Ah, Left 4 Dead 2. The last major release for this year on my "why haven't you got this yet?" list.

I figured it would be worth pacing myself with Modern Warfare 2 as the go-to multiplayer game, at least until L4D2 became cheaper during Black Friday or Cyber Monday. On multiple occasions, I was this close to caving in, so I probably won't last much longer.

Seems like I'm in a rare spot, since about 80% of my friends list has made the switch from Infinity Ward to Valve this week, while I'm sitting here trying to get my last ten or so stars in Spec Ops. Those freakin' Juggernauts are cheap, man.

This has been one hell of a big week for online gaming.

The simple inclusion of predator drones alone in Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer instantly had me falling in love with an already satisfying experience.

The sleek new user interface, the crazy new killstreaks, the fact that there are now so many challenges, you basically get to hear the "F**K YEAH! YOU ROCK" guy screaming/guitar riff challenge completed effect during every match -- it's so good.

My goal tonight is to play until I pass out from exhaustion, and I imagine many of you have similar plans Hopefully, I'll get to see a tactical nuke go off at some point. Please, let me see the nuke.

After helping me make bail in an Icelandic jail (image: lundur/Iceland), I promised our community manager that I owed him one.

The shark has cashed in his chips, and asked that for this week's Friday Night Fights, I remind everyone about Bomberman LIVE's existence.

It exists.

He also wanted me to tell everyone that Mr. Destructoid is a playable character in the game.

He is, indeed, a playable character in this game.

Also, you should probably play the game tonight, since it's quite awesome.

We're even now, Hamza.

Friday Night Fights is a weekly gathering of Dtoiders to just play games with one another.

Yes, it's Halloween tomorrow. Scantily clad drunk girls, "fun size" candy that's not actually fun, and so many kids ringing your doorbell that it breaks (this honestly happened to me); there's a reason why this is my favorite time of year.

I suppose we ought to be thankful the holiday isn't today, since there is gaming to be done. With a couple of weeks until the final big releases of the year are out, it's going to be mostly Uncharted 2 again and possibly the Left 4 Dead 2 demo for those who have it.

Also, don't forget to try out the meetup+play section while it still has that new page smell. You can win a $1,500 PC by adding games to your profile and sending a request to play. Do eet!

Update:  Today is the last day to enter the raffle.  Good luck!

A wise young man at PAX once asked me: "Why the hell is it so hard to meet up and play with people on Dtoid?" Good question! So we got to work and today I'm proud to unveil the new version of our community gaming meetup thing.  Try out Destructoid meetup+play!

How it works: We pick a handful of the most popular games on PC and consoles.  You add them to your Dtoid profile and set what timezone and times you're usually up for an online game. People can then see what games you own and you can send them a private message to meet up. You can even score the results of the match if you want to play competitively, and each PM gives links to your personal private chat room to facilitate meetup communication without compromising your privacy.

Try it out for a chance to win sick Vigor gaming PCs. 

We'll enter your name in a raffle for $1,500 gaming PC just for adding your games and sending one request to play.  Next week the most active players will be invited to a private meetup against Dtoid editors to compete for gaming prizes for Intel, including a beastly $5,000 PC courtesy of Vigor Gaming.  Don't you wish all beta tests worked like this?

At some point in time GorgeousGamers.com was simply supposed to be a place to perv on attractive people who played videogames. Now, however, they've decided to not be quite as shallow and revamped themselves as the "Facebook for gamers." There seem to be people on the site and you can most likely network through it. There's... ummm... contests.

Really, this doesn't look any different from the hundreds upon thousands of other social networking sites except for some extra gaming stuff here and there, and if you're here at Destructoid you've already got the greatest gaming community around so I don't see why you need it. Why am I telling you about it then? Because them wanting to be advertised gives me an excuse to promote our totally awesome and revamped meetup+play. It's awesome and fun all at once. Plus, you don't have to leave Destructoid to socially network with other gamers. So yea, blatant self promotion.

Friday Night Fights is a weekly gathering of Dtoiders to just play games with one another.

Now when I say "it's finally here," I am secretly referring to two things.

Firstly, the new meetup+play  features. Niero has already explained how it all works here. Go read that! Why? Because you can win yourself a swanky gaming PC by simply trying it out. No mad gaming skillz required! While we are busy tending to our bonsai trees most days, we're always open to suggestions/feedback.

