Left 4 Dead

Ah, Left 4 Dead. I had wanted to play this game for quite a
while, and as it happened I stumbled across an article on Kotaku
telling me that Valve was selling the game for $25 on Steam. As a
budget gamer, I am definitely looking for cheaper games, so I decided
to go for it. The download process was easy after I set up a
steam account. I mentioned the game to a friend, and he also decided
to pick it up. We tried to get a few others, but the PC platform is
not a viable option for some these days.. So we got it set up and got
started.

Wow. I love zombies. I love zombie movies. I love this game. I understand
what everyone has said about it having a pretty short life due to
only having 4 scenarios that you can play through pretty quickly.
But man, it is fun. Over the course of this week I've been able to
play the game with my buddy Sam for thirty minutes to an hour
nightly. The game is very intense, as one might expect. It has sold
me on fast zombies as well. I told my wife that I am going to lose
some zombie purist street cred as I am growing to like fast zombies.

I think that the idea of the director is pretty great. As you play the game
this AI evaluates how well you are doing and how much you have been
challenged and adjusts the encounters or puts in stashes of
health or weapons. It sounds pretty amazing, and it actually works.
Mix this with great sounds that let you know what you are facing in
the next few seconds, and you have a great suspense-filled, action
packed game. The witch is probably one of the best ideas for an
enemy that I've seen. She is completely passive, lying in one
location, sobbing. You begin hearing the sobbing from a good
distance away, and you know you are in trouble. It brings your advance to
a crawl. You have to shut off your flashlight, for fear of spooking
her. This makes the darker areas hard to navigate and more
frightening. There are clues with the music and lighting that let
you know she is close. Sometimes the computer sends a horde of
normal infected after you, or one of the other special infected.
They might distract you enough to make you spook the witch. No
matter what, it is tense as long as you can hear her sobs. It is possible
to sneak by her, and sometimes you never even see her. It is just frightening knowing she is around.

The game is great as a shared experience as well. There is nothing like a
good thrill with a friend. Once we got our sound working properly,
we were able to play as we talked to each other. Profanity spills
from our lips like flames from a thrown Molotov cocktail as we play
this game. Once you get a feel for the game, I definitely recommend
ramping up the difficulty. It really increases the intensity without
making the game unplayable. There is even an option to vote on a new
difficulty if you happen to get stuck.

If you like horror movies, and zombie films in particular, this is your
game. Each scenario plays out like a movie. The four survivors
start off somewhere semi-safe, and have to move through infested
areas to get to a point of rescue. We had a very movie like
experience in our first finale of the game. Sam and I had made it to
a rooftop and were awaiting a helicopter rescue. Suddenly, the tank
(a huge, hulking infected beast-man) come rampaging through our midst.
With a massive punch, it knocked Sam from the roof, where he could
not be saved by the rest of us. The remaining survivors and I
managed to fight the behemoth off and get to the 'chopper. As the
credits rolled, it said “In memory of Sam.” It was a
perfect ending to the scenario. Bittersweet, and a little funny.

What a fun game. Even more good news is that Valve will release some free
content in the next month or so to help prolong the game. Looking
forward to it.

My Thoughts on Fallout 3

I really should have written up my feelings about this game more promptly. The problem is that I have been playing it too much and not writing about it. I love this game. I received it as a Christmas gift last year and I have been playing it since. (I think that it is worth noting that I play the game on PC)

I played Oblivion, which is from the same developer as this game and uses the same engine. When I first played that game, I was so overwhelmed with all that I could do that I left the game for a while. I finally was able to get back into Oblivion, understand it, and play the heck out of it. The open world was amazing. I got heavily into user-mods as well.

When I heard about Fallout 3, I did not get overly excited. I had put over 100 hours into Oblivion and was not sure that I was ready to play the same game with guns and muted colors.

