AMC is developing a spin-off for The Walking Dead with creator Robert Kirkman and show producers Dave Alpert and Gale Anne Hurd. The show would involve new characters and locations not in the current show.
This is a smart choice for AMC, even if some will roll their eyes at it. The Walking Dead is AMC’s highest rated show and a spin-off is logical considering Breaking Bad is ending in a few weeks and Mad Men’s seventh season will be its last. They have already given a go for the Breaking Bad prequel, Better Call Saul.
The prison is not looking like the safest place to be in the new poster for The Walking Dead. Rick and his group of survivors will bring in people from Woodbury while someone on the inside begins to sabotage their defenses. Also don’t forget that The Governor is still riding around somewhere and will be wanting his revenge.
If you have an insatiable urge to kill the undead then [amazon_link id=”B00DB90AHA” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Dead Rising 3[/amazon_link] is your fix. The [amazon_link id=”B00CMQTVMI” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Xbox One[/amazon_link] launch title is looking more an more like the Dead Rising we know the more we see it. A new gameplay trailer shows off a small variety of the ways to keep the hordes of zombies at bay including flaming swords, firearms and even breathing fire.
As big a fan of The Walking Dead as I am (both comic and show), there is no way to say that Season 2 was not a little boring and really felt stretched too thin to make 16 episodes. Gladly, Season 3 seemed to address those issues and it really began to show what it is capable of with much better pacing with split stories between the prison and Woodbury as well as the inclusion of new characters that fans cared about.
We are a little over a month away from Season 4 and AMC is turning up the promotion dial to ten including a sneek peek during last night’s Low Winter Sun. It is only 45 seconds, but it is 45 seconds of Michonne so enjoy it.
I have been looking forward to State of Decay since last summer when Undead Labs announced the project for the Xbox Live Arcade. An open-world zombie survival game that lets me live out my dreams of a zombie apocalypse without all the…you know…death, destruction and general end of the world stuff? You could not sign me up quicker. But still, some hesitation remained. This was a twenty dollar XBLA title after all. There was a good chance that expectations could be run head first into a brick wall, but I am happy to say that State of Decay is easily one of the best deals you will ever find and one of the most fun times you can ever have with zombies…you know, if you’re looking for that kind of stuff.
The best way to describe State of Decay is “open-world zombie survival”. You will begin the game as a man called Marcus, but this is not a singular story. You will quickly learn that this is not a game with one protagonist. You will meet new characters throughout and have the ability to swap to them anytime during the game. As you and your rag tag band of survivors make shelter in a church you will learn that killing zombies is only a (fun as hell) portion. State of Decay is about as close as you will get to dealing with the minutia of day to day life in the zombie apocalypse. You need food, medicine, gas, weapons and so much more to survive and these items do not magically appear like manna from heaven. You must go out into the world and search.
You must go out and search through houses, gas stations, fast food restaurants, backwoods hillbilly homes and too much more to name to keep your group going. Each of your characters only have a finite amount of inventory space depending on what you left on your run with. Did you take two melee weapons in case one breaks while fighting off zombies? Did you remember some aspirin or morphine for a health boost? There will be times where you simply can not carry back what you need so you will have to make multiple trips or leave supplies behind. That is the beautiful thing about State of Decay. Like The Walking Dead (the comic or the show), there is a risk reward whenever you go outside the confines of your home base. You have to get supplies back to your group to keep the morale level up and help with your influence (of which both have actual value in the game) and all without trying to get eaten because if that happens….
Permadeath.
That’s right. The dreaded word only uttered in certain games. Now do not think that this means the end of the game. No, this simply means you will swap to another survivor in your group to continue on and fight, but I will tell you that nothing hurts worse than having a character that you have played with for hours on end and leveled up through multiple missions and close calls fall while trying to secure some meds for the group. Then you swap to another character that is still lingering around at level one that you don’t particularly like, but oh well, you gotta keep on going or the zombies win.
When you begin to get deep into State of Decay it can almost seem overwhelming and that is what the people at Undead Labs wanted you to feel. Not only do you have whatever character you are controlling at the time to worry about, but everyone in the group will have their own set of problems that you need to help out on. Members will go missing (to an annoying extent) and you will have to go and search for them. Leaving them out there means certain death and even though they were a dumbass for leaving you can not afford to lose anyone. You also have the ability to go out into the world and forge relationships with other groups of survivors and trade goods and services with them. At random times you will receive news that someone needs your assistance, but you may be already in the middle of a mission and must decide on the greater good. State of Decay will make you make choices. Get used to it.
Now sometimes it can’t all be doom and gloom. You need to let off some steam every now and then and I will tell you how I accomplish this. I take someone from my group that is a level one and don’t have any particular attachment to. Backpack them up with multiple melee weapons (lead pipe, machete, etc.) a host of molotovs and some health. Get in the truck and drive out for some “me” time. Just let loose and keep hacking at zombies until your weapons are depleted and no more health is left then get back to base mowing down every zombie I can find in my F-150 lookalike.
Side note: you can open your driver side door while driving and whack zombies at full speed. This can not be more satisfying and may end up being my top guilty pleasure moment this year in gaming.
Photo courtesy undeadlabs.com
State of Decay is not without some issues. This is not a triple-A beautiful game obviously. There is a ton of pop-up and clipping and general wonkiness when it comes to the graphics. When you weigh this against how much fun you are having for a twenty dollar game it is easily forgiven. Camera issues are prevalent especially inside houses when the action gets heavy and will lead to many “oh shit, jump out a window!” moments. Driving is serviceable at best. You can get where you need to go with ease, but don’t expect any kind of hairpin turning like you would get from Sleeping Dogs. The problems are really negligible and only are posted here for full disclosure. Nothing that I found lacking in the game took away from the huge amount of fun I was having trying to decide if I should let an infected group member stay in my camp or just invite them to “go for a walk” which in my world means “I will be lopping your head off with a giant knife”.
Don’t be fooled. For twenty bucks State of Decay is giving you all of your hopes and dreams of seeing if you could survive in the zombie apocalypse in one package. It can be a bit overwhelming at first, but once you get down the fact that you will have to make choices and can not complete every task put before you, there is an insane amount of entertainment to be derived from this game. Whether it is micro-managing the day to day activities of your base, to fortifying your defenses, making supply runs, gaining new allies or even just having a blast running over every zombie horde you see in the streets, State of Decay is easily the best value you will find on Xbox Live this year.
At the very least it will occupy your time until The Walking Dead returns.
Dead Island developer Techland is back and they are staying in the genre that made them famous: zombies. Dying Light is a first-person action game that will have you thinking more Mirror’s Edge with zombies than just another Dead Island.
The new E3 trailer for the game is just as well made at the original Dead Island video that put that game on the map and while the Dying Light video may not tug at your heartstrings it certainly conveys the hopelessness in this society and has a great “pull the rug out from under you” part.
If Techland can correct a lot of the jankiness that accompanied Dead Island and get the smooth, free running gameplay of Mirror’s Edge down, they could be looking at a winner.
Dying Light releases in 2014 for Xbox One and PS4.
I extend the same challenge to you. Watch this trailer for Gallowwalkers, a 2006 Wesley Snipes movie that is just now being released. Snipes stars in this zombie western where a famous gunslinger’s dead enemies all begin to come back to life as zombies. How bad can one movie sound? Better question being, how soon can I watch this thing??
You read that right. Here is the rundown again:
Wesley Snipes
Zombies
Cowboys
Wesley Snipes
Zombies
I will unashamedly say that I will be renting this just for the mere fact that five years from now when someone asks, “Holy crap, have you heard of a Wesley Snipes zombie killing western?!” I will say, “Yes. And it was glorious”.
Well let’s add another game to the huge tsunami of games coming out this spring. Activision’s [amazon_link id=”B008J16ARY” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct[/amazon_link] , the first person survival shooter based on the AMC show (not the comics) is jumping head first into the deep end of the video game pool by releasing on the same day as Bioshock Infinite.
The game will follow brother Merle and Daryl (voiced by show actors, Michael Rooker and Norman Reedus) as they make their way through Atlanta in events that pre-date the show. Activision is playing up the survival aspect of the game saying that supplies will be few and far between so conservation and smart play will be necessary.
The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct will release on March 26th.
Continuing the tradition of “if it’s a game, it must have a collector’s edition”, Deep Silver revealed the Dead Island Riptide Rigor Mortis Edition. Housed in a handy replica suitcase complete with travel stickers from around the world, the collector’s edition will come with the game (duh), a zombie hula bobble figurine, key with Dead Island keychain, and bottle opener that looks like a severed zombie arm.
All of this will cost you $79.99, so be very sure of how much you love bobble figures and fake keys that open nothing before you spend the extra 20 bucks.
[amazon_link id=”B00886WO7A” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Dead Island Riptide[/amazon_link] releases on April 23rd.
Here is a good way to pass the time while waiting on The Walking Dead to return in February. Order yourself this insanely awesome shirt mash-up from Shirtoid.com. I gotta hand it to whoever made it, this is one great design for a shirt, poster, keychain, underwear. Heck, put this design on a coffee mug and I would think about buying it and I hate coffee.
