I downloaded the Left 4 Dead demo last night and gave Valve's latest creation a try and I would highly recommend anybody interested do the same.

What is obvious off the bat is the quality of the presentation (I wouldn't expect anything less from Valve). The cut scenes are amazing and they demonstrate the developers continued focus on characters that resonate more than the average game.

In the demo you can choose to battle online alongside others or go through 2 levels with AI teammates. Given that I was picking up the game for the first time I went with the later choice to test it out. Controls are how you would expect, anyone who knows their way around a shooter won't have any problems. In game graphics are dark and sort of bland, and level design is faily convoluted. I couldn't find any map system or anything letting me know what direction to go in. Eventually I found my way despite this, but it was frustrating to feel like I was lost and only found my destination by luck.

The fact that you are part of a squad and shouldn't wander off without the other three team members is made very clear. You will not last. No way, no how. This means that if you are playing online mics will be necessary and you will be constantly telling everyone where you are and what you're doing. I can predict that just jumping online with anyone isn't going to work - having a regular group you trust and can communicate with will be essential to surviving.

The best of part of the game is the zombies... holy crap they will freak you out. At first I encountered zombies shuffling around, moving slowly, but the first time one sees you and bolts like lightening straight for your ass, you will be frantically trying to blow a hole into them. What's worse is that every so often (you will have no idea when) a flood (and I mean a flood) of zombies will be come screaming head long at your group. These are truly freaky moments filled with blasting zombies from up close as they are clawing at you and your teammates. The first time you see this large zombie horde speeding towards you I can guarantee your heart rate will spike.

Anyways, give the demo a try if you've been curious. Truthfully the only way I'll pick the game up is if you guys are into playing. I can't see jumping into games only to see players not communicate and run off on their own (cue johnsteed's Gears 2 blog from earlier today). If you guys are in though - I am too.

When I went to New York for the wedding recently I made sure to go through my boxes I have been storing in my friend Will's garage (thank you Will). I shipped all of my Xbox games, photos and knick knacks that were important out to Hawaii, but one of the most important was The Rock.

Back in 2000 I was living in New York, working in the city, and my brother Sean lived here on the Big Island. I came out here on a vacation and that time here on the island changed my life. For the first time, after living in many states around the country and traveling the world for work as a software exec, that I saw a place that I knew fit me.

I had a great time with my brother, cruising around the island in a rented jeep we beat the snot out of, finding out-of-the-way beaches and taking hikes out to the lava flow. While out and about I pocketed a small chunk of lava rock that I intended to take home with me as a memento.

"Don't take that home" my brother said, "it's bad luck."

Bad luck? What could happen? I'm not really a superstitious guy.

Yes, I had seen the TV special when the Brady Bunch went to Hawaii...

Bobby took the tiki idol and he was warned not to...

... and then Vincent Price captured them and ate the entire family one by one.

In my case it was the same thing - DON'T TAKE THE ROCK, BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN IF YOU DO. So, I took the rock.

Now, I'm not saying I've been fighting evil for the past 8 years, but things have been off. I've had some good times and good things happen, but it definitely seemed that the bad dominated much of that time - life wasn't breaking my way more often than not. I've been in Hawaii nearly 5 years and I've had some very lean tough years here.

Since moving here I heard the "don't take the rocks" stories and even seen people mailing their lava rocks back to the hotel to be put back on the beach. I've repeated it to many tourists, but it was always in the back of my mind that I had a lava rock sitting in my buddy's garage across the planet. What if it was a source of bad luck? I've gone years thinking that and wishing I could get that damn thing out of storage and get it back here just to be safe.

It was Will's son Gabe, while helping me go through my boxes last month, that found the lava rock in a wooden bowl. "What's this?" he asked...

"AH HAAAAA.... there it is, give me that sucker." I immediately slipped it into my pocket while telling him the story.

When I got back home from the airport I put my bags down and went across the street to the beach. I wasn't going to waste any time in trying to get rid of this bad mojo, so I put the piece of lava with some coral and said some things about Pele (the Volcano Goddess) having her rock back and I was sorry for taking it.

