Why I bought Left 4 Dead and not Fallout 3 (Yet)

Both Left 4 Dead and Fallout 3 where released around the same time and I really wanted to play both.  The problem was I didn’t have the time to play both.  After some debate I ended up buying Left 4 Dead and shelved me Fallout 3 purchase till after X-mas.

It’s not that Left 4 Dead is better then Fallout 3.  I wasn’t too impressed with my first glance at Left 4 Dead.  I loved the fact it had zombies but I was worried it would get repetitive quickly and not have the variety Team Fortress 2 has.  I was also really excited about Fallout 3 as I haven’t played a good story driven RPGish game in a long time.

On the plus side Left 4 Dead turned out to be much better then I originally thought but at the time I didn’t know that.  We can talk about that later.

The real reason I got Left 4 Dead was because it was a multiplayer game and I wanted to get the “new game” experience.  Your experience with a multiplayer game is heavily influenced by your fellow gamers. When a multiplayer game is released it is fresh and new to everyone.  Everyone is exploring and learning together.  People take there time exploring levels and enjoying the atmosphere.  Everyone remembers the first time they get knocked to the ground and are swarmed by zombies.  Even more important everyone is roughly equal in skill or at least knowlegde of the game.

Now try starting a multiplayer game a month or two after it is released, especially a co-op game like Left 4 Dead.  All your fellow gamers know all the levels, know the guns, and now know the hiding in the closet trick.  Even playing with nice people you still feel like your holding everyone up and not contributing to the team.

With single player games, the experience you get is the same if you play it now or play it later.  It’s similar to a movie that you don’t see till a year after it’s release.  It’s still the same movie/game, you just have be careful to avoid any spoilers.  You’ll also have to give up talking to people about an old game that you just recently played to avoid looking like a loser.

You ever rent a movie that was released I while ago and you enjoy it but there’s kind-of this awkwardness because you can’t talk about it with anyone.

“Hey I just say Heat.”

“Heat?  I saw that 15 years ago.”

“Uhh.  Yeah I want to talk about it now.”

“No Loser.”

– Jim Gaffigan, Doing My Time CD

Generally not a problem for me because I’m not a scoical person.  That is why I have to blog.