Gamethread Apr 10 09

By Shamus Posted Friday Apr 10, 2009

Filed under: Notices 34 comments

Today I have the day off from the ravages of a job that wasn’t all that bad to begin with. Left 4 Dead tonight is inevitable. Team Fortress 2 is possible. And by “tonight” I mean, “anytime after noon”. Noon was two hours ago for me. I plan to vigorously slack off very soon. Perhaps I’ll see you in-game. Remember that if I shoot you it’s probably not because of anything you did. Do try to be patient about it.

Note that you’ll need to join the Twenty Sided Group on Steam to join the official group server.

I know it isn’t possible, but I can’t help but think of how excellent it would be if the PC players could meet up with the Xbox players in some sort of utopian platform-agnostic server and play together.

Open thread for any pre-game or post-game comments. Also: when presented with a choice, do you take the pipe bomb or molotov?

 


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34 thoughts on “Gamethread Apr 10 09

  1. Mad Flavius says:

    I’m a molotov guy myself. While the pipe bomb provides endlessly useful opportunities to distract and disintegrate large crowd of zombie fiends, the molotov provides an exceedingly useful strategy for defeating the tank: lob ‘n run. It generally works fairly well.

    Hopefully I’ll see everyone on tonight!

  2. Pederson says:

    Pipe Bomb. I prefer to buy myself space, given the option. (Granted, Mad Flavius has an excellent point: pipe bombs are useless when confronted with special infected.)

  3. Cadeonehalf says:

    I almost always grab the Molotov. when I grab a pipe bomb I get all paranoid about when it’s worth using vs. a common mob, so the molotov is more attractive because there are other items in game that can do what it can do and I can use those while I selfishly cling onto my precious molotov until a tank shows up.

  4. Greg aka Shizzlick says:

    Pipebomb in general, Molotov for certain set-pieces/tank. Prefer to just shoot the special infected. Hunters tend to love me though, which isn’t great when you realise I have terrible timing for smacking them out of mid-leap.

  5. pffh says:

    Molotov and then refuse to use it until we get a tank. Besides someone else always takes the pipe.

  6. Neil Polenske says:

    Mols:

    – if there is closed spaces ahead, i.e. hallways and rooms (ex. Mercy Hospital)
    – if I haven’t seen the tank in a while. I’ve gotten pretty good at gauging when a tank’ll appear, but more often than not, I’ll find myself w/o the means to burn the ****er.

    Pipes:

    – and and all open spaced areas. (ex. the entirety of Death Toll and Blood Harvest)
    – the finale. Absolutely CRUCIAL to have AT LEAST one pipe to use for the final dash to the escape vehicle.

  7. Lupis42 says:

    I favor the pipe bomb myself. I’ve always found that tank and witch alike are relatively simple to dispatch by simply holding down the trigger of the auto-shotgun from as close as you can get. When I need breathing room, it’s because of the horde, and when that happens, there’s nothing better than teaching them to play fetch.

  8. Scott says:

    Pipe bombs. I usually end up lobbing the weapon at a nearby tree, a fellow survivor, a windowsill in a small room, or an inconveniently placed chest high wall two feet in front of the party. Pipe bombs allow us to run away before dying.

    Also, any plans for a TF2 server? Every time I try to get a game of L4D, the Twenty Sided server is either full or empty.

  9. ima420r says:

    Although xbox players can’t play with PC players (yet… I can’t imagine this not being possible and something that may be available in future games), we could exchange Gamertags so we can play together on the 360 as well.

  10. Simply Simon says:

    I always take the pipe bomb. To clear everyone out of a horde of zombies is easier with it. The special infected I fight by running in circles with my shotgun.

  11. vdgmprgrmr says:

    So have we figured out some sort of special Twenty-Sided TF2 server doohickeymacallit yet? Or some sort of time where the denizens of this great blog plan to do some cool get-together for some TF2?

    If not, I believe we should. If so, WHY DON’T I KNOW!

  12. Caliban says:

    Pipe Bomb, unless my “tank sense” is tingling.

  13. Binks says:

    Molotov. What can I say, I’m a bit of a pyro :P. Also my friends like the pipe bomb so it’s good to have a molotov for situations where it’s better.

  14. Rob says:

    I’m a pipebomb man myself but if I even suspect that there is a tank in the near future I will switch to the moltov.

    Pipes are for clearing space or distracting a horde while we make a run for it (slow players who fall behind also work a pipebombs) molotovs are great for defending on the last mission.

  15. The Werebear says:

    Pipe bombs all the way. When I first started playing, I had a tendency to hurl my grenade weapon when panicked. The Pipe bomb makes a much better panic weapon than Molotovs.

  16. Another Scott says:

    Molotov, because somebody has to burn that tank, and it may as well be me.

