ZombieChatter.com

I don’t have an Android phone.  I’m more of an iPhone type of guy.  However, this “Zombie Outbreak” app for the Android has me giving the Adroid a second look.

According to Gizmodo.com:

Pixel Zombies Live Wallpaper, now available for $1 in the Android Market, simulates a zombie outbreak on your phone: The red dots are zombies, the blue dots are zombie hunters, and the green dots are the doughy citizens whose brains the zombies are nom-nom-noming.

You can set the population paramaters of the groups yourself and track how they’re faring in real time. Dropping an icon acts as a nuclear bomb, leveling the playing field.

This is pretty cool if you ask me.  Using your wallpaper to actually have an on-going zombie game seems like it could be on-going simple fun, and is a testament to how more open the Android is when compared to the iPhone.  Don’t worry fellow iPhone friends, I’m not switching anytime soon, but think this is worth calling out all the same.

Capcom has announced that Raising Dead 2, the new Zombie video game set for release on August 31st,2010 in North America, will be have a brand new online co-op mode for the game’s campaign!

This sequel to Dead Rising follows Motocross champion Chuck Green who has signed on to participate in “Terror is Reality,” a gruesome game show that dares contestants to survive zombie-filled environments for the delight of TV audiences around the globe.  As you can guess…..the zombie’s escape.

According to their site:

Co-op play is introduced to the Dead Rising universe for the first time as players can invite their friends to partner up with them at any time to take on the zombie massacre- tag-team style! Play with a friend and have even more fun as you lure zombies in using strategic items like a toy helicopter or a firecracker. Once the zombies have gathered, your friend can rain bullets from above or shoot at a strategically-placed gas tank to create a deadly explosion that will take out masses of the enemy. Killing zombies with a friend is always more fun!

All I can think of is Left 4 Dead….  Will this be able to hold  a candle to the mother of Zombie Survival Co-Op?  I certainly hope so, especially since it will be available on the PS3 – something that I can’t say for L4D.

Here is the trailer: – Enjoy

This is really cool. I never knew that the gameboy and other game consoles could be used as instruments.

I love it when old people start cursing.

Big Trouble in Little China is likely one of my favorite campy action movies of all time. Directed by John Carpenter in 1986 and starring Kurt Russell, this movie quickly moved into cult following status.   

For those of you not familiar, the movie follows Jack Burton, played by Kurt Russell, a tough-talking, wisecracking truck driver who suddenly finds himself deep beneath San Francisco’s Chinatown, in a murky, creature-filled world ruled by Lo Pan, a 2000-year-old magician who mercilessly presides over an empire of spirits. Dodging demons and facing baffling terrors, Jack battles his way through Lo Pan’s dark domain in a full-throttle, action-riddled ride to rescue the girl.

Anyway, my ode to Big Trouble in Little China comes in the form of a “video game.”  You see, during the big fight scene at the end of the movie, the two wizards (good vs. evil) do battle.  Only they do it virtually in one of the first street fighter type virtual hologram fight scenes I ever saw as a kid.

I give you Egg Shen Vs. Lo Pan

The future of gaming? Either that or the machines are rising as we speak.

As you all know I was very exited about getting a chance to re-visit my glory days of gaming this weekend and tearing into Wii Punch-Out!!  After dealing with some advertising problems, I took Hanzo’s advice to rent the game this weekend, and then possibly buy it on Amazon, which would get me at the retail price of $49.99 for the combined price, but if I didn’t like it, I’d only be out the rental fee.

Well, as I’ve heard a good bit of you also played this weekend, the game is definately worth a play.

I started up in “career” mode, which is the same game play you’ll remember from the original MTPO game for NES.  Here, you play as Little Mac fighting his way through three circuits of fighters to become the heavyweight champion of the world.  There are 13 fighters you need to get past.  Many are familiar old faces.  And some are knew.  I never played “Super Punch Out,” so Bear Hugger and Aran Ryan were new foes for me to face…and the game also features a new fighter in the Disco Kid.  According to NintendoLife.com, there is also a mysterious 14th fighter you can get to, but I didn’t make it that far.  Apparently after you win the title, you go back and face all of the fighters again to defend your title.  But this time, they have learned from your previous beat down and present a whole new set of challenges.

The game play is pretty much the same as it was before.  You can opt to use the Wii-mote like the original NES controller to play, or you can hook up a nunchuck and swing away as you fight.  I opted for the nunchuck method and found it pretty entertaining and intuitive to use.  You apparently can also use the balance board to dodge punches, but I didn’t have time to test this functionality.

Most of the fighters have the same fighting styles as before, so you’ll easily fall into form as you face off Glass Joe or Don Flamingo.  Some of them have gotten a bit better…like Great Tiger (that Indian Dude that teleports)…He’s a beast.

