Check out our three-parter after the jump.

There are a few comments indicating gamers have seen zombies in online play, but nothing about transforming into one yet. Theories range from getting killed by a Rockstar employee, to killing a Rockstar employee, to getting the highest ranking.

They quote the official strategy guide (I don't have it) "If you see unclothed characters, look out! Only players who have reached the max ranking of 10 and a few other "special" people get the honor of shooting in their skivvies." But this player says he's only at Level 2. The user's name in the forums is GTA. I couldn't find a PSN ID for him.

More pictures after the jump. Warning, one's at a kinda uncomfortable low angle.

Zombie in Yellow Underpants [Gametrailers forum, thanks Willkiller]

Prototype takes place in an open world recreation of New York City and you take o the role of Alex Mercer who has awakened with super powers and little memory. New York has been infested by zombie like creatures called the Infected and even the surrounding buildings have been sucked into to their evil. Hives of infected dot the city and more an more appear all the time. Using your super human abilities, you must disover the conspiracy involved that made this happen and attempt to save the city. But just because you are attempting to help out doesn't make you a hero. Alex Mercer is a decided anti-hero, out for himself and whatever he can get. And you don't have just the Infected to worry about either, there is the Army as well who is not only out to stop the infected, but for some unknown reason, out to get you too. Also be on the lookout for the mysterious Black Watch who have a hand in this somewhere as well.

The real draw in this game, at least for me, was the super powers and there were a lot of them. All sorts of special moves and knowledge can be gained from devouring the people around you. One of these powers comes to great effect when trying to escape from the Army who is chasing you down. If you can manage to get out of sight and eat someone, you can take on their form and walk around undetected. But, you must be careful. One false move or use of your super powers out in public will cause your cover to be blown and you will be on the run again so stealth is the key in these situations. Devouring other people will also allow you to gain their knowledge and put it to your own use. For instance, devour an Army tank driver and you gain the ability to drive tanks and the same goes for weapon use. The more enemies of one type that you consume, the better your ability in that area becomes. And the nice thing is, once you gain these abilities, you always have them at your disposal. Some of the other special powers include an area attack where thorny tentacles reach out of the ground to attack your enemies and a Hammer Fist which pounds enemies into the ground. A lock on system helps as well for targeting certain enemies amongst the crowds of people who are running about in a panic everywhere you go. If your really feisty, you can even distract attention form yourself by accusing random passers by of being you which will cause all surrounding enemies to open fire on the poor innocent.

Since it is an open world, you can go wherever you please, but there is a main storyline whos plot is revealed as you make your way through the game devouring people left and right. Ingesting main characters throughout the game will give you clues as to what exactly is going on here. You must use your powers to reconstruct your past and eventually discover the giant conspiracy that provides the game's hidden plot. Ultimately, you control the pace of the game by choosing which way you want to handle your enemies. Deceive or Destroy? Which one will you choose?

Prototype really reminded me a lot of Crackdown in it's basic gameplay mechanics. While the game itself looked interesting, I was a little disappointed in the graphics. The character models seemed very simplistic and I saw the same several models over and over again in the various crowd scenes. But, as this was an early build I'm hoping that this is something that will be taken care of when the final coat of paint is applied to the project.

Prototype launches this fall for the 360 and PS3 and is a single player experience although they did hint that co-op and online play were both being looked at as possibilities. And yes, there will be downloadable content although what form that will take remains to be seen.

Hit the jump to find out.

Loved
Comic Book Cut Scenes: Adding to the fun look of the game is that the game present cut scenes in comic book panels, even making you turn your DS sideway to read through them. It's the type of really nice touch that I wish was seen throughout the title.

Art Design: One of the first things that attracted me to Teenage Zombies was it's interesting art design and while it doesn't quite live up to that amazing concept art, it still offers a neat look for a DS title.

Fun Health Boosts: Instead of dishing out hearts or some other hackneyed health pack, Zombies regain health by eating their fallen brain opponents. They also score a mega health bonus by finding the body parts of a zombie and then reassembling them in a timed mini-game that using your stylus.

Hated
Repetitive Level Design: While the game has an interesting approach to level design, featuring maps that wrap around one another, I was pretty much over them about half way through the game. There's not a whole lot of new concepts introduced to the game after you've played it for a few hours.

Limited Abilities: The game's three zombies, which you can hot-swap during gameplay, each have one special ability and a handful of items they can find to do different things, but it's not enough to sustain the game over it's 30-plus levels. It feels like you've exhausted the game's bag of tricks soon after you've started.

Odd Save System: Saves in the game aren't always automatic, instead you'll sometimes have to find books lying about to save your position in a world. What makes this frustrating is that that's not always the case, so it's easy early on to expect an auto-save and not get one.

Wonky Controls: The game's mechanic, which really just features to buttons and the D-pad, are a little wonky when it comes to precision. For instance it can be hard to use Lefty's stretchy arm to grab a ledge and activating a button can at times be hit or miss. When this leads to a death it's beyond annoying.

Not Much Substance: The game could have used a bit more substance, in the way of plot, enemies, characters, special abilities, something to give it a bit more life. Sure it has a collection of mini-games, but they're not all that fun and the sense of humor didn't quite work for me, though I'm sure some will love it.

Teenage Zombies is a pretty straight forward scroller with a twist. It's got plenty of spirit and tries to do something different, but in the end I found the game more of a task to play through than a joy.

Teenage Zombies should find an audience among fans of 50s-esque Zombie parodies, I just don't fall into that group. What the game had to offer delivered about an hour of fun game play, everything after that felt like a chore.

Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys! was developed by InLight Entertainment and released on April 17 for $30. Available on DS. Completed single player mode on Normal difficulty.

