GZ News: LA Noire, Portal 2 Reviews, Twisted Metal Preview, GZ Homefront Mini-Review, and More.

Well it has indeed been too long since my last post here. I have plenty to post about though. Lots of good stuff out there in Gamedom of late and while I don't have my head buried deep in the games that would consume most gaming journalists I do keep up with what's out there and from what I have seen the gaming market just picked up a bit with the release of Portal 2, Mortal Kombat, and the upcoming LA Noire in May, the latter of which I am clamoring to get my hands on. There is also a great deal of hype surrounding Battlefield 3 and a few other titles that launch later this year and are providing many drool inducing trailers for the masses. Without further adeiu lets dive into some of the news that I have been tagging.

Da' News

Portal 2 has been released and reviewed many times over. It has made all the gamers and critics swoon with 9's and 10's across the board. I am not surprised by this. The first Portal was an instant classic and more of the same with new puzzles, co-op, and Valve's twisted humor makes for another $ maker. I haven't gone out of my way to get any time with it. Why? Well it's just not in my cycle of gaming right now and that's as real as I can put it. I knew it would be a great game that I will eventually want to play, but all the hype and in-depth previews kinda spoiled me and I feel like I have already played this game in my head.

L.A. Noire (screen above) on the other hand sounds just the kind of game I been waiting for. Substance, style, depth, amazing graphics, Rockstar Studios' incredible attention to detail, and real actors doing real performances. Yes this one is going to garner some of my attention...nay ALOT of my attention. I read a preview and it just got me even more pumped to play it. I elected to go with the PS3 version on my pre-order for this and for right now that's what I am sticking with. PS3 exclusive content is rumored and it's a single player game. That's why I can't think of any reason to have it on my Xbox 360. Comments? Well check out this latest trailer while you type.



Do you remember playing Twisted Metal on Playstation back in the day? Oh man I do. That game kept me and my friends busy on rainy summer days during high-school. Screw Mario-Kart lets cause mayhem! Below is a pic from the latest Twisted Metal that's in development. David Jaffe, the creator, is totally keeping that old school feel and look while simultaneously bringing the classic title into the latest fold of technology and such. Joystiq has a great preview here. Release date is set for October 4th.

The last bit of game news I would like to mention is Battlefield 3. Oh yes this one is going to find a home on my console this year. I really like what EA and DICE are doing with this title and while it may end up being more of the same old FPS modern combat that we are all use to by now it has never looked better than this and that's enough for my pre-order! Get schooled on this bad boy by watching the Full 12-minute Fault-Line trailer below. BOOM!



GZ Mini-Review

Homefront: Xbox 360 version
$59.99
GZ Rating 7.0 - Good

Ok so I was really excited to get this title in my hands last month. After a solid 17+ hours in online and 5 hours in campaign I decided it was time to pony up the opinion to my readers. Bottom line, if you are tired of the other modern shooter in your disc tray and want a great online experience with a bit of CoD and Battlefield 2 meshed together then Homefront will keep you happy until the holiday season. It has a surprising amount of customization and the vehicles and drones are all alot of fun to use. All of the weapons feel right but the damage could be improved slightly. In fact a 'Hardcore' mode on this title would be a fantastic addition. Maybe in some DLC. The single-player was just ok. It was a bit difficult, but nothing taxing. In fact, don't buy it for anything but online play because Homefront's signature game mode called Ground Control is just addicting and fun. If you were on the fence, I hope this little review helped.

Cool Shiznit

This is all just a bunch of stuff I found that I had to share because its so awesome. Enjoy!

The live-action Mortal Kombay web series has two episodes out now. 
The Ghost Recon: Future Soldier dev team went to the gun range! That's progress right?

The cool stuff you can do in Just Cause 2. I should pick this one up in a bargain bin one day.


A great vid of the game deaths we all remember from the 8-bit days.


Finally, a new kind of Super Mario Bros. movie. Funny!



