Back on the Blog

[juan]

Whilst to some degree I've neglected blogging because I've been busy with beginning my spring semester, mainly I haven't blogged so to spare you from having to listen to my moping over the CGS dying. Since a blog is supposed to be a collection of one's thoughts and all I could think about for that period of time was the CGS's death, I didn't have much anything of substance to say. But now I'm over it -- so let's talk. =]

I've found some time to play some Left 4 Dead which I'm sure most of you have seen or played. I'd like to give my opinion on how I view it as a competitive game from my perspective as a caller coming from CS.

Although it is an FPS, unlike CS the success of a team has very, very little to do with a player's ability to aim well. There is some skill involved in being able to shoot/melee flying hunters, however the majority of the time killing things is very easy given how powerful melee is and how big the shotgun blast radius is. If you're playing someone in CS and you can just completely out-aim them, you could just run around the map like idiots and you'll still win.

What makes L4D cool is that the success of a team is almost completely dependent on their coordination -- this makes it extremely fun to be a caller. There are so many variables in play at any given time that a caller must consider: what items do we have, what is our health, what infected are dead, when can we expect a tank, where do we expect them to be next. All these things are constantly changing. Since the game is so dynamic, you have to evaluate almost all situations on the fly and the better you are at doing this the better your team will be.

Another thing I like about calling in L4D is the amount of knowledge you are given as a caller. CS is a game of partial information because you can only see what is going on at your part of the map, as opposed to L4D where you can see pretty much everything that is going on since your teammates are always near you (and if they're not, you've probably already lost). Knowing exactly where everyone is and what they are doing allows the caller to make more effective calls.

Who knows -- maybe we'll be seeing a juan4dead.com pretty soon.

As for CS, I'm taking some time off so I can focus on school and keeping the site updated.

[Invincible]

Originally Posted by juan

Who knows -- maybe we'll be seeing a juan4dead.com pretty soon.

I knew it!

[Big Man]

Ive only ever played a couple of games, i never knew it was a game that people would call tactics in. What sort of stuff do you call in a game like that?

[sapphire]

juan4dead!!!!!!!!!!!! good blog ^_^