If you're a fan of all things epic and destruction then you most likely enjoyed games in which you could slow down the playing field and kill any and all enemies in the immediate area. The specific game that comes to mind is FEAR. The game had the great feature of crazy cool AI. If you restarted a level or reloaded from a save point, it would rearrange the NPCs in a different way each time. This made it so that no two encounters were ever the same. Add in some slow-mo and melee attacks and you have yourself an entertainment gold mine. If you played through the game once and then replayed it, you'd have a good idea when to save prior to a major fight.




Once you have yourself a big battle, next all you need are some bad ass guns. For example, a shotgun and a rifle that turns living people into physics-painted skeletons with electricity running through them. Some options are if you get the drop on them to slide kick in on one, shotgun-liquefy another and go on a blood fueled laser killing spree.



Other fun things to do include throwing a grenade, slowing down time, and shooting it when it’s hovering only a few feet from their faces. The AI will also offer you some fun moments as it tries to, and sometimes succeeds at, flanking you while receiving cover fire for it’s friends. This is always a fun surprise cause it often leads to a slow mo jump kick to the face or a giant nail to the face. Either way, violent things happen to their face. In case you don’t have the laser gun, there is always the nail gun. If you hit enemies just right it will nail them to walls, furniture, or practically anything else. If you are lucky, you’ll stick them to something that leads to a hilarious physics-breaking dance.

Then again if shotguns and nail guns aren’t your style there are the ever fun gatling and grenade launcher-esque weapons to reap havoc with. Walking into a room full of enemies, slowing down everything, and letting loose a tidal wave of bullets on everything in the immediate area is a great way to take off some stress.

Even if you don’t like the story or characters, which is understandable, messing with the slow motion and physics is worth the 20 bucks for the stand-alone expansion at least. I’m looking forward to some slow motion giant robot destruction in the upcoming sequel.

I love blowing things up. From the time I shot a bottle rocket out of my mouth (and subsequently vomited up soot for five minutes), to leveling an entire city in the horribly enjoyable piece of Xbox trash, Earth Defense Force 2017, I've been captivated by destruction. On instance in my videogaming history stands out above all else.

We all remember storming the beach in the original Halo level, The Silent Cartographer. Needles flying, blocky graphics chugging along, and our pistols sniping enemies from 400 yards out, it was the D-Day of 2002.




While wasting time on the beach, I noticed that frag grenades lying on the ground exploded when another grenade detonated next to them. The gears started turning in my destructive mind. Here was my plan:

While playing co-op, kill all the marines on the beach. When the Pelican drops the Warthog off, park it on the edge of the ocean, and have one player stand near its bumper. The other player shoots him to death, thus dropping the first player's grenades beneath the warthog. When that player respawns, have him pick up the dead marines' grenades and repeat the process until there is a hefty pile of 'nades under the 'hog. All that remains is to toss a single frag beneath the vehicle and watch as the warthog turns into Hiroshima. It flies miles out to sea, never to be seen again. That is, until you restart the level.




-- Ryan "Pizzajam" P.

Final Fantasy games have always been known for their amazing presentation, storytelling, and characters. But if it's one thing that fans get the most nostalgic for, it's the unparalleled musical score by Nobuo Uematsu that has solidified Final Fantasy as one of the most flawless series in gaming history. I'd like to count down through some of my own most memorable songs from the series, many of which have stayed with me even more than 15 years after originally playing most of the games. Even the older songs from the Super Nintendo days have incredibly staying power and still sound great even by today's standards. Not only did I pick the songs based on their musical merit, but also how much they added to the scenes they played in. So without further ado, here are my choices for the top 10 songs from the Final Fantasy series:


10. Final Fantasy VI's "Aria Di Mezzo Caraterre" - Celes' swan song during her opera performance. Not only a beautiful scene, but a beautiful song even despite its MIDI-voice track looking back on it today. This is one of the most remembered scenes from Final Fantasy VI, and it's all thanks to this gorgeous song.




