L4D DLC Announced; or, Hey Valve! 'Sup wit you these days?

The other possible title for this post was "God DAMMIT, PC Users!"

By now you've certainly heard the good news. Valve has announced some brand new DLC for Left 4 Dead! Remember when we all thought Left 4 Dead would be neglected now that they're working heavily on Left 4 Dead 2 with plans to release it within a years time of the original? We were clearly wrong! Hahaha, silly us! Check out the press release:

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.

-Source

That sounds good to me. You can be sure that I'll be downloading this for free, just like the Survival Mode and 2 new Versus modes they gave us a while ago.

Wait. Hold on. I didn't finish reading the press release:

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.

...what?

Alright, let's cut to the chase: I'm the resident cynic and I realize this. I'm the one that points out the flaws over everything else. But let's be real here for a minute. The reason people love Valve is because they are constantly giving back to the fans that support all their crazy schemes. Since the release of the Orange Box, they've improved Team Fortress 2 ten-fold with new weapons, additions to characters, map updates, new achievements, and all of it has been free. All of it has only been on the PC as well. The 360 gamer sees nothing of this, and it looks like we never will (despite my reporting on it a while ago). Then, Valve decides to rush out Left 4 Dead 2 because it's "too big for DLC." That may be so, but it's still a slap in the face to those of us who can't pay $59.99 every time you decide to put out a new game a year (I'm looking at you, every sports game ever). And now, after giving us the Survival pack (which, all things considered, was a BIG update) for free, us folk with a 360 have to now pay for this new campaign, and the PC kids don't? How is this fair?

The answer is probably pretty simple: a while ago, Valve stated that the reason the XBOX 360 users weren't getting any TF2 updates is because Microsoft wouldn't allow them to give out such a large amount of additional content for free. Valve said, "Ok, fine, then we'll wait until we have something big to unload on the console so, if they have to pay, at least they're getting bang for their buck!" Thanks guys. It's appreciated, really. If I have to be aggressive towards someone, I at least like to know who I'm being aggressive to: Microsoft! Those cheeky devils. I would call Microsoft out on this if this weren't a system they had been doing consistently for years. Microsoft almost ALWAYS charges for it's new DLC. It doesn't matter if it's TF2, Halo Wars, Gears of War 2, you name it. You want it, you buy it. I see this as perfectly fair. And since Valve is an independent company now, they can do whatever they like when it comes to the internet. If they want to give away a Sandvich for free, they'll give that Sandvich away for less than free! So that's the logistics of it: Microsoft has rules and Valve has to comply (and I knew that without having to ask Valve for an explanation).

But is it fair? No. Not in the slightest. Look, I will still be cross at Valve for Left 4 Dead 2 because I don't see it as worth $59.99 and nothing I've read has changed my opinion on that (and I've stated my opinion as such on multiple occassions). I'll pay the $7 for a new level and other tweaked updates because I see it as worth that price, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. It is entirely unfair that one medium will get free updates and the rest of us either don't get the updates or pay for the few we do get. We don't get anything, really. As far as a community goes, the 360 is screwed. Do we get to play L4D in the Winchester? No. How about the Mall from Dawn of the Dead? If you want that, go buy Dead Rising and have someone sit next to you in order to fake a multiplayer experience. Let's face it - we're getting the raw end of the stick, and it sucks. As good as L4D is, and as fun as it is to run around and shoot zombies, the fact is we have 5 maps (soon to be 6) and all we can do is play them over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and you see where I'm going with this, right? While you can't really fault Valve here (who swear they love us but can't do anything about it) or Microsoft (because it's not like this is a weird change for them and we all knew what we were getting into when we bought a 360), we still get less than half the experience that a PC user gets.

And that, my friends, is what Penn and Teller would decree as bullshit.

Game Diary - May 26, 2009: Memorial Day Weekend Edition

Seeing as I have been away all weekend the only thing that I have been updating frequently is my Twitter page. Despite not being near a computer that I could update this blog on I still managed to get in a lot of gaming this weekend nonetheless.

