Another Left 4 Dead Fan Film

A few months ago I found a fan made Left 4 Dead video which was quite intriguing. Today I found another one. It is only a teaser trailer but according to the description the full video will be released soon. If the quality is anything like trailer below, I will be looking forward to it.

Check it out.

My top 10 games of all time.

This list is in no particular order, it is just 10 of my favourite games some are newer than others.

Guild Wars

I shall start the list with a MMO under the name of Guild Wars, I believe this game has been the under dog in the MMO market especially compared to the likes of WoW. Yes it does have quite the core fan base. But any casual gamer if they have heard of it and a lot of them will tell you no. The game is getting on a bit now as it was released mid 2000's, 05 if memory serves me correctly as of probably beginning of this year I finally escaped it's grasp on me, yeah I do have a few titles left to grind away at before I can say I have absolutely nothing left to do in game, to be honest I can live with my legacy left behind in the Guild Wars world and until Guild Wars 2 comes out I probably won't be getting back in to it. I have dabbled in a number of other MMO's but Guild Wars was the only one that took hundreds of hours of my life from me. I still to this day don't know why I was so addicted to this game but it does hold a special place in my heart.

Half-Life
The game that started Valves journey in to the hearts of many, many gamers. This game was probably the first game I played that had quite an in depth story behind it. Everything I had played before this game shooter wise, the story was 'There's the bad guy go kill him. Why? Because he's the bad guy.' While I still love those kind of games that essentially just give you a gun and tell you to go nuts, this game changed that. There was a lot of thought effort and time put in to the story, not saying it was the first one to do that of course it was my first story telling shooter game. I am much more of a fan of this game than the sequel. Half-Life 2 I still love that game to bits but there is far to many holes in the gap between Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Valve totally could of done other games to fill in the missing pieces. Even if they had done a sequel to Blue Shift and Opposing Force that would have been more than enough game to explain a little more. I still think they should do a Blue Shift 2 with Barney and the events running up to Half-Life 2. You start off and he is undercover with the combine. You could have easily made a game with Barney and his time under cover with the combine, watch him make choices he later regrets so he doesn't blow his cover. I could sit down and come up with many situations you could make a story for a new Blue Shift or Opposing Force game. It has so many missing links you could fill in and you know from Valves huge fan base that people would be all over the games should they be released. I'm gonna stop my little rant there anyway and go play through Half Life up to Episode 2 as soon as I'm done writing this.

Road Rash 2
Now I am going back even further in time to one of the games from my childhood which I used to play the crap out of. Road Rash 2 for my Sega Mega Drive. I loved this game, it's racing motor bikes while trying to beat your opponent with bats and chains what is not to like. My only gripe at this game is the lack of save ability, but that's more at the console than the game it's self. Saying that though if I was able to save my game and beat it, the replay value probably wouldn't be as high as it was. Saving on this game involved leaving the console on with the game paused. All that time spent playing this game just so I could get the best bike available, I believe I got it about 4 times but because it took me so long to save up for it, I never got that used to the bike and crashed a lot due me not being used to the handling and speed of the bike usually ending up in me getting game over.

Final Fantasy IX
That's right Final Fantasy 9 not 7. Not to say 7 isn't a good game but it's not my favourite. I was a little late to jump on the Final Fantasy bandwagon getting into it with the release of the 9th in the series. But it is my favourite of all the Final Fantasy games. I have played it through so many times I could probably sit down and tell you the entire story start to finish.

Burnout Series

Burnout is probably my all time favourite racing game. Probably Burnout 3 being favourite of the lot. It's the most fun you can have crashing cars without being hospital bound.

Deathspank

It is a small(ish) game from developers Hothead Games. I am including all three games as this entry as well. I fricking love Deathspank and his random humour, abuse of orphans and just the generally weird ass hack and slash adventure. If you haven't heard or played any of the Deathspank games, be it the original, Thongs of Virtue or the latest adventure with our random hero, The Baconing. I suggest go invest in one of them, I believe they cost round about a tenner for each game. It's definitely worth the money.