9. Final Fantasy VIII's "Waltz for the Moon" - I still maintain that FF8 had the best cut scenes and music out of any other Final Fantasy game, and when Squall and Rinoa waltzed their way across the dance floor to this song for the first time, it wasn't hard to see that this game was about to unravel an amazing love story unlike any preceding game in the series. It was a romantic song accompanying a cut scene that really helped establish Squall as a well-rounded, even awkward leading man.



8. Final Fantasy VI's "Dancing Mad" - The final boss music for the epic, tiered battle with Kefka. This song shows some of the first traces of the almost funky, frantic synth tracks that would show up in later games in the series, and fit in well with Kefka's insane character. A fitting song for one of the series absolute best villains.




7. Final Fantasy IV's "The Dreadful Battle" - When this song starts during the boss battles with the four elemental fiends, you know you're in for a tough fight. The song is menacing and as in-your-face as a MIDI song could be for 1992 and an amazing example of how ahead-of-their-time Uematsu's compositions were and continue to be.




6. Final Fantasy X's "To Zanarkand" - The opening song to the first entry on the Playstation 2, "To Zanarkand" really sets the game off on a strong foot. It's a haunting piano ballad that perfectly captures the emotion of the story's troubled world and characters. Seriously one of the most beautiful and powerful songs in the entire series.





5. Final Fantasy VI's "The Decisive Battle" - This song made every boss fight just a little more awesome. The riff for this song is impossible to get out of your head and sounds just as good today as it did 14 years ago when the game first hit US shores. This is one song that has stuck around and continues to be one of the most popular boss songs in the series.





4. Final Fantasy XII's "Clash on the Big Bridge" - This Final Fantasy staple originally showed up in Final Fantasy V during the battle with Gilgamesh on the big bridge. Amazing back then, Final Fantasy XII improved it with a full orchestra for Gilgamesh's cameo in the game. This song is one of the most loved in the entire series, and a perfect fit for the quirky fan favorite Gilgamesh.




3. Final Fantasy VII's "One Winged Angel" - The one song that needs no introduction to the majority of Final Fantasy fans around the world. You've heard that Final Fantasy VII revolutionized not only RPGs but the game industry in general, and the capabilities of the Playstation's CD format helped usher forward cutting edge graphics and, just as importantly, high quality music tracks. This song was one of the first fully-orchestrated songs in the series and in videogame history and set the standard for epic boss music for all time to come. As the quality of graphics and cutscenes was something players had never seen before at the time, so too was this song, and it remains as one of the most memorable and loved songs of any game. A perfect song for one of the most twisted and popular villains of all time.





2. Final Fantasy VIII's "Liberi Fatali" - The opening theme accompanying the absolute best beginning cutscene from any RPG in my opinion. Final Fantasy VIII's soundtrack and amazing cutscenes were a huge evolution from what Square learned from FF7, and this was an extension of the successful orchestral composition first seen with "One-Winged Angel." This song fuses together everything that makes Final Fantasy games great from a sense of wonder to the heart-pumping intensity of battle, and as a result it's one of the most well-crafted and intricate songs of the series. It really helps to pump you up just listening to it especially as the drums kick in, the vocals hauntingly sing the Latin lyrics, and the horns crescendo. Truly a masterpiece of a song and opening scene.





1. Final Fantasy VI's "The Fierce Battle" - Perhaps a controversial number 1 pick, but this song shines as the absolute best boss music from any game. As the song for Atma Weapon, it perfectly establishes the tension and struggle on the floating island before it falls and destroys the world. This song gets your toes tapping and your adrenaline flowing for one of the most memorable battles in the series, and hard to describe as anything besides "totally badass."





So there you have it, the top 10 Final Fantasy songs! There are absolutely tons of great songs from every entry in the series that just missed the list, as the entire collection of Final Fantasy games are known for their flawless soundtracks. If I included other Square titles, Chrono Trigger and Xenogears would have placed highly on the list as well, but these are my absolute favorites from my favorite series of all time.

