After being inspired by the Nazi Zombie co-op mode in COD5 I read a review of Left 4 Dead, the latest release from Valve.  I liked what I saw and one quick trip down to my local game store later, I found myself enjoying a very amusing night playing this zombie thriller in 4 player online co-op mode.

Whilst the single player game is well produced and scarily enjoyable, it is rather limited.  Once into the multiplayer modes however, the game really comes into its own.  Firstly against the zombie AI, the teamwork and comaraderie that the game naturally drives the players into, is like nothing I've seen before.  Total strangers helping out their team mates, reviving and healing them, even chasing stricken team members into a horde of flesh eating zombies to rescue them!  Great. 

A completely new dimension is added in the "Versus" mode where 4 players can take on the roles of the primary bad guys whilst 4 others play the well armed, but hopelessly outnumbered Survivors.  The Boomer, The Hunter, The Smoker and the huge "Tank" are the 4 evil characters, each with their own unique skill.  When playing as one of these guys, you get to set your spawn point as your character moves invisibly around the map in a pre-spawn state.  You can watch the game movement, able to see the Survivors and their individual levels of health and assess the best way to ambush the humans.  This represents some truly original game-play for the tired FPS genre.    The bad guys working together then call in a zombie horde if The Boomer manages to vomit on a good guy!  The Smoker can drag people away with its long lassoo-like tongue, whilst The Hunter pounces and claws away at its hapless, pinned victim.  If you are lucky enough to get to spawn as The Tank, a huge, grotesque creature, you can simply wade into the good guys flailing your huge fists as you go, resistant to some extent to their puny bullets!

An early criticism was that one couldn't interact with the world enough.  In single player mode I wanted to drive the cars, forklifts etc, and the game was begging for some HalfLife-esque puzzles.  Having now played the "versus" mode however, I think finally I can see why they didn't include any.  It's all about the survival if you are the good guys,  and the relentless pursuit if you are the bad guys.  Anything else would simply be a distraction. 

One note is that whilst the advertising blurb and the reviews of the game state that 'you'll never play the same game twice', there is still a predictable sequence of primary bad-guy actions as the single player mode progresses.  The spawn points of the horde, the weapons/health/explosives locations, and the intensity of the zombie attacks do change however and it is a  welcome improvement over knowing exactly when and where the bad guys are every time you play the game.  The short-comings of the single player mode are probably immaterial because as with many games, the greater fun and longevity comes from the multiplayer element.

An eerie, adrenaline fuelled, shoot-em-up.  Much fun indeed.   

Promo Video
Metacafe's Left 4 Dead Review
Screenshots
http://store.steampowered.com/app/500/

Reported here by Yahtzee, [BBC]'s favourite Games Reviewer:
Zero Punctuation

We are extremely happy to announce the return of a [BBC] original!

Balle was one of the founder members of the [BBC] back in 2005 and played over 40 matches for us before moving on in 2006.

After spending more and more time online recently whilst onshore he began thinking once again about joining a clan. A regular visitor to our server in both BAS and S&D mode and on our Vent server too in recent weeks, returning to the [BBC] was a natural first choice. After the topic came up in discussion, the membership vote was a mere formality.

The Norseman is softly spoken and cool under pressure. Balle brings with him a calming influence, a good sense of humour, and years of experience in UO and Base Assault.
But most of all, Balle is a returning friend.

Welcome home [BBC]Balle 

We are currently on the lookout for mature, dedicated, quality players with a good sense of humour.  Check out our recruitment article and our Code of Conduct topic for more information.

[BBC] are happy to announce the latest addition to our group -  [BBC]We Lucky Few.  

Hailing from the Rep. of Ireland, 'Lucky' has a history in CTF dating back 3 years or so, and has a penchant for BAS.  It was whilst he was playing on various public BAS servers that he caught the eye of a few [BBC] members. That recommendation led to a forum visit and an exchange of PM's.  Before we knew it, our Vent channel was filled with the dulcet tones of the southern Irishman, whilst the server reverberated to the sound of the main gun on his tank and the report of his rifle!  With his laid-back attitude, dead-pan humour, and thoughtful style of play, we were satisfied that we had found a good addition to our squad.

Welcome [BBC]We Lucky Few

It's been a relatively quiet month here at [BBC] as Summer hols and other, more interesting things have kept our members busy.

