Gotta shoot em in the head. (L4D quick rant)

Now, I finally got L4D to work, though it doesn't always, but for the most part its solid. Took me a while, and I have to reboot my computer every now and again, but hey, you get to kill zombies. So, what do I think?

Its awesome. When you get 3 other people to play, and you really work together, it really changes the way you think of multiplayer. Most games make the multiplayer after the main game is completed, or vica versa (Deathmatch, CTF) or just tack it on (Co-op) and, granted, its fun, but it always seemed artificial to me. But L4D changed that for me. It does Co-op and Deathmatch RIGHT. No silly tacked on implements, everything feels smooth and natural. The zombies are fun to play, if not hard as hell to play well, but the humans are easily my favorite aspect of the game. You instantly have a small sense of camaraderie with these 3 strangers, which is awesome. You cant survive without these guys, and the same to them. Now thats not the case every time you play, most of the time, the guys will call out if they find weapons and ammo, and wait until you come get it because you all depend on eachother that much. Its great.

One problem I do have is the lack of campaigns, but thats a small complaint, because theres a surprising amount of replay-ability. For those who dont know, the game gets harder the better you do, and easier the more times you bite it.

Those are my early reactions, expect a full review later.

Valves Steam Software

I just recently downloaded the game service Steam, to purchase Garrys Mod and Left 4 Dead. BIG mistake. Steam slows down my computer dramatically, barely works, and the games I use with it crash frequently. It took me two days to download Left 4 Dead because Steam decided to restart the download time when it was 77% done with downloading. Granted, my computer is a piece of shit, but Valves graphics engine does not cause a challenge for my computer, until now. Im lucky if I can get a steady framrate in L4D for 25 seconds. No joke. Its ridiculous.

I know for sure that I will never download or buy another game from Valve for PC until they fix the numerous problems.

My favorite error in Steam games is the out of OS Pool Memory error. I looked this up and it turns out, I cant have Norton Internet Security running at the same time as a Valve Steam game or it will cause the game to crash with this error. Another fun error I got for L4D is the cannot detect D3D device! Error. This one has to do with a video card I dont even have, so I dont have any clue how it happened. It happened with G-mod too, but only once.

So Valve, I love your games, the HL series has changed storytelling in video games and your Source engine is a fantastic tool, but PLEASE, PLEASE fix this Steam program.