Better with friends

So, I'm really on a roll here vacation wise.  Yesterday morning was spent delving in to Persona 4. Jesus, is it just me or is the normal setting hard?  Gotta say, i'm really into it though.  Funny how the ps2 is still sputtering out quality games in it's ride to the sunset.  Today I spent hanging curtains, well, I screwed in the brackets while my wife, whose back was hurt, told me she'd like to help more and her grandmother hemmed and sewed the fabric to the right length.  Or close to the right length, until my wife was able to tell her it wasn't and we were able to take it down and do it again. 3 times.  Well, I did manage to get in some more "Preacher" during the day, reading the angelville arc, so not a complete waste.

The highlight, I have to admit has been Left 4 Dead.  If you you have an Xbox and the internet hooked up to it, go get this game.  Well, make sure you have some friends too. Or if you are interested in having friends you could perhaps meet online.  What a night and day difference playing this game with people you know is.  Or any co-op game for that matter.  I've been playing with my friend Rodney who got the game about a week or two after me.  That means for the first few campaigns I finished ("No Mercy" and "Blood Harvest") I was playing with complete strangers.  

 I'm sure anybody who has played any type of game online can tell an immediate difference in the amount of adrenaline their body is spitting out to their heads when you first go online with a game as opposed to playing single-player.  Games are designed now not just for multiplayer, but for Co-op. They can now be subdivided past FPS, RPG, Action, what have you, into, single, co-op, and multi.  I know, I know, this is nothing new, this has been around, or has been coming around for awhile now.  It's just the space it's landing in now, home consoles rather than pc that seems to be the big change.  It would have been hard to imagine last generation, outside of Final Fantasy 11 and Socom on PS2 and Halo 1&2 on Xbox,  how fast online gaming would have taken over.

Speaking of hitting its stride, Left 4 Dead really is a perfect co-op game. Four players on a console, like in PSO isn't brand new, but with the help of this games A.I. that constantly changes the gaming experience, you have to feel like you're seeing the formula laid out for all smart developers in co-op games for years to come.  Like if you recognized Super Mario Brothers was going to, not just be a classic game, but an entire genre (platforming) when you first saw it.  I'm excited for what's ahead, thats certain.

I also have a distinct memory of playing the game Return Fire on my 3DO( I guess I was the guy who bought one in NC) until 2 in the morning against Rodney when we were in college.  It was an epic battle we both ultimately lost by running out of vehicles. It was also one of the most fun and competitive experiences I have ever had gaming. Now that Rodney lives in Seattle and I still live in North Carolina, it's amazing that just this past weekend playing L4D I found myself looking up at the clock and noticing it was 2 in the morning.  Wow.  It's been awhile.  Maybe people are becoming less social with ipods, blackberrys and cell phones.  I think it's safe to say though, thats not going to be the end result in all cases.  I just spent a couple of hours with one of my best friends who lives thousands of miles away from me, having the time of my life. Again.

Well, if that's the future, perhaps its not all bleak gloom and doom.  Maybe our social awareness will just have to change, like it did with the telephone, telegraph and mail system. Its not the end of talking or interacting with people.  We'll just adapt  like society always does. We'll still comunicate. We'll just do it from further away.

Thanks for coming...