The game which was literally just announced a few days ago combines first-person action with a heavy focus on melee combat, character development and customisation of a vast array of weapons. All of these gameplay features are presented in a dark story inspired by classic zombie movies with a gritty and engrossing campaign that can be played with up to four players in co-op mode.

Set in an open world tropical island, hordes of different festering zombies await players around every corner while they embark on a variety of thrilling missions through the holiday resort. With firearms and ammunition being scarce the player must rely on utilising found items as weapons for self-defense and fight off zombie hordes in intense melee combat. A diverse range of items can be collected and will later serve to transform the player’s ordinary makeshift weapons into serious instruments of destruction.

In addition to satisfying even the most bloodthirsty action fan’s fantasy, Dead Island also features role-playing elements which allow the player to develop one of the game’s unique character classes according to their preferences, all the while learning new skills and fresh tactics during their journey through the perilous environments of the island. What’s more, anytime during a game up to four players can seamlessly join together and experience the intense combat and immersive story with cooperative gameplay.

With the all-new Chrome Engine 5 powering Dead Island, the game will use the latest installment of Techland’s acclaimed proprietary game engine, allowing the player to experience the tropical island paradise in graphical splendor with diverse environments like lush forests and detailed city environments.

Dead Island will be released worldwide for the PlayStation^®3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360^Òvideo game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC later this year. Checkout the Dead Island Game Trailer its in two words.. bad ass!

Dead Island combines first-person action with a heavy focus on melee combat, character development and customisation of a vast array of weapons. All of these gameplay features are presented in a dark story inspired by classic zombie movies with a gritty and engrossing campaign that can be played with up to four players in co-op mode.

Set in an open world tropical island, hordes of different festering zombies await players around every corner while they embark on a variety of thrilling missions through the holiday resort. With firearms and ammunition being scarce the player must rely on utilising found items as weapons for self-defense and fight off zombie hordes in intense melee combat. A diverse range of items can be collected and will later serve to transform the player’s ordinary makeshift weapons into serious instruments of destruction.

Dead Island combines first-person action with a heavy focus on melee combat, character development and customisation of a vast array of weapons. All of these gameplay features are presented in a dark story inspired by classic zombie movies with a gritty and engrossing campaign that can be played with up to four players in co-op mode.

Set in an open world tropical island, hordes of different festering zombies await players around every corner while they embark on a variety of thrilling missions through the holiday resort. With firearms and ammunition being scarce the player must rely on utilising found items as weapons for self-defense and fight off zombie hordes in intense melee combat. A diverse range of items can be collected and will later serve to transform the player’s ordinary makeshift weapons into serious instruments of destruction.

In addition to satisfying even the most bloodthirsty action fan’s fantasy, Dead Island also features role-playing elements which allow the player to develop one of the game’s unique character classes according to their preferences, all the while learning new skills and fresh tactics during their journey through the perilous environments of the island. What’s more, anytime during a game up to four players can seamlessly join together and experience the intense combat and immersive story with cooperative gameplay.

With the all-new Chrome Engine 5 powering Dead Island, the game will use the latest installment of Techland’s acclaimed proprietary game engine, allowing the player to experience the tropical island paradise in graphical splendor with diverse environments like lush forests and detailed city environments.

Dead Island will be released worldwide for the PlayStation^®3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360^Òvideo game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC later this year.

“Kirkman has created a world that is macabre and suspenseful with deeply-drawn characters: both human and zombies,” said Todd McFarlane, McFarlane Toys, creative force and CEO. “Working with the creative talents of Kirkman and AMC, we have planned figures lines that authentically represent both the television and comic series – including mind-blowing details, likenesses and play action. We want to push the envelope so that the true essence of ‘The Walking Dead’ series is captured.”

The first series of deluxe 6-inch figures is releasing in September 2011 and includes four fan-favorite characters from the Image comic book including:

THE WALKING DEAD Series 1

• Officer Rick Grimes
• Michonne
• Zombie Lurker
• Zombie Roamer

The second series of deluxe 6-inch figures is revealed in November 2011 and introduces four figures based on AMC’s original drama including:

THE WALKING DEAD Series 2

• Deputy Rick Grimes
• Daryl Dixon
• Zombie Walker
• Zombie Biter

Each human figure includes multiple interchangeable accessories and several points of articulation for limitless possibility and customization. Each zombie figure features unique, gory play action such as exploding heads and removable limbs. Figures are expected to sell for around $14.99 at retailers nationwide.

