Lately, many people have been declaring the zombie genre dead. Most of those people have been ignoring the fact that the zombie genre has been declared dead by many more people since George A. Romero made his original cult classic Night of the Living Dead, and that a large portion of the internet has declared the genre hopelessly stale and therefore dead since around the year 2006 (right around the time Max Brooks was finding fame with his beloved book The Zombie Survival Guide and his followup bestseller hit World War Z).
The irony of this, and to the chagrin of many a zombie critic, is that in spite of being a dead genre, it keeps persisting in pop culture and makes quite a bit of money doing so. Yes, the genre of the undead is indeed undead itself.
However, even though I just opened with a somewhat meta-critical analysis of a sub-genre of horror, I'm not here to talk about that today.
Today, I would like to focus on one single video game of the many, many games that claim the zombie genre. Today, I would like to talk about Stubbs the Zombie in: Rebel Without a Pulse.
Stubbs is what I would call an all around fun game. The gameplay is simple yet satisfying, and the story is entertaining to say the least.
You are Stubbs the Zombie, a brain craving dead man recently risen from the dead. In the time you've been dead (about 25 years) a futuristic utopian city founded by a rags to riches billionaire has been built on top of your 'final' resting place. Now the year is 1959, and as Stubbs you will consume the brains of as many citizens, officers, army personnel, and other humans as you can. Slowly building an army of the undead as you make your way through the city to the mayor (whom Stubbs believes was responsible for his death).
The jokes are funny if a little cliched and the graphics are decent for an Original Xbox game. What really makes the game are two things. First, the game doesn't take itself to seriously but isn't so campy that you can't enjoy it. Stubbs knows fun. Fun is a dance off between a zombie and a police commissioner to an awesome setlist. The best part though, hands down, is the soundtrack. The developers got together the likes of Cake, The Flaming Lips, Death Cab For Cutie, and other well liked bands to cover a variety of 60's era music. This adds an amazing atmosphere to the entire game, and the soundtrack by itself is one of the best cover albums of all time. I would highly recommend that you purchase and download both the soundtrack and the game. At the very least check out the soundtrack. It's terrific.
Have a happy New Year everyone! The future is going to be exciting.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Sunday, December 29, 2013
This Virtual Life
Hi there. My name is Bagley Sacksman. Call me whatever you'd like, but my name across a great many worlds is BagleySacksman and that's just the way I like it.
I play games, and I usually play them with friends. Apocagenocits (Uh-pok-uh-jen-oh-sy-tiss), Thundercock Soulpuncher (a.k.a. Dancing Elk a.k.a. Prometheus), Ian the Digester, The Wozniak, and The Phantom Spank. There are a few others in the crew and they'll certainly make an appearance at least every now and again, but these guys are the ones that I roll with most of the time.
At the moment, I'll be spending a lot of time discussing my current adventures in the world of Chernarus. The island nation that is the setting for the game DayZ.
DayZ is one of the best informal social experiments taking place right now. It's only in its' Early Alpha Access stage on Steam and has already sold massive amounts of copies in the short time it's been available for purchase, to the tune of over 200,000 copies in under 96 hours.
In the game, you are spawned with nothing but a flashlight and the clothes on your back. It's up to you navigate the zombie ravaged country and scavenge for food, clothes, medicine, weapons, and whatever else you might need to survive. In the game's current state, finding any of the aforementioned supplies is damn near impossible, and the game is extremely unfriendly and unforgiving to veterans of the game (and the mod the game is based off of), and downright hostile to newcomers. Still, that hasn't stopped most people from playing the game and having a great time.
Up to 39 other players can be on a server so far, and that means that up to 39 other people can be out for your blood.
See, most players in DayZ don't really care all that much about anybody besides themselves (shocker), and will kill you if for no other reason than for the sport of it.
The other group of players would really like to help you out, but will kill you because they can't be sure you don't belong to the first group and if they wait to find out then it might be too late by the time they get their answer. Most people will team up with friends and protect each other, but because you can't choose where you start out, you'll be spending a lot of time alone.
If you think you're the type of person who will enter this sick world and deliver it's population from damnation, you might want to think again. You never start off wanting to hurt anybody, but when you've gone through the fifth village and still found no food, no water, and just a crowbar, it's almost impossible not to murder the poor guy you found who had everything he needed to survive... but a weapon. You'll bash his skull in, feel terrible and monstrous, and then revel in glee as you take his stuff and continue on your way with a full stomach and more storage space for the other things you hope to find. You might feel bad about it for a while but you'll rationalize your actions and continue on your way.
On the other hand, maybe you have more moral gumption than Soulpuncher (shoot first, ask questions later if at all), and you can resist the temptation to kill and rob your fellow survivors, thus retaining the title of survivor and not succumbing to the ways of the bandit. Your story will probably go something like this:
You'll approach a medium sized town. You have almost everything you need, but not quite enough to head north where the less traveled roads are and the towns haven't been looted yet. You see a person in the distance. Putting aside your fear, you type a greeting and make your character wave. The man in the distance stops, looks at you, and stands perfectly still for an eternal second. Just as you're about to leave, hoping to avoid conflict, your screen goes black, informing you of your demise.
