Archive for April, 2009

Left 4 Dead Free Trial Arrives Tomorrow

// April 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Journal

 

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead

If you haven’t heard, Valve has announced that they are giving away a free 24-hour trial of Left 4 Dead tomorrow (2009/05/01) on Steam. This trial also comes with the brand-spanking new Survivor Pack DLC that was recently released.

Left 4 Dead is one of my favourite cooperative games on any system and I’d highly recommend giving it a spin if you haven’t tried it yet and you are a fan of: zombies, humans,  humans shooting zombies, or zombies eating humans. While light on story, each campaign in the game attempts to emulate a horror movie cliche involving a zombie apocalypse and a rag-tag band of survivors who try to make it to safety using anything and everything at their disposal. For example, one campaign starts you off on the roof of an apartment building and forces you to traverse through the abandoned city subway system as you try to make it to the local TV broadcast station to try and signal for help. Another one has you blasting your way through a Friday the 13th-esque campground as you attempt to reach a quay where a boat is waiting to ferry everyone in your party to some unknown safe haven.

However, what it lacks in narrative, it more than makes up for in fundamental gameplay and outright fun. Valve has proved time and again that they are masters at crafting new experiences from played-out genres. In the late 1990’s, they breathed new life into the first-person shooter genre with the first game in their venerable Half Life series and now they’re breaking the mould once again by presenting a truly cooperative shooter fused with horror elements.

In Left 4 Dead, communication within your team is paramount to your success within each level. As the difficulty ratchets up, so do the sheer numbers of undead that you’ll have to take down. Additionally, special ‘boss’-like monsters will appear more frequently, each with a special set of abilities that will rip your team apart if you’re not careful. The boomer, for example, will explode if you let him get too close and will cover everyone nearby in a goopy substance that acts like zombie candy – causing every upright undead in a mile radius to home in on you as fast as they can. And god help you if you are beckoned by the keening wail of the Witch and accidentally manage to wake her up.

Long story short, I would definitely recommend Left 4 Dead and Friday’s free trial is an excellent opportunity to check it out.

Ah, Here We Are Again

// April 29th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Journal

If you know me, then you are aware that this is approximately the third or fourth blog I’ve created over the years. My infrequent, turbulent trysts with the written word have resulted in a shameful smattering of discarded journals that I’ve left abandoned across the Internet. And yet, time and time again, I find myself coming back to write more.

So, here we are again. It’s 2009 and I’m ready to write.

If you don’t know me, then welcome! My name is Gavin – a programmer, currently in my mid-20’s, who lives in the blighted nether regions of Northern Virginia. I have a beautiful wife named Krystle, a chunky Black Labrador Retriever named Connor, and three cats who prefer to remain anonymous. Regarding my true passions in life, I absolutely love playing video games, reading books, designing complex systems, and writing all kinds of code. And that’s about me in a nut-shell.

Well, I suppose that’s all for now. I have many (hopefully interesting) ideas for programming posts in the near future. However, if you aren’t technologically-inclined, I suppose you’ll have to make do with… me.

I guess it helps that I am AWESOME.