Bloody Zombie

Ladies and gentlemen, it finally happened. Many have predicted it, and lots of books and movies have been dedicated to the subject, and all have been scoffed at, laughed upon but now it is coming from official sources: Zombies are real, and a true outbreak, may be lurking just around the corner!

I knew all my training hours on FPS survival shooters would pay off one day, and it looks like it will. If you haven’t stocked up on canned goods, I suggest you do so, and fast, because this once hypothetical threat has just turned in to a plausible possibility, with proof, as it actually has already been happening.

According to reliable sources we may be at the brink of the very thing we feared the most, the actual outbreak of a Zombie apocalypse, due to a mutated strain of the H1N1 Swine flu virus!

Yes, you read it right, there is a mutation of the H1N1 virus turning people into real fully fledged, and most of all violent zombies.

Now before you pick up the phone and dial 911, in order to have me picked up, sit back down, and pay attention to the following quote as stated by the BBC: ”Similar to a scare originally found in Cambodia back in 2005, victims of a new strain of the swine flu virus H1N1 have been reported in London. After death, this virus is able to restart the heart of its victim for up to two hours after the initial demise of the person where the individual behaves in extremely violent ways from what is believed to be a combination of brain damage and a chemical released into blood during ‘resurrection.”.

Now let me ask you, what is your definition of a zombie? I would say the above comes pretty damn close, and not the classical slow, moaning and groaning variety either. These are the 28 days later types, fast, violent, and  lethal! Those will be after your ass when encountered!

This not a theory, this is happening in major cities like London and Mexico, where people have actually come back to life! In the article there is even a passage that tells the story of a 3 year old Dutch boy, that came back after dying from the flu, who attempted to kill his parents!

Odd coincidence is that this news came at the same time the latest and darkest zombie movie ever was released by Geoff Johns. Talk about art being an imitation of real life.

Perhaps that Mayan about 1012 is not that ridiculous after all, as we may very well have just witnessed the beginning of the end of the world as we know it! After all the specifics on how the world would come to halt, were not very specific(There is even ongoing discussion about the actual date).

In any case, now you are aware, decide for yourself, by reading the original BBC article, while I will take every precaution, in case the proverbial brains will start hitting the fan!

Dead Frontier is a Flash based Zombie survival game, created to play in your browser. A zombie arcade game is really nothing new, but what is exciting, is the fact that this particular game comes  as a multiplayer game, and has a large following, with 400 to 500 players playing the game online at any given time.

In case you are a graphics buff, this game is not for you, but if you are the type of gamer, who enjoys excellent game play, Dead Frontier may be just what you have been looking for.

The game is played with from a top down view, which is very similar looking to the first two installments of the still immensely popular Grand Theft Auto series. Currently there is only one map available to play on, but it has been rumored that new maps are underway.

The skills and performance of your character, are depending how well fed it is, and its overall health. These stats are displayed in the top right of your screen, along with any cash you have obtained. In order to stay healthy, you will need to loot the town, in order to survive, and that city has obviously been overrun with zombies, that are looking to do the same, only with your flesh in mind as a tasty dinner!

In the top left of the screen, the weapon you are holding is shown, new weapons can also be found in the city, or bought at the market. In case you have looted more then you need there is a marketplace where you can sell off any excess goods for cash.

At the start you are equipped with only a pocket knife, which basically is no match against the zombies, which are controlled by the computer(NPC). In case you encounter one of the undead creatures, more are bound to be nearby, and with only a tiny knife as you defense, you will be no match for them, so the first order of business is to upgrade your weapon into something you can actually use.

Whenever you have destroyed a zombie, experience points are gained, which are needed to reach higher levels, and also to fully develop your skills.

On the other hand whenever you get hurt by a zombie, small parts of your experience points will be lost, which makes the game hard, especially at the start when it is very likely to get injured, as you only have the tiny knife. In case you die, and have to re-spawn, all money accumulated will be lost.

