Release date: September 14, 2008 (ten months ago)
Why we’re all still playing it: 84 songs right off the disc is nothing to sneeze at. Add in the entire catalog of the original Rock Band (for an admittedly shitty transfer fee) and the roster nearly doubles. Then add new tracks every single week, ranging from three-song packs to complete albums, and you quickly realize there’s barely time to stop playing Rock Band, let alone completely move on.
The super-elite, high and mighty haters out there claim banging on fake instruments is childish and pointless, but well, whatever. Sorry you have to sit on your high horse in your ivory tower and poop in your diaper while the rest of us throw caution to the wind and make asses out of ourselves for the delight of the room.
If Guitar Hero put out tracks as reliably, we’d give them a shout here too. As it stands, Harmonix is always offering more content to play, and that’s why we still care nearly a year later. And if you like the Beatles, hey, you’ve got a whole game to obsess over in a few months.
Release date: November 18, 2008 (eight months ago)
Why we’re all still playing it: Killing zombies by the thousands is reason enough to grab three friends and blast a path to salvation. But what if every time you played, things unfolded a bit differently than before? Certain items are or are not there, enemies spawn in varying numbers and locations, the game-changing special infected pop up together or separately… the combinations are almost limitless. Take that, multiply it by four (for each of the story campaigns) and you have one $60 game that can conceivably last forever.
Yes, the video is supposed to be silly and an example of what not to do, but it does illustrate that, despite all your planning and expert techniques, the game’sAI directorwill always rise to the occasion. Even hardened vets can be overwhelmed and outmaneuvered by the roving zombie mobs, meaning everyone from brand-new players to 100-hour devotees must expect the unexpected. All this plus a four-on-four versus mode has us wondering if we really even need a Left 4 Dead 2 this year.
(Yeah, we kinda do.)