“I simply cannot contain my excitement over working with McFarlane Toys,” said Robert Kirkman, creator of “The Walking Dead” comic-book series. “For nearly two decades McFarlane Toys have proven themselves to be leading the pack when it comes to making cool looking, innovative toys, and I’m thrilled that they’re going to continue to do so with ‘The Walking Dead.”

So there I was just lurking on Twitter, as I sometimes (and when I say sometimes I mean always) do, when I got an interesting message. To cut it to it’s essence it went something like “Hey check out my awesome comic I think you should review it on your site because it’s so awesome”. Well that’s how I first read it because I’m a cynical bastard, it was actually much more polite and genuine. So I read it again with my nice guy glasses on and got him to email me with more details.

Attached to the email was this picture which immediately caught my attention and pretty much guaranteed that I was going to write something about it.

So I got back in touch with him and said “Yeah sure, I reckon I can take a look and write a review or possibly an article”. So there I was waiting for a link to another webcomic when he hits me with “I need your postal address so I can send it to you”.

I’m like WTF?!? it’s a “real” paper comic? awesome. So after a brief exchange of details the waiting begins, bear in mind I’m in the UK and he’s in the US. Turns out that transatlantic post is quicker than we thought. A few days later and a big white envelope drops onto my doormat. I promptly tear it open (i.e. carefully open it, after all it is a first edition and might be worth a fortune one day) and I’m greeted with this cover.

So let me tell you a little bit about this comic. It’s 32 pages of full colour zombie action. Scripted by Brian Apodaca and drawn by B. Paul Jordan it’s an engaging tale of a historic zombie resurrected in a modern day university.Legend has it that Edward Dransby, a rough-neck back in the 1800′s, was cursed to become the Zombie Outlaw in order to save a town’s brutal massacre from a zombie onslaught.

Will Simers is a graduate student at Irvine State University. He’s currently working as a Resident Advisor and is researching the legend of Edward Dransby. He has recently befriended Matthew Naismith, a resident of his dorm whose room is only 5 doors down from his own.

Matt is a freshman at I.S.U. He’s currently living in the dorms, adjusting to life on campus. His worries include keeping his grades up (which, to his dismay, means dragging himself out of bed to attend class), trying to gain some footage with his room-mates in the dorm, and catching the eye of that mysterious dark-haired girl from his Freshman Biology class, K.T. Delaney.

K.T. Delaney, a freshman at I.S.U., is majoring in Art History, with a minor in Biology. Her heroes include Soren Kirkeegaard, Plato, Picasso, and just about anyone outside of her new lab-partner, Matt Naismith.

There’s not much more I can say without spoiling it for you. It is the first issue after all and we all know that the first issue is all about setting the scene. I will say this though. Once you read issue one you will definitely be wanting issue two.

You can find out more and see some artwork at:

http://www.zombieoutlaw.com/

or

http://www.myspace.com/zombieoutlaw

Keep in touch with Brian (the writer) on http://twitter.com/Capn_Midnight

And most importantly you can buy the comic online from http://www.comixpress.com/

Would You Kill Your Loved One?

So, after the first episode of The Walking Dead the other night (an episode that I had very few quibbles with), I was curious about Lennie’s struggle to shoot his zombie wife. I wondered, as he was blowing away zombies to the left and right of her, “Why doesn’t he just drop her?” Then I thought about it, could I drop my wife? Or my son? Or my daughter? (I’ve certainly wanted to drop each one of them at some aggravating point or another while they have been annoyingly alive–how hard could it be when their faces are eaten off?). I think I could do it, but I don’t know. I asked my son, who also watched the episode– what did he think?

He said, “I think I could but then I don’t know maybe I couldn’t.”

I guess he’s as wishy-washy with patricide, matricide, and fratricide as I am. I said if and when it comes down to it, the top of your head is flying off. My son’s fraternity brother then assailed us with his impeccable logic:

“Here’s my logic: I don’t want to remember my family or friends as zombies who are walking around eating other people. It’s just like a rabid dog; sure you had some good times, but at the end of the day you are doing him and yourself a favor…cause once the dog goes mental or your family goes zombie, they won’t hesitate themselves to eat your face. I’m not saying that there wouldn’t be any hesitation, but I’d definitely end up doing it.”

