A couple of months ago we told you about a lecture given by Dr. Steven C. Schlozman, a Harvard psychiatrist and zombie enthusiast, covering zombie neuroscience and psychology. Unfortunately no one here at Zombie Slash could attend, but thankfully someone did and took extensive notes. We suggest that you take a look. Maybe this zombie thing isn’t so far fetched.
An interesting side note is that Schlozman drafted a faux medical journal article about a zombie outbreak, called “Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome.” Let it be known that we want a copy!
With three new trailers for kickass zombie games, it’s been a very cool week for zombie game news.
First, we got to see the trailer for Left 4 Dead 2, which comes out this fall for XBOX 360 and PC. The zombies have escaped from quarantine, and you and your guns are all that’s left to stop them.
The trailer for Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, coming out later in the year for Wii, was also released. Looks like more crazy research lab-themed zombie hunting is in store.
And the awesome Dead Rising 2 trailer came out this week. The game will come out next year for 360, PS3 and PC. I’m excited about the seemingly endless hordes of zombies and the quasi-Vegas locale.
Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day, that special day of the year when you can just walk into a comic book store and walk out with free comics. Legally, that is.
There are some fantastic-looking comics among this year’s free offerings, such as Attack Of The Alterna-Zombies!, which features Jesus Hates Zombies. FEARNet has a preview of several pages of Jesus Hates Zombies — here’s a nice snippet with Jesus, Abraham Lincoln and a zombie horde:
Zombie Hooker Nightmare is a silly, free Flash game on the Adult Swim website, where you’re a hooker who needs to find a john and make some cash in a world overrun by slow, mindless zombies. It’s an easy time waster, and the gameplay is … well, pretty familiar. There are tons of mini games just like it … minus the hookers of course.
The Zombie Slash team—we’re currently lounging across a couch talking about zombies and video games, living the glamorous life of the horror fan blogger—suspects that the reason behind all these zombie mini games is not simply because zombies are awesome (even though they are). It’s also because zombies are easy enemies for game developers to create. The game reviewers at NextGenWalkthroughs agreed with us in their recent walkthrough of Resident Evil 5:
I think that’s one of the reasons why there have been so many zombie games lately: because zombie AI is extremely easy to do, because they’re dumb, they go in a line for you, they b-line for you, they’re not ducking behind cover. (YouTube link)
But then again, we love zombies. So if you want to kill a few minutes of your otherwise dreary day blasting a few dumb zombies, who are we to stop you?
I’d always thought of Castlevania as a vampire game, but rumor has it (according to IMDB’s plot synopsis) that the 2011 movie based on the classic games series will be brimming with zombies.
The movie will be produced by Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson, whose past experience making scary video game-based zombie films has me hoping that Castlevania will be better than Double Dragon and Doom.
If you’re into zombies for more then the guts and gore and are going to be in the Boston area next week, we recommend that you attend Science on Screen: Night of the Living Dead with psychiatrist Steven C. Schlozman. Prior to watching Romero’s cinematographic opus, Night of the Living Dead, Schlozman will “discuss the theoretical neuroscience of zombies and the psychological effects they have on others.” Fascinating stuff.
Here at Zombie Slash, we’ve already explored the psychological underpinnings of our fascination with the undead, and wonder what a Harvard professor of psychiatry has to say about it. Going one step further, Schlozman will explore people’s hypothetical state of mind when confronted with a zombie attack. What causes them to increasingly regress to a zombie-like state without being infected? The end result maybe resembling what Max Brooks calls “Quizlings”?
We hope you can attend this intriguing lecture and enjoy the movie with a new mind, no pun intended.
What do zombies and math have in common? After playing Math Zombie on the iPhone, I’d say that it’s more than you’d think.
I had never even heard of Math Zombie — I was at the App Store to download the more-hyped Zombieville USA — but I decided to check it out since there’s a free version (called Math Zombie Free in the App Store). A few hours later, I was still playing and my brains were completely zombiefied.
The game play is simple: Add the numbers on the board to get the sum displayed at the bottom of the screen as the timer counts down. When the board is clear, you’re onto the next level and the numbers you need to add to get higher.
Why it turns you into a zombie is simple and ingenious: You brainlessly keep playing, clawing at your iPhone screen, although you know that really, there’s nothing special about this game. And you keep playing because you know you can do better. “C’mon,” you say to yourself, “anyone could add to 42.”
Plants vs Zombies comes out May 5, 2009, and may be the cutest zombie game ever. PopCap, the makers of hit mini games like Bejeweled, announced the upcoming release of it’s adorable new zombie game yesterday. That’s right — April Fool’s day. And everyone thought it was a joke. Today, they assert the game’s for real. For my part, I think it’s legit.
The announcement is accompanied by a fabulous music video with female vocals and a catchy beat. You must check it out now. Continue reading »
What will you do when the undead hit your neighborhood? Get some practice with these choose-your-own-zombie-adventures!
The Outbreak is a choose-your-own-adventure zombie film that was released last fall. The film is interactive and online, which makes for at least fifteen minutes of fantastic entertainment. Although the production is B-movie quality, the interactivity and availability give it an A in zombiliciousness. (Hint: if you don’t survive the feeding frenzy on your first attempt, click “chapter select” to go back a step.)
Check out the trailer below, or go straight to the site for zombie action.
If you’re looking for a more traditional choose-your-own-zombie-adventure, look no further than the newly released Zombie Bank Run. The story follows Samuel Nelson, a man who lost it all in the Great Depression, and might just lose his life too in the zombie apocalypse.
As you might expect, Zombie Bank Run isn’t the finest literature out there, but it definitely gets bonus points for creativity and, of course, for zombies, and provides at least a good hour of zombie fun. Get started on the adventure here!
A not-so-fresh game that was released in Japan two years ago just hit US shelves. It’s called Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad, where bikini-clad cowgirl samurai chicks fight hordes of flesh-eating, gore-loving zombies.
This game could have been interesting based solely on its hi-mashup concept, but according to IGN, is totally not worth your time. Even the T&A falls short, apparently, with sub-par rendering of creepy boob-jiggling physics.
But watch this space for any further bikini-samurai-cowgirl-zombie crossover. The genre may have potential yet.
A couple of months ago we told you about a lecture given by Dr. Steven C. Schlozman, a Harvard psychiatrist and zombie enthusiast, covering zombie neuroscience and psychology. Unfortunately no one here at Zombie Slash could attend, but thankfully someone did and took extensive notes. We suggest that you take a look. Maybe this zombie thing isn’t so far fetched.