Overall Dead Frontier is a straight up multiplayer game that is surprisingly fun to play. At the start it can be frustrating at times, but once you gain better weapons, more skills and basically get the hang of it, it is most enjoyable, and still a fully fledged MMO that is flash based, is still amazing, and shown the progress that has been made in that area of gaming.

Based on the popularity of the game, we can expect many exciting new features to get added is the game is developed further.

Every now and then, one comes across a gem disguised as a mediocre piece of cinema. Shaun of the Dead is such a piece. Upon first sight one would think to be dealing with just another zombie survival movie, but this one is right up there with cult masterpieces like Bad Taste and Brain-dead! However, it must be said that you must like dry British humor in order to appreciate this movie to its fullest.

At the beginning of the film we get to meet Shaun, a typical London underdog, sharing his house with his best friend, who is a the poster child for being a loser, has girl problems, and the only one looking up to him is his mate, because he is an even bigger loser then Shaun himself.

Suddenly(The cause remains unknown) the city is infested with zombies, craving flash, and it is up to Shaun to ensure he and his friends survive. There you have it, that is the whole story line for the movie. No twists, no deeper underlying stories, besides Shaun’s social and romantic problems, just your basic zombies want to eat you storyline.

The point and with it the strength of the movie does not come from the stories, but from the one liners, and at times ridiculous actions of the (anti)heroes in the movie. At times the movie looks like a parody of the well known ones like Resident Evil and 28 Days later, and though Shaun of the dead is a typical low budget movie, the effects are good enough to pull it off. The zombies look scary, and blood and guts is flying all over the place in true Bad taste tradition.

Throughout the entire movie we will see familiar situations, but carried out in parody style, while still maintaining the Zombie survival element. This is not a movie that could be compared to theme parodies, like the Scary Movie series, but nevertheless it is twice as funny, and entertaining.

As stated the dialogues are typically British, and you will either love that fact or hate it, but to me they were hilarious. In particular the scene where Shaun and his band of survivors, hold out at the local pub, with a horde of wild flesh craving Zombies clawing at the doors trying to get in. In the background terrible music is heard from the Jukebox, and loser Ed is trying to cheer up Shaun, who also just has been dumped, by stating “It’s not the end of the world.”.

Throughout the movie the story never gets boring, and hold the attention with ease. Silly situations, are compensated with decent zombie action, and the dialogues are brilliant, where even in the deadliest of situations, smart remarks and silly actions, keep coming at you like a steamroller!

Shaun of the dead turned out to be a big surprise for me in the positive sense of the word , and is a movie I can recommend to anyone who enjoys dry and dark parodies on the Zombie theme, British style!

What Tarantino is for movies, surely James Silva is for video games. One needs only to look at his classic Survival Crisis Z, to see what we are dealing with!

Survival horror, for some reason has always been synonym for 3D action, which started for me with Alone in the dark, after which I entered into the Resident Evil franchise, with a passion! It was this game, that won me over to the genre completely, it just has all the right ingredients. A well laid out gaming environment, good graphics(Considering its age) and absolutely awesome sounds, and of course it has zombies, lots and lots of zombies!

The game begins with your basic undead creature, the way we love them: Slow moving, moaning, and easy to kill(Flamethrower anyone?). At this point the game is easy to handle, it gives us the time to get into it, get used to the controls and get to know the environment. The zombies are not much of a challenge, so we can explore.

After having killed a few of the undead, it is about time to start doing the missions, after all the objective is to get to the bottom of the mystery, that caused these undead critters to start moving around.

From that point on it tense up, as the game pulls a 28 days later on us, introducing fast moving zombies, but that is merely the beginning. Strange children turn up, sirens are heard in the background, I could have sworn I wasn’t playing Silent Hill, or was I?

In short, any hope of finding a rational explanation for the events, are out the window, as we move into the realm of the supernatural, and as the popular sixties show the Twilight Zone taught us, in there normal things don’t happen very often.

