Hey everyone, I've been hanging around GameSpot more than usual, its always fun to watch Trolls at work in System Wars and whatnot. As for mua, things have been going good ever since school ended, my marks turned out pretty good - 5 A's, 1 high B and... a 70 in honors Biology.. which makes me pretty mad, since we only had student-made reviews, so we all had our heads on the desks thinking 'fmlfmlfmlfmlfmlfml' when it came to exam time.

But anyways, a quick update on gaming, I've beaten Fallout 3 and I'm soon going to buy the DLC (more Fallout is always great). I know I never really wanted Fallout around the time it came out, but it's incredibly fun and addicting. I've let you down grafkun.

I got Freedom Fighters for the PS2, I haven't played much of it, but it's a fun game. I've also borrowed GTA IV from a friend, and it's great so far. The story's surprised me with it's depth, and it's just plain funny sometimes. Free roam with friends is a blast too.

I've been trying to write a Dead Space review for a while now, but I can't quite be satisfyed the way I'm writing it, I'm still trying to find the right words to describe it, I'm not sure I'll be happy with it for quite a while before I submit it, althoug other reviews may be on the way.

Due to Live being down today, and not being able to step outside without turning into a pile of steamy goo, I picked up Brawl and started playing again. My Lucas will slowly start to be awesome again. I've also discovered that I'm pretty good with Wolf.

The only game I really want now is Prototype, but I'm going to wait on that, from what friends have told me, it's loads of fun. I'm actually surprised how well GameSpot reveiwed it, considering a lot of major game reviewers game it an average score. I don't care either way though, I'm definitely getting it.

As for the future, I'm getting Modern Warfare 2 on the day it comes out, something I've only done with Brawl, and I can't wait for Bioshock 2 or Mass Effect 2. I'm still weirded out by the fact that there's going to be a Left 4 Dead 2, but I'm still probably getting it. Looks like its the year (or beginning of next year in the Case of Mass Effect 2) for second installations.

Take it easy

As someone who plays Left 4 Dead quite a bit casually, and on expert with our team (myself, A SHOE GSS, , bobblehead81, and Ninjaguy236). We've played quite a bit, and although I still have yet to clear one last campaign, I have a few tips up for grabs.

• Keep a balanced team - Once your team finds the Jesus weapons, make sure to balance yourselves out. 2 assaulters, 1 shotgunner and 1 sniper
• Choose your shots wisely - Friendly fire can be one of the most deadly things on Expert, so watch where you fire, no Rambo mode allowed here.
• Check those corners! - Infected do 10+ damage per punch, so check every room in an inside area so that nothing can damage you unexpectedly.
• Know how to deal with Hunters/Smokers - If a teammate gets pounced when all survivors are together, everybody melees him off and to death, it will happen fast enough that usually the victim will not take much damage and you shouldn't take the risk of shooting him off, as it might hit another teammate. If he is away from the group, some shooting might be necessary, as most of the shots would hit the hunter. For the most part, the same goes for the Smoker, run up to the teammate and melee immediately if he gets smoked, and then send to whole team to find and take out the smoker.
• Plan how to defend in finales/'call the horde' scenarios - There has to be a plan for calling the horde, or death is inevitable. Is this a good choke point for the zombies? Will this point defend well enough against Hunters/Smokers? You simply need to plan everything out before making a decision
• Deal with Boomers effectively - Judge wisely if a Boomer is shootable or not, if he is close to a friend and not you, let him deal with it. If he is close to the whole team, whack him away, get back a good 10 feet and shoot him down. In the case that you do get barfed on (I swear, some of these are Sniper-Boomers), get to cover fast and just melee. If your team is not barfed on, they can usually stay ahead and kill most of the zombies without being damaged(since they are headed for the barf-ee).
• Put full captioning on - This is essential, it will alert you when the horde is coming, special infected, and when a tank grumbles, which is hard to hear. It really helps prevent stumbling into insta-death situations.
• Know what do do when a Tank comes - Once your captioning comes up with Tank noise, stop immediately. Know who has the Molotov, as El Tanke Grande is nearly impossible to take down with only firepower considering how fast and strong he is. Have someone throw a Molotov, and once he catches on fire, book it. Having all 4 player spread out will be the best way to wait out until the fire kills him, 1 person being sacrificed may be necessary to stall him.
• Don't startle the Witch - The Witch is your worst enemy next to the Tank, she will incap the disturber instantly and kill them within 5-7 seconds, if she is not stopped(which she usually isn't), so avoid her at all costs. If she is completely unavoidable, get whoever has the hunting rifle get as far away from her as possible but so that he can still see her. Have Mr. Sniper shoot at her until she s startled and run like hell, while the other 3 teammates should shoot fill her with lead after she starts to chase after the disturber.
• Kill your teammates right before the chapter is over (ONLY if they have red health and do not have a medpack, which happens a lot of the time anyways) - This will revive them at 50 health.
• Always have a team of 4 experienced players - Computer players will often not follow your strategies and end up in you facepalming
• Last but not least, always, ALWAYS, stick together - You will get screwed over if you guys split up (unless a Tank comes, which will usually rid the place of the rest of the zombies)

Hope this helps some of you guys

-tancred

has nothing to do with this blog.

Well, I can't wait for the rest of the year to play out, in terms of games. Now, it isn't even because there's going to be a buttload of games I want, but the contrary. I'm glad that I'm finally gettting some elbow room with not very much games to tempt me this year. As for the few games I am interested in this year. they sure look hella sweet

Prototype looks epic sawheet, its the only new IP and summer game that's coming out that I'm definitely buying. Alex Mercer (protagonist) from Prototype makes Hayden from Dark Sector seem like he's wearing his poop-soiled training pants.

The only two sequels I'm looking forward to are:

I loved Modern Warfare, it's my favorite 360 game. World at War was excellent but Treyarch stole IW's secret formula.. it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, the only thing I prefer in World at War is Nazi Zombies, because I'm pretty sure Infinity isn't going to include Al-Queda Zombies in Modern Warfare 2. As for Bioshock 2, Bioshock was a very good game, one that I enjoyed thoroughly from start to finish, and the plot behind the new Bioshock seems even more intriguing

As for the last 2, they are games that are not announced, but mystery games from

Vavle has spewed 4 new games and 2 remakes in the last 2 years, The Orange Box was incredible, 5 awesome games in one and the package is only $15 dollars. Left 4 Dead is also fantastic, a brilliant co-op oriented game. What surprised me the most was that Valve released 2 packages in back to back years, which is why I don't necessarily expect anything this year. There won't be any Left 4 Dead 2 games, that would be completely impractical, so a new IP is what we'll hopefully get in the next 1-2 year period, and that's what I want more than anything from Valve. The Behemoth has made few games, but Alien Hominid HD was great, and then Castle Crashers released summer of 2008 was absolutely beast, it was extremely fun and addicting, had a playful, yet gory art styIe and epic music. I'm also doubting that The Behemoth will put another arcade game out this year, but again - I'll be waiting for whatever they can come up with. I have faith in these Valve and The Behemoth, as my favorite developers. And now we just wait for that Jesus platter of awesome games.