What probably happened was that the guy down the street had a friend in a house behind you, and he warned his buddy. His buddy then proceeded to sneak up on you and took you out while you were distracted. But you'll never know, because you're dead. Then, you respawn somewhere else and the journey starts over again. You don't have your stuff, if you were with friends you are now separated, and you're probably wishing you'd killed the guy when you had the chance.
A game this hard can seem unappealing at first, but the complete lack of structure or direction allows for some of the greatest roleplaying the zombie survival genre has ever had. Some people form bandit posses, and prowl the countryside looking for victims and loot. Others just want to explore the massive environment and make some new friends, and a couple of psychos like to dress up in clown masks and chase you through the city at night (seriously).
Right now, I've actually managed to collect enough gear to survive and defend myself, and I've taken a copy of The New Testament with me as I spread the good word to other survivors and bandits alike.
That's the beauty of DayZ. You jump in, and craft your own story and do your own thing. Are you an escaped convict washed up on shore? Maybe a mercenary sent on a shady "survey" mission. Or maybe you're one of the last surviving locals, hoping to make it to your family's village so you can all try and survive this crazy mess.
It's up to you, you're friends, and the people (alive or undead) you meet to make up the events of your story, and that alone provides dayz (heh) of entertainment. Truly, truly, Nature Walk Simulator 2013 is the zombie game we've been waiting for.
I play games, and I usually play them with friends. Apocagenocits (Uh-pok-uh-jen-oh-sy-tiss), Thundercock Soulpuncher (a.k.a. Dancing Elk a.k.a. Prometheus), Ian the Digester, The Wozniak, and The Phantom Spank. There are a few others in the crew and they'll certainly make an appearance at least every now and again, but these guys are the ones that I roll with most of the time.
At the moment, I'll be spending a lot of time discussing my current adventures in the world of Chernarus. The island nation that is the setting for the game DayZ.
DayZ is one of the best informal social experiments taking place right now. It's only in its' Early Alpha Access stage on Steam and has already sold massive amounts of copies in the short time it's been available for purchase, to the tune of over 200,000 copies in under 96 hours.
In the game, you are spawned with nothing but a flashlight and the clothes on your back. It's up to you navigate the zombie ravaged country and scavenge for food, clothes, medicine, weapons, and whatever else you might need to survive. In the game's current state, finding any of the aforementioned supplies is damn near impossible, and the game is extremely unfriendly and unforgiving to veterans of the game (and the mod the game is based off of), and downright hostile to newcomers. Still, that hasn't stopped most people from playing the game and having a great time.
Up to 39 other players can be on a server so far, and that means that up to 39 other people can be out for your blood.
See, most players in DayZ don't really care all that much about anybody besides themselves (shocker), and will kill you if for no other reason than for the sport of it.
The other group of players would really like to help you out, but will kill you because they can't be sure you don't belong to the first group and if they wait to find out then it might be too late by the time they get their answer. Most people will team up with friends and protect each other, but because you can't choose where you start out, you'll be spending a lot of time alone.
If you think you're the type of person who will enter this sick world and deliver it's population from damnation, you might want to think again. You never start off wanting to hurt anybody, but when you've gone through the fifth village and still found no food, no water, and just a crowbar, it's almost impossible not to murder the poor guy you found who had everything he needed to survive... but a weapon. You'll bash his skull in, feel terrible and monstrous, and then revel in glee as you take his stuff and continue on your way with a full stomach and more storage space for the other things you hope to find. You might feel bad about it for a while but you'll rationalize your actions and continue on your way.
On the other hand, maybe you have more moral gumption than Soulpuncher (shoot first, ask questions later if at all), and you can resist the temptation to kill and rob your fellow survivors, thus retaining the title of survivor and not succumbing to the ways of the bandit. Your story will probably go something like this:
You'll approach a medium sized town. You have almost everything you need, but not quite enough to head north where the less traveled roads are and the towns haven't been looted yet. You see a person in the distance. Putting aside your fear, you type a greeting and make your character wave. The man in the distance stops, looks at you, and stands perfectly still for an eternal second. Just as you're about to leave, hoping to avoid conflict, your screen goes black, informing you of your demise.
What probably happened was that the guy down the street had a friend in a house behind you, and he warned his buddy. His buddy then proceeded to sneak up on you and took you out while you were distracted. But you'll never know, because you're dead. Then, you respawn somewhere else and the journey starts over again. You don't have your stuff, if you were with friends you are now separated, and you're probably wishing you'd killed the guy when you had the chance.
A game this hard can seem unappealing at first, but the complete lack of structure or direction allows for some of the greatest roleplaying the zombie survival genre has ever had. Some people form bandit posses, and prowl the countryside looking for victims and loot. Others just want to explore the massive environment and make some new friends, and a couple of psychos like to dress up in clown masks and chase you through the city at night (seriously).
Right now, I've actually managed to collect enough gear to survive and defend myself, and I've taken a copy of The New Testament with me as I spread the good word to other survivors and bandits alike.
That's the beauty of DayZ. You jump in, and craft your own story and do your own thing. Are you an escaped convict washed up on shore? Maybe a mercenary sent on a shady "survey" mission. Or maybe you're one of the last surviving locals, hoping to make it to your family's village so you can all try and survive this crazy mess.
It's up to you, you're friends, and the people (alive or undead) you meet to make up the events of your story, and that alone provides dayz (heh) of entertainment. Truly, truly, Nature Walk Simulator 2013 is the zombie game we've been waiting for.
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