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The Zombiepocalypse: One year later
Reader Verdus sent us a tip reminding us that this weekend is the one-year anniversary of one of the simultaneously most loved and hated events in WoW's history, the zombiepocalypse. Right around this time last year, infected crates started appearing all over the world, and that expanded out into a full-blown zombie invasion (which was so big it made it out into mainstream news). After the zombie plague had been quelled, the Scourge attacked with full force, leaving us to fall back and fight for our necrotic runes up until the expansion released. It was definitely a huge event, and now, a year later, I'm sure most of us (though not all of us) look back on it with fond memories. And surely Blizzard learned a lot from what happened a year ago -- Linedan has a nice wrapup of the good and the bad that Blizzard may have taken away from the zombie apocalypse. The idea of turning players on players was great, but that unfortunately led to more griefing than most players would have liked (and the fact that, by the end of it, you couldn't avoid the zombies at all, probably didn't help). And for all of the disruption, there was no real reward (the eventual rewards came with the Scourge invasion, and then it was simply just farming tokens), and no real payoff (the final world event seemed half-cooked, and it was only implied that Arthas was the one who'd shipped the crates). %Gallery-35140%
Champions Online Blood Moon launch trailer
With Blood Moon dropping tomorrow, it should be an exciting day for Champions Online players. Until then, however, you can watch this brand new trailer detailing all the new content available with the patch. We're pretty pleased with everything we saw, especially the level of zombies shuffling about, ready for players to pummel them into zombgoo. Also: Fighting undead reincarnates of classic Champions tabletop heroes and then descending into an evil portal to free their souls looks like a whole heap of fun. We do have one beef with the content, and that's the location of the Zombie Apocalypse map: Canada. Has anyone over at Cryptic read World War Z? If they had, then it would've been obvious that setting a zombie map in the one place where the creature's lack of blood flow causes them to freeze over incredibly easily is a bad choice -- we're nitpicking here, though. Check out the video after the break.
Dev blog sheds light on Champions' Zombie Apocalypse
One of the coolest features coming with Champions Online's October 27th Blood Moon update is the addition of Zombie Apocalypse, a PvP map that features a scenario instead of the typical objective involving kill scores. Sound interesting to you? Then we highly recommend this developer blog discussing the entire process of creating the ruleset, as it awards a keen insight on the how and why of said rules. There are two good things happening here: One is the obvious, that Cryptic is adding a new PvP map that's something more than the launch offerings. The other is that they're being communicative with a new piece of content's development process. This seems like a minor plus but in truth, when a developer demystifies the reasoning behind their content it only serves to elevate player perception and appreciation of said work. Our only suggestion would be to boost the presentation of these dev blogs (behind the scenes in-game pictures are always cool) in order to draw even more attention to them.
New Blood Moon info released, we spy new costume pieces
If you needed proof that October 27th was just a couple weeks away (aside from a calendar, of course) then look no further than this massive update to the Blood Moon page on the official Champions Online website. The page is filled with event-exclusive perks, rewards, item drops, screens and even a snazzy Takofanes wallpaper. The zombie Foxbat toy in particular will be a wonderful way of making all your friends jealous, assuming you can get it to drop.Those new screens are actually pretty key here, because they reveal something about Blood Moon we didn't specifically know yet: the new costume pieces. Looking through the screens, we noticed player characters who're obviously using the new Celestial powers. However, some of them -- like the character above this post -- are sporting outfit pieces that we're wholly unfamiliar with from our time in the game.Now, it could be that we haven't come across these angelically inspired outfits yet, but something tells us this just isn't the case. We're sure to hear something more official in the next week or so, but you heard it here first!%Gallery-75357%
GameStop offers Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles shirt with pre-order
Forget every negative thing we've ever said about GameStop. That company is made up entirely of heroes. Why? Because when you pre-order Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles from GameStop, you'll receive the formerly Comic-Con exclusive zombie face t-shirt. We're just ... so relieved to be able to get one of these -- we thought the opportunity had passed.Sure, this is probably more Capcom's doing than GameStop's, but we get to love Capcom all the time. We're giving GameStop a chance today.We really like that shirt.[Thanks, Matthew!]
