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Dead Island novel brings dead people to dead trees
It's not that you don't want to play Dead Island -- of course you do. You love mangling zombies as much as the next thumbstick jockey. It's just ... what if she's there? You know ... the one from the trailer? It's bad enough that little Zombie Stephanie haunts your nightmares, but what if you should meet her in-game and have to stab her with a garden trowel? Shhh, it's all right. We've got a solution for you: the Dead Island novelization arriving alongside the game from Bantam. The author, Mark Morris, is a successful horror writer in his own right, but he's also written novels featuring Doctor Who and Torchwood, so playing in someone else's world is nothing new for him. We can't promise the little girl won't make an appearance, but at least if she does you'll be able to close the book and go get some warm milk. That's right, just set it down, walk to the kitchen, open the fridge -- OH GOD SHE'S IN THE FRIDGE! ... Sorry, she's not. Zombie Stephanie's not in the fridge. We just couldn't help ourselves.
Catherine heading to Europe with Deep Silver
Catherine is packing her bags for Europe. Atlus and European publisher Deep Silver have formed a professional relationship that will see the dramatic puzzle game making its way to PAL territories. Catherine will get some language lessons on the way, offering localized text in French, Italian, German and Spanish. Atlus explained to us earlier this week that the company couldn't announce Catherine's European plans until it locked down a European publisher. The one thing missing from today's announcement is a launch window, something we hope to get during Europe's Gamescom convention, which is just a few weeks away.
Pre-purchase Dead Island on Steam, get free DLC and weapon
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Ripper (no relation). As our more astute readers have no doubt already noticed, the Ripper is a baseball bat combined with a rotary saw. It's available for free to those who pre-purchase Dead Island on Steam. The Bloodbath Arena DLC is another pre-order bonus, and pits players against multiple waves of zombies. Players earn cash and XP in Bloodbath Arena, all of which is carried over into the main campaign. The arena also includes a new weapon, the Sonic Pulse Grenade. Dead Island is asking a $50 entry fee on Steam -- or, if you've got three reliable friends, a four-pack will set you back $150, essentially knocking the individual price down to $37.50. But can you really put a price on a baseball-bat slash power-saw thing?
Dead Island trailer wins Gold award at Cannes ... advertising festival
Remember that excellent Dead Island teaser that spawned a nontroversy over its lack of gameplay footage? Well, it just won an award in Cannes. But in the interest of clarity, we should note: This Cannes award isn't for the prestigious Cannes International Film Festival; rather, it's for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, a "global meeting place for creative professionals in the communications industry." Yeah, it's an advertising award, not a film award, but that's okay – it is an ad, after all, and the Cannes event is a major focal point in the ad world. The Axis Animation-developed short won a Gold prize for Internet Film, alongside massive brands like Google and Skittles. Not bad for a zombie game by an unsung Polish developer, Techland, and a relatively unknown publisher, Deep Silver.