Most of the gaming this past weekend was nonconventional, at least it was for myself. I did bring my 360 (and Left 4 Dead) with me to Kara's house this weekend but I was primarily playing Mario Kart Wii. Since I had five other people to play this game (not at one time) with it ended up being really entertaining (so much so that I have been reinvigorated on the idea of purchasing a Wii in the future). Still though, if I end up owning a Wii and Mario Kart, I do not think that I would take it so far as to go online to play the game. With the Wii it just feels better playing in the same room as everybody else. This is probably why most folk's Wiis end up collecting dust: people just cannot have people over often enough.

I played very little of Guitar Hero 3, also on the Wii, but in doing so I got to play a few of the unlockable tracks that I had wanted to play when the game originally came out.

I did also play some Left 4 Dead with Kara and Martin. I got to finally touch upon Survival Mode but sadly it was not a good experience because all of the people we got stuck playing with were "epic douchebags" and ending up shooting us/each other and the longest we survived was one time for about two minutes.

Other than that not much else has been played but I am looking forward to finally playing Beyond Good and Evil.

PC Gaming Diary #4 - No PC Gaming This Weekend!

Ahhhh, three day weekends are so glorious. This weekend I took a bit of a break from the PC gaming world since I had friends in town (one of which was Nate). Instead, lots of time was spent playing Mario Kart on the Wii and Left 4 Dead on the 360. My roommate owns a Wii (which she never plays) and my friend Whitney was nice enough to bring her copy of Mario Kart as well as two extra controllers for the weekend and Nate was nice enough to bring his Xbox and Left 4 Dead with him. Lots and lots and lots of time was put into Mario Kart, mostly Nate and Martin playing solo and unlocking various levels we could play in multiplayer. After the weekend, I concluded that it might be fun to buy Mario Kart for my roommate's Wii even though if she moves, I won't have the console anymore. But it was really enjoyable and definitely a game worth having for any Wii owners if they have people over. I really do enjoy the Wii and the games that come with it. The only downside is that most of the time they are really only enjoyable games if you have a decent number of people over, which I don't typically have. I think if I ever came across $250+ and wanted to waste it on something, it would be a Wii, but I don't really know if it's worth saving up for or spending money I could spend on something else knowing I wouldn't be playing it all that often.

We also got in a few rounds of Left 4 Dead. I actually own the game for PC, but have never ventured into multiplayer on the PC because I have this inherent fear of playing against/with people I don't know. I recognize (and witnessed this weekend) that a lot of online gamers are epic douchebags, so I try and avoid that at all costs. It's hard being a PC gamer these days because we are somewhat of an endangered species...well, maybe not quite that extent, but most mainstream gamers prefer consoles and you're hard pressed to find too many people to multiplayer game with on the PC and unfortunately I know none (except for people that play WoW) so the biggest draw to a console for me is the multiplayer aspect and being able to play games with friends (especially since so many of mine do not live very close). So, with that being said...I am making the jump to becoming a console gamer. Okay, maybe I'm not entirely making the jump considering my PC will always be my gaming "console" of choice, but I will be purchasing a Xbox 360 today at lunch. I was lucky enough to find a month old pro system on Craig's List for $160 and I swooped that deal up. Hopefully the deal doesn't go sour and I get scammed in the process as it will most likely sway from making a 360 purchase on CL ever again. So hopefully in the future you will see more then just "PC Gaming" entries from me.

One last note, I have been planning a couple entries for the Bioshock 2 multiplayer as well as Borderlands, but I haven't gotten around to it. I'm going to make it a priority this week to post those entries as I feel as both of them are not getting enough attention as they deserve.

"Let's have a go at it."

It turns out that in between going through the Pitt searching for ingots, I do have some time to read and not only post news. Todays news is pretty exciting for me, as it is something I haven't been following at all and was surprised with this morning.

Valve has been consistently updating all the character classes in Team Fortress 2 to make sure the game doesn't become stale, and the Sniper update is now upon us. With the update, you get a brand new bow and arrow set, the Huntsman. You shoot the arrow at your enemy, the arrow sticks into their body, and if they have low enough health, they will be shot and stuck against a wall, forever being a reminder to your foes what a deadly marksman you are. I love playing the sniper personally, and this is just downright exciting for me. I mean, apparently Valve has been updating the game with new stuff for characters for months (including new achievements that apparently aren't making their way to the 360?), and I have just not been paying attention for whatever reason, so this is a great way to make me excited to go home from work.

When the Orange Box I came out, I will not beat around the bush when I tell you I bought the disc JUST for Team Fortress 2. I'd been waiting for it for years, and even though it is different than the game initially promissed to be (back in.. what... the 90's?), it was still an amazingly fun experience. Valve kind of has the corner on the market when it comes to awesome multiplayer games that are on the XBOX 360, matched probably only by the popularity of Halo multiplayer. But, unlike Halo, I can spend hours wrapped up in Valve multiplayer games. Left 4 Dead is a fine example of this, and with all the new updates for Team Fortress 2 that I have missed (due to me not paying attention), I will definitely be spending more time on that. So if you have a copy of the Orange Box, look for me online either playing that or Fallout.

Edit: Apparently, in all my excitement, I looked over the glaring fact that these updates are for the PC and not the 360. Rats. There is a forthcoming patch with all the updates included, but all things considered, it should be here by now. So rats again. I am highly looking forward to this update, though. I really want to try out all the new sniper stuff. I just kind of wish I had a PC right now, because it's a free update for them and Microsoft won't let Valve give us a similar free update (although Left 4 Dead had a huge overhaul update for free recently... harumph).

Fighters and Zombies and MUpdates, oh my!

Today is a good day to be a nerd, in all regards. I'm here to drop two huge bombs of awesome on you, so please proceed to the nearest digital fallout shelter and prepare yourselves. It's about to get heavy in here.

First off, the big news this morning is that Capcom has announced the return of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. This wonderful little fighter is being brought to the PSN and XBOX Live! Arcade in a similar way to how Street Fighter II was brought back. We're talking HD visual filters, online gameplay, and all the stuff you used to love about this little classic.



Doesn't that just look wonderful? I am personally excited because now I can stop trying to get all those Arcade emulators and bootleg copies of MUGEN to run on my Mac. I can just wait until the summer and buy it. And it should be noted that I am not a huge fan of fighter games. They're only really fun when you have someone to play with. I am, however, a huge fan of fighter games with gimmicks. I loved Marvel Nemesis: Rise Of The Imperfects back on the PS2. I also love playing Marvel Vs. Capcom in the arcades. I also also own Mortal Kombat vs. DC. This is pretty much perfect for me so I can finally get my fix of using Captain America to punch the crap out of Wolverine. For those not familiar with the characters, here is a full list, and it should be known that you'll be getting all of these right off the bat. No unlocking required. And yes, you did read Sentinel correctly.

But this is what really intrigues me - call me crazy, but I think that this could be a backdoor game to Marvel vs Capcom 3. This is the logic that I am using: to be perfectly honest, Marvel vs Capcom did not do great financially (probably due to it being released on the Dreamcast), but it has since become a cult classic and a rare/popular game (most people would agree that the Dreamcast was a highly underrated system regardless). After seeing how well Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Street Fighter IV have done, as well as bringing back things like Mega Man and Bionic Commando, I don't think it's entirely out there to think that any success that comes from Marvel Vs Capcom 2 could give faith to the developers to bring about a totally brand new game, and I would love that. You can be sure that when the day comes in the summer that this is released, I will purchase it. In fact, I'm putting away the money now just for it!

Check here for a little trailer/game play video.

The other big news break this morning is the release of the trailer for Dead Rising 2 complete with motorcycle chainsaw. Motor. Cycle. Chainsaw. Awesome. The first Dead Rising (which was the first game I ever played/bought for the XBOX 360) introduced us to Frank West, who has covered wars and thinks that hanging around a zombie infested mall is a good idea. Dead Rising, to me, was notorious for being rather tedious to complete in it's entirety. This is not to say that I didn't find the game to be enjoyable, but I found myself running around just killing zombies more than I would take the time to complete the actual plot. The fact that the plot elements were on a timer, and there was SO much to do, always left me feeling rather dizzy (and to cure a bad case of the dizzies, one should always pick up a katana and hack the undead apart). I do not know how much of these things will be changed for the new game, let alone what will be different at all. What I do know, however, is that I love killing zombies, and I will buy this game when it comes out to do just that.

