Unplugged Wednesday - Walking Dead

Hello and Welcome.

Well, I originally wanted to write about World War Z or the Zombie Survival Guide (both by Max Brooks), but I haven't read enough yet to give a good opinion on it (only to say that I love it, and it is a thinly veiled political commentary).  Instead, we are going to post a peice that Nate wrote on Walking Dead a while back.  Enjoy!

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Quick, name two things that are awesome. Zombies you say? I think I heard comics from somewhere in the back. Zombies and comics actually make the perfect match. First up, because I have to make a throwaway mention to the fantastic cover art, the Marvel Zombies comics are decent. The plot is funny and the art is really good, but there is really no substance beyond that. The zombie comic I'm here to talk about is one that I've been behind for about 2 or 3 years now: The Walking Dead.

All of the best zombie stories aren't just about zombies. The zombies are just a backdrop for the artist to build a canvas to tell the story of humans and the way they respond to fear or catastrophe, and The Walking Dead is extremely good at this. Yeah, there are some really great scenes of zombies getting their heads chopped off and people getting all eaten up, but the true strength of the series is the characters.

The story revolves around Rick, who was a police officer in a small Georgia town (yay) when he was shot and fell into a coma. When Rick wakes up, the dead have risen and his hospital and town have been overrun by zombies. Rick then leaves to head to Atlanta to (hopefully) find his wife and son. What follows is a fantastically well written survival story, not just of Rick, but of the people he encounters. They are constantly facing trouble within the pages, but this rarely comes from the zombies (at least later on). The survivors are forced to learn how to create their own society in a post-apocalyptic world, and the author (Robert Kirkman) does a great job in pulling all the difficulties together. Also, seeing as this is a comic, I cannot neglect the wonderful art style. The entire series is done in beautiful black and white that perfectly matches the mood of the writing.

Since I don't have a comic shop around here, I've been getting the series as it comes out in collected trade form and I'm up through Volume 8, so that's what I'm currently talking about. The series does a great job of changing everything each few issues (I don't want to spoil everything, since I think it would be a good idea for everyone who likes zombies to go ahead and pick this up). Pretty much all I'm trying to say here is that if you like zombies, this is some of the best stuff out there (outside of the two Max Brooks books - which will be discussed at some point soon, I should think), and you should be reading it.

New Release Tuesday: Left 4 Dead

Ever since I heard of its existence, I have been waiting to play Left 4 Dead. When the demo finally came out a few weeks back, I logged in and played the 30 minute piece nearly 20 times all the way through on all of the difficulty levels. Needless to say, when my copy arrived last week, I peed myself.

It must be said starting out that this game is not meant to be played single player. Although the AI characters do a great job of making smart decisions and healing you (and each other) when necessary, it is nowhere near as fun to play with the computer as it is to play with friends. Friends make mistakes (sometimes on purpose), and friends know how to communicate best with you.

Outside of the horde of regular zombies that you must fight your way past as you move to the rescue station or safe house, the game introduces 5 super zombies to make your journey that much more difficult. Smokers and Hunters are similar, in that they will lurk in the dark and try to either pounce on you (Hunters) or grab you with their tongue (Smokers) at that exact moment that you weren't paying attention and deal out some damage before your buddies can rescue you. Boomers will wait just around a corner just for the chance to either vomit on you, or be close enough that when you kill them, they explode on you. Outside of this being pretty disgusting, it also draws the horde directly to you and you have to fight them off while being temporarily blinded by the green gunk all over the screen.

The final two super zombies are complete bullet sinks and require a bit of work to get past. The Tank is exactly what he sound like - huge and nigh-unstoppable. He requires that everyone in the group focus on him until he drops, because if he gets close to anyone, there is little chance that they can get away without being injured in some capacity or another. Finally, the Witch is best left undisturbed. As soon as you start to hear crying, cut your lights off and keep your eyes open. If the Witch gets disturbed by you shooting next to her or your lights flashing on her, whoever did it, is incapacitated in one hit, and if everyone isn't fast enough to take her down after that, that person is dead.

Now, all of these super zombies (except the Witch) are controllable in the Versus mode, but since I haven't had enough time to sink into that mode, I can't comment much on it yet (I've been spending my time trying to survive the story modes).

Speaking of story, although it isn't necessary at all since all you do is try to survive from point A to point B and call in the rescue, Valve has done an awesome job with telling the story just through the environment. Any time I get to a safe house, I have to hang around for a good 5 minutes to read everything that is written on the walls. Sometimes it provides some hints for gameplay (like avoiding the witches), but largely it just gives the entire world some depth, as you read about people who couldn't wait any longer for a loved one or people who have left their theories on the time it takes to turn into a zombie.

Valve is all about making quality games, and Left 4 Dead is no exception. It is the best zombie game I've ever played.

Zombie Week.

Hello and welcome.

Well, We don't really have a good update for today. As Zombies!!! isn't out yet, nor is there any DLC for Left 4 Dead, and the GTA IV Zombies thing isn't official yet.

So, Just letting you know that it is zombie week here.  Hope you are looking forward to it!

 

Make sure you get a lot to eat this week, cause you are gonna need it to fight the invasion!

~K

Freeplay Friday - Sonny

Hello and Welcome.

The rate at which flash games are developing now astounds me.  Previously flash games where relegated to puzzle games like Chuzzle, or word games like Text Twist.  But now you can play full on FPS games or RPGs, and some of them are actually good!

Which brings us to our freeplay game of the week: Sonny.

Sonny is a Tactical RPG on the Kongregate site.  Kongregate is a collection of Flash games and a place for flash game developers to, well, congregate and share there stuff.   Kongregate also offers achievements(for you achievement whores)  and a slew of other features.  Plus it is free.

Sonny is bassically a loot whore game ala Diablo, but with turnbased RPG gameplay.  Sonny wakes up on a ship after a blind man resucitates him.  What Sonny doesn't even know about himself is, he is a zombie.  Nevertheless he proceeds to irradicate zombies, and zombie hunters alike.

Utilizing skill trees and attributes very similar again to Diablo, Sonny eventually learns a vast repitoire of skills that he can use in his skill loadout.

The main (simple) reason I like Sonny, is each piece of armor/weapon you find is clearly visible on your characters.

Sonny Battles

Despite being a flash game, sunny is fairly deep and offers many hours of game play.  Can't play it for many hours?  Well, like all good RPGs sunny utilizes a save game feature.  As long as you play from the same computer that is.

Sonny, and all the games on Kongregate, are free to play.  So what are you waiting for?

~K