Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Shh? SHH! Hear that? It sounds like… ? No it can’t be. It must be a baby giraffe or – no, there it is again. It’s definitely the sound of someone embedding a Youtube link of the Resident Evil 6. Run! Save yourselves!
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Say, do you remember No More Room In Hell? It was one of the first zombie source mods announced after Half Life 2′s release, way back in 2004. Cancelled twice, it still shambles on. Tomorrow Edit: actually, 31st October – finally sees the release of the re-imagined original concept. In development for three years, this new version is going to be an 8 player co-op survival shooter. 8 player co-op! That’s twice as many as Left 4 Dead. That means it’s going to be twice as good. That’s how it works, you know.

A meaty release trailer lurks, ravenous, in the shadows below.

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Preparing for a much-needed Windows reinstall, I’m currently unearthing all manner of old pieces from my freelance past. Many are… well, you know how it can feel to read something you wrote many moons ago. For the sake of all humankind, most of these documents must never see the light of day again. This heartfelt paean to the original Half-Life’s zombies (originally published in PC Gamer) remained reasonably proud, however. So, after some heavy jiggery and some light pokery, here it is…

Half-Life is credited with doing a great many things to save the first-person shooter from the Doom-derived rut it seemed stuck in during the late 90s – its perspective, its sense of place, its uncutscenes, its Rick Dangerousness – but rarely given so proud a nod are its zombies.
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I’ve had this idea for a game! It’s a game where there’s zombies! Indeed, as vampires saturate the movie and book world, the zombies take over gaming. In fact, this zombie invasion is taking on a worryingly appropriate pattern, each undead game spawning dozens more. It can only be a few years before there are only a tiny group of non-zombie games, battling to survive in a world taken over by the lumbering creations. “Noooo! Call of Duty! Not you!!!” “RARGGLLLE GLRARGH! CALL OF DUTY: ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!!” “Noooooooo!”

But I don’t care! Zombies are a brilliant enemy, and I’m happy to see people see who can use them in the best way. Another game taking a go is Zombilution. And rather pleasantly, this time you get to play as the zombies. There be demo.

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Are we at the end of gaming history? Is it just zombies from here on out? Or will there be something else that will seize the imagination of game designers and give us a new theme? I’d say that post-apocalypse and zombies have dominated the last couple of years, but is it possible to predict the end of the undead? Some thoughts below.
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A man called Billy emails us with a link to a video. He includes the word ‘zombie’ in not just the email, but even its subject line. The cheek of the man. The gall. Doesn’t he know we’re better than that? Doesn’t he know we’re so much better than this ubiquitous zombie fad? Doesn’t he- OH HE TOTALLY TOOK ITS HEAD OFF OH GOD NOW IT’S NINJA VS ZOMBIE OH HE’S SHOOTING A FAT ONE OH ZOMBIES ZOMBIES ZOMBIES
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There’s still a week until the thing goes on sale, but seems Gearbox/2K are confident enough in their impending shooty-bang-bang/looty-grab-grab game that they’ve already confirmed its first DLC.

You’ll never guess what it’s about. I mean, it’s not like it could be zombies – that undead horse has already had a brutal flogging everywhere else.

It’s zombies.
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Zombies zombies zombies. Zombies zombies zombies. Zombies. This one could go huge, I suspect. It’s the next game from the makers of the evergreen Red Orchestra, and it’s stealing a little bit of long-term supporters Valve’s thunder by being a co-op zombie shooter. Cheeky! Left 4 Dead 1.5 it ain’t though, thanks to more arena-like playing areas, abilities beyond simple shooting and healing, and persistent player upgrades. It’s a lot more OTT and Doom-y than L4D, too.

Reportedly, preorders have been pretty high. Us gentlemen of the internet do so enjoy shooting zombies in the head, after all. It went live on Steam today for a reasonable price, and while RPS hasn’t been blessed with a review copy yet, we hope to have some sort of verdict very soon. Anyone else playing it yet? Whaddaya think?

Below the magic words of information protection, some video footage of this violent delight.
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Given the entire internet is busy spaffing about this today, we might as well join the fray – if only cos it’s always funny when someone accuses us of trying to be like Kotaku because we’ve posted something pop.

While Capcom’s first tongue-in-cheek free-roaming zombie-smasher was strictly for the Xbox Three-Hundred-And-Sixty Machine, the 2010-due sequel will also arrive on our glorious personal computer boxes. Joy! Footage below, which despite being pretty crass includes at least two ultra-lol moments.
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Valve are being rather bold about their advertising spend for Left 4 Dead. $10 million, we’re told, quite a lot. Don’t they know that a gentleman doesn’t know how much is in his advertising budget? Anyhow, a lump of this money is being spent on TV spots, which are of course already on the internets. Of course posting adverts is just what they want us to do, so, er, we’re doing it ironically.

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This is turning into a link-to-stuff-we’ve done day, I know. Apologies, but the last minute organisation (i.e. All the organisation) for this evening’s Thinkosium is devouring the day. Still – here’s the freshly published piece I wrote for Eurogamer where I interviewed Producer Noah Heller and wrote a little about my impressions. Since I wrote it, the Zombie game mode has been confirmed with footage on the Gametrailers show. However, as is the wont of internet tykes, someone’s ripped out the section of the show and stuck it on youtube. And it’s that I’m linking to beneath the cut.
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