Team Fortress 2

I have been a fan of Team Fortress since the days of TFC, never did play the quake mod though. I have only one gripe again TF2 and believe it or not it's not about hats. It's about how escort maps such as Hunted were never brought along with all the other game modes. For those of you unaware of this map type. Basically one person was a VIP which one team had to protect while getting them to a certain area to win the game while the other team had to assassinate them. I spent more time playing escort maps than any other type. I should really go look see if modders have made custom maps with escort objectives. I realise we have payload which is technically an escort type game but it's not the same. Anyway rant aside, this game is well it's fun as hell whether you enjoy using the variety of weapons available or just using the stock loadouts through one of the many vanilla servers which don't allow anything but stock weapons.

Left 4 Dead

Third entry in my list from Valve. This doesn't really much explanation why it was put in my list. It's killing zombies with your buddies. How can you not like it.

Unreal Tournament

This game was probably the first multiplayer competitive shooter I played. Epic totally need to revive this game and when they do they need to make it just a tournament, no storys like UT3, just pure good old fashion killing the other guy purely for the fact that you want to be better than them. They have Unreal if they want to put a story behind the game, Unreal Tournament should be kept as a Tournment nothing more nothing less. Anyway before I get in to a full blown rant I have to admit this game is fantastic, and whether you pick up the original or any other version of the game it doesn't matter.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 - Yuri's Revenge

While this is technically an expansion pack, one which I dub greatest expansion in existence, you can argue with me all you want you will never change my mind on the matter, I believe this game could have easily stood by itself without a problem. This game along with with Unreal Tournament was one of the games that got me into lan gaming, primarily with my brothers, while I haven't been to a lan for ages as it's a lot easier just to play online, I used to love sitting in playing over lans trying to out do one another. Though I hated playing my younger brother as he was always Yuri and made sure he was near enough to both Allied and Soviet bases so he could just send in Yuri to get their construction yard and get the best of each faction. I always swayed away from Yuri and went either Allied or Soviet, had a solid plan for each team though. If I was Allied it was simple as getting a shed load of rocketeers and prism tanks. If I was Soviet I just defended my base until I had a ridiculous amount of Mammoth Tanks, I would go for a minimum of 50, this would be followed by the complete and utter destruction of anything that got in my way, while this massacrer was in progress I would be preparing a second wave of Mammoth Tanks to join them.

Left 4 Dead - Blood Tracks

Another write up of my play through of Left 4 Dead 2 custom campaigns. This one is named 'Blood Tracks'. It is a four level campaign and includes the original L4D survivors. Just like the last few I have done, there will be a video below of me running through one of the levels in this campaign with the rest of them over on my youtube channel.

So we start off this campaign along the coastline with only secondary weapons (unless I'm completely blind but I played it a couple times before recording it and couldn't find any). So you start heading in land trying to find your way to the train tracks which eventually lead to you rescue, but I'll get to that later. You end up heading through a shipping yard which is where you get some primary weapons and come to the first zombie alert event where you have to move a big container with a crane which is blocking your way to the safe house which is not far from this point, it's round the corner and through a building. It could do with a few more infected through out the map, does seem a to lack somewhat in the zombie department on this level.

Now we have the second level which sets you off leaving the safe house and heading through an industrial yard where you can get some decent primary weapons. Towards the opposite end of this place you have to take a turn and go through a woodland area which leads to to a house where a horde alert event happens. This one is quite the pain in the ass, after you blow up the house you drop down to some train tracks below and have to run through a ridiculous amount of infected hunting you down. You have to be extremely quick running to the safe house otherwise you could easily get over whelmed.

Level 3 continues down the train tracks you came across in the last level and leads to a quite interesting tank encounter. You come to an area with a bunch of shipping containers and there is a safe room type door which is closed, as you go to open it a tank bursts through the door. First time I did this I crapped myself. After defeating the tank you head through the now gaping hole where the door once was which takes you to an abandoned underground train system which you fight through, eventually leading you back outside. From here it is only through a couple buildings to the final safe house. This level seemed to have a decent amount of zombies in, could maybe of used a few extra special infected but overall it is fairly balanced.