Oh and check out Dead Frontier for free online web-based zombie slaying with an RPG feel. :)

Game News & Media Morsels

So Black Ops on Xbox360 is currently where I spend my gaming time. It won't hold my attention for too much longer though. Why? Well that's easy. On March 8, 2011 THQ will release the new FPS game Homefront for 360/PS3/PC. I will be getting a copy for my 360. This game isn't in the limelight as much as a CoD game would be or even Battlefield for that matter, but it caught my attention mainly for the reasons outlined in the video below. I think the single-player campaign is going to be great. I will be posting my thoughts on this Friday's coverage by IGN on the multi-player in Homefront. Here is the vid.



Ok so for all of you CoD junkies out there who are counting down to the first map pack release on Feb 1st (360 only) here is Treyarch's sneak peak of what to expect on the multi-player maps.



Zip lines! Yikes! Should be loads of fun for all. Speaking of fun have you seen the commercial dubbed "Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2" yet? No? Well feast your eyes on the vid below. GREAT marketing gimmick. Give EA kudos on that idea.



I love the gore and the scares. Bring it. Alright so on to the next tasty morsel. Last summer a video teaser of a gritty remake of the movie Mortal Kombat was released on YouTube. It starred movie actor Michael Jai-White of Spawn, Dark Knight, and Sucker Punch fame playing Jax as a detective. Some of you may have seen this already, but I just watched it for the first time ever and I was highly entertained by it. I can't wait for the webisodes. Any MK fan old & new should watch this. Comment below.



All of us want better control right? Those guys on the MLG circuit make it look so easy. I am constantly running into uber-CoD players when casually gaming at night. Maybe if I had one of these I could at least stay alive longer right? Maybe? One point for dialing in your resistance on the analog sticks, two points taken away for not being wireless. Click the pic. The jury is out on this one.

Ok so in the lighter side of the news, I wanted to share this fan-friggin-tastic video of a Nintendo inspired Scion xB complete with game console and a projector built into the headlight. I want one.



Lastly, this dope decided it would be cool to tunnel into a game stop after hours and make off with some loot. He was wrong....it is hilarious! I laughed out loud! See ya next time!

Modern Warfare: Frozen Crossing - Short Film

These guys are rad.

Part 1



Part 2

Future First Person Shooter

One of the best videos on the internet. Happy New Year!

Awesome Mass Effect M8 Replica Gun

Commander Shepard would be proud.

I have seen a lot of awesome replica props from games and movies. I rarely met one that I didn't like or at least thought it was interesting. I still think the God of War Chaos Blade replica is one of the coolest props around, but those don't come with a "how it's made" recap for all to see and make feeble attempts at recreating. Harrison Krix who runs a blog called Volpin Props just posted this work of art you see above. It's a replica of the M8 Assault Rifle used my Commander Shepard and crew in the Mass Effect games. An amazing accomplishment! He details how he made it here on his blog. And by detail I mean he provides pictures and explanations of what he did and why. Cool no? A really enjoyable read that makes you appreciate his skill, the badass f*cking tools he has in his shop, and the creativity. It indeed will inspire you to think what you can do in your own garage. Guess its time to start saving up for that vacuformer?

BTW here are the Chaos Blades I spoke of. Temporarily out of stock at a cool $299.

Zombie News No. 24 + Name Suggestion Box

I bet the inventor of the Successories brand never thought that his idea of putting a great picture on top of a word that describes it, and then putting a little quip underneath the whole thing explaining why he chose that word, would ever take off like it did. Wonder what happened to that dude? Besides getting rich? The pic to the left here is what I always envisioned my basement looking like. I definitely have more work to do in that area!
So I have something for all my readers to ponder over. My blog is called Game Zombie and I honestly had no idea about the other Game Zombie sites out there. Go ahead and google it and you will see what I mean. There is even a facebook page for some other site that is run by a guy in PA. I love that people think Game Zombie is a cool name, but I value originality. So here is what I want you all to help me with. I don't like to follow the crowd and Game Zombie is a great description for this site, but now that I see these others out there I have to ask what other name could I use? Leave your suggestions in the comments below and in 2 weeks I will take your suggestions and a few my own and we will all vote on it. On to the news!

