Best Game of 2008 (since that's the popular thing to blog about)

Left 4 Dead

First let me say this will be faily lengthy.  It's impossible to decribe what makes a great game so great in a 4 sentance paragraph.  Anyone who fears the "wall of text" should move on.

If you told me I would be playing a game with essentially 2 mutliplayer maps for over a month and still not be bored with it, I would call you crazy.  To be honest I was a little hesitant when purchasing Left 4 Dead.  The lack of content worried me.  However I am a huge fan of Valve's games and a huge fan zombie movies and games.  If you want to know the basics of the game, you should head over to the Left 4 Dead page, as I will only be talking about why I love this game so much.

First the campaign.  Every scenario and every level within each scenario feels vastly different from one another.  The game is always changing locations and each location requires a different strategy.  Changing the difficulty also changes the game significantly.  Strategies that work on normal may not work on advance.  Start playing on Expert and that's a whole different beast.  Failing to stay together watching each others backs quily leads all 4 survivors untimely demise.  However, as good as the campaign is, the versus mode is where the game's brilliance truely begins to shine.

The first thing you will notice is how insanely faster the pace is online when playing as the survivors.  While it's important to stay together, the longer you take, the more time you give the zombies time to spawn.  However simply sprinting through the level as fast as possible will usually end up spreading out your team, making you more vulnerable.  The proper pace must be found and every person must be on the same page.

On the other end you have the zombies.  You get to play as zombies.  Let that sink in a second.....ok good.  Playing as zombies is simply amazing.  Much like playing as the survivors, teamwork is a must, probably even more so than the survivors.  One zombie on their own can easily be defeated, especially by a group sticking together.  However, a well coordinated zombie attack can break up even a close group.  Pulling one away from the group as a smoke, then having a hunter pounce on the suvivor coming to his rescue is but one of the many strategies required for sucess.  There is a feeling of accomplishment unlike any others when a well coordinated attack sees several of the survivors go from full health to dead in the matter of seconds.  There is simply nothing like it in any other game.

This reliance on constant cooperation with teammates is what makes the lack of maps a complete non issue.  Find a new spot, a new shortcut or a new path can completely change how the map is played.  On top of that, every group of players will have a slightly different play style and different staregies.  It's all about on the fly adjustment and it becomes a mind game between survivors and zombies.  This can only be accomplished with intimate knowledge of every section of the map.

So in summary, despite a lack of actual content, the very nature of the game rewards repeat play.  The experience is actually enchaced upon spending more time with the game.  The teamwork required to suceed and the unique aspect of playing as a zombie is what makes this the best game of 2008.

To anybody who actually read all that, I applaud you.

Left 4 Dead

First let me say this will be faily lengthy.  It's impossible to decribe what makes a great game so great in a 4 sentance paragraph.  Anyone who fears the "wall of text" should move on.

If you told me I would be playing a game with essentially 2 mutliplayer maps for over a month and still not be bored with it, I would call you crazy.  To be honest I was a little hesitant when purchasing Left 4 Dead.  The lack of content worried me.  However I am a huge fan of Valve's games and a huge fan zombie movies and games.  If you want to know the basics of the game, you should head over to the Left 4 Dead page, as I will only be talking about why I love this game so much.

First the campaign.  Every scenario and every level within each scenario feels vastly different from one another.  The game is always changing locations and each location requires a different strategy.  Changing the difficulty also changes the game significantly.  Strategies that work on normal may not work on advance.  Start playing on Expert and that's a whole different beast.  Failing to stay together watching each others backs quily leads all 4 survivors untimely demise.  However, as good as the campaign is, the versus mode is where the game's brilliance truely begins to shine.

The first thing you will notice is how insanely faster the pace is online when playing as the survivors.  While it's important to stay together, the longer you take, the more time you give the zombies time to spawn.  However simply sprinting through the level as fast as possible will usually end up spreading out your team, making you more vulnerable.  The proper pace must be found and every person must be on the same page.

On the other end you have the zombies.  You get to play as zombies.  Let that sink in a second.....ok good.  Playing as zombies is simply amazing.  Much like playing as the survivors, teamwork is a must, probably even more so than the survivors.  One zombie on their own can easily be defeated, especially by a group sticking together.  However, a well coordinated zombie attack can break up even a close group.  Pulling one away from the group as a smoke, then having a hunter pounce on the suvivor coming to his rescue is but one of the many strategies required for sucess.  There is a feeling of accomplishment unlike any others when a well coordinated attack sees several of the survivors go from full health to dead in the matter of seconds.  There is simply nothing like it in any other game.

This reliance on constant cooperation with teammates is what makes the lack of maps a complete non issue.  Find a new spot, a new shortcut or a new path can completely change how the map is played.  On top of that, every group of players will have a slightly different play style and different staregies.  It's all about on the fly adjustment and it becomes a mind game between survivors and zombies.  This can only be accomplished with intimate knowledge of every section of the map.

So in summary, despite a lack of actual content, the very nature of the game rewards repeat play.  The experience is actually enchaced upon spending more time with the game.  The teamwork required to suceed and the unique aspect of playing as a zombie is what makes this the best game of 2008.

To anybody who actually read all that, I applaud you.

Yes...L4D is a pretty kick ass game.

Moving this to General Discussion.

You say the strategies change drastically.  isn't the sttategy always to just stick together and shoot?

"Sticking together and shoot" is pretty general.  By strategies I mean things like who has what weapon and what areas you decide to hold.  For example there are certain areas where you trigger an event which summons a giant horde.  You may have had a plan on advanced difficulty that worked well, holding a certain spot and having people responsible for different things.  Try the same thing on expert and it could result in you getting overran fast.  Also you get get away with not watching behind you on the lower levels, but failing to do so on expert could result in sift death for all teammates.

Playing as the zombies in versus also requires changes in strategies.  Depending on how well the survivors stick together and which paths they decide to take, certain things may or may not work.  You have to pick the right time to attack and also pick the right person to attack.