[agentscarlet @ deviantART]

Stop by the store between noon and 4 p.m. EST and you can get a chance to check out a demo of the game. They will also have the three lead zombies—Finnigan "Fins" Magee, Lori "Lefty" Lopez and Zach "Halfpipe" Boyd—on hand to take pictures and such. Attendees will each be given a limited edition Teenage Zombies t-shirt and some other goodies, while supplies last.

All proceeds from the event will be donated by Ignition Entertainment to the Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York.

Teenage Zombies

Ah, how I am looking forward to the return of the House of the Dead franchise. Back in the day I played the original HOD on the Dreamcast on an almost daily basis. Now it's coming to the Wi with all its rail shooting goodness and terrible voice acting intact. I long for the return of those dulcet tones... "Reload! Reload! Reload!" Somehow it just never gets old.

make the jump for a second clip.

[Thanks, king_e_dawg]

Things happen so quickly around here! You post a story about a woman needing a Wii and everyone jumps to help. Put up some images from the upcoming Resident Evil CGI movie and a couple hours later, you have a clip in your mailbox.

Kotakuite cody412 sends in a link to the above trailer that the photos from the last article were taken. Watch in horror as Resident Evil's ubiquitous zombies make their way to a DVD player near you.

Pray for it while perusing the official news release after the jump.

SEGA ANNOUNCES THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2 & 3 RETURN FOR THE Wii

Horror Arcade Game to Bring Non-Stop Shooting Action

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON (November 15, 2007) - SEGA® of America, Inc. and SEGA® Europe Ltd. today announced that THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2 & 3 RETURN™ is coming to the Wii™ home video game system from Nintendo. Combining two arcade games, THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2™ and THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD III™, this new compilation gives gamers the full arcade experience of battling hordes of rabid zombies in the comfort of their homes.

In THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2 & 3 RETURN, players will be able to play both versions of the game, battling the relentless attack of the blood thirsty zombies with steady aim and a quick trigger finger. Utilizing the innovative new Wii Zapper™ or the Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™, players will experience branching storylines with over six game modes including Arcade Mode and Time Attack modes that will test their shooting skills. THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2 & 3 RETURN features an engaging single-player campaign, plus a co-op multiplayer mode for up to two players for countless hours of zombie shooting action.
"THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD franchise has been revitalized for today's gamer looking for non-stop shooting action on the Wii," said Rick Naylor, Director of Marketing, SEGA of America, Inc. "This will take gamers back to experience the celebrated first-person arcade shooter that was so popular in the late '90s."

THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD franchise is famous for its heart-pounding pace, astounding visual details and vast armies of unique enemies. Blasting through legions of grotesque zombies and mutated monsters, players eventually face-off against mammoth boss creatures that will test the accuracy and skill of every Wii gamer.

THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2 & 3 RETURN will be available for the Wii home video game system from Nintendo in spring 2008. For more information, screenshots and assets please visit the SEGA Press FTP site at: http://segapr.segaamerica.com.

About SEGA of America, Inc.:
SEGA® of America, Inc. is the American arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA® Corporation, a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. SEGA of America's Web site is located at www.sega.com.

About SEGA Europe Ltd.:
SEGA® Europe Ltd. is the European Distribution arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA® Corporation, and a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. The SEGA® Europe Ltd. Web site is located at www.sega-europe.com.

Unlike some of my esteemed colleagues, I'm quite looking forward to RE: Umbrella Chronicles. I've been a fan of rail shooters since House of the Dead and my very favorite, Carn-Evil. I've played RE:UC a few times now at various events with and without the Wii Zapper and while I enjoyed it, I will admit that I liked it better in co-op mode. Something about standing side by side with a friend, taking out zombies right and left with a well placed head shot that just makes my heart light up.

"The characters in Teenage Zombies have instant appeal," said Ajay Chadha, President, Ignition USA. "InLight's team has come up with a uniquely humorous and satirical take on comics and retro sci-fi. You throw in a solid platformer and some truly entertaining mini-games, and you have a game that is accessible to all and downright fun to play."

World Domination, Hordes of Aliens, Ray Guns, Mind Control & Three Teenage Zombies!!

The invasion begins soon on Nintendo DS

Date: 25th October '07

Ignition Entertainment is pleased to announce Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys! is coming to North America and Europe exclusively for the Nintendo DS™.

The Earth is under attack by a horde of Alien Brain... uh...Thingys! Humans, succumbing to ray-guns, mind-control, and shiny flying saucers, have failed to defend their planet and let it fall easily into the clutches of the Big Brain and his army of Brain Thingys. The only hope left for mankind is three Teenage Zombies that have arisen from a graveyard disturbed in the invasion. The undead trio ignores their normal human victims in favour of the pulsing pink brains they see EVERYWHERE - all the while being lured to the ultimate lunch: THE BIG BRAIN! The Big Brain soon realizes he's overlooked this "Super Race" as they inexplicably resist mind control, are unaffected by ray-gun wounds, and devour his Brain Thingy Armies like sweets! He refocuses his efforts and resources to battle the Earth's greatest champions: The Teenage Zombies!

"The characters in Teenage Zombies have instant appeal," said Ajay Chadha, President, Ignition USA. "InLight's team has come up with a uniquely humorous and satirical take on comics and retro sci-fi. You throw in a solid platformer and some truly entertaining mini-games, and you have a game that is accessible to all and downright fun to play."

Teenage Zombies uses a whimsical style that focuses on, and parodies the Zombie genre, as well as 1950s style Science Fiction. This is presented in a comic book look featuring comic book panels, dialogue boxes and story telling. Gameplay involves side-scrolling adventures opening up to stylus mini-games, double-screen boss battles, and brain busting puzzle challenges.

