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MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,368
8,948
a better place
Downloaded the 360 demo also and can confirm that IMHO it was indeed awful, especially in single player (with Computer Controlled Allies) and I also thought the multiplayer was meh!

Maybe it's just a poor demo, but If I was to judge whether to spend my cash on it - then I'll be keeping my wallet closed....

However different boats for different folks, and i'm sure others will love it.... just not me...
 

ildondeigiocchi

macrumors 6502a
Dec 30, 2007
695
0
Montreal
left 4 dead is a terrible game! downloaded the 360 demo it was rubbish not because it was on 360 but because it was a rubbish game!

I dont know how you could trash such a game. It is incredible. I don't know what demo you played but it sure as hell wasn't Left 4 Dead. I have a Mac Pro 08 and maxed it out. Gameplay and gfx are terrific.
 

CJM

macrumors 68000
May 7, 2005
1,536
1,057
U.K.
Downloaded and tried the demo today. It was fun and kept me amused for a few hours. Kind've a mash-up of Resident Evil, Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later zombies (i.e. the worst/nastiest of each :p) But I'm not sure I'd be willing the pay the asking price. Tad expensive for something that is based on existing technology. With the Orange Box you got a range of games for a reasonable price.
 

palebluedot

macrumors 6502a
Jun 29, 2008
738
91
The first mistake you all made was playing FPS games with a controller and not on a PC.

The second (and worst) mistake you made was to PLAY A VALVE GAME ON A CONSOLE. LOL. Valve is single handedly carrying PC Gaming forward while the rest of PC games are dying out to cheap consoles. Always, always use Steam/PC when playing Valve games.
 

stuff99

macrumors 6502
May 11, 2007
394
0
can this game run on my 20" iMac, xp side?

2.4ghz core 2 duo and 1.5gb ram.

i have the ATI Radeon HD 2600 256MB
 

JackAxe

macrumors 68000
Jul 6, 2004
1,535
0
In a cup of orange juice.
You're fine. The Source engine was originally built around ATI 9xxx GPUs and P4s. Your Core2 Duo is substantially more powerful than the CPUs from that time and your GPU is 3 generations newer that its original target specs.

If anything, there's always settings to adjust.
 

Jack Flash

macrumors 65816
May 8, 2007
1,160
7
can this game run on my 20" iMac, xp side?

2.4ghz core 2 duo and 1.5gb ram.

i have the ATI Radeon HD 2600 256MB

I've been running the demo at 1680x1050 everything maxed, save for no AA and 2x AF getting 30+ FPS Tripple Buffered VSYNC
 

vagarach

macrumors member
May 14, 2007
52
0
JackAxe, just remember, Source got a huge overall with the orange box. It isn't the same Source that shipped in 2004 which was so frugal even a nVidia RivaTNT2 could (barely, almost) run it.

Source is no longer in the realm of pentium 4 and radeon 9000.

But I think any generation intel imac, macbook, macbook pro, or mac pro (this one is a big DUH ;) ) should be able to run Left4Dead, it just may not be at native resolution.

My first run SR mbp, with 2.2Ghz C2D, 4GB ram, 128MB 8600MGT, Vista 32bit runs Left4Dead at 1440x900 with everything on except AA and aniso. As a bonus, cpu core temp only goes up to 70C and stays there.
 

JackAxe

macrumors 68000
Jul 6, 2004
1,535
0
In a cup of orange juice.
That's why I mentioned originally and settings. ;)

It was only meant as a reference, since some of these newer games are built on 3D engines that are either "sloppy seconds" from a console, or engines like Crysis that tax most current PCs. So there should be no worries about it being a poorly optimized hog that barely recognizes more than 2 cores -- if even that, or just a massive resource hog even on lower settings.

I still haven't bought this game yet. My demo expired. I'm waiting for two of my close friends to grab a copy and I just picked up The Witcher Enhanced. :)
 

irishgrizzly

macrumors 65816
May 15, 2006
1,461
2
I played "Blood Harvest" campaign last night with 4 random players. So many freak out, ****, **** ****!! moments. I love this game.