That's The Rock, I went back the next day to take a picture of it.

I went back to the house and decided to check my e-mail before jumping in the shower and the first e-mail I saw was the one from the Regional Director of my company asking me if I was interested in the promotion I am now taking on.

In other words, if you ever come to Hawaii, don't take the #&*!ing rocks. Just don't do it. Listen to me now, believe me later...

Does Gamespot hate me? I tune in to the Gears 2 marathon for two hours - no emblem. I'm not an emblem whore but if I do actually do something on the site that rewards you with an emblem I should get it just like everyone else right? This has happened about a half dozen times... and not to mention the profile views glitch, that has likely robbed me of thousands of views (it completely stopped counting for months and now it works only sometimes). Needless to say, I've gotten more than a little frustrated with GS, these past 6 months especially.

And what's up with Activision!?! I love Guitar Hero, you all know that, and I signed up and started using their Guitar Hero community website the first week it was up (October of last year). At first it was great but then it started going downhill. Activision hired some company named Agora to create and run the site but they have been doing a horrible job... the site has been broken for most of this past year and it wasn't getting fixed. Now they just completed an entire site re-design... and it's worse! Now, not only is the site STILL broken, but now it's ugly too.

Billions made selling GH and this is the site they give the fans... it's just sad.

See those question marks? Those are supposed to be emblems I earned in the game. I have a career score in GH3 over 80 million, you'd think I'd have a few emblems - but they've never worked! It's just stunning to me that Activision has made a bundle from this game and they could have a killer site to keep us fans happy, but they don't. It's like they don't even care... and don't bother with the site's tech support... just awful.

Okay, done with rant. I was going to write some stuff about packing, moving, the change in job, but I'll get a chance soon to fill you all in on the details. I've got one more week in my house on the Big Island and I'll be in corporate housing in Honolulu for the first month ($4500 a month rent!! Good thing I'm not paying). I'm already doing the new job and still phasing myself out of the old position - in fact this is my last 12 hour Saturday at the resort! Yeah!

So life is crazy, I'm stressed out, but still getting in some gaming - stuck on the ADS Cannon part of Dead Space when shooting the asteroids and I thought I had good aim! Damn that part is hard...

{edit} Maybe GS does hate me... I almost lost this post. Good thing I copied it before hitting submit... arg...

My head hurts, my belly feels like jelly, but I still made it to work after we threw a big Halloween party last night at my friend Linda's house. I played DJ for the evening and my main goal was to get everyone's ass shaking... it was pretty funny, at one point early on in the night I thought I had chosen a bad song because I didn't get the reaction I thought I'd get. I turned my back and spent a couple of minutes choosing the next song and when I turned back to face the party the entire house was jumping up and down to the song I didn't think they liked.

Needless to say I kept them jumping all night long, to the point where the police came to tell us to knock it off. I waited 10 minutes, cranked it up again (but not as loud as it was before) and the cops came back a half hour later and threatened to put us all in jail if we didn't turn the music off.

So I'm writing this post from my cell. I like my new roommate, his name is Benny the Butcher, but the food in jail sucks.

I did manage to keep the music and the party going until 2 in the morning and by the end of the night I had 3 offers to DJ other parties and a bunch of e-mail addresses of people who want me to send the playlist I went through last night. I was just happy everyone had a good time.

First I will make you dance, then I will kill you.

This was another nutty week, sorry for disappearing on GS for part of it. The job promotion has me scrambling, I'm already packing and getting things in order. There is so much to coordinate, the biggest thing to do is secure a new home on the other side. I'm flying over tomorrow for a couple of days to meet and greet the key contacts at the school and look at a couple of places for rent.

Other than that I had to deal with my Dad landing in the hospital for pnuemonia - he's doing better though and he's actually heading back home today.

Anyways, just wanted to give a quick shout out, it's not normal for me to go more than a week without a blog and hopefully once I get settled again I can resume my regularly scheduled insanity.