Wasted Seconds Wasting your precious time since 2009.

7Jan/100

Pixel Force : Left 4 Dead. Pure awesomeness.

Logo_L4DNow, I haven’t had a chance to play this MUCH (though I have been playing it since I downloaded it about an hour ago as of this writing) but this is a … for the most part … faithful de-make of Valve’s Left 4 Dead in an 8 Bit NES style done by Eric Ruth Games. Which means it’s top down, pixelly zombie killing goodness. All of the limitations of the NES seem to come into play here, and it’s a lot friendlier to single player play. You have the regular zombies that just kinda stand around, and either when they’re shot or when they notice you they go into full top speed attack. The special infected ARE here, though they work a little differently. Such as the Boomer shoots fireball looking puke projectiles, the hunter is pretty much the same except that when he pounces you, you just mash on the buttons to get him off of you. The Smoker just sends you spinning with his tongue. The witch is pretty much the same, though I haven’t pissed her off yet. :) And the tank … I haven’t seen him yet (maybe he’s a boss?) but there are sound files for him.

All the survivors are here in they’re 8 Bit glory (Zoey is still hot in 8 Bit form by the way), all the levels are here in a top down perspective except for maybe Crash Course … but maybe that will come in a later update. And the music … chiptuned awesomeness that is in a friendly MP3 format to haul around with you, which I plan on doing. And when you first start the game, as it’s loading, you get an NES cart mockup for Left 4 Dead. Awesomeness.

The only bad points I can see here in the short amount of time I’ve had with it is that there only seems to be a machine gun, a pistol (which can be dual wielded) and the shotgun. No hunting rifle, assault rifle, pipe bombs or molotavs. Of course, this is version 1.1, they MAY come at a later date. And there is only local 2 player support. Now, yes, I know that most NES games were only capable of 2 players simultaneously, but come on. There WAS that severely underutilized 4 player adapter. And how bad ass would be to be able to play this game online with people.

And, it lets me get my zombie killing on with my netbook. Which increases it’s awesomeness.

Now, when you get into this game, bear in mind that it plays a lot differently, mostly from the top down perspective. And you can only shoot in 4 directions. But the way the game is set up it works great. Hopefully it’ll get more updates with the missing weapons and maybe some online support … which might be wishful thinking, but hey. :) Download after the screenshots and gameplay video.

30Nov/090

Another video for the NES style Left 4 Dead de-make

This little game is looking to be REALLY cool stuff. In the last video we just saw zombies and Boomers. This one has all that, with a ramped up difficulty and Witches, Smokers and Hunters. Seeing them do their thing in 8 bit is awesome. And how cool would it be if you could play this online (I have a feeling that’s wishful thinking if they’re sticking with what the NES actually could do). In a little over a month, this will be up for free download, and I’m definitely checking this out. Would be able to get my Left 4 Dead on with my little netbook, because this is looking like it’s going to be awesome.

via Destructoid

18Nov/090

A really cool looking Left 4 Dead de-make

I got Left 4 Dead 2 yesterday, and I’m slowly but surely making my way through the campaigns. I took a little break, headed over to Destructoid and saw this video.

Now, yeah, the zombie reaction times are a bit slow, and obviously there aren’t hundreds of them coming after you all at once, but this is supposed to be the game as it would be seen on the NES. And that’s the reason I want it.

And apparently it IS in fact a free game that is supposed to  come out early January by PixelForce. It’s supposed to have all four campaigns and all of the special infected. And judging from the care they took with the Boomer in the video, I can’t wait to see what they do with the others. Especially the Tank and the Witch.

So long as the zombies have a quicker reaction time I’ll be happy. And wouldn’t it be wicked to see this with online play? Yeah yeah, you only see up to two players on the title screen above … but most NES games can only either be played by one or two players since the four player adapter wasn’t utilized enough. In fact, the only four player game I can even think of off the top of my head is NES Play Action Football.

But yeah, I’m definitely looking forward to this. It looks like it could be a great amount of fun for the short time it’d last. Because, honestly, do you really see yourself playing this over and over and over like you do the Xbox 360/PC game? Probably not.

On a side note about Left 4 Dead 2, it’s better than the original in just about every conceivable way. Hell, the first CAMPAIGN is better than anything the entire first game had to offer.

But I’m still playing the hell out of the first one because there are literally hundreds of free campaigns you can download off the net. So the PC version of that game is going to last me a long, LONG time.

22Oct/090

Modern Warfare 2 … no dedicated servers on the PC? No modding? What’s the point in releasing it then.

They're none too happy about this.

Now me personally, I could really care less one way or the other because I’m more of a retro gamer at heart. Yeah, I play Left 4 Dead all the time, but most of the time you’ll see me playing something like Rise of the Triad, Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena. Call of Duty is just too ridiculously slow paced for someone like me. But that’s not the point.

20Jul/090

Fucking campers.

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I was digging around and found this, just thought I’d drop it off here. This kinda looks like something Paradox would arrange.  I wonder if there are any local public LAN parties around here that play something other than slow paced boring first person shooters like Call of Duty and Halo. I know full and well my laptop can  run Starcraft, Warcraft III, Unreal Tournament, Quake 3 Arena, etc etc. Arena shooters all the way. I guess I’ll have to find that out. Depending on what’s being played,  you don’t need some monstrous system (though it would definitely help).

