Originally posted by Kevin:

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I think I have a solution to my "Your, You're" problem. Perhaps I can stop using contractions like data speaks(star trek character). LOL!

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Originally posted by Rich's annoying L4D chatter:

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. . . . . "Sorry guys, but you are NOT invited to this party" or maybe just "NOBODY gets past this door" .... or other stupid stuff which I think is amusing and fortunately for me most other guys do too, but which occasionally irritates a more serious-minded mic-less teammate as he TK's me and leaves, "Too much goddamn talking!" Hahaha.

(You can't please everybody, so you have to please yourself - to quote Ricky Nelson. All he had to do was type "less conversation please" instead of leaving as a griefer - and most of the chatter would have ended - one teammate typed "There's a reason for voip, what an a**hole!")

. . . . . or other stupid stuff as when I'm almost tagged by a random zombie but manage to shoot its head off - saved by my new friend, melee, after hearing her little squeal or footsteps in the dark, I might say something like, "Thanks for making some noise, little red-headed bi*ch, but YOU'RE NOT MY TYPE!" LOL

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Originally posted by Rich on off-the-wall L4D conversation:

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Speaking of funny shit, my 6 key now binds to "vocalize elevator_conversation" and when Bill says "they just keep coming and coming" it never fails to crack me up to watch Zoey respond "Game over man, game over!" Watch her lips move when she says it - it's bizarre and utterly hysterical. Bill exclaims, "where the hell did THAT come from" and Zoey cackles. It's too precious for words.

Somebody was doing that in the finale safe house early this week, and we all spent 20 minutes sharing various vocalizations - I have a new heightened sense of the brilliant conversation in the game that I really didn't pay that much attention to before - and I have a new heightened appreciation of Zoey and her humor.

From Miles I had learned a few months ago that Zoey is the daughter of a famous model - Natalina - something like that. I always liked the character, but I now treat the game Zoeys with special respect and for that reason I try not to play Zoey because I enjoy watching her a lot more now.

And if there is a game lull, like at a safe hero closet area waiting for the horde, and if I am Bill and key 6 produces the "they just keep coming and coming" line - often I say "guys, watch Zoey" just before the "Game over man" comes out of her mouth. Most of the team laughs.

Somebody said that the line originally came from a movie - I used to hear it a few years back playing Counter Strike.

Another random Bill line that key 6 might produce could be "we have been immune so far but if I turn, I want you to just shoot me" to which Francis always responds "what if JUST your beard turns, should I shoot that?" to which Bill has four funny responses, such as,

1. "Francis you are an idiot!" Hahahaha - I swear I don't remember ever hearing that before. Or he might say,
2. "A few years in the army would have trimmed you down and straightened you out." Or he might say,
3. "You know, the ones who get out of this won't be the ones telling jokes." But my all-time favorite is,
4. "I'm sorry Francis, I didn't hear you, your voice was muffled by your head being so far up your ass!"

Hahahahahaha! Could anything be more funny than that! I swear, this is very clever, rich dialog, that I can't really say I ever noticed before being so concerned with staying alive!

Shaff, buddy, have you heard all this brilliant stuff? The game is obviously meant not to be taken so seriously.

Some of the players don't have any binds to vocalizations - they just use the radial X key which produces "Ready" "Are you ready for this?" or various Laughs (I have Laugh on key 1) and about 10 more. The way Zoey says most of her lines is funny - even just "Yes, okay." She says it in a clipped super-fast New Yorker way that is quite amusing - she's a very talented voice actress. That's what Miles told me about her line: "Hey, molotovs over hee-uh!" I asked "Is she from New York" and Miles said "I don't think so - I think she's just trying to say THAT line extra funny in a Brooklyn kind of way."

Of course, as Sam taught me, the ultra wacky thing that Zoey does, which a lot of the guys who play Zoey take advantage of, including me, is produced when you bind "vocalizeplayerdeath" which produces one particular world-famous long raspy weird screaming sound that is mind-blowing. For me it's on key 3. When I hear that, I have to laugh. Louis has some good ones too, including THAT scream. Also, I have Hurrah and Good Job on keys "=" and "backspace."