I played on a mac pro 8800, but from what I hear this game down scales down well to lower spec machines.
 

quaz

macrumors newbie
Jul 3, 2008
4
0
I'm trying to play Left4Dead on an iMac (24", 3.06, NVIDIA 8800 GS) with no luck. I can watch the intro movie, then it crashes to the desktop on the loading screen. I tried forcing it to start in windowed mode but still no luck.
 

quaz

macrumors newbie
Jul 3, 2008
4
0
Got it working with the following from this thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1595829&tstart=15

1) Download the drivers for your version of the operating system at nvidia.com.
2) Run the installer. It will install the driver files in C:\NVIDIA, but the installer will fail saying it cannot find a compatible graphics card. That is expected.
3) Quit the installer.
4) Right click on your Desktop, go to Properties.
5) Click on "Settings " Tab at the top.
6) Click "Advanced" button,( it will be just abouve the "Apply" button.)
7) after that, click on the "Adapter" tab at the top, (the second tab)
8) Click Properties in the Adaptor Type section.
9) Click the Driver tab in th Properties window.
10) Click Update Driver.
after that, choose the radio button, No, not this time, click "next" after that.
choose "install from a list or specific location." radio button and click next.
select "Dont search, I will choose the driver to install" and click next.

13) Click the "Have Disk.." button.
14) Browse to "C:\NVIDIA\*winxp*\169.35\English". (*winxp* - this folder name might be different on yout computer.
15) Select nv_disp and click Open.
16) Now click OK.
17) Scroll down and select NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTx.
18) Follow the rest of the prompts to install the driver. Windows will warn you that it cannot gaurantee that the driver you installed will work with the hardware, but I can because it works for
me.
19) Reboot your computer.
20) Your new card should now be working properly. You can even access the NVIDIA control panel!​

The newest drivers (180.48) have stuttering issues, so use something older until they get a patch. I used 178.13, and it works fine.
 

k3lit0

macrumors newbie
Nov 12, 2008
9
0
I'm trying to play Left4Dead on an iMac (24", 3.06, NVIDIA 8800 GS) with no luck. I can watch the intro movie, then it crashes to the desktop on the loading screen. I tried forcing it to start in windowed mode but still no luck.


Thanks for the post, that was my issue. I'll try what you did when I get home.

Also to avoid the opening movie you can put in -novid for the loading options, or -windowed etc... <3 tyty
 

Huntn

macrumors Core
May 5, 2008
23,486
26,602
The Misty Mountains
left 4 dead is a terrible game! downloaded the 360 demo it was rubbish not because it was on 360 but because it was a rubbish game!

Hmm, I checked for demos on xbox marketplace and did not see it? Can two people coop with it and survive? :)

Anyone impressed with this game? (have not scanned all the answers) I've not yet seen it.
 

Winni

macrumors 68040
Oct 15, 2008
3,207
1,196
Germany.
The first mistake you all made was playing FPS games with a controller and not on a PC.

The second (and worst) mistake you made was to PLAY A VALVE GAME ON A CONSOLE. LOL. Valve is single handedly carrying PC Gaming forward while the rest of PC games are dying out to cheap consoles. Always, always use Steam/PC when playing Valve games.


That is nonsense. I've been playing Valve games since the original Half-Life 1, and I've played Half-Life 2 and the complete Orange Box on both PC (and on the first generation 20" iMac Core Duo in both XP and Vista) and I've also played the Orange Box on my Xbox 360.

Guess what? Like with everything else by now, I prefer playing Valve games on the Xbox 360, especially now that we can copy our games to the hard disk of the 360.

HL2 looks at least identical on the Xbox at 1920x1080 pixels to the Windows version at the same resolution and detail settings. There. Is. NO. Difference.

