Video Game Apocalypse: Day 3
Don’t lie. I’m sure all of us have thought at one point in time, “What would I do if there ever was a zombie attack?”. I’m double sure many of us have created several zombie survival plans in our head or even have them written down (I myself have 7 different plans). It may sound like science fiction, but there are insects and parasites in real life that have the ability to mind control their hosts. Parasitic spiny-head worms, green jeweled wasps, and many more parasites are out there are just waiting to control another species for its own purpose. Is it so farfetched, then, that our world is doomed to be destroyed by a virus/parasite that turns humans into brain craving lunatics? Okay, maybe it is. But in Day 3′s game we get to experience this world overrun with people who want a piece of your mind.
Left 4 Dead 2
(Xbox 360, PC)
Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 take on that popular idea of being an immune survivor to a disease which has turned much of your race into mindless zombies. The concept is fairly simple and straight forward. You are paired up with three other survivors and must try to get from point A to point B without becoming finger food for the zombies. You are given an array of weapons to kill the many zombies that stand between you and your quest. These zombies aren’t your typical Dawn of the Dead zombies where they do the Michael Jackson shuffle towards you. These zombies are the 28 Days Later types of zombies that come barreling at you full force. Alone or in small packs, they aren’t a problem, but when a horde comes rushing in on you from every direction you will need your wits and team around you. Especially when the special infected move in.
What really makes left 4 Dead stand out is its online modes. You can team up with three friends to fight alongside you through the campaign or go into one of the several versus modes Left 4 Dead has and play as both survivors and the infected. And don’t think you can become the lone wolf of the team and go blasting off into the sunset by yourself. Teamwork is essential in this game. Without it, you will find yourself being turned into a play toy for the special infected.
Not only is it good practice for the inevitable zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead is an incredibly fun game and one that is made even better when you’re able to play it with friends.
Day 4 Preview: Only two words needed. Crowbar and cake.
The Weekly Byte for 8/2/2010
New Releases
Friday, 7/30 – Commander:Conquest of the Americas, Strategy/RTS by Paradox $39.95
Tuesday, 8/3 – Metro 2033 Ranger Pack DLC, $3 on XBL, free for Steam users :O)
News Bytes
Reason to traverse radiated tubes, once more! Yes, as you’ve read above, there will be new DLC for this year’s sleeper hit, Metro 2033. Sadly, I have not had a chance to play it, myself, but I am salivating for a price drop. The new DLC allows players to take advantage of a Ranger Mode setting, which makes ammo scarce and increases the damage dealt by both sides. Ummm, am I the only one who doesn’t see the fun in this? Also, there will be some new items, weapons and achievements, so look for the DLC to pull into your station this week!
Seems like Fable on the PC will be a bedtime story at dusk. Originally planned to launch side-by-side with console versions, Fable II has now been pushed back to an unannounced date. Microsoft reassures that this is not a cancellation, but an opportunity to optimize the game for the PC platform. I would not have made Fable III a day one purchase, and I can certainly stand behind a developer taking extra time to customize a PC version of the game, so the news is not as upsetting to me as it may be to some. I’m still glad to see Microsoft gaming make a return to PC, and I can only hope this Fable will herald more Microsoft gaming tales to be told on the PC.
Have you lost that lovin’ feeling? The void that has been left, since HAWX came out, so long ago? Well, get to pre-flight, Mav, HAWX 2 is touching down this fall, on September 7th. Among scarce details in the skies, the multiplayer aspect of the game seems to have undergone a complete overhaul. There will now be co-op, arcade and survival modes for up to 8 pilots at a time. You can be my wingman anytime! Well, that is, if Ubisoft doesn’t eject us from the cockpit with it’s crippling DRM…….
