I keep being left for dead!

Photo: www.techradar.com

So I have been playing some Left 4 Dead 2 recently. I've got to say it's a really enjoyable game and really cannot believe I sold my first copy. Owing to the fact I have been away from the game for such a long time, I am incredibly rusty - as a result I've brought in some of the guys from work to help show me the ropes once more. Up to now it's been semi successful.

Just from looking at the main menu, it's clear that Left 4 Dead 2 is a fruitful game. There are many different modes to try out, including one that I used to play a lot of on my first copy - survival. 

At the moment, we've been playing versus and versus only. This is the mode where you take it in turns to play as the survivors and the infected. Each round trying to get more points than the other team.

Survivors

Photo: www.kotaku.com

As the survivors, you must make your way through each round in an attempt to reach the safe room at the other end. As you play through the round, there will be certain pickups that will aid your adventure. The things to note are items such as ammo, first aid kits, new weapons, pain pills and molotov cocktails to help disperse tanks quickly. 

Infected

Photo: www.left4dead.wikia.com

As the infected, it's your job to stop the survivors from getting too far. Each special infected have their own unique abilities that can help stop the survivors in their tracks.

Charger: The charger is a lot stronger than the other infected so has more health. The charger's ability is to, as expected, charge into the survivors. It will grab one of the survivors and pummel them until either they die or the other survivors kill off the charger.

Spitter: Quite low health. Special ability is to spit toxic liquid which can completely destroy a survivalist team if used correctly. I find a spitters best use to be spitting on either an already downed player, or a player that is already being restricted by a charger or smoker. This both deals extra damage and prevents the other survivors from helping.

Smoker: A smoker's special ability is to shoot it's tongue at a survivor, grabbing and pulling them towards it so it can claw at them. These are best used from heights, so you can pull the survivor upwards. This leaves them dangling and much harder to save.

Jockey: A jockey will jump onto it's victims head and ride them just like a real life jockey would a horse. The best way to use these is to steer the survivor away from the group, into the horde/regular infected. This isolates them and allows for an easy kill.

Hunter: The hunter leaps onto a survivor and starts to claw at them repeatedly. These are best used if a survivor breaks away from the group or as a surprise attack when survivors come around corners, through doorways etc. It may also be useful to attack with the hunter to stop a survivor helping a team mate in trouble.

Boomer: My least favourite of the infected. They throw up all over the survivors, covering them in boomer bile. This not only blinds the survivors, but also attracts the horde to the covered victim. However, they're incredibly slow and make for quick, easy kills before they even have chance to attack.

Tank: By far the strongest of the infected. Whilst the tank will find it incredibly difficult to catch up to a fully healthy survivor, it can use the environment to it's advantage. If you get the chance to control a tank, don't hang about. Charge straight in and do some damage. Tanks also have a lot of health and the only real, effective strategy of quickly dispersing one, is to use molotov cocktails.

Witch: The witch is a powerful infected that is best undisturbed. Lights off and quiet sneaking past her will avoid conflict. I wouldn't count on the AI shooting a distanced zombie and startling her though... The witch is an unplayable infected - unfortunately.

Back to the game...

I have found I am much better as a survivor than the infected. I don't seem to make full use of the infected at the right moments, so always end up spending more time on the loading screen waiting to spawn, than I do racking up kills and stopping the survivors in their tracks.

I think I definitely need to learn the maps again. I might play through the campaign, either solo or get the guys to go through this with me to take a break from versus. This should help me get to grips with everything a lot quicker and make for some better versus gameplay.

The game is still retailing quite high if you buy it brand new. However, you can pick it up quite cheap second hand. eBay, Blockbuster and Amazon are likely places to find a bargain - Blockbuster moreso due to it's recent announcement of calling in the administrators.

Tomb Raider: first multiplayer map revealed!

Yes, another post about Tomb Raider: 2013. What can I say, I'm extremely excited about it's upcoming release.

So I have been doing some browsing and have come across a really informative and interesting website for all things Tomb Raider. On this site, I located a news article detailing the announcement of the game's first multi-player map. Now, this is the first time a multi-player aspect has come to the Tomb Raider franchise but, let's face it, it's what everyone looks for when they buy a game these days - "can I play with my friends", well yes you can!