The only difference these days is that all games will ALWAYS run on the console they were written for, but you NEVER have a guarantee whether it will run on your current computer (without the need for upgrading the graphics card, the CPU, the operating system or adding more RAM).

And you don't have to deal with any horrible copy protection mechanisms on a console.

Since the release of the Xbox 360 and the PS3, consoles have finally won the battle against gaming PCs. It just does not make any sense anymore to invest into a gaming PC; the costs are too high and there are no benefits to it.

That being said, I have the full version of Left 4 Dead running on my Xbox 360 and played through two of the single player "cinematic" episodes so far. Again, playing at 1920x1080.

The graphics are about as good as HL2 but cannot compete with Far Cry 2, Call of Duty 4 or any Unreal 3-engine based game. Still, the graphics are good enough.

The AI of the computer companions is quite good, they talk a lot and feel "human enough" for this type of game.

The game itself... Well. You MUST love zombie shooters, and I mean REALLY love them, otherwise this will be a HUGE disappointment for you. The only objective is to stay alive and get the hell out of the city. There is no story.

The selection of weapons is very limited and so is the variation of zombies and their attacks. The gameplay is very repetitive and I think you cannot spend more than one or maybe two hours in one gaming session on this without getting bored.

This game is not Dead Rising, which is also very repetitive and quickly becoming boring, but at least in Dead Rising it will take you a couple of days to fully explore the shopping mall.

Left 4 Dead is a simple, casual zombie shooter. An acceptable game for genre fans, a bad choice for everybody else.

If you want to play something really great, play Gears of War 2. Which, by the way, is only available for the Xbox 360 at this point in time. PC players can wait until next year for it. Although it was already a great game, the original Gears of War pales in comparison to its sequel and feels like it was made a decade - and not just a year or two - ago.
 

mwpeters8182

macrumors 6502
Apr 16, 2003
411
0
Boston, MA
That is nonsense. I've been playing Valve games since the original Half-Life 1, and I've played Half-Life 2 and the complete Orange Box on both PC (and on the first generation 20" iMac Core Duo in both XP and Vista) and I've also played the Orange Box on my Xbox 360.

Guess what? Like with everything else by now, I prefer playing Valve games on the Xbox 360, especially now that we can copy our games to the hard disk of the 360.

HL2 looks at least identical on the Xbox at 1920x1080 pixels to the Windows version at the same resolution and detail settings. There. Is. NO. Difference.

And you don't have to deal with any horrible copy protection mechanisms on a console.

The AI of the computer companions is quite good, they talk a lot and feel "human enough" for this type of game.

The game itself... Well. You MUST love zombie shooters, and I mean REALLY love them, otherwise this will be a HUGE disappointment for you. The only objective is to stay alive and get the hell out of the city. There is no story.

The selection of weapons is very limited and so is the variation of zombies and their attacks. The gameplay is very repetitive and I think you cannot spend more than one or maybe two hours in one gaming session on this without getting bored.

This game is not Dead Rising, which is also very repetitive and quickly becoming boring, but at least in Dead Rising it will take you a couple of days to fully explore the shopping mall.

Left 4 Dead is a simple, casual zombie shooter. An acceptable game for genre fans, a bad choice for everybody else.

First off - HL2 on the 360 didn't have Antialiasing, which I get on my PC. And Steam's copy protection is incredibly transparent - I purchase pretty much all of my games through Steam. Though, you do have a point with regards to the current gen systems - I've played a lot more games on PS3 than I did on my old xbox.

Second, have you played Left 4 Dead online? It's a MUCH different feel that way. If not, give it a shot, you'll enjoy the game a lot more that way.
 

Chone

macrumors 65816
Aug 11, 2006
1,222
0
That is nonsense. I've been playing Valve games since the original Half-Life 1, and I've played Half-Life 2 and the complete Orange Box on both PC (and on the first generation 20" iMac Core Duo in both XP and Vista) and I've also played the Orange Box on my Xbox 360.

