Left 4 Dead 2: It could have been one of 2010’s best games.

While I didn’t sign a petition trying to block its release, I was a bit disarmed by the announcement of Left 4 Dead 2.  The original is not even a year old, has a massive fan following, and even after you earn all the achievements it has infinite re-playability thanks to its always-changing difficulty dynamics and the mere fact that SHOOTING ZOMBIES IN THE FACE NEVER GETS OLD.

With that being said, it’s no surprise that there is a sequel.  This is how video games work, after all, and anybody that has played video games with any degree of passion in the last thirty years knows that.  Developers make a great game and publishers make a whole lot of money off of it.  Developers, being the artsy folks they are, see room for improvement in their art even after its sold a million copies.  Publishers, more than willing to capitalize on brand recognition, generously fund developers’ efforts to improve the original in the form of a sequel, so that the publisher can make even more money off of it than they did the original.

The thing that bothers me about Left 4 Dead 2 is not its existence, but its timing.  I never feared a Madden-esque franchise exploitation; Valve treats their fans better than that.  I didn’t think, however, that it was fair to push a sequel to such an excellent game so soon, simply because there wasn’t many improvements that could be made to the established material.  Valve could have sat on it for a year and spat it out next Christmas, when interest in Left 4 Dead may have started slipping.  As for implementing the new features introduced in the sequel via downloadable content–well, I’m not programmer, so I’m not sure how difficult that would have been for some of the deep-seeded changes to the core game engine (such as melee weapons, new items, and–especially–new Special Infected).   So again, a sequel was inevitable; just released too soon.

Of course it’s on my wish list at Amazon.com for this holiday season.

The demo is out now for Xbox Live Gold subscribers (and all Steam users), so we finally get to see if this sequel is worth being rushed out the gate.  I have to say it would have served better being released next year, when the new ideas would have seemed even more fresh and original–and Valve could have taken the time to better implement them.

There are many things I like about the sequel, namely the characters and setting.  Bill, Francis, Zoey, and Louis are now iconic characters that will forever be associated with the undead apocalypse, and I love them just as much as I did the very first time I booted up the game.  But Ellis (my personal favorite), Coach, Nick, and Rochelle feel better developed and more human; they seem weaker, more helpless, which in this kind of game is a good thing for the narrative.  Let’s be honest: Francis and Bill could have probably split up and handled the zombie apocalypse solo.  You get that sense from their personalities.  The four leads from L4D2 seem to really depend on each other; any one of them would die alone, but together they keep each other alive.

The zombies are also more complex.  The standard Infected are more varied in their design, with some of them being former police officers and thus wearing body armor.  Spitters present a real challenge; they function like Boomers, except they spew venomous bile on the ground that saps your health.  Jockeys are similar to Hunters, except they don’t pin your character; instead, they ride you, similar to their namesake, taking you all over the place.

The setting is much more rich than in the original.  It’s no longer “typical American city and the surrounding community;” this is the South we’re talking about.  Cheap lawn chairs and fences, lots of greenery, wide open streets, and the chirping of cicadas and the buzz of mosquitoes pervade the two chapters that comprise this demo.  Somehow, Valve even nailed the humidity of New Orleans; you get the sense that the air is thick and heavy (the daytime setting probably helps).  In hindsight, the backdrop of the original game was just a placeholder; this is a real place with real personality.

Even the music is better.  The bluegrass interpretation of the music that plays when you die is more sorrowful than in the first game, and the jazz riff that plays to herald the arrival of the Horde is–oddly–more menacing than the B-movie fanfare from the first game.

Unfortunately, where it matters the most–game play–the sequel is a bit more weak.  Yes, new Special Infected present new challenges, but they are blatant variations on the existing characters; they don’t really feel new.  Melee weapons are a huge disappointment.  Yes, they offer one hit kills and a valuable way to conserve ammo, and they are fun to use, but one has to be in melee range of a zombie to use them, meaning you’ll be charging towards them instead of hanging back and suppressing them–this leads to lots of deaths (believe me).  What’s more, the melee weapon replaces your pistol; better functionality would have it replacing your melee attack (you press the left trigger and, instead of a jab with the butt of your gun, you perform a swipe with your melee weapon, just like how melee attacks work in Modern Warfare).  This would have made much more sense and expanded combat options much more, giving you a fallback option when you are swarmed but not forcing you to take risks to use your new toys.  The new guns are a lot of fun to play with, but there’s not enough new ones–and not enough variation amongst them–to feel like a big change to game play.