"InLight Entertainment is looking forward to the opportunity to work with such a dynamic publisher," said Devin Young, President & CEO of InLight Entertainment. "Ignition Entertainment brings a wealth of publishing knowledge and I'm looking forward to great synergy between the two companies."

Key features:
• Unique Comic Mode which drives the story with an interactive comic book style presentation
• Platforming gameplay that requires the player to swap between characters to solve levels
• Each character has their own unique abilities to aid them through their adventure
• Mini Games featuring the zombies (or their body parts) using all the Nintendo DS™ features
• The Big Brain Challenge - a series of quick micro mini games that happen at anytime during gameplay to win or lose against the Big Brain
• ZAPS! (Zombie Assembly Pop-up Screen) - a mini-game where you use collected body parts to quickly create a zombie to regain your "unhealth points"
Developed by Inlight Entertainment, Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys! for the Nintendo DS™ is scheduled for a worldwide release Spring '08.

For further information please visit: www.teenagezombiesgame.com

I love Dead Rising and while many may disagree with me, it was a total system seller for me. It's a great game and if you haven't already checked it out, now's your chance to do it on the cheap. Just make sure you have one of them fancy HD TVs or a magnifying glass for that text. Ouch.

This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young... fearing, hating, and destroying Black people.

This is a really touchy subject. Looking past the mistaken idea that the game is being marketed to children, I can completely see where Platt is coming from to a certain extent. It is a white figure of some authority being attacked by a horde of what appears to be African peoples. This much is true.

On the other hand, zombie stories originated in the Afro-Caribbean Vodoun belief system, so for a series that relies on zombies as its main antagonists, exploring the voodoo origins of zombie mythology seems only natural, and in order to do that you are going to end up exploring villages that just don't happen to have many Caucasians in them.

If the game does anything it bolsters the hatred of black zombies already present in the well-established hatred of zombies in general. It teaches us that no matter what color they are on the outside, flesh-hungry reanimated dead people are really fundamentally the same, and should probably be avoided at all costs. When the zombie apocalypse comes, I'd like to think that mankind will band together regardless of race or nationality in the name of preserving the future of humanity and the safety of our precious brainmeats.

Resident Evil 5 [Black Looks via Game Politics]

Hu Jintao, Chinese president, has called for action to 'purify' the internet of anything that might affect 'national cultural information security' or undermine his attempt to promote a 'harmonious society'.

I'm not sure what in the hell bare-boned skeletons have to do with 'national cultural information security' and/or promoting a 'harmonious society,' but what Beijing wants, Beijing gets. Chinese WoW players are angry about the change, and no one's really sure why skeletons in WoW have gotten facelifts while nothing has been done in any other game operating in China.

Censorship reaches internet skeletons [Gulfnews via QJ.net]

Don't let the headline fool you. although this is technically a Japanese trailer, all the titles are in English with Japanese subtitles.

I recently got a chance to check out Umbrella Chronicles at a Capcom event last week and I have to say, despite McWhertors feelings to the contrary, I really enjoyed it. Given my famous inability to aim a gun with a regular controller, being able to just point and shoot was a lot of fun for me. I was also a big fan of the House of the Dead series and UC reminded me a bit of that except that you can use the nunchuk to look around. Let's just say I'll be more than willing to give it chance when it comes out. My zombie addiction knows no bounds. Flynn De Marco

According to a press release from Virgin PLAY, Virgin's Spain headquarters, Touch the Dead (or Dead 'n' Furious as it's known in Europe) has taken a spot in the top ten selling DS games in the US. Distributed by Eidos, the zombie FPS has players popping off shots to zombie's heads by tapping the DS touch screen with the stylus all the while trying to escape form prison.

I'm not exactly sure what top ten list they are looking at, but from my experience with the game, the only list it would be on the top of is the Top Ten List of The Worst Graphics ever to be used in a DS game. Or, any game since the PS1 stopped being made for that matter. Sorry, Virgin PLAY, ugly, dull, repetitive tripe with terrible ammo loading does not a top ten game make. Flynn De Marco

That's why the new first-person rail shooter Touch the Dead is so appealing to us. While we won't be able to drop a car payment to beat the game in the arcades, we will have the opportunity—nay—to destroy zombies from passengers car seats and porcelain thrones.

Hit the jump for our Frankenreview: a review that will mean nothing if we for once second let our guard down and those damn zombies suck our game-loving mind tissue.

Game Almighty
The first thing you notice when the game starts is the awful graphics. Touch the Dead reinvents what it means to have jaggies. Everything is pixilated and bland and the closer the zombies come, the worse it gets. Ironic, because the bad graphics actually inspire you to kill the creatures when they're as far away as possible, lest you think your DS has a broken graphics chip.

Modojo
Players simply tap the screen to shoot enemies before they come charging in to cause life-decreasing damage. Aiming really isn't an issue here, as I was able to rack up 195 head shots during one particular session of the game without really trying. The real hassle here lies in reloading. Instead of tapping a button, players are forced to drag over a full clip of bullets over to the gun, wait a second for it to click in, and start firing.
Portable Review
[One] nice thing is that shots register in different areas. So, if you hit a zombie in the head, its face will start bleeding, or if you hit one enough times in the stomach, it'll burst open...There are also a few bosses which can only be hurt in certain areas - another nice touch.

Opposable Thumbs
The life issue is a tricky one, as in each chapter the life and ammunition you carry with you is persistent: if you do poorly on part 2, it may be worth your time to start all the way over. This is fine at the beginning of the game, but as the game progresses...you find yourself staring at a boss with only a few hit points and two shotgun shells and the only answer is to start again, it becomes quite the frustration.

Games Radar
With the stylus substituting itself for a light gun, and the power inside capable of drawing 3D corridors, it's madness that it's taken two years for one to appear.

