We obviously love games, but there are times we need a break, from the eyestrain and thumb blisters. Here's something everyone should check out, especially fans of survival horror/Left 4 Dead/RE. Be warned, people, this is a VERY MATURE book, but is also something anyone, within reason, can easily read and enjoy.

The Walking Dead is a superb ongoing zombie comic, written by Robert Kirkman, art by Tony Moore, then later on Charlie Adlard.

Set in the U.S, it all begins when the zombie apocalypse mysteriously happens, thrusting the world as we know it, into the meat grinder. What remains, are seas of walking dead, chaos and small pockets of uninfected survivors, scattered all over the place, trying to survive. No one knows the reasons of why this happened and every moment is a fight, to not get bit, find fuel, water and food, and outrun the shuffling hordes.





The story revolves around its main character, Rick, a cop who wakes up in hospital, after an incident during his shift, put him in a coma. In a very RE style way, by the silence and lack of medical staff attending, he soon discovers, things are not right and the adventure begins. Yep, there's no more room in hell, so the dead walk the earth. With zombies eating anything alive and no law and order in control, Rick seeks to track down those dear to him at all costs, namely his beloved wife Lori and son Carl, and hopefully find out why the world has hit the fan, along the way. What follows, is one hell of a rollercoaster ride, you will not want to put down. Its an epic tale of love, betrayal, tragedy, kick ass action, a chomping zombies aplenty.





As a story, its interesting to see how this plays out, as its really a story about people (with their pros, cons and baggage) trying to survive, in a weird situation. For all the years of watching zombie movies, I'm sure we've all dreamed of what we'd do in this kind of extreme situation. Strangely, not even a tv series has attempted to try this kind of apocalypse on screen, but that's only to the benefit of comics to do this. I'll not spoil it for you, beyond the above, because I think The Walking Dead is really something you have to experience for yourself. It also significant, in a comics industry overrun with too many super heroes and villians, that IMO, truly hold the comic medium back from what it really could be, something greater than its parts and something everyone can enjoy, not just the seasoned, comic shop loitering crowd. I guess the gears of positive are moving and that's a good thing.


The Walking Dead Compendium is now available to buy, which covers issues 1-58, into a spanking 1,088 pages. This is available in a limited run, (heaven knows why, but its obviously a silly comic reason). If you can't get this and hate fiddling with single comic issues, eight previous collected trade paperback volumes of The Walking Dead are also available. I highly recommend you Dtoiders check this series out, no matter your gaming/movie or book taste or whatever. Buy, tell your friends and lend it to them etc. Check amazon etc for prices.





Overall, its obvious I'll rate this highly, but to be honest, it deserves its accolades. The story is addictive, with characters of varying degrees, but overall brilliant and yet they're all expendable at the story's mercy. The art, while its changed hands and is in black and white, doesn't derail carrying the story, characters etc. And the icing on the cake, is that this is an ongoing series. More zombies, than you can shake a rotting limb at, await us.

Indeed, a superb, fun and clever series. Definite comic boner gold. Lucky for you people, you can now check out the first issue of The Walking Dead for free at the following link. Enjoy.

http://www.imagecomics.com/iconline.php?title=walking_dead_001&page=cover&resize=now

All this talk of Resident Evil's controls got me thinking, about other parts of the RE series that, didn't fly as well as they should have. Firstly, I'll agree that Capcom can tweak the controls for the future of RE, but not too much, to go down an FPS route.

Anyway, back on topic, RE games haven't all been good. The Gun Survivor series was an new FPS area for Capcom, at a time where they were still struggling with the change from 2d to 3d. While they are nice attempts to broaden the series, they fall flat in ways here and there. RE Outbreak also had its problems but that's a topic for another day.

You'll notice that there hasn't been a Gun Survivior game in some time (last one being on PS2), probably because they didn't sell as well as the main series and lacked a lot.

Now, Valve are masters of the FPS genre, and in a similar way to Capcom, have a great sense of community and also are create great games. In a post Left 4 Dead world, what if Capcom were to outsource the Gun Survivor series to Valve? Would making this series be more FPS than light gun, benefit those who have problems with RE5.

The thought of it excites. An east to west co-production of a now classic game series. Putting their heads together would surely create something epic, and bring it back from previous average to awful efforts.

The advent of 360 achievement points (and trophies too) has added a superb thing to gaming, and while many may bark at those, like myself that enjoy them, I can honestly say I finish more games now because of them and the fun of any game.

One thing that has annoyed me though, is when I buy a superb game, only to later find out that the developers have not thought out and placed their achievements fairly throughout a game. Along side that it seems some developer don't bother to even put any thought into rewarding the players with them, placing the player to achieve what seems impossible at best, or a switch off bore at worst.

I 'd have to say, that the guiltiest parties of badly designed achievement placement at the moment, are some japanese developers, perhaps they still haven't gotten used to the concept yet. My hopes is that they do, because some of my coolest games have been spoiled by their lack of imagination and fairness in this area. Come on guys, show us you care enough.

I purchased DMC4 and while a fun game, it was spoiled by an odd save system (why it so hard to just let you save anywhere is beyond me, Capcom) and unforgiving achievement rewards. While it might mean little in japan, achievements need to be either planned out properly, and to not do so and release a game is quite annoying.

