GotG Round 1: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim vs. Left 4 Dead

Charles Martinet voiced a dragon (well, technically they're all wyverns) in Skyrim.

That is all.

I experienced moments of real awe with Skyrim. Can't ask for much more than that.

I savaged a cave of bandits as a werewolf. Five minutes later I almost died chasing a cabbage down a mountain. /drops mic.

I was thinking about it yesterday, And I think I hit upon what makes the elder scroll's worlds so exceptional, compared to just about every other large sandbox. Culture. Even if the actual dialogue can be kind of bad, everything, from the architecture to the in-game books to the opinions of the people to the mythology, gives the real, coherent sense that it could all be the product of a single, unifying culture. Which is a fucking amazing feat.

I know what I'm voting for.

Skyrim easily, this is a contender to win the tournament where L4D is just a solid game

Left 4 Dead. Because.

I could never get into Skyrim. L4d it is

Zoey is better than every character in Skyrim combined.

Yeah, gonna go Skyrim. This would have been harder with Left 4 Dead 2 but even so, definitely Skyrim.

because.... Louis is grabbin' piiiiiills and Francis hates literally everything?

@earlessshrimp:

Because.

@video_game_king: because.... Zombies are hip and L4D is too?

@video_game_king: I think I'm beginning to understand...

Never really got into Left 4 Dead that much. Skyrim is probably in my top 10 games of the generation.

This is a hard one for me. Left 4 Dead was incredibly fresh and revolutionary when it came out. I'd say it's one of the best multiplayer experiences this gen along with CoD4, Halo 3, and Demon's Souls. Skyrim, on the other hand, is the perfected form of the TES formula, of which I am a huge fan. I'll have to really think about this one.

Steam says I played 314 hours of Skyrim. I think I have not played a game for that long since Quake 3. It's nothing compared to some people's hour counts in wow or Dota I suppose, but as someone who usually plays games for 10 hours and never touch them again, that's a lot.

Skyrim gets my vote.

Skyrim on PC for sure....I'm actually gonna fire it up right now.

I hate this as an early matchup. L4D co-op was amazing with every moment feeling as though everything could go so terribly wrong so quickly. I have not enjoyed anything like it since. However, Skyrim is my type of time suck adventure and it excelled. Skyrim.

Fun combat vs Elder Scrolls combat.

I'll take the fun combat. Elder Scrolls games play like ass.

YA I SAID IT.

My first RPG vs. a Valve game with solid gameplay, great (and actually funny) character writing, and interesting multiplayer modes

I love L4D, but Skyrim...man, especially modded up on the PC, I absolutely love that game. Bethesta should get more shit than they got for releasing it like they did, especially on the PS3, but I just love The Elder Scrolls as a series, and Skyrim as a game.

The game I'm looking forward to the most in next gen is the new TES game.

What the hell kind of match up is this?

skyrim easily.

Skyrim was good but I had more amazing experiences with friends playing L4D than I did with Skyrim.

I dont understand these matchups.

Skyrim is fucking incredible. Left 4 Dead is one of the most entertaining games of this generation. I love both, but my heart lies with Skyrim.

L4D just leaves me wanting a different type of game than what it is. It's super fun the way it is but I always wanted a more realistic co op shooter like it. Running a million miles an hour and getting mauled 100 times and walking away fine is kind of whack.

Now Skyrim... I think I played it so much that I grew to hate it. Then my hate looped around and became love again. Then I performed oral on an argonian and it ripped my mouth up.

Skyrim, cus its fucking Skyrim. Honestly, probably my favorite game of the generation by far if i had to pick a single one.

Not a tough match-up for me. Zombies ain't my thing. Draugr on the other hand...

Left 4 Dead because its way more fun !

so another vote for L4D?

Left 4 Dead, easily. Skyrim is a great game, but it really didn't grab me like Oblivion did. L4D, however, redefined what co-op gaming is and provided one of the best co-op - and even competitive - experiences to be had. I put a lot of hours into both L4D's with my friends and had an incredible time that I really wish we could still be having. Shame it's clearly not going to win this match-up.

