Bizarre. Odd. Retro. Entertainment.
BioShock Infinite is set to release on March 26th, 2013. Photo: faseextra (via Flickr)
“Would you kindly?” – Three words that will send shivers done the spine of any gamer that has played the first BioShock title. Read more
Banjo-Kazooie made its debut in 1998 on the Nintendo 64. Photo: gamerscoreblog (via Flickr)
A honey bear and a large red bird don’t sound like the most exciting premise for a video game; however Banjo-Kazooie proved otherwise.
The plot behind the games saw Banjo (the bear) and Kazooie (the bird) attempt to thwart Gruntilda’s (the witch) various evil schemes, with the protagonists collecting musical notes and jigsaw pieces in order to progress through Gruntilda’s lair.
Created by Rare, Banjo-Kazooie made its debut on the Nintendo 64 in 1998, with the sequel Banjo-Tooie releasing on the console two years later. Both titles were also ported to the Xbox Live Arcade to coincide with the release of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts for the Xbox 360 in 2008 – ten years after their original appearance. Banjo-Kazooie also made an appearance in Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, which released in 2010.
Each of the games received favourable reviews from critics. Nevertheless, the future doesn’t look too bright as there are currently no plans to bring the pair back, despite rumours that Rare were in talks with Nintendo to bring the duo to the 3DS.
[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’
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.
Mike, Sulley and the gang return in Monsters University. Photo: Disney Pixar
Sulley, Mike Wazowski and the rest of the monsters return to cinemas in 2013 in Monsters University. Read more
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:
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: