Hey Man, well this is Babylon

My pal Catlady-Chris* wrote a handy guide for playing Left 4 Dead. You should read it and heed his words. We spent most of the day Saturday (and the following night) playing this game and exploring the many modes and options for play, and let me tell you something: you fucking whipper-snappers are finally doing something right. For ages I have commented how the games in my time were far better than the games that these spastic trigger-happy 12-year-olds play today. This game has finally proven me wrong – and better yet, it’s the kind of game that those same snot-faced foul-mouthed suburbanite panty-waist kids will fail miserably at playing. Why? Because it’s the kind of game where the He-Man maverick wannabe dies first, and in as gruesome a manner as possible.

Put in other words, Left 4 Dead is one of the most amazingly fun video games I have ever played. It encourages a teamwork-based co-op playstyle way more effectively than any other team-based video game I’ve yet played.

Plus, it’s full of goddamned zombies (of the 28 Days Later “infected” variant) which rush at you and rip you to shreds and die by your bullets and goddammit all that’s just plain awesome. If you have a 360, like co-op game play, and love zombies, then by all means, get this game. And add me to your friends list (gamertag: phasmaphobic).

Sadly, however, my Xbox 360 has given me the dreaded Red Ring of Death. I searched online and found a temporary fix for it by using the towel trick, but that only lasts for so long. So far, it’s red-ringed three times. Each time I’ve used the towels and gotten another full day of gaming out of it, but I can’t rely on that. Sadly, it’s a refurb and out of warranty, and I have no desire to be without it for a month while I hope that Microsoft fixes it. So I did a lot of research and found several folks who rave about the self-fix method contained within this guide. I went ahead and purchased it, printed the guide and watched the vids, and man, this guy really knows his shit. So far, I’m really impressed. After a lunchtime run of tool-collecting, I’m planning on taking a crack at this process tonight.

If this works out, I am considering using this new knowledge of my Xbox’s innards to upgrade from that horrible noisy fan, and maybe even mod it to play burned games. Wish me luck.

* = We have a lot of Chris’s in our group of friends. There’s Original Chris, Catlady-Chris, Girl-Chris, and my buddy Deathmetal-Chris. I’m sure there are others.