Dead Island - In Retrospect

A trailer for Dead Island has been released, and those that have taken an interest have labelled it as "the best trailer of 2011" or some such variant of that statement.

But am I the only one that recognises this game from 2007?

Leipzig, Germany - 2007

Video Games | Dead Island | GC 2007 Trailer

Xbox 360 | PlayStation 3 | Nintendo Wii | PC Games

Our first glimpse at Dead Island came at the Leipzig Games Convention in 2007, with a brief 32 second video showing off lucious environments (that reminded me somewhat of Far Cry and Crysis) with an even more brief glimpse at a Zombie being held back with a crowbar.

Luckily, someone managed to get a quick word with one of the developers at the Games Convention, and here it is (it's in Polish, with subtitles):



Here we get a brief look at some gameplay, but the important information obviously comes from the mouth of the developer.

We're told that the storyline focuses on a couple that survived a plane crash into this tropical island.

There are 4 Objectives:

- Survive
- Find out what's going on
- Find your woman
- Escape the island

We are told that there will be factions that you can interact with, other survivors of this odd little outbreak. The dev describes Bandits and Military in particular, but makes mention of other groups of survivors to interact with or possibly join.

Gameplay wise, he states that it plays in First Person, but not like a typical FPS title. Weapons are rarely going to be guns, but instead could be a plank of wood ripped from a fence, or a crowbar, etc.

Little else is revealed in these two videos other than they're aiming for a 2008 release.

November 2007

Video Games | Dead Island | Multi-Layer Damage Demonstration

Xbox 360 | PlayStation 3 | Nintendo Wii | PC Games

Another video is released, this time showing off the multi-layer damage system that the developers have added to the game. Each enemy apparently has fully breakable bones, layers of muscles and skin, and they take real time damage.

Is any of this actually true? No idea, but it's what they say.

2008

So 2008 comes along, and people are getting a bit excited for this sandbox Zombie game. It's a dream come true, right?

Some screenshots are released, that a YouTube user has nicely gathered together for our viewing pleasure:



But 2008 comes, and goes...with no new footage and no game. Obviously it's been delayed.

What we can see in the screenshots, however, is that the real time damage does seem to exist. Whether or not it actually works is still left to our imagination, as we haven't seen it in action.

It is worth noting, however, that there does at least appear to be an ample supply of Zombie variants.

2009

New screenshots are released:



The Zombie variants are still there, which is good, but I'm seeing that same blonde zombie in a bikini in far too many stills. Slightly upsetting, but what can a developer really do to avoid that?

February 2011

And finally we're at today, with the original release date long forgotten by people that clearly aren't as sad as myself, and new information being revealed.

Below you can watch the new trailer, see new screenshots, and then watch the new trailer revealed in chronological order:

Video Games | | Dead Island NEW Screenshots

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

More Dead Island Videos

And there we have it. A slightly emotional trailer, no actual gameplay footage, and a lot of hype.

But, given the long development cycle of this game, is it really that bad that I'm let down by the lack of actual gameplay footage?

What's even worse is that I'm flciking through news articles at the moment, and being told that Dead Island has only just been announced. Why is this? Is the collective memory of Games Journalists and normal Journalists so bad that they can't even be bothered to check if the game existed beforehand?

I'm both let down and worried by this...

Also, there appears to be a tiny bit of controversy surrounding the new trailer [CLICKY], but I happen to agree with the writer of that blog.

There is an official website: [CLICKY]

And you can check out the Wikipedia page to: [CICKY]

So, what do you guys think?

Review - Fable: The Balverine Order

Albion has grown into an age of Industry and Science, the creatures of legend have been pushed to the side, and the last known Hero sits on the thrown growing older by the day...

Most of the people of Albion are certain that the time of Heroism has passed, that they remain within Legend, and are even uncertain as to whether the great deeds they are said to have done were even real in the first place.

Amongst the educated, it is agreed that creatures such as Balverines are pure Myth; exagerated tales of large wolves. Anybody that thinks otherwise is ridiculed or thought to be delusional.



Peter David's Fable: The Balverine Order takes place, as you may have guessed, within Lionhead's Fable universe. Set somewhen between the ending of Fable 2, and the start of Fable 3.

We follow the joint story of Thomas, a well off son of a merchant from Millfields, and James, his servant & best friend from Bowerstone.

At a very young age, Thomas survived an attack by a Balverine that nobody else is willing to believe in. This has lead Thomas to spend his days reading as many books as he can find that detail the lives of Balverines and many other magical creatures.

One fateful day, Thomas and James set out on a quest across Albion to find the Balverine that attacked him, and get revenge.

The adventure takes our characters through familiar Fable locations, and then out into unexplored territory (something that I hope is remedied in the next Fable game), progressing much like the characters of the games. Thomas & James gain access to weapons and information at a fair pace, with new characters getting introduced and then removed from memory in a matter of pages.

This is one fatal flaw with The Balverine Order. Having a book based on an RPG that can take many hours to complete is a hard thing to pull off, and this one only just manages to pull it off.

The storyline is fairly interesting, and certainly helps flesh out the world that Lionhead have created, though details remain sparse throughout the story so it doesn't contradict a decision made in your own game (though they do decide that the current ruler of Albion is a King, and not a Queen).

