Awesome.

Since they've just announced their existence today, there obviously aren't too many details at this point. They haven't committed to any specific console (though it definitely will be a console game), there's no estimated release date yet, and they don't know who will publish it. The most important question, though, is: slow or fast zombies?! The answer from the Undead Labs website seems to be fast. Which we think is a good thing. Slow zombies may have worked well to create eery tension in movies of the past but the videogame environment needs some fast movement.

How did this game come about? Well, that's pretty simple. Here's a quote from the founder of Undead Labs, Jeff Strain, formerly of NCsoft and ArenaNet:

“Every time I see a good zombie movie with friends, we spend days debating our strategies for surviving the zombie apocalypse,” said Strain. “The police station, or the supermarket? Garden rake, or staple gun? Bach, or the White Stripes? I’m a game developer, so I’d probably be useless for anything other than ghoul bait, but I’m excited to have the opportunity to build an MMOZ that lets us put those strategies to the test and find out for sure.”

The guys over at SCRAWL suggest that Jeff go and see Zombieland, since that movie is both awesome and suggests some excellent methods of zombie-apocalypse survival.

Games like Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising are, no doubt, extremely sweet, but how much better would the experience be in MMO form? We'll soon find out.

Check out Undead Labs' website.

Technorati Tags: 28 days later, 28 weeks later, ArenaNet, blood, console, dawn of the dead, dead rising, george a romero, guild wars, infected, Jeff Strain, land of the dead, left 4 dead, massively multiplayer, ncsoft, night of the living dead, online, PS3, undead, Wii, xbox 360, zombie, zombieland, zombies

[ via Joystiq ]

Technorati Tags: closing, developer, EA, Electronic Arts, employees, layoff, mercenaries, office space, pandemic, printer, recession, revenge

Clearly, the folks behind Brütal Legend are worried about the stability of the globe, because this game, starring Jack Black, is hysterical. The demo is basically just to get you hooked on the outlandish story: Jack Black plays Eddie Riggs, who is a roadie for a terrible emo band posing as heavy metal. Riggs laments the death of good music, way back in the "early '70s," and is suddenly transported to a bone-crushingly awesome alternate universe with metal, skulls, fire, demos, and all that good stuff.

Apparently, the style of gameplay isn't even quite what will end up being in the full game -- the demo is very constricted and doesn't let you roam very far, whereas the full version will be a more open world environment. But what little taste we get is pretty cool. It's an interesting combination of action-fighter-button masher that has you plowing through evil demons with some kick ass weapons: a massive axe called "The Separator," a guitar affectionately known as "Clementine," and "The Druid Plow, which is a two-seater hot rod that Eddie whips up out of some parts that he finds.

This type of gameplay has been done before, but never presented in such a hilarious and fun way. You'll surely encounter some things you feel like you've seen in countless games before, but the game does a good job of distracting you with awesome visuals and some serious funny bone tickling. Even if you don't like metal, you'll enjoy yourself with this demo. Just a warning, though: it's short, and you'll be crying for more when it's over. The game hits shelves on "Rocktober" 13th.

Check out the gallery and press release below.

AFRIKA FOR PLAYSTATION 3 GOES GOLD

Natsume To Bring Visually Stunning Safari Experience To Retail October
6th

Burlingame, Calif., September 17, 2009 - Natsume Inc., a worldwide
developer and publisher of family-oriented video games, today
announced that Afrika for the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment
system has gone gold. Natsume's first title for the PLAYSTATION 3,
Afrika is a wildlife photography adventure set in a lush, unexplored
region of Africa. The game will be available at an MSRP of $49.99 and
is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.

"We are thrilled about Afrika's upcoming release in North America. And
it's certainly been a pleasure working with Sony Computer
Entertainment Worldwide Studios on the project," said Hiro Maekawa,
President and CEO of Natsume. "Afrika is a truly unique gaming
experience. Anyone can pick it up and enjoy its beauty, but it has
enough depth and challenge to satisfy even the most hardcore players."