Geared Up
It’s seeming like I should change the title from ‘Geared Up’ to ‘Overpriced Nerd Gear’! Sadly, I have two entries this week, that seem to be, only for gamers with the deepest of pockets. A while back, I detailed a statue of Valve Team Fortress 2 character, The Heavy. Also planned, were Left 4 Dead and Half-Life entries, well, wait no more zombie maniacs, the first Left 4 Dead statue is here! The Tank, measuring an intimidating 15 inches tall, is now available for pre-order. Another Gaming Heads creation, the statue looks fantastically detailed, and an exclusive edition includes a pump shotgun(what no molly?). He comes in two flavors, vanilla, for a whopping $300, or a more limited flavor for $325. Am I the only one who thinks this is crazy? Oh, and you won’t even receive the goods until early next year. For the cheaper Valve fan, Aperture Labs is moving in on the Beanie Baby market, with it’s plush GlaDOS Curiosity Spheres, far a slightly more palatable $45. The full set is available, at a discounted $120, and they are only available via Etsy here. You can purchase one of four colors, each one features different sayings from Portal by pressing the eye (ouch!?). Believe you, me, if I had that kind of cheddar laying around, I’d be spending it on games and not dust collectors and chew toys, but who am I right?
Weekly Byte for 4/19/2010
Release List
Left 4 Dead 2 DLC ‘The Passing’ releases this week, free on PC! If it’s free it’s for me!
Byte Sized News Stories
- X-Com was announced in a previous news post, being revived by 2K Marin. Two independent developers have taken the opportunity to uncloak their games, made in the vein of the original strategy classic, X-Com. Goldhawk Interactive, makers of Xenonauts and Chaos Concept, makers of UFO2 Extraterrestrials : Shadows Over Earth will be releasing their titles Q4 2010. We will be seeing much more on these games, stay tuned here and on my X-Com blog here.
- More good news for Retro fans, Might and Delight Studios has been formed by the former GRIN team, responsible for Bionic Commando : Rearmed. Let’s not forget that BC:R was the retro remake, not the next-gen continuation of the BC saga. The studio also handled Wated:Weapons of Fate, Bionic Commando and Terminator:Salvation. Would it be wrong of me to state that they are wise to go with their strengths? They were quoted as saying :
“Our ambition is to continue doing what we started with Rearmed. Small, fresh games with strong old school flavor.”
- Crytek CEO, Cevat Yerli, is not making any friends with his current statements. The father of the nanosuit has said that free game demos are an “antiquated luxury” and have become “prohibitively expensive to produce”. He went on to say that paid demos may be the wave of the future, a wave EA surprising embraced and has talked about as “pre-release DLC”. Yerli seems to think this would be “fair for the gamer” while the company would recoup it’s production cost for the demo. Thankfully, it does not seem the Crysis 2 will be the horseman of this apocolypse, as Crytek has yet to decide if a demo will be available. His one positive statement was to say that should paid demos become the norm, his feeling is that it should contain considerably more material than what is currently offered.
Deals
- Week 2 of the Direct2Drive Spring Sale has begun! Highlights are Star Wars Force Unleashed Sith Edition for $14.95, Infernal Uncensored Edition for $7.95, Grand Theft Auto IV, Medievil 2:Total War or Supreme Commander Gold for $7.50 each, ArmA II for $24.95, and Manhunt 2 or Knights Of The Old Republic for $4.95 each
- Equally tempting is a sale of unknown length on Steam, with Trine available for 75% off. The game will cost $5.00, and includes the new ‘Path To New Dawn’ level, unlocked if you complete the game.
Geared Up
My apologies, I have been all over tons of things I am working on for the site, and I was not able to find anything for this section this week. Please, send your entries to ‘chris@everydaygamers.com, with ‘Geared Up’ in the subject heading if you have seen anything or made anything that you would like to see featured in this section. Thanks!
Left 4 Dead in Johnstown – Act 2 – Old Mills
Watch as a group of zombie apocalypse survivors trek through some zombie infested mills to find a good place to call for help. Cast includes: Patrick Adams as Louis, Kary Roberts as Bill, Scott Walsh as Francis, Daria Adams as Zoey, Dale Anderson as Zombie 1, and Lydia Adams as Zombie 2. This is Act 2 of a continued series. Please share this with everyone and check back soon for more!
Left 4 Dead in Johnstown – Act 1 – Backwoods
Watch as a group of zombie apocalypse survivors trek through the woods to a safe-house where they can defend themselves from the horde. Cast includes: Patrick Adams as Louis, Kurt Roberts as Bill, Scott Walsh as Francis, and Daria Adams as Zoey. This is Act 1 of a continued series. Please share this with everyone and check back soon for Act 2!
