Friday, May 31, 2013

WHY ISN'T THIS HERE?!?


The Biohazard Cafe & Grill in Shibuya, Tokyo can be added to the list of why the Japanese are lapping us in terms of video game themed restaurants.


OK. So maybe we havent't gotten into the race yet, but if we did we would rule. USA! USA! Anyway, the Biohazard Cafe & Grill is an almost perfect time capsule of the first Resident Evil game. The servers are decked out in S.T.A.R.S. gear and the menu reads like a pun filled guide to the Capcom franchise. 


An explosive round ammo canister of curry rice and slabs of unidentified charred meat accompany a floor show set to 1998 American radio pop jams. It's kind of amazing. Watch the video and let us know what you think.





HOW TO SURVIVE COMING TO XBOX LIVE


Think you have what it takes to survive a zombie outbreak? With 505 Games' new arcade game How to Survive, you'll be able to find out! Read on for more details and a few screenshots.
From the Press Release:
505 Games, a global publisher of video games, has announced How to Survive, a new IP coming to the Xbox Live® online entertainment network from Microsoft as an arcade game for Xbox 360®, for PlayStation®Network, and Windows PC via Steam by Valve® Corporation.
Featuring a robust crafting system, unique survival guide, and a host of playable characters, How to Survive strands players on a remote archipelago off the coast of Colombia in the aftermath of an unexplained accident... but you’re not alone. In order to survive, you must fulfill the most basic of needs - seeking out food, water, and shelter as well as crafting dozens of tools and weapons from fishing rods to Molotov cocktails. Players can also team up with other survivors in local and online multiplayer story and challenge modes to take on a growing array of the infected.
For more info visit the official 505 Games website.
505 Games Helps You Learn How to Survive a Zombie Outbreak
505 Games Helps You Learn How to Survive a Zombie Outbreak
505 Games Helps You Learn How to Survive a Zombie Outbreak
505 Games Helps You Learn How to Survive a Zombie Outbreak
505 Games Helps You Learn How to Survive a Zombie Outbreak




~dreadcentral.com~


TONIGHT ON ZOMBIEPALOOZA RADIO (5/31)


Starting at 8pm Eastern, tune in to www.ztalkradio.com for the latest Zombiepalooza Radio show! 

Tonight, Jackie's guest line-up includes authors Gerald Rice, William Todd Rose and Essel Pratt and Tom Skulan, the creator and chairman of FantaCon!

Don't miss it!!

SCOOBY DOO!! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!?


Some times you just have to let out your inner geek. Scooby!!! Where are you? 

This print will be for sale at Mayhem this weekend in Orlando! I will be at the show all weekend and will be singing this awesome puppy! 

And if you like it please share it. You can also order one from Sammy at spkeller13@me.com, $20 for 11x17 $50 for 20x30.


Tuesday, May 28, 2013

NEW ‘WORLD WAR Z’ BANNERS SHOW GLOBAL DESTRUCTION


                                                 BERLIN, GERMANY


                                                                ROME, ITALY


                                            MEXICO CITY, MEXICO


                                                    PARIS, FRANCE


                                                  SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA


UNITED KINGDOM MAN CURED OF "ZOMBIEISM"


Graham was convinced he was a zombie. He hung out at cemeteries, his PET scans showed he was in near vegetative state and his teeth turned black because he refused to brush them.

The U.K. man, in fact, suffered from Cotard’s Syndrome, a rare psychiatric condition based on the “unshakable belief that one has lost organs, blood, or body parts” or “that one has lost one's soul or is dead.”
The Evil Within producer: The story is the puzzle 


Three detectives in designer threads walk into a Gothic hospital; everybody inside is already dead. Sebastian, Joseph, and Kid — short for Kidman, the new girl on the team — fan out, the classic mistake. Sebastian pays for it.


He wakes up hanging from the ceiling while a masked butcher carves off what he needs from another victim. And this is just the start of Seb’s nightmare. He’s still dealing with flesh-and-blood people. Reality hasn’t come completely off the rails yet. He hasn’t been ripped apart by a demon that poured out of a dead body yet.
But that’s coming.

Shinji Mikami, the creator of the Resident Evil series, doesn’t hold back going into his new game, The Evil Within (releasing in 2014 for the PlayStation 4, the Xbox 360, the PS3, and PC). I sat down with his producer, Masato Kimura, to talk about how Mikami plans to scare us to death this time.

evil within 5GamesBeat: This looks very much like it’s inspired by the old Resident Evil series. How is that influence playing into The Evil Within?
Masato Kimura: Of course, this is Mikami’s game, but we’re trying to make a scary game. In that sense, maybe it may resemble some of the — you might feel some sense of a connection to Resident Evil. But we’re not really trying to be influenced by the Resident Evil games. What we think about is how the player might feel. That’s how we came up with all those elements in the game.

GamesBeat: The basic presentation is over-the-shoulder. You’re stationary when aiming; you’re going through corridors where things pop out at you –
Kimura: You’re probably thinking of Resident Evil 4, right? Maybe that’s because Mikami put forth a lot of effort to come up with that when he was working on the Resident Evil series.

GamesBeat: He found something that worked.
Kimura: Right. This isn’t the camera setting we’ll use all the time, too. In a different situation, we’ll use a different camera. If we find a more potentially scary camera setting, or in a place where it might be more fun, or if we think it’ll help you fight against the enemies and come up with a good sense of achievement, we may use a different kind of camera.

GamesBeat: How dynamic are enemies? It seemed like the butcher character hunting Seb patrolled his little area, and he then followed into the next area after Seb reached it. Does he ever act a bit more proactively?
evil within 2Kimura: We’re trying to make those enemies smarter. We don’t call them “zombies” exactly, but they’re zombie-type characters. They’re going to be smarter than the typical zombies. They’ll cooperate together. Multiple creatures might try to surround you, one coming toward you and one coming around behind. They’ll be smarter than traditional zombie-type enemies.

GamesBeat: It looks like you’re touching on several different brands of horror. The demo started with something based in reality — a guy with a chain saw — then went into a not-a-zombie attack, and then reality itself started shifting dramatically around Seb.
Kimura: One kind of fear we’re trying to create is the sense that it’s scary because you don’t understand what’s happening. We’re trying to synchronize what Sebastian’s feeling and what the player is feeling. Whenever Sebastian feels that this is strange, that he doesn’t understand what’s happening, we want the player to feel that same kind of uncertainty. That sense of mystery is a key to this game. So I guess we shouldn’t explain too much about what’s happening. [Laughs]

GamesBeat: It was an interesting series of curveballs. The scale of what was going on just kept getting bigger and bigger until we were in an entirely different place.
Kimura: In a typical survival-horror game, you have puzzle solving. I think that this time, the story and how you understand the story is part of that puzzle-solving element. As you play, you start to understand certain things. Then another question comes up. That sense of uncertainty is scary. You always have that feeling in the background.

GamesBeat: You go down the rabbit hole and just keep on going.
Kimura: Yeah, something like that. You don’t really know what’s happening, but eventually you’ll understand. That’s what Mikami is going for this time.

evil within big guyGamesBeat: Are we going to jump between Sebastian and the other two detectives on his team, Joseph and Kid?
Kimura: No, you only play as Sebastian.
GamesBeat: What’s the goal with The Evil Within? What do you want to accomplish with it?
Kimura: Mikami is always saying that he wants players to say, “I haven’t played a game this scary in a long time.” We want players to feel really emotionally involved.

GamesBeat: How do you accomplish that?
Kimura: We always emphasize two things. It has to be very scary, and the other side of that is the sense of achievement in overcoming and defeating fear. That’s what makes survival horror. The balance between those two things.

GamesBeat: Tell me about a moment where you felt that balance click into place.
Kimura: One of the characters in the game that we can’t really talk so much about today, that was my idea. He fits really well into the game, his personalities and his abilities. Another example might be the last creature that you saw there in the demo.

GamesBeat: The one that springs out of the corpse and kills Seb?
Kimura: Yeah. That creature is a great example. Mikami had a really big idea about what it should be. Then some of the character designers came up with that creature, and it was just right. “Yeah, that’s what it is.”




~venturebeat.com

SPOTLIGHT ON... The Tall Book of Zombie Shorts (Volume One) (Zombiefest Charity Anthology)


The Tall Book of Zombie Shorts (Volume One) (Zombiefest Charity Anthology)


This anthology is a collection of stories and book excerpts all with the zombie theme. Each story was donated by its respective writer to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project (100 percent of all proceeds from the sale of this book will go to them). There are stories from the following writers included in this book.

Catt Dahman
A.J. Coleman
Tonia Brown
T.L. Decay
A.P. Fuchs
Rich Baker
Saul Tanpepper
Mark Woods
Michelle Kilmer
Blake Ovard
C.A. Verstraete
Edward P. Cardillo
Suzi M
Michael Fisher
Scotty Schrier
Tim M Wood
Nick Hatfield
Sean Liebling
Tristan Vick
Art Griswold
Anna Taborska
Nicole Hansen
Tammy Dunning
James Schannep

Order your copy here!

Dee Wallace and Billy Zane to Fight the Undead in the Elephant's Graveyard



Filmmaker Harrison Smith (Dead.tv) has another tale of terror on the horizon, and it could very well be his most ambitious project to date. Read on for the exclusive first word and artwork for Elephant's Graveyard.
Billy Zane, Dee Wallace, Felissa Rose, and Gabrielle Stone are lined up to star in Elephant's Graveyard, a zombie horror film shooting in Northeast Pennsylvania this September 2013. With a market over-saturated in everything zombie, the filmmakers plan to avoid a Walking Dead/Living Dead knock-off with a character-driven story that delivers the goods for the sub-genre's fans.
The film has several sequels already planned under the branding of "Zombie Killers," which is referenced in the film, as the story focuses on a team of young warriors under the leadership of military vet Zane who stand between the "figures" and their small rural town of Elwood.
Dee Wallace of E.T., The Howling, Critters, and Cujo fame plays Sharon Sommers, a terminally ill mother pushing her son to leave the dying town of Elwood, even if it means facing death beyond its gates. Wallace shares the screen with her real life daughter, Gabrielle Stone, who plays her son's love interest, Nikki.
Sleepaway Camp's Felissa Rose returns from a recently finished turn in the Eric Roberts/Danielle Harris horror-thriller Dead.tv to play a religious zealot who works to convince the town's residents of a fixed fatalism that can't be fought.
Harrison Smith directs from his screenplay. Venerated CGI artist Joe Lawson and his Digital Arts company provide the post digital while Angela Johnson of Evolution supervises makeup practical effects.
Principal photography begins September 4th in Northeast Pennsylvania with a projected summer 2014 release.


~dreadcentral.com

Monday, May 27, 2013

‘Fight the Bite’ teaches Calgarians how to fight off zombies


No matter how fast you run, no matter how well you hide, you can’t escape zombies.
The current zombie craze, fuelled by major titles across all media, including the Walking Dead, Resident Evil, and World War Z franchises, has infected all sectors of society.
Even martial arts.
“You can’t escape zombies,” said Tim Holter, an instructor at The Forge Western Martial Arts in Highland Park, Calgary. “At least, not without our help.”
It was because of this widespread popularity that Holter picked up on the idea of using zombies to help market a self-defence course he was designing called Fight the Bite.
Produced by BAJ Visser
“A self-defence course is only going to hit a small, targeted part of the population, usually women,” said Holter, a certified instructor in KAPAP, a close-combat martial arts discipline originating in Israel.
To reach a larger population, Holter, 30-year veteran of martial arts, chose to incorporate a “zombie apocalypse” theme into his event.
“Zombies make it all fun,” said Holter. “Who doesn’t want to brain a zombie in the end?”
According to Holter and fellow instructor Mark Winkelman, the results speak for themselves.
“Western martial arts isn’t as well-known as taekwondo or karate,” said Winkelman. “But zombies are interesting to everyone, so even those who would never think of coming out to pick up a sword are calling us and asking about it.”
Western martial arts, also known as historical European martial arts, include a broad selection of sports traditionally practised in Europe. While fencing and boxing are still relatively popular, other forms of the sport, such as stick fighting and sword duelling, have fallen out of favour since the 1800s.
However, thanks to historical and fantasy revivalist movements, these traditional arts are beginning to see a resurgence in their popularity.
Holter attributes his interest in the sports to his fascination with swords. “It’s what my ancestors would have done,” said Holter. “They weren’t Japanese, but Vikings.”
Winkelman was initially a practitioner of kendo, or Japanese swordfighting, but now practises both Eastern and Western techniques. “The similarities are interesting and the differences are very interesting,” Holter noted. “When you have a sharp piece of steel, there’s only so many ways to use it.”
The Forge's zombie-themed survival course runs periodically and is open to Calgarians wanting to survive the "inevitable" zombie apocalypse.


~calgaryjournal.ca

KICKSTARTER PROJECT: Chance At Zombies: Escape From Zombie Mansion

Action packed social adventure game. Designed to stimulate Social Interaction. Compete & Cooperate. Survive & Escape...

