Game Night: Left 4 Dead 2 Edition

It's Wednesday, and in IYA land that used to mean game night. Tonight we try to fire that back up with a little Left 4 Dead 2. Chuck and I managed to play through the first campaign about a month ago when we actually bought the game. It was a great time, but for some reason the game has played the part of expensive coaster ever since. Since games started incorporating more co-op game modes, games have become a very social experience for me (to the point that my friends and I have a chat party open on Xbox Live even when we're playing different games). So, games like Borderlands and L4D2 are right up my alley. I'm definitely looking forward to playing the part of a portly black coach with a bad knee as I mow through waves of zombies. I had a portly black coach in 2nd and 3rd grade... coach Salari. That guy was awesome. He used to hit golf balls during gym class and make the kids go pick them up. We loved that shit... only now, as and adult, do I realize how fucked up it was. So yeah, tonight coach Salari will make zombies his bitch. GO SHAG BULLETS ZOMBIES!!!

An event transpired last night that has me somewhat torn. Barry purchased Army of 2: The 40th Day, as mentioned in yesterday's post. The problem I'm having is that he sounded like he was having so much damn fun playing it. It has diamond encrusted grenades... let that sink in and I'll say it again... DIAMOND ENCRUSTED GRENADES. This love this kind of absolutely ridiculous stuff in games. Some of the most fun I had in the past year was playing co-op through 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, and the reason for that was the absolute over the top idiocy of the game (you're a rap artist fighting through an army in the middle east on a mission to recover your diamond encrusted skull...) Barry tells me Army of 2: The 40th Day also has a shotgun bayonet. The idea of this absolutely blows my mind. It's mounting a gun to a gun... if you have a problem with that, then you have a problem with yourself. Even if he was wrong, and it's just a bayonet you mount to a shotgun it's still awesome. A shotgun is typically a short range weapon, but while you're there you might as well conserve ammo and just stab the guy. So, it looks like that plan of not buying anything between now and the Mass Effect 2 release went right out the window. I'll be practicing my fist pounds all day at the office in preparation.

Hey, that's a fucking awesome copy you just made *fist pound*.

Did You Know That Mass Effect 2 Is Near?

I stepped out and pre-ordered my copy of Mass Effect 2 yesterday. I'm incredibly excited about this. The first game tied up a lot of my time for at least a couple of weeks... I know Barry finished the game some ridiculous number of times (like 12... I'm not exaggerating). The story in the first game was one of the best I've gone through in a very long time. So, I'm curious and happy to see what is to become of Shepard and his group.

However, Mass Effect 2 isn't the only thing hitting shelves soon. Army of 2: The 40th Day drops today. As far as I know Barry and Ben are picking that up and plan to share many bro-hugs and fist pounds throughout. I just hope for the sake of all involved that the game doesn't allow split screen lest they end up in a spooning position. Bioshock 2 comes out in a few weeks at the beginning of February. I haven't been too terribly excited about this one. I'll likely put it in my "maybe" pile and wait for review scores to start hitting the web. Then in March, Final Fantasy XIII and a new expansion for Dragon Age: Origins are being released. I'll likely pick up FF XIII, but I never played through Dragon Age, so an expansion is unlikely to pique my interest.

In current events I continue to make my way through Darksiders and it still rings of absolute awesome. I'm hoping to finish that and have a lot more to say by the end of the weekend. I took out Tiamat last night!

NICE FUN BAGS!

Anyway, it should be a good few months. Mass Effect is easily my most anticipated game. I think between Darksiders and a little bit of back log I've got laying around, I should be able to hold off buying anything else between now and January 26th. I'm going to see if Best Buy is doing another midnight release... and then I'm going to not attend because that shit was weak for Halo 3 ODST.

If you give us a read, let us know what you're anticipating most in the next few months.