Has anyone had these kinds of problems with achievements, that they have just given up in frustration, or does the difficulty spur you on further? What games did you experience such frustrations with the most or least? And do you thiink those jap developer will ever get there achievement to be as good or inventive as western developers?

Sony recently were bleating about wanting more games on PSP, naturally being disappointed about the situation. I feel its good that they are coming out and saying so, but such news bites require actions to have effect.

Anyway, I've decided to put my oar in, and give Sony some ideas, to help make the PSP more successful. This post will be in two sections, the first relating to games that should be on PSP, and the second relating to aps and extras that the PSP could have over the competition.

More Arcade Ports with online play, via possible download: Note most of these are quick fix games, and with arcades on the demise, the only other place these will appear now, is online or in game compilations.

Scud Race
Motoraid
Daytona USA
Street Fighter 3rd Strike
Rage of Dragons
Martial Masters
Xmen: Children of the Atom
Xmen VS Street Fighter


Being able to access online radio, record and playback via PSP. This is another angle that PSP could trump iPod on. I heard Apple recently refused an ap for Ipod, which would allow it to access online radio via wi-fi, a really stupid move IMO. If Sony were smart they'd look to exploit that, and really should sell the internet online radio aspect of PSP over iPod touch and iPhone. Online radio is the future.


DivX support. As a buyer of a lot of anime, this is one constant problem for PSP, lack of Divx/Xvid support. What's really odd is that Xbox 360 and PS3 supports it, so PSP should have no trouble at all. Using aps like PSP Video 9 to convert files is a dragged out exercise, which leads me to not bother converting any files to play on my PSP. That might seem cool from Sony's viewpoint (because of UMDs), but there are plenty of other portable media players out there that do support DivX. Movies are cool, but stuff from tv, like big sports events you can't buy.


Lastly, is the addition of trophies for PSP games. If it were possible to give all PSP games trophy support, the same as PS3 or with its own account, its very possible that such trophies could help PSP sales. It would be like the Live Achievements all over again. You could then view your accounts online. There were some whispers of this idea 08', but don't wait to long, Sony, as its possibly this one thing, could raise PSP game sales and yet save the PSP. So suprised they haven't done this yet, even if you shared a PS3/PSP account.

Focused group effort = more win.


I jumped across to gamepolitics.com and found this news post, concerning more bullshit in the land of Australia. It appears the muppets of their ratings board has band Fallout 3, upon the lame excuse of the game depicting drug taking. Follow the link. http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/07/10/report-australia039s-fallout-3-ban-prompted-game-drug-use#comments

Once again, this is the double standard nature of the ratings board and aussie government, who still refuse to enforce an new R18 category for games. The true reason for this perhaps lays in pressure from the established media of film, when in truth they would also surely benefit from such a new rating in the end, as it may eventually trickle down to film too (feel free to correct if wrong).




Films about drugs or drug taking are okay.

Has any of the australian government seen films like Blow, which I'm sure is still on sale in australia. Drug taking/selling/dealing has been depicted many times and has been prevalent in films for many years. The question l'd be asked why is it okay for films and not games. I'm not buying that 'because you can do it in games' jibe excuse, because in all these games with such depictions, the player can't get high or feel the effects of the taking. If the player can't get high, and can only visually see the drugs onscreen and possible effects, how is this any worse than films?

I really think australian gamers should step up, grow some balls and stop this rubbish from happening. Australia is one of the largest nations on the face of the planet, which should account for a hell of a lot of adult gamers, who for too long have been treated like children (because only children play games, don't they?). Only they can break this vicious cycle.

I believe in response to not letting the australian government thought police get away with it, aussie gamers must unite and take them on. I'm surprised that none of them have got together already, especially with the power of the internet, to combat the ratings menace that plagues their past time.

If aussie (and new zealand) adult gamers love their games enough, I feel they should be doing the one thousand gamer march to their government parliament building and make their voices heard. Throw in some media coverage and it would be a stewing pot of unexpected trouble for the powers that be. I guess its all about how badly gamers down under want it. Keep pushing and you'll get what you want. I'm sure the ESA would help out in order to get thing rolling.



Perhaps you'll have to hire Snake, to get your copy of Fallout 3 into Australia.

Another interesting part of this saga is the australian government also trying to cut the importing angle in an effort to stop gamers second means (good luck with that, when has it ever worked). Hope they have enough manpower to handle it. I'm sure many will still brave this avenue than miss Fallout 3 altogether.

Do you want it enough, gamers down under? I pray this post will ignite the passionate spark in any aussie/new zealand gamers out there and get them to act. Only then will any change happen. A one thousand or million gamer march would really be something (wishful thinking perhaps). I'll refrain from convict island and prison bending over jokes, once you gamers unite and fight back.

Feel free to add your opinions.


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I frequently visit 1up.com, as well as mighty Destructoid, and thing only thing that pisses me off about their website is the Gamevideos service. Good video shows and clips shown in tiny boxes. Come on 1up, while Game Videos are okay but their service leaves a lot to be desired next to Gametrailers.

Gametrailers design is more appealing and less confusing to use, compared to Gamevideos yellow n black mess too. So I'll throw it open to you guys, which do you prefer to use when new trailers are out?