In Afrika, players step into the role of a freelance photographer
exploring a brand new African wildlife conservation area. They'll
document the wildlife and photograph incredible sights such as a
titanic clash between hippopotamuses, a pride of lions watching over
its playful cubs, and a cheetah's lightning-fast chase as it runs down
its prey!  All of the game's animals and environments are rendered in
photorealistic detail with animals that move, behave, and interact
with each other just like their real-world counterparts. Produced in
cooperation with National Geographic, Afrika features a wealth of
information about each of its animals, including footage and
photographs from the magazine.

The photography in the game is as meticulously modeled as the animals
themselves; players will need to learn from the game's innovative
photo grading system and compose their photographs with the eye of a
professional photographer if they want to earn top dollar. The money
they earn can be used to purchase new licensed lenses, cameras, and
safari equipment. If players are good enough, they just might find
their photograph on the cover of National Geographic!

With more than 70 animals to find, over 100 missions to complete, and
endless replayability, Afrika offers the safari experience of a
lifetime!

Technorati Tags: africa, afrika, camera, national geographic, natsume, photo, photography, playstation, pokemon snap, PS3, safari, virtual, wilderness

I don't want to give the impression that this game is just a cheap copy of Chrono Trigger, but it is definitely inspired by games that have come before it.

The story is not entirely original but it's still vastly interesting and makes you want to keep playing to find out about the characters and how they'll develop. The main characters definitely fall into some archetypical roles (the book smart sister, the adventurous brother, etc.), but their personalities are deep enough that this doesn't impede the story in any way.

The world of Bel Lenora is a fun place to explore, and you've got all sorts of different environments and locales to investigate. Exploring, though, is damaged by what is easily the biggest sticking point in the game: the massively overactive enemy encounter rate. It is really out of control. Sometimes you can't get more than four steps without meeting another enemy.

I probably don't have to tell you that this is pretty infuriating. I have to point out that (thank God) there is an option to run away from battle, but it's really not very effective. You can escape an encounter by holding the B button, which causes the players to animate running away. But as you're waiting for the characters to get their butts actually moving, the enemy has up to three attack chances on you. That's pretty devastating if you're hanging on to your dear life by the fingernails. Sometimes, your ugly foes won't be able to lay a hand on you, but that seldom happens. Still, having that option is far better than none at all, so I can't really complain all that much. But even on the overworld maps, you encounter enemies all over the place. This completely changes the dynamics of the game. For instance, if you're thinking about heading over to a neighboring village to stock up on supplies, you have to consider whether it would really be worth it with running the risk of being severely damaged.

That being said, the battles aren't boring. They're still fun enough that you'll be excited when you defeat an enemy or learn a new skill. It would be further improved, though, if there was a little more variety in the battles. Within a specific type of area, there's a high probability you'll come across the same battle area more than once. There's not too much variety in the environments or in the types of enemies you encounter.

Black Sigil is not an ugly game. Its environments are relatively lush and colorful, and the different types of areas are pretty well differentiated. Within a specific area, some scenery can get fairly repetitive but not so much that you really start noticing unless you are actively looking for it. Animations are okay, but are pretty dang choppy and not too detailed. This game was originally designed for the GameBoy Advance, and you can really tell if you take a closer look.

Another dead giveaway that the game was designed first for the GBA is that this is really a one-screen game. The top screen is hardly used for anything, and what little information is up there isn't really laid out in the most logical way. But this is nitpicking, and a game like this one doesn't need to have an effective use of the top screen. That's not the point. The point is to play, advance, and level up.

And leveling up isn't all that hard thanks to some pretty standard but well-tested controls. Of course, controlling the game via the stylus on the bottom screen is atrocious, but no one plays their DS that way anyway. The control pad setup for battles (one attack for each direction on the pad) makes battles easy to navigate and relatively quick. Not all the buttons are used, but that's really because they aren't needed.