Well, I was wrong. I do not remember how it happened, but I caught the bug for Fallout 3 pretty bad. I became enthralled by post apocalyptic fiction and scenarios. When I finally received the game, I was excited. I ignored my family for a while on Christmas and read the manual. (I'm going to do a post soon on user manuals, and how I lament their death.)

When finally our visits to family were over, I got around to installing the game on my computer as quickly as I could. The beginning of the game was genius. Helping to guide the player through character development and laying down the initial narrative. When things turned violent and I had to leave the vault, I was ready.

I tend to always play good characters on my first play-through of games. I would like to think that I am fairly good-natured, and I have a hard time breaking that mold in-game. The game funneled me toward Megaton and I set about helping the locals and trying to find my dad.

I think that the main quest of this game was very well done. It was a pretty tight narrative that kept you moving, but allowed you the freedom to move around and explore. I know that the ending of this game is almost uniformly reviled by the internets, but I think that it was the necessary ending to the story.

I think that VATS was a great addition to the game. I can not say that I am a megafan of the Fallout series. I have dallied with Fallout recently and think it is pretty clever, but I really enjoy the Bethesda-style RPG these days. But adding this mode in as a sort of throwback to the turn-based RPG was a great move.

The Perks you can get to give your character some flavor and a bit of a boost are also a great thing. I look to these games as an outlet for roleplaying, so I sometimes take less advantageous perks that I think fit the character I am playing.

As is the common complaint of PC gamers, I ended up spending some extra money to be able to play this game more as it was meant to be played. I upgraded my graphics card, which gave me an immediate and amazing performance boost. I could see far into the horizon, and spot enemies from much farther away. This also helped make the world seem more alive. I would witness battles between roving Radscorpion and RobCo Robots that I would not even run into unless I wanted to try and take down the wounded victor. I could see far enough now to avoid enemies instead of stumbling blindly around. VATS was also much faster to use. I even ended up downloading some high-resolution texture packs in order to make my game even more beautiful. As beautiful as a post apocalyptic wasteland can be..

I also bought the adapter for my Xbox 360 Controller. Since this game is less twitch oriented than a first person shooter, I wanted to be able to play from my couch in comfort. This really made the game a pleasure to play and show to my friends. I definitely recommend the Xbox Controller and adaptor as the easiest to use gamepad that I have ever used.

I think that it is important for me to mention User Modifications for this game. As with Morrowind and Oblivion, Bethesda released an editor for those talented enough to make their own content. I use the Fallout 3 Nexus (http://www.fallout3nexus.com/) to find the mods that I want. These mods really help to extend the life cycle of these games, for free. This is a definite plus for people on a budget. I mentioned the texture packs earlier. Some mods are silly, new clothing for your character, but I enjoy them. Other mods have all new quests to follow and factions to join or fight against. The community for Fallout 3 is really beginning to hit its stride now.

I hope that anyone who enjoys post apocalyptic gaming, role playing, open world gaming, and whatever other genres this game fits into picks up Fallout 3 and gives it a try.

I Game On a Budget: Origins

Who am I?

My name is Devlin. I am a 25 year old (at the time of this writing) student who enjoys playing video games in his spare time. I served in the United States Navy for four years. I have studied Philosophy and Graphic Design. Currently I focus more on the graphic design.

I decided to start this blog after reading other gaming blogs that I enjoy, brainygamer.com being the first among them. I enjoy intelligent discourse on games. I am not looking to make any money or become famous. I just want to join in on the discourse on my hobby.

I've entitled the blog I Game on a Budget because I have a wife, mortgage, two dogs, and responsibility. I love new games and can become swept up on the hype trains as much as anyone else, but I limit my video game spending to roughly the equivalent of one new game a month. Sometimes I will get a few cheaper games, or borrow them from my friends. As such, this is not the place to come for timely reviews or sneak peeks at new games. I am here to discuss games in-depth. Since I am limited in my purchases, I try to get the most out of a game before turning to something new.

I hope anyone who reads this enjoys it and perhaps will join in the discussion.