May Monster Madness: Left 4 Dead

I'll admit when I first heard of Left 4 Dead, I was skeptical. There isn't much story and the main campaign  is very short. But then I played it, and it quickly became one of my favorites. Some of the best memories I have of  Xbox Live come from countless matches. I prefer to play as one of the survivors, not the infected.

Through never ending hordes of infected, you and three others must make it from safe house to safe house. Sounds easy enough, right? Nope. It seems everything works against you. If a car alarm goes off more infected swarm, if you get separated from the group you're as good as dead.

And then there's the special infected. If you're not careful, a Hunter might pounce on top of you. For what ever reason, Hunters like me very much and it's a running joke here that I'm Hunter bait. Or a Smoker will grab you with his tongue.  Hell, you may even get puked on by a Boomer. As Boomer bile clouds your vision, the horde comes out to play.  Of course, when the Tank's music starts, everyone in your party scrambles into action.

But, my favorite special infected is also the most unassuming.
                                                           
                                                                  The Witch.

Imagine shooting your way through infected, only to hear what sounds like a girl sobbing. As you track down the noise, you see the image above. From the back, she looks sort of harmless. But look at those claws. If you upset her, she shrieks and runs after you. Next thing you know, you're on your ass.  Without your teammates helping you, you're done for.  The only way to avoid feeling her wrath is to turn off the flashlights and sneak past her very quietly.  Or you can do what my son does and crown her.

T is for Terrible AI Teammates in Video Games

In some games, we have AI teammates. This should be a big help, right? A lot of the time, it's not. Some AI are downright terrible.

Right now, I'm playing Mass Effect and wow do your teammates stink. They like to randomly shoot at walls during a fight, wasting the ammo charges in their guns.

Left 4 Dead probably has some of the most frustrating AI. In fact, it's a game best played with at least one other human.

There are other crappy AI teammates like in  Halo that make you wonder if they're actually on your side.

For a complete list of my favorite terrible AI teammates go here

H is for Horror Video Games

Anything horror is awesome and survival horror games hold a special place for me. I'm just drawn to them and beyond any other genre, I pay attention to it most. I remember the first time I saw those damn dogs crashing through the windows in Resident Evil way back in 1996. RE is probably my favorite horror game and the R blog post will most likely be for the series. Even though RE has changed over the years, I still love it. Who doesn't feel fear and tension in RE 5 when Chris and Sheva are wading through alligator infested swamps?

Another horror love of mine is F.E.A.R. I'm ridiculously excited that after many delays, the 3rd one should be releasing soon. At the end of F.E.A.R 2, your character is stuck in a pretty um..unsavory... situation. Even though we'll be playing Point Man again and not Becket, the third installment is focused on that unsavory situation. And a really cool thing I can't wait for is the ability to play as Fettel in the co-op mode. It should be very interesting.

Then we have  Silent Hill. I recently started playing 3 again.  Downpour will be released this year (maybe.. gotta love delays) and it's suppose to go back to the series'  roots. Yay! As long as there's crazy puzzles and monsters I'll be happy.

I can't forget Left 4 Dead. It's a game I originally mocked. How intriguing  can a  game with little story possible be? All you have to do is shot zombies and not die. But I was wrong. It's a blast and so is the sequel. There's few things worse then hearing the cries of the Witch or the roars of a Tank. But the games are also pretty funny especially when you make Coach and Ellis sing at the end of Dark Carnival.

There's a new zombie game that's on my radar called Dead Island. If you're a gamer, you probably have seen the trailer, (not for the squeamish, btw)  which looks fantastic. The graphics are really amazing. Maybe all of us good little zombie hunters will find that under our Christmas trees. (unless that's delayed too)