L4D

Damn, the hits keep coming don't they? This is some kind of crazy golden age. There have been nothing but super huge releases and you know whats the best part!? It's almost 100% software. No pain in the ass new console crap destroying this holiday season. Its pure gaming goodness...like good syrup squeezed from an awesome tree in an awesome forest where the awesome gnomes (who take care of the awesome trees of the awesome forest so awesomely) and you pay awesome dolloars for the awesome syrup but sometimes its so awesome you need to get their awesome sauce which is made from really awesome awesome berries which are the most awesome of the awesome fruits which grow awesomly in the awesome forust (which is where the awesome syrup is made in case I lost you somewhere in my awesome rant).

So feeling like a kid on Halloween, I saw the adds around that Left 4 Dead demo was available early if you pre-ordered. Now I know I want to get this game, but I'm not sure for what platform. I prefer 360 since voice chat is easier to maintain and more of my friends play 360 actively then steam on pc. I may end up getting both down the road just in case any awesome mods/maps come out for free on PC, I don't miss out.

Allright, now the real question: How was it? It was f*&%ing great. So some quick background info: Left 4 Dead (L4D) is a co-op multiplayer centric game (though single player is totally avaiable) where one group of players takes on the role of 4 survivors. Your objective? Get to the other end of the stage which happens to be infested with hundreds of fast moving/climbing zombies. So its pretty straight forward but what is so good about L4D right now is the level of polish in its presentation. The game attempts to be cinematic but also is very clear about having "WEAPON OVER HERE" icons pop up that help you find items such as health. You can always turn around and find your teammates who have a nice blue aura appear around them when they are behind walls. Its very clear that while voice chat is important, you can do so much communication without even having to talk to another and in some cases, when it gets really frentic, that comes in handy.

As far the famed AI Director goes (which has been touted (is that the right word?) as this amazing thing that will spawn or stop spawning zombies to scare the living crap out of you and fill the game with tension), its pretty damn awesome. I ran through the demo twice on single player and twice with human teammates. Both times the game changed up its ways to mess with me/us. On one occasion, my team (real humans) were camping near a safe room (locations with ammo/health supplies) and picking off zombies before we had to jump down a hole and cut ourselves off from our supply. The longer we waited, the more and more zombies started to appear from other spots culminating in a horde of zombies literally dropping from the ceiling. It was at this point that we decided to move the f*$% along and get out of there. Things like this add a lot to the tension of the game and make for some hectic moments. The single best moment came when we were deep in the subway and the horde suddenly appeared. We doubled back and jumped inside of a broken down train....

Inside the train I figured "Allright good, there are only two ways to get on the train, we should be just fine" and that is when it got awesome (in a terrifying way). The train started to shake and the zombies were crawling ALL OVER the damn thing. They broken windows and jumped in between our defensive positions. It became an unbelievable awesome cluster f**k.

And now...the demo is up on 360....so you know where to find me tonight!