Bottom Line: the game isn't that great. But like many of you, I'll be picking up a copy sometime just for the FPS zombie novelty alone. Mark Wilson

Con Artists Productions have come up with a great little Flash game to fufill your zombie killing needs when you're not near a console. The Last Stand has you taking on the role of a hapless hero who has built up a big barricade to stop the onslaught of the zombie hordes. At night, you do what you can to pick off the zombies one by one while the day time hours are spent searching for survivors, finding stronger weapons and reinforcing your barricade. Will you be able to survive the night? Hit the link and find out! Flynn De Marco

The Last Stand [Free Web Arcade]

1Up got a chance to sit down with Turtle Studios' founder Michael Booth to talk about their upcoming zombie massacre game known as Left 4 Dead. Both Luke and I have written about this game before and we are both highly anticipating it's release. Left 4 Dead is essentially a zombie themed FPS that is made to be played in co-op mode. What sets this one apart form other games of it's ilk is the fact that you can choose to be a survivor or you can play as one of the Infected, unleashing your zombie hoards on the poor innocents roaming the streets.

In this interview, Booth talks a bit about the game mechanics and discusses what it's like to play on both sides of the action. Also included is some great in-game footage that looks like a mixture of cut scenes and actual gameplay. The graphics look great and the folks at 1Up seem to be very impressed with it.

When this one hits the shelves (for PC and 360) you can bet that Luke and I will be out on the streets terrorizing everyone with our giant tongues, exploding body parts and acidic vomit. And that'll just be the trip to the store to pick it up. Flynn De Marco

Nintendo is starting to take their "Mature" DS audience seriously and take some some of the traditional cuteness out of the equation where it doesn't fit. Artist Arthur Suydam has recently created an exclusive piece of cover artwork for Nintendo's Touch the Dead zombie point-and-shoot which is set to come out in May 2007 (that's next month!).

Suydam is most famous for his creations that recently graced the covers of "Marvel Zombies" a collection of classic Marvel Comic issues that he has"zombifyied".

I'm not into gore or horror, but it's nice to see that a DS box might not just get thrown in the garbage like so many before. Maybe I'll put it on the bedside table and see if I can freak myself out in the middle of the night. Kim Phu

Marvel Zombies Artist Inks Dead Game Cover [Geeks of Doom]

Keep in mind, however, that these could be released at any time, but that these are good candidates for upcoming VC purchases. Michael McWhertor

ESRB Game Ratings

Those lucky bastards at IGN U.K. have got a chance to do hands on with Turtle Rock Studios' upcoming zombie slaughter fest, Left 4 Dead. The newest addition to the zombie game brigade will feature 4 person co-op play and the ability to play either the survivors or the infected. IGN goes in to great detail about the different classes of infected and their various powers (they are not allowed to use traditional weapons). Currently, Turtle Rock is developing Left 4 Dead for PC to be released this summer. The possibility of a 360 version is also discussed, but Turtle Rock is remaining tight lipped on that subject.

While I'm not the biggest PC gamer, I will be picking this title up if for no other reason than to team up with Luke and vomit blood on the teeming hordes of our enemies. We tried it on the subway in NYC and it worked rather well. Flynn De Marco

Left 4 Dead Hands-On [IGN U.K.]

Over at game site Gamasutra Brandon Sheffield has a neat interview with D3 Publisher's Alison Quirion. About a year ago, the company established an American arm of the company. Lots of nice info peppered through the interview, so do head over there and read through the whole thing. Here's what caught my eye:

• Earth Defense Force X is coming to the US as Earth Defense Force 2017 (as previously reported). Price point: Quirion says, "I don't think we've settled on it. They're not going out at $59, but I'm not sure if we're going to go $49 or $39."
• The company does intend to bring Onechanbara VorteX to the US.
• There are no plans to bring Zombies Vs. Ambulance to America. Like ever. And America is less wonderful for that.

Anyhoo, swing by, check out the piece and tell 'em Kotaku sent cha. Brian Ashcraft

D3P Interview [Gamasutra via Insert Credit]

You might have read Lukle Plukett's article earlier this week about Turtle Studios' new co-op survival horror game, Left 4 Dead. Just reading Luke's words got me excited about it as well. The more I read the more I wanted to play it, especially when I realized I shared Luke's desire to be a blood vomiting zombie. sounds like a blast. Check out this trailer for some very dark zombie action. Flynn De Marco

Zombies: Check
Women in bikinis: Check
Blood splashing on the screen: Check

Yep, sounds like the perfect game. Though it looks like they need to put more work into the boob physics. Brian Crecente

Our favorite zombie-slashing cowboy hat-donning boa-wearing bikini killer, Onechanbara's Aya gets new duds in the next-gen Xbox 360 sequel Onechanbara VorteX. Looks like there are dress-ups for the character's head, arms, legs—along with tops and bottoms for the character to wear during the hacking and the slashing. Don't just think of them as new outfits for Aya to wear, but new outfits to cover in zombie blood. Brian Ashcraft

Onechanbara Dress Up [Costume GET!]

Mmmmmm..BRAINS!

In honor of Halloween, "everything by everyone" website NewGrounds held an art contest. The rules were simple, draw your favorite video game character as a zombie. They ran it for a month and received so many sick submissions that they actually expanded the amount of winners and prizes. I saw zombie Chun-Li with her zombie nipples showing and zombie Lara Croft licking her own zombie nipples stripper style. And these weren't even the winners!

There were two first prizes: The first went to Deks for his truly terrifying zombie Pikachu while the other went to Steven-M for his Zombie Mario. Other winners included a zombie Sam Fisher, the entire zombie cast of Chrono Cross and zombie Sonic, zombie Knuckles and zombie Doctor Robotnik fighting MegaMan a la Army of Darkness.