The Daily Grind: Procedurally-generated MMOs
With the way MMOs keep changing and growing, there's some very exciting things on the horizon for players wanting something more than what's currently out there. For example, Eskil Steenberg is working on a unique procedurally-generated MMO - you could call it an art-house MMO - named Love. What we've seen of it has been utterly fascinating so far, and the fact that he's developing it solo ensures it will hopefully come out precisely as he wants it. Outside of that, a friend of mine named Jason tossed out a post this morning about another procedurally-generated engine - the CityEngine - that can generate enormous cities completely on the fly. As he mentioned, can you imagine using it to create a horror MMO where you can essentially wander for huge distances, in and out of buildings before you find another player? Completely open and playable building interiors? Zombies? In a sandbox? We'd be happy to just play there as a seriously spooky fragfest. But before we get ahead of ourselves, we wanted to ask you - what do you think of the idea of procedurally-generated content? Do you think this is really the only logical choice in terms of building enormous open-ended sandbox MMO worlds for the future, or do you think the tightly designed and scripted worlds we have now are the only way to go? Can you see procedurally-generated games becoming a part of the mainstream, or is the tech too open ended for us? Are we ready to break free and tell our own stories?
Design your own holiday
Crygil wants to know: if you could design a new holiday for the game, what would it be? I don't think I've ever heard the question asked before -- holidays are really just optional fun for more players, and Blizzard has always covered the basics (Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving, Halloween, etc.), and even added in some of their own by giving real-world holidays some Azerothian flavor (Midsummer Fire Festival, and of course Brewfest). Are there really any holidays they missed?I guess Labor Day and Memorial Day are the two biggest ones -- maybe all of the NPCs could take a day off, there could be giant barbeques set up in the capital cities, or players could take a day to remember those fallen in the past wars. Or you could go another route and just make up your own holiday: Grumpyfool of Azjol-Nerub recommends Gnome Appreciation Week (a whole week?), where Azeroth's shortest denizens can get some love of their own. A more recently based holiday might be fun, too -- maybe once a year we could remember Arthas' (it was Arthas, right?) zombie attack on our homeland.I doubt this is going to be used to determine actual Blizzard policy. Seems more like just a fun thought experiment. But there are definitely some interesting ideas in there -- if Blizzard ever wants to add yet another holiday to the calendar, there are plenty of ideas.
3G Studios filling barren undead-action genre with XomB
When opportunity knocks, wise developers answer -- for instance, when developer 3G Studios (creator of the fake-sounding Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2009) peered into the empty expanse known as the zombie-action genre, it knew it had the chance to pioneer into uncharted, profitable territory. The title of its maiden voyage into the untapped genre was recently announced: XomB (pronounced zom-bie). It should set the bar pretty high -- after all, the title contains an "X," which usually denotes high levels of extremeness.Tongue in cheekiness aside, the title is set apart by more than its misspelling. XomB will be a shamblin' corpsified re-imagination of feudal Asia, which will pit players in "epic battles" against undead hordes. Sounds like it's got kind of a Dynasty Warriors meets Onechanbara thing going on, but 3G Studios promises more concrete gameplay details and screenshots soon.
Zombie Studios' Blacklight becoming movie, comic, toaster oven
Well, not a toaster, but that just leaves more room on Rogue Warrior developer Zombie Studios' plate for more delicious money. The Seattle-based company revealed plans to bring its barely announced Blacklight first-person shooter to the big screen and comic books as part of a deal with Twentieth Century Fox studio Fox Atomic and production firm Union Entertainment. Blacklight, what little we know of it, will be set in the distant future, where a special ops team battle for "peace and security" in a story The Seattle Times describes as reminiscent of Apocalypse Now. Nothing is yet known of the comic, however both the movie and game will be penned by indie film writer Jason Dean Hall, most recently recognized at Sundance for his work on Ashton Kutcher's Spread. More ambitious still, Zombie Studios describes Blacklight a "military action franchise," though we're not sure you're technically allowed to call a cow a franchise, let alone milk it before the first game is even the subject for debate.
The Digital Continuum: Zombies, zombies, zombies
I firmly believe persistent online games have a lot more to offer, and every so often that fact rises up to the front of my thoughts by games like Resident Evil 5. If a cooperative and ostensibly zombie game can exist, then why not a massively version? Let me present to you, the reader, my vision of a game that could quite feasibly exist in just four or five years time:The zombie apocalypse MMO.