New Left 4 Dead Campaign Announced
Looks like Left 4 Dead (that’s right the original) will indeed see some new content this year. Valve announced a new campaign entitled Crash Course due this September. Crash Course takes place between the No Mercy and Death Toll campaigns. Priced at 560 MS Space Bucks ($7) and free of charge on the PC.
Crash Course Campaign Due in September
August 4, 2009 – Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life,Portal, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the next major downloadable content (DLC) update for its co-operative zombie thriller, Left 4 Dead (L4D), the #1 new game title on Xbox 360 and PC in 2008
Entitled “Crash Course,” the latest DLC delivers new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay to both platforms. Targeted for release in September, “Crash Course” bridges the gap between the end of the “No Mercy” campaign and the beginning of “Death Toll” in the original game, expanding the game universe with new locations, new dialogue from the original cast, and an explosive finale
While containing both Survival maps and a Co-operative Campaign, the primary goal of “Crash” is to deliver a complete Versus mode experience in just 30 minutes, resulting in a streamlined version of the game’s existing Versus campaigns. A recharge timer for infected teammates has also been added, and item spawn behavior has changed for more balanced gameplay.
“Since the release of Left 4 Dead last November, the design team has been excited about creating new experiences for this world and allowing players to do the same, by releasing much of our internal toolset, like the Survival Pack and Authoring Tools,” said Gabe Newell. “We’re working with the fans toward the ongoing entertainment value of the product.”
Left 4 Dead is an action horror game from Valve that blends the social entertainment experience of multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress with the dramatic, narrative experience made popular in single player action game classics such as the Half-Life series of games. Released in November of 2008, L4D has earned over 50 industry awards from outlets around the world and sold almost 3 million copies worldwide.
Left 4 Dead: Crash Course is targeted for release in September and will be available free of charge on the PC and for 560 Gamer points on Xbox Live.
For more information, please visit www.l4d.com
EDG’s Top 10 Games of 2008
Well, boys and girls 2008 is in the books, but instead of jumping straight into the new year we thought it would be nice to reflect back on the top games of last year. We are living during an incredible time as gamers and last year was no exception as we witnessed top tier sequels and incredible new I.P.s. There were surprises and disappointments, but what games did we feel shaped up to be the best of the best?
For obvious reasons we decided to include the top picks from each of the staff members of EDG. To close out the article we pulled out our pencil, papers, erasers and calculators, performed some difficult mathematical equations and came up with a definitive top 10 gaming list for 2008. Keep in mind this is our list, and here at EDG what we say goes (jk), but hey if you don’t agree we created a nice little forum for all of you wonderful readers – so go create your own top 10 list.
So, without further ado here is the EveryDay Gamers 1st annual Top 10 Game’s of the Year – first up the individual lists.
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David Lange
1. Fallout 3 (Xbox 360, PS3)
2. Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360, PS3)
3. Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)
4. LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
5. Gear of War 2 (Xbox 360)
6. Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360)
7. Resistance 2 (PS3)
8. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
9. Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
10. Fable II (Xbox 360)
Eric Bouchard
1. Fable II (Xbox 360)
2. Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)
3. Fallout 3 (Xbox 360, PS3)
4. Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360)
5. Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360)
6. Chrono Trigger (DS)
7. Rock Band 2 (Xbox 360, Wii, PS3)
8. LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
9. The World Ends With You (DS)
10. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
Patrick Adams
1. Fallout 3 (Xbox 360, PS3)
2. Pixel Junk Monsters (PSN)
3. Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360, PS3)
4. Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360)
5. Braid (Xbox 360 Arcade)
6. Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)
7. Fable II (Xbox 360)
8. LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
9. Castle Crashers (Xbox 360 Arcade)
10. Far Cry 2 (Xbox 360, PS3)
Tom Pine
1. Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)
2. Fallout 3 (Xbox 360, PS3)
3. Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360, PS3)
4. Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360, PS3)
5. Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360)
6. LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
7. Fable II (Xbox 360)
8. Geometry Wars 2 (Xbox 360 Arcade)
9. Final Fantasy: Crisis Core (PSP)
10. The World Ends With You (DS)
Now for the moment you waited all year for, well not literally. EveryDay Gamer’s Top Ten Games of 2008.
