Crash Course
Valve's Double Entendre
Today's the big launch day of Valve's much anticipated Left 4 Dead update including the two-level campaign Crash Course… sigh.
I really wonder if Valve has a QA department. It seems to break in one of three ways—either it silently launches a local server (despite lobby settings), puts the server you connect to into a livelock requiring a manual restart, or makes each player connect to their own local IP. It's not an isolated problem, with their forums being full of complaints. It makes me yearn for the days when patches weren't forced down your throat by some crap like Steam.
It actually works in single-player, so I tried the new campaign there. It uses a Death Toll theme, looking a lot like the level where you start in the church. In what seems to be a storage area, you jump from room to room or walk down the alleys connecting the rooms. Each level is uninventive, looking like one big area instead of smaller ones that vary to keep it fresh. Every room and alley looks the same, just a random scattering of boxes and cars.
Really, there's not much to left say about Crash Course. Given how short it is and how unfinished and monotonous it looks, I can't imagine myself playing it much in versus. Much rather be playing Absolute Zero or Death Aboard. If versus actually worked, that is.
