That game is called "Blacklight", and is being developed by Zombie, the team behind America's Army. Oh, and the Saw game. It's come to light because a company called Union, which specialises in brokering multimedia deals, saw potential in the game and sold the rights to Fox Atomic, who will now be overseeing not only the Blacklight game, but a comic book and movie as well.

Blacklight is, as you'd expect from Zombie, a first-person shooter. Specifically, a "tactical FPS" set 25 years in the future, which sees you sand your team of army types tracking down your former commander in the make-believe city of Balik, Kajikistan.

Blacklight set up as a movie at Fox Atomic while the game's still in the works [The Cut Scene]

Zombies! The walking dead. We love 'em and were so happy to hear Metal Gear Solid Hideo Kojima does too. Though, he loves them in a slightly different way. He tells Edge Magazine about an online game concept of his:

The zombie idea I have is a bit different...Imagine a large town where half the inhabitants are zombies. Users would subscribe, get inside the town and get bitten. At that stage they become undead and can't control their character - all they can do is modify the camera angles... They'd see their character attacking humans and have to pay just to watch!

The only way they could end it is by opening another account, hunting themselves down and killing themselves. Of course, the problem is that your second character can get bitten as well.

And this apparently isn't just Kojima talking out of his ass. Saying if the timing was right, he will "take some time to prepare [a zombie title]. Very seriously." Is there ever a "bad time" for a zombie game? Brian Ashcraft

Kojima Talks Undead [Games Radar via QJ.Net]

Music mag Spin provides all with the first Dead Rising review. Well, the first one I've seen, and I'm sure there are others. Loads of 'em. Writer Tom Dumont writes:

Dead Rising does commit the sin of repetition: Watching brains explode inevitably gets old.

Uh, no it doesn't. Regardless, Spin seems to dig it, giving the game three stars. Florian and I were yapping like guppies about this game yesterday, and I was saying that if this game was half as good as I'm hoping it will be, Dead Rising will be zombie brilliance. Brian Ashcraft

Thanks, Mechz

Dead Rising producer Yutaka Haruki talked with game site Firing Squad about Capcom's upcoming walking dead shopping bonanza. Where did the idea for Dead Rising come from? Haruki says he went back to square one and "thought about how zombies don't have to be all that scary." That means one thing and one thing only: cute zombies.

Haruki goes on to say that the game gives players tremendous freedom, making it possible to play all the way through a myriad of different ways. Players, he adds, can do pretty much whatever they want. So creating a game like this must've been a monster headache? Haruki says:

I am grateful for the hard work the people at Microsoft have put in to make it so easy to create games for their hardware. I don't think it would have been quite as fun if we hadn't been able to push the hardware to get as many zombies on the screen at once.

And, you know, that is all that really matters. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Firing Squad]

Shuffle-stepping onto the Xbox 360 next month, Capcom's zombie photojournalism shopping survival game Dead Rising features loads of in-game achievements. There's fifty of them, and they do more than any screenshots I've seen to convince me this is a must-have title (even though Capcom had us at "zombie"). Here's a taste of that achievement flesh:

• Costume Party: Place novelty masks on at least 10 zombies.
• Raining Zombies: Knock at least 30 zombies aside with a parasol.
• Strike!: Send at least 10 zombies flying with bowling balls.

The rest are after the jump and waiting to gnaw on your brain. Brian Ashcraft

• Zombie Hunter: Defeat at least 1,000 zombies.
• Zombie Killer: Deafeat at least 10,000 zombies.
• Zombie Genocider: Defeat at least 53,594 zombies.
• Self Defense: Defeat at least 1 psychopath.
• Peace Keeper: Defeat at least 5 psychopaths.
• Punisher: Defeat at least 10 psychopaths.
• Legendary Soldier: ???
• Hella Copter: ???
• Tour Guide: Escort 8 survivors at once.
• Frank the Pimp: Simultaneously escort 8 female survivors.
• Full Set: Collect all the portraits in the NOTEBOOK.
• Humanist: Get at least 10 survivors out of the mall.
• Life Saver: Get at least 20 survivors out of the mall.
• Saint: Get at least 50 survivors out of the mall.
• Strike!: Send at least 10 zombies flying with bowling balls.
• Costume Party: Place novelty masks on at least 10 zombies.
• Raining Zombies: Knock at least 30 zombies aside with a parasol.
• Gourmet: Eat all types of food available in the mall.
• Item Smasher: Break at least 100 items.
• Bullet Point: Fire at least 1,000 bullets.
• Perfect Gunner: Don't miss with a machine gun.
• Photojournalist: Score at least 1,500 PP from a single photo.
• The Artiste: Score at least 3,000 PP from a single photo.
• Group Photo: Get 50 Target Markers with the camera.
• Portraiture: Photograph at least 10 survivors.
• Census Taker: Photograph at least 50 survivors.
• Psycho Photo: Photograph at least 4 psychopaths.
• Psycho Collector: Photograph at least 10 psychopaths.
• PP Collector: Photograph all PP stickers.
• Snuff Shot B: ???
• Snuff Shot J: ???
• Transmissionary: Answer all calls from Otis.
• Indoorsman: Spend at least 24 hours indoors.
• Outdoorsman: Spend at least 24 hours outdoors.
• Freefall: Drop from a height of at least 16 feet (5 meters).
• Marathon Runner: Cover a distance of 26.2 miles (42.195 km).
• Carjacker: Steal the convicts' vehicle.
• Stunt Driver: Jump a car at least 33 feet (10 meters).
• Stunt Rider: Jump a motorcycle at least 33 feet (10 meters).
• Zombie Road: Walk over 33 (10 meets) on the back of zombies using the Zombie Ride.
• Karate Chop: Defeat at least 1,000 zombies barehanded.
• Sharp Dresser: Change into at least 20 different costumes.
• Clothes Horse: Change into all costumes available in the mall.
• Level Max: Reach Lv. 50.
• Unbreakable: Get the true ending without being knocked out.
• Overtime Mode: Unveil all CASES and be at the heliport at noon.
• ? Mode: Get the true ending.
• 3 Day Survivor: Survive for at least 72 hours.
• 5 Day Survivor: Survive for at least 5 days.
• 7 Day Survivor: Survive for at least 7 days.

More Here [1Up]

We love zombies. All zombies. The gaming industry, it seems, is more discerning in its zombie tastes. While games such as Zombie vs. Ambulance get the green light, a game adaptation of the Brit horror flick 28 Days Later doesn't. It's enough to give a guy a complex.

At the Develop Conference in England, movie producer Andrew MacDonald (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting) talked about his failure to bring 28 Days Later to consoles. The low budget flick followed a viral outbreak that turned everyone into zombies. Perfect game fodder, right?

None of the big time publishers MacDonald spoke to were interested. Ironically, it was after Bungie watched 28 Days Later (company movie night, no doubt) that the studio decided to pay the film's writer Alex Garland $1 million to write the Halo flick. It's not you Andrew, it's 28 Days Later. Honest.

The producer is currently working on a sequel to that zombie film, called 28 Weeks Later, which will likewise be shunned by the entire gaming industry. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Games Industry]

Japanese Lego site Brick Time has Resident Evil homage from a while back. The cool thing about the page isn't just the game bricks. Oh no no, there's a side story as well, which is kinda like the talking noise yours truly children make when playing with toys. And how can you beat Lego zombies? I mean, really, how? —Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Brick Time]