Speaking of killing zombies, for those that don't know, the Survival DLC is out for Left 4 Dead, and I played it last night. It is ridiculous, but awesome. It's free, too, so be sure to grab it. Basically, you sit on a brand new map (which is a Lighthouse), and try to survive as long as you can after hordes and hordes of zombies attack. It's pretty outrageous, to say the least. The goal is to survive longer than 10 minutes, but if you go any longer than 14 the game will destroy you, as in, Tanks will load in 14 seconds or under. Now, I don't know how this makes it more difficult than what I was playing with because when I played, Tanks spawned pretty fast and appeared to be smarter than they were before the update. I got punched off the map twice! So yeah, to say this provides high octane zombie entertainment is to say the least. If you've got Left 4 Dead and are still reading this, I honestly have no idea why.

Blogging 4 Dead

I would post more, but honestly, I have no time. But here's the thing about that: I do theoretically have time. I just fill it up. I'm either catching up on TV shows (like Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica) or playing Left 4 Dead all night. And I must say, every night, almost all night, me and a group of kids ply Left 4 Dead together. This sadly does not include Nate because Nate has an actual life and has been mostly playing Fallout 3 these days, but never the less, from hours as early as 8 PM to as late as 4 AM, you'll find me gaming in Left 4 Dead. Of course, this means I sleep until about noon every day and then I'm grouchy for a little while upon waking up, but still... totally worth it (and I don't care how much I have to "grow up" right now with a job and responsibilities, nothing will ever make me give up my late night gaming sessions).

Now, while I will never ever stray from the thought that Fallout 3 was the best game of last year (much to Nathan's own chagrin), I will say that the predictions I made when I put it in my number 2 spot are entirely accurate. I play this game so much that it has since become to first and only game to be installed on my hard drive. I never saw the point of installing a game until now, but now I fully understand the validation. You have no idea how annoying it is to be playing this game for several hours, have a glorious dominating victory in a game, and then your game freezes when going back to the menu. I can sometimes hear the disc spinning in the XBOX, and it was at that point that I realized maybe I'm playing it enough to justify an install.

This game provides such a unique experience. I must say, after playing with the same group of guys last night, I really have no interest in playing with all random people now. It's so much better only playing with the same guys. We are by no means a "clan" (although, in one absolutely hilarious night, we did face a clan member of xUWNx, which I will talk more about later), but rather a group of guys who all know each other and like to play with and against each other. It provides much more amusement having over 7 friends who are all available for gaming. Never have I ever felt such a sense of camaraderie in any game. Now, I will admit, there is a point in every game where I do make a gun for the safe house and leave my team mates to die if necessary, but that's a last second/split second judgment call. One of the guys I play with usually always goes back to save people, and I've seen him get annihilated before due to this. It's the zombie apocalypse, man - I want to survive. That, and at least I get us a good amount of points every round (someone described my gaming as "clutch." I'd say that this is rather accurate). However, as long as we are traveling, I will turn around and do my best to save everyone I can. This is really only because I'm playing with my friends to begin with. If I was playing with random people, I can assure you that I would not care and would only save them if it was convenient for me. I might just say something like, "Learn to play the game!" and run off. But not to my gaming friends! Oh no. I will run the distance, shotguns a-blazing, just to separate them from a nasty smoker or hunter. It's also made me a constant reviewer of XBOX gamers. There are certain things you can do in the game as the infected that are based around glitches and make the gameplay very cheap and unfair. Every time a team does this against my team (unless we know the people), I go and give every player negative reviews and make them avoided players). So good job, Valve. You've made me into a team player (somewhat). Now give us new levels to play Versus on, and I'll be happy.