Right from the title, you can see that the first map is going to be a shanty town style. Now, whether or not they actual map will be called Shanty Town I do not know, but it's a brilliant source. It also states that certain retailers are now offering you the map if you pre-order the game. Whilst this may entice some people, I don't like the idea of being forced to pre-order something in order to get a perk before anyone else - I am quite happy playing through the single player campaign before jumping into multi-player. After all, the Tomb Raider games are renowned for their single player action.

I've included some concept art below. All three are taken from the source website, but I cannot find them anywhere on the official tombraider.com site, so I cannot guarantee their authenticity.

Click on the icons for a larger preview image. All Photos: www.tombnews.com

I really don't know what to expect from Tomb Raider multi-player. I can't see how it's going to work, unless they're going to make it the bog standard FPS model. If they do this, it'll just be a Call of Duty masked as something else. I hope they incorporate other features into the multi-player. Perhaps a unique co-op campaign?

I will add more Tomb Raider news to the blog when something juicy is released. If you want all the latest news, regardless of category, you can visit the website that I got my information from today - www.tombnews.com

Tomb Raider: Survivor

Lara Croft: Born Survivor

The hugely anticipated, latest instalment of Tomb Raider is due out in early March. As you can see from the image above, taken directly from the tombraider.com website, Lara looks a lot different than in previous games.

Then again, the entire story is different. Square Enix, who now publish the franchise, have taken a different spin on the life of Lara Croft. No longer is she the hardened adventurer that you experienced in previous versions. In the new Lara Croft, she's a fresh adventurer, new to the field and rearing to get going. Unfortunately she gets herself into a right pickle and has to learn how to survive, and how to do it well.

The story on the official site explains how the game explores Lara's origins and how she must adapt in order to survive and become the veteran she is on previous titles. The developers, Crystal Dynamics, have really thought through this one and the trailer makes the game look incredibly enticing. I know this is the sole purpose of a trailer but I don't know, with this it's different and obvious that a lot of time has gone into it. I mean, we've been waiting since 2008 for another instalment. I genuinely thought they weren't going to reboot the series.

Many people have already jumped the gun and criticised Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix of creating an aura of sexist fantasy amongst male gamers. The most informative article I found that tackles this topic was from The Guardian. You can read the article here. In my opinion, Tomb Raider has always been targeted more towards the male gamer. Why else would they use an athletic, fearless and strong female lead who hardly wears any clothes and has larger than average assets?

A multiplayer mode has also been confirmed. I wonder how this will turn out, and what is planned for it. What types of game modes will see, weapons, maps. Building a multiplayer platform is just as important and requires the same attention to detail as the standard single player mode. It is being developed by none other than Eidos Montreal, the developers responsible for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, so I have my fingers crossed for something at least half decent. It also pleases me that the studio developing the multiplayer have a link to the franchises old publisher, Eidos Interactive.

Price wise, it marries up nicely to other high end games of this modern day. There are 3 separate packages for sale: Standard, Collectors and Survival. You can pre-order them now from Game UK for the following prices:

Standard: £39.99

Collectors: £74.99

Survival: £54.99

It is worth noting that, with the collectors and survival versions, you get some rather nice additions. The collectors additions comes with an 8" Lara Croft figurine - great for all those die hard fans who want good old Lara in their display cabinet. There's also a map, art book and a "survival tin" that the game rests in. In-game content wise, you get a weapons DLC pack (presumably for the multiplayer aspect but can't confirm) and a 10 track score (not entirely sure what this is).

The survival pack is very similar to the collectors, although there is no figurine  and the game packaging is different. You still get the map, art book and in-game content however.

Personally, I won't be pre-ordering a fancy copy. I'll go to the shops on release day and purchase a standard copy instead. I cannot justify the massive price hike, sorry.

Tomb Raider: Survivor is released in the UK on 5th March, 2013 and will initially be for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. I reckon it'll play better, or at least feel right, on the PS3 because the Playstation is Tomb Raider's roots - where it all began. I'm not sure if they'll release a Wii version, but there's no sniff of speculation about it so I can't see it becoming a possibility.

You can view the latest trailer below.