    If I had it my way, however, I would carry a boom-box that played “thriller” when it is thrown, and it would make all the zombies within earshot stop attacking and do the thriller dance! Perhaps not as good as a pipe-bomb, but I’d take it every time.

  17. mixmastermind says:

    What a day for my desktop to break.

  18. Jericho says:

    I’ll try and get in on one of these games. Just got my new fancy computer, and a mic. I am ready to roll.

  19. Volatar says:

    Sadly I still don’t h=ave L4D

    I guess i’ll keep playing Dwarf Fortress tonight…

  20. Yar Kramer says:

    I’m a pipe bomb man myself. Tanks I just autoshotgun excessively (though there feels like there should be a better strategy than that), and Witches I just crown. I tend to think more in terms of “I’ll throw a pipe bomb to distract this horde!” than very advanced tactics, and in situations where I might want to use a molotov, it seems that there’s usually gas containers lying around already …

    Of course, I tend to play on easy-solo. I’ll probably start playing multiplayer games once I get a headset.

  21. Rutskarn says:

    I take the molly, because my teammates rarely do.

    I recognize that both are useful–it’s just more convenient for me to assume that other people will go for the pipe-bombs, given the chance. When we have a tank, I’ll know we’re ready.

  22. Jericho says:

    I always find the molly useless against the tank, because we inevitably just blast the hell out of it regardless. They are good on cascades, but there is usually gas cans anyways, like Yar Kramer said.

  23. MikeSSJ says:

    Pipebomb

    There’s a lot less (literal) friendly fire involved when I use that one >_>

  24. Mark says:

    104 members, and it’s just me in Steam Chat?

  25. Volatar says:

    Well Mark, I will see if I can help you there :)

  26. Galenor says:

    I go for whatever my team has the least of. When all your mates are armed to the teeth with beeping explosives/bottled anarchy, it’s wise to choose the other. :P

    But given a scenario where no teammate has a grenade, and I have a choice, I’d choose the molotov. A lot of people like the pipe bomb for breathers, attracting the horde to one spot to clear the area around them. I prefer to earn my breathers by getting everyone inside of a room and throwing a molotov in the doorway, or any other tactic that utilises turning a bottleneck into an flaming area of denial for anyone wanting to pass. Then the teammates can heal, reload, and spam voice commands while the common infected set themselves on fire. Also comes in handy when the Tank arrives, and for getting smokers that hide around corners (throw molotov at corner, fire spreads around it).

  27. Kasz says:

    I take either depending on the circumstances and what grenades my teammates have, I try to make it so that we have two molotovs and two pipe bombs.

    If they have no grenades it depends on what we’ve been facing so far but if I think a tank is coming up, molotov, it’s so useful especially on expert.

    So I just switch grenades alot.

  28. Nixon says:

    If someone I trust has the molotove to light the tank I take the pipebomb, it has more uses.

  29. Marauder says:

    I find the Molotov to be more fun. Light the tank ablaze and watch it burn! :-)

    Sadly, I have yet to be able to pop onto the TwentySided server (at least not while you’re on Shamus), it’s always full (or empty as the case may be) so I usually end up going back to either Fallout 3 or FarCry 2.

    FC2 Justification: I grabbed it when it was on sale for $15 on Steam. thing still requires activation beyond the standard Steam authentication, but I figure with a 5 activation limit (ignoring the POTENTIAL for deactivation before uninstallation/rebuild/system-crash) it’s 5 rentals for $3 each…

  30. edcalaban says:

    I try to take whatever my teammates don’t have. If no one has anything and both types are available I’ll grab whichever is most convenient given the map (No Mercy Finale, for example, I tend to grab molotovs).

  31. RTBones says:

    Well, as I dont have a headset (YET!) and havent played multiplayer — my tendency is to go pipe bomb and shotgun the tanks. Of course, that might change once I play multiplayer. And in the interest of full disclosure, I dont have a lot of time under my belt with the game, so my strategery might not be the best….

    I too have noticed that the server seems full a LOT. Guess that means we’re all playing the game, or trying to. :)

  32. Matt K says:

    I’d love joining you all in TF2 but unfortunately I keep getting paged pool memory issues. I think one of my RAM sticks are dying so if anyone has an idea of where to get cheap ram (under $25 for 1 gig) I’m all ears.

    Otherwise, I’m enjoying what I do get to play but I tend to turn off the mic (and I don’t have one myself so there’s that). I look forward to stumbling my way through the game at some point.

  33. lplimac says:

    Pipe bomb when given the chance. I can’t hit the broadside of a barn with the moly… although for some reason I keep shooting Frances in the back….

  34. Mephane says:

    I always choose the pipe bomb, as it has proven to be more effective in almost all situations. I usually try to keep one in the finale to throw it into the last zombie horde before we are being rescued, heh.

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