I played like 5 hours of Skyrim, I couldn't get into it as much as I wanted to. L4D is the game that made 4 player co-op fun and now many games copy this same style of gameplay. I enjoyed my time way more killing zombies and grabbin' pills, I'm sorry that I'll never be a true Dovahkiin.

The one that spawned this:

Every time I've played L4D I've just been immediately turned off by it. Something about it just always feels meh to me, and it certainly doesn't help that I find zombies to be uninteresting. Skyrim on the other hand is one of my top 5 games of this generation. I've played over 100 hours of it on both PS3 and Steam and kind of want to go back and play even more now. Easy pick for me.

Wish i felt the same way about the game. For now i'll continue to love Oblivion in that way and give Morroblivion a try. Voting for Skyrim all the same though

What the community has to say:

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim makes the debatable question of if video games can be considered art an [i]ndisputable yes. Skyrim is a video game rich with endless interpretation, emotion, attachment and fragile beauty – a masterpiece in the art of video games to be heralded for years to come.

From user review by @tempest

This sucks because I love Left 4 Dead but it has no chance against Skyrim. I probably put more time into L4D overall but Skyrim is just a more engaging game.

I voted for Skyrim, but I'll be happy no matter which game makes it through here.

I've dumped thousands of hours into the two Left 4 Dead games and about 150 into Skyrim. Gotta go with L4D; I just can't get enough of it. On the other hand, that 150 hours of Skyrim was largely me installing tons of mods trying to finally find the right combination that would suddenly make the game "click" so that I could easily clock hundreds more. I always thought it was alright (though I did have my gripes), and certainly unique and somewhat awe-inspiring in that Bethesda open world way, but I could never fall in love with Skyrim the way I did L4D. I've kept returning to it quite a bit in these past two years, but still no dice.

Little bummed my game isn't going to win but oh well. L4D pretty much defined a year's worth of gaming for me. I've made numerous fond memories with friends in that game. It was something that I managed to play almost everyday and never get sick of. Skyrim on the other hand, made me really disappointed that it, despite being a game that should be right up my alley, held my interest for about 8 hours before I was fed up with boring, unsatisfying combat. Though this is something that both Fallout and TES lose me with time and time again; having really great, well-realized worlds tied up with utter dogshit combat.

This was probably the hardest poll yet. Two of my favorite games this gen.

Not going to lie: I spent a lot more time with Oblivion than I did Skyrim. Couldn't tell you why, since the latter is a much better game in a lot of ways.

Left 4 Dead is a great game that is only fun with people who know what they are doing.

Left 4 Dead is a ton of fun. It's brilliantly designed, well-written (for a game with almost zero narrative), and was a landmark co-op game. But there's a catch - you can only really enjoy it with friends. That's a deal-breaker for a misanthrope like me.

But Skyrim is Skyrim. It's one of the five best games of the generation. Oblivion was amazing, but they took everything that was kinda broken and rough about that game, made it better, and did some new and innovative things in the environment to make the world feel more alive. The results speak for themselves: that game was a goddamn revelation.

Skyrim wins.

The correct decision has been made I see.

Man look, I played a bunch of Skyrim but that game ain't that great. Sure it's packed with content but there's so much repetition and nothing is individually memorable. Hey, remember that mission where you went into that cave and killed those things? Remember that mission where you went into a castle and killed those things? How about that part where you talked to a dude and then fast-travelled over to talk to another dude? This may seem like an odd criticism when the game it's fighting is L4D, but at least with that game the repetition seemed built-in to the experience. L4D felt like party-hopping with buddies, Skyrim was like being given chores and feeling somewhat satisfied when you manage to slog through them.

Skyrim since after some time L4D was too repetitive and you would do stuff automatic.

Skyrim

I enjoyed Left 4 Dead for a brief period and then got pretty bored of it. I played Skyrim for more than a hundred hours and enjoyed most of my time with it.

Left 4 Dead never really bit me, perhaps I just didn't give it enough time. Sunk more than 100 hours into Skyrim though, and rather enjoyed every one of them.