What the game makes different is the creation of victims and zombies alike. As new ones are spawned by the games, zombies come at you, while humans will follow you, hoping you will get them to safety. One by one they will fall down, and while computer controlled interaction, is nothing new(GTA, would be the perfect example), in this case there is the twist of guilt, when you lose yet another innocent victim, even though they are just computer controlled animations. This sense is strengthened by the dialogues between those victims. All combined it gives a unique sensation, of chaos, and senseless deaths. This may sound silly over a zombie video game, but it is really quite effective, and the feel of this game, is truly unique in this sense.

Overall Crisis Z is a zombie game that is unique, with elements of games like Silent Hill, but most definitely it also has all the familiar ingredients of a zombie survival game. And the best part of it is that the game is actually free! You can download it at the Ska Studios web site, and works great under windows XP, and while I did not get around to testing it under Vista or Windows 7 you should have no problems running it in XP mode.  So download a copy and have fun with it!

Lying face down on the ground, while being torn, bitten and pulled, you await the end, and at this time you may contemplate: How did it come to this? How did you arrive to this point in time? By car, or by foot? Perhaps a motorcycle? Whatever the answer to this question, it clearly was the wrong choice to make during a Zombie Apocalypse. Let us analyze the situation, while there still is time, in order to prevent the above from happening.

Most soon to be zombies, will at this point mention some type of military weaponry, like a tank or armored truck to be the transportation of choice during a zombie outbreak of apocalyptic proportions. Well I called them soon to be zombies for a reason, as the last thing you need is attracting all attention to your person, by driving some enormous vehicle, that will most likely get the whole army of the undead on your ass. When surviving a zombie outbreak, common sense will prevail, instead of bravado which is best used at the battlefields.

Other better suited means of transportations can be obtained after your chosen destination is reached, so do not plan for anything more than for the trip to that destination. Armor, speed or load capacity are of no concern to a creature that is already dead. The only point of focus, while making your choice of transportation should be whether or not it will get you there safely, without attracting attention. Factors like how efficient the vehicle burns fuel are much more important then the question if it can kill zombies, and take half the street with it. Heavy duty machinery will be about as effective as they are today.

Selecting the right vehicle for the task, is a matter of knowing the terrain from start to finish. It means planning the safest way to get there, using the vehicle that will be most practical, avoiding confrontations with the undead if at all possible. If the trip requires to leave the paved roads and streets behind a two wheeled vehicle should be the transportation of choice, as it is more flexible, easier to maintain, and won’t take as much damage from prolonged exposure to hard terrain, as 4 wheelers will sustain. If the trip requires transporting lots of goods, 4 wheels should be preferred instead of two, or even better use animals, like horses or mules, as they can carry a lot, without giving away your position to every blood thirsty zombie in the area. In the event of travelling within a city, the trip should be made on foot, as it is too easy to become trapped inside a vehicle. Drive through a city equals certain, though temporary death, as you will soon join the ranks of the undead.

Travel by air or water also has its pros and cons. While on the water or in the air, you would be safe as zombies cannot fly or swim, but these types of transportation take much longer to get in the air or on the water. The decision to use them or leave them alone should be determined by the immediate situation of your location and that of the destination. When it is decided to use one of the two, the same common sense applies: Small boats and planes attract less attention than gunships and Jets.

Technology will be our best friend in the not so distant future, as new means for fuel are emerging, like solar powered vehicles, that make no noise, and are still as fast as their fossil fuel based counterparts. These will prove to be the vehicles of choice during a zombie outbreak and survive it, but for now, if a zombie apocalypse were to occur right now, you best keep the above in mind while choosing a vehicle to make a run to safety.

With the ever growing popularity of the Zombie survival gaming and movie genre, it was just a matter of time, until we would start to see remakes of all the great classic zombie flicks. The first to see the light of day was Dawn of the dead in 2004, which is supposed to be a remake of the 1978 classic masterpiece, many fans regard to be the mother of all great zombie movies.

