@ Brett: No, I’ve played it on all the difficulties, many times. What I said still holds true – the damage doesn’t matter unless it’s overwhelming; the only difference that a higher difficulty makes is that taking “overwhelming” is much easier, and generally happens a whole lot faster.

This goes for other people as well, not just Brett – the game I’m imagining – or, rather, the elements I would like to see in a game, are not being argued for for the sake of being “hardcore”. The simple fact is, if you ask anyone who’s ever seen a zombie movie or played a zombie game, they have an idea of what they would do in the event of a zombie apocalypse. All I want is a game that recognizes that and nurtures it, rather than leading us by the hand because they’re afraid we might not buy the game.

Which is where the argument against a Safe experience comes from. If we want to play safe games, they’re all over the place, but I am one gamer who’d like to be treated like the mature, experience gamer that I am. I have another article that ties into something like this, about how the franchise mindset kills creativity and, sadly, leads to even gamers being so used to being treated like children that they’re complacent with whatever the industry shits out on us. http://gamingbolt.com/your-favorite-franchise-sucks-the-hidden-cost-of-a-franchise-dominated-industry

Specifically, I’d like to see a game that is played online by multiple people in room based gameplay (Multiple games running with only a handful of people in each one) in a sandbox environment on the scale of grand theft auto but more FPS style where the game evolves around the player until one of two things happens. The zombies are wiped out or they overrun the city.

Populate the city. Populate it densely. We’re talking New York population density. When the game starts, a single zombie is spawned randomly somewhere in this massive city, so are the players. The players have no way of communicating with each other across city except for their mics which only function like a normal human voice so you only hear them if you’re close enough.

That 1 Zombie attacks people turning them into Zombies. The infection spreads. Have police in the game that can fight the Zombies but not actively seek them out until Zombie outbreak becomes noticable. The police also will react negatively towards players if they attempt to break into gun stores for weapons or anything too early. The zombies themselves wont actively seek out the player any more then they will the npcs in the game and wander aimlessly until the player is found.

Players need to find food, shelter, etc and keep themselves alive. Possibly try to wipe out the Zombies before the infection spreads too far. If players find each other they can work together or betray each other and steal their supplies. Basically turning the game into a true survival sandbox.

“They made it so that the damage we take isn’t really harmful, unless it’s overwhelming. Nicks, scrapes, cuts and bites – even direct gunshots from our teammates – are brushed off like it’s nothing a couple of bandages and a bottle of pills won’t fix.”

What this tells me is you’ve never played L4D on anything but normal difficulty. Try playing the game on expert. One swing from a normal infected zombie is 20% of your health. One swing from the tank and you’re down from full health or dead from low health. The witch will 1-shot you at full health.

The other problem with this whole article is that nobody else wants to play games that are frustrating for the sake of being “hardcore.” Easy is more frustrating that difficult, but games that punish you just to laugh at you failing aren’t fun. That’s why nobody makes them.

Good old “gaming journalism” still as bad as ever…

Maybe a continually expansive game is what you are looking for? An MMO perhaps, where it can be updated time and time again.

What I really think you want is the fucking zombie apocalypse.