Xbox 360

You'll have to forgive me for the unimaginative headline on this post. There are only so many inventive ways to title a story on zombies and I think after covering the undead for over a decade I've run out of cool ones.

Konami's Zombie Apocalypse is now available for download and was the most downloaded title on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. You'd think that would be good enough for Konami, but it's not. They think there are still some of you out there who haven't splurged for a copy of the game and indulged in its Smash TV-esque wholesale zombie genocide. To entice you to pay your money and take the ride, they've released a new trailer for the game–one that basks in the gory glory of the experience of taking out hordes of flesh eating monsters in satisfyingly violent ways.

Can you survive the zombie apocalypse for 55 days, spread over seven different environments? It'll cost you $9.99 or 800 Microsoft Points to find out.

The world of video games is no stranger to inconceivable, bizarre, and at times downright irresponsible marketing.  Most recently, gamers were shocked by Electronic Arts' reprehensible "Sin to Win" promotion for Dante's Inferno. Now, Namco has decided to unleash a series of odd and, quite frankly, dangerous "viral" advertisements for the upcoming game Tekken 6.

As would be expected of any comic-to-game adaptation, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 does not entirely replicate the storyline, but it does a surprisingly good job of recreating the key allegorical events: the attack on New York City, the atom bomb-like explosion in Stamford, and the escalating violence between the two factions of superheroes. While the game changes much of the end of the storyline, opting to have the two sides unite against a sentient virus and removing Captain America's poignant surrender and subsequent death-by-assassination, it still conveys important truths about what it means to surrender freedom for the sake of fear, and why even the seemingly powerful are so eager to give up their rights.

I haven't posted anything about Sega's upcoming Alien vs. Predator game in awhile, but that changes today. Here's the latest trailer for the title, this one featuring a distinctively Alien perspective. The trailer looks good–now let's all cross our fingers and hope the finished game not only features decent graphics, but is actually fun to play as well.

I finally got around to downloading my first title direct-to-PSP. Considering how smoothly it went, I'd have to say that Sony was completely smoking drugs when they decided to come up with the Go. Although I performed the process on one of the original UMD-compatible models, if it's even remotely analogous, then their new download-only handheld is sunk before it's even started.

Electronic Arts' been cool enough to share another new Developer Diary for their forthcoming action game Dante's Inferno. This one is entitled "Anger", and as you might have guessed, it's all about how Dante will bring the pain to Hell's minions.

I'll let the clip speak for itself, but the crew behind the game spends roughly five minutes talking about Dante's Death Scythe melee weapon, how they came to choose it over a more traditional sword, and the benefits of the Cross magic combat system. Interspersed with that is a lot of gameplay footage to whet your appetite.

No, I Haven't Heard Of Substance. Why?

HIGH Sliding into a wallrun into a dive and scoring five headshots in the process is as cool to watch and perform as it sounds.

LOW "Learning" how to use a shotgun for the third time.

WTF Seriously? You put the plot twist in the manual?

So I finally got around to playing half an hour of Halo 3: ODST last night, and while I'm not planning to write a review of it any time soon, I wanted to comment on the weird experience I had with the game.

I was playing a friend's game, so I just sort of dropped in medias res, and had no idea what was going on plot-wise, so I'm not going to bother commenting on that aspect. What I will say is that for the first fifteen minutes of my playtime I had a blast. So much fun that I couldn't remember why I'd hated Halo 3 as much as I did (by which I mean "not really that much at all").

My 360 RROD'd yesterday, bringing my grand total to three Microsoft console deaths. Even the PS1 (known for its failures in the early models) never died as often as the 360, making it the most fail-prone console in history. I mean, going through four units in one generation? Come on. The result? No 360 titles for my son while he's here and my review schedule just went out the window.