18Jul/090

OMG our games are training future killers!

I saw the recent episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit about the violent video games. I also saw a short interview with Dan Akroyd regarding Ghostbusters : The Video Game where he said that the game isn't a "murder simulator". That you don't actually harm ANY humans in the game. With all the bullshit Jack Thompson pulls with regards to games like Grand Theft Auto and all these parents bitching that games shouldn't exist, it gets ridiculous. And I'm a parent. I have a 7 year old daughter. I'm also smart enough to know that those ratings are there for a reason. She LOVES horror movies, and I can't wait for the night when we sit down together and watch one of the old Freddy or Jason movies. She loves The Grudge, and I went out and bought her her own copies of the movie (rated PG-13 versions thank you), she loves Army of Darkness and stuff like that. She loves watching me play Left 4 Dead and DooM 3. And , much like me as a result of seeing those, she doesn't wanna hurt a fly.
I've been playing these "murder simulators"(first person shooters) since Wolfenstein 3D. I love them. I'm more into the run and gun style gameplay of the old Wolfenstein 3D, DooM, Quake and Unreal Tournament. Later on I tried Grand Theft Auto when it went 3D and didn't like it. I don't like Halo ... I see it as a substandard shooter with a boring story. I don't really like the Call of Duty games, though I do own CoD 4 : Modern Warfare for the 360 and the PC ... though with the PC version I was more interested as to whether or not my PC would actually run it than actually playing it. Gears of War was alright for a playthrough, but the multiplayer gets old quickly.
And I got to think about it, they say these games train kids to kill. You look down the barrel of a rfle and kill kill kill. Grand Theft Auto teaches you to pick up hookers, fuck 'em to get your health back and kill them to get your money back (didn't Zelda 2 do something like that minus the killing part?). Halo and Call of Duty are kinda like "sniper simulators" because that's all I've really encountered when I've played the games. Here was a rundown of my last play of Call of Duty 4 : I spawn in, look around. Nobody around. I run up to a wall, peek around the corner. Nobody there. I go to run across to an opposite wall, I hear a gunshot and I fall over. Then I say "fuck it" and return to a game that's actually fun : Unreal Tournament 3.
But back to what I was saying, these people are retarded. I understand that these games are not made for children. I do plan on letting my daughter play games like Left 4 Dead, because that's the kind of thing that I'm into. And in Left 4 Dead you don't actually kill humans (unless you're a dick to your team), you're killing all zombies. And when I let her play something like that I'm going to make damned sure she knows that it's not ok to hurt people. It's not the game industry's concern to tell kids what is right and wrong. It's us as parents. When I let her watch The Grudge and Army of Darkness I make sure she knows the difference between fantasy and reality. Yes, I know that Army of Darkness is rated R, but if you've ever seen the movie before you can agree with me the movie is comic bookish in nature and WAAAAAY too over the top. And my parents did the same with me when I was a kid and watching the Freddy and Jason movies. Later on, Wolfenstein 3D came out and I knew the difference between fantasy and reality. DooM came out and I just had a blast with it. And I've never deliberately caused physical harm to someonee who didn't deserve it.
Parents out there, quit assuming the games industry owes you. If your kid plays Grand Theft Auto and goes out and kills someone, YOU fucked up. The game didn't cause anything like that. The kid would've done it REGARDLESS of the game. For now, my kid is perfectly content playing games like Pac-Man, Sonic : The Hedgehog (the Genesis versions, not the 3D crap), Mario, Dance Dance Revolution and board games. And if she wants to keep playing games like that as she gets older, that's fine. Or if she doesn't want to play them at all, that's fine too. But regardless of any of that, it's MY job as a parent to make sure she knows the difference from right and wrong. And fantasy and reality. She isn't going to see those games as "murder simulators". She is going to see them as GAMES.

I saw the recent episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit about the violent video games. I also saw a short interview with Dan Akroyd regarding Ghostbusters : The Video Game where he said that the game isn't a "murder simulator". That you don't actually harm ANY humans in the game. With all the bullshit Jack Thompson pulls with regards to games like Grand Theft Auto and all these parents bitching that games shouldn't exist, it gets ridiculous.

16Jul/090

PLEASE for the love of God, quit bitching about Left 4 Dead 2.

Every time I turn around, someone is bitching and moaning about the upcoming release of Left 4 Dead 2, which I am seriously looking forward to. Some people aren’t and there’s an entire damned petition begging Valve not to release the game so soon. Hit the link to read more about it. And I’ve read post after post about how Valve is going to drop support for the first one all together, and that the gamers are entitled to free updates and addons to the game from them. Now yes, they promised it, and there is more DLC coming, and they’re working on a way to let the people who bought the first game play with the the people on the second game, and vice versa (at least that’s what I read into it) … I’m assuming to help shut people up about it. And I have a feeling that a lot of the people whining about it are console gamers … hell, I’m one of them. Well, not the whiners, but I do play it on the 360 a lot. But Left 4 Dead is a BLAST whether it be a 360 or PC (sorry PS3 guys. Well … not really.).