Whilst our search for new players continues we are happy to announce the return of one of the clan favourites of old, [BBC]anAngryTroll.

Back in November 2007 Troll packed his favourite club, hitched up his Scrim Dress and ambled off into the twilight looking for new distractions. He returned to gaming after a few months and later became an occasional visitor to our BAS/S&D server. Over the past few weeks he spent more and more time with us on Vent rediscovering what it is like to have somewhere to go online where you can enjoy the friendly banter that goes along with the game. Rejoining our club was the natural next step and that is exactly what happened.  All of us here would like to welcome Trolly home to the [BBC].

In other news, we're sad to report that the Custom Map League has closed its doors despite being only halfway through the season. [BBC] have been taking tentative steps into the S&D world in 2008 and have taken part in the TA S&D League and the CML. Sadly both leagues, operated by clans, closed after only 10 and 7 matches respectively. In both cases [BBC] were top of the table at the time making it a disappointing end for us. Issues within the TA clan and FoW's inexperience in operating a league were the general reasons for the premature ending of the competitions.

A special mention goes to [BBC]F!nger$ for taking the time to create tactics for 18 custom maps for the CML, only 6 of which would ultimately be used. A core squad supplemented by our team of reserves performed very well in both leagues and we got some really good results. We met some decent clans along the way and had some very enjoyable and exciting matches, the most recent one being against [ETC]. It has been good experience for us even if we didn't get to see the end of the season.

The final update to the Custom Maps League Table before it was closed appeared as follows:

Hopefully the next S&D competition we take part in will go the distance! 

Match 6 - GEF=
Friday 15th August 8:00 pm BST

Today we had to face the number 9th placed team German Elite Fighter. Unfortunately our L@ndWarrior couldn't be there, but we were lucky that the CML-debutant by the name of [BBC]ANTH was able to take his place.

GEF= let us choose map and starting side, so we went for mp_saint-lo as Axis.
We knew that this map is pretty easy to defend and indeed we did hold our positions quite well, but GEF= managed to surprise us a few times and they took 3 rounds off us. The first half therefore ended 7:3 in favour of the [BBC].

The second half saw the British Brutal Crew as attackers and we were able to diversify our attacks quite well, given that there were only two real ways to go through. We did a bit better than our opponent and scored a 5:5 on this second half of mp_saint-lo.

After our usual 5 minute intermission,  GEF= choose the starting side on mp_container. A map that due to its size allows a more tactical approach that better suits our playing style.

We started as Axis again, since GEF= chose to play as russians first. A few seconds after the first round started, one of their players disconnected. We couldn't see any ping problems, but after asking them why he disconnected, they said he had problems with his internet connection and couldn't continue the match. GEF= were one man down on this second map, since they had no 5th player.

As you see can see it in sports sometimes, it isn't necessarily an advantage to play a stricken opposing side. So we knew we had to stay focused and concentrated to finish this match off as quick as we could. But after taking a 4:0 lead, we could see that we have broken GEF's spirit somehow.  We felt we could nearly do whatever we wanted and it would work just fine. The [BBC] took both halves 10:0 on mp_container.

GEF= are one of the friendliest clans we have ever played and they did a very good job especially on mp_saint-lo.  We wish them all the best in their next CML-matches.

We're pleased to report that The British Brutal Crew continues its unbeaten run in the CML with 6 victories and a default win.

Click here for screenshots
and here for league standings

One of our forum regulars and old time member of the [BBC] has an interesting job. Although he can be found joystick in hand, staring at monitors all day, it's got little to do with gaming.  He operates Deep Sea ROV's for inspecting and repairing underwater installations. 

One of the downsides is that once in the ‘hot-seat’ he must use both hands to keep close control of the ROV which is often operating hundreds of metres below the surface. This makes sending emails and keeping up to date on Facebook a tricky task. Being engineers, the guys onboard ship have gotten around that problem by installing a laptop at a convenient location. This allows the ROV operators to check the latest photos uploaded by their mates even at 200+ metres below the ship. The temporary installation has also proven popular with the resident starfish who took immediate advantage by loading its favourite game...Asteroidias.

The wonders of modern technology!