In-game menus are not quite as slick as the controls. Actually, they're pretty awful. Some pretty basic things (switching around what items are equipped for different characters, for example) are buried a few menus down and aren't logically laid out. That's fine once you get to know the menus but it still takes too long to do many things.

The game's sound is pretty standard. The music is pleasing but can get pretty repetitive. It's well-composed and its mood often fits the type of area you're currently in. The battle music is always the same, which, because you're often in battle, does get a little irritating. Sound effects are also recycled pretty often for different actions, but not to a ridiculous point.

Black Sigil is a good game. If you've played Chrono Trigger or some of the Final Fantasy games, and you're itching for a new experience in the same vein, give Black Sigil a try. If you can get past the fact that you'll be spending most of the time battling enemies, you'll love it.

Gameplay:	7.5/10.0
Visuals:	8.5/10.0
Controls:	8.25/10.0
Audio:	9.0/10.0
Lasting Appeal:	9.0/10.0
Overall:	8.5/10.0

Technorati Tags: Bel Lenora, Black Sigil, Chrono Trigger, DS, Final Fantasy, gba, Graffiti, Nintendo, rpg, Studio Archcraft

Technorati Tags: Albion, fable, Fable 3, fable ii, Fable III, Lionhead Studios, Molyneux, xbox 360

Recently announced was the ability to make speeches to your people to try to win over voters. If your country is bordering communist, El Presidente will address his citizens as comrades. You can make promises to your voters that, if you don't, will cause problems with your people. Check out the excerpt from the press release below and the gallery if images below that.

El Presidente’s Speech Feature:

• Speeches are held before elections and are a great tool to sway some voters in your favor.
• When a speech is created, El Presidente (the player) outlines the general directions of the speech (what problems to address, which faction or superpower to praise, what promises to make). His secretary creates the speech from these notes.
• Some parts of the speeches are automatically generated according to the political context of the election. For example in a country leaning towards communism, Presidente may address his people as "comrades".
• If the player doesn't keep his election promises, he will bear consequences later.
• El Presidente is also able to praise himself in his speeches.

Tropico 3 will be available from September 2009 on Xbox 360 and PC, for more information, screenshots and the teaser trailer please visit the official game website www.tropico3.com.

12►

Technorati Tags: Cold War, Kalypso Media, Tropico, Tropico 3, xbox 360

You can see a demonstration video on hetoan2's blog post here. Don't worry, apparently he is working with Nintendo to ban MAC addresses of the cheaters. Here's an excerpt from his interview with The Wiire:

I discovered these loopholes in the game by using a device to dump the data from the wii, remote debugger, and GeckoOS (a homebrew program) to search and create the codes. The process is simple really, just using a bunch of searches on changes on in-game variables, and once you find where they're stored you can rewrite the code to make it do what you want, or you can write your own code to make it do what you want.

Everything is virtually unprotected. All values can be edited fairly easily, and there's virtually no sign of an attempt at hiding values, fixing bugs, or preventing online hackers. The online codes are identical to the offline versions because the offline game is the same as the online version. The only difference is in the online mode the game sends the variables in real-time to their server. Keep in mind that there are NO server checks. (If the value instantly changes abnormally, usually the server will boot you from the game or make you desync from the other players.)

[ via The Wiire ]

Technorati Tags: cheating, cheats, Conduit, hack, hacker, hetoan2, High voltage, Nintendo, sega, Wii

Mass Effect 2 is the second game in a planned trilogy, and is set to be released some time in early 2010.

Technorati Tags: bioware, E3, mass effect, mass effect 2, shepherd, Xbox, xbox 360

Bel Lenora is a world where people are born with magic at their command. Years ago, a single man walked the land with no magic in his veins. He brought death and tragedy in his wake and was banished by a brave General at a great cost. It has been fifteen years since his banishment and once again, a young man with no magic walks the land of Bel Lenora.

Look for our review soon.

Technorati Tags: Black Sigil: Blade, Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo, nintendo ds, Role-playing game