PC Gamer has posted some rather obvious information about how to use the console to switch Alien Swarm from an overhead view to a first person view. But more importantly, they've discovered that it still plays well, and they've even posted the above video. The only thing missing is a roof!

Pretty nifty, but I'm attached to being able to see what's behind me. You can't always trust the other three players to watch your back. In fact, I think I'd rather play Left 4 Dead from an overhead perspective. What's the console command for that?

PC Gamer has posted some rather obvious information about how to use the console to switch Alien Swarm from an overhead view to a first person view. But more importantly, they've discovered that it still plays well, and they've even posted the above video. The only thing missing is a roof!

Pretty nifty, but I'm attached to being able to see what's behind me. You can't always trust the other three players to watch your back. In fact, I think I'd rather play Left 4 Dead from an overhead perspective. What's the console command for that?

Awesome. Fake. But awesome.

When Sarah Palin talks about her new "Mama Grizzlies" movement, I bet this is what plays out in her head.

Awesome. Fake. But awesome.

When Sarah Palin talks about her new "Mama Grizzlies" movement, I bet this is what plays out in her head.

A video series called Mutation Vault suggests some new extreme sports played in the world of Left 4 Dead 2. Start off with the Ultimate Boomer Vomit Tourney, then wager on a little Jockey Racing, and finally brave the Running of the Tanks (above), which makes Pamplona look like a well behaved conga line.

Adding to the atmosphere are the distorted mic calls of "Stop spawning more!", "Adrenaline and then run!", and various variations of "Oh my god!", including several with unsavory language. However, my favorite would have to be the following matter-of-fact observation: "That is a tank horde right behind us."

A video series called Mutation Vault suggests some new extreme sports played in the world of Left 4 Dead 2. Start off with the Ultimate Boomer Vomit Tourney, then wager on a little Jockey Racing, and finally brave the Running of the Tanks (above), which makes Pamplona look like a well behaved conga line.

Adding to the atmosphere are the distorted mic calls of "Stop spawning more!", "Adrenaline and then run!", and various variations of "Oh my god!", including several with unsavory language. However, my favorite would have to be the following matter-of-fact observation: "That is a tank horde right behind us."

As part of an ongoing set of articles about Irrational Games, Game Informer has posted information and a video about a zombie game Irrational pitched back in 2005. But before production got underway, the studio was acquired by Take-Two Interactive. The zombie game was a casualty of that acquisition, but you can see here a video of a demo put together using Irrational's SWAT 4 engine.

A couple of things stand out in that video. First is the pace. You move slowly and the zombies move slowly. It adds a whole different kind of tension that's lost in a lot of modern zombie mythology. Left 4 Dead, for instance, is so fast. You're fast, the zombies are fast, the guns are fast. It's one part horror, three parts action.

The second thing is watching the SWAT 4 interface in action. In that game, you had a smart AI team tagging along with you, and you had meticulous control over what they did and where they did it. Imagine the tactical finesse this would give a standoff against zombies that moved slowly enough to give you time to think. Imagine what a great single player game it would be. Right now, in the slower zombie games like Killing Floor and Call of Duty's Nazi zombie mode, there is no friendly AI. Instead, you need other players to fill in for the AI. And in a game like Left 4 Dead where you do have a friendly AI, it's entirely out of your control.

It's worth pointing out the two main characters in George Romero's 1978 Dawn of the Dead, arguably the single most important zombie movie, the two lead characters (pictured above is Ken Foree at Peter) are members of a SWAT team. It's a shame that Irrational didn't get to take what they accomplished in their SWAT game and apply it to the American pastime of zombie killing.

Left 4 Dead 2 had a tough time of it with the Australian ratings board. So Valve made a toned down version down under. Have a look at the side-by-side comparisons to see what the Aussies are missing.

On the bright side, Australia still gets to enjoy all the scenery from those Lord of the Rings movies. It must be great to be able to see Mt. Doom from the capital city of Sidney. I'd much rather have that than several hundred zombie dismemberments*.

* Not really.

This viral vid across the pond for Left 4 Dead 2 furthers the European co-opting of the zombie genre - as American as the Fourth of July, apple pie and loud mufflers - by applying all sorts of Euro words to zombie-fightin' weaponry. You don't have a chainsaw but you do have a what? "A ... 'strimmer'"?

The hell is a "strimmer"?

Looky here, beefeater. My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great granddaddy kicked your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great granddaddy's ass back in 1812, and then my granddaddy, forgiving all of that, bailed y'all out in the big Dubya-Dubya-Eye-Eye, so that I would grow up in a world where I had the inalienable right to call that goddamn yard tool by its proper generic name - "weedwhacker."

Video: Left 4 Dead 2 UK Survival 101 Viral Teaser [Gay Gamer]

Left 4 Dead 2 commercial hits a home run ... for GameStop originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.