Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Gosh, here’s a whoopsie. Dead Island is out now on Steam for the Americanish, except the version they’ve received probably isn’t the one Deep Silver were hoping they’d get. It seems the dev build of the game has been put out there, rather than the official version. Complaints about a bad port, mysterious goings on, and no-clipping all seem to come down to the fact that this is the bug-testing, cheat-enabled, not-for-release version of the game. Code that people are digging up seems to reveal that this might even have far too much of the 360 version left in it. Crikey, that’s a big oops. (I should note that the PC review build I’m playing certainly is optimised for PC.) A day one patch is intended to fix an impressive thirty-seven issues. Perhaps one of them will be the release of the internal debug of the game to US customers? We’ve contacted Deep Silver to see what’s really going on.

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Just when you thought it was safe to get back out of the water, Dead Island is ready to gobble up your brains. Out September 6th in North America and on the 9th everywhere else, the game already boasts one of the most talked about trailers of the year. This latest one still has evocative (and strangely triumphant) music in the background but the foreground looks a lot more like an actual game. Along with the emphasis on co-op we’ve seen from previous marketing material, there’s some enemy variety on show and an urban-type environment alongside the beaches and resorts. Enjoy. We’ll have words about our experiences with the game next week, which unfortunately makes them too late to be featured on the side of a boat or plane wreck. Boo. If the trailer doesn’t contain enough zombies for you, check out this Marvel digital comic prequel to the game. That’s got some zombies in it too.

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Hooray! Just when things seemed really gloomy, here’s comes a zombie apocalypse scenario to put things into perspective. Even if your capital city is on fire and your heroic leaders are unable to do anything but share holiday snaps, it’s worth remembering that you aren’t going to be eaten alive by the shambling undead. Ah, that’s a nice feeling.

See: the four-player co-oping in Dead Island that we’ve already seen a bit of already. Consider: that it’s actually not all that like Left 4 Dead. Suppose: that it might actually be fairly entertaining. Wonder: when the zombie games will end.
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Seven minutes of Call Of Juarez: The Cartel! That’s enough time to see a dodgy club scene, witness a vehicular combat chase scene, glimpse a running about in a ghost-town shooting goons scene, and also probably some other stuff. There is a lot of looking through iron-sights, some use of cover, men getting shot, dual-wielding of machine-pistols, cars exploding, and a number of other things you might be pleased to see in a game about gang warfare and drug-cartels in the modern world. Phew.

Ubisoft’s co-op criminal-shooter is set for release on July 22nd.
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The latest trailer for cowboys-in-the-now game Call Of Juarez: The Cartel (below, natch) shows its co-op game. What’s interesting about it is this word: “Co-opetition.” What the word means is that each of the players in the co-op game is going to have his or her own agenda, and executing it might get you in big trouble, (or even executed, judging by the end of the trailer). While you have to fight the NPC carterl goons together, there’s going to be side-missions all the way for deciding which if you is actually the best at sneaky manshoots. I’m keen to see this in action – I wonder whether it will stand up to repeated play. For now though, check out the trailer.

The game is out on July 19th.
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Poor old Dead Island – it must be pretty stressful, putting out any new trailer after the frenzy around that one. Especially as they now need to show off the actual game, rather than just a conceptual short film. The E3 trailer has several elements in common with the CGI weepfest, notably slow motion, the music and a few snippets of dialogue to suggest emotional as well as gory horror, but all told I’m preeeeeeeetty sure we’re looking at an all-out carnival of death.
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Well, good. I’ve wanted a new in-game trailer for Dead Island, and now I’ve got one. Now I want £10m, and a speedboat. You can watch the trailer below. You can deliver the money/boat to my house.

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Ooh, I’ve got some Dead Island screenshots you can look at. But only after you’ve solved my riddle, completed an ARG, and pre-ordered my next book: Everyone Should Just Bloody Well Do What I Tell Them. Do it today and you’ll receive one extra screenshot FOR FREE!

Or not. In fact, you can see all five of the new pics below.

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Must admit, I sorta miss the time before Call of Duty came up with the bright idea of dicking around with the era it was set in, swiftly leading to every other bugger giving it a shot too. Latest on this modernisation bandwagon is Call of Juarez, a series which so far has steadily carved away its most interesting aspects in favour of chasing that tasty, tasty mainstream tail. The third game/reboot is The Cartel, set in modern-day Mexico (much to the consternation of real-life local law figures, who feel that making light of an ongoing culture of violence may not be a good idea for the impressionable youngsters of Juarez), and it seems more determined than ever to snatch the attention of whatever it is that focus groups say today’s average gamer is. After having made do with CGIy stuff until now, here’s the game in action. Subtlety? We don’t need no stinkin’ subtlety. Read the rest of this entry »

VG24/7‘s amassed what can only be described as a tableau of new Dead Island shots, and I found a few others we haven’t posted yet, too. A few points of interest in these screens, including a MASSIVE zombie. Is that new? I don’t know. I guess Resident Evil has had a few massive zombies in its time. Carry on!
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