Is the remake of Dawn of the Dead a bad copy of the original by George Romero? Not really, compared to the Zombie horror masterpiece from 1978 it looks like the new version, “borrowed” from movies like 28 days later, Resident Evil and the likes, with ultra fast zombies, that run and infect everyone they come into contact with.

In this remake there is not much left of the master’s vision of a world populated by slow moving undead zombies, moaning and groaning. The way Romero envisioned the world populated by the dead, looks more sinister, evil and downright scarier. In this new version the Zombies are much more lively, screaming, clawing and biting, which makes for excellent action scenes, with lots of blood and gore, but loses most of the sinister and scary atmosphere the original possesses.

This being said, the new Dawn of the Dead still makes for an entertaining zombie movie, that compensates the lack of atmosphere with loads and loads of action, of the kind we have never witnessed in any of the classic zombie movies before.

The movie starts right before the outbreak, with a regular wife going to sleep with her hubby, to wake up in the morning and find the neighbor’s child, infected and turned into a full scale zombie, biting the hubby. The ones kind hubby is immediately transformed into a bloodthirsty zombie, but his wife escapes, and teams up with other survivors of the outbreak. Eventually they end up at the famous mall, where they fortify themselves. So far the movie largely follows the original storyline.

From there the survivors star to drop off one by one, and the action really catches speed. At times Dawn of the dead almost looks and feels like some zombie games, you can play at the arcade sites, especially the scene at the roof of the mall where the bored survivors take bets to hit of a certain zombie, using a sniper gun.

After this scene, all hell starts to break lose, and we truly get to experience the full scope of the huge budget this movie has been granted, treating us to excellent make up effects, loads and loads of gore, and explosions that make the Lethal Weapon and Die Hard movies look like low budget movies.

Overall, Dawn of the Dead is an excellent Zombie movie, but I think it is not correct to call it a remake of the original from 1978, as it lacks the atmosphere and besides the fact that both movies revolve around a shopping mall, the similarities end there. The movie was a huge success, spawning two sequels, which I shall review at a later point in time.

Plant vs. Zombies was a big success among Iphone and Ipod users all over the world. At the moment it ranks as the #1 top selling game at the ITunes store, and also as the #1 paid application in general. This being said it should be a no brainer that the popular game is Apple’s top seller in the store, it is the most popular item to download, which is remarkable, taking into account that it has only been available since its release on February 15th of this year. Plants vs. Zombies is well underway to become one of the most popular arcade styled zombie games to date!

The zombie game is not a hard one to master, but proves to be highly addictive. It is not surprising that recently lots of news games turned up at the App store that have copied its game play. The game basically falls into the category of tower defense games, of which there are plenty around, only this time instead of weapons like rocket launchers, machinegun towers and the likes you use plants in order to defend your home against hordes of Zombies. The different types of plants, each with their own unique ability are placed strategically in order to make it impossible for the undead to reach and enter your home. Successful strategies will earn you sunshine points that will allow you to buy different types of plants. Needless to say that if you do not use enough, or the right type of plants, the undead creatures will reach your house and have you for lunch.

Game play – Rating: 9/10

As the game progresses it becomes more difficult, and ultimately a player will have 49 different types of plants to choose from and device a defense strategy with. The player will have only a selection of the 49 available species at his disposal at a time, and it will take just the right combination of attack and defense type of plants to keep all the different types of zombies at bay. The game starts simple and easy, providing a player with ample time to master the basics, and learn as he or she is playing the game. Surviving the levels unlocks new plant species, so as the game gradually progress the player gets more experienced and also learns how to use the many different types of plants. Zombie vs. Plants has all the advantages arcade games have over regular games, like the fact that they can be left and picked up again as time permits, making this type of games perfect for a quick round in between work, during breaks, or for a longer period. A round only takes a few minutes, so it’s perfect for this type of gaming. As the levels get higher, the playfield also gets more complex.

