Left 4 Dead

Considered to be one of the best games of the year, Left 4 Dead really brought fourth a new era of horror and action that gaming has not seen in years. Brought to us by the legendary creators of the Half-Life series at Valve, the game follows four survivors of a zombie outbreak that has created an apocalyptic world. The action is fast paced, and never slows down once.
While the game lacks a central story, it quickly makes up for it with four extremely well developed characters that give us a new story every time we play the game. The game comes with four different maps, with five levels on each map. The main point of the game is to reach safety by finding an area where help will pick you up. The survivors must fight their way through miles of land to reach help, and must protect one another from hoard after hoard of zombies in order to reach survival.
The most interesting point of this game was the Zombie AI. In a nutshell, this means that every time you play the game, the zombies are never in the same place, and will attack you in a different and unique way everytime you play. The other interesting fact of this game is the enemy zombies. While regular zombies are scary enough, the developers at Valve stepped it up a notch and created unique and more advanced zombies. The first is the Boomer, which is a fat zombie that spits acid on you, which makes other zombies attracted to you and the center of an attack. There is the hunter, which crawls up buildings and jumps hundreds of feet until it pins you down and begins to tear you apart. There is the smoker, which has a hundred foot tongue that drags you to it and attacks. There is the Tank, which is a giant zombie that has massive muscles and takes thousands of bullets to kill. And most scary of all, there is the witch, which is a young girl who cries until you get near, and when it senses you, it starts hissing and growling until it finally attacks you.
Overall, this games startling visuals that make every experience spooky and makes any gamer jump have me a true Left 4 Dead fan. With a wide array of realistic gore and horror, tons of action and weapons use, and an in depth view of each character and their personality, I give this game a 10/10, and look forward to the sequel, due out November of this year.

Prince of Persia on Xbox 360

I must admit I am somewhat of a history buff, but in reality a lot of the gaming population has always been focused on action and futuristic games. Yet in the latest installment of the infamous Prince of Persia franchise, we get to see a new wave of visual gaming that has all gamers flocking to their local stores and immersing themselves in the ancient world. This game makes history come alive, and while the characters and more supernatural elements are more myth than history, the culture and settings of the Persian world are quite evident in this popular game.
The story follows a young traveler who gets lost in a sandstorm and must find his donkey. While searching, he stumbles upon a seemingly helpless woman being chased by men. What he will later learn is that the young woman is Elika, a young princess of an ancient people dealing in the mythic arts. For centuries her people have guarded the prison holding the deadly god Ahriman, who seeks to immerse all of the world in darkness. Soon the once selfish and self-centered Prince must help stop this deadly force from being unleashed, and battle the demons working to destroy his once simple world.
Filled with fast paced action, high-flying aerobics, and colorful scenery, what really captured my attention was the games visuals, which were presented as a comic book or storybook. The interesting illustrations really added to the games story, and for me helped build upon what made the original series so great. With funny banter between the prince and princess, demonic entities and a massive story, I give this game a 9/10, for it really captures your attention quickly, and is a game you will enjoy playing over and over again.