Gearheads of War

As Valve had finally released the demo for Left 4 Dead 2 on Steam, and having gotten past the multiple pre-loading, loading, decrypting, and syncing processes and a single crash, I later-rather than sooner found myself battling the hordes of the undead in Louisiana.  The first Left 4 Dead combined the trigger-happiness of Counter-Strike and the subtle story elements of the Half Life series, as well as the dark-humor of Team Fortress 2, to accomplish a dark and entertaining shooter.  More importantly, it stressed the importance of team work, where a tight and cohesive team is the only way to survive the onslaught on higher difficulties.

I know, long time no see right?  This year's been a little hectic for me with college and work, and trying to finish refurbishing the old place before the weather gets to bad here on the lakes.  Also, as many of you can tell on Live, I don't have Gold at the moment, and the fact that a good friend of mine decided to move his 360 with my copy of CoD4:MW inside has lead to the absence online.

Before I do catchup with everyone and all the events the past few months, I wanted to point to some developer commentary on the Hard Rain campaign in Left 4 Dead 2 over at Gamespot.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/acti...

Haven't watched it all yet, so that leaves some discussion to be had for later.

FYI, I'm purchasing L4D 2 through Steam, so any Steam users not struggling with updating their rigs with Windows 7 should attempt to get a hold of me on there.

Well, I have experienced failure with my3rd/4th Xbox 360, just after purchasing the retail copy of RE5 at midnight...and not even having the chance to mix it up in Halo 3 Mythic style.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/960/...

Though you can't compete against other players outside the leaderboards, Capcom has improved the unlockable Mercenaries mode in one major way: A patch allowing Mercenaries to be played coopertavilly over Live.  The patch is currently online now, so expect to be prompted to this gift of joy when the disc runs. No word on Sony's front, but more then likely it will be available before launch.

Btw, does anyone have any theories on the Resident Evil Wii announcement?  Scuttlebutt says its a Code Veronica remake, which does make sense.  Its much more enclosed than 2 and 3, in which the city landscape probably wouldn't look much better on the Wii considering how much will be put into character models alone...

Resident Evil 5 has placed itself in what is essentially between a rock and a hard place.  On one side, there is the juggernaut known as Resident Evil 4, which claimed universal praise by critics and gamers, and is known as one of the best games ever developed.  On the other end in the stereotypical expectations of this current 'next-gen' line-up of consoles, which states unofficially that a game must be fast-paced, have versatile shooting [run-and-gun], include multiplayer, and run 12 hours or more, a standard mainly called 'forth by those who were raised on Halo, Killzone, and other FPS titles.  I won't lie; there will be people who will not like nor appreciate Resident Evil 5.  However, I can say that most in the gaming community will be satisfied by Capcom's latest installment, despite the discrepancies they will encounter in Resident Evil 5.  

As some of you may be aware, there has been a massive leak of Resident Evil 5 online, from videos to plot spoilers to even a pirated version(s) circling around the net.  Due to this, I've received word that I can divulge NDA restricted information at this time.  I will try to cut back on some major spoiler information out of respect for those who wish to go into the game's heavy plot with an open mind.  

The review may be released come Sunday instead, so look for it then.  

In the mean time, as the title suggests, this is the new Q&A session where you may ask away either questions you deemed too spoiler-heavy or to those I told to return, such as Robbins.  And yes, I can tell you who the bird lady is, and no, it is not a trifecta of penguins, though that would be a twist...

Here's the deal: You ask the questions, and I either answer them or answer with "I do not comment on rumors or specu..." oh wait, that's Microsoft.

This is all pretty self explanatory. You may ask any Resident Evil 5, or even some core Resident Evil canon (0, 1, 2, 3, Code Veronica, 4), questions, and I will attempt to answer them at the best of my abilities.

I will respond in three of two ways:

1. I will answer the question and provide details that I'm allowed to divulge.  If there's more I could expand on by the time of the next session next Wednesday, I will request for you at the end to pose the question once again so I can give a more complete answer.

2. I will tell you to ask me next Wednesday during the next session, because it may be to NDA sensitive to discuss at the current time.

3. NDA Hammer.  There's no stopping it.

As some of you have already deduced, I have a review copy of Resident Evil 5 on Xbox 360 and my NDA allows me to post it (w/some new screens if I can get a new capture device in time) at 5:00 PM Central time.  There are a few things though, from questions that have appeared in both of the RE5 diaries released lately, that I believe obligate me to inform my fellow Gearheads before my review.  Now, this is strictly about GAMEPLAY.  I will not, nor can, reveal any unreleased story elements, chapters, enemies, unlockables, etc.  So this is rather spoiler-free.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...

Finally, after many months and plowing through the holiday slough of games that were released, our favorite Aussie dubbed 'Yahtzee' takes a stab to the groin of Gears of War 2.  The review isn't really detailed, mostly focusing on campaign...if he had played multiplayer or even gave a care, he wouldn't have liked it so much.  Yes, he actually enjoyed a game this time around, but that doesn't mean he can't skin it over a pit of flaming zombies.

Whether your fancy is the Xbox 360 or PC of Left 4 Dead, many players have seen a little bit of rabid action or plans to.  While the gameplay is nearly perfectly streamlined in Valve fashion however, no one can argue that the game's greatest shortcoming is the lack of content on disk.  4 campaigns, each with 4-5 maps, and only two of the campaigns available on versus mode.  Sure, playing versus and co-op, not to mention some fun and rather well thought out achievements, can stretch out a 4 hour game to a couple of months, but what then?
Valve has voiced that they will support the game post-release and supposedly much quicker than what they did for Team Fortress 2. So what content are you looking forward to?

This holiday season, you'll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't have to make sacrifices to their gaming wish-list.  Furthermore, some of the quality of these games are in question, from the exceptional (Gears of War 2 and Little Big Planet) to the disappointing (Tom Clancy's EndWar), yet its usually too late as you load the disk into the tray.  Furthermore, the PC is lacking that holiday mascot, with the beautiful Far Cry 2 and Crysis: Warhead a bit lackluster in gameplay.  Yet, after spending time with Valve's zombie apocalypse simulation, Left 4 Dead, I can guarantee that not only has the PC found its Rudolph, but that it will be worth every penny.

The story is fairly basic.  Two weeks after the initial outbreak of some mutant strain of rabies, four survivors abandon their hideout in an attempt to get out of the city.  Unfortunately for them, some of the infected have mutated into vile creatures, from the athletic Hunter to the Hulk-like Tank, making their escape even more treacherous.  The story will span 4 acts, which are divided into chapters through various 'maps'.

Just 5 minutes ago I happened on this piece detailing some Aussie Gears of War 2 event and interview with Cliff.  There's a bit of reading with the middle being a little dry of anything interesting, but there are two things to note.  First, is an awesome Gears style chopper and second, a bit of discussion on Cliff's high school game project, "Over Fiend."  I've heard the name a few times but I believe this is the first I've had the chance to hear, well...read, the details.  I suggest taking a look.

http://xboxoz360gamer.com/2008/11/02...