Check out all the winners at the official contest forum. I would highly recommend checking out the entire thread and seeing all the entries. Believe me, you won't want to miss those zombie nipples! Zombie Flynn De Marco

[via Destructoid]

Bratty schoolgirl and cowboy hooker team up to massacre legions of the walking dead. No, it's not the final mission in Bully, it's ONE CHAN BARA X!!!

The X stands for "vortex", you see. Eliza Gauger

[thanks Jeromy]

There was a time in my life when I had to listen to Fett's Vette at least twice a day, preferably accompanied by the Windspire machinima music video. Thankfully, that time has passed and I am now mostly recovered, but that does not impede my deep and abiding devotion to the squeaky, yet satisfying MC Chris mc chris. Eliza Gauger

PS: a tipper mailed this in days ago, but was ignored because it was a busy news day, or we're a bunch of dicks, or both. So thanks, tipper. And sorry.

By John Brownlee

Editor's Note: Welcome to an experimental Kotaku feature: Armchair Designer. In it, we're going to try to put together a tactical, squad-level turn-based strategy game that takes place in a George Romero-esque zombie apocalypse. The game will largely be randomly generated, which — combined with chooseable player goals — will allow the player to extrapolate their own story from the game. There is no boss zombie; deaths are permanent. It's all about using your wits against an inexorable, flesh-hungry horde.

Let's get one thing out of the way: this isn't meant to be an implausible, multi-page wank job about that one game idea someone's got that would just be the best game ever if someone would hand them infinite technology and a hundred million dollars. In other words, this isn't an armchair design article for Paris Hilton: The Sex Tape: The Game. The design has to be as plausible as possible, because we'd actually like some designer looking for a new project to read this and walk away with it.

Go on, designers, have it! The idea's yours! Just make the game and make it good.

Every geeky twelve year old, rolling sexless in his bed at night, is convinced that the mere happenstance of the cannibalistic dead rising from their graves would be enough to galvanize him into the greatest badass the world has ever known.

After all, the Romero zombie mythology (and, by that, I mean the undead horde, slowly lumbering, insatiable and inexorable) appeals to every facet of the nerdy pre-teen's formative psychosis: a sort of egotistical solipsism fueled from loneliness and isolation that plays itself out through a make-believe orgy of gore drenched violence.

The world that's against them — parents, teachers, the farting, braying school yard alpha male — become mindless, flesh-slavering ghouls. Better yet, all these assholes can now be displaced with a minimum of moral self-examination: a machete to the brain, or a screwdriver jammed into an ear canal, or a single blast of sawed-off shotgun exploding a putrescent, hamburger-stuffed melon. Zombies are actually p-zombies: big lumbering blister bags of gore that can be satisfyingly popped without any qualms. At least within the confines of the fantasy, Jack Thompson be damned.

And just who survives when the dead walk the earth? The ability to toss a football, endowment of bulging biceps and clear complexions — none of that matters in a zombie apocalypse. What matters is being crafty and well-prepared. The medium of zombie movies encourages the feverishly dreaming geek to cast himself as the hero, because in zombie films everyone is a fucking idiot, well-deserving a fate of having their intestines scooped like ropes of dripping playdough into the mouth of a corpse. Who hasn't watched a zombie movie and thought "Pfft! I can do better than that idiot."

If you were anything like me as a kid (and, if you're reading this, you probably were, and — maybe less probably — still are), the appeal of such a fantasy is pretty obvious. It puts into tangible conflict the geek's feeling of isolation from the outside world and lets him work it out in a berzerker's orgy of cathartic physical violence. It rewards evenings spent feverishly scrawling underground zombie bunkers on graph paper, of going over in your mind necessary supplies to fight off the horde, or prioritizing the hot babes in your high school who you'll save first... for the good of the species, natch. Hey, planning this stuff out now is going to make all the difference. The zombie movie fantasy allows even the pudgiest, wimpiest, most honestly self-appraising kid to plausibly cast himself as a hero.

We're gamers. We're all sexless twelve year old nerds at heart. So why hasn't anyone ever made a game that really understands what's just so goddamn compelling about surviving in a world where there's no more room in hell?

Well, no matter. We'll design it for 'em.

Zombie Killing's Fun In Any Genre

So what's our zombie game going to be like?

We're going to start with the controversial decision to make it a strategy game. This alone is going to lose some people who just want an action game that lets them rip through brainless hordes with a chainsaw for a few hours. For many players, strategy games do not have the visceral thrill of FPSes. Worse yet, we're going to make it largely a turn-based strategy game.

Rest assured, our game's going to let you disembowel, decapitate, gelatinize, pulverize, crush, mutilate. Ideally, we're gonna have so many arterial sprays and spilling entrails Havok's going to have to come up with a new physics engine just to capture their steaming ooginess. But surviving a zombie apocalypse is all about resourcefulness, craftiness. Strategy, in short. If you just want to blow the heads off some zombies, Resident Evil 4's as good as it gets. We're not going to try to compete.

So the model for our zombie game is largely going to be the turn-based combat engine of X-Com, Fallout or Silent Storm, interspersed with the real-time base building engine of a game like Stronghold. We'll get to how both of these figure into the game in a second.

But first, what's the plot? What super zombie is the grand foozle? How do you win? Who's the protagonist?

Make Your Own Zombie Killer

Well, you're the protagonist - after all, this is your zombie apocalypse fantasy simulator. You're the hero and, being the hero, you'll need to determine your own goals: the qualifiers of your own victory in a world where society has broken down and the only real aspiration in life is 'don't be eaten.' Our game's going to be designed in such a way that beating it doesn't involve blowing up a super-zombie with a bazooka and living happily ever after. Victories will be small in the scheme of things: human, but no less noble. And you'll choose what those victories will be.

