The Gaming Cove

One of the most intense and exciting games that will hit the market soon, Left 4 Dead!

A Single/Multiplayer zombie game where the goal is to try to stay alive.  I was lucky enough to test out the demo, and from the two levels it provided, all I must say is that I was in awe!

Playing online is obviously the goal of this game, but even if a person lags out, or someone leaves, a very intelligent A.I. takes over for the player to guide you throughout the level.  So within any of the given levels, you always have 4 people, human or A.I.

Some of the great features of this game:

-Randomized A.I. Generator
Now everytime you play any of the levels, the spots where the zombies are, where the hordes will attack you, and where ammo/healthy stacks up are completely randomized.  You never know what lurks behind each corner, taking a step to keep team work and fear intact.

- Helping others
Throughout each level you will have to help a team mate recover by patching them up, giving them pills/medic packs, and fending off zombies that will constrain them or incapacitate them.  Sometimes the downed players have the option of firing upon hording zombies, which really keeps you in the game.

- Special Rules
Some of which include how the zombies will attack.  From the demo experience, sometimes the boss zombie will be in one subway car, sometimes not in it at all, and sometimes he will be nowhere to be found.  If you are spit on by a certain kind, it will trigger the hordes of zombies to come running out of the shadows to feed, which can lead to some intense and adrenaline feeled moments trying to stay alive.  Other times things like cars will have alarms, which if accidentally shot or hit, can alert zombies to your position.

This game is like being in the middle of a zombie movie.  You never know when they will attack, where it will be, or who the super zombies will confront and take down.  It relies heavily on team work and the ability to stick together in tough situations.  Not to mention that the demo worked just fine with higher than medium graphics on an Athlon XP 2000+, 1 GB of RAM, and a 512MB AGP video card.

If you can run Half-Life 2, then you should be able to run it just fine.  Not to mention that it is run off of the source mod, therefore downloading Steam is a must.  Left 4 Dead is coming out for PC and XBox 360 on November 18th, 2008.

-Bee