Noblegarden extended to a week on the PTR
Elizabeth's wishes have been answered -- in-game Easter holiday Noblegarden has been extended to a full week according to the calendar on the PTR. That's six more days to run around getting eggs, not to mention doing all of the new Noblegarden achievements being included in the holiday. In the past, Noblegarden hasn't meant that much to players -- the rewards were never that great, and the fact that it was on only one day (a day usually reserved by most celebrating for family dinners away from the game) made it much less active than it could have been. But Blizzard has revamped the holiday, apparently, so be on the lookout for some eggs and bunnies starting on Sunday, April 12th.One quick note for those of you worried about your Violet Proto-drakes: apparently still none of the Nobelgarden quests are included in the meta achievement. So there won't be any Bags of Candy or monthly Brews to get -- just enjoy the festivities.And we'll give a shout-out to Kisirani here as well -- since she took over World Events on the Blizzard team, we've seen some great changes. Despite the issues with the Zombie launch event for Wrath, it was still a ton of fun, and we're pretty sure that she and her team also been behind the popular Brewfest and Hallow's End holidays as well. Excellent work -- we can't wait to see what the new Noblegarden is like.
Austin construction signs warn of zombie attack
For a few hours on Monday morning in Austin, Texas, it seemed as if the world was coming to an end, as two road signs warned of "Nazi zombies!" KXAN has a full report, but apparently doesn't have any gamers on staff, as it completely missed the Call of Duty: World at War reference. Come on mainstream media, y'all missed a great opportunity to blame games for something.The "hackers" who changed the signs committed a class C misdemeanor, which in the state of Texas automatically carries the death penalty ... no, that's not true, but we're sure branding is involved. Check out the full news report after the break.[Thanks, Rick]
The best thing you'll see today: Japanese Dead Rising Wii trailer
Oh, dear reader, we don't even know where to begin. In this Japanese trailer for Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop for Wii, a zombie punk band entertains the entire cast of the game, zombies included. Witness flying chainsaws, slap-happy security guards and a very pushy, mic-stealing Frank West. The weirdest part of all? Zombie and Man living together in perfect harmony. Don't say we didn't warn you.[Via NWF]
New Overkill trailers show off zombie-filled ER, killer clowns
While these killer clowns aren't the kind from outer space, they're still some tough hombres, as you can see in the pair of new videos for upcoming House of the Dead: Overkill. We don't have to tell you how excited we are for this one, because you all usually share our sentiments in the comments following each post on the subject. So, no more wasting time on needless text. Cruise past the break for the two NSFW videos (there's some curse words thrown around).%Gallery-29952%
Hints of another world event soon
This morning Nethaera, a community manager with Blizzard, posted the following on the general forums: "Perhaps something will be occurring before [the release of Wrath]. I guess it's something we'll have to wait and see."This comes in a response to a question asking if there will be a couple more surprises before Wrath of the Lich King. Of course Neth is being her usual vague self here, not really committing to anything one way or another. But the comment does raise an eyebrow, and the fact that she even decided to respond to the question without a definitive "no" is good enough to speculate that there might be another world event headed our way.
Breakfast Topic: What? That's it?
Three days and counting. There's so much excitement for the newest expansion -- I mean, look at us here at WoW Insider, we're going crazy giving away all sorts of wonderful swag just to celebrate the coming of Wrath (and probably to make up in advance for us not being around while we're busy playing the game. Sorry guys). What's happening inside the game to prepare us for Northrend?Well, at the moment, it looks like... nothing. I mean, there was that phenomenally fun zombie invasion. I know a few of you found it annoying and disruptive, but come on! It was a game-changing event that really shook up Azeroth, even if only for a few days. When the zombie infestation ended earlier than we anticipated anticlimactically, we sort of expected something better to come. Well, it's been about a week now, and there's nothing new. Sure, the scourge invasion's still happening, but after hundreds and hundreds of Necrotic Runes and nothing else to buy, it's really kind of boring.So was that it? An inspired zombie invasion and then nothing? That's kind of like running out of gas nearing the finish line. It's like opening the champagne before the guests arrive. If the zombie invasion had started a few days ago, I think the timing would've been absolutely perfect. Instead, our excitement (and sometimes frustration) got built up, escalating over a few days, then... poof. Nothing. It's like having a great first course of a meal and having the next course arrive so late that we've lost our appetite. How do you guys feel? Did Blizzard blow the timing of the zombie event? What else do they have planned? Whatever it is, they've only got a couple of days to unleash it.