Risen 2: Dark Waters preview: Murky depths
There's an interesting trend lately of hardcore PC RPGs coming out of Europe, of which The Witcher 2 is only the latest and greatest so far. One of the earliest entries in this sort of splinter genre was 2001's Gothic, a game that was extremely popular among its European audience despite being the first title put together by German developers Pirahna Bytes. After a few Gothic sequels, the company introduced a new Pirate-themed RPG a few years ago called Risen and, this past week at E3, introduced that game's sequel to all of us. Just like the rest of this crop of European RPGs, Risen 2 seems a quality RPG wrapped in a not-so-great game. The graphics are definitely better, and the controls are a little more usable than they were (Deep Silver, who's publishing the game, went so far as to show off bugs in the last version to the press just to make clear how much better the sequel was). But in the end, Risen 2 seems like it will have all of the pluses and minuses that this type of RPG always seems to have. %Gallery-125724%
Dead Island preview: Surviving together is three quarters of the fun
If you ain't plannin' on dying together, you'd best get learnin' to fight together. We got our first bite of Dead Island's co-op at E3, which adds a lot more dimension to the overall game than the single-player experience we had before. Getting the zombified elephant out of the room first, though, publisher Deep Silver says the game's animations and combat feel aren't yet finalized yet. A good thing, since many of the melee weapons still aren't satisfying. For a game that has three of its four core characters focused on beating the infected stuffing out of the undead, the melee looks like chaotic slashing and feels incongruent with the effort put into the rest of the game. That's not to say all the melee weapons feel awkward, which makes the whole situation even more bizarre to explain. The baseball bats actually seem to have a heft to them, so when you're attacking a zombie there's a reaction. You'd expect the same kind of look from a heavy metal rod, but it just doesn't seem to jive. Whether it's the animations, zombie reactions or something I'm just not pinpointing, the melee combat still needs work. I didn't have an opportunity to try out a gun, but Dead Island if very focused on melee combat being core to the overall experience. As for the co-op of Dead Island, now that's something worth possibly getting stuck on an island of the undead for. %Gallery-125726%
Dead Island welcoming tourists on September 6
Sure, you could spend a weekend at Bernie's this fall, but Deep Silver and Techland are hoping you'll choose to pay a visit to Dead Island instead. The publisher-developer duo has just announced a September 6, 2011 release date for the game in North America, with the rest of the world getting it on September 9. As one partygoer finds out in the latest trailer for the game, being a drunken fool on an island resort during a concert is a great way to ensure a rough morning. Rather than the usual hangover and list of regrets, though, he wakes up to an island-wide zombie infestation. Sorry dude!
Dead Island box art needs longer incubation
Dead Island nailed its first cinematic trailer, and followed up with an amazing preview. Comparatively, the box art looks a bit lifeless. A fresher concept that took us two minutes to create can be found after the break, along with official box images.
Dead Island gameplay tour trailer
Be sure to watch this audio-visual version of our Dead Island preview experience for a deeper look at the zombie survival RPG's gameplay.
Dead Island trailer piles on the sadness
The latest trailer for Dead Island is just as sappy and pianoed as the first. It's as pretty and poignant as the game's startling debut, but we're worried it might not match the tone of the actual title. For instance, if there's not a "cry over your dead family" button, we'll be sorely disappointed.
Dead Island preview: Reality bites
Following our initial look at Dead Island back at GDC, I recently got our first chance to play the game for real. And "real" is the appropriate word here. Despite the zombies, wacky weapon combinations and a creepy Lost vibe, Dead Island does a lot to emphasize the reality of your admittedly unbelievable situation. It starts right away in the demo, with an opening first-person cinematic that has my character living it up at one of the island's clubs, as signs of the big Z start to appear at the corners of my blurred, drunken vision. Is that woman just resting in the booth over there or is that blood near her head? Wait -- did that man just bite his date? Eventually, I'm too drunk to tell or even care, passing out in a nearby corner. This is when the game proper starts. %Gallery-123630%
Egosoft's 'X Rebirth' brings the space exploration series back to life
The X series is back! No, not Mega Man X or the Game Boy tank game X (that one did see a sequel last year, though), but the open-ended space simulation series that began with X: Beyond the Frontier in 1999. Developer Egosoft has announced a new sequel to the PC series, X Rebirth, to be published by Deep Silver in the fourth quarter of this year. X Rebirth promises the same kind of Elite-style exploration and trading found in the previous games, but with "a whole new user experience." Trading, combat, and exploration ("with fast travel") are all part of the adventure. If that sounds good, you can see more in the trailer after the break.
Risen 2: Dark Waters teaser is all about pirates, see
Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to present to you the latest trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. What? Oh, sorry! In actuality, it's the teaser for Risen 2: Dark Waters -- a pirate-y action-RPG that looks to have a fair bit of flair, if this CG footage is anything to go by.
