I used to find myself at odds with Left 4 Dead 2 and Borderlands.  Not because I dislike them.  Quite the opposite: they were my absolute favorite games of 2009, and I sunk a sizeable amount of time into them both this year as well. L4D2 in particular ends up chewing up my free time nearly every other day.

The only reason I felt conflicted about both games was I only had room in my heart for one.  Or so I thought, until I sunk upwards of 200 hours apiece into them.  The similarities are tough to ignore: released within a month of each other, full of enemies whose main strategy is running at you in straight lines, 4-player co-op focused first-person shooters...

... and then there's the "hillbilly" factor.  On this account, Borderlands has the edge.  The portrayal of every area between Savannah, GA and New Orleans, LA in L4D2 can't hold a candle to Pandora's civilization of space rednecks and dusty, run-down old structures that the inhabitants somehow find ways to live in.  But that's OK, because Ellis admirably represents the entirety of his game's "country bumpkin" vibe with enough farm life and stock-car racing talk to match Borderlands pound for pound.

Then there's the other trucker-cap wearing, greasy car mechanic, Scooter.  Now I typically don't cite Scooter as a "great character."  When asked about the story of Borderlands, I usually reply: "There was a story in Borderlands?"  Most people probably only remember him as the guy who yells "CATCH-A-RIDE" and occasionally squawks about quests on your communication channel.  If you played the game for any decent length of time, you heard more than enough Scooter to last you a lifetime.  And that's why it so hard to deny his cornfed meathead charm.  I bet he can burp and say his name at the same time.  And I also bet he's proud of that ability.

Ellis, however, puts Scooter's value as a character into perspective once you realize how much better he has mastered the art of comedic timing in delivering lines.  Scooter says plenty of dumb shit, and those quotes are pretty funny by themselves.  When Ellis says dumb shit, the context for his words - the motherfucking zombie apocalypse - makes his ignorant lightheartedness infinitely more likeable.  You get the sense with Scooter that he's gotten used to his quiet desert life over the years, so his upbeat attitude is par for the course.  Only a guy like Ellis can think about riding horses and roller coasters when the whole world is actively trying to kill him.  Even when he's in danger, and he knows he's in danger, you can't help but smile and laugh.  "Is this thing humpin' me!?"

To his credit, however, Scooter had a much better showing in the Secret Armory of General Knoxx expansion than anything he said or did in the original game.  All of the DLC expansions benefited from a clearer focus of what the Borderlands brand of humor should be (the original game suffered from the mid-development art style transition, so much of the humor felt forced, and some characters like Helena Pierce felt completely out of place), so when Knoxx revisited most of the original characters, they got higher-quality scripts and voice actors to bolster their reputations.

I'm not saying who is "better" one way or the other, or even who is a bigger redneck.  I didn't even have a point in mind when I started writing.  These two games just consume my thoughts these days, and I feel silly for not having made the connection between these two characters until now.  You could just say this whole article is an excuse for me to post funny Youtube videos!  I'll let you guys believe whatever you want - hopefully you've been entertained.

But regardless of the purpose of these 600 some-odd words, you have to ask yourself one question:

"Do you know what 'suck the heads' means?"