Louis is the best for that - you might hear an excited Louis say "That was GREAT! We are UNSTOPPABLE!" It boosted my morale so much the first time I heard it, last week, that I went right over to a red Louis and gave him my pain pills, lol.

Guys, this is what is so fine about Valve - to go to the trouble to pay for completely professional playwright material - (as opposed to the repetitive TERRIBLE - "Left vector" "You're mine now copper" stuff from Sin episodes, running the Source engine, which I finally deleted from my local steam content, ugh! The only good thing in that game was if you stared at the girl, she started saying stuff like, "Yeah, I'm hot." "Yeah, I know I've got it goin on - I thought Elexis Sinclair was more your type." Haha)

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Originally posted by Keith:

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Did you!? Evidently my memory has failed me once again :(

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Originally posted by Estuansis:

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Just got done with the L4D2 Demo. Very nice. Source has yet to meet its doom.

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Originally posted by sam:

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Yeah that's a problem I've heard about with Borderlands. Very impressed with the L4D2 demo. If Rich gets a hold of it, I'm sure we'll hear all about it :)

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Originally posted by Rich with more on amazing "shotgun Hero Marcus":

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I teased the hell out of Marcus, reminding him why we call those places "HERO CLOSETS" but he had a good sense of humor about it, and he's now on the friend list.

He was a darn good shotgun guy I must admit. One time we were all on the tower - I THOUGHT - but suddenly, there to my absolute amazement was Marcus way down below - heading for the stairs.

I just stood there dumbfounded. He was a tiny blue player being targeted by 20 or 30 tiny black zombies closing in from all directions. Frankly, it was entertaining as hell just to watch - and valve gives that particular scene a very grainy dark treatment that creates a quite interesting film noir look.

I stood there in awe, laughing on my mic, and occasionally giving some advice. A couple more-practical guys had grabbed sniper rifles from the top room and were standing next to me being useful team players, trying to even up the odds, as I finally became aware of. I don't know what weapon I had - I just stood there stupid with amazement - enjoying the entertainment. I could see Marcus falling back to the corner of the room with the wooden shelves next to the freezer room. Miraculously he survived, chanting "I am so awesome" as he came back to join us, hahaha.

I have to agree, he has skills.

A little while later, Zoey refused to revive me. I said "Come on Marcus, what are you waiting for." He said "Kiss ass." I didn't hear it clearly "What?" He said it again, turning his back to me. (Oh - you bitch.) Out of my mouth poured "Oh, Marcus, pleeeeeese get me up - you are soooo awesome - you are sooo great." What a bastard, lol.

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Originally posted by rich on - Should we light the tank or not?:

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One last thing on tank - everybody always lights them now - but there was a little discussion on not lighting them a couple days ago on bus-top finale - we missed with the molie, and the unlit tank took twice as long to go down of course, but afterward a couple of guys remarked that they appreciated the slower running speed. I remember discussing that with you guys months ago - Sam wasn't sure about the running speed difference - you're probably convinced by now - but Sam didn't like the fire everywhere making it hard to actually see the tank. So we all said, don't light the tank in finale. I stopped preaching that a long time ago - and on bus top I switch from auto-shottie to AR, and grab a molie, when the tank arrives. I can fire at the burning mess, and cause huge damage, from a safe 30-50 yards out.

Anyway, practicing with the bots to test my propane tank move-the-trash-bin theory yesterday, somehow Zoey survived the flames, the tank was unlit, and to my amazement, bot Zoey didn't immediately offer herself as a sacrifice to the tank god. She danced around correctly - we were near the helicopter by this time - and she and I used our uzis to put the big fellow out of his over-muscled misery. That was a surprise. So maybe the new rule is - bots on the team - don't light him up.

