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Simplified WoW lore
The WoW community is growing ever larger, and for lots of people the entire Warcraft story is a puzzling maze of overlapping tales. I know if I were a new player and someone told me, "Oh yeah, you can go play this other stategy game to get some of the story... or you could read some books!" I might balk at the time commitment required just to understand the background story for this new game.Dawnbow has a solution though. This is the cliffs-notes version of WoW Lore. It won't keep you on the edge of your seat with spine-tingling suspense, but it'll give you a rough idea of what's going on behind the scenes of the game, without you having to spend extra time and money on other things.A few responders to her original post on the forums say that there may be a few errors here or there in her summary, but don't worry too much about that. Lore fans often disagree on details -- sometimes they're both right, sometimes both wrong, and sometimes Blizzard just hasn't been consistent. Either way, if you're looking for a quick catch up on the essentials of the WoW story, spend a few minutes with some simplified WoW lore, and then check out WoW Insider's own Know Your Lore column for some the juiciest character portraits you'll ever read about a game story.
Grab a single kernel of popcorn: time for a short zombie movie
We can't be too sure of the quality of D3's Simple DS Vol. 32 THE Zombie Crisis. Neither the Simple series nor the stylus-based first-person zombie-shooting genre are hallmarks of high quality. In fact, we'll take that back. We're pretty sure that THE Zombie Crisis isn't very good. Despite the low budget, the limitations of the genre (on DS) and the fact that the zombie crisis happens to coincide with a thick fog that is so pervasive as to have gotten indoors, we actually like what we see here. It's fast-paced and there are a lot of weapons. Not to mention the excellent title screen, which is almost worth the price of purchase by itself. Who cares if the zombies aren't that great graphically? They're not going to be on screen long, if you're playing the game right.
Around Azeroth: Braaiiiinnnnnnss
I admit -- the zombie jokes are probably overdone at this point. But you can't deny that this excellent screenshot of Tirisfal Glades sent in by reader Oaty of Hearts Blood defines all things Scourge in World of Warcraft. (Including, no doubt, their hunger for delicious brains.) And the best part -- the full-sized version (click on the image above) is wallpaper sized for continued enjoyment on your desktop.Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? Because we'd love to see your idea of the best looking instance on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!%Gallery-1816%
Resident Evil: Degeneration looks like a good Resident Evil movie
We understand that what is good and isn't good can be different from person to person, but if you enjoyed any of the Resident Evil movies, then shame on you. Sorry for being so tough, but those movies were bad. And, being the huge Resident Evil fans we are, we're finally glad to see that the wonderful universe these games are set in is being expanded through a CG movie. Sure, it's kind of biting off of Square Enix's style a bit, but who cares?! We're talking about Claire and Leon kicking zombie ass. We could only be more excited if this were a trailer for a new game.
Teenage Zombies dev says price is key to success
The folks over at InLight Entertainment put their smart cap on today, citing their reasoning behind the DS's incredible success. While we all here who work at DSF and you, the lovely readers, would probably say that all of the great games on the system make it so wonderful, they said that ... uh, the great games and affordable price really made Nintendo's handheld. Well, how astute of them.Darren McGrath and Mike Lowry from InLight commented "The DS captures the market we're targeting with this game - the ever expanding casual gamers sector." They went on further to add "Nintendo has been very smart with making a fun system that is affordable so everyone can enjoy games like ours without breaking the bank."The guys know what games to take inspiration from, also, commenting that titles like "Elite Beat Agents, Feel the Magic, and Zelda: Phantom Hourglass have really made use of the touch-screen in unique and interesting ways that you wouldn't be able to accomplish on any other platform." OK, we agree, mostly. We wouldn't actually go around telling people that Feel the Magic XY/XX was one of the best uses of the handheld's touch-screen when there is probably a billion other better examples.
Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Gameplay Video Thingys
The first video of Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys is notably light on the aliens and brains, and the only thingys invading are rats. Invasion of the Kind of Large Rats doesn't catch the ear in the same way. Speaking of not really generating interest, the game itself is pretty underwhelming. We didn't think we'd ever be able to say that about a game that stars a legless zombie on a skateboard, but even for the most sidescroller-obsessed of us, we find the footage uninspiring. Maybe some more aliens would help. The Voodoo Vince/Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy system of inflicting damage on the zombies to give them abilities is pretty cute, at least.[Via Game|Life]
Fresh Teenage Zombies screens for consumption
As if oozing from the cranial cavity of a fresh corpse, we find ourselves gently moaning and purring like undead cats (or, you know, zombies) for these fresh screens. Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Brain Thingys looks like it's right up our alley and the kind of time deserving of ... well, our time. If you're as infatuated with the undead as we are, then stumble on over to 1UP for the fresh eye candy.
Pirates of the Burning Sea's supernatural side
Gamespot has added a preview of Pirates of the Burning Sea that is solely to do with the supernatural content found in the game, and makes us anticipate the game's release even more. Apparently, a significant portion of content (10-15%) will take place in an area known as the Bermuda Triangle -- you may have heard of it. Happenings in the Triangle tend to lean towards the decidedly-spooky, and the quests that Gamespot managed to see involved zombie armies, voodoo priestesses and possessed crew mates. Some of the finer details in the preview show the effort that developer Flying Lab Software is putting in to make their game unique. An interesting part of the article tells of how the remains of a vanquished zombie can be donned and used as a disguise, to hide within enemy ranks. However, since the NPC monsters themselves move at walking pace, if you happen to break step and move a little too fast, the other zombies will realize something is up and turn on you.
Teenage Zombies won't eat your neighbors
Despite its similarly campy plot and titular promises of zombies, Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Brain Thingys (due next spring) won't be the spiritual successor to Konami's Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Yes, we were fooled too when we initially saw the game announced -- jumping off the couch and doing karate kicks in the air, such was our excitement -- but reading more about Ignition Entertainment's title revealed very few similarities with the SNES/Genesis classic.Instead of fighting off zombies and their B-movie colleagues, you'll be playing as the undead in this comic book-styled adventure, choosing from one of three reanimated characters, each possessing unique abilities. You'll swap between the three to take advantage of their powers and defend the Earth against invading Alien Brain Thingys.Also, while Zombies Ate My Neighbors was a run-n-gun shooter from a top-down perspective, Teenage Zombies will be a side-scrolling platformer supplemented with puzzles and stylus-based minigames. ZAPS! (Zombie Assembly Pop-up Screen), one of the minigames, has you collecting dismembered body parts to put together a zombie and regain "unhealth points."Though Ignition Entertainment's short trailer for Teenage Zombies shows very little in the way of action or the actual game, we've embedded it past the post break anyway. To make up for the brevity and vagueness of the video, we've also pasted some lyrics from Salt-N-Pepa's hit single, "Let's Talk About Sex," reimagined as an ode to zombies. We have a lot of these "fixed" songs just lying around our hard drive, waiting to be shared with you.
Old horror films and books: They won't stay dead!
Lest you forget the upcoming All Hallows' Eve holiday, The Moon Books Project has been posting horror-themed content almost every day, stacking its shelves with DS-compatible novels and movies. They're downloadable for free and completely legal, so you won't have to fear any threatening "I Know What You Downloaded Last Night" letters from the MPAA bogeymen. Already, the site has put up over a dozen classics like Nosferatu and Fall of the House of Usher. Even if you don't have the homebrew hardware and software (Moonshell) needed to view the files on your DS, you can still scare yourselves silly with iPod/PSP-formatted and streaming versions of Night of the Living Dead.
