Its a beautiful sunny day. The grass is green, the sun is shining and the birds are singing. But then in typical fashion when it comes to video games it all goes wrong. Your lovely day is ruined. What happens when your front lawn becomes overrun by Zombies ? What are you going to do ? Nothing. That's right Nothing !

Your lawn takes so much more pride in its self than your you ever could dream of and is ready to fight back in Plants vs. Zombies. Your front Lawn is hardcore From the Sun Flowers right down to those measly little mushrooms that seem to pop up from time to time.

I know I may be a little late to the party here with this one, but I just downloaded a demo yesterday and loved it. The game is what I would describe as a strategy defense game with mini games. You use your sun flowers to collect sun witch gives the energy you need to grow more plants to defend your lawn.

You have “pea” shooter turrets, walnuts that acts as a blockade defense and cherries that bomb multiple zombies at once (get it cherry bombs). Every level you unlock new weapons or defense seeds to grow in your garden. Once you have a full arsenal you can only choose to have a certain number of weapons to bring to the party so choose wisely . Every few levels or so the game throws some faster paced mini games at you to keeps things fresh. Brilliant I say !

This game is so much fun and so addictive that I'm going to delete the demo I downloaded yesterday and find a new one to download now (timed demo). I suggest checking the Link below and downloading the trail version yourself. Also checkout the video ICandee posted at her blog , its priceless. If this game isn't announced for the the 360 or at least iPhone by the time E3 comes, this my very well be the first ever PC purchase I make.

Pop Cap Games: Plants vs. Zombies

-TX

 

As I’m sure you may have noticed my other fellow adventurers have been taking a trip down memory lane lately by purchasing PS2’s. This is also kind of mind boggling  for me considering that they both always felt like they had more than enough games to play on one console.

Now enter my own need to head back to some gaming of the past. While I wouldn't mind picking a PS2 now that its just 99 bucks, I just know that I wouldn't put to much good use. But wait there's more !

After completing the Resident Evil 5 campaign I’m getting the itch for some more zombie hunting action. Now you see I've played my fair share of R.E. games, but have only completed games 4 and 5 in the series.

So I have this Wii thing that also plays Game Cube games. I knew it was good for something. I figure I have the console now I can go back and try and beat the R.E. game of the past that have gotten the best of me over the years. Now of course I’ll have to buy the Wii dual stick controller and scrape up a Game Cube memory card, but hey I’ve got the Wii already ….might as well put it to good use.

-TX

When I and my partners set up the Text Adventure blog, part of its mandate was to explore the games of our collection, be they old or new. Now as part of that vision I am going to start grabbing games from my collection and provide a quick glance at that game as well as adding some personal reflections on that particular title. The first instalment belongs to Dead Rising on the Xbox 360.

Time to take a trip back into my Xbox 360 collection. I have recently been infected with zombie fever! No, I am not turning into an undead monster, but rather I am enjoying the fiction that surrounds the genre of zombie horror. Two and a half years ago (has it been that long already?) Xbox 360 owners were treated to one of the best zombie games ever produced. Dead Rising put you in the shoes of photojournalist Frank West who finds himself in the middle of a zombie outbreak smack dab in the heartland of the United States of America. As a fan of Zack Snyder's recent Dawn of the Dead remake, DR captures the feel of that movie, yet ramps up the number of zombies and madness. The game also does add many humorous elements and also throws in some 'Pokemon Snap' style gameplay for good measure. I have not played DR rising in some time but it is one of the games I need to revisit as to get a better ending than the crappy one I produced. Another reason I would like to play DR again is to beat the game before its recently announced sequal arrives. On a related note, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop has recently been released on the Wii, but if you have to chose, be sure to play the 360 original. Enjoy this game and eat a brain! Dead Rising...is in my collection!

DEAD RISING

-SG

 

 

When the Resident Evil 5 trailer first debuted it caused a bit of racial tension. It seems that people were not happy that “Black” people were these evil zombies and portrayed as the “bad guy”. Never mind that the game was set in a fictional country in Africa where a terrible virus was being spread by some evil minds.

If you ask me right now if I think the game is racist Ill say NO ! Last night I was listening to the Listen.up podcast and after talking about the the RE 5 game they brought up the whole racial issue to debate. Now myself being a middle class white American of Italian decent not once was I ever upset that in RE 1-3  that mostly white people seemed to be evil zombies. Nor was I ever upset in RE 4 that European zombies  were the target of many of Leon's bullets. I don't remember Europe getting to upset over it either.

The participants in the podcast really dug to deep into the whole thing in my opinion. They really looked for anything to put some sort racial label on the game, even if they didn't believe that the games as whole was 100% “racist”.

I could go on forever as to why I don't believe that game is racist, but then I would just bore you I’m sure. I’ll say this ….. I can see how this game might offended a very small portion of people in the world, but I'm usually in favor of the term “the majority rules”. I live in New York, a place that is mixed with many people and cultures probably more then anywhere else in the world. I've seen it all when it comes to racism.

This post is 100% the opinions of myself Aaron Ferguson aka TormentX and should not reflect upon my fellow contributors to this blog. Thank You.

-TX

Everyday I walk to work, usually along the same streets. Recently I noticed a sign spray-painted onto the sidewalk. Now to the casual observer it may not be noticed at all or appear to be a rudimentary house-shape. But to someone who is keenly aware of what threat Zombies pose in today's day and age it is clearly an indication of a nearby safe house!

Now I have two projects. One, document the safe house sign. Two, find that safe house so that when the Zombie horde hits my city. Always be prepared, because duck-and-cover won't help you here!

Left 4 Dead

-SG