Game News

The Red Dead Redemption patch is live. Dtoid reports. Of all the bugs they fixed I would have left this one: Occasionally, the player would not recover from being drunk.

Batman Arkham City officially announced! This has been big news lately as most critics gave the first game high marks. I just beat it (late show) and I will have a mini-review up this weekend. I like the image on the cover of GI. With Catwoman being pictured here it has got the Co-Optimus guys nerding out on the premise that co-op could be in this next installment. 


Ever hear of a game called Monday Night Combat? Well its a very well put together TF2-type game where you will have several classes to choose from to take into an arena for battle against another team. I think it shows alot of promise and being a downloadable game $15 it has a ton of replay value in it. Here is a great walk-through from the developers as they go through the game and show you that its all about a piece of bacon doing high-five with a shotgun shell. 





Remember how many records Modern Warfare 2 broke last year? Yeah well Activision is saying this year's Call of Duty: Black Ops is on pace to smash that record. IGN reports.  I am pumped up to play the game, but if it ends up being another glitchy multi-player mess I will be back on the boycott bus. I can already see the map-packs for this one costing $20. Oh and by the way, Wii owners will get their wiimote hands on this one too.

Codemasters announces yet another Operation Flashpoint game. This one is called Red River. According to the Dtoid report, this one is gonna have 4 player drop-in drop-out co-op with better AI all around. I was a huge fan of the original on PC, but mediocre showings afterwards have kept me from going back. This looks to be going down the co-op road like Ghost Recon is and that could be a good thing. Will keep an eye on this as it gets closer to a 2011  release date. 


Cool Stuff

Dtoid had a link to this guys site that did some web-comics on Red Dead Redemption that, provided you played the game before, are just downright hilarious. If haven't played RDR it's still funny, but not as much. I highly recommend you check it out. I went through all of them that have been done so far.

Remember the funny looking heads you could slam on a zombie's head in Dead Rising? I found out today its called a Servbot head! Even better news is that Capcom is selling some! No not the ones you can wear, which would be cool to use as a prank on someone, but as a bobble-head! Dtoid has the scoop along with this pic. 




Lastly, something to do with zombies (imagine that). I found a fellow blogger site and very talented artist named Rob Sacchetto who creates rather detailed and instantly mesmerizing zombie portraits of Hollywood celebrities. This one below is a disturbing version of Tiger Woods. Brilliant I say. Check out his site and pay your respects to a fellow zombie lover. Till next time!

Awesome Zombie Flash Game, Dead Rising 2: Case Zero info, and Scott Pilgrim

Don't miss your chance to play this one of a kind flash game. A simple little romp that is worthy of your precious time!



Zombies Took My Daughter



Some light has been shed on the prelude for Dead Rising 2 called Case Zero. The downloadable content is going to take the player through Chuck Greene's motivation for kicking zombie butt all over Fortune City. Some details of Case Zero was realeased during Capcom's "Save the Zombie" event in Tokyo today. Get this, there is a movie based on DR2 being released (a B-movie for sure) to DVD. No details on that movie release yet.


Lastly, if this picture of upcoming PSN and XBLA game Scott Pilgrim vs. the World doesn't get you jazzed to get back into 8-bit style gaming....well then check your pulse.

That's a lot of 8-bit ass kicking right there! We have some really great downloadable games out right now (DeathSpank and Limbo) and this little beat-em-up is scheduled for Aug 10th for PSN and Aug 25th XBLA release.

What a year for gamers!

Must See Video: Super Mario Bros. Played on a Curb

OK so I had to post this after I found it on another site and only because I think the technology is really cool. So this is probably only for us nerds and retro game zombies. So the scoop is that a student named Andreas Heikus who is studying match-moving (putting digital animation into the real world) did this for his thesis. He plays out an entire run through of original Super Mario Bros. on a street curb. Well enough talk...check it out!

Super Mario Bros. from Andreas Heikaus on Vimeo.