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10. Burnout Paradise
Criterion threw a monkey wrench into the Burnout series by sending this outing into open world waters. What gamers were left with was the same great car smash ‘em up that they were used to without the restrictive in-between race menus. Unfortunately the early year release had many in the gaming industry forgetting about this game in their year end wrap ups. Beautiful environments, amazing online and spectacularly tight game play mechanics all combined to create the best racing game in ’08.
9. Pixel Junk Monsters
What Pixel Junk did with the introduction of Monsters was bring the tower defense genre to masses. More than just a simple tower defense game, Monsters was an incredibly addictive gem of a strategy game. Simple yet fitting graphics laid the ground work for what would become a defining title for Sony’s Playstation Network. PJM represents everything that is right in the world of downloadable games.
8. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Aside from incredible sales Nintendo didn’t have much to write home about last year. Brawl continued the success of the Super Smash series and added online play to boot. What makes this stand atop of the fighter genre is the amount of fan service that Nintendo puts into the series. Ever wonder who would win in a fight between Mario and Link? Brawl takes characters from several of your favorite classic Nintendo games and allows you to duke it out in the ring.
7. LittleBigPlanet
LBP quickly became a synonymous with the name Playstation 3. Platformer, racer, puzzle game, game creater – LittleBigPlanet is all of that and more. The most intriguing aspect of LBP is the fact that this game is nearly whatever you want it to be. A fully functional platformer coupled with an in-depth tool set, the limitations of this game are endless. This could be the game that helps save Sony’s sinking ship.
6. Gears of War 2
More Gears isn’t always a bad thing – case in point Gears 2. The game delivers on all the promises of Clifford B and in the end what you have is more of the same. But like I mentioned that’s not a bad thing – in fact this game takes all that made it’s predecessor one of the best games of it’s year and perfects them. It may not have changed much, but when you’re dealing with one of the best shooters of all time is there really any need for change?
5. Grand Theft Auto IV
Easily the most anticipated game coming into 2008, GTA 4 didn’t disappoint. GTA 4 reinvented the city made famous in the series third title, and created a living, breathing world that would give it’s real life counterpart a run for it’s money. On top of this, the game took little innovations, such as the cell phone mechanism, and helped introduce truly revolutionary ideas. GTA 4 gets as close to perfection in the open world genre as gamers may ever experience.
4. Fable II
Peter Molyneux was finally able to deliver on one of his many gaming promises and created an incredible action RPG with Fable II. The world of Fable is as alive as any game world I experienced this past year, and possibly ever. The true genius of this game lies in the decisions that you can make – want to get a job? Go for it. Want to get married, have kids, be a jerk, be a hero? Fable 2 allows you to do what you want, and then reap the rewards or feel the negative effects.
3. Metal Gear Solid 4
Metal Gear helped define the stealth genre, so MGS4 is the best stealth game of 08? Not exactly – MGS4 pulls back the reigns on the stealth aspects of the game and allows gamers more freedom. You can approach this game in many different ways, and each one has it’s own rewards. Metal Gear Solid 4 is easily the best looking game to date, not just this year, not just on this console. Add incredible story telling and wonderful control mechanics and you have a recipe for one of the best games of the year.
2. Left 4 Dead
If ever there was a reason for online play Left 4 Dead is it. The perfect game to play with friends down the street or perfect strangers across the world. Valve has taken the premise of many great horror films and placed it in the video game realm. The small segments and quick pace are perfect for jump-in, jump-out gameplay. Even if you are without friends the A.I. is top notch – to the point where you may not miss the idiots that you would normally play with online.
And EDG’s number one game of 2008…
1. Fallout 3
Many questioned Bethesda’s resurrection of the beloved Fallout series, but those who embraced the final product were rewarded with the cream of the gaming crop. Part Shooter part role playing game – Fallout combined genres in a way that creates an accessible title no matter what your taste in gaming may be. The game lacks nothing in the substance department, with enough missions and side quests for gamers to sink hundreds of hours into. If you missed playing Fallout in 2008 then do not allow yourself to do so any longer.