Left 4 Dead

You know, when the vampire trend was spinning out of control and spitting out some of the worst films and television programs known to man (as well as some really cool stuff; I won't forget that), I started believing that it was time for people to start getting into zombies.

When I was first in college, getting my philosophy degree, I descended into the world of George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. These films were some of the best movies I've ever seen. I used to watch horror films because of how ridiculous they were, but now I was watching zombie movies that were smart and told me something about "human nature." To this day, Dawn of the Dead remains one of my favorite movies of all time.

Left 4 Dead was a franchise that came about long before the zombie thing started to feel like it was being done to death. And the brilliance of these games stems from the fact that it feels like you are inside of a Romero zombie movie. You are controlling one of four main characters.

I've come to love this game enough that it has crept into my every day life. For example, whenever someone has a headache, I have the unhealthy compulsion to shout out "Pills here!" And sometimes when there is a girl crying in public I like to shout out "WITCH!" OK, that last one was a lie, but I have definitely said the former quite a few times.

Just play the game.

Borderlands 2 Trailer

Left 4 Dead 2

My friend Joe Jinn has logged over 800 hours of playtime on Left 4 Dead 2. Before I owned the game, he'd tell me to play it on his computer and he'd watch, something of a video game voyeur. No matter how well I'd do he'd heckle me, saying something like, "It's not worth playing unless you're on Expert difficulty," or "You wouldn't last thirty seconds on Realism mode." Some of my friends scoff at how often Joe plays Left 4 Dead 2, saying things like, "It's a great game and all, but all he does is sleep and play - nothing else," but a part of me not so deep under the surface envies Joe. I'm not saying that I'd give up my fantastic relationship with Amy or the other things I strive for, but were I capable of duplicating myself and sharing my experiences with several satellite-Justins, one of them might just be dedicated to playing Left 4 Dead 2 all the time. On the other hand, maybe Justin-2814 would get bored of it. It's a great game and all, but all I'd be doing is sleeping and playing...

Bioshock

I do believe it took me three summers to finish Bioshock. It had nothing to do with disinterest. From the very beginning, the game is already one of the most intriguing stories I've ever encountered. The reason it took me so long was because every time I would sit down to play Bioshock I would get so scared that I couldn't play for long. Someone was always popping out of nowhere and threatening my life, and sometimes they were incredibly hard to defeat. Any time I had just played, you could touch my shoulders and feel the tension that had risen into them. There was a time when I measured the greatness of a work of art by the amount of emotion I felt upon experiencing it. I didn't say happiness or laughter or anything like that. Sometimes anger or sadness, but in the case of Bioshock it is fright and anxiety that make it obviously a work of high art. I'm sure you've all played this game years ago, but if there is anyone out there who hasn't, you really should. It is on almost everyone's list of best games of all time, and there's a good chance it will make it to yours.

Portal 2

Portal is one of the most respected video games of the last decade, created in relative obscurity for the Valve Corporation bundle pack called The Orange Box. Now, the name Portal is better known than The Orange Box and most of the video games it originally contained. Portal ascended quickly to the top of most peoples' favorite video games of the 2000s lists, and the rumored Portal 2 became one of the most highly awaited games of all time.

As the legend of Portal became getting more and more bloated, spreading by word of mouth, the idea that Portal 2 could be a satisfactory sequel to Portal began to seem impossible. Portal 2 finally came out in April of 2011, and it exceeded most of our expectations. Not only was GladOS back, but we found two more comedic characters to play with: Wheatley and Cave Johnson. The puzzles and physics of this game are fantastic, as are the graphic and music. And surprisingly, we dig deep into the Portal universe to find the origins of the actions of the original Portal as well as what the future holds.

I give Portal 2 all of this acclaim having only completed the single player campaign. Almost everyone I've talked to says that the two player challenges are the reason this is one of the best games they've played. Considering the fact that this is already one of my favorite video games ever, I fear that my heart may stop while playing the two player co-op. Luckily, there will be someone else on-line with me who can call the ambulance if I am AFK for too long and don't respond to stimuli.

Excelsior!

Portal 2: Lab Rat

After the surprisingly interesting Left 4 Dead: The Sacrifice comic, I was gung ho to read Portal 2: Lab Rat, a comic book available on the Portal 2 web site that links the action of Portal with its forthcoming sequel. The comic captures the interesting and comedic jargon that, combined with fantastic game play, made Portal such a catchy video game. It even has an interesting take on Schrodinger's cat. I would definitely check out Portal 2: Lab Rat. It is a great way to pass the time until the game is released.

Portal 2: Lab Rat is available via the Portal 2 web site here. The comic can also be downloaded in PDF form here.

More Portal 2 Trailers

Pre-ordered. Impatiently awaiting pre-load and release.

Team Fortress 2

Adam and I were playing Team Fortress 2 one night and we came across a player whose screen name was NickelbackSavedMyLife. Another player on that particular server asked this player if Nickelback had indeed saved his life. Without qualification or explanation, NickelbackSavedMyLife simply responded, "Yes."

