[TechSoC: NOTE: This review has been translated from zombie-like grunts and snarls into living-human readable text. You’re welcome.]
“I have not come this far to die now.” -Nick
Before I played the original Left 4 Dead on my friend’s 360, I thought Resident evil was THE zombie killer series. Well, Resident Evil has, in my book, been knocked off the top. Left 4 Dead was there for a while, but now, the sequel is on top. There is not a better game for killing zombies that I know of.
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
The survivors in this one are different than the first, but no less diverse. You have Coach, the big softie of the group (though not toward the undead), Ellis, the redneck hick who is loving the fact he gets to shoot his gun more often, Nick, who seems like a mobster type, and Rochelle, an office girl at a local news station. Like the original, they all tease each other about different things, like Nick’s comment in the intro to Coach, who was having trouble running up 30 flights of stairs, about the helicopter possibly being made of chocolate, but even though they just met, they know enough to stick together and survive.
Story
It follows the first game by a week, so it’s now been three weeks since the infection hit. The story follows the four survivors as they work their way toward safety. Zombies try to eat them along the way and they shoot them. Not much here. Though, the argument could be made that this kind of game doesn’t need much of one.
Music & Sounds
The music in this one has a bit more southern twang to it than the original did. It works since this one happens in the south, ranging from Savannah, Georgia to New Orleans, Louisiana. The sound effects on the other hand are what you would expect: gun sounds and zombie sounds. There’s also the banter between the characters. Nothing extraordinary, but nothing bad either.
Gameplay & Controls
It plays like a team-based first-person shooter where you basically kill anything that moves. The fact that the enemies are in random places, huge hordes and have fairly intelligent AI makes it more fun. There’s also the Gauntlet events like the one at the roller coaster in the carnival, where the enemies just keep coming and coming without end. Those are fun.
Fun
I would say that for shooters, there isn’t a more fun game for me. There is something satisfying, for me, watching all those zombies’ heads explode when I fire my shot gun at them. Or literally walking through a horde with the chainsaw, body parts flying everywhere. Or, my personal favorite, taking on a horde with the katana. Melee weapons FTW!
So, obviously, parents should not be letting their little ones see this game. There is a lot of violence and gore and some swearing (though not much on the swearing). There are reasons it is rated M for mature.
A seriously fun game for adults, though. If you have no problems with violence and gore and zombies, be sure to try this game. It’s available on the PC and Xbox 360.
I know I’m way behind the times, but I’ve just now finished playing through Half-Life. Not Half-Life 2, but the original one. Yeah. Like I said, behind the times.
Anyway, it was a pretty fun game for a shooter. The story is better than most shooters. The graphics, while nothing special now are still decent for their age. It’s a well put together game and I may actually try to play through it again on a harder level.
I got this game a couple years ago in the Platinum Collection so I have all of the expansions for it as well. I’ll be posting about them as I finish them.
Ever since I saw a demo video for this game about a year and a half ago, I’ve been wanting to play it. I found the game that it was based on, Narbacular Drop, and beat it in short order. Now, for Father’s Day, Ashley bought the game Portal so I’ve finally been able to play through it!
Booyah!
The whole idea is that you use the portal gun to create two portals to solve the puzzles in the rooms they put you in. For example, you have to exit a door that is across a pit you can’t jump over. How do you get there? Open one portal on the wall next to you and another on a wall across the pit then walk through the portal. Viola! You win!
Of course, this also means you can do infinite loops. Open one portal in the ceiling and one in the floor, then jump in. You’ll fall forever. This was similar to the idea behind my favorite puzzle, the one with increasingly high platforms in a tall room with acid on the floor. You create a portal on the lowest one and in the floor of the pit next to the entrance area. Jump in the pit and you come flying out of the platform, high enough to open a portal on the next highest platform, so that when you fall back through the portal you just flew out of, you’ll shoot out the new one on the second platform.
That was just pure fun.
Portal is an awesome game and it’s one of the few games I actually liked to watch the credits. This is because of the freakin’ hilarious song that plays in the background. In fact, it was funny enough that VGCats did a flash animation based on it. Check it out.
It’s an extremely fun and challenging game and the gameplay is great for all ages. A few of the things that the computer says are kinda creepy and might not be okay for kids, but it was only creepy, not filthy or raunchy.
Lux is a game for anyone who likes the board game Risk. Lux is a multi-platform, fully customizable, turn-based strategy game based on the classic board game. You can make your own maps, control how the card set values increase, set up a continent bonus increase per round, and even create your own AIs to play against. If all this weren’t enough, you can also download maps and AIs from the the interweb for even more fun (though to do this requires a full version of the game).
You can download the demo at www.sillysoft.net. The full version is only $25 and is very much worth it. I highly recommend this game. It gets a 4.5 out of 5.
NOTE (2011): This was originally part of a duo of posts I called the “Double Shot”. This was “Double Shot Part 2″.
I have now beaten Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords. I beat it last Friday. The ending’s a little disappointing, but it’s still a fun game. I went Light Side, dual lightsabers (one silver, one orange). I want to go through it again soon as a Dark Jedi and a single lightsaber. I’ve heard you get massive damage bonuses if you stick with to just one.
And by the way, I knew from the beginning that the old lady was a Sith. Knew it, I tell you!
Descent aside, there’s two things I really like in games: Mechs and Strategy. But for the most part they hadn’t been put together until this game hit the shelves.
MechCommander allows you to take the role of… well… MechCommander. You tell your group of Mechs, which can number up to 12, what you want them to do and they do it. There’s not base-building involved meaning you can focus completely on strategy and fighting.
Now the two downfalls to the game are the fact that it’s a 2D sprite game and the AI is less than smart. Those, however, are way downplayed by the gameplay (which is awesome).
I would recommand that you find this game and play it. It was well worth the money back when I first got it, and it’s a steal now.
I’m not sure how much I like StrategySoC telling me what to do, though…
Who wouldn’t want to take an army of worms against another army of worms and watch them blow each other up?
I find this game very entertaining, and hilarious. It’s graphics and gameplay are astounding. The replay value is high due to the random map generator, not to mention that the whole idea of the gameplay is randomness. About the only thing limiting about this game is that it’s not 3D, but if it was, it wouldn’t be as much fun.
This is the first expansion to MechWarrior 4 and it rocks!
First you add a few more ‘Mechs into the already large selection – especially ‘Mechs like the Uller, Ryoken, Wolfhound and the Black Knight – and some awesome paint schemes and you have a really good game.
Then there’s the storyline. You’re a lackey in a large mercenary company. And you get hired to depose the very character you put on the throne in the previous game by Stiener.
This is another game I would reccommend getting as it is even better than the original.
Who doesn’t love having more hulking death machines to destroy their enemies with?
I started with MechWarrior 2 and had fun with that. Then there was MechWarrior 3 and that was a heck of a lot better. MechWarrior 4 takes the cake though…
First off, it has the prettiest looking ‘Mechs yet. Add a large selection on top of that and you have a very nice looking and large selection of ‘Mechs.
[CynicSoC: That was a bit redundant… ]
And the storyline is really involving. You basically have to retake your homeworld. This is set smack-dab in the middle of the FedCom civil war, as well.
Anyways, I’d reccommend that you find and play this game. It’s really fun to walk around in a Daishi willing smaller ‘Mechs to explode…
Recently, MechWarrior 4 was released for FREE! In addition, MekTek has made available MekPack 3.1 which makes over 110 different ‘Mechs playable in MW4. Be sure to check this out!
If you like hack-’n-slash RPGs you’ll probably like this one. I haven’t played the single-player enough to fully understand the storyline, but I do enjoy playing the Multiplayer here at College. We’ve had about 4 at a time going through the Kingdom of Ehb.
There’s a lot to like about the game and a bit to dislike as well. One thing I like is that you can be either a fighter, archer, mage or a balanced master of them all. But at the same time you can’t do things like steal that you can in other RPGs.
Still it’s a game worth getting. I would recommend you get this game if you enjoy the type.
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