Graphics and Sound – Rating: 7/10

Plants vs. Zombies may fall into the zombie games category, it is far from frightening. The absence of blood and gore, make the whole experience rather funny, as heads and arms of the undead creatures get shot off, without spilling a drop of blood. It may not be a recommended game for really young children, but in general, this game is as harmless as they come. The plants are shaped and colored, in order to make it easy to remember their function and the zombies are equipped with items like shields and other things, which makes them harder to destroy. Each type of Zombie has its own strength and weaknesses, like zombies with shields are tough to destroy, but if attacked from behind they are defenseless.
Overall, the graphics and sounds are not the best but perfect for their purpose.

Overall – Rating: 9/10

Overall, Plants vs. Zombies is a funny Zombie game, that has a highly addictive quality, and is available for all platforms. The version I reviewed here was specific for the Iphone platform.

Due, to its popularity I would imagine that most of you will already have played it, but if not I highly recommend that you do. The game is available for sale at the ITunes store, or can be played for free on the better arcade sites on the web.

The interactive Zombies!!! game consists out of tiny armed plastic men, two decks of cards and a selection of small plastic zombies, that are in an advanced state of decay. Me and my four buddies took this game with the expectancy of having an hour of fun with it, but to our surprise we got over four hours of excellent game play, filled with strategy plots backstabbing each other, as we each made our way to the chopper in order to escape the zombie infested town, trying to saddle the others up with as many problems as humanly possible along the way. This game has a very simple set of rules, and the evil geniuses among us, will be able to do quite a lot of damage to our fellow players, in order to get to the Helipad first.

Take for example the card that will double the amount of zombies in any given building, and use it, a the precise moment a fellow player walks up to it in search of a weapon to protect himself. In this game it is everyone for him or herself, there is no place for nice guys and girls here. If you are the type of person who has to rely on others to make it through a game you should definitely leave this game alone, as it will only be a source of frustration for you.

If you like these type of interactive board games, the only recommendation I would have regarding Zombies!!! would be to additionally purchase a second set of Zombies(One set carries 100 members of the undead) as we ran out of zombies quite fast, after using card after card to to bombard our opponents with waves of the undead creatures. When applying this strategy to the game, the number of zombies in the game increases significantly, and just the one set that comes with the game simply cannot sustain it.

In any case, I have just ordered 2 more zombie expansion packs, and am waiting for them to arrive. Overall this game is a load of fun, and all of us are looking forward to our next round of Zombies!!!

Zombies!!! is an excellent interactive board game, that will provide you with the same thrills and chills, the zombie classics gave you, and is a recommended party favor for any Halloween party among friends, or when you are simply hanging out with your friends and feel like sitting down and have some good, clean old fashioned zombie fun.

Besides the extra Zombie packs, there are several other expansion sets available that will keep this game a bundle of zombie fun for a long time to come, as they deliver other zombie types, new locations to explore and additional rules, to keep things interesting.

If you are a fan of the genre and enjoyed all the popular zombie movies like Dawn of the dead, Land of the dead, Zombie land and the likes, this is one game you will not want to miss out on.

Capcom is without a shred of doubt the most experienced zombie games developer on the planet. Through developing part after part of their world famous and still ongoing Resident Evil series, they set the standards, all other followed.

While the Resident Evil franchise still is as popular as ever, with no signs of decay, we were pleasantly surprised with yet another game revolving around the undead that came from their hands.

Dead Rising, is one of the better Zombie games that are being released for the Xbox 360 and to our further surprise the game bears no resemblance to their Resident Evil series at all. Where Resident Evil gets its strength from the horror atmosphere combined with shock effects, Dead Rising is a fast paced action game, with zombies that are much faster destroyed, but in larger numbers, making the undead creatures as deadly as ever. When we say larger numbers we actually do mean larger numbers. Players will be facing hordes of zombies that go into the hundreds, resulting in a lot of fun to play the game, killing the zombies like there is no tomorrow, (which there probably isn’t, should they get you).

