I think this could be considered my first actual game review on this blog. I have spent roughly 30 hours playing Left 4 Dead since the demo release. The AI Director doesn't impress me as much as it used to, and I agree with Tycho (of Penny-Arcade fame) when he says that what is really needed is an intelligent variation of the terrain, rather than the variation of the zombie horde that we have been led to expect.

The AI Director is supposed to vary the music, the zombies, etc. What it really means is this:

If you play too slowly, it will throw hordes of zombies at you.
If you play too quickly, it will throw hordes of zombies at you.
If you play somewhere in between quickly and slowly, it will throw hordes of zombies at you.

The "variations" in the music have to do with a specific music being played right before zombies attack en-masse. It's predictable. Very predictable, and I love it. My complaints aside, this game is fantastic. Even though it isn't as "random" as I have been led to believe, it still keeps you on the edge of your seat, I still jump a little when I get jumped by a hunter. I still curse under my breath every time I get covered in Boomer vomit. My heart still pounds like mad when I see a tank lifting a hunk of cement and hurling it at my head. I still...ummm...Smokers are kind of annoying.

Where the game really comes alive is Versus mode. As good as the zombie AI is in the game, it is nothing when compared to 4 human controlled zombies, working in unison to ruin the survivors day. If you are playing as the zombies, it's ridiculous fun trying to separate the survivors, and you get such a rush when you finally bring them down. If you are playing as the survivors, it is a tense, frightening, and fast-paced fight for survival. If you do manage to reach the safe house, it is usually by the skin of your teeth.

Despite my problems with the AI Directors control of the music, I love the atmosphere in this game. There is no point where you are brought out of the setting. It always feels dangerous, like death is waiting around every corner. You are constantly checking behind you, and frequently find yourself in situations from which there seems to be no escape.

The bottom line is that if you have three friends, you owe it to yourself to own this game. The single player will keep you occupied for as long as you want it to. Even with only 4 campaigns, there are countless hours of gameplay available to you.

Left 4 Dead gets 9.5 shambling corpses out of 10.

After the tragic accident that took my Sims lives on Wednesday, I restarted the simulation, gave them a bigger, better house, blah blah blah. The result was that they grew to hate each other, eventually culminating in their son being sent to military school, and the parents both too depressed to work.

I. Shit. You. Not.

Some would say that this means the Sims is flawed as a life simulation. I disagree. I think the Sims provides social commentary on the human condition. It says that human beings are pathetic, useless creatures. That without the help of some "higher power" they are completely unable to live their lives effectively. Without constant supervision, human beings will piss and shit themselves rather than use a toilet. They will go weeks, even months without bathing, laying on their backs on the hard, hard floor, screaming about how unfair life is, and how they only want to be happy, why won't someone just make them happy!!

But they miss the point...they are in control, they don't need someone else. They are empowered. They can use the toilet, they can bathe themselves. They simply need to stand up as one and, in the words of some guy I once saw in an impressive rickroll compilation, say "Yes We Can!"

Either that or the Sims just sucks, and is flawed as a life simulation.

I put together a computer yesterday for the express purpose of playing the Sims. I wanted to let them live their own lives, and I would just check in on them and buy them new sofa's and stuff. It took them nearly 6 hours to burn their house down, and themselves with it, after that, the bugs moved in.

I am going to reset the experiment later today, and probably buy them a smoke detector and maybe a fire extinguisher.

The Sims, for those who don't know, is a simulation of life. It is not an accurate simulation of life, but it covers the basics. You create a family, buy a house, furnish the house, get jobs, make relationships, etc. You can actively control the peoples lives, or you can just let them kind of do it themselves.

The people in the Sims try to live their lives according to their personalities and their moods. If they are hungry they eat, if they are tired they sleep, so in this way it is somewhat accurate. What they don't do is plan ahead. For instance, a dude might have a carpool picking him up at 6:00am, but that's no reason not to go to sleep at 5:45am is it? Fuck no! Then, when his carpool arrives, and he tries to pull his tired ass out of bed, he invariably won't get there on time, lose his job, then burn down his house, wife, and kid.

I downloaded the Left 4 Dead demo through Steam today, and I am very impressed. Not blown away, but definitely impressed. The demo only allows you to play the first to parts of one of the "movies", so i played it a couple of times on single player campaign mode, and it was hella fun. The AI Director works wonderfully, each time I played it was like a new experience. I am going to play it a lot more over the next couple of days, and buy it as soon as I have some spare cash.

