When jotting down my list I originally wrote this as Left 4 Dead 1 simply because that’s the one I spent, quite literally, the entire year playing. It occurs to me, however, that both Left 4 Dead and its sequel are pretty much the same game, so why not lump them together? This is a conclusion a third grader –admittedly, one with negligent parents- comes to faster than I have, but whatever.
If you go purely by play time, it’s possible this game should be at the top of the list. Played, on average, about once a week for about three hours at a time. Let’s see… that’s 52 x 3. Is it sad my first instinct was to load up Windows Calculator to figure out that bit of math? Probably. Regardless, that’s in the ballpark of 156 hours of 2009 spent slaying the zombie hoard and I don’t consider any of it wasted time because it was all spent playing the game co-op with friends. Time spent in shared activity with friends is never wasted.
All together now…
Awwwwwwww.
Right. Anyway. The whole notion of zombies may fast be becoming an overused method of letting you commit mass murder without the guilt, but good is good and dammit, there is no better zombie survival series than Left 4 Dead. The eight player versus mode is more fun than anyone has a right to and even though I have my reservations about the setting, characters, and gameplay balance of the sequel, it’s not like I’m going back to play the first one anytime soon. This is a series with legs (often dismembered) and I look forward to another year of semi-weekly zombie genocide.
Speaking of which, Bill, it’s been like 504 hours since I last put a bullet in a zombie’s brainpan. That needs to be remedied.