To make this clearer, when you start the game, you will create a protagonist. During the character creation process, you will specify the character's skills (and, therefore, the character's background) and the character's goals (which will, in turn, establish the game's plot and victory scenarios). For example, you could create a character named Ben, who is good at carpentry, hand-to-hand fighting and truck driving. His goal is to get to his girlfriend in Pittsburgh. Or you could create a character named John, who can pilot a helicopter and is decent with small firearms. His goal is to escape to an unpopulated Carribean island. You could design a left-wing guerilla, who wants to kill the zombified President of the United States. And so on.

We will give the player as many different victory scenarios as possible, because we want them to make this their own zombie fantasy. But we've got a logistical problem here: how can we make a game that doesn't require infinite development resources but still allows players to specify their own goals?

Extrapolating Your Own Zombie Apocalypse

We're going to deal with this problem by dynamically randomizing as much of the damn game as possible.

Think X-Com: the player largely extrapolated their own plot based upon random enemy encounters and becoming attached to their NPC squad. There were very few "plot" missions. But talk to a player about that game today and almost all of them ca excitedly tell you the plot of their very first game.

We can use the same technique: with some cleverness on our part, a good random map generator and a handful of designed plot point missions, we can make our game specifically vague enough to allow players to create their own story in their minds as they go along... all with a minimum of hard-coded scripting. Or that's the theory, anyway.

Pantheon of Zombies?

And what kind of enemies are we going to have? Zombies, obviously. But games usually have a roster of enemies, escalating in difficulty. We want to escape that and be true to the source material, largely culled from the works of George Romero and various Italian spaghetti horror directors of the 1970s: our only monsters are going to be dead humans, in various states of decay.

Still, there's some clever things we can do to differentiate our zombie m nage. We can increase a zombie's threat by their physical fitness when that zombie was still alive. It stands to reason that someone who was relatively fit when alive will be quicker, stronger and more agile even in the throes of rigor mortis. We can also decrease a zombie's threat level by how decomposed or injured they are in death. With enough zombie models and clothing styles, this'll give us a range of zombie types and difficulties to keep things interesting.

But there aren't going to be any single zombies that are much of a threat. Zombies aren't much threat on-on-one. The threat comes from when they gang up and surround you. Overall, the strategic layer isn't going to be about emptying the map, it's going to be about controlling crowds long enough to survive a mission's objectives. If we need more traditional enemies or missions, we'll make fellow humans our enemies, in the form of fellow scavengers. This will also allow us to have some interesting (and more traditional) gun battles.

Talking about it's all well and good, but it's easier to show than to tell. So let's start playing our zombie game already.

Playing Our Zombie Game: Bob Fights In A Farmhouse

We're going to create a character named Bob. Bob's going to be a farmer — good at carpentry, a mean hand with a rifle, but not particularly intelligent or charismatic. Still, he's going to be smart enough to realize that, in a zombie apocalypse, being as far away from unpredictably dying people as possible is pretty much ideal. His goal is going to be to reach an island.

The problem? Getting to the sea. What Bob will need to do as a minimum in our game to 'win' is, a) survive, b) get to a large lake or ocean, c) get intelligence on a suitable deserted island (as you see at the end of the Dawn of the Dead remake, deserted islands are pretty rare), d) stock up with enough supplies to survive indefinitely on the island, e) find a working boat, f) find someone who can drive the boat. Each of these meta-goals roughly corresponds to plot missions, either static (designed) or instigated as objects into randomly designed maps.

Bob starts off in a randomly generated farmhouse, where he's busy trying to find supplies to fight his way clear. Alternatively, he could barricade the farmhouse and wait for help. Whatever option I choose will dynamically spawn the scenario of the next mission. If I barricade the farmhouse while fighting off the zombies, I might be picked up by a redneck posse in the next mission. If I decide to fight off zombies while barricading the house, the mission will play-out in real-time, where every second not hammering shut a door or barring shutters will bring more zombies into the farmhouse for me to have to deal with.

The intent of occasional real-time missions is to keep the game panicky and frenetic, especially in maps where there aren't too many zombies. Real-time missions will always be missions in which a viable strategy (maybe the only strategy) is to barricade yourself in to a fixed position and regroup.

But Bob's not going to barricade himself; he's going to scavenge for supplies and escape. He weaves through the house, searching closets for supplies, dodging lurching zombies when he can, initiating battle only when he has to. These zombies are relatively trivial to kill one-on-one; the danger is being cornered or letting them build up into a group, something that becomes more and more likely every second I stand still. I find a shotgun and a half-box of ammo in a closet and manage to break free of the farmhouse, escaping in a truck. The mission ends.

The ZombieScape. Bob Hits His First City. A Hot Nurse.

We'll again take a cue from X-Com or Fallout and bring the player to a Geoscape-like screen: an overhead map of heartland America indicating places that Bob has been and nearby locations of interest, as well as known landmarks. This screen is where we will pick our next meta-goal. The options we're given are a) Reconnoiter for supplies/survivors, b) Start driving towards the nearest large body of water, c) Hole Up And Rest, etc. Bob chooses to reconnoiter for supplies and survivors.

At this point, a random mission is given to Bob, in a randomly generated town or city block, with randomly generated items and zombie-types (in terms of physical fitness and number) that are appropriate to my character level. Combat in this mission will be handled-with turn-based tactics. In our game, zombies can always be killed with a bullet to the brain... but headshots are hard to get. Turn-based combat will give us time to mull over our decisions. Do we go for an easier torso shot of that zombie advancing towards us and finish him off at close range with a hand-to-hand weapon, but giving him a chance to bite us? Or do we risk the headshot, potentially losing a bullet and giving the zombie more time to get close to us? Ammunition will always be a limited commodity in our game: these decisions are meant to be agonized over. The sounds of gunshots will also attract more zombies.

