We live in an age where competition is everything, be it in the world of sports, academics, or multiplayer computer games. Since I find sports and academics rather boring, let's focus on something a lot more interesting, namely computer games (shooters mainly). How often do you connect to a multiplayer match of say, Counter Strike or F.E.A.R Combat, and actually have a lot of FUN? If your answer is 'quite often', you’re probably part of the extremely talented individuals who can plant headshots from miles away. For the not so gifted gamer competitive gaming can become a real drag, since getting slaughtered round after round isn’t really fun, so to answer their prayers, Valve corporation (father of the twitch based Counter Strike) has joined forces with Turtle Rock Studios to give us Left 4 Dead for PC and 360.

Simply put, Left 4 Dead is a multiplayer cooperative survival horror game. The game puts you and three of your friends in the shoes of the last known survivors of a zombie infestation. You have to slaughter your way through the thousands of 'infected' that come between you and your means to escape (which will usually be via a rescue helicopter). These 'infected' are humans that have now been converted into mindless zombies (but how that’s happen isn’t quite clear as of now). Be careful though; these infected aren’t the slow moving, retarded zombies that you see in most games (Dead Rising for instance) and Hollywood flicks; in Left 4 Dead, they’re fast, cunning, and have to ability to pounce on you when you least expect it. However, they’re not too threatening in one-on-one fights and you can take them down with a single well placed shot. This doesn’t make the game simple though, since they come in large numbers and can slaughter your team in no time, if you don’t coordinate.