Crash Course is out!

westyfield · 09-29-2009, 04:20 PM

Anyone played it yet? I'm just gonna go fire it up with a friend and see what it's like.

**Lyramion** · 09-29-2009, 04:46 PM

If you have problems downloading change the download server region for the time being. Worked for me - India ftw

**dawolf** · 09-29-2009, 04:55 PM

Thanks for the tip Lyra

AdeptAbyss · 09-29-2009, 06:36 PM

very short, and kinda easy

**Lyramion** · 09-29-2009, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdeptAbyss

very short, and kinda easy

lol.... Im very sure you can totally judge that from playing it thru twice with Silver on NORMAL COOP

I played it on EXPERT and it was pretty fun. On the first map we had 2 tanks and only 1 guy reached the safe room black & white

**Lyramion** · 09-29-2009, 08:57 PM

Some "new" things found their way into this map:

- Alarm Cars are randomised. Not always the same and/or red car
- Different Paths are blocked/unblocked every time you go thru. i´d say there often are 3 paths where 1 is blocked and 2 to chose from
- New type of Finale mechanic where you have to activly do something again after it started. much griefing potential in this one

You can thru thru the campaign really quick in coop. But liek they said it´s balanced towards VS. Tanks have a ton of things to punch. Many good spawnpoints. So I´d say if you play it on VS it feels much longer.

Morganan · 09-29-2009, 10:22 PM

My thoughts from vs mode...

The good:
-Maps are both a good length, the 1st map in CC is roughly the same length of a 3rd map in a 5 map campaign, the second map was a little shorter but not overly so.
-Good map layout for the infected, a few rooftops blocked off from their use, but so far nothing gamebreaking. Lots of great pull/pounce/boom spots. There might be as many good infected ambush spots on map1 as in the entire nm campaign combined.
-Multiple paths that really aren't multiple paths. The main path through most of the campaign is outdoors, but the survivors have the option to travel through buildings adjoining their "main path" for better cover. I didnt see randomized car alarms or pathings, just lots of walls that can be knocked out by the infected, and car alarms dont have telltale signs this time around, but it was the same cars both times through the campaign.

The bad:
-Way the hell to many weapons/item drops. Even with medpacks off there is still way to much stuff, 6 different T2 weapons spawned on each map, pistols galore. Propane tanks/gas cans are in abundance along with mollys and pipes, this will most defintely need to be tweaked. Playing with medpacks off was a nice challenge, but still far to many other pickup items.
-The end event while having a nice added mechanic forcing the survivors to restart it, has without question the best survivor camping location ever created for a crescendo. Once people realize to take the tank around the backside in the windows behind the MG it will get better, but it's still super-rough for the infected to do much there.

The funny/ugly:
-If you played WoW before you have heard this line before, but dont stand in the fire! The crescendo event on map1 creates a fire while the event is active, stand in it and the survivors die almost instantly.
-The quanity of weapon drops! I know I said this before, but it's so horrible it bears repeating. There are far to many locations for weapons to spawn, and so far they seem to always spawn in every location. This might be a bug, but it might be intentional, it's terrible either way and needs to be fixed.
-The first map gives a 1.0 modifier, i forgot to take notice of the second maps modifier, but it should also be 1 if it isnt.

Overal it was fun, it was nice to see some life breathed back into L$D, but no way you will convince me that Crash Course took 5 months to make.

Evo<^|SiNz|^> · 09-29-2009, 11:21 PM

Aesthetically it is very featureless and somewhat forgettable, which is really disappointing. I thought it would be more unique and have a lot of new assets, given the time it's taken for this campaign to come out.

Gameplay-wise, I agree with Morganan that it should turn into a pretty good vs. map. So damn many weapon drops though! As a survivor, you never have to worry about ammo, that's for sure.

**[tR]Greasy_mullet** · 09-30-2009, 12:55 AM

I thought it was pretty decent. Not as memorable as the original 4 maps but not bad. A welcome addition for variety for sure.

**Kebab-Kastike** · 09-30-2009, 01:49 AM

The maps were fresh and cool. Lots of areas to explore, I liked it. I also liked all the ammo spawns around the map - the way they are also doing it for L4D2.
The events were awesome. Nothing like shooting that cannon at the bridge and that getaway ride was just awesome.
It was also nice to hear the cast say some new things. Got me laughing.

For versus - it was ironically crash course. I crashed four times during the versus game.
For the first level the safe room area is just too big. We were waiting for couple of guys and the infected could spawn. When we got moving we got hit from all directions - and because we were still in the parking lot the infected team got insta-spawn. We were lucky to get out of there with two black and whites.
It was weird to play it without knowing the map too well. Most of our team was in COOP mode where they searched every corner for stuff to pick up. We got killed pretty fast on both levels. The enemy team kept it together and I think they managed to get three of their guys out of the level. I'm not sure, I had crashed during that time.

Keep in mind that the crash course also brought two new survival maps. I set my lame first try time for both of them. Try to beat it. :P I wasn't trying and got to bronze on both of them - pretty easy and fun levels to play with.

I'm happy about it. Now I just can't wait for the L4D2 to come out.

**Superfast** · 09-30-2009, 05:08 AM

Oh nice, gonna try this asap.

**Blade.3510** · 09-30-2009, 07:29 AM

i had 2 wiches on the first level on the same street!!!!! you know when you have to drop down to a road und the brige 1 wich was at the drop the other was round the corner behind the bus scared the hell outa me wen we lit them :P good map tho "but no way you will convince me that Crash Course took 5 months to make." i agree then again they have been busy so free dlc is not a priority

**Lyramion** · 09-30-2009, 09:07 AM

Ya, the item spawns look a bit odd.

... almost like the item randomizer is bugged and instead of spitting out 2 Pistols... he spat them out everywhere. After thinking about it this is a hot guess. Same with the T2 weapons.

I ALSO noticed at some spots the T2 weapons themself are randomised.

First playthru: Table has Sniper Rifle and AK.
Second playthru: Table has Autoshotgun and AK

Mech__Warrior · 09-30-2009, 09:27 AM

There were way too many pistols, but ammo for the other weapons was tough to come by because we were too focused on getting out of there. I think it is too long for two levels.

Morganan · 09-30-2009, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mech__Warrior

There were way too many pistols, but ammo for the other weapons was tough to come by because we were too focused on getting out of there. I think it is too long for two levels.

Heck, just pick up one of the 120129234 T2 weapons strewn about the level to replentish ammo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lyramion

Ya, the item spawns look a bit odd.

... almost like the item randomizer is bugged and instead of spitting out 2 Pistols... he spat them out everywhere. After thinking about it this is a hot guess. Same with the T2 weapons.

I ALSO noticed at some spots the T2 weapons themself are randomised.

First playthru: Table has Sniper Rifle and AK.
Second playthru: Table has Autoshotgun and AK

Err, what update are you talking about? I didnt see an AK anywhere. They randomized in what order the weapons are laid out, but all 3 were always present wherever there was one weapon. In one stretch on map#1 there were 3 T2 spawns within 5 seconds walking distance of each other...