Dead Island

Dead island, at long last I got to play this after hearing about it years ago, and it didn't disappoint!

First I'd like to point out a few things that stand out for me, both good and bad.

The combat is simply one of the best things about it, not very often we get a First person Melee-based game, add zombies and you get a pretty awesome system, from not being able to see around yourself. And having a point of view close up of zeds head exploding or the look on his face as he loses an arm. Very satisfying

I chose to play as the Asian lady, whatever her name is. Simply because if given the chance, I always choose bladed weapons over blunt stuff, only recently has it become obvious I made the right choice. I had almost completed the game when I found my first Katana, and there can be nothing more satisfying than running into a crowd of Zeds and shearing off any limb or head that gets in the way in a slow motion mist of blood and bodyparts.

Graphics are very good too, it's hard not to notice the beauty of Banoi even if you could die at any given moment, from the sunny beaches and small hut settlements, right up to the noisy and eery jungle.

Bad things, there are quite a few apparently, but I've only encountered a few, and none spoiled the experience.

I have had a few moments in co-op when the game starts lagging, usually when someone sets multiple zambies on fire, electrocutes them, or otherwise a lot of things are going on in a small area.. lag followed by the whole screen going grey or black followed by death. Both times this happened were in co-op and I had to dashboard to get rid of it.

Connecting to games is pretty damn impossible unless it is with a friend, on the few times I try to join a public game I had the same issue Brad did in the quick look. 500 games found and not a single one is joinable. The one time it let me join a game I was on my 2nd playthrough, it put me(lvl 43) with a lvl 8 dude near the start of the game. Fun for me, but possibly game ruining for the low level guy having me do everything for him and save his bacon all the time.

Overall I'm very happy with Dead Island, all the negative things about it can be solved with a title patch, and they are greatly outweighed by the fun you will have, as long as you pick the asian lady =]