There is also one glaring problem with the demo.  When I played single player, it ran flawlessly.  When a friend asked me to join him for multiplayer, it lagged like a three-legged dog.  We couldn’t enjoy the game because everything jerked and sputtered and chugged along.  We would empty whole clips into regular Infected and they would stand there wailing on us, and then all of a sudden there we are: on our backs with pistols in the air and a perfect circle of Infected all around us.  We finally decided to quit and hope for the best upon full release; there was no way we were going to enjoy playing like this.

So, judging from the demo, will Left 4 Dead 2 be fun to play?  Yes, it will be.  The new characters and setting add a few extra layers and some very delicious icing to an already delicious cake.  The action is just as fast and frantic as ever, and popping zombies upside the head with a frying pan feels as awesome as it sounds.  Is it worth the $60 price tag?  Yes, it is.  This is a full retail release; it is not an expansion.  It has a wealth of additional play modes not found in the original, a brand new campaign, and changes to how the core game is played.  Was it released too soon, so soon that it will feel like an expansion despite being a totally new entity, spawned from something already in exsitence but with an identity all of its own?  Yes, it was.

Tricks AND Treats with these Halloween Video Games

Halloween is awesome.  It’s one of the few genuinely fun holidays left, one that’s not obsessed with Olympic-level shopping for over-priced gifts, political correctness, or putting up with THOSE ANNOYING IN-LAWS.  No, Halloween is about partying with your friends, consuming massive amounts of candy, and letting your creativity stretch its legs with that best part of Halloween: the costume.  And even if you don’t go all out with your costume, you at least get to goof off a little bit; surely you can at least put on a black cape and pop in the trusty vampire teeth (yeah, that’s totally what I’m doing this year).

Video games play a pretty big part of Halloween as well.  Sure, when we think video games, we usually think of Christmas–namely because, for most gamers, video games comprise most of what is under the tree on Christmas morning (and it’s one of the few days our families are totally cool with us spending twelve hours in front of the TV, chiefly because of all the new shinies).

But think about it: how many video games scream “Christmas” to you when you consider their content?  How many video games are about warmth and sharing, about giving more than you receive?  How many video games depict Santa and his reindeer?  Sure, there are a few out there, but very few.  Contrast that to the number of spooky, scary, and weird games that are right at home during the month of October: games that make you think of Halloween, as opposed to Christmas making you think of video games.

Here are a few of my favorites–from the past and present–that I like to break out when the air goes chill, the leaves turn, and you get the odd suspicion that there is a vampire waiting outside your door.

Doom

It might not be the original horror video game, but with its demons, occult symbols, and intense violence, it is certainly one of the most viable entries in the genre out there.  Doom is one of the first video games I played that would, at times, instill into me a sense of panic and dread.  The disembodied snarls of some dark beast, the eerie silence of a newly-discovered room, the attacks from all around you, the confined spaces–John Carmack and company knew what they were doing.  Like so many old-school games, Doom didn’t want to empower the gamer; it wanted to make you feel helpless, and few games do a better job of  it.  Sure, Mega Man makes you feel helpless, but I don’t remember any goat-headed enemies in Mega Man; there is just something about that to make you feel extra-screwed.

Resident Evil

I kind of stopped liking the Resident Evil series after the first one.  Oh sure, Resident Evil 2-4 are all well-designed games, and RE5 looks great (I haven’t played it, other than the demo, but I hear it’s a pretty awesome co-op experience).  But most Resident Evil games are action games with horror elements; the original Resident Evil was pure B-grade horror goodness, and for a high school boy who was just starting to dabble in scary stuff, it was the Greatest Thing Ever.  I often credit this game with introducing me to the horror genre, with getting me into zombies and vampires and werewolves and heavy metal music.  I feel confident that I am not unique in this.  It’s also the first game to introduce me to setting and atmosphere as a game play mechanic: the mansion was just as much of a character as the giant snake, those terrifying dogs that crashed through the windows, and the last big boss Tyrant.  And that character was so, so scary: I would even say deliciously scary (and I really hate saying that).