Match 5 - [ETC]
Wednesday 6th August 7:30 pm BST

The most important CML match so far just finished on Fow-Server 'Blue'. The only two unbeaten clans of the league were about to give themselves an incredibly hard and breathtaking battle. Both teams arrived on the battlefield at 7.30 sharp and didn't know what they were about to go through.

[ETC], who won convincingly against [49]s, Nasa and #van.hinten> (which were seen as one of the favourites of this Custom Map League) wanted to start with 'mp_abbey'. Yet again a completely new match map for the British Brutal Crew.

We offered our opponent the choice of starting sides on the first map. They opted for axis and this epic match started. The [BBC] experienced a lot of maps that were extremely easy to defend during this years league, seems like most custom maps are build this way but we never went through anything like we did on this first half of 'mp_abbey'.

[ETC] did a real good job as axis, they covered every possible attacking way with crossfire positions and let us no space to get through unnoticed. We struggled seriously for the first time in the CML. They picked us off with ease and there was little we could do about it. Only once we managed to break their defence and [BBC]Black Panther defended our plant so got just the one round as allies, making it 1:9.

We really had to make up lost ground as axis. Fortunately we soon realised that it was much easier to defend and our positions held strong. Exceptional work by [BBC]Johnfrost! on our left flank and the fact that we found our team spirit again helped us win the second half 8:2.

After a five minute break we were all ready to get going on the second map 'mp_hillman'. At this stage we were two rounds down, so we had to win this map with a two round difference to at least draw the match. [ETC] let us choose sides this time and assuming axis had an advantage on this map as well, we chose to defend first. It turned out to be the opposite. After winning the first two rounds as axis we thought we would have them under control, but were we certainly wrong about that. They gave us an incredibly hard time and outflanked us on several occasions. But due to some nice work by [BBC]L@ndwarrior! deep down behind the enemy lines we at least secured a 5:5 in that first half.

Now it was all about our attacks on 'mp_hillman', our very last chance. We had to win this half 6:4 to draw the match. After a very quick chat about the tactics both teams were ready to go and boy, were we on a mission. The whole thing is supposed to be a fun league but at this very moment our squad really took it seriously and we focused on what seemed an almost hopeless mission.

We spread out, [BBC]F!nger$ took his sniper to go up the left flank supported by [BBC]L@ndwarrior!, while the others were pushing through the middle. That system worked pretty well for the first two rounds. After that it was an exchange of blows between both teams and the score went up to 4:2 for the [BBC]. A quick change of our sniper position confused [ETC] and we could increase our lead to 6:2. The draw was secured but we wouldn't be the [BBC] if we didn't go for the win in any situation! The last two rounds of 'mp_hillman' would decide both the winners of the match and who was going to top the league. In the ninth round [ETC] played really good stuff and they won the important one on one situations to reduce the gap to a 6:3 [BBC] lead. At this point the pressure was really on.

[BBC]F!nger$ called out the last and decisive plan followed by a 'stay focused, lads'. We moved in with Landy's 'knitted clogs' it seemed, because the first minute we didn't have any enemy contacts at all. Fings moved in left with his sniper but quickly changed his plan and went right. He managed to score the opening frag and took out [ETC]'s best player, which gave us the emotional push we needed. BP was down in the tunnels but things were still looking good for us. Their sniper went to take down ours, but at that time we had already changed the direction once again which led to Landy and Fings working together on the left to take out another two of our enemies. But only seconds later their sniper went mad and took down three of us in a row, plus Frosty also died at the bomb spot. Now it was 2vs1 - two of [ETC]'s finest players versus [BBC]MadMan and his rifle with only 30 seconds on the clock. Most people would rather type in /kill in console than go and face these two guys. But Mad grabbed himself an Mp44 took down their sniper and was on the move. Now it was a 1on1 with only 20 seconds to go. He moved towards the bomb spots when suddenly the last [ETC] player emerged behind him in the trench and started firing. It seemed like Mad was in slow motion or something because he turned around fired back and all we saw was 'Axis have been eliminated'.

He did it! We won the match with an amazing reaction by [BBC]MadMan and the last bullet from an enemy's Mp44. What a breathtaking match that was.

The [BBC] maintain an unbeaten run and are now top of the league with 5 wins and a default win.

Click here for screenshots
and here for league standings