-Scott "Riot" Underwood

We got to see a lot of interesting skins during the election campaign that lasted for forever. I thought it was all pretty cool, but we missed some cool possibilities for other presidential ass kicking opportunities in games.So some friends and I were talking at a lan center while playing Left 4 Dead. One of us, can’t remember who, related the only black character (Louis) to Barack Obama. Which then led to me saying (playing as Bill) “Well if he’s Barack Obama, does that make me John McCain?” From there it spread to this:

Louis: Barack Obama
Bill: John McCain
Zoey: Sarah Palin
Francis: Joe Biden

The resemblance is almost preset or something. After that it went on to say that:

Boomer: Bill Ayers
Witch: Hillary Clinton
Tank: Ron Paul
Hunter: ? [Editors pick: Janet Reno]
Smoker: ? [Editors pick: might as well just be Gene Simmons]

Mcain would start with the m16, Palin would start with the hunting rifle, Biden would get the auto shotgun, and Barack will change zombies back into regular dead bodies with his melee attack.
Instead of health packs you’d pick up reform packages and instead of pipe bombs you’d throw tax cuts or something. Still haven’t figured out anything for the Molotov or pills yet.


What other election mods would you have liked to have seen?

--Ryan T

GameZombie, your friendly neighborhood forum lurkers, scours the Internet in search of the best posts to the hottest gaming news topics of the week.

In this Episode:
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2. Valves Steam Cloud continues the company's innovative reputation by providing the ability to save all of your personal settings on an outside server.

3. A study out of Iowa State claims that playing violent video games increases aggression.

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10. Conker



Who doesnt love this furry little Squirrel? This lewd and uncouth little squirrel gallivants around the world hitting on women, getting drunk, peeing on sedimentary rock creatures, and bouncing on the voluptuous breasts of a sunflower. No youre not on an acid trip. Youre playing Conkers Bad Fur Day If you havent played yet, go get it now alright?

9. Leon Kennedy



Leon Kennedy was basically a shoe-in for the top ten list. We are GameZombie We kill ZombiesHe kills Zombies Shoe-In. This BAMF tore it up in Resident Evil 2, and then reached God status in Resident Evil 4. Were proud to have Leon Kennedy on our top ten list. God Speed fellow Zombie Killer.

8. Samus Aran



This is a baaaad girl right here. Shes a bounty hunter that could give Boba Fett a run for his money and her games are quite addicting. She was one of the first female protagonists in videogames and she showed that girls in games could be cool. She also inspired plenty of 8-bit fapping with the ending of the first Metroid.

7. Sonic



This little hedgehog had some sweet moves on the Sega Genesis. He spun around and did flips all over the place and was never dizzy. With over 15 years of franchise life spanning video games, TV, and comic books, Sonic was an easy choice for this list.

6. Mega Man X




Definitely one of my favorite gaming series growing up. Mega Man became more awesome than he has ever been in the X series. Getting the X gear and pimp out Mega Man made the hero that much more bad ass. This game was also very difficult which you dont really see that much anymore in new video games. Im hoping for an XBOX 360 version well see


5. Solid Snake




Most of his enemies never even see him coming. Theyre dead and on the ground before they even know what happened. His tactics and strategy are something of legend, and Metal Gear Solid has become one of the only reasons to buy a Playstation 3. I think hes cooler than James
Bond What do you think?

4. Cloud Strife



Vanquished Sephiroth What more can I say to you? Hes the definition of a hard ass. A lone wolf whos always reluctant to the call of duty, but never turns it down. So after breeding chocobos, hooking up with both the girls in the game, seeing his girl get Sephiroth shanked in the back, defeating Jenova 3 times, defeating Emerald AND Ruby weapon, and then killing Sephiroth with Omni-slash what does Sqauresoft do? Make a movie and 3 more games about him. Thats how cool this guy is.


3. Mario



This boