ENSLAVED: ODYSSEY TO THE WEST

Ever the masters of narrative-driven single-player experiences, back in 2010, Ninja Theory delivered Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, a game that many consider one of the studio’s best works ever to this day. Sadly, the game ended up a commercial failure. Though acclaimed by many for its storytelling, characters, performances, and its take on the classic Chinese tale of Journey to the West, for whatever reason, it failed to attract a sizeable audience.

After the free games for PlayStation Plus in February were leaked, it seems the line-up for March has also been prematurely unwrapped.

Apparently, Dead Nation will be available for free to PlayStation 4 users. PS3 users will be receiving Tomb Raider and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons while PS Vita users will see the Pixeljunk Monsters Ultimate HD and Smart As offered for free.

Take it as a rumour for now, but since this comes from a source that got it right the first time, it could very well be true.

The PlayStation 4 has been on a pretty good roll lately, offering games like Outlast, Don’t Starve and more for free through PS Plus. It might not quite match the line-up of free titles for the PS3 but it’s still a worthy addition. The PS4 is currently set to launch on February 22nd in Japan with more than 5.3 million copies having been sold worldwide as of February.

(Source)

10. Dead Island

Dead Island didn’t attempt anything new, but it made up for it by offering a solid, survival-horror first person title that made zombies a legitimate threat. Sure, beating on them till your weapons broke was possible, but the very nature of the zombies didn’t make them pushovers. It just seemed like a better idea to take them down, one by one, rather than get into scuffles with hordes. It’s too bad the final game didn’t have the emotional impact of the initial “Family” trailer, but at least they got a cameo.

9. Plants vs Zombies

What’s that you say? “Casual game on list FAIL”? Well, if you consider Plants vs Zombies a casual game, or a casual game as something monkeys operate in between shifts of writing Shakespeare, you’re dead wrong. It’s a tower defense game, wherein you grow different crops to fight against zombie hordes trying to infiltrate your house. The zombies are cartoonishly drawn but still threatening. The sheery variety of zombies and their numbers make endless mode an almost sublime art.

8. Dead Nation

Isometric, top-down zombie shooter places two players against a world teeming with zombies. Flamethrowers, bombs, machine guns and much much more are at your disposal, but will that be enough to dispatch an entire nation of the dead? Dead Nation is addictive at times, but painfully frustrating at others. That being said, there are fewer satisfactions than tearing through hordes and shouting “Are you not entertained?!” at the empty streets one moment, only to be mauled by another thousand or so the next.

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/top-ten-most-zombie-tastic-games-of-all-time/feed 1 107690 https://gamingbolt.com/dead-nation-road-of-devastation-trailer https://gamingbolt.com/dead-nation-road-of-devastation-trailer#respond Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:00:28 +0000 http://gamingbolt.com/?p=50568

Sony has released a trailer for the upcoming DLC of their last year’s Dead Nation, Road of Devastation. The trailer shows some great, enjoyable gameplay (it sure looks enjoyable), some awesome weapons and great zombie action. And come on, who doesn’t love zombie apocalypse games, especially when they’re as fun as Dead Nation?

In our review for the game last year, we gave it heavy praises. You can read it here.

Stay tuned to GB for more info.

Dead Nation gets a new DLC and it is called Road to Devastation. The DLC has new weapons and items and takes off where the core game left off. This is the second DLC for the game.

The game was offered free for the PSN members as a Welcome Back offer after the PSN hack, and resulted in a massive amount of players online. Check out the trailer and tell us what you think in the comments section below.

A new DLC pack for PSN title Dead Nation, called Road of Devastation has been announced.

Here’s info on the DLC:

“From the ashes of the apocalypse, an organization has worked in the shadows, tampering with the human gene, modifying and improving upon it to create the perfect soldier, the ultimate zombie-killing machine – you! Continuing from the events where the original game left off (or, is it actually the other way around…), Road of Devastation will put your skills to the ultimate test. You’ll find yourself waking up in a laboratory with only one way out. Outside the door you’re presented with a choice – a crossroads leading to three different paths, each with their own unique environments, challenges and enemies waiting for you. If you manage to overcome the challenges, just when you think it’s over, you’ll make a startling revelation…

In addition to the range of enemies and weapons you’re already familiar with from the original game, Road of Devastation will present you with a variety of new tools and equipment to dispose of enemies with, while also introducing new enemies and obstacles you’ll encounter in unique new environments.”

Stay tuned for more info.

Housemarque has announced voice chat functionality is coming to Dead Nation.

This will only be available for the online co-op mode in the near future.

According to the developer, the team is “currently working on the addition of voice chat capability” and plans on introducing it as quickly as possible.

The devs has informed that players will be keep up to date about this update via the PlayStation Blog aswell as their official Facebook page.

Fun.

The weapon upgrade system is a blast

Now before I get in to describing the game play, I will like to state that I had assumed Dead Nation will be a walk in the park. But I am glad to reveal that it is not. It’s engaging and exciting as any of its console counterparts…say Dead Rising 2. Housemarque have used an engine that allows them to generate hordes and I mean “absolutely” hordes and hordes of enemies at a single time. So how the hell are you going to survive? Yes it’s challenging and daunting, but it’s not impossible. When you begin the game, you will be “weak”, meaning you will have access to just your Rifle which is good enough to take down a small fleet of zombies, but as you clear area by area you will have access to more bad ass weapons via a number of intelligently placed weapons shops in the game.

In most zombie based games, you have two options. Either save your ass from the zombies or blow them off. In Dead Nation you have no option at all but to kill every one of them. This is surprisingly the core aspect of the game play as killing zombies will give you orbs which can then be used to unlock new weapons and their upgrades. Now this is where things get important, you “need” to upgrade weapons in the game otherwise you simple won’t survive the zombie onslaught.  For each weapon you can either buy ammo for it, upgrade its rate, power, range and maximum ammo capacity. This is unbelievably addictive and I found myself continuously searching for more zombies and killing the hell out of them so that I can buy new upgrades for the weapons. The developers have made sure that the weapons in the game are interesting and hence they have included some really cool weaponry. You start off with your standard rifle which can be triggered by pressing the R1 button for a bit longer and you can burst the head of a zombie. Now the fun part is that if 4-5 zombies are standing in the line of sight and you charge your rifle, you can take all their heads off with just a single shot! Next up is the SMG which was my life saver when I found myself surrounded by 30-40 zombies. As you play through the game you will find more cracking weapons in the form of blade launcher and flame thrower. The flame thrower is kind of a tricky weapon, yes it can take down enemies easily, but if you get too close to the burning zombie you will get yourself on fire too!

Using you environments is going to play a key role if you are “interested” in surviving

Other weapons include the amazing shot gun, blade cannon which will disperse blades in your field of vision.  There are other deployable items too in the form of grenades, mines, fire grenades and others.  All in all, if you plan on finishing Dead Nation you should be packed with all the weapons.

Next…ZOMBIESSSS! Okay as with all the games, things are bit easy at the beginning with less and weak enemies. But later on the game becomes extremely challenging with the engine throwing not 10-20 but over 50 zombies at once, some slow, some huge and some really quick! So how do you take them out? As I said before this is not a walk in the park and you will need to think and strategize how you are going to clear ten of these daunting levels. The developers have taken a step ahead in the game…Use your environments. Zombies are susceptible to anything that makes sound or is flashing too much light. Got 45 zombies roaring towards you? No problem, just shoot a car with alarms and as a result all those morons will get diverted towards it and start the banging the hell out of it. The end result? The car blows and those 45 zombies will b shredded in to pieces and a big smile on my face. That’s not all. Zombies will also react if you throw a grenade to them. For some reason they have lost their brains and will follow the grenade should you toss one. All this requires strategic thinking. It easy to get a bit frustrated during the later stages of the game and you may run off from one check point to another one without killing any zombie. But trust me you will struggle in the game if you are not upgrading your weapons at the check points.

The environments in the game are spooky and there are 10 different levels each with their own style. You will be travelling through a park, hospital, graveyard, harbour, highway and more places. The visuals and sound are undoubtedly amazing. The game does 50 zombies at once with zero frame rate issues and impressive lighting effects. The story could have been better and more detailed but seriously it’s just secondary, however it is told via number of pretty looking cut scenes. There are a few issues in the game. Sometimes when you get attacked by a number of zombies and if they get too close to you, they will just stick and the only way to get rid of them is to press the melee button. I am not sure whether this is on purpose, but it was irritating at times. Another thing is that the player may have some visibility issues. I mean it’s easy not to see a zombie in a completely dark environment and you may eventually not know who is attacking. These are small and minor issues which may irritate certain players.

Burning hordes of zombies at once if exciting, but make sure you don’t get yourself burned too

There is also a meta game included which shows how many zombies have been walloped across the world. This categorized in the form of countries, so if you come to think of it, all the players are actually working together to clean Mother Earth from zombies which should throw up some interesting stats when the game releases and people eventually buy the game. And then there is the co-op (online and offline) which is a blast!

Dead Nation is a pretty amazing title and that too at pretty neat price at $14.99. It’s easily the best arcade experience I have had for the year on my PlayStation 3. If you think zombie slaughtering was fun than Dead Nation makes zombie slaughtering an addiction! If you are a zombie lover and a killer too, than you should not look beyond Dead Nation.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.

SCEE’s announced Dead Nation will be landing on European shores on December 1st.

The game’s gonna hit US just a day prior to that (Nov 30).

“We’ll be giving you an up-close look at Dead Nation’s metagame that will pit country versus country in a global battle for high score dominance and the ultimate bragging rights,” said SCEA producer Daimion Pinnock.

The game’s gonna cost $15 and will come with trophies and a “metagame”.

You can get more on this over at the official PS Blog.