Author: James Magee

Zombies are taking over the world!: Games

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Resident Evil

One of the oldest and most well known Zombie games of them all. The franchise, also known as Biohazard in Japan, began in 1996 when the game was released for Playstation. At the start of the game players choose between two protagonists, Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine; the two remaining members of an elite task-force known as S.T.A.R.S (Special Tactics and Rescue Service), who find themselves trapped in a zombie infested mansion on the edge of the fictional Raccoon City.

Players must survive the eerie corridors and spooky staircases of the mansion by solving puzzles whilst fighting off the living dead that appear when you least expect them.

The game has sold over 2.75 million copies and was included in Time magazine’s list of 100 greatest games of all time.

Resident Evil was followed by several sequels, prequels and spin-offs;

  • Resident Evil 2 (1998) clip
  • Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999) clip
  • Resident Evil: Code Veronica (2000) clip
  • Resident Evil Survivor (2000) clip
  • Resident Evil Survivor 2: Code Veronica (2001) clip
  • Resident Evil Zero: (2002) clip
  • Resident Evil Dead Aim (2003) clip 
  • Resident Evil Outbreak (2003) clip
  • Resident Evil Outbreak file #2 (2004) clip
  • Resident Evil 4 (2005) clip
  • Resident Evil Deadly Silence (2006) clip
  • Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007) clip 
  • Resident Evil 5 (2009) clip
  • Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (2009) clip
  • Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (2011) clip
  • Resident Evil: Revelations (2012) clip
  • Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (2012) clip
  • Resident Evil 6 (2012) clip

The game has been turned into a successful film franchise, spanning several releases and starring Milla Jovovich as the lead protagonist battling the evil Umbrella Corporation.

Plants Vs. Zombies

The 2009 video game that took the internet by storm sees the player defending their home from swarms of zombies by strategically placing plants with different capabilities in their path.

It swept across almost all platforms from Xbox to Blackberry smartphones.

The addictive gameplay, catchy soundtrack and great visuals has earned plants Vs. Zombies several awards nominations including “Best Download Game” by the Game Developers Choice Awards and is considered the top grossing I-Phone launch.

A sequel to the game, Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is set for release in June 2013.

Here’s the the official trailer for Plants Vs. Zombies.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHAbHz8iYHc[/youtube]

House of the Dead (1998)

First released as an arcade game in 1997, players fight zombies in first person with a ‘real’ hand-held gun for a more immersible experience. The game was also turned into a low-budget film in 2003, although it didn’t receive much attention or praise. Here’s some footage of  House of the Dead gameplay:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5wCrCaVHiU[/youtube]

Left 4 Dead (2008)

Another first person zombie game, Left 4 Dead is packed with adrenaline surging action, with players taking down hordes of zombies that come running out of the darkness.

In the eerie atmosphere of each map, players can expect to be attacked by different types of zombies, each with their own attributes:

  • The Boomer spits bile and blinds players and attracts other zombies to your position.
  • The Hunter incapacitates players by jumping on them and can only be defeated when another player comes to help.
  • The Smoker grabs players from a distance and blinds them with a cloud of smoke when it is killed.
  • The Tank is a huge muscle-bound zombie that takes teamwork to take down quickly before it pulverises the players.
  • The Witch is a female zombie who is usually heard crying before she is seen. She must be killed quickly before she can unleash her damaging blows.

There’s a huge selection of weapons to be used in the various maps, from axes to AK-47’s, pipe-bombs to petrol cans. The gameplay revolves around four separate characters, who are relied upon to give aid or help each other out when they get grabbed by a zombie. The game was so well received a sequel was released almost exactly a year later in 2009. It wasn’t popular everywhere though. It was banned in Australia for it’s graphic violence which some people found hard to stomach. Luckily it wasn’t banned where I live though! Watch Left 4 Dead gameplay here;

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVIdHPG0wYI[/youtube]

 

 

 

 

Zombies are taking over the world!: Television

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJRNHAJAcYg[/youtube]

Unless you’ve been living under a rock with your fingers in your ears and your eyes closed for the last three years, you will have heard of the TV zombie phenomenon; The Walking Dead. One of the most watched cable series of all time, it follows a group of survivors in southern America trying to make it in the the months following a zombie apocalypse.

If the trailer doesn’t rope you in, we don’t know what will.

This huge cult hit has almost infinite amounts of information and statistics for the avid fan. Here’s just a few interesting facts and stats for you to divulge in;

15 things you may not know about The Walking Dead.

A chronological look at every zombie kill throughout the three series so far.

The TV series is so popular it even has it’s own spin-off show featuring the actors discussing it’s goings on, ingeniously entitled The Talking Dead.

The BBC recently aired a British zombie programme. In the Flesh was a three part drama set in the aftermath of a zombie  epidemic. Once the initial smoke has cleared, the government have created a treatment program to ‘rehabilitate’ the Undead that they have rounded up and plan to reintegrate them into society. Enter Kieren Walker, a former zombie who has been treated by the government and is now classed as a sufferer of Partially Deceased Syndrome (PDS).