Duke Nukem: Critical Mass trailer skips the PSP version for good reason
After a mysterious quiet period (which is totally uncharacteristic for a Duke Nukem game), Deep Silver and Apogee are planning to release Duke Nukem: Critical Mass for DS this week in Europe and next month in North America. You can see it in action in the trailer after the break, and, well ... it looks like a thoroughly humiliating experience, narrated by Jon St. John. Surprisingly, the press release accompanying the trailer says that the PSP version is coming out at the same time -- but Deep Silver informs us that it was actually canceled. So if you're in Europe and in line for Critical Mass on PSP ... go home.
Dead Island's Sam B. wonders who you voodoo
Techland has dropped a handful of new screens from Dead Island, showcasing a character by the name of Sam B, a "one-hit-wonder rap star of fading fame." It seems Sam came to the Royal Palms resort to perform his hit song "Who Do You Voodoo?" which, of course, reminds us of the babe.
Duke Nukem: Critical Mass for DS is apparently still happening
You may remember Duke Nukem Trilogy as a trailer and nothing else, but allow us to refresh your memory about this particular illusory Duke Nukem game: it was a set of three Duke adventures announced by Deep Silver and Apogee for PSP and DS. But then the games lost their Duke license ... or something, and the first one, Duke Nukem: Critical Mass, was being developed as "Extraction Point: Alien Shootout." And now it's back as Duke Nukem: Critical Mass, and coming out in Europe on April 8. Publisher Deep Silver tells Joystiq that it is still slated for release in North America, with a release window around May. In addition, Apogee tweeted that "The Duke Nukem License was never yanked. Apogee owns the agreement for the license, not some third party work for hire developer." Faced with that curveball, we've asked Apogee and Deep Silver exactly what happened, and exactly what is happening. All we can say -- and this is advice that's backed up by recent events -- is don't trust anything Duke-related until you see a game in a store.
New Dead Island screens get up close and personal
Ever wondered what it would be like to be a brain in the head a human who's about to be picked apart by a raging, undead horde? This latest batch of screens for Techland's Dead Island affords us just such a perspective -- a brain's-eye-view, if you will.
New Dead Island screens to make you scream
Re-introduced in one of the most memorable trailers in recent years, Techland's undead-filled action game Dead Island was looking great when we saw it at GDC. Now the dev has dropped three new shots of its blood-soaked environments and a giant zombie in a straight jacket. See 'em after the break.
Dead Island preview: Paradise in shambles
Last month's debut of the emotionally-charged trailer for Dead Island, a game completely forgotten (if ever known at all), instantly rocketed developer Techland's zombie vacation nightmare into the spotlight, spawning a number of homages and an absolute thirst to know: Could the game possibly be as good as the cinematic teaser? After witnessing an all-too-brief gameplay demo at GDC this week, I began to answer that question for myself, likening Dead Island to a mash-up of Dead Rising 2, Borderlands, Breakdown and, to a much lesser extent than you'd think, Left 4 Dead 2 -- oh, and even some Far Cry 2 sprinkled in there. That sounds a bit chaotic, sure, but this is a zombie game. Dead Island begins shortly after the zombie emergence depicted in the dramatic trailer, with players controlling one of four possible lead characters, each representing a different class. In the demo I was shown, the developer played as the "tank" character -- powerful, but slow. %Gallery-118289%
Become a pirate of Dark Waters in Risen 2
Piranha Bytes is lifting its Risen series out of generic fantasy land, and dropping it into the high seas. Risen 2: Dark Waters, coming to "consoles and PC," is a seafaring RPG set in a destroyed world, years after the end of the first game. The hero sets out to discover what's causing monsters to rise out of the sea, sailing from island to island and getting mixed up with pirates. Players can expect the same kind of open-world RPG gameplay, but now on a series of islands. The sequel "maintains the most immersive features of the original Risen, with multiple approaches to every challenge allowing players to shape the game world based on their own decisions." Let's hope Piranha Bytes shapes its own game world the right way the first time, so it doesn't have to rebuild the console game as it did the original.%Gallery-117292%
