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Zafehouse 2: Gameplay video #1

Logan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:40:21 +0000

Okay, so today is actually Saturday, not Friday. But only by a little!

Here’s the first of what I hope will be many videos demonstrating Zafehouse 2′s gameplay. The focus this time round is combat, of which you’ll get a quick glimpse. The video isn’t hosted here because the dimensions don’t fit on the page, so clicking the image above or the link at the bottom of this post will take you to my sister site, Uudders.

I’m sure the video will bring about more questions than answers, so don’t hesitate to ask away. A few notes:

* The game is played at a resolution of 1024 x 768 so the video didn’t turn out massive, which means the controls are a little cramped. The game supports any resolution a monitor can produce, so don’t worry about that.

* The text might be a little hard to see, but should be readable.

* Yes, these guys are firing weapons with no ammo. I didn’t think the combat video would be very fun if everyone was running out of ammo. :P

* Nothing in this video is final! Weapon damage, zombie strength, all that stuff is undergoing a lot of tuning!

Can’t think of anything else right now, but I’m sure things will come up. For now, enjoy the vid!

Zafehouse 2: Gameplay video #1 [Uudders]

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Captain Forever

Logan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:20:49 +0000

I somehow found my way to Captain Forever, a Flash-based, Asteroids-like shooter where you fly around building up your ship with bits of other ships. Well, that’s what I’ve inferred from the trailers and screenshots. It’s being developed by Jarrad Farbs, an ex-2K Games Australia employee.

Captain Forever doesn’t have much to do with either zombies or D&D, but it does share its core concept with my very own Block Shooter – that is, scavenging upgrades and parts and using them to build your ship in Lego fashion. I wrote Block Shooter over a year ago for my Game-A-Week feature on Kotaku AU, and while it wasn’t that great a game, it served as a solid, if basic, proof-of-concept. It’s heart-warming to see someone with talent and know-how came up with a similar idea and, by the looks of things, has executed it much better than I possibly could.

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Lifeless, the zombie TV series

Logan — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:28:46 +0000

Here’s the first five minutes of Lifeless, an upcoming TV series about everyone’s favourite rotting aberrations. I’ve watched a few of the trailers on the official site and, while I haven’t warmed to any of the characters, I think it has potential. It’s got a serious tone, which I like, as well as a low-key approach on the special effects and music – another good sign. There doesn’t appear to be a release date and the last bit of news I can find on it is from two months ago, but I’m seeing “2009″ tossed about enthusiastically. So who knows?

Lifeless isn’t the only zombie series in the works – there’s also the Frank Darabont adaptation of Image Comics’ graphic novel The Walking Dead, which looks like it’s gaining traction. In movie world, Zombieland, a ZomCom starring Woody Harrelson, is out soon and there’s always World War Z, tentatively dated for 2010. Here’s hoping J. Michael Straczynski can do a wonderful job of it… though I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t.

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Making Resident Evil 5 harder that it should be

Logan — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:28:12 +0000

This video (which looks to be one of a future many) is an attempt by myself and fellow designer Rob MacBride to review Resident Evil 5 – humour added where appropriate (or wherever the heck we pleased).

We were prepared for zombies. We were prepared for the axe-wielding crazy dude. We were more than prepared for the boob camera. What we were not prepared for was launching a split-screen multi-player game.

Watch. Enjoy. Comment.

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