Left 4 Dead

Seeing as though I'm on a zombie kick (seriously, bring em on) I decided to download Left 4 Dead on my PC. The game is awesome. Well, awesome when Steam decides to work and actually let me play. Maybe I project some kind of field, because online games never work right for me. I get kicked off Call of Duty when I'm in someone's "party" on Xbox Live, I can't connect to EA's servers, and I'm pretty sure one of the original versions of Steam put a hex on me.

When I do get to play, good God. You wanna kill zombies, eh? I got your zombies. I got your fucking zombies right here. To say that there are a lot of zombies in Left 4 Dead wouldn't give you the proper perspective. So, let me put it this way. THERE ARE A LOT OF ZOMBIES. Thousands. They run. They scream. They claw. Sometimes they stand still. But, no matter what, there are a lot of zombies. Zombies that need killin'.

How do you kill the undead, you ask? With a shotgun. Or an assault rifle, they don't seem picky. Left 4 Dead is gloriously, unabashedly over the top. There is definitely strategy in terms of how you work with your teammates, but the game is really about pouring buckets of lead into your new undead friends. Through four separate campaigns presented as zombie movies, you and your team operate at a breakneck pace to get to a safe house and out of harms way. While the game can be played solo, it really just isn't the same. The "what the fuck?!?" moments are only possible with other human teammates and thus, the only real way to play the game.

There is also a VS mode, where players can actually be the zombies. I haven't tried that yet because, again, I've probably only played 7 or 8 matches, but the concept sounds awesome. Really, what I lack is the dogged persistence that is required of PC gamers. I mean, yeah, I could figure out how to host my own dedicated zombie fragging server, or fuck with the endless firewall options Vista offers, or reconfigure my router or some bullshit, but all I really want to do is play the game. I'm a console gamer at heart, even if I like the PC inputs better. So, I guess I'll struggle with my inner demons while waiting to find a game of Left 4 Dead. I got time.