PDS sufferer Kieren Walker is the protagonist of the BBC drama 'In the Flesh'

PDS sufferer Kieren Walker is the protagonist of the BBC drama ‘In the Flesh’

Returning to his home village of Roarton, Kieren realises the people there are far less welcoming to a semi-zombie that he’d hoped. Trying to fit in with the living proves much more difficult than he expected, and Kieren has some serious problems to overcome. The series took a different angle to the generic angle of zombie entertainment, empathising with the human behind the monster. It was a disappointment that the series was so short. However, In the Flesh was still a great piece of television that proved the genre is far from used up.

Zombies are taking over the world!: Films

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Zombie films are growing in popularity, despite being a genre considered by many to be overdone. New takes on the subject are appearing, such as World War Z being the first zombie epic, and Warm Bodies centreing on a zombie who falls in love. Here is B.O.R.Es top ten favourite zombie films;

1. Dawn of the Dead (1978) The sequel to George A Romero’s zombie classic Night of the Living Dead.

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpuNE1cX03c[/youtube]

 

2. 28 Days Later (2002) OK, so they’re not quite zombies, but the ‘ghouls’ in this film are still pretty scary.

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eunaclr-WgU[/youtube]

 

3. Night of the Living Dead (1990) An atmospheric remake of the 1968 film saw better make up and effects.

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0r7L8tS2L0[/youtube]

 

4. Shaun of the Dead (2004) Considered the first of it’s kind, the British made ‘RomComZom’ showed a zombie apocalypse from a more lighthearted angle.

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GiOPqV8LGI[/youtube]

 

5. The Dead (2010) Set in war torn Africa, this film, with it’s cast of relatively unknown actors was fairly overlooked.

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANpgVWVvpjs[/youtube]

 

6. Zombieland (2009) Another zombie comedy, our favourite feature of this film was the imaginative ways some of the living dead are dispatched.

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=071KqJu7WVo[/youtube]

 

7. Planet Terror (2007) This hugely over-the-top zombie kill-fest from Robert Rodriguez is lots of fun to watch.

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCFQtc6BzyM[/youtube]

 

8. Dawn of the Dead (2004) This remake of our number 1 film in the list is surprisingly good for modern takes on old classics.

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZGLRIOQHOY[/youtube]

 

 9. Brain Dead/Dead Alive  (1992) Low budget, tongue-in-cheek zombie flick from Peter Jackson, way before he found Lord of the Rings fame.

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbOmCUWm25w[/youtube]

 

10. Resident Evil (2002) It could be argued that this is more of an action move but it features zombies and that’s good enough for us.

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4yqRGlgwkc[/youtube]

Zombies are taking over the world!: Literature

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Zombie literature is becoming increasingly popular

Max Brooks is currently one of the most prolific Zombie writers.

He wrote such texts as The Zombie Survival Guide, published in 2003, which contained everything a post-zombie apocalypse survivor needs to know, from which shelter is most appropriate to the best way to take down a zombie. The tongue-in-cheek but highly serious book was hugely popular, and spurned Brooks to write a sequel in comic book form, entitled Recorded Attacks, which told of zombie encounters throughout history.

Most well known of Brooks’ work – thanks to a new film starring Brad Pitt – is World War Z, a fictional historical document detailing events following a world wide Zombie outbreak. Check out the official trailer here.

Charlie Higson, a British writer and actor probably most famous for his appearance in The Fast Show, has written his own Zombie series aimed at younger audiences, with a plot involving teenagers immune to an infection that has turned the adult population into walking corpses. Higson has written four of the planned seven novels which are as follows:

  1. The Enemy (2009)
  2. The Dead (2010)
  3. The Fear (2011)
  4. The Sacrifice (2012)

The Fallen is due to be released in 2013.

David Moody is another British writer who has produced a successful series of Zombie novels. Moody’s Autumn, comprising six books and aimed at adults generated a huge online following when the book could be downloaded for free. Unfortunately Moody’s publishing house Infected Books was shut down after the rights to Autumn were bought by Thomas Dunne Books, putting an end to the free downloads. A low-budget film based on the novel, also entitled Autumn was released in 2009 to mixed reviews. Here are the books from the Autumn series:

 

Zombies are taking over the world!

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How would you fare if the dead began to rise up to attack and devour the living?

Would you break out the blunt objects and fight your way to a safe zone?

Or cower in a corner and wait for the cavalry?

Now more than ever, there are plenty of resources for you to learn how to cope with the stresses of a zombie apocalypse.

Zombies nowadays are big business. The undead have shuffled a long way since they first lurched onto cinema screens in 1932 in the first feature length flick White Zombie.

Over 80 years later, the living dead and the fear they conjure up for audiences has spread over all forms of entertainment; from literature to films, TV, games and even music (most notably, Michael Jackson’s Thriller).

Here is a list of essential reading and viewing that B.O.R.E recommends you familiarise yourself with, just in case you find yourself surrounded by reanimated corpses with empty stomachs…

Literature

Films

TV

Games

 

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