK, enough of my bantering, on to the Q and A...

< MG > Thanks Eric for taking the time with me this afternoon to partake in this interview. Let's first tackle how you got into the video game business, as well as came to be based out of Japan. < EK > I think it all started with a copy of Samurai Showdown 2 for Neo Geo. I was in Japan and tooling around eBay and I noticed the game in auction. I remember seeing it for sale in a local game shop and realized that people were selling games from Japan. At that time I was an English teacher in Japan. My background was in real estate but I took a year off to do something interesting and now it's turned into 9 years....
< MG > Are you a collector yourself as well as a seller? Would you consider yourself a gamer? < EK > I'm a gamer but not a collector. I used to collect but when you have a warehouse full of games it seems kind of pointless. In a way everything I've sold is my collection. It might be temporary, but there is a sense of satisfaction to have owned so many rare consoles even if I don't have them anymore. I do have one collection that's nearly done with is a piece of software for every console ever released in Japan. I'm about 90% done.... still waiting to get my hands on a CreatiVision title. As a gamer I play Xbox 360, usually Team Fortress 2 with my Japanese friends.
< MG > What are some of your favorite games as well as consoles, both retro as well as today's current generation? < EK > There are a lot of different ways to rank consoles. In terms of beauty I'd have to go with the Toshiba TVG-610 or the Hitachi VG-104. For sheer coolness it would have to be the Palcom Laserdisc system. For collecting I like anything obscure like the EPOCH Atari consoles or the Bandai Gundam PC. I also have a soft spot for all of the Sega Dreamcast special editions and Xbox special editions from Japan. I usually play Xbox or SNES/N64. I have a small amount of games that I usually play over and over again. In reality I like collecting information more than anything else. I'd bet that my photo database for Japanese video games is the largest in the world. What you see on my website now is probably less than half of what I have. One day my collection will be to have the most comprehensive Japanese video game database on the plant.... if I can ever figure out the right way to do that...	Palcom Laserdisc system Eric's right - this is a cool looking system!
< MG > Thanks for sharing some of your background with us Eric. Let's move on to some of the burning questions from the community - international shipping - how costs are calculated and what are are the various shipping/tracking methods available, along with the pros and cons of each? < EK > From Japan you can use EMS (3-5 days), SAL (3 weeks), or SEA (3 months). All have tracking. SAL and SEA don't offer insurance to all areas, notably the UK, Canada and Germany. It would be impossible to give all of the information in just one answer but this page will help: http://www.japan-games.co...hp?n=Information.Shipping. Cost can vary between Sellers. The fast-changing dollar-yen rate causes havoc with that sometimes.
< MG > Another hot topic is how to run a system released in Japan at my home - from electrical to television requirements. Can you break down what is needed for both North America and European nations? < EK > The US and Japan have no special requirements. You can plug in a Japanese console into a US outlet and vice versa without problems. One thing you should never do is mix and match power cables, though. Don't use an American plug in an American outlet on a Japanese console. Just use the Japanese plug and you'll be fine. Both countries are NTSC. The only issue you'll have to worry about is region protection. You can play older RF switch box games by using a regular composite cable and adapter and tuning your TV to channel 96. European requirements are more tricky. You will have to use a step-down transformer because the power is different and that can vary by region. You also have the PAL/NTSC issues with software.
< MG > We know about eBay, Chase the Chuckwagon, Craig's List and the like, but what exactly is Yahoo Auctions? Why is bidding/participation limited to people with shipping addresses in Japan? < EK > Yahoo is the dominant internet force in Japan. Because of that their Auction system is the dominant force in online auctions in Japan. eBay tried to break into the market about 10 years ago but never gained traction. Japan has natural barriers with language and geography. They have little to no practice using English beyond school textbooks and doing business over the internet is something they'll naturally shy away from because they won't ever fully understand the logistics of everything and their society has enough wealth where they can just sell to a Japanese Buyer and not worry about it. That's to say they don't need international Buyers. To them, selling to overseas Buyers is confusing, time consuming, risky, and of little financial benefit to them overall. They just don't see the benefit of opening up that can of worms for what amounts to a few extra dollars when they can just sell it to a Japanese person and not worry about anything. Proxy bidding services act as the middle man where there is something between the Buyer and Seller to facilitate the transaction for a small fee. That's really the only way that someone will be able to bid on Yahoo from overseas and actually have it be worth their time.
