Video Game Apocalypse: Day 3
Don’t lie. I’m sure all of us have thought at one point in time, “What would I do if there ever was a zombie attack?”. I’m double sure many of us have created several zombie survival plans in our head or even have them written down (I myself have 7 different plans). It may sound like science fiction, but there are insects and parasites in real life that have the ability to mind control their hosts. Parasitic spiny-head worms, green jeweled wasps, and many more parasites are out there are just waiting to control another species for its own purpose. Is it so farfetched, then, that our world is doomed to be destroyed by a virus/parasite that turns humans into brain craving lunatics? Okay, maybe it is. But in Day 3′s game we get to experience this world overrun with people who want a piece of your mind.
Left 4 Dead 2
(Xbox 360, PC)
Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 take on that popular idea of being an immune survivor to a disease which has turned much of your race into mindless zombies. The concept is fairly simple and straight forward. You are paired up with three other survivors and must try to get from point A to point B without becoming finger food for the zombies. You are given an array of weapons to kill the many zombies that stand between you and your quest. These zombies aren’t your typical Dawn of the Dead zombies where they do the Michael Jackson shuffle towards you. These zombies are the 28 Days Later types of zombies that come barreling at you full force. Alone or in small packs, they aren’t a problem, but when a horde comes rushing in on you from every direction you will need your wits and team around you. Especially when the special infected move in.
What really makes left 4 Dead stand out is its online modes. You can team up with three friends to fight alongside you through the campaign or go into one of the several versus modes Left 4 Dead has and play as both survivors and the infected. And don’t think you can become the lone wolf of the team and go blasting off into the sunset by yourself. Teamwork is essential in this game. Without it, you will find yourself being turned into a play toy for the special infected.
Not only is it good practice for the inevitable zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead is an incredibly fun game and one that is made even better when you’re able to play it with friends.
Day 4 Preview: Only two words needed. Crowbar and cake.
Dead Nation Attacks the PSN November 30th
According to the Playstation Blog, Housemarque’s PSN zombie apolcalypse title, Dead Nation will be coming in just a couple weeks. Dead Nation will feature both online and offline two player cooperative campaign play and will also support Trophies. The game will retail for $14.99 when it releases on November 30th.
Check out below last years Gamescom trailer for Dead Nation and let us know if you will be picking this one up.
Dead Rising 2
Mmmm, Zombies. Zombies are growing ever more popular in gaming, they’re found lurking in the hit title Left 4 Dead 1 & 2, and in the upcoming Red Dead Redemption DLC, “Undead Nightmare.” Dead Rising 2 has finally arrived, it now has co-op and online multiplayer, but does it live up to it’s expectations? Lets get this zombie genocide rolling!
The Story So far…
The Zombie outbreak has spread nationwide, and what’s left of society is still trying to cling to what was. You play as Chuck Greene, who the game quickly establishes that he is indeed, a badass. The game starts with Chuck competing on the game show “Terror Is Reality”, otherwise known as TIR, where he must compete against other contestants in a twisted challenge known as “Slicecycles.” After the show is over, Chuck begins to make his way back to his daughter, when suddenly all hell breaks loose. The game really kicks off here, you go to rescue your daughter after slaughtering groups of Zombies with a fire axe, or whatever else you find at your disposal.
Once you’ve reached your daughter, you must then CARRY her and Sparta Kick your way to a bunker/safe house. There you’ll find other characters and learn that (if you haven’t played Case 0) Chuck’s daughter has been bitten and must be treated with a medicine known as Zombrex, it treats but does NOT cure the infection. His daughter needs a dose each day between 7 and 8 A.M., which makes Chuck brave going outside with the undead in search of Zombrex for his daughter.
The Gameplay
Dead Rising 2 has more than a “few” tricks up it’s sleeve. You can now make your own weapons from a huge variety of combinations, a personal favorite of mine is the Parablower, where you combine a leaf blower and a parasol. Combining weapons is not only fun, but beneficial as it will give you bonus PP (power points don’t be weird) which will result in you leveling up. With each level Chuck gains, he learns skills such as drop kicking, stomping, rolling and so on. Chuck also gets combo cards which reveal combinations of weapons to the player, which can be acquired by killing Psychos or leveling up.
