Discussions

I'm a bit of a Left 4 Dead addict. I have been a PC gamer for close to 27 years now, if you count those myriad hours spent banging away on my first Commodore 64, and I've come to the decision that Left 4 Dead ranks in my top three all-time guilty pleasures. I can't even fathom how much time I spent scrambling through levels in Impossible Mission on the C64. The first Unreal Tournament probably cost me my job at the time. And now, whenever I can squeeze in a few minutes of carnage, I fire up Left 4 Dead. It's just the kind of mindless fun that gets me fired up. I neither have the attention span nor time for a MMORPG and strategy games just don't do it for me. Plus, the camaraderie that develops over a round of L4D can be awesome--I've played with soldiers deployed in Iraq, young kids playing hooky from school, grouchy old, bearded bikers, you name it. Cooperative multi-player gaming is where it's at. Wouldn't you agree?

There is only one thing that would elevate my L4D experience to a whole new level--being able to play it wherever I can flip open my laptop. There are just too many shortcomings with most truly-mobile machines to make them truly ideal for work and play. That got me thinking about what features I'd like to see in my ultimate gaming notebook. Obviously a fast CPU and GPU and plenty of memory are paramount. A high-quality, fast, anti-glare screen, great integrated speakers, and an SSD would be nice as well--but you all could have guessed those things.

Left 4 Dead: I Prefer The Auto-Shotty, But The Assault Rifle Will Do

The features you can't find in any of today's gaming notebooks are what I really crave. For example, the cramp confines of a notebook make it difficult to find a comfortable hand position while gaming using the keyboard and mouse. I'd love it if a notebook manufacturer designed a split keyboard that gave users the ability to twist the WASD side of the keyboard outwards, which would allow for a more natural wrist angle. IBM used to have slide-out  keyboards on some older ThinkPads--adding another hinge to one side of a similar keyboard couldn't be that much more difficult to implement. I'd also really like to see Microsoft or Logitech wireless gaming mouse transceivers integrated into a notebook, to eliminate the need to plug in a separate transmitter. I think it would make for an interesting feature if gamers could just throw the wireless mouse from their desktop machines into their laptop bag and seamlessly pair it up with a notebook when necessary, without the need to grab the dongle / transmitter as well. I'd also love to see notebook manufactures offer some sort of packet inspection technology that prioritized gaming packets over Wi-Fi. Wireless networking isn't very gamer -friendly, but with a quality NIC and software that prioritizes the game data, the overall experience could be greatly enhanced. That's something even Francis wouldn't hate.

Here's hoping someone with some pull in high places reads this, and agrees with me. Would any of you like to see features like these available in a gaming notebook? Have some better ideas?  I'd love to hear them. Or we can just chat about gaming from back in the day...