Tenris still lurks in Karazhan for now
We've been covering the news about Tenris Mirkblood, a temporary Scourge boss hanging out in Karazhan. Adam even has a handy strategy guide that will help you bring him down. The boss is pretty neat, dropping both a non-combat pet and the ultimate in two handed guitars -- the Arcanite Ripper. Tigole warned us that the boss would only be around for about 10 days. As of just now, Tenris is still in Karazhan, waiting to dole out his badges, batlings, and axes. Now's the time to get in there, folks. We can't gaurantee how much longer he's going to be waiting for you to come kill him. The Scourge invasion reset and started again after it previously closed down, so this is probably as close to a "second chance" as you're going to get. As a tip, be sure to pick up your Vampiric Batling, even if you already know the spell. The "Already Known" item sells for 10 gold to a vendor. Killing Tenris is at least worth a daily quest to you.
The dead rise in Europe this February
Those of you living in Europe who are anxious to see what it's like to deal with a shopping mall full of the undead (well, not all the way full), you'll have your chance soon enough. According to a post over at Wiiz, Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop is due on February 27th next year, meaning you're mere months away from running over zombies with a lawnmower. Sure, the maintenance tunnel isn't as full as the Xbox 360 version of the game, but we're still excited to dispatch the undead. How about you all?%Gallery-28028% Want to know more about Frank and his quest to survive the undead? Well, first of all you should check out our comparison piece that looks at the Xbox 360 version versus the Wii port. Then, be sure to check out some of the game's waggle, as well as some more footage of the game in action. Braaaaaaaaains ...
Scourge Invasion comes to a close
As of 3PM PDT (6 PM by WoW Insider's clock) the Scourge are retreating from Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms on most servers, and the Scourge Invasion has come to a close... for now. In each of the capital cities there is still an Argent Dawn Champion handing out their Stamina consumables, as well as Argent Quartermaster so you can spend the last of your Necrotic Runes. The necropoleis, however, are all gone.I fully expect we'll see something else crop up in the next week, not only because Tigole said so, but because it'd be really weird if the final week leading to Northrend is completely barren. There are also things we know are coming but aren't here yet... but those are spoilers, so we won't go into detail.If anything happens, we'll make sure you hear about it, so keep an eye out. I doubt anything will happen this evening, but I've been wrong before.
WoW Insider Show Episode 62: Why doesn't Tame Beast work on Druids?
Our podcast was back on the air last Saturday, and we were happy to welcome two very talented bloggers to the mix: both Daniel "BigRedKitty" Howell and John "BigBearButt" Patricelli, authors of our BRK and Shifting Perspectives columns, respectively, were aboard to chat with us about whether the endgame is just too easy lately (or whether it's nice that some people who couldn't before are seeing instances and getting loot), the new boss in Karazhan, and how abruptly the zombie event ended. We also hit on Blizzard's almost-mistake with the class forums, and if we really deserved that three-day credit due to lag and queues lately.We answered emails as well -- BRK gave some great AH tips for when to get rid of your primals and mats before Wrath, and BBB helped a listener out who was wondering if he should play a Druid or a Warlock to 80 first. And I got some good glyph hints and tips out of the guys in terms of what to put in those glyph slots for Hunters and Feral Druids. If you have a comment or question for the show, feel free to send it along to theshow at wowinsider dot com, and you might even hear it on next week's show.Perhaps most exciting, we worked a lot last week to make sure the quality of the show was better, and I think for the most part it worked -- we didn't have a single disconnect during the chat, and you should find that the tinny voices in the recording are gone as well. It's not perfect yet, and there's more we want to add into the mix, but we're working on it. The iTunes feed is still on the fritz, but the RSS feed below works just fine for me and it should for you, too. Be sure to tune in next week at 3:30pm Eastern -- we do this live every Saturday, and it is a darn good time.[Ustream] Listen to the unedited recording in Ustream.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.