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

If Resident Evil launched a thousand horror fans, then Castlevania: Symphony of the Night launched a thousand goth kids–or at least it should have.  This game was a bit of a sales flop when it first released, but as with most critical successes/commercial failures, it earned the respect of a classic and has been re-released on both XBLA and PSN, allowing it to earn the love and respect from the masses it truly deserves.  As for its Halloween appropriateness, it doesn’t get much better than this: Dracula’s good-natured son rises from an eternal slumber to traverse his father’s haunted castle on a quest to end the Dark Lord’s reign of terror forever.  It’s not really a scary game, but it is certainly a dark one.  The sprawling, seemingly endless castle is populated with a myriad of fantastical creatures, and every gothic flourish you can think of can be found–from ruined turrets to an eerie cathedral to a whole lot of artfully applied blood.  Other than the original, this is the best Castlevania game, and it’s one of the best video games ever made, period.

Left 4 Dead

I could write at length why this is a great game to play for Halloween, but really: do I have to?  You and three other friends have to make it from point A to B in a zombie-infested world.  You’ll creep through deserted hospitals, traverse dank sewers, and make a desperate run across a cornfield in your travels–and that’s just a few of the utterly terrifying places you will go.  At the end of each chapter, you’ll have to get onto a rescue vehicle of some sort, while EVERY ZOMBIE IN THE UNIVERSE is bearing down on you.  In short: this game is concerned with zombies and the killing of them.  Enough said.  With about one hour needed for each chapter, a full play-through is a great way to spend Halloween.

Dead Space

Do you like Alien?  Have you played Dead Space?  If not, you should.  There are all kinds of things that make it scary: constant feelings of dread and loneliness, doubts about the main character’s mental stability, and the old sci-fi standby of an imposing monolith older than time (which, in this case, really does look like something Satan made).  But the blood-red cherry on this horror sundae are the Necromorphs: an alien race that re-animates human corpses.  Zombies?  Well, sure: but horribly deformed zombies that–going along with the whole Satan theme–look far more demonic and grotesque than your typical undead human.  The Necromorphs are the most nightmare-inducing creatures I have ever seen in a video game or movie, and on top of dealing with them, there are moments when you will enter the unforgiving void of space with only a limited supply of air.  As your air gauge dials down far more quickly than you need it to, your pulse quickens and your palms sweat.  This game doesn’t let up for one instance, and it all culminates in one of the most tense final boss battles ever.  A great game to play in the days leading up to Halloween, when the last big battle reserved for Halloween night.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Not really a horror game, but as any Batman fan will tell you: Arkham Asylum is the scariest place on Earth.  With every major villain he has ever faced actively working to break his mind, Batman faces a challenge no less terrifying than anything in any other game on this list.  Chief among the scares is the encounters with Scarecrow: mind-bending battles of will that build up slowly and grow in intensity as they progress.  With bonus material that probes the psyche of Arkhman’s most terrifying alumni (some of it would make Hannibal Lecter feel…uncomfortable), it’s hard not to consider this game a great play for those chilly autumn days where twilight lasts a little bit longer than it should.

So there you go: spooky gaming that is perfect for Halloween time.   Grab a bag of Reese’s Pumpkins and settle in for a long night of gaming–a long night because, you probably won’t be able to go to sleep.

What to Play, What to Play?

I never thought I’d reached a point in my life where I said I had too many games to play.  Between my regular online activity in WoW, Halo 3, Left 4 Dead, Gears of War 2, and now Street Fighter IV, I have yet to finish BioShock and Half-Life 2.  Plus, reading comics again has got me wanting to play Marvel Ultimate Alliance so bad I can taste it (and it tastes like bacon) and there is always Conan, a game I bought for sentimental value and ended liking quite a bit.

I tell you, it’s like being in an arcade with unlimited quarters: both awesome and intimidating.

Let’s not forget that I like to do other stuff in my free time as well, such as write articles and short stories for (hopeful) publication, read, and listen to music.

I just need to quit my job.  Any rich girls want a husband? 

Gears of War 2, where did you go wrong?

I loved Gears of War 2.  I really did.  I even fast-talked a friend of mine into impulse buying it.  Now, I’m afraid that it’s just a shadow of its former self.