Now we come to the last part of this map. It is quite a short walk from the safe house to the finale area.  Just a quick walk along to the end of the tracks and through some buildings leading up to the rail bridge. This is where you hold out and await rescue. I find this finale quite difficult as I can't seem to find anywhere to hold out as everywhere seems to be fairly open. Though I have always tried to take the higher ground and stay about the walkway between the two houses. Every time I have attempted this at least one person hasn't made it to the escape train.

It's an alright map and I find it misleads you in to a false sense of security in the earlier levels due to the lack of zombies until the hordes come along especially on level 2. I will definitely be playing this campaign again as I am determined to master the finale and get everyone to safety. I'm sure I will manage it in a couple more runs at it. Below is my last attempt at the finale and was probably my worst run out of all my attempts as only Bill made it.



Next campaign on the list is 'City 17'

Left 4 Dead - Left Behind

Here comes my third entry of my Left 4 Dead campaign write ups. This one is 'Left Behind', it consists of only three levels, however these levels are quite long and could have easily been split up in to four, possibly five at a push. The campaign itself is really quite challenging and I would suggest getting a melee weapon as early as possible as the hordes when they come are quite large and just as you think you are doing with a horde attack more come along.

The first level starts you off in the outskirts of a city, you fight your way through streets and buildings, along with a brief period in sewers. There does seem to be a lot of supplies laying about, but considering the amount of zombies you easily can go through all of your ammo quite quickly (which is why I suggest grabbing a melee weapon).

Second level of this campaign you take exit a building and head once again into some sewers. After you escape the sewers it's a short walk to a dam, which is where I got a bit lost and had to put the in game hints on as you go on a scavenger hunt to find parts to a computer so you can open an electronically locked door. There is a lot of back tracking at this part as it seems you have to get them in a certain order even though some parts are really quite close to each other. Just like the first level there is a hell of a lot of zombies but there is also a lot of supplies to make up for this. After you have figured out this frankly quite tedious task of fixing the computer to open the door, you make it to the other side of the dam. Awaiting you is a train taking you to the final level, but first you have to wait for a cable car to get you down to the platform below while you defend yourself from on coming zombies. This horde seems to be lacking severely in the zombie department and could of don't with a lot more. I would say this final horde is quite pitiful to be perfectly honest. This level could do with some tweaking but overall it is still quite good.

Now we come to the finale which will be based at a military base but first you have to get there. After fighting your way off the train and through the train station you come to a gated area. A gated area which looked like it was being defended by the military at some point, due to the dead marine with a gun right next to you. He also happens to have a radio with him which tells you there are zombies heading your way which come along when you open the gate. It can never be easy, so after the initial group of zombies you have to find your way past another security door which leads to what looks like a loading dock for trains, I'm not sure but I did have yet another tank battle here which was fairly easy due to the openness of the area. It's not just a couple more streets away until you get to the military base. So now we are at the finale finally. However rescue isn't coming for another 10 minutes yet. Luckily there is a shed load of ammo and supplies to keep you going until they get there. To start with it was quite annoying until I went up in one of the watch towers and so long as you keep an eye out for smokers this finale is extremely easy as you can kill everything climbing up the ladder.

It is a good campaign, though could do with a few tweaks here and there and maybe be split in to 4 levels instead of 3. Below is my attempt at the finale of this level and like with my other write ups of these campaigns if you want to have a look at what the rest of the map is like I have uploaded my run through on my youtube channel.



Next campaign on the list is 'Blood Tracks'

Left 4 Dead - The Dark Parish

'The Dark Parish' happens to be L4D2 campaign 'The Parish' except you guessed it, it is dark now. It makes sense now, but when I was having a mass download of all these maps, I kind of just went for a load rated 70 or higher, never really looking at descriptions of well many of them. This one included I should of put two and two together really due to the name, but it never clicked until I loaded in game.

As most people all ready know 'The Parish' map as it is one of the official l4d2 campaigns I will not bother going in to full blown detail about it as 'The Dark Parish' is pretty much the same as it's day time counter part. There are a few differences though, there seems to be more zombie spawn areas and less supplies lying about. Anyway here is a video of my attempt at this campaign, be warned it isn't the greatest footage in the world.