Zombie Massacre would be rad if it was made
You already know that we heart zombies, tithing a portion of our annual income to fund the experiments of mad scientists in the hopes that one of their deranged plots will eventually bring about the rise of the undead. Until that day comes, we'll have to settle for monster-themed video games. Of all the zombie games that've been announced for the Wii, which admittedly are very few, Zombie Massacre definitely has the best concept. Up to four players will be able to hop into a 1950s convertible, driving and shooting their way to the heart of a city to deliver a ticking nuclear bomb. Along the way, you'll pick up various people who can provide health, serve as "human shields," or give you access to special weapons. Here's the catch, as well as the reason why we don't have any screenshots or videos to help hype the title -- 1988 Games, the developer that dreamed up Zombie Massacre, hasn't actually started development on the game and doesn't yet have a publisher on-board. We normally steer clear of these budding projects until there's more to present, but our posting about it will hopefully show potential publishers that there is some interest for the game. Also, after seeing 1988 Games' website and hearing "Take on Me" embedded on the studio's "About Us" page, we can't help but support the developer.
Rogue Warrior to be M.I.A. at Min-E3
Though Bethesda has been exclusively linked to Fallout 3 as of late, the developer had also been working with Zombie Studios on a tactical shooter based on Dick Marcinko's Rogue Warrior book series. Now that we've jogged your memory, you should know that the game will not be on display at this year's E3 summit.Speaking to FiringSquad, Bethesda's Vice President of PR and marketing Pete Hines said, "We aren't talking about RW until we're ready to show what we've been up to." Rogue Warrior, powered by the Unreal Engine 3, was originally scheduled for release this year on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Mii Spotlight: Randomness
You guys have sent us a lot of Miis, and some of them are pretty random. We mean seriously out there. And that's just fine with us -- we like random and weird! In fact, you could probably say that we appreciate the more creative, out-there Miis more than any other, so how could we not devote an entire week's Mii Spotlight to the weirdest of your submissions?We just had to. Besides, we think you'll enjoy them as much as we did.
Forum Post of the Day: Best class in case of zombie attack
Forum poster Bluth asks a very important question: what's the best class to be in case of a zombie attack? And no, we aren't talking about sluggish Night of the Living Dead style zombies, but instead the more threatening type seen in recent films like 28 Days Later. Opinions of forum posters seem to be mixed. Druid: Perhaps zombies would ignore cats and bears in their search for delicious brains? If that fails, restoration Druids have that handy tree disguise. Hunter: If movie-lore holds true, a bullet (or arrow!) through the head can stop even the most bloodthirsty of zombies. Any Hunter worth the name should be able to pick them off from afar. And if everything goes bad? Feign death! Mage: Zombies can catch fire, can't they? Paladin: Bitten? Heal. Infected? Cleanse. And for everything else, there's Exorcism and Holy Wrath. Priest: Shackle and LOLSMITE. Rogue: Vanish. Shaman: Zombies got you down? Wait until it blows over and Reincarnate later. Warlock: If they could enslave zombie armies like they can demon armies, they'd be all set. If not.. wouldn't zombies be immune to fear? Warrior: Hope zombies can't bite through plate armor. Got any ideas of your own? Add 'em in the comments!
Metareview: Touch the Dead
The reviews were slow to come in on Touch the Dead -- which usually indicates a dud. From the scores, it looks like that cliché may really be a fair assessment of the title's merits. With a current metascore of 58%, Touch the Dead is less OMG-zombie scary and more scary like Grandma's lingerie. Game Informer: 66% (average of two reviews) - "What you imagine to be headshot city is, in reality, the most challenging zombie game to come along in quite some time. As the zombies struggle to walk, their heads jerk about violently, making it an incredible test of skill ... this is a game that every zombie fanatic could love, but only the hardest of hardcore gamers can excel at." (Issue 170, p117)Game Almighty: 45% - "The first thing you notice when the game starts is the awful graphics. Touch the Dead reinvents what it means to have jaggies. Everything is pixilated and bland and the closer the zombies come, the worse it gets. Ironic, because the bad graphics actually inspire you to kill the creatures when they're as far away as possible, lest you think your DS has a broken graphics chip."GameSpot: 55% - "Every time you empty a clip, you have to manually reload by dragging the stylus from the ammo icon on the lower right-hand part of the screen to the clip icon on the lower left-hand part of the screen. While it certainly injects a little tension into the game, you quickly get to the point where you have to reload your clip after every zombie you take down, so you actually end up spending more time reloading your weapon than you do shooting zombies. It feels unnatural and can be difficult to consistently reload fast enough when you have a swarm of zombies bearing down on you."
