Is this the greatest zombified video game trailer after Dead Island? I think so. To promote the latest DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops, Activision put together this insanely awesome trailer that stars Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy), Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Danny Trejo (Machete) Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead), and the father of zombie films George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead). The DLC content pack is called “Escalation” and it’s described like this: “Set in a mysterious, ice-covered, remote Siberian island and inspired by legendary writer and director George A. Romero, a group of four fearless explorers fight for their lives amidst an army of bloodthirsty Soviet zombies.” Watch the Robert Rodriguez-inspired (Planet Terror) trailer above and anticipate Escalation’s May 3 release.
This, by far, is the greatest trailer for a video game I’ve ever seen. I thought nothing could come close to those beautifully produced Halo trailers (especially this one), but man was I wrong. This trailer for the upcoming survival-horror game Dead Island is so emotionally gripping it really rips at your heart not unlike a traditional theatrical trailer. The slow motion reverse chronology played against a piano and violin backdrop elicits memories of Lost in a chilling and striking manner. Watch it, let it all sink in, then watch it again.
Brilliant on so many levels, right? The realism is simply stunning. Now let’s move onto some background info concerning this now-hotly anticipated title. Dead Island was first imagined in 2007 by publisher Deep Silver and developer Techland (Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood), and they’ve been working on it ever since. Techland describes it as a “first-person zombie-slasher/action-RPG.” So what does that mean? It’s hard to say since the developers are keeping mum on the game mechanics for the time being. Here’s what we know. The game takes place at the fictional Royal Palms Resort based on the remote island of Banoi in Papua New Guinea. The island is a tourist-magnet and you play a guest vacationing at the hotel. A zombie outbreak takes place during your stay, and its up to you a the remaining uninfected to find a way to escape the island. During your journey you’ll begin to discover the secret behind the mysterious outbreak. Gripping story so far, huh? In addition to fighting zombies you’ll come to discover how–and most importantly why–it all started. Speaking of combat, the developers are taking a uniquely different approach to the survival-horror zombie game. Instead of having a massive arsenal of guns and ammo at your disposal, things will be much more realistic in that you’ll be forced to use objects like knives, axes, broken pipes and other items you would find on a tropical island to fend off the flesh-eating undead. Think of it as survival horror with a melee action twist; combat will be more intimate that what you come to expect from a game like this.
According to the publisher up to four players can drop in and out of the game. But though co-op is supported, a single player mode will be there too. What we know about the RPG elements of the game only go so deep. You start the game as a simple tourist with no prior knowledge of zombie survivor skills, and as you fight your way through the infection you’ll gain skills and they will be tracked in some sort of leveling system. The game’s being developed for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC and is expected to release sometime this year.
If the game can at least live up to the trailer, Dead Island is primed to become the next best zombified project since AMC debuted The Walking Dead.
Can you believe it!? The highly anticipated TV adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comic book The Walking Dead is set to premiere this weekend! To promote the upcoming series premiere, AMC and Fox International Channels have teamed up to stage real live “zombie attacks” in 26 cities around the world over a 24-hour period. Inspired by the show’s makeup artist Greg Nicotero, hundreds of undead extras will begin the invasion tomorrow, October 26 at daybreak in Taipei and Hong Kong. After speading the outbreak to major landmarks including the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., Big Ben in London, the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, and the Acropolis in Athens, the zombies will end their spree in Los Angeles, just in time for the big LA premiere event. Look after the break for a full listing of the promotional zombie tour stops.
The Walking Dead premieres this Sunday, October 31 at 9PM on AMC.
Update: Jump after the break to watch an “Invasion Compilation” of the day’s events. Hundreds of zombies literally roamed cities all around the globe–and they looked very convincing! Unfortunately no one was harmed in the filming. Want to see more? Head over to the FICTheWalkingDead YouTube channel to watch more footage categorized by city and time of day.
Having followed theinitialmurmurs of the new AMC zombie program based on Robert Kirkman’s comic book of the same name, it’s very exciting to see the first behind-the-scenes video footage of The Walking Dead coming together. The show follows a group of survivors who are forced to deal with the aftermath of a devastating zombie apocalypse. Kirkman serves as executive producer. In the video above he gushes about how swimmingly the show is assembling as the season premiere looms in the near distance (this October). Writer/director/exec producer Frank Darabont is also having a blast making this show. “We’re going to following the Robert Kirkman narrative pretty closely,” Darabont reveals. “We’re giving ourselves permission to veer off the path and find the interesting detours.” So far, Kirkman has had no problem with Darabont’s methods. We’ve seen production stills from the set, but there’s nothing like seeing these zombies in action. And man do they look scary as hell. But we should expect nothing less from makeup/special FX lead Greg Nicotero. This show hasn’t even started yet and I’m hooked. And that’s why I got so excited when I heard Darabont utter these words: “I’d like to do twenty years of zombie TV.”