My computer has some problems with it. I can only run it smoothly at low resolution, but even then it doesn't look horrible, mind you that is my laptop, so I may tear open my desktop and see what I can do with it. It may make the difference between impressed and blown away if I can get it to run with a higher resolution.

I have to get some people together to play the co-op mode as soon as possible, like...now...I want it to be people I know, and I have to get my microphone working.

Nice! The commercial for Left 4 Dead just came on Spike TV, which I believe can only be a sign from god that I must own this game.

My wife brought up something about Lego Star Wars II that I forgot to mention. In Chapter 2 of Episode V (The Empire Strikes Back), you are traveling through the swamps of Dagobah when suddenly you build...a green, presumably John Deere, tractor.

From what I could tell, the tractor didn't add anything useful to the scene. It didn't help me accomplish any task that a more...Star Wars-esque vehicle wouldn't have done. While I did get a great laugh watching Yoda bomb around the swamp on a tractor, it removed any possibility of the game feeling like Star Wars.

It came up again in Episode VI, again serving no purpose that an AT-ST couldn't have done, and again completely removing me from the feeling of being in a galaxy far, far away.

I finished the story mode in Lego Star Wars II (The original saga) last night. There are some games, such as Bioshock or Assassins Creed, where I play the game, immersed in the story, and I just can't wait for the ending, even though I will be sad when it's over. Lego Star Wars wasn't like that at all. I suppose it is hard to get wrapped up in the story, I have only seen it eleventy billion times. Still, getting to fly the Falcon, blowing up Death Star Part Deux, defeating the emperor, returning peace to the galaxy, all of these things should be great to play through, even in lego form.

I guess my complaint is that the game isn't bad, but it also isn't star wars. It follows the story fine, but there is something elsewhere...elusive...I can't put my finger on it. I think the game may be more lego than star wars.

By comparison, Lego Indiana Jones was amazing. It was both Lego, and Indy, and the two blended beautifully. It made me want to watch the movies, I want to go back and play through all the levels, just to complete the "Treasures". I absolutely don't want to go through Star Wars again to get the extras...I still may, for the piz-oints, but I won't enjoy it.

I will probably pick up the Lego Batman game at some point, I don't think you will catch me picking up Episodes I-III of Lego star wars though.

It's been a little over a month since my last post, which is something I told myself I would not do. There are a thousand possible excuses, and rather than bore you with mine I will let you make your own.

My Play by Post campaigns are starting to lag, and I am trying to figure out what I can do to revitialize them. My Pen and Paper game has missed a few sessions as well, but I don't think it is in any danger of dying out completely just yet.

The bane of my existance as a DM is my imagination. I am a storyteller, and when I design a campaign I am trying to tell a story, I am trying to make the world I set my players in reflect the actions they choose. I want it to have meaning. All of this makes for exciting campaigns, I like to think. My problem is that when I miss a session or two, my mind wanders. I start thinking of other campaigns, other stories, that I want to run. I get so wrapped up in those other campaigns that I get disinterested in my current one, and my players suffer. Since I began playing with my current group, we haven't seen a campaign run it's course. Right now, I have too much on my plate to begin thinking of other campaigns, so my players are safe (for now).

Aside from D&D, most of my time is taken up with playing Team Fortress 2. I haven't been so wrapped up in an FPS since my old Counterstrike/Day of Defeat days. If you play Team Fortress 2, check out the [Double][Dead][Redux] servers. There are two, which always run the Orange x3 map and have 100% crit chance on. It makes for a deadly game, but be warned, once you get used to 100% crit chance, it's hard to go back to a regular game. I find myself using the sniper and hitting someone and when they don't immediately die I assume they are cheating, then I remember that I need to actually get a headshot to crit in a regular game.

I also tried my hand, finally, at some of the Lego branded games on the 360. Lego Star Wars II and Lego Indiana Jones to be specific. Both are tons of fun, especially the cut scenes, but if I had to choose just one to bring to a desert island it would be Indy. Playing it made me want to watch the movies again. I don't have the movies on DVD. I had to set up my VCR to watch them on VHS and I felt very old and slightly dirty.

November has some amazing, amazing games coming out, none of which I will get to play. I have so many games to get through before I can justify buying any other games. I still have to finish Lego Star Wars II, Gears of War, even Beautiful Katamari which we got the same week we got out 360. I also have a bit of hankering to play some Viva Pinata...we will see.

The one game that I do plan to get, as soon as humanly possible, is Left 4 Dead. I was mostly undecided, but then I saw the opening video and my mind was made up for me.