< MG > I have heard of proxy bidding services? What exactly is this and how does it work? < EK > The function of a proxy service is to complete the transaction in a way that's familiar to a Japanese Seller. The overseas Buyer places a bid and the proxy handles the transaction for them. The proxy will contact the Seller, make payment, receive the item in Japan, then ship it to the Buyer overseas. From the perspective of the Seller he's just sold it to a Japanese person living in Japan. Here's my proxy service: http://www.japan-games.co...rmation.YahooProxyBidding. This will also give more information and details regarding this service.
< MG > What three items do you pinpoint as being the largest contributors to your success as an international dealer? < EK > I'm assuming you're talking about business practices and not actual game related items? It's not really rocket science. Just know what you're selling, present it accurately and treat people fairly. Being professional in an inefficient marketplace goes a long way. There's still a lot of room for that. About half my sales are through repeat customers.
< MG > Say I am considering getting into the business of being a reseller of video games and related items. What would be three critical tips you would have for me? < EK > Know your product, test and present the product to eliminate all Buyer fears, then handle the business end of things professionally. Oh, yeah, and find a cheap source to buy from.... but good luck with that.
< MG > What about tips for being a successful buyer? And no, I am not asking you to give away any of your trade secrets, but feel free to do share some if you would like < EK > In reality all Sellers are really Buyers. Without good product then you'll never really be a Seller. You need to know what a good deal is and what isn't. You need to know a lot about your product because knowing one little change or special model is worth a lot more than others. You need to know rarity and be able to price things properly when there's sometimes no other sale to compare it to. The market goes up and down sometimes, so you need to know what will sell now and what won't sell now. Right now the financial crisis is hitting everyone, and the only good things selling are the rare consoles. A lot of the "standardized" items aren't selling at all. That means I'm not buying a lot of those items right now.
< MG > One final question. Where do you see the video game marketplace in the next 5 years? Will eBay alternatives like Chase the Chuckwagon continue to spring up on the internet? What about locally in our respective backyards - will we see more local retailers in this area? < EK > eBay will always be the dominant force. I've had a couple of websites for sales in the past but it takes a very, very long time to get it noticed and it takes a lot of money to advertise and keep the site running. In the end I knew I could just throw everything up on eBay and have it all sold in 10 days. So, that's what I did. There's always room for niche sites like Chase the Chuckwagon. I think they'll continue to grow. But in the end no matter how angry people are at eBay, no one can match their exposure. The other sites might be better, cheaper, more Seller friendly, but in the end it comes down to exposure and if you depend on a steady stream of sales to keep yourself in business it's hard to break away from eBay. I don't know enough about the video game marketplace overall to really comment on the industry as a whole, but one positive thing seems to be the small developers for the newer consoles, games you sometimes see in places like Xbox Live. The larger software developers have too much overhead that they tend to release the same titles over and over again as a safety net. The smaller titles with lower overhead can experiment more with being creative. When I bought my Xbox I never thought I'd spend so much time playing downloaded titles for under $10 that are just fun to play, games like Heavy Weapon, 3D golf, UNO, etc. I think those games are the heart and soul of gaming and it's getting a second chance. When people talk about their favorite games they almost never mention graphics but that's what the selling point is for newer games. People don't play Bomberman 20 years later because of the graphics, they play because it's entertaining. There will always be a need for the large companies to make games like GTA IV, but I think it's equally important to have the smaller shops making more entertaining titles to keep people interested in video games overall.
< MG > Thanks again for taking the time with us Eric and sharing some of your insights and knowledge with me and the community. It is definitely appreciated and I can confidently say that we all found it to be very beneficial. < EK > No problem. Glad to help out. Let me know if you have any follow up questions I can help you out with. Thanks!


As always, questions and comments are always welcomed. Inquiries that I am not able to answer I will forward to Eric for his assistance. This interview was not intended to be all inclusive based on time restraints on both of our ends. I do hope you found it as interesting as I did though. Thanks and happy gaming!