The second is of course Borderlands, which has been out on consoles as of Tuesday.

My boy kauza wrote an excellent community blog on how its use of progression will devour your life -- I agree wholeheartedly. On a more personal note, I must also commend Gearbox for the game's netcode; my sickly Internet connection shouldn't be able to handle online matches, but so far, so good.

Why yes, I did give my post a Borderlands theme for the sole purpose of creating that goofy image. In the words of Muldoon from Jurassic Park, "clever girl."

Anyway, things are going along as usual. I'll be hosting a rousing match of Borderlands tonight in my mind, so join me, if you'd like. I imagine when the game launches that's all anyone will be doing for Friday Night Fights next week, which means we should get all other games out of our system while we still can.

Specifically, Uncharted 2. Play the game as if doing so will save our planet from a meteor or some other apocalypse-causing scenario.

Apologies for coming at you with the lateness!

As they say, better late than never, right? Hopefully you've already noticed this, but if not, no biggie: the meetup and play/tournament section of Destructoid has undergone quite the redesign.

While not one-hundred percent complete just yet, it's off to a great start thanks to our caring robot bossman. You should find it easier to navigate as well as generally more inviting than the previous layout. Give it a spin by playing Street Fighter IV and hey, you could come out with a swanky new gaming PC.

Howdy, everyone. How's this fine Friday afternoon been treating you?

Don't answer that question, because all responses have one solution: Friday Night Fights. Member participation seems to be up tonight, which I can only assume means schedules are starting to even out for some of you guys.

Or maybe you've collectively decided to push your responsibilities into the far reaches of your brain where thoughts go to die. Either way, I can most certainly dig it. There's also a bit of good news on the tournament front -- if you hadn't already noticed, the next game will be Street Fighter IV.

That'll be starting up next Friday, so for now, consider this tease a reminder to start practicing your tiger uppercuts. As always, there will be sweet gaming loot up for grabs. Stay tuned for more (aka actual) details.

These last few weeks, I've been complaining about the lack of new games with a solid multiplayer component. It's made my totally irrelevant (in the grand scheme of things) job of finding something interesting to talk about for these Friday Night Fights posts difficult.

Now that Halo 3: ODST is out, and more specifically, the game's Firefight co-op mode is playable, there's something to discuss. Unfortunately, my Internet connection for the time being can't even steam YouTube videos, much less play any form of a game online.

But yeah, Firefight mode. As far as I can remember, no one I've talked to has had anything bad to say about it -- in fact, it seems to be the main selling point for ODST for many of you. Alright, my little spiel is over; go hit the jump for tonight's FNF hosts.

Now look, I'll happily admit the whole Kanye meme that's blown up in the last couple of days was funny at first. But as with all things on the Internet, people have taken it more than a couple of steps too far and now I just want the whole thing to end.

Not only do I want it to end, I want the meme to die in a fire, as tazarthayoot would say. To make this crazy dream actually happen, I plan on ceremonially printing out the next Kanye picture I see and then proceeding to light the damned thing on fire.

Please, games industry, hurry it up with the multiplayer games so I am not forced to talk about these things any longer. How about starting with Borderlands?

ConSARS be damned, we're back in commission for Friday Night Fights.

It's been a few weeks since I've had the opportunity to do one of these posts -- moving across the country combined with PAX will screw up anyone's schedule -- but the all-seeing shark did a fine job in my absence.

With school only now starting up for some people, it seems like that's going to keep a few of you guys busy, which is no fun. The tormenting Unreal Tournament FNF tournament of tournaments is still going on, so go play a match or two and you could potentially win a slick gaming PC.

BIG money, BIG prizes, I LOVE it!

Let's do it again!  Destructoid's 24/7 Gaming Meetup begins again today this time with competitive skill-ranked matches in Unreal Tournament and participation prizes for casual gamers. Here's how it works:

1. Join FNF and complete a duel in Unreal Tournament 99' against another player (don't have the game? It's $10 on Steam or on GOG.com) to be entered into our raffle for the $1,300 PC.  Each completed game (win or lose) is a point.  PLAY NOW

2. Play competitively if you wish to win bigger prizes! Up for grabs: high-powered gaming systems from Velocity Micro and Vigor crowned by two grand prize PCs valued at over $5,000 each.  The first leg of of the tournament will be hosted by Velocity Micro - check out the prizes and specs.

Hit the jump for the rules.  Good luck!