In the latest patch for Left 4 Dead, Valve have decided to fix the difficulty under Versus mode to Normal.  I didn’t think much of this, having played on Expert and finding it ridiculously difficult, until I played it a few times.

What is now evident, is that people are just trying to rush through each level, instead of having to take it slow and steady and think about what they are doing.

Last night, 8 of us experienced gamers, on our own server, had to play it on Normal…. and it was boring. Too easy to fight off a rush of horde, too easy to kill Hunters, too easy to kill a Tank. Expert was too hard, Normal is too easy.

From the various threads I’ve read elsewhere it looks as if this is because people have been voting to change the difficulty mid-game – well here’s a novel idea – why not just disable that functionality?! Once a campaign has started, the difficulty can’t be changed. Let it be specified at the Lobby. That way all players know what they’re about to play. Don’t completely restrict the setting. I hate to think what an organised clan/team match will be like on Normal setting. It will be more like a sprint than a tactical team game.