Also, I found that some of the trick punches I used to use against players weren’t quite working like they used to.  I got creamed by Bald Bull by trying to punch him in the stomach during his bull charge.  Perhaps my timing is off?

One definate change in the game play is that now you can continue to progress in Career mode no matter how many losses you incur.  In the original MTPO, if you lost, you got a couple of rematches, and then were sent packing down the ranks to fight your way back to the opponent that you couldn’t beat.  This is not the case in the Wii reboot.  I’m not saying that I’m complaining, but I ended up squaring off against Super Macho Man with a record of 11-30.  Yeah, I got whipped 30 times.  What?

Speaking of getting whipped 30 times, it wasn’t until after I was whipped 27 times that I realized once you beat an opponent and unlock the next, you can go to practice mode and fight holograms of the fighters for practice.  This will help you learn more about how to attack them before officially stepping into the ring against them, and destroying your record like I did.

All in all, this game rocks.  I won’t have a chance to play it again before I have to return it to the rental store, but I’ll definately be making another title charge after I pick it up from AMAZON over the next week or so.

So I’m all pumped about getting the new Punch Out game for Wii.  I checked out the prices and saw that WalMart’s website has it for $39, and so does Amazon.

Tough decision between Amazon and WalMart, I thought, as I should just be able to run to WalMart and pick it up.  So, on Thursday, I decide to bypass Amazon to check out the local WalMart.

I hit up WalMart at about 7pm last night, and track down the game.  But, instead of my nice $39 price tag, I’m staring at $49.99.  WTF?  So while I’m waiting to talk with someone, I notice a WalMart website kiosk and double check the price.  $39…check.  In stock at this location … check.  No mention of $49.99.

I ask the teller when I can about the price difference, and they say that prices aren’t the same on the web and in the store.  In fact, he tells me that the prices could be different across all WalMart stores.

Hmm….so I decide to head home and check out the WalMart across town on my lunch break on Friday.  And I show up…and they have the game.  No price listed, so I have the clerk run the price.  $49.99.  Damn.  Then I ask her about the price difference, and she is clueless about this concept of a WalMart website.  How about we call a manager?

Manager arrives and I explain that I want to purchase this game, but I want to pay the $39 price listed on the website.  The $39 price that shows up in the product lightbox telling me that it’s in stock in this location.  No dice.  I get the same speech as the night before.

Then I try another tactic.  You see, WalMart lets you buy stuff online and pick it up at a store.  And, it’s only 97cents shipping.  So, theoretically I can buy it online, pick it up at the same friggin WalMart that sells the SAME GAME for $49.99, and walk out of the store with an extra $10 in my pocket!  How retarded is that?  But I ask, if I order this, do they ship it here, or do they pull it off of the shelf?  Through her very long story about how goods are actually received in the loading doc, and where they’re stored prior to making it out on the floor, I gather that they actually ship it there and I pick it up.  It’s not as simple as ordering it, they pull it, and I pick it up.

First off, how retarded is it that they have different prices online than in the store, when you’re checking the availability of that product online at the store you’re going to?!?  AND, why would you possibly ever buy something just from a WalMart store (unless you need it right then) when you could save 10-25% if you ordered it online and then just went to pick it up? 

Somebody at WalMart really needs to read QBQ.

And to make matters worse, I could have just ordered the darn thing on Amazon and probably received it on Saturday to play on Sunday and Monday!!  Anyone ordered anything from Amazon lately?  Don’t know if it’s the economy, but they’re free super-shipping deals say they’re supposed to get there in 7-10 business days, but I’ve been receiving things over the past 3 months within 2-3 days of ordering.  How’s that for customer service?

Perhaps I’m overreacting here over $10.  But, $10 is $10, and there’s just something about spending $50 on a game that makes me feel bad.  Who knows…I might still end up getting it and playing this weekend, but only because I noticed that Sams has it for $45.  That’d split the difference in costs…but then again, it’s still a WalMart company, and I might want to take my business elsewhere.

During the months leading up the birth of my child, I took a whole bunch of classes on how to be a father including how to raise your child, birth your child, give child CPR etc.  The one thing that every teacher kept telling us was “DONT SHAKE THE BABY.”  It actually got to be kind of humorous. 

Now, an application was made for the Iphone called “Baby Shaker.”  It’s been quickly pulled off of Apple’s App Store on iTunes.  However, according to this article on yahoo,  the “baby shaker” is a game:

that challenges players to “see how long you can endure” the “adorable cries” of a baby “before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!”When you can’t “endure” the baby’s bleatings anymore, you shake your iPhone/iPod Touch until the toddler (a “black-and-white line drawing,” according to the AP) goes quiet, complete with big, ominous “red X’s over its eyes.”

I’m sorry, but I must be a sick bastard because I find this hilarious.  It’s takes all those things you hear in class and throws it out the door….The guy who created this is either a genius or a psychopath.