The timer also returns, but trust me you guys who didn’t like it in the first game, it’s really not an issue here. The game is lengthy and you do NOT have to follow the case timers, if you want to just run around and kill zombies no problem it can be done here. There’s now stores that Chuck can buy items from, the stores are owned by Looters, an enemy you can encounter by going into random markets and so on doing what their name suggests. But twenty grand for an assault rifle and they’ll be your friend! The game does a good job of having A LOT of ways to dispose of your enemies, this keeps it fresh, though you’ll get a little repetition here and there.
Those of you who had trouble rescuing survivors in the first game should be happy this time around. The survivors this time around aren’t as silly, meaning they follow you well and can actually defend themselves with items you give them. Some of the survivors are wimpy and won’t take a weapon, those are the ones I usually leave behind to die, but rest assured they’ll follow you and they won’t get hung up NEARLY as easily on zombies as they did in the first game. If they get hurt, you can give them food so that they may heal. A lot of things have improved this aspect of the game.
The Psychos are brutal, they can take damage and dish it back forcing you to play it smart, this usually involves you running like a dumb teen from a slasher flick. You fight anything ranging from, tigers, to chefs, to sadists with chainsaws, and it keeps you on edge!!!!!! What’s cool with this game is that it does manage to have a stable frame rate with all of the madness going on, it will hiccup sometimes but for the majority of the time you play it will be rock solid. All of this is more enjoyable, with a friend of course.
The Online
When playing co-op nothing changes but the amount of fun you have. You and a friend may slaughter thousands of undead, do the story, try to save as many people as you can, WHATEVER it is you can do alone. The only quirks that I dislike are that you can only leave the area when you and your co-op partner are close enough together, and that usually when someone saves their game the client player gets disconnected. Now what the client player means is that you’re the guest, you’re the one who joined the other person’s game, you can get money and PP, but their game will NOT effect your game’s story progression UNLESS you beat the game with that other player. Aside from those two things you should have a blast!
Now aside from co-op the Terror Is Reality game show is the theme for the 4 player competitive mode. Think American Gladiator or The Running Man with zombies thrown in. The four players compete against one another through various challenges like Ramsterball or Mastershafter, and ultimately Slicecycles to get the highest score in order to win and get the prize money. The money you win online (you don’t have to win the match in order to get some money) can be transferred over to your single player save, giving you an incentive to play the online as it’s easy to earn.
The Verdict
Dead Rising 2 is an awesome game, especially for you guys who love the old school Dead films or the cult classic The Crazies, it’s almost as if those have been combined. Dead Rising plays great, looks fine, and has plenty of content to keep you going. I can’t recommend it enough, horror and action fans are in for a treat. Be sure to check this title out when you can.
Left 4 Dead in Johnstown – Act 2 – Old Mills
Watch as a group of zombie apocalypse survivors trek through some zombie infested mills to find a good place to call for help. Cast includes: Patrick Adams as Louis, Kary Roberts as Bill, Scott Walsh as Francis, Daria Adams as Zoey, Dale Anderson as Zombie 1, and Lydia Adams as Zombie 2. This is Act 2 of a continued series. Please share this with everyone and check back soon for more!
Zombie Mansion
I always get really excited when I hear about developers that are working on an FPS for the iPhone. The problem is that I am usually disappointed with the final product. I wouldn’t call Zombie Mansion a disappointment but it isn’t exactly what I was hoping it would be.
With all of the great made-for-iphone games out there it seems like first person shooters still have to find their place on the iPhone. Zombie Mansion does a great job of showing that it is possible to run a relatively smooth FPS on the iPhone. The problem with Zombie Mansion is more about the polish than the gameplay. Zombie Mansion in my opinion is very generic. The music and graphics give me that 90′s low-budget PC shooter feel. It’s also not as zombified as I had hoped it would be. Zombie Mansion is more mummies, skeletons, wizards, and knights than it is zombies.
I was also turned off by the weapon you are given. This weapon just happens to be a magical wand that kinda looks like a large stogy. I was hoping more for some kind of gun than a stick. I can see some people out there really enjoying Zombie Mansion but me being spoiled with all the great console FPS’s this game isn’t really worth my time. I give Source IT Software credit for bringing an FPS to the iPhone but I am still yearning for one that doesn’t just play great but also looks like it came out this century. Bring Zombie Mansion down to $1.99 and I might call it worth the price.