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Portal

DC Universe Online

A Guide to Video Game Lingo 4

1. Shmup (noun) - short for shoot 'em up, which, in turn, is short for shoot them up; a video game in which a sole character shoots large numbers of enemy attackers while dodging their attacks, sometimes in a spaceship or aircraft of sorts.

"I'd play a shmup, but I have trouble telling the difference between my bullets and the bad guys' bullets."

2. Noob tube (noun) - term for a variety of rocket launchers, grenade launchers and occasionally automatic shotguns that require very little skill to use and offer their users considerable advantage over their foes.

"That dick is using the noob tube again. Ugh!"

3. Pwn (verb) - to own or dominate ones opponents; derived from a misspelling of the word "own" with a "p."

"Look who just pwned your #@^!"

Counter-Strike: Source

Super Meat Boy

Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers

Postcard 2010: PC Gaming

I had been to my share of LAN parties where a network cable was all I needed to connect my computer to a bunch of great friends and play video games for hours. I would spend hours playing video games and then I would go the rest of the year without thinking about starting up Warcraft III: Frozen Throne or Counter-Strike: Source. Meanwhile, good friends like Stephan, Adam and Joe were playing video games all year round. The difference in skill level between me and these other boys was gigantic, and quite often it just made playing certain video games no longer fun.

At the end of 2009, the digital content delivery service known as Steam had its first big post-holidays sale. Interesting games I'd seen friends playing in Stephan's basement were now available for incredibly low prices. I could play the same games that my friends were playing only it would cost me 20 to 40 percent of the price. At the holiday LAN of 2009 I had made up my mind: 2010 would be the year when I went gung ho into PC gaming, and particularly first person shooter. The week prior to 2010 I spent stockpiling fantastic video games for dirt cheap.

While I found myself playing a whole lot of different games, Team Fortress 2, Bioshock, Left 4 Dead, and Left 4 Dead 2 being among my favorites, it was the quirky FPS Borderlands and its brilliantly crafted DLC Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, and Claptrap's New Robot Revolution that made it easy to make good on my promise to get into PC gaming. I could start up the game in Fort Worth, Texas, hook up my head set, and find myself in the company of my good friends Adam (College Station, Texas), Derek (Grand Rapids, Michigan) and Stephan (Corpus Christi, Texas). While gaming, the world that I had known prior to leaving Michigan wasn't all that far away any more.

LANs became different. I could keep up with my friends, both when it comes to computer hardware and game performance. Over Christmas, I played a CS: Source gun game mod with six or seven friends in which I was neck in neck with Joe, who had probably logged more hours of gaming in 2010 then everyone in the room combined. Rather than simply forgetting about PC gaming after the holiday LAN, I found myself trying to deal with difficult gaming quandaries such as which game to play after Borderlands (no good answer yet) and whether to subscribe to DC Universe Online or Star Wars: The Old Republic in 2011 (hopefully both, but at different times).

The New Face of Steam

I'm sure you remember when I told you about Steam. Well, the digital content delivery service that I know and love has put on a new face. If you didn't check it out before, you should check Steam out now. Here's a sneak peak:

Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter Trailer

The original Serious Sam: The Second Encounter was one of the most fun multi-player games I remember from my young PC gaming days. I really enjoyed Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, so you can imagine how excited it is that The Second Encounter is getting re-made in HD. Pre-order the game now through steam and get a discount, then patiently wait to play it on April 28th, 2010.

March Mayhem Developer's Showdown

Gamers might find themselves in this March Madness tournament courtesy of The Escapist. The March Mayhem Developer's Showdown pits a variety of game developers against one another in the competition of the best developer.

The Final Four pitted three of my favorite developers against one another. Blizzard, the makers of the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo series, fought valiantly but finally lost against BioWare, the developers responsible for the Mass Effect games and Dragon Age, while Valve, the innovative designers of the Halflife, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead series, dominated annoying and superfluous Zynga, who cursed the world by developing Farmville, Mafia Wars and Vampire Wars (these are the people responsible for all the stupid Facebook invitations daily).

My prediction is that BioWare is going to win. They've started off with a decent lead, and I've heard more ravings about Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age in the last year than even the magnificent Left 4 Dead 2. If it were up to me, however, Valve would win. Even if Valve couldn't lay claim to some of the most entertaining games in the business, which it can, the content-delivery system called Steam is reason enough to consider these folk the best developers. I would have chosen Blizzard over BioWare as well because they innovated the world of on-line playing with BattleNet and World of Warcraft.

The final battle between Valve and BioWare is being waged now. You can vote here.

Steam

Steam is a digital content delivery platform developed by Valve Corporation. Purchase games and find them instantly available for download on any computer where you have downloaded and logged into the Steam Client.

In an effort to increase replay value of games, Steam offers Steam Achievements on select games.

For more information on Steam as well as Steam Client download, click below:

What Is Steam?