The last time I tried to play multiplayer, I waited…and waited…and waited…and never got into a group.  This was after the patch that was supposed to fix everything.  Not even Horde mode went live with me, and since this is one of the most popular multiplayer modes EVER, I refuse to believe that it was due to low player population.

Now, I see this crap, and I weep.

Seriously?  I think this glitch would have been easy enough to spot–and fix–in development.

I really don’t know if I ever want to buy another Epic game again.  They’ve just seemed content to count their money and not bother truly fixing the problems that Gears 2 has–which is a shame, because this could have been the best multiplayer experience of the year (yes, even better than Left 4 Dead) if we could actually, you know, PLAY IT.

Not to mention that Mike Capps is calling the whambulance over secondhand sales and rentals.  Must be nice to obscenely loaded.

Prince of Persia: I Think I’ll Be Sitting This One Out

Heralded as the last big game of this year (after two months of escalating debt!), Prince of Persia dropped Tuesday.  I was going to get it, because, you know, I don’t really need money; however, after reading the reviews from Kotaku and Wired, I think I’ll be waiting for this one to hit the bargain shelf.  Essentially, it seems to be a pretty, pretty game with a great narrative experience, but it doesn’t offer a degree of challenge that makes any game seem rewarding.

In other words, it’s like another one of Ubisoft’ recent releases: fun to study and examine as a humanities work, but not that great when it comes to mechanics.   Assassin’s Creed was a beautiful display of graphics and an interesting case study of multi-layered story-telling, but the game play was so canned I just couldn’t be made to care.  I do want to play Prince of Persia mind you, and I’m not a fan of renting games, so maybe next summer when I just want something fresh and new, I’ll pick it up.

I did pick up The Orange Box last night.  Yes, yes: I know that I am a shame to my God, my Country, and my Mama for not getting it before now.  I know that it was folly to pay $15 for Portal: Still Alive from Live Arcade when I could have dropped the same amount of money on a used copy of the five-in-one package at my local Gamestop.  However, I–please don’t hurt me–never was big fan of Half-Life.  I still don’t think it will be my favorite series ever, but as I’ve played more games I’ve paid more attention to design and development and have a new appreciation for the classics.  So chalk it up to a more mature taste in games now, but after playing Portal and Left 4 Dead, I want to go back and experience all of Valve’s work.  First thing I’m doing when I get my PC is buy the original Half-Life from Steam.

Four day weekend coming up, so I will be gaming until my eyes bleed–and watching movies as well, and I’m launching on the ambitious goal of reading R.A. Salvatore’s Drizzt Do’Urden saga from start to finish–not all in one weekend mind you, but I will be reading those books exclusively until I’m done with the whole story.  Then I will wish once again that I had a real, honest to goodness Drizzt game on my hands–maybe one where he joins Batman in saving Gotham City from zombies!

Shock and offend your Night Elf Druid friends in new and surprising ways.

YEAAAAHHH!!!!

Found this courtesy of Kotaku.  Somebody has been playing too much (or just the right amount) of Gears of War 2.  Called the “Firearm Mounted Anti Zombie Device,” this is the closest thing to a Lancer we’re going to get in real life.  No, the replica doesn’t count.  Not after seeing this thing.

So do I want it?  You bet your sweet sugar bombs I want it.  If there ever was gun that made you want someone to break into your home, to make you sit in your recliner all night, praying that somebody busts through a window, this was the one.  Imagine the epic win of seeing the look on a crook’s face when you threw this in his mug.  You wouldn’t have to issue a verbal threat, you wouldn’t have to fire a warning shot.  You wouldn’t even have to load the thing.  All you would have to do is point.

Of course, it would also come in handy in the event of when the Zombie Apocalypse happens.  Hey Valve, you reading this?  I want this gun added as a Left 4 Dead weapon right now.  I’m willing to drop at least 800 Microsoft points on it, easy.

For the gun enthusiasts out there, that’s an AR-15 assault rifle with a chainsaw attachment.  Commence to modding and please, God please, send me YouTube links.  You can see some videos and pics, including a live fire demo (and a priceless picture of a bearded good ol’ boy fondling one these puppies, “Git-R-Done” hat firmly planted on his head) by clicking here.