Next campaign on the list is 'Left Behind'

Left 4 Dead - Two Evil Eyes

So here we have a little review of Left 4 Dead custom campaign Two Evil Eyes. It is quite a long campaign and has a total of 6 levels.

The first one is ridiculously short and a simple cross a bridge, through a house full of zombies, round a corner and your done. It does seem like a little taster for the rest of the campaign.

The second level is a bit longer than the first but still not the longest level. Just like the first level there you do have to alert the horde quite early on which is easy enough if you get on top of the crashed train before they get to you. It does also seem to have quite a lot of special infected and you encounter your first tank of the campaign, which you can actually go hide up a tree from (if you go round the back of the tree house). After that it's just through a house and the safe house is the next building over.

Level three is where you finally get your hands on some decent weapons instead of the stock uzi and or shotgun which are just outside the safe room. That's the good new, bad news is you are now entering a swamp. Swamps are never good news, let alone a zombie infested one, so after wandering about killing zombies on your way, you come to a building. However this building happens to be closed off with no way in, luckily there is an open manhole nearby. I would say a tunnel is better than a swamp, so you head on down the man hole and find very little zombies down there, at least I did. This doesn't seem to be any old sewer tunnel though, it seems to be a secret tunnel to a garden area which is full of supplies and weaponry and an alarmed door. Obviously not wanting to head back in to the lovely swamp, you of course open the door, which in turn alerts the zombies. I chose to cheese it through the horde instead of sitting there fighting until the alarm goes off. While fighting through zombies I noticed a gate which you can't get past at the moment, so I follow the path round which leads to a car park with a few supplies towards the back of it, near a button you have to push, which opens up the path previously blocked by the gate. The walkway you unlocked leads you to a boat on a little river which you have use to get to the docking station which is right next to the next safe room.

Now we have a bridge level as the fourth part of this campaign. I found this quite difficult on normal (I was playing with random people that seemed to like wandering off by themselves and bots though), it took me 2 or 3 tries to actually finish this. While you can go with the I am going to just run and gun, never stopping to get this over with, there is a train crossing about halfway across so you have to wait for it to pass, and trains being noisy and all, it alerts the horde. I found so long as no one gets incapacitated you will generally be okay with this level, the moment someone is down it becomes hard work (though that might be the genius I was playing with that kept running ahead). The map itself is quite short yet quite challenging.

Next we have a quite dark and gloomy level. As you leave the you hear a helicopter over head which happens to be your rescue in the finale. After listening to what he says you carry on with your journey which is through a cemetery at this point of time. After fighting towards the back of  this creepy place you end up falling through the floor into a cave. Which is where you have to alert the horde by blowing up a barricade, doing so you are stuck in a hole with a wall of fire on one side and a horde of zombies on the other, it's not a great combination. Anyway you fight through this tunnel and escape you have literally a couple streets left to the safe house. However the house is fenced off, and the only way to get there is through the garden which is blocked by an alarmed car which you set off as you jump past it and on come the horde for another battle before you get into the safety of the house. The level isn't all that hard on normal but I could see it getting rather tricky on advanced.

We are nearly to safety as we leave the final safe room and head away to find the helicopter that you heard in the last part. So you head out and a short walk away you come to an almost dried up river bed which leads to an abandoned house on a cliff side, where you can stock up ammo and whatever other supplies it has inside. Just round the corner from here is where the escape finale will happen which consists of a few buildings and a helipad (which is blocked off until it's time to go). I found your best bet is to hold out on the roof tops and if you have actual people playing with you, I suggest using the fire and explosive rounds which are laying about for the tanks only, but of course you can't get the bots to work like that, which made it a lot harder than it had to be come tank time

On normal it took me about 40 minutes give or take to finish, so it is a decent length campaign. That was first attempt time for it as well, so no doubt you could finish it a lot quicker than I did. The hordes could maybe do with getting tweaked a little as some were pretty small while others seemed far to large. The special infected seemed quite nicely spread out with a decent amount of them to make it a challenge. To be honest the first two levels probably could have been combined into one, due to the shortness of the first level. Other than that I enjoyed this campaign and will be playing it a lot more. I would say it is definitely worth a download. Below is my shoddy attempt at the finale, I do make it but only by using everyone else as bait. I need to get this finale done with some people, hopefully leading to everyone escaping. I do have the rest of the campaign recorded on my youtube channel as well if you want to go check out what it's like, just fyi.