That light or don't light came up again, two nights ago. I dropped in on a friend, Reis, playing expert airport finale - the game was full, then suddenly 3/4 full. Maybe somebody got tired of dying, haha. On the third try all but one of us made it out - I asked "try finale only for everybody make it out?" but they were done. They graciously thanked me afterward for joining the team - certainly with a bot it would have been tougher. I told one colt guy next to me, "Try to fire in bursts and blow the heads off those lines of zombies coming toward us. He tried it and nicely produced beautiful red spray. I told him "Often you'll kill more than one per bullet that way, I believe." Another time I mused aloud "why did we get a horde with the tank?" Somebody said, "Oh, we got boomered in that left corner where the smoker tries to grab you through the "V" in the fence. I said, "Oh, then guys, I suggest that this time we don't split the two groups - everybody bunches up on hill high point next to the red paint on the crashed hull. Two cover right, two cover left, that will eliminate boomer hordes." (That also puts the smoker behind the escape plane where he's very easy to shoot.)

We decided to light the tank. A newer guy - he said it was only his 4th time on expert - very polite guy - courageously ran toward the tank with his molie, lit it, and was instantly down. I recognized the move because that's exactly what I used to do, lol. In the safe house, the guys advised him to not get that close - to just try to anticipate where the tank was moving, then throw. I told him, additionally, not to worry about missing, because the whole thing is under debate and there are decided advantages in fighting a slower-moving tank. Anyway, I tossed the next molie from quite a distance, and the lighting was accomplished. (But I remember when we used to switch to auto-shotties for the always-unlit-airport-tank, then back to colt for the horde.)

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Originally posted by Rich on handling the howitzer crescendo event:

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A couple tips on that crescendo - the easiest place is back down the hill to the warehouse closet - put one gas can on the hill - have your two nearest-death players already in the warehouse handling specials and regular horde - have the two healthiest players on the hill to fire the howitzer - and time this to come right after a regular horde so you don't hit a regular horde coming from the sides as you go down the hill - the crescendo horde always comes from the top. As the healthies charge back down the hill, the near-deathies light the gas right behind them, which takes off the pressure for a good 10 seconds. Everybody is inside the closet.

Or .... everybody stays on the hill - inside the building, the top of the wooden shelves actually DOES work. Having been burned to death several times I was convinced it didn't work, but I've done it twice now successfully. Just don't put the gasoline too close - out by the wheel barrow will light the whole room but not the shelves. Put just one gas can there to start, and keep the other three up on top with you. You might get a smoker pulling a guy down, or a hunter leaping up.

(You get none of that smoker or hunter problem with closet, lol. And with closet you can still do the gas can thing, one guy throwing a can out from time to time in the brief lulls, and lighting up the whole warehouse - but hopefully not the closet. Speaking about using fire, don't you guys just love it when a newbie misses a late molie throw through a hole in the closet door and bounces it against an incoming zombie, and burns up the whole team? I just tell those guys, no flames - closet usually doesn't need flames.)

A funny Zoey - I think the other friend-invite from last night which I accepted - typed "Sorry, I wasn't properly trained." I laughed. Her misuse of fire was upstairs in the up-and-over-warehouse long way around, in crash course finale. She had "go" binded somewhere, and it was quite amusing to see Zoey running around "Go - just Go guys - come on Go!" shooting her arms in the air - I never saw that before - some of these guys are really funny! I healed "her" even though it left me with only about 40 health - I said "I'll survive on pills and I am used to being black and white by now - but I can't let our cheer-leader be low on health." She was a little too much go go go however - like Marcus the out-in-front-hero guy - and the green I gave her quickly turned red, lol.

That reminds me of what I tell these guys when we cross the crash course finale fence. "Protect your green for the good of the team. Get on top of the bus. I have to be killed anyway, so I'll go around and eliminate the remaining zombie crap in here."

Several times I have seen two guys, down to around 20 health or so each, misjudge the challenge of killing zombies in the dark, and get themselves incapped while two re-incarnated teammates are begging to be let out 20 feet away. My advice is: Grab colt or auto shottie, go very slowly, listen for approaching footsteps or squeals, go right, kill your way upstairs, get on top of the inside busses, kill everything you can see from there, then quickly drop to get the doors open - home free! And another thing, when you get ready to kill weak teammates - don't ever leave just one player standing. Very dangerous! In going around the map, I usually auto shotgun the four or five groups of trees. Last night I was there with uzi, going into the tree near the generator, and sure enough I walked into a zombie who was just hiding in there.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Rich with more on amazing "shotgun Hero Marcus":

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Quote:

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Medusa headset that I discovered is defective,

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