I had to agree. Following this unsentimental logic, I added:

“I think its an issue of timing. If its early in the apocalypse, I might would give you a pass for not really understanding what’s going on and being emotionally wrecked, but if you’ve been around long enough to be able to recite the Romero rules to newcomers and have been actively putting them down in the street like Lennie, then there is really no excuse for hesitating–and in fact, you would become a liability and would be subject to being dropped yourself for putting others at risk. I do think it would be hard to machete my wife’s head off or stick a screwdriver through my son’s eye–but Lennie had a rifle with a scope! How impersonal is THAT?”

My son disagreed about the impersonality of the rifle scope. He said:

“I’d like to venture and say that a sniper scope is actually VERY personal. That’s the reason Lennie couldn’t do it. He was so close he could see her eyes looking directly back at him in the scope. With the scope you are basically face-to-face with the person and can see every gory detail when that bullet makes their head go all kablooey. Really the only good thing to do in case of the apocalypse is just grow a pair of balls and do it, forcing yourself to become desensitized to shooting things right between the eyes.”

Yikes. I have a feeling my son has grown his pair and might even have shells with my name on it. I replied:

“Well, I can certainly see that point. Still, a scope/rifle provides physical distance and a less-intimate, less messy for the shooter kill than a hand to hand combat kill. With physical distance in place, emotional distance can be worked on–a feat I would find more difficult if your brain jelly was smeared all over my cheek or my wife’s neck tendons were snarled in the zipper of my Goretex jacket.”

Ultimately, Lennie, in order to save his son Duane and himself, will have to drop his wife I would think. I think it is unconscionable as a father to continue to allow the mother to torment his son by sniffing around the front door. Your wife lives on in your memories–but what’s standing on the front porch is dead. And dangerous.

It’s over, man. Drop her.

In the first short, my only question is who is the woman who knocks on the door?  If it’s the man’s wife, then our chainsaw maid is a slutty chainsaw maid.

Chainsaw Maid

In Chainsaw Maid 2, our maid returns, the question of what happened to the man is answered, and certainly, if ability to wield a sawed-off shotgun is any indication, the foundational back story to Chainsaw Child has been put in place. Oh yeah, and the maid is still a little slutty in 2!

Chainsaw Maid 2

4.Linnea Quigley: Trash from Return of the Living Dead: Linnea Quigley was a legendary scream queen before she bared her breasts in a graveyard. “Trash is taking her clothes off again.” Quigley has continued her roles on B-movies and solidified herself as true master of the horror craft. Some of my favorite Linnea Quigley favorites include Sorority Girls in the Slimeball Bowl-a-rama, Curse of the Lesbian Love Goddess and Spring Break Massacre. If you hope to see Linnea on the big screen sometime soon don’t hold your breath, but the straight to video releases will likely have a title or two. Even into her 50’s, Linnea is doing her part to further the B-movie genre and continues to act.

3. Sherman Howard: Bub from Day of the Dead: Sherman Howard was hardly recognizable as the long dead Bub in Day of the Dead. He was the first zombie to truly have emotions and personality and has become one of the stars of the genre. Sherman is most often known for her voice work in several hit cartoon series including Batman Beyond and Invader Zim. Anymore you are more likely to hear him in video games including Red Dead Redemption. He still does the occasional acting part most recently in Law and Order in 2008.

2. Gaylen Ross: Francine in Dawn of the Dead: We last saw Francine literally flying into the sunset to escape the teeming dead in the mall from hell. Believe it or not, Francine was Ross’s first movie role and she followed up with only briefly with roles in Creepshow and Walker Texas Ranger. She got a taste of being behind the scenes as the casting director in Day of the Dead and has since spent most of her time writing and producing. She currently creates award winning documentaries for PBS including Caris’ Peace and Killing Kasztner.

1. Judith O’Dea: Barbara in Night of the Living Dead: They were coming to get her in Night of the Living Dead sparking one of the most phrases in horror movie history, Night was Judith’s first film and didn’t do any additional work until 1978 and took another hiatus until 2003. Judith is a fan favorite at conventions and she has been involved with several horror movie documentaries over the years. She seems to have caught the acting bug again and has been in three films since 2008 with her most recent, The Gathering, in preproduction.

Nothing will get in Chuck’s way as the pack will also include a new special “hail of bullets” attack where mowing down masses of zombies will be easier and more fun than ever before. The Dead Rising 2 Soldier of Fortune Theme Pack is available for 160 Microsoft points or $1.99.