Left 4 Dead Fan Film Is So Much More

Take nine minutes and thirteen seconds to watch this awesome fan film of Left 4 Dead. Sure, I'll watch almost anything with zombies, but promise me you'll hang in there until 5:30 or so. Trust me.

As bitterkenny said, "So epic."

99 Problems But Battlefield 3 Ain't One

Did anyone else see this ad on TV during NFL games this weekend? I remember enjoying the TV ads for Gears of War 2 (the GoW3 ads were a disappointment to me), but this is awesome. EA, if you're trying to get me excited for Battlefield 3, then well done.

Oh, and don't forget the multiplayer beta is open to the public this Thursday.

Battlefield 3 / Jay-Z -- "99 Problems" Full-Length Gameplay TV Ad [YouTube.com]

Why Do I Care About Achievements? It’s My Caveman Brain!

All the talk about the “Gameification” of video games in the Dead Island review Jason posted yesterday reminded me of a great TED Talk I watched about a year ago. In it, Tom Chatfield discusses the seven ways games reward our brains, from random rewards to purposeful tasks to receiving rewards on a schedule. And at the end he spends a few minutes talking about how these principals might be applied to the world around us.

I’m excited by the possibilities of applying these theories to real life (non-virtual) situations, if only because I’ve seen how video games have motivated me in ways that seem meaningless and silly to anyone who hasn’t experienced online gaming.

If you’ve got 20 minutes to spare, I think it’s definitely worth a watch.

Tom Chatfield: 7 ways games reward the brain | Ted.com