In this mission, Bob doesn't see any survivors immediately. Bob does, however, find a megaphone in a police car, which gives him the option of using it to call out to survivors. However, the drawback to this is that while it may bring out a recruitable NPC, it will also draw zombies or gangs to Bob's location, which he will have to fight off.

Bob uses the megaphone, and after fighting a few zombies drawn to his location, an NPC shows up. She is also randomly generated, with a random set of skills. In our game's case, she is a nurse with very limited fighting skills, but she does have medical training. This can be used to extend the life of bitten characters and patch up shot characters.

The nurse also has her own random goals which can be optionally added to Bob's pool. She tells Bob that she has a marine boyfriend upstate, and now this (if we want it to be) can become a player goal. In other words, the randomized personal goals of NPCs can be added to your character's pool of meta-goals at the ZombieScape to expand our mission options and extend gameplay.

Scavengers, I Hate 'Em

When the mission is over, Bob can choose his next mission at the ZombieScape. The nurse's personal goal of finding her boyfriend has been added to Bob's list of meta-goals. We could disregard her boyfriend if we'd like, but we decide to head upstate to find this marine boyfriend. We could use a capable fighter as an NPC.

On the way to find him, though, a gang of scavengers randomly waylays Bob, and he has to fight them off because he fails a charisma check. If Bob had enough charisma, he might have been able to trade with these scavengers; as it is, his only option is to kill them all.

Scavenger missions will mix-up the gameplay by giving the player some more traditional turn-based tactics combat fighting against a small number of capable, armed enemies. Additionally, we will have to control any zombies that may be present on the same map (although scavengers will obviously shoot at zombies as well).

Hello, Soldier! What's With All The Disembowelment?

While fighting the scavengers off, Bob get more experience and XP, as well as supplies. He continues upstate. The boyfriend, as it turns out, is dead, but his AK47 is still at his side. In other words, the mission isn't a waste of time for the player. This is an important design decision: although the game's vague plot points may be random, each mission has to move the player closer to his ultimate goal and be a reward in and of itself.

We go back to ZombieScape and decide to make our way to a large body of water. We think we have enough supplies and there's been enough dicking around. As Bob makes his way to the nearest marina, his group fights its way through the occasional random encounter of zombies/scavengers.

Bob also passes an airport, and we are given the option of reconnoitering for vehicles/pilots. We decide to do this, because a working helicopter will reduce our trip time. Luckily, it's not for naught: we find both a working helicopter and a pilot!

But there's a problem. He's infected. According to the logic of zombie movies, that means he'll turn to a zombie within three days. The nurse can treat him, potentially expanding his period of usefulness, but this makes the pilot and the helicopter a limited commodity. There is also a random chance that the pilot will turn on us in the middle of combat and potentially infect us.

This gives us an opportunity to talk about mortality in our zombie game. I've made some mention of gaining XP, but what I haven't mentioned is that, in our game, humans are naturally frail. A single bite from a zombie is enough to kill an NPC. So what I really mean by gaining experience is that a character will grow more skilled, but no less fragile; toughening up a character will be handled by dressing them in leather and other types of armor.

And what happens if our main character dies? Well, you could, of course, reload. But another option is to continue the game by taking control over one of your NPCs. At this point, you would have the option of either choosing that NPCs personal goal as your end game goal, or continuing with your original character's.

Assault on K-ZOM. Training Your Zombie Killers.

Back on the ZombieScape, we're given the option of finding gas or just flying the helicopter as far as it will go. We choose to find gas. While in the gas station, Bob turns on the radio and we're surprised that, instead of dead radio static, we hear someone from a local radio station pleading for help.

We decide to go there. We fight our way in. The gambit pays off: we find three NPCs (!) — again, this is all randomly determined. We are lucky in that we get two beefy security guards with arms training and a more useless radio technician (who can, however, fix broken radios in the game, getting important clues to side missions and additional meta-goals). Assume, again, that like the Nurse, they all have randomly generated personal goals that can be added to your goal list as optional missions.

When recruiting the more useless radio technician, we discover that she has enough intelligence that she can learn to fly a helicopter, if someone who knows the skill will teach her. NPCs in our game will be able to teach skills to other characters, as long as they have the intelligence to do so, and the player is willing to sit stationary long enough to transfer knowledge from one character to another.

We decide to have the helicopter pilot train the radio technician in the rudimentary arts of flying. We are told it will take two days for the pilot to train the radio technician as a remedial pilot. But the pilot is two days infected. Three days is the minimum it takes for a character to succumb to the zombie infection, so there is an x% chance that, during that extra day, the pilot will turn, try to kill Bob and his gang of survivors and leave the training undone. Making the choice more complicated, the longer we stay in any one occasion, the greater the chances that zombies will break into our barricaded location and we will have to fight them off in a dangerous real-time mission. It will also use an amount of Bob's dwindling supply of fuel to train the technician as a pilot.

We decide to take the chance. We hole up in the radio station and have our pilot teach the technician piloting on the roof. Miraculously, our infected pilots doesn't turn and transfers his piloting skill to the technician... good, we'll have the helicopter for more than two more days.

But during that time, zombies break into the radio station and we have to fend them off in real-time. We successfully manage to do this, but not before one of the security guards is torn apart by the zombie horde and we use up almost all of our ammunition fighting them off. We then choose to put the helicopter pilot out of his misery, since he has no more usefulness. Bob and his crew continues on in the helicopter's scant amount of fuel.

Fast Forwarding To The End Game

Just to fast forward all this a little, in the course of our game, we will fight off many more random zombie/survivor encounters. We will both gain and lose multiple NPCs.

A marine character Bob recruits takes us to a military base, where we will substantially up our arsenal, including getting a bazooka and a couple rounds for it.