Overview:
Chance-At-Zombies is an action packed, social role-playing, strategy game that will keep you challenged, and engaged for hours with your friends. The game begins as you wake up, and find yourself trapped inside the Zombie Mansion. Find a way out before being overrun by zombies. There are 12 playable characters, and a whole lot of zombies hungering for your brains. Save your friends under distress, heal each other, and work together towards the exit, room by room. But beware, not every player can be trusted: some may harbor secret agendas, or even be infected. Save yourself, save your friends, kill zombies, find treasures! There is always more to discover, and surprises are just around the corner...
A tribute to Table-top games: 
If you are like me, then you are tired of seeing kids, even toddlers, playing their iPhones and iPads at restaurants, in parks, etc... instead of playing with other kids, or interacting with physical objects. But, I think we are all guilty to some degree, just think about how many hours YOU spend looking at a computer, or mobile screen? God forbid your work also requires sitting in front of a computer all day. I say, get off angry birds, and pick up Chance-At-Zombies for yourself, or get it for a friend in order to embark upon a face-to-face, social gaming experience that will charm and delight even the most addicted mobile gaming fans. 
Room Cards: offers a dynamic map each game
There are plenty of rooms waiting to be explored: "The Atrium", "The Lab", "The Dungeon", "The Study", are just a few to name. The Zombie Mansion will look different every game, as players begin in the "The Prison", and advance to new rooms one at a time by drawing new room cards fresh from the deck, and connecting them to the existing map. Players must decide if they want to stick together, which forces certain players to sacrifice their immediate goals; Or, players can split up, to cover more ground (Ahhh, the cliche moment when people split up in horror films)... 
Characters: memorable and unique!
Each character has a unique back story, and personal quotes. There are fighters, healers, trappers, and finders. Fighters fend off the zombies, healers help others recover from injuries, trappers guard against surprises, and finders restock on the supplies, and find the way out. 
Items: the unique skill system will drive player interaction
There are many items to choose from, but players can't use them unless they have the necessary skills. Fighters can use weapons such as guns; Healers can use med kits; Trappers can use traps; And Finders can use chests and books to restock on supplies. Players have to work together, otherwise they are sitting ducks.
Zombies: killing them is rewarding!
Zombies are a challenge, but not without rewards. There are many varieties of zombies, and defeating them is rewarded by items, food, and even level-ups! Players who level-up gain new skills, and can then use new items. 
Agendas: secret identities, and added complexity
Each player begins with a private agenda. If you are a SURVIVOR, your goal is to simply haul yourself through the Zombie Mansion, and escape. If you are an INFECTED, then your goal is also to escape. But the added catch is you must reveal your identity if you become heavily injured. If you are a VIGILANTE, you must insure that no INFECTED players escape, at all cost. If you are a PSYCHOPATH, you must escape, but leave everyone behind. 
Game Demo Video: Coming soon!
Maker video: Coming Soon!
Special perks of Pledging:
You'll get special rewards, such as custom characters, and director's cut rooms, etc. Plus, it's all for a good cause. C'mon people, support your indie developer. Expansions will be on the way. (hint: pirate, zombies, samurais, etc...)

Risks and challenges

I won't be telling the truth if I said that good games can be born solely out of love and passion. They need those, but they're also a lot of testing, grinding, and frustrating moments. I have been exceptionally lucky with my artists so far, Joe B. has been incredibly understanding and helpful and instrumental in bring the project into fruition. I think the art speaks for itself in that respect. While the project has met delays and setbacks many times in the past, I'm proud that me and Joe stuck through it, and made pushed on through sunny days, and rainy downcast ones as well. With your help and support, more importantly, feedback, I hope to overcome all the challenges which I will surely come face to face with in the near future whilst trying to self-publish a mature and highly professional and refined end product. Salute!

For more info or to make a pledge, click here!
PAY A VISIT TO THE ZOMBIE WORLD



Well, talk about turning the sub-genre on its head or what!? Here we have our first look at Juan José Patón’s upcoming independent Spanish zombie flick, Zombie World. I know, yet another zombie flick, and while I love zombies, even I have to admit that it is becoming over-saturated  so how do you rectify the same scenario being played out time and time again? Well, you turn it on its head of course.
Zombie World is set in a post-apocalyptic world where zombies are the main inhabitants, but there is something terrible going down, zombies are starting to turn into humans, and the humans have an absolute hate for the zombies resulting in a total turn of events.
While it sounds a little bizarre, I’m willing to give this one the benefit of the doubt, we all need things shaken up from time to time. So, head on down below and check out the first official trailer for Zombie World.
The film stars Elena Cruz, José Casas, Enrique Selfa, Juan Carlos King Pérez, Hugo Martinez, Juan Antonio Anguita, Blas Rueda, and JJ Alba.
For more information and a slew of photos, hit up their official Facebook page.




