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Making the Call of the Dead: Treyarch on Black Ops' celebrity zombie-fest
Most of the content in the new Call of Duty: Black Ops DLC is pretty standard for the military shooter genre -- a few new maps for $15. But the "Escalation" has one obvious standout in "Call of the Dead", a new map for the game's Zombies mode. Out of the blue, Treyarch hired B-movie legends like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Robert Englund, Michael Rooker and Danny Trejo -- all posing as themselves -- and pitted them against the unrelenting waves of the undead, and even brought zombie master George Romero into the mix as a boss. The Zombie mode itself has always been presented as tongue-in-cheek fan service (the original mode from World at War had players fighting Nazi Zombies, and maps since then have included zombie monkeys and mad scientists), but "Call of the Dead" takes the goofiness even further. So, how exactly did this happen? Joystiq cornered Zombies creative lead Jimmy Zielinski at a press event for the map pack earlier this week, and asked him how the developer decided to use some of the most familiar names in horror and monster film history for just one map in an add-on pack.
George Romero's App of the Dead shambles to the App Store soon
To put it lightly, George Romero hasn't had the best of luck in recent years. His past few films haven't been that great, and the last game he had his name slapped on a game (2005's Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler's Green), wasn't received well. We say this because his name is being slapped onto another game: App of the Dead, coming to iPhone and iPod Touch. Developed by Additive Games, this tie-in to Romero's latest movie, Survival of the Dead (which you can actually rent right now on Amazon) offers a "unique first person shooter mechanic to lay waste to your zombified pals and loved ones." It lets you save photos of your friends and family so that you can kill them in a zombie game. That should add an interesting dynamic to the next family get-together, eh? There's currently no timeframe for release, price, nor are there any screens or video to go on right now. With Survival of the Dead opening in theaters on May 28, we're willing to bet it'll be available for download soon. We'll keep you posted.
Judge shoots Dead Rising lawsuit in the head
US Magistrate Judge Richard Seeborg has dismissed MKR Group's lawsuit claiming that Capcom's Dead Rising infringed on the copyrights of its horror film, Dawn of the Dead. The judge agreed with Capcom's argument that the few similarities that MKR Group could cite were overridden by "the wholly unprotectable concept of humans battling zombies in a mall during a zombie outbreak."The best part is that the judge sided on one issue with Capcom in the most back-handed way possible. MKR alleged as one of its complaints that the two works were parodies of rampant consumerism. Seeborg wrote in his decision that the theme of Dead Rising is "confined to the killing of zombies" in an attempt to discover the cause of a zombie infestation, and "the social commentary MKR draws from Dawn of the Dead, in other words, appears totally absent from the combat focus found in Dead Rising." We see the judge's point that the "theme" of consumerism isn't throughout the game, but it certainly is the catalyst for the events. You want spoilers, check the Wiki page.
Dead Rising v. Dawn of the Dead - Round 2
Just before our extensive coverage of GDC08 began, we heard that Capcom had filed an injunction against a possible lawsuit from MKR Group, the folks that own the rights to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead in response to a threat of action for the similarities in story to Capcom's Dead Rising. Low and behold, early yesterday Reuters reported that MKR Group had filed suit against Capcom for the use of "zombies attacking a mall" storyline in Dead Rising which was the central theme in George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead. While the Capcom injunction claimed, "humans battling zombies in a shopping mall" is a "wholly unprotectible [sic] idea," the filing from MKR Group disputed the claim and called the scenario and execution too similar saying, "In both, the recreational activities of the zombies and absurdly grotesque 'kill scenes' provide unexpected comedic relief." You might think that MKR Group is a little late to the party on filing this suit nearly two years after the release of Dead Rising but we still remember when the Red Cross grew wise to the game industry's health pack system. This whole situation, while not unexpected, seems a little silly to us.[via Joystiq]
Capcom sued over Dead Rising
We heard the rumblings of this coming earlier this month, but now it seems like it's official: MKR Group, which owns the rights to George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, has sued Capcom for similarities between the zombie flick and Capcom's Dead Rising, both of which feature zombies in a shopping mall. In part, the suit states, "In both, the recreational activities of the zombies and absurdly grotesque 'kill scenes' provide unexpected comedic relief." Personally, we think this whole thing is a little silly. Zombies in a shopping mall are like polar bears on South Pacific islands or cheetahs in Ludwig's den. It's their natural habitat, what do you want them to do, make an unrealistic zombie game?
Swarm Dead Rising producer at signing tomorrow
Despite his name, Keiji Inafune clearly isn't the wary type, opting to appear in public tomorrow and openly inviting gamers to inundate him with requests to sign their copies of Dead Rising. The esteemed developer's latest game, yet another entry into the zombie-ridden shopping mall sim genre, has already generated a great deal of buzz, possibly because it allows you to beat undead cretons to a pulp with baseball bats, benches and finely matured wheels of cheese. If you plan on attending the signing event tomorrow, here's what you need to know: Date: Tuesday, August 8, 2006 Time: 4:00PM - 6:00PM Location: EB Games, Redmond Town Center16495 NE 74th StreetRedmond, Washington 98052 (Tel. 425-895-8331) Demeanor: Approachable, but may unexpectedly and infrequently lunge And don't forget, you'll actually have to purchase a copy of the game in order to have it signed. There will be plenty of free Xbox t-shirts, however, no doubt meant to distract the crowd's inherent urge to tear Mr. Inafune limb from limb and devour his brain.
Third Resident Evil film to be buried in desert
And in our wildest dreams, it would be right next to those E.T. The Extra Terrestrial cartridges. Too bad you can't win them all. Or even one, in the case of non-sir Paul W. Anderson. He's the man writing the script (if that's what we call randomly flinging words at a blank page) for Resident Evil Colon Extinction, the third film adaptation of Capcom's survival horror series. Previously, he directed the first Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat (hey, that wasn't so bad!) and Predator castration epic, Alien vs. Predator. Speaking at a recent Hollywood and Video Games summit, in Beverly Hills Mr. Anderson outlined his original vision for the shambling corpse of a trilogy. The first film would act as a prequel to the game, the second as an intersecting companion and third as a post script.Interestingly enough, the third film just happens to be set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, which is either a tired narrative device or some sort of meta-commentary on the series itself. The world's been overrun with undead fellows and the only survivors, which include Milla Jovovich's Alice, Jill Valentine and Code Veronica escapee Claire Redfield, must make a run for it in armored convoys. "So that's where the movie takes place, primarily in the deserts of Nevada and around Las Vegas. But of course, it's a Las Vegas that has kind of fallen now, because what's happened is, with no one to take care of it, the desert has come back in and half-buried Vegas. So... we built all these casinos which are sort of buried in the sand." We'll take a gamble and hold out some vague hope that this will pull a Resident Evil 4 and make the series sparkle.Or not. This Hollywood machine is rigged.[Thanks Killer_Twinkie!]