Oh, and here’s one of my new favorite pictures:

Yeah…I don’t know about the rest of you all, but when “they” finally invade, I want to be on the same side of the barbed wire as these guys.

Batman vs. The Infected

I have a touch of a fever, and when I have a fever I always have really weird dreams.  Last night, I had one of those dreams.  I dreamed that I was playing the newest Batman game.  No, not Arkham Asylum (I wish), but something far more…odd.

Batman vs. The Infected.

Yes, Batman fighting the Infected from Left 4 Dead.  How was it, you might ask?  It was shockingly awesome.  In my short dream-session with it, I had Batman use a batarang to pop a Boomer, he had a pretty wicked kung-fu battle with a Hunter, he took out a huge group of basic Infected with those awesome take-down moves from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and he went all stealth to run away from a Witch.  Then, in what has got to be one of the greatest boss battles ever, a Tank burst through a wall and had Batman hiding, running, striking from the shadows, and using some uncharacteristically big guns (namely, a Gatling gun) to take him down.

It was the greatest video game crossover ever, and I want somebody to make it and make it right now.

OMG NXE w00t!

As we speak, my 360 is updating to the NXE.  In just a few short minutes, I’ll be making my avatar and navigating what will hopefully be a quicker, cleaner, more lemony-fresh UI.  You would think I would be using this time to play some no-wait WoW (it’s not even 7:00 AM server time on Kilrogg), but no; I’m staring at my TV, waiting for the progress bar to go all the way to the right, sipping my tea (hmmm, tea), and imagining mind how I’m going to make my avatar.

Should I make him all realistic, with the gut and shaggy hair and nerd glasses, or should I make an idealized version of myself?  Speaking of avatars, Left 4 Dead should allow custom characters.  I understand that the four stock characters allow for some quick reference action (if you’re playing with somebody with a Gamertag like “n4bzlikLOL” you just shout out their character’s name when you want to get their attention), but surviving the zombie apocalypse would be a lot more…personal…if you got to design your own avatar.  I’m not saying throw in a convoluted XP system–one reason I love this game is for it’s inherent simplicity, the fact that it feels more like a board game than a video game–but it would be nice to design my own toon.

I guess the fact that there is an achievement called “Brain Salad” makes up for that, and if loving a game that rewards popping zombie heads into a gooey pulp is wrong then I don’t ever want to be right.

Well, the progress bar is almost to the right.  Time to play with upgrades kids!

EDIT:It seems that you can get a PNG file of your avatar to use for all kinds of fun stuff!  Pop the following URL in your browser, replacing “GAMERTAG” with your…um…gamertag…and there you go.  You can slap the little dude (or dudette) onto and into anything, thanks to the format that he’s saved in (essentially a JPG with a transparent background).  Expect much avatary hijinks in the future.

Here’s the URL you need:  “http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/GAMERTAG/avatar-body.png”

Zombies and Coca-Cola Health Potions

I’m older and jaded than I used to be, but I still love the holidays; and since I’m a fat kid, nothing puts me in the holiday spirit like food.  Turkey, stuffing, cranberry chutney, coffee, tea, hot cocoa, pumpkin pie, and Coca-Cola.  Yes, Coca-Cola puts in the mood for the holidays.  Ever since I was a kid and I saw those polar bear commercials and the commericals with the trucks and the little kids chanting “Santa packs are coming,” I associated Coca-Cola with the holidays.  The fact that Coca-Cola puts out the best Christmas-themed bottles helps; a recent design is the ornament-shaped bottles.  I love these bottles because they get me in the holiday spirit (well, they help) and they remind me of health potions from every RPG ever.  Seriously: skinny neck, short and fat body–if you’ve played any RPG on any console or rig and used a health potion, you know of what I speak.

Of course, RPGs will have to take a break for a moment: Left 4 Dead dropped today, and after playing the demo, there was no way I could wait until next year to play it.  I just finished “No Mercy” with a great group of guys (one whom I swear was stoned), and it was some of the best fun I’ve had rolling multiplayer ever.  If Horde mode is incredibly awesome, then Left 4 Dead–in any shape, form or fashion–is incredibly awesome cooked in a spoon.  Definitely multiplayer game of the year.