~horror-movies.ca~
‘In the Flesh’ Premiere Date Moved Up By BBC America


BBC America has moved up the premiere of its three-part zombie series co-production In the Flesh. The three night event was originally scheduled to air in August, but it will now begin on Thursday, June 6th at 10/9c, with the following two installments to air on Friday and Saturday.
In the Flesh follows Kieren Walker (Luke Newberry), a teen who comes back from the dead after committing suicide. He and thousands of other zombies (known as the Partially Deceased Syndrome (PDS) sufferers) are rehabilitated and medicated before being returned to their homes. Unfortunately, before they were treated, the zombies were part of a brutal battle that left many humans dead and as a result communities are suspicious of the rehabilitated undead, making Kieren’s attempt to rejoin the living all the more complicated.
In addition to Newberry, the series also stars Emily Bevan (The Thick of It), Steve Evets (Shameless), Kenneth Cranham (Upstairs Downstairs), Ricky Tomlinson (The Royle Family), David Walmsley (Doctors), and Harriet Cains (Human Beings).

Patrick D'Orazio's Review of Vincenzo Bilof’s Necropolis Now: Zombie Ascension Book 1


Necropolis Now: Zombie Ascension Book One starts out introducing us to Bob, a mercenary for hire who is looking for a serial killer named Traverse, a former Special Forces operative.  Traverse is wanted alive despite the gruesome crimes he’s committed over many years of being on the run.  When he finds Traverse, the madman speaks of a gate being open that will cause the end of the world.  Captured, he is committed to an insane asylum in Detroit.
Three years later, Bob is called upon again, this time with two of his best mercenaries-Miles and Vega- in tow.  He has to capture Traverse again, pulling him out of the same insane asylum he was put in for his crimes.  The only problem: Detroit is in the throws of a brutal riot, with the city tearing itself apart piece by piece.  It is fast becoming clear that this is not your normal riot because the rioters are eating one another.
The story follows Bob’s mission, but also introduces the reader to several other citizens of Detroit who are coming to grips with the situation they’ve found themselves in, including a lawyer, his drug-addled brother, a gang banger, an ex-cop pornographer and his former girlfriend, and a porn starlet currently residing in the same insane asylum as Traverse because she has a penchant for cannibalism.
While Necropolis Now: Zombie Ascension does share similarities with many other tales focused on the initial hours and days that the dead rise, with plenty of panic, gore, and horrific frights, it is how the dead rise and the characters that inhabit this story that make it unique.  Detroit has a reputation for being a rough city and it makes for a gritty urban setting for this story.  The ensemble cast is headed up by Vega, the female mercenary, Traverse, an insane prophet and murderous madman, and Griggs, the ex-cop who wants to keep on making porn movies while the world unravels around him.  This is a very interesting story with Traverse and Mina meeting up at the asylum on the day the undead rise taking center stage.  Mina is Griggs former girlfriend and star of his porn movies, at least until she ate the last actor she worked with.  Traverse has plans for Mina, and knows that she is more than just another run of the mill psychopath.
The pacing is fast and the action steady in this tale, while the characters are a mixed bag of oddities.  They definitely kept me guessing from start to finish, with some of the deaths being rather surprising, and their actions even being more surprising.  It’s hard to argue about realism when the characters are so strange and different than the norm.
There is a bigger picture here.  The rise of the dead is not through the traditional means readers of zombie fiction are used to, and it is clear by the title that the author intends to reveal all that is kept secret in this book over the course of a likely trilogy.
The author took on a sizable cast of characters and did an admirable job of allowing the reader to see the world through many of their eyes.  The characters of Traverse, Vega, and Griggs were intriguing to me.  Some of the other characters, such as the lawyer and junkie who were brothers, didn’t resonate.  The author makes a game effort to give their story emotional heft, but their story felt hollow to me.  And while I didn’t necessarily like most of the characters in this book, I don’t consider that a negative.  They kept me intrigued, even if I wasn’t necessarily rooting for any of them.  Some of them grew on me in small amounts, and it will be interesting to see how the characters that remain at the end of the book grow and transform through the rest of this series.
Overall, Necropolis Now: Zombie Ascension Book One, has way too long of a title, but is a very interesting contribution to the zombie genre.  This isn’t your workaday saga about average people trying to make due in a world gone mad, but is about a bunch of mad people living in the eye of the undead storm.  Mr. Bilof has me intrigued enough that I feel compelled to check out the next book in this series when it becomes available.

This review and other great things are available on Patrick's blog here.