Get down on the Killing Floor

[Tipod]

Killing Floor is available for free this weekend in celebration of its massive new content patch and DLC pack. If you liked Left 4 Dead and Painkiller, you will like this: blasting zombies and mutants as a band of jolly British soldiers in apocalyptic London. Good maps, 7 upgradeable classes, and an assload of the most righteous weaponry in FPSdom.

Do it. You know you want to.

Protips for you new guys:
-Pressing Q lets you self-heal with the medical injector; whenever you get a breather, are alone or if the others are too busy fighting to heal you, press that damn Q key.
-Speaking of the medical injector, keep in mind that it costs 100% of its charge to self-heal, but only 50% to heal other players. Also, it recharges faster and heals more damage if you're using the Medic class.
-Armor is absolutely vital. I cannot stress this enough.
-Don't start out playing on servers with difficulties higher than normal.
-Buy weapons that mesh with your class (shotguns for Support, flamethrower for Firebug, etc.). This sounds really basic, but there're tons of new players doing stupid stuff like taking up Sharpshooter and only using the shotguns.
-Don't bother with the LAW, it sucks.

[Janus Whitefurr]

-Don't bother with the LAW, it sucks.

Except when you manage to set up "The LAW That Broke The Camel's Back" solo. Then it's awesome. But otherwise you need a good support group for using it decently. I've been playing since the game came out (solo because the only friend I have who plays it gets wicked network issues when we try to run together). Mostly, Killing Floor is less run-and-gun (unless you want to) and more about siege defense, given you can weld doors shut and channel the flow of enemies in the right direction.

Until they drop in through that hole you never saw through the ceiling :b

[Tipod]

The main beef I have with the LAW is that while powerful, it's awkward, heavy, and just doesn't do damage fast enough, nor does it even have decent enough splash damage. It's always been pretty useless, and with the new grenade launchers there's really no point in ever getting it aside from that one achievement.

The hunting shotgun, on the other hand, will always be awesome and useful for all occasions.

[Janus Whitefurr]

"Damage fast enough" seems a bit selective there. The damn thing is a room-clearer in the right moments, but as I stressed, if you plan to use it effectively you need a good team, or have to be -very- tactical about your solo deployment . As for the grenade launchers, I haven't found them to be really useful - bu then again the explosives in general seem to work horribly when I use them.

Speaking of the shotguns, the AA12 is a death machine. Sweet jesus, full auto fire on something with a fraction less power than the hunting shotgun? I want to marry it and have its death machine autofiring babies. I can turn Fleshpounds to kibble with the damn thing.

Also, if you want to have some hilarious fun, start up a normal game with the Fleshpounds Only mutator. It will be short and painful unless you're very quick or very lucky.

[TheJimTimMan]

Speaking of the shotguns, the AA12 is a death machine. Sweet jesus, full auto fire on something with a fraction less power than the hunting shotgun? I want to marry it and have its death machine autofiring babies. I can turn Fleshpounds to kibble with the damn thing.

As far as soloing the Patriarch goes, the best combo I have found thus far is the pipe bombs plus point-blank AA12 fire.
Didn't even use a full mag (Lvl 2 support, FYI).
Incidentaly, anyone up for a game? After epicly failing to set up games with my RL friends, I figured I'd ask around here. Not right now though, it's 1:20 AM where I am and I need sleeps.

[Janus Whitefurr]

As far as soloing the Patriarch goes, the best combo I have found thus far is the pipe bombs plus point-blank AA12 fire.
Didn't even use a full mag (Lvl 2 support, FYI).
Incidentaly, anyone up for a game? After epicly failing to set up games with my RL friends, I figured I'd ask around here. Not right now though, it's 1:20 AM where I am and I need sleeps.

My first encounter with the Patriarch after the recent update involved not seeing where he spawned in one of the new levels, the abandoned asylum/partyhouse. Bumped into him at the exit of a dark hallway/room, and he ate a full mag of AA12 to the face and died a horrible death.

Also, either normal's been boosted or I'm having horribly bad luck, but trying a long-normal game is even rougher than it used to be.

[TheJimTimMan]

If by "even rougher" you mean "more likely to be pinned by clots and stalkers shortly before a fleshpound arrives" then I would have to agree with you on that.
Oh, and the M14? I can't see high level sharpshooters using anything else, it's effectively a one-shot kill automatic sniper rifle.