Left 4 Dead
If you like first person shooters, killing zombies, and playing with your friends this is the game for you. This game wasn’t even on my radar of games to buy but because so many of my friends were getting it I decided to give it a try. Since getting it Call of Duty and Gears of War have been sitting on the shelf and this game has been getting the majority of my playing time.
The campaign of this game can be played single player with three A.I. controlled friends or the recommended four person co-op. You can play as one of four survivors; Francis who is a biker, Zoey is who in college and is into horror movies, Louis who works in his company’s IT department, or Bill who is a former Green Beret.
This game plays a little different than most games I’ve played in that there are four locations and you can play them in any order. These locations are titled Blood Harvest, No Mercy, Death Toll, and Dead Air. Your main goal is to get to the rescue spot without getting killed by the “Infected” zombies. Along the way there are several “safe houses” that you have to work to get to, these allow you to save and stock up on health and ammo. These items are also available along the way if you explore your surroundings enough.
The zombies come in a few different forms. There is the horde, also known as the “normal” zombies and then there are the special “Infected” zombies. All of the special infected have special attaches that you have to watch out for. The Boomer is the easiest to spot as he is about as much round as he is tall. Like the name hints, when you shoot him he blows up and if his blood gets on you it will alert the horde. Also if he throws up on you before you shoot him, then you will not be able to see and it will also alert the horde. The next special zombie is known as the Hunter. To me the Hunter is one of the most dangerous because he leaps out of nowhere and pushes you down on the ground. You can usually spot him as he is always crouching and tends to make a very shrill scream each time he leaps. The Gene Simmons version of the infected is the Smoker. This special infected has a frog like tongue that will grab you and pull you towards him. Unless your facing him, it takes a teammate to shoot him to get you free. Once killed the Smoker blows up leaving lots of… well, green smoke. One of the hardest special infected to kill is the Tank. The hulk/king kong looking infected will usually target one of the survivors. He will throw things at you like cars and it takes a lot of blast to take him down. You can easily hear him coming and feel the room or area that you are in shake because of him. Last but definitely not least is the witch. You can hear the witch crying before you ever get to her. If you spot her and don’t shine your flashlight on her, most of the time you can walk around her without disturbing her. However if you disturb her watch out as she is very fast and strong and will knock you down 99% of the time.
Teamwork is the name of the game in Left 4 Dead. Staying together and working together are very important if you want to make it past the harder levels. One nice thing about the game is that your teammates are highlighted so you can always see were they are. You can even see their outline through walls. This is great in case you do get separated. When you go down your outline with flash orange to let your teamates know that you need help but if you go down too much the screen will turn black and white which lets you know that if you get attacked one more time you will die. If you die early you will likely respawn in a closet and your teammates will have to find you and let you out. This is a very nice touch and give you some hope that you will return to the game.
Then there is the versus mode. This mode is 4 vs 4, with 4 people getting to be the survivors and 4 getting to play as the special infected and after the chapter swapping sides. The survivors get points for how well they do and if they die before reaching the safe house, they will get points for how far they made it. When playing as the infected you will randomly respawn as different infected but never as the witch. You will also be alerted when someone is about to take over as the Tank. When respawing as an infected you get to pick were you want to respawn but you can’t respawn in site of a survivor. As the infected you can see the survivors through walls every time they move or shoot but if the survivor stays still long enough they will disappear. This mode can only be played on Blood Harvest and No Mercy. It can be challenging and the group that works better together will usually win.
With all the great games coming out right now it may be easy to overlook Left 4 Dead but I have to tell you, you would really be missing out. This is one of the most fun games I’ve played all year. It has very high replay value and is a must buy. So go grab three friends and start kicking some zombie butt!
Additional Comments from Patrick Adams:
I agree Left 4 Dead is an amazing game. The replay value is very high and I believe that because there are so many different combinations of playing L4D this will cause people to come back to it time and time again. I am also very excited to see Left 4 Dead become part of the Valve family of awesome games and I hope we will see some DLC for L4D sometime in the near future. This is a franchise that can easily be expanded and I don’t think they will have a hard time making a sequal out of it as well. I can’t wait for some L4D2!