Aspyr looking for a few good Wii developers
Famous for bringing a slew of games to the Mac gaming public, as well as the incredible Stubbs the Zombie: Rebel Without a Pulse (developed by Wideload Games), Aspyr has placed job listings via Gamasutra for Mid/Sr Level Console Programmers, asking that the Wii be one of the platforms said applicant has experience with. And, personally, we feel this is one of the very few instances where a port to the Wii wouldn't be a bad thing (we'd play Stubbs again with enhanced Wii controls, for sure).[Via Codename Revolution]
Night of the Living Wii Remote
Were it our decision, the streets would be choked with the undead, suffocated by their sloth and numbers. What little remained of the human race would have to go into hiding, their once-magnificent kingdoms now ruled by zombie majesty. It's a terrible vision that we hold onto in our heads every night before drifting off to sleep, hoping to carry it along with us in our dreams. Given our affection for the undead here at the Fanboy offices, we couldn't pass up mentioning this month's cover of Official Nintendo Magazine. The issue advertises May's Resident Evil features with a corpse hand breaking through its earthen grave. Gripped by cold, gray fingers, a Wii remote kicks back into life, properly strapped to the undeceased's wrist. Head past the post break for a better look, but take care not to attract the attention of brain-eating revenants on your way inside.
Kojima and Suda 51 tease Snatcher fans
Last Saturday, Suda 51's company Grasshopper Manufacture held the coolest event ever, at least for game nerds: Snake vs. Zombie vol. 2, a series of informal panel discussions by big names in the Japanese game industry, including Hideo Kojima, Shinji Mikami, ICO's Fumito Ueda, and Tetsuya Mizuguchi. There were also musical performances from Metal Gear Solid 3/Portable Ops soundtrack composer Norihiko Hibino and Silent Hill series producer and composer Akira Yamaoka.As if the mere existence of this event (and our non-attendance at said event) weren't causing us physical pain, now we have unbearable anticipation buzzing around in our heads. During a Kojima/Mikami panel hosted by Suda, Mikami, a man of taste, mentioned that his favorite Kojima game was Snatcher, to which the other two responded "Ah yes, Snatcher," followed by "Oh, should we announce it here?" To sum up, in italics, there is a possibility that Hideo Kojima and Suda 51 are collaborating on some kind of Snatcher game. We do not care if it is a sequel, a remake, a port, an action figure, or an official recipe for Neo Kobe Pizza. We want ten.
Touch the Dead changes name, sharpens up
Touch the Dead seems to have gotten an upgrade along with its new name ... and speaking of that, we appreciate the need to work in a 'DS' subtitle or some clever witticism about touching, but really, Dead 'n' Furious seemed a more appetizing name. We're not sure we want to touch any of these guys, and it doesn't exactly look fun when they touch you.But what's in a name, really? It's what's in a video that matters, and we've got one after the jump, showing off the new look of Touch the (really angry) Dead, and it's step up from where it was before. We'd like to see the main character in this -- as one of our commenters aptly noted, last go-round he looked a little big like a refugee from a Lego game. Originally, this game was to be published by Virgin Play (according to the Dead 'n' Furious website, which is still there), but IGN is reporting that it's Eidos that's picked up the title. Touch the Dead is now scheduled for a release in May, so what you see in the video is likely to be what you get in this shooter. Frankly, we think it looks a little better than we expected, since we've seen it since a rough beginning, and the style is intriguing if nothing else. Light gun without the gun? We'll try anything once.
Virtually Overlooked: Zombie Nation
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative. Zombie Nation is easily the best game ever created about a flying, disembodied samurai head. Don't try to argue with us on this one. We feel pretty confident that we're right about this. Oh, and it's a shmup, as well. Boring spaceships have nothing on a giant head.
