Colin McRae: Dirt Review

American Box Art

I decided in celebration of the holidays to do a non-violent game for my last review before Christmas, so I choose Colin McRae's Dirt. (Commonly known as DiRT in America)  Dirt is a racing game and the sixth Colin McRae Rally series, it is also sadly the last game in the series that was published before McRae's death.  The game was developed and published by Codemasters.  The game was released in June 15, 2007 in Europe and June 19, 2007 in North America. The single player game plays out through 3 modes. Career, Championship, and Rally World, which is a single race set up. The Career mode is set up in a stylized pyramid that has 11 "tiers", with the bottom tier having 11 different events. Each event consists of one or more race events of a single type requiring a specific type of car. The player earns up to 10 points for their placing in all the races within the event. Most events require a specific number of points within a specific tier to unlock, and thus as the player earns points, more of the pyramid becomes unlocked, moving up to the "Champion of Champions" event at the very top. By winning races and earning money the player is able to purchase cars and liveries (skins) for the cars. In total there are 46 different cars and 186 liveries. The amount of money earned is based on the difficulty level picked by the player when selecting the event; higher difficulty levels have more challenging AI opponents and more realistic damage effects. Completed events can be repeated at any time, although unless challenged at a higher difficulty level, the player will earn significantly less money than when they first raced it. In Rally events with multiple races, the player has the opportunity to repair damage between races, but is only allotted 60 minutes of damage repair at each point based on time estimates to fix each component of the car. Championship mode offers up a series of races in which the player's combined time throughout each stage is cumulative. Multiplayer allows the player to race up to 100 other players in rally races through solo competition, as there are no other cars, ghosts or players present on the track. Fastest time determines who wins. DiRT is a good racing game overall and its sad that Colin McRae died and with him, the series.  Hope you have enjoyed this post and I will see you in two weeks. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off. 

Left 4 Dead Review & Storyline

Left 4 Dead box art

Honestly by my opinion one of the best zombie games of all time, Left 4 Dead has received numerous awards and still immensely played throughout the planet. Released in November 2008. developed by Turtle Rock Stories, but purchased by Valve during development, and also published by Valve.  Left 4 Dead (abbreviated as L4D) is a cooperative first-person shooter arcade-style video game. The game uses Valve's proprietary Source engine, and is available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and Mac OS X. Development on the game was completed on November 13, 2008, and two versions were released digitally: A downloadable digital version, released on November 17, 2008, and a digital retail disc version, with a release date determined by region. The digital retail disc version was released in North America and Australia on November 18, 2008; and in Europe and Japan on November 21, 2008. Set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic, the game pits its four protagonists—dubbed the "Survivors"—against hordes of the infected. There are four game modes: a single-player mode in which allied characters are controlled by AI; a four-player, co-op campaign mode; an eight-player online versus mode; and a four-player survival mode. In all modes, an artificial intelligence (AI), dubbed the "Director", controls level pacing and item placements, in an attempt to create a dynamic experience and increase replay value.  One of the first experiences like, this makes the difficult and fun at the same time, making you constantly having to think outside box in order to survive.  Pennsylvania suffers an outbreak of "Green Flu"; a highly contagious virus causing extreme aggression, mutation to the body cells, and loss of higher brain functions. Two weeks after the infection four immune survivors—Bill, a Vietnam veteran; Zoey, a college student; Louis, an IT analyst, and Francis, an outlaw biker—make their way through the city of Fairfield, only to discover that the virus is creating more dangerous mutations. After narrowly avoiding these new infected, along with hordes of others, the survivors are alerted to the presence of an evacuation point at the nearby Mercy Hospital roof by a passing helicopter. Fighting their way through the city's streets, subway and sewers, they are rescued from the hospital's roof by the pilot, only to discover he is infected.  When Zoey is forced to kill him, the helicopter crash lands in an industrial district outside the city. Finding an armored delivery truck, the group uses it to make their way to the town of Riverside. However, they find the road blocked, and travel the rest of the way on foot. After an encounter with an infected lunatic in the local church, they discover that the town is overrun, and decide to head to a nearby boathouse for rescue. Contacting a small fishing vessel, they manage to reach the city of Newburg on the other side of the river, only to find much of it in flames. Seeking cover in a large greenhouse, their rest is interrupted when a military C-130 passes overhead, leading the survivors to travel through the city's business district towards Metro International Airport. Upon arrival, the group see that in an attempt to contain the infection, the military had bombed the airport while infected pilots crash planes in an attempt to land; the runway however is largely intact, allowing the survivors to fuel up and escape in a waiting C-130. Despite this apparent rescue, it crashes as well, and the survivors once again find themselves alone on the outskirts of Allegheny National Forest. Following a series of train tracks through the area, the group find themselves at a functioning, but abandoned, military outpost. After answering a radio transmission, the survivors make their final stand against hordes of infected, before a military APC arrives to transport them to Northeast Safe Zone Echo, supposedly the only uninfected area yet to be overrun. Instead, they are kept at a military installation and informed that even though they are immune, they still carry the virus. They are temporarily held by the military before the base is overrun with infected. The four escape via train and travel south at Bill's insistence; Bill believes that they can find long-term safety from the infected on the islands of the Florida Keys. At the portside town of Rayford, they find a boat but must raise an old rusty bridge powered by an aging generator to get the boat into open waters, assured that the machinery noise will alert a large horde. Bill sacrifices himself in order to restart a generator when the lift jams, so that the others may reach safety.  So for me I wanted to cry when Bill died, him being awesome as he is.  So Bill's tale ends here for the greater good.  Overall the game is awesome and never gets old, the zombie better is Left 4 Dead 2, which I might do a blog on next year.  So I hope you enjoyed this and I'll see you Thursday.  This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off. 

UK Introduction Teaser Trailer