Next campaign on the list is 'The Dark Parish'.

Left 4 Dead Custom Maps

Recently I downloaded a shed load of custom campaigns for Left 4 Dead 2 and will be playing through all of them and posting up my thoughts on each one of them along with footage of me playing through them. Below I will write a list of each one I plan on doing and will include links to my write ups once they are done. I will start off with 'Two Evil Eyes' and continue down the list as it is, as that is how they are ordered in game for me, so it will be simpler to keep track. One last thing all these maps can be downloaded from l4dmaps.com and if you need a how to about installing them here is the link.

Two Evil Eyes
The Dark Parish
Left Behind
Blood Tracks
City 17
Dark Blood
Dead Before Dawn
Dead On Time
Dead Series
Dead Aboard II
Death Sentence
Detour Ahead
Die Screaming II
Gas Fever
Golden Eye 4 Dead
Haunted Forest
Highway to Hell
I Hate Mountains
Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Zombies
Kokiri Forest
One 4 Nine
Let's Build A Rocket
Left Or Right
Left 4 Mario
Military Industrial Complex II
Dead Flag Blues 2
N. O. Meltdown
No Parking
Night Of The Living Dead
Resident Evil Outbreak
Overkill
Precinct 84
Questionable Ethics
We Don't Go To Ravenholme
Vague Reminders
Run To The Hills
Salt Hell Park
Source Of Infection
Suicide Blitz 2
The Return Of The Jockeys
Tour Of Terror

More zombie flicks on the horizon.

Dead Island looks like it is going to be turned into a film. Liongate have announced they have optioned the Dead Island film rights from Deep Silver. It seems the making of a Dead Island movie has been inspired by the trailer which brought so much attention to the game. While the trailer itself had next to nothing to do with the actual storyline in the game (which I quite enjoyed and think would convert well to film), I do think if they elaborate on the story based on the trailer, it could be quite the emotional zombie flick, though I am not sure where about in the story that scene would go but I am a little intrigued to say the least. Liongates co-COO and motion picture group president Joe Drake has commented on why they chose to get behind Dead Island stating:

"Like the hundreds of journalists and millions of fans who were so passionate and vocal about the Dead Island trailer, we to were awestruck. This is exactly the type of property we're looking to adopt at Liongate - it's sophisticated, edgy and a true elevation of a genre that we know and love. It also has built in brand recognition around the world, and franchise potential."

Also as I am on the topic of zombie movies, I came across a fan made Left 4 Dead movie trailer, below, which has now been recognised by Valve them self and posted on their official facebook page. There isn't to much to the trailer, you do however get a glimpse of Bill, there are a couple teasers videos on their Youtube channel as well. I believe this could do quite good, especially with the massive fan base behind the L4D series. I personally think Left 4 Dead would be better if they made it into a series of TV shows and have it like the game running from safe house to safe house until you find a way to escape, and have one series equal to one level with the series finale being the level finale. I could see it working. Anyway I will be keeping an eye on updates for both of these and see what happens with them. I am expecting good things from them both as I am a fan of both games and am yet to get bored the whole zombie scene.

News on the Valve front.

First of all L4D campaign Blood Harvest is coming along to L4D2 tomorrow I believe I read. So I know what I'll be doing as soon as the game updates.
Secondly there has been word of a new Counter Strike called Global Offensive. Hopefully it will be on a brand new source engine with fancy new graphics. Hopefully accompanied by a certain game containing a certain freeman. I know I can always hope.
Anyway talking of Half life there is a little protest at Valve HQ for the release of the next Half Life game yesterday the Gman came out and brought them lunch. How long it will last, I'm not sure but I hope it'll encourage the guys at Valve to at least make a statement about the whereabouts of Mr Freeman. We shall soon see.