Weekly PC Sales: Left 4 Dead Rises

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As the new year kicks off, sales-tracking firm NPD Group has looked back to December 14-20, 2008 and provided a list of that week's best-selling PC games at U.S. retailers.

Though the games are identical to the week before, the order is a little bit different, with Left 4 Dead and The Sims 2 Double Deluxe rising, while Call of Duty and Fallout, er, fell.

  1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King / Blizzard / $40 (Average)
  2. Spore / EA Maxis / $49 (Average)
  3. Left 4 Dead / Valve / $41 (Average)
  4. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe / EA Maxis / $20 (Average)
  5. Call Of Duty: World At War / Treyarch / $48 (Average)
  6. Fallout 3 / Bethesda / $47 (Average)
  7. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Exp. Pack / EA Maxis / $19 (Average)
  8. Bejewled Twist / PopCap / $20 (Average)
  9. World Of Warcraft Battle Chest / Blizzard / $38 (Average)
  10. The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff Exp. / EA Maxis / $18 (Average)

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
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    January 3, 2009 10:16 AM

    Just bought left 4 dead yesterday. It's awesome.

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      January 3, 2009 10:37 AM

      as long as it's exploits-free, you can find tons of videos on youtube showing exploits and bugs ruining the game's experience, until those bugs are fixed i'm not getting it

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        January 3, 2009 10:42 AM

        Won't play an online game until there are no exploits? Hmmm, I guess you have never played any online games then huh?

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          January 3, 2009 12:51 PM

          i've played a lot but the "melee spamming" exploit is something that cannot be ignored and totally ruins it. Anyway, the game is so much fun and i'm going to buy it once the prices are reduced for the physical edition

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            January 3, 2009 4:54 PM

            That's funny, a tank usually makes pretty quick work of corner campers, just before to chuck a few rocks at them instead of running into four combat shotguns at point blank, ouch. There are ways to beat the melee spammers, you just have to try instead of queue-queueing about it.

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              January 3, 2009 4:55 PM

              Ugh, "before" should be "be sure". Don't know how that happened.

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              January 4, 2009 4:24 AM

              Way of beating yes, probably.

              But using a script to be able to melee once every 0.3 seconds instead of the usual 0.7 seconds does seem a bit prickish to me.

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        January 3, 2009 10:55 AM

        It's a game for playing with friends anyway. You'll be fine so long as your friends don't exploit.

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        January 3, 2009 10:56 AM

        lol

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        January 3, 2009 11:05 AM

        so few people use exploits that I've only seen it once in my playing of l4d and I bought it when it came out. and even then it wasn't and exploit, more like an tactical advantage :)

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          January 3, 2009 11:21 AM

          Lemme guess... Hiding under the Ramp on the Rooftop stage in No Mercy

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          January 3, 2009 12:34 PM

          If by "tactical advantage" you mean hiding in a closet and melee spamming, then yes, that is an exploit.

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            January 3, 2009 12:48 PM

            using melee in a tight spot with a teammate behind you shooting, such as in a closet, or in a corner, or anywhere really, is not an exploit.

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              January 3, 2009 1:29 PM

              [deleted]

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                January 5, 2009 9:07 AM

                Exploiting a good defensive position? Pretty sure that's a desired feature for the survivors. SuperSpeed Melee I agree about, but holding a closest isn't an 'exploit'. Infected just need to wait for them to leave.

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            January 3, 2009 1:16 PM

            It's kind of goofy, but what is it exploiting? If I were trying to stay alive under attack by hundreds of zombies, I'd try to find a defended position too. It seems like a genuinely useful strategy to me--two guys in front kneeling, two guys in back standing up, giving everyone line of sight. I mean it makes a lot more sense than just running around in circles or whatever.

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              January 3, 2009 1:47 PM

              In terms of closets and bathroom, it's exploiting the awesome power of the melee attack. As long as you're in there, nobody's getting hurt, period, which does seem a bit unlikely for a zombie attack with hundreds of zombies charging your single doorway.

              we just did this last night on expert after epic failing on the finale for about an hour, and made it through unharmed :D

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                January 3, 2009 5:23 PM

                Yes, I agree. Nerf melee and allow barricade building and it would be more believable.

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                  January 4, 2009 12:55 AM

                  Maybe, but would it be more fun? Besides, it's not fool-proof, especially on expert. Boomers appear, smokers drag you out, and tanks show up to turn you into meat. Tanks showed up twice during our expert finale.

                  Having to barricade the windows might be fun, just like slow zombies might be fun. But it's already fun the way it is.

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                January 4, 2009 9:00 AM

                Okay you guys need to define what you mean by "exploit" in cases like this. What you're describing is designed into the game, therefore it is not an exploit in the usual use of the word IMO. When I hear that term it means making unfair use of a bug or glitch, not like you're exploiting a natural resource or something.

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            January 3, 2009 7:25 PM

            i think melee is fine, except for places where there's only one entry, like closets. as long as we can pounce from a different direction, melee can't solve everything.

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          January 5, 2009 12:03 AM

          I've only had it less than a week and already run into it.

          On No Mercy finale we were near the minigun and some on the next roof up just starting the event and no-one was on the minigun itself so I grabbed it for a bit, just to soften the the first few waves up - expecting to have someone watch my back from above. I was firing for a while then zombies start hitting me so much I left the gun and turned around to face a boomer and a dozen zombies right there. After I died in about 3 seconds while scrambling for the ladder, I zoom out wondering WTF everyone else was. They were all on the tiny ledge on the back side of the roof where no zombies or tanks can get to. I don't know why I sat there watching for the eternity it took them to kill two tanks with pistols since it was so lame.

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        January 3, 2009 12:30 PM

        You do realize that represents a small number of the games played right? People will upload videos of any game that has a bug/exploit but it isn't like every player uses them every time they play.

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        January 3, 2009 2:28 PM

        play on shack servers, problem solved!

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          January 3, 2009 6:43 PM

          how do you get invited to those?

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            January 3, 2009 6:56 PM

            Post in the "latest chatty" and ask to be invited. Post a link to your SteamID page.

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        January 4, 2009 12:33 AM

        Not a problem. It's primarily a co-op game, which you play through repeatedly. On the rare occasions that I see people using exploits, it never bothers me in the slightest. Who cares? We're all on the same team. It doesn't alter the experience at all... merely the route.

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          January 4, 2009 7:57 AM

          I got a game and was exploit spammed with (no joke) 4 boomers simultaneously followed by 3 tanks and 2 witches. in about a 2 minute period.

          Total bullshit.

          But the great thing about the exploiters is you know they suck, and have to cheat to win. therefore, find a different server. when they have nobody to play with, then they'll get bored (and hopefully banned)

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            January 4, 2009 9:02 AM

            haha, there are exploits to spawn guys like that? Though I was playing co-op on a server last night that a friend runs and two of the guys would keep spawning shit and turning down gravity and stuff. It was mega lols.

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