Near the end of the first campaign, the only option I had was to run for the Helicopter on my own, leaving my teammates to die nasty zombie deaths; Survival of the fittest I guess.

Daniel and Mike prepare to fend off Zombies for survival.

Jerrod and Tim watch each others backs

Mostly everybody had to get home to their families at around 11, but mike and I played halo for the rest of the evening (until about 1am). This morning at 6am when my daughter woke up, I was kicking myself a bit for staying up late.

I’m always wanting to do stuff like this, my basement turned out to be the perfect place for it to happen. I hope we do it more often.

Video games are my achilles heel when it comes to being an adult. I try to be forthcoming with most people that I do enjoy video games very much, but that’s putting it mildly. I love video games. Even though I only own 5 titles on the Xbox 360, I get excited when I think about having a few hours of unadulterated Xbox time. I guess it’s the only thing I’ve done since I was a kid, so all the fun memories of all the years get compounded in that time. Maybe because it’s the only thing that’s always been uniquely mine. My parents and my brother never understood video games and always thought they were a waste of time (which they are). Even now, I have difficulty playing and not feeling bad about myself (I say difficulty, but what I really mean is a tinge of guilt).

When I play video games though, it’s an extension of myself into a world I could never be. It’s the same as watching the Karate Kid and doing Crane kicks afterward. It is, the embodiment of imagining yourself in a heroic and otherworldly situation. Other people may not understand that, and that’s ok. I don’t expect them to, as long as they respect that I enjoy it.

Am I going to hide in a corner in the middle of a multiplayer battle and tweet, “Just got killed in COD4, not having a good night”? No. I’m not. I’m not going to tweet from my xbox because it’s inconvenient. There are, however, a few features I’ve wanted for awhile that Xbox hasn’t cared to build into the dashboard. They are as follows:

1. Notification of specific friends logging on to Xbox live.

Now, this might be a vague notion of convenience, but when I turn on my Xbox, I’d like to know if my best friend is online. I’d even like to know if people I play specific games with are online…it would help me to choose which game to play. Doesn’t seem like it’d be that complicated. But, I’m not an Xbox developer.

2. The ability to make video playlists.

Am I missing this feature? If I am, please tell me…I’d like to know, but I’d like to watch the entire first season of The Guild without having to back out and click “Play” again.

3. Button combinations for specific areas of the guide menu.

Now this might seem very complex, but if I held down the right trigger and pushed the guide button, it’d be sweet if it automatically brought up my friends menu — or something to that order. The guide button is so slow when you’re in the middle of a game, and it’s very frustrating.

These things would be helpful. Far more helpful than being able to tweet and post to facebook. Don’t we have enough inane descriptions of everyone’s play-by-plays already? Myself included.

Battlefield 1943, an Xbox Live Arcade title unlike any other will be released tomorrow (July 8th), and I will definitely be playing it tomorrow night.

I’ve never seen a menu screen quite like that one. The options were Campaign (referring to online campaign), Multiplayer, and Single Player. Normally single player and campaign are synonymous.  I played through the first two levels of the game in the “Single Player” mode, on Normal difficulty. In the first level I used the shotgun. The second level I started with an Uzi, but later picked up an M16 (I think).

I love zombie movies, so I have been excited about Left 4 Dead for awhile. Honestly, the reason I hadn’t bought it yet was because I didn’t know how often I’d get to play it since I’d basically have to be alone (it’s not appropriate for children or those easily scared) to play it. And I didn’t know if my nerves were ready for that trip.  However, after playing it yesterday, I was relieved that it was more fun than terrifying. A few things that stood out to me:

The Zombies:

1. The Zombies go down quickly, so even though you may have a dozen coming toward you, you feel like you can manage it. Which is less scary even.
2. The Zombies are fast. And they keep momentum, so when you shoot one that’s running in the chest, it effectively clothelines him (which looks cool).
3. The AI is really neat. If you play through the same level twice (because you die), you don’t see the same zombies in the same place. My first play through, a room was filled with zombies, the second play through I was expecting a fight…but there was none. Instead the game experience was completely different.

The Game:

1. Co-op is clever. The way they built the co-op play is awesome, even in single player, I had to depend on my teammates to save me when a hunter jumped on top of me.
2. Game elements don’t get lost. You’d think with as much stuff  going on the game would get disorienting and confusing, but it doesn’t.
3. Gameplay is smooth. The game flows excellently, I think it’s running 60 frames per second.
4. The pistol has unlimited ammo, so you never run out of your sidearm’s ammo, which caused me to use it more, especially when I got a second one.
5. The pacing doesn’t allow you to dawdle. So if you’re standing around, or trying to take it slow, you get waves of zombies. I think they’ve engineered the game well to push you through at the speed it was designed for.

ED: Earlier I posted that the game must run at 26 frames per second because it was so smooth; I later realized how dumb that was and corrected the error to be 60 frames per second.