The main weak spot of the game lies in the repetition of the game, as is the case with most games in this genre. Players will find themselves killing zombies, over and over again, and there are only so many ways to kill a zombie. Nevertheless, the fun in playing this game easily outweighs these short comings that seem to be structural within the genre.

The story of the game revolves around A journalist by the name of Frank West, who has built his career by reporting on wars and other atrocities. In a small town called Willamette, Colorado the proverbial shit seems to have hit the fan, as roads leading to it are blocked off by the military and communication is dead from and to the town.

Frank, being a true reporter, quickly rents a helicopter when he learns of this and flies off to what he believes will be the crown jewel to top his career. When he stumbles on hordes of Zombies, he takes a few pictures, and then has the helicopter pilot drop him off at the roof of the largest building in town; the shopping mall. He instructs the pilot to come back for him in 3 days, and from that point on he is alone.

The journey through the huge shopping mall takes Frank to the key survivors of the game, and from that point on the story unfolds in a linear fashion, leading Frank from case file to case file, which function as the gaming missions. Basically Frank has 3 days(72 gaming hours) to get the full story and get out of the town. The case files determine where Frank must go next, and at what time he must arrive there, so the development is pretty much fixed, but on occasion some bonus missions pop up, which are not mandatory, but do disclose more of the storyline.

The game has several gaming modes that can be unlocked, and the game is good for many hours of gaming. With Dead Rising Capcom has once delivered a masterpiece in the Zombie games genre, other can look at for inspiration.

Plane dead

Compared to other movies of the genre, Plane Dead does not match up to famous titles like Dawn of the Dead and 28 days later. Plane dead was Scott Thomas’s first attempt of making a zombie movie, and his inexperience clearly shows, as the movie fails to deliver where others have turned the premise of a zombie situation in a closed environment into the strong point of the movie. This one does not and is therefore an opportunity missed.

The story goes about 2 scientists and the owner of a company engaged in projects to deliver the perfect soldier, who will continue fighting after sustaining critical injuries at the battle field. Surprisingly the government find the side effects(Zombies) unacceptable, and attempts to terminate the project, but the company owner and two scientist escape with the body of the wife of one of the scientist who is infected, and in a frozen state. As it appears the military does not consider  the fact that the infected turn into undead creatures, infecting everyone they bite into one a good thing, as opposed to the company which has it documented as a benefit.
The above is about the only unexpected part of the movie though, so don’t expect much more from it.

The owner called Dr. Bennet and his two accomplices, book a flight and board the plane with their undead cargo, and take off. During the flight the plane encounters some heavy turbulence and the shocks to the plane damages the case that holds the infected woman. Of course she wakes up, transforms, and the rest is not hard to guess. Like with all zombie movies, once bitten or killed the victims turn into zombies themselves, and before you know it you have a plane full of zombies on your hands with a handful of humans fighting for survival.

The survivors that are getting picked off one by one are your basic assembly: a cop, a crook, a stewardess, a vigilante, a pro golf player and his wife, along with the devious owner of the company that developed the virus. They try to barricade themselves, while the plane is flying on autopilot, on route to its destination.

Ultimately the government(Or more specific its military) catches up with them, tracks the plane and decides to terminate it, before it can reach a populated area. The survivors are faced with having 30 seconds to show signs of life, which they fail to do and the plane gets shot down.

The effects used in Plane dead are mainly CGI effects, which works ok, but never delivers anything outstanding. What the movie lacks most is humor. Props need to be given to Kevin J. O’Connor who plays the crook who is in custody of the cop. He is the only actor in the movie that successfully attempts to bring any humor into the dialogues, and without his performance, the movie would have been one big  massacre scene and no more. Sadly that is not enough to save the movie as a whole.

Plane Dead is a movie only the diehard zombie fans will enjoy, but for a more demanding audience, Plane Dead is one to leave at the shelves of the DVD store.