Guess what? Like with everything else by now, I prefer playing Valve games on the Xbox 360, especially now that we can copy our games to the hard disk of the 360.

HL2 looks at least identical on the Xbox at 1920x1080 pixels to the Windows version at the same resolution and detail settings. There. Is. NO. Difference.

The only difference these days is that all games will ALWAYS run on the console they were written for, but you NEVER have a guarantee whether it will run on your current computer (without the need for upgrading the graphics card, the CPU, the operating system or adding more RAM).

And you don't have to deal with any horrible copy protection mechanisms on a console.

Since the release of the Xbox 360 and the PS3, consoles have finally won the battle against gaming PCs. It just does not make any sense anymore to invest into a gaming PC; the costs are too high and there are no benefits to it.

That being said, I have the full version of Left 4 Dead running on my Xbox 360 and played through two of the single player "cinematic" episodes so far. Again, playing at 1920x1080.

The graphics are about as good as HL2 but cannot compete with Far Cry 2, Call of Duty 4 or any Unreal 3-engine based game. Still, the graphics are good enough.

The AI of the computer companions is quite good, they talk a lot and feel "human enough" for this type of game.

The game itself... Well. You MUST love zombie shooters, and I mean REALLY love them, otherwise this will be a HUGE disappointment for you. The only objective is to stay alive and get the hell out of the city. There is no story.

The selection of weapons is very limited and so is the variation of zombies and their attacks. The gameplay is very repetitive and I think you cannot spend more than one or maybe two hours in one gaming session on this without getting bored.

This game is not Dead Rising, which is also very repetitive and quickly becoming boring, but at least in Dead Rising it will take you a couple of days to fully explore the shopping mall.

Left 4 Dead is a simple, casual zombie shooter. An acceptable game for genre fans, a bad choice for everybody else.

If you want to play something really great, play Gears of War 2. Which, by the way, is only available for the Xbox 360 at this point in time. PC players can wait until next year for it. Although it was already a great game, the original Gears of War pales in comparison to its sequel and feels like it was made a decade - and not just a year or two - ago.

I own a Gaming PC and a PS3 and let me tell you, THERE. IS. A. BIG. DIFFERENCE. :)

Most games are limited to a measly 1280x720 (or even lower like Halo 3 or GTA IV) resolution compared to the PC's 1680x1050 mainstream resolution and 2560x1600 maximum resolution not to mention the actual difference in graphics, especially textures.

Keyboard and mouse is like a thousand times better than a gamepad for first person shooters (if you don't agree on better then you will at least agree on precise and faster), oh and by the way, you CAN use a gamepad with a PC (and since most games are GFW nowadays, it's as seamless as a 360 game).

The only thing I'll give you is that gaming on the PC <<can>> be a little more complicated but it also has a lot of benefits and if you can't invest a little time to learn the basics of computing then you don't care about games enough :)

Consoles are great for a lot of genres but I still think that shooters should be played on a PC, maybe I'm set in the old ways but back in 1998 I was playing Half Life on a computer and Metal Gear Solid on the PSX and nowadays I want to play Left 4 Dead on my PC and Metal Gear Solid 4 on my PS3.

Just a few things more, you connect PCs to HDTVs and play on a couch and gaming on a console is just as expensive (if not more) as gaming on a PC.

I could go on and on about how PC gaming is still very much a great way to game and between console and PC gaming there's no clear winner but I'm tired. ;)
 

JackAxe

macrumors 68000
Jul 6, 2004
1,535
0
In a cup of orange juice.
Console also disable V-Sync most of the time just trying to maintain 30 fps.

Another thing, the PC version offers post processing effects that are not available on the 360's version.
http://www.l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=1962

I like consoles for Zelda and fighters, I like my PC games on PCs, where as they don't have to be compromised for the masses.

Valve games look way better on PCs and that margin is only going to grow wider, as it always does. Consoles always play catchup to PC -- offer a few new bells and whistles, then fall way way waaaaaaay behind.
 
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