Bob finds a friendly tribe of survivors who will trade with my group, but instead, we decided to just kill them all and take their stuff. Bob tames and recruits a Dogmeat like dog, to the cheers of any Fallout 2 fan.

Eventually, our helicopter runs out of fuel in a major city and we have to fight my way out. Afterwards, Bob manages reach a small marina on a small lake which has no abandoned isles, but there, we find a boat captain and spend a hard-pressed week there with him, learning to drive a boat. He's otherwise useless, so we leave him behind.

Finally, we make our way to the ocean, and Bob is finally presented with this "end game" mission. The marina has been surrounded by flaming hulks, debris, and razor wire. Around the perimeter, thousands of zombies are mulling around. On the other side of the razorwire, the marina has been taken over as a safe haven by a group of apocalyptic scavengers, who are headquartered on the only working boat.

No time to lose. Our group cuts its way through the horde of zombies, uses the bazooka on the razor wire, and fights its way onto the ship. There, we fight the 'boss' - the leader of the rival biker gang - and succeed in killing him, while the rest of our team holds the zombies at bay on the dock. With only a couple of survivors from the end fight, Bob manages to pull away from the dock in the ship, headed for his deserted island.

The End. Bob wins. His triumph is small; he does not save the world. He just saves himself.

Summary of a Zombie Apocalypse

Although the "story" of Bob's adventure looks oddly specific, most of it is randomly generated. A smart random generator coupled with a dynamically generated pool of meta-goals allows the player to extrapolate his own story with a minimum of scripted exposition. The vast majority of levels are put together from random level templates. If a plot point needs to happen during a level, we can usually just insert an object into the level that relates to that plot-point: for example, the radio in the gas station, or an NPC.

NPCs are also randomly generated, but when being generated they draw from a large pool of their own wants and goals, which the player can then choose to follow as he sees fit. NPCs may also be linked to other NPCs, like the nurse to the soldier. Although the soldier turned out to be dead when we got there, even that outcome was random: the game "rolls" to see if he survives until the player gets there. If the NPC doesn't survive, the game still rewards the player with equipment, follow-up leads or missions.

Although most of the game's content is, in fact, determined by a number generator, the player is offered a combination of interesting choices and player rewards that allows him to follow his own distinct agenda (or 'story'). Based upon these choices, the player becomes extremely attached to his character; by being allowed to explore the goals of NPCs, coupled with the fragility of team members, he will also become attached to his team.

Most games, even open-ended ones, spend a great deal of time and resources trying to get across story. But games don't have to be cinema. By encouraging players to interact, you encourage them to imagine. By giving players a small number of interesting choices throughout the game and allowing them to specify their own goals in a vibrant, dynamic world, players can put together their own plot like Magnetic Poetry, and designers can focus on making the player dynamic as vibrant as possible.

Ultimately, our zombie game lets you live out your zombie apocalypse the way you, the player, want. And sitting enraptured near the bumper of a rocking Chevrolet as the dead lumbered across the drive-in screen, isn't that what every kid stricken by the zombie zeitgeist since 1968's Night of the Living Dead has always wanted?

... Without the threat of being actually devoured alive, of course.

Editor's Note: What do you think, Kotakuites? Does this game have any appeal? Is it a plausible design? Do you have any further ideas to suggest? Is this the sort of feature you'd like to see more of? Let us know in the comments. Remember that if you don't have a commenting account, you can type your comment in anyway, and it'll be published when we approve it.

In the coolest move they've ever made, gaming network G4's Attack of the Show has posted a very sincere, very well-worded apology to our darling Aeropause.

G4's slight, as mentioned earlier today, was using Aeropause's instructional Dead Rising video on Attack of the Show without giving credit for the fantastic clip, which demonstrated how to attain the coveted Megaman blaster by destroying nigh unto 60,000 zombies.

The Attack of the Sorry:

What happened was awful, embarrassing and it doesn't matter why it happened, it was wrong. We're a corporation (although we have Space Invaders on the carpeting) and we take copyright law extremely seriously. We get pissed off when people show our stuff and don't give us credit; I wouldn't expect anyone out there to feel differently.

Like I said before, we take our role as citizens on the information superhighway very seriously. However, unlike a lot of people out there in the universe of the worldwide web, we aren't afraid to fess up to our mistakes and say we're sorry.

And so on. But they don't stop there! Not only do they fill a page with gracious explanation and apology, they go above and beyond and actually compose a little I'm Sorry song to Aeropause, complete with acoustic guitar and stylish hat.

Let this be a lesson to all tubedwellers: eating humble pie earns you a high score. As a bonus lesson, let it be known that a slick little grandpa hat and some nice glasses can dress up your jeans n' teeshirt geek uniform something fierce. Eliza "I wish I had a grandpa hat. And a song." Gauger

This post goes without a photo because our uploader is broken.

Attack of the Show apologizes as great length [G4]

Philatelists rejoice! Everyone else sit down and relax, this doesn't concern you.

In honor of the 10th anniversary of the Resident Evil series, known in Japan as BioHazard, the incredibly hip Japanese postal service will release a commemorative set of Resident Evil stamps featuring various characters and logos from the game.

Regrettably absent are the Umbrella Corporation logo, and any sort of monster or zombie.

Speaking of which, how awesome would a zombie stamp set be? Pretty freaking awesome, that's how awesome. I would even settle for one zombie stamp, to tell you the truth. Eliza Gauger

more here [GamePolitics]

What sort of obsessive-compulsive grind monkey do you have to be to kill 60,000 zombies in Dead Rising, thus securing the MegaMan MegaBlaster? Well, actually, it looks like it's pretty easy, as long as you have an hour to kill and don't mind taking advantage of a little exploit. Courtesy of the mavens at Aeropause. Florian Eckhardt