The final thing I'd like to say about Left 4 Dead is that it brings a great amount of sheer hilarity. I'll offer up two examples. The first is that one night, me and 3 of my friends were in a lobby. This kid joins named xUWNx FOUL, and we all instinctively laugh at him. He, of course, attacks me, and begins spouting of anti-Semitic slurs (if you don't know already, my gamertag is Jewnado, as in a tornado of Jewish hatred). He begins to rant and rave about how much better he is at the game than me and us, so I begin the game. Needless to say, we absolutely dominate, to the point where, in the finale, the other team just gives up and kills each other. Back in the lobby, Mr. FOUL gets a barrage of insults, such as, "Why don't you take your game back to GameStop and trade it in for a Wii and Party Babyz?" Of course he gets apologetic and begins saying, "Well, maybe if I had a better team..." No. You're just a horrible horrible player, and now you're on ignore. The second example is similar. My friends and I played against a team that ultimately gave up in the end, and killed each other. Everyone left but one player and his guest, and we laughed at him similarly in the lobby after the game. The thing was he didn't have a microphone at first, so after a few minutes of insults, he finally put one in and revealed himself to be a 13/14 year old boy. It was about 4:00 AM at this point, so we began saying things like, "Hey, did you remember to do your reading for English class? The Great Gatsby isn't going to read itself!" He finally said, and I quote, "Listen, gay guys, why don't you stop sucking each others dicks and start the game?" This is hilarious on two levels. The first level is "gay guys" - he didn't use any of the millions of slurs, he said gay and guys together in his sentence, and I just lost it. The second level is that he was such a bad player his team mates shot him and quit the game, and he wanted to play us again ... with no new team mates. No one had joined the lobby. It was 4:00 AM! So, instead of playing the game, I leaned over to my bookshelf, grabbed my copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's great American classic, and said, "Ok, are you ready?" When he replied, "Yes," I then began to read The Great Gatsby outloud to him and all my friends in the room. I made it through six pages of the novel before he quit. SIX PAGES. After he quit, we invited him back in the room, at which point I read another whole page before he just turned off the XBOX and the rest of us, laughing, went to bed. There is much debate as to why the kid stayed in the room as long as he did. Some speculate that he really did need to read the book for class, but I like to think that I just have a great speaking voice (which I do). And as much as I love Fallout 3, the one thing it will never have is an opportunity for me to read The Great Gatsby to an angry child.

So good job, Valve. I fully commend you on another job well done. You consistently make online games with endless replayability, and at that you absolutely stand out among the other game publishers. Here's to awaiting the patch that finally gives us new levels to play. Now, it's about noon, meaning it's still day, meaning I have to get out and do all those things that I do in the day time that allow me to be up all night killing the infected, so I bid you a fond adieu until my next entry.

Game Diary: Futile Attempts to Play EVERYTHING

Seeing as there has not been a glut of news to talk about I will talk about the glut of games that I still have to finish at least once. This “list” of games that I still have to play does not even include the games that I have consistently been playing which are Left 4 Dead and Gears of War 2.

I haven’t touched Gears’ multiplayer mainly because I just cannot get into a game. Horde has been enough to keep me playing. Left 4 Dead is keeping me from playing Fallout 3. I’ll cite a specific instance: The other day I had at least four hours to devote to get back into the Wasteland but I ended up playing versus mode in L4D with friends. It was the most fun I have had with the game so far and I personally think that is saying something for me.

I feel like I have about 40 hours left to go in Fallout but that is just a rough estimation. This is the biggest game that I need to complete and after that I might be “on track” for the new games coming out in 2009. I want to be able to go back to Fable 2 when the DLC comes out but I do not think I’ll have beaten Fallout. I am also interested in playing “The Lost and Damned” DLC because I honestly think I’ll enjoy the return to Liberty City.

I am on a ticking timeline until Halo Wars comes out which will undoubtedly take up a lot of my time and will because one of my go to multiplayer games of choice. I have until March 3rd to feel as if I have played all of the holiday games sufficiently.

The annoying part of this is that I haven’t touched three games that I would like to play to completion: Mirror’s Edge, Dead Space, and Prince of Persia. I feel like at least one of these games is going to be forgotten for a while and I will bet that it will be Dead Space. Perhaps I could borrow that game from my little brother next time I visit my parent’s house. I am sure that would include trading one of my games for a temporary period of time, an idea I am not too keen on.

Honestly I am hoping for a slow gaming summer so that I can catch up because I just do not see how it is feasible otherwise.

It might sound like I am complaining about all of the games that I have to play but that is not the case. I just wish the publishers would space their games out so a person could actually give their game a shot.

As a last note I have not even touched my DS since I have been playing games again. I think portable gaming does go through spurts.

Next: Perhaps a blog entry that is somewhat news related.

The Holiday Season

A good friend of mine probably had the better idea this holiday season; he played one or two games that he gave his full attention to while I have or will be trying to play five or six. The only game that I am not accepting less than the best from myself in is Fallout 3. I have to do every thing possible because it will be the title I go to last to play again (not because of the quality but because of the length and my related lack of time).

No other title makes you feel like you have to do so much in such a grand world (except for maybe Oblivion), but then again, in Oblivion, do you really feel like you are shaping the world around you? Naturally, Fallout 3 being the game that makes one feel like they are experiencing the most original concept would make it ultimate game of the year material. Possibly for some, but for myself, it is all about the raw fun, the laughs, and just the good times.

For me the game that brings the most fun is feeling like a tie. Between the dirty, dirty Horde mode (GOW2) and the overall re playable nature of Left 4 Dead I am left with a hard decision. I cannot tell you which one I'll play longer either. Only time is going to be able to tell on this one. But if there is one thing I can say about L4D that I cannot yet say about GOW, is that my wife is going to be playing L4D with myself and my good friends (that might be your decision there).

But it is not yet time for this decision because I haven't played Dead Space or Mirror's Edge yet. Hopefully I'll have squeezed them in there somehow by the end of this year otherwise I'll spend all of next year playing catch up once again (the likeliest of scenarios).

How about you? What are you playing/not playing? What are you playing now and what are you saving for later?

My 360 was Left 4 Dead

Post Retro dated for 11.13.2008

For the past two nights I have been enjoying/worshiping the Left 4 Dead demo. My friends and I started out on the normal difficulty level and quickly proceeded up to expert. Now keep in mind we are by no means experts. We found that on any other difficulty level that we were massacring the zombie apocalypse instead of the game actually feeling like an apocalypse. This is no discredit to the game because it is always fun (we just found solace in trying as hard as we could to not be butchered). I really cannot say enough good things about the great feelings that I came away from this demo with. I even got my wife to play with me and her greatest fear are zombies. The only thing I can recommend is to:

1. Bring friends (marketing does not lie here)
2. Do not play with your "good" friends from Halo who like to run amok and get themselves unmercifully torn to pieces by undead chunks who would like nothing more than to turn you into a bunch of undead chunks

Play. Massacre. Shoot Em' in the....[writer dragged away by zombie]

Today The Matrix invaded Fallout 3.

I had just lied to Dr. Zimmer about the Replicated Man (bleep-bloop) and left Rivet City to kill a few Talon assassins. I was in the middle of a fire fight with two of three Talons (the other one was questionably crouched by the wall) when as I was hit by a few assault rifle bullets. My screen became infected with, honestly what looked like, binary code. I could still relatively see where I was going but I had this putrid green color all over my screen. I thought, "Well my character must be infected with something," and so I went to the doctor (I only trust the one in Megaton). I asked him to cure me of all ailments and he cautiously did so. Finding that this did not work I thought, "Well maybe a good night's rest will do me some good." It did not, I was still sick with green and feeling worse than ever.

I decided to remove myself from the game and go back to the dashboard and when everything looked fine there I proceeded to boot Fallout 3 again. Same problem. All the menus were there and free from the binary green abomination but as soon as anything graphical was taking place I was Neo looking down that green hallway for the first time. I had honestly convinced myself that I had become so advanced that I could only see games in binary (I feel like I play that much). That was until I actually rebooted the Xbox and I was left with eleven different languages telling me that my Xbox had a system error.

Fun times.