I thought the synergy was set to hard by default because the combine shotgun troops can one-shot you. But I'm all for more challenge.

they'll be released at 4PM PST, or 3 hours from now.

welp they found an issue and it's not being released til tomorrow.

gr8

gay

pfff Valve.... should've guessed it's gonna be late...

so is the new release time FRIDAY 4PM PST?

nah theres no time set so for all we know, it could be like 1 minute before midnight pacific time or like 8 in the morning.

well I think there's something going on right now, I tried going to play some ZPS and all the servers are empty and I can't join em, wrong version, also I saw a glimpse of an updater but I think that was just a Steam bug.

Just fyi.

the dedicated servers were released yesterday


valve said "any minute now"



that was an hour and 6 minutes ago, btw.

they're up

Yeah, dling the new updates, its out just restart Steam and they should be there, waiting.

EDIT:
Man I have to DL like another 500 megs of shit, am I doing something wrong or is the ZPS patch really this big? Also it doesn't appear to be a patch at all since now I have 2 ZPS' in my steam games one is the installed one and the other is the one that is being DL'd.

I'm paranoid and feel I have screwed up???!!!!


EDIT2:
Actually I think ZPS 1.3 is considered to be a different game since it uses a different engine so I guess I'm on the right track but man. My dl started from 60% (previous content I presume) and after like 10 minutes it's gotten to 61%. I only have 100KB/s but fuck, I wish Steam would have a TIME ESTIMATION (seriously how hard is this to implement?)

So basically, I'm not playing any of these in the next 5 hours.

Yeah, dling the new updates, its out just restart Steam and they should be there, waiting.

EDIT:
Man I have to DL like another 500 megs of shit, am I doing something wrong or is the ZPS patch really this big? Also it doesn't appear to be a patch at all since now I have 2 ZPS' in my steam games one is the installed one and the other is the one that is being DL'd.

I'm paranoid and feel I have screwed up???!!!!

They use the Orange Box engine now, they can't just really update it, especially considering they also use an entirely new file format in becoming official Steamworks game (QCF), etc.

you're redownloading the entire content + the update so you can receive the engine upgrade & all the updated stuff & the steamworks bonuses & the bonuses for being an official steam game thing deal.

I can say that playing Hl2 Ep2 in Synergy is really fun, episode1 prolly sucks so who cares. So far I don't see any sign of achievements in Synergy nor in ZPS but if it's just achievements without any rewards then I really don't give two fucks.

ZPS is a lot better graphically and the gameplay got better too but man, it still kinda blows in the end. The strong side is the amazingly detailed maps and it's really fun when people are panicing over voice. But it's really unbalanced in a weird way: a map always favors one team. If there's a room or a basement that has ammo then the survivors go there and you can't do anything as a zombie. If the weapon and ammo powerups are randomized the survivors have a hard time defending themselves because they need to find the best weapons (pistols are useless, melee weapons are too risky).

Also in few maps it's possible to barricade yourself in a room so that zombies have no way to enter and you win. The mission based maps are a lot better because you have objectives and a timelimit so you can't just camp in a corner all the game making it pretty balanced for both teams.


EDIT:
I wish there would be more Synergy servers that are running Episode 2 because all of them are either US servers (200+ ping), passworded, 2/2 players or all of the above.

A 10 player Episode2 run is really fun even moreso with voice and the party van, which I thought was an excellent addition to the game. Haven't really gotten to play in the Magnusson Bombrun stage but I'd imagine it's really fun with 10 players because it was really great even in the singleplayer (didn't really enjoy the singleplayer in Hl2, except for Episode2 which had a lot of variety for an FPS game) +it might have party van too so that's gonna be really funny.


EDIT2:
Only got to play the Magnusson part for like 5 minutes and it was really funny because people kept falling off the van and shit and some dude with a black player model got killed by racist doors and elevators for like 4 times. It's really glitchy though when it comes to the cutscenes. If you or anyone else stands in the way of some important NPC or if you go ahead and kill enemies that are supposed to ambush you the cutscene halts/never happens and then everyone has to suicide to restart the level. I've been hearing rumors of a possible fix to this and good because it's really the only problem this game has.

DIPRIP is definitely the best out of the package, its a pretty well made game thats just lacking some more maps and a few more car types. AOC however is a steaming pile of feces.

I'm getting DIPRIP because apparently it's very good/fun.

idk but I used to play insurgency back during beta and even then it ruled!! I don't know if it's good from an FPS pov, but I really liked the architecture and environments and stuff. as far as I know it's still the best of its kind

is the ship still considered a mod? I love the ship

ya the ship is still a mod.

insurgency is even better now, try it!!!

also try diprip it rules

ok so I played DIPRIP for an hour and well... It kinda blows imho.

Whats good:

- The levels are gorgeus and the car models are really good
- It's really satisfying landing a mortar on someone
- It's different


What's bad:

- It's kinda... boring... where's the variety in gameplay?
- Not that many weapons
- Not that many cars either (more on its way though??)
- I didn't notice any difference in the cars besides the models, I'm guessing armor and speed?

If you think diprip blows, I'd love to hear your opinion on Age of Chivalry.

i didn't like either honestly, they were really bland and boring (imo)

I've tried out a couple of these so far.

Insurgency is really good in that it's not very buggy, it's fairly balanced and people actually die when you shoot them. If you're at all into the REALISTIC WAR SIMULATOR kinda stuff then grab it because it's impressive. I don't play it much anymore but I'm thinking of updating to the new Steam-release and having a play again.

Zombie Panic was a massive disappointment - playing a zombie is boring as shit.

I played Age of Chivalry a while back and didn't think much of it but I'll give it the benefit of doubt and try it again.

DIPRIP seems cool but I don't like vehicle combat games. I'd like to see how it works on a technical level though.


Apart from those ones Zombie Master is good fun (definitely better than Zombie Panic at the moment imo), Goldeneye Source would be pretty sweet if anyone played it ever (it's a well done recreation, full of bugs but nicely done in terms of graphics) and I quite enjoy a mod called Battlegrounds, which is like a War of Independence mod.

I want to try out Modular Combat at some stage (I forget if there's even a beta out) as it looks good (although you'd have to like HL2 Deathmatch which is a big pre-req for some I imagine).