Through the Night

I'm still enjoying Left 4 Dead. It's great stuff.

At first I thought it might have fallen prey to becoming too popular for its own good. Fortunately this is not the case; L4D's popularity is justified. I still haven't played Versus mode yet, but it's on my to-do list.

In fact, you can see my statistics right here thanks to STEAM's wonderful tracking systems. As of this moment, I've killed three-thousand-six-hundred-and-forty-nine zombies with Molotov Cocktails. If you ask me, it's pretty cool that Valve has supplied this sort of service. Not only is it interesting, but it allows you to be an elitist wanker when it comes to picking and choosing your team mates. Player1 has the Cr0wned achievement but Player2 doesn't? I know who I want covering me when the going gets tough.

Matt and I played the game through the night last weekend. It was half-intentional since I had messed up my sleeping pattern and had to power through to the next morning before hitting the pillow. We played one map on Expert difficulty for nine friggen hours on and off. The next time we played, we had to buddies to back us up instead of next-to-useless bots, and we completed the level on our first try.

I also really enjoyed the Batman: Arkham Asylum demo. The good mix of combat, stealth, adventure, exploration, and platforming has me thinking of the Sands of Time trilogy Prince of Persia games. I think they've gone for the "classic hero" Neutral Good sort of Batman rather than the gritty sort of Batman I preferred from the comic books. I didn't expect our caped crusader to be so ridiculously thugged out. Most of the villains are pretty hench too though, so I imagine it's a concept to match (or compete with!) the exaggerated styles that comic books present. That probably comes with other luggage.

I'm thinking about the future again. More news as it develops.