I may be feeling this way after being spoiled by the likes of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, but the detail is really lacking in some much needed areas. Locations that take them days to reach are skipped over in just a few pages, with the journey gaining more focus than anything else, and we are often introduced to characters that are described simply by how threatening they look.

Leaving the lack of detail behind, The Balverine Order does have a couple of things going for it.

For starters, the way the story is told to the reader is a fascinating case of a story within a story. We are introduced to an aging King of some distant region, or land, within Albion (not to be mistaken for the King of Albion) as he takes a leisurely stroll through the royal gardens. Whilst doing so, he bumps into a mysterious man who begins to talk to the King about Heroes, Magic, and Legend. The King takes a seat, and listens to the story of Thomas & James.

At various points throughout the book, we take a small rest and head back to the storyteller & King, and hear their thoughts on whichever harrowing situation the main characters are in. The way these scenes are written are fantastic, and often make up for the lack of detail elsewhere in the book.

Secondly, we are introduced to various storyline threads that hint at the future for the game series. The Balverine appearance in Fable 3 is partially explained, and we briefly witness the future of Hero-kind for the world of Albion.

All the seeds are there for this book to spawn a much better sequel, or perhaps a reference in a future piece of DLC for Fable 3, but as it stands the book is generally only worth reading if you have taken a genuine interest in, and liking to, the world of Albion, it's inhabitants, and the stories told within it.

Review - Zombie Apocalypse

A near future Britain has been hit hard by the economic downturn, unemployment has steadily risen, and the population is getting restless.

An increasingly authoritarian government has decided to celebrate the essence of British-ness by holding a party, all across London.

Much like the ill-fated Millenium Dome project, this party is designed to increase morale and bring employment levels up to a new standard.

Sadly, to complete this project, older areas of the city have to be unearthed and removed to make way for new construction...one of these areas is a church dating back to the years of the Bubonic Plague, surrounded by pits of the dead.

In digging up this ground, the British Government has unknowingly released what will soon become known as The Death, but is more commonly known as the...



So, yeah, that's the basic premise of Stephen Jones' Zombie Apocalypse.

It all sounds great on paper, and this is the main reason why I decided to buy the book when I found it going cheap in Waterstones. My love for Zombies, and my inability to find myself a copy of Mira Grant's Feed set me on a hunt for a similarly styled Zombie book.

Zombie Apocalypse came highly recommended by the staff at the store, and a quick flick through the pages lead to me to believe it was worth the price.

At this point, I'm probably giving off the impression that I was severely unimpressed by the book...but on the contrary, I found much of it to be an interesting read.

The book is written in a "mosaic" style, with various authors giving varying accounts on how the zombie apocalypse is spreading across the globe.

The interesting thing about it, and something that lead me to assosciate it with Feed, is that we don't just get to read the usual Diary entries, Police Reports, and medical Notes, we also get access to new social media. There are numerous accounts written in the style of a blog, or a twitter feed, and we even gain access to text message conversations.

The accounts start off in London, and then slowly spread out to the rest of the world; though it must be said that a good 3/4 of the book remain on British soil.

But sadly there are a few things that stop this book from being as great as it could have been.

First off, everything remains a bit haphazard as to just how these Zombies are created. Now, I know Romero gets away with that all the time in his films, but Romero never really tried to explain it. In Zombie Apocalypse, we're treated to numerous ways the virus is spread.

At first it appears as if it's fleas that are infected with the plague (and, quite possibly, something else), and these fleas remain with the corpses and keep them animated, but soon the fleas are completely forgotten and it is back to the traditional Bites, Scratches, and Blood. There are also numerous hints towards a more supernatural element to the contamination. It's all a little too confused to make it stick properly.

Secondly we have the differences in writing style. It is great that each author was able to give an individual voice to the various survivors, but at times it can feel a bit forced as characters begin to relate things to the reader that wouldn't naturally be brought into the conversation.

Some texts continue when they wouldn't, some entries give details in the wrong places, and it sometimes comes across as a bit forced, as if the writers knew they needed to reveal a specific plot point, but could think of no other way than pushing it onto the stage and letting it stand there awkwardly, out of place and in view of everybody.

And finally we get to the most depressing problem of them all.

I read this book in about three days, because I just could not put it down. It was great, it had such a serious tone. The book had managed to set up a type of Zombie that came across as truly scary at times, giving us the often ignored breed of the Intelligent Zombie. It felt very contemporary, with social commentary on everything from the current Economic Crisis, to the power & sway that Religion holds over certain countries. For hours I was enthralled by the possibility of reading a mildly more realistic Zombie book where umanity doesn't automatically win but is nearly (if not completely) wiped off of the face of the Earth.

Whilst, yes, the book had slipped in a few moments of humour it had done so without the loss of message or darkness. But then the ending came.

The final two entries in this book completely ruin the mood set up by all prior entries by introducing straight-cut comedy and lowering the apparently superior intelligence of the Zombies to that of low-level pun & innuendo.

Perhaps a better ending to the book would have been to leave the reader with small pockets of resistance, leaving us questioning whether the collection of stories was gathered by the now dominant Zombies, or the finally triumphant Human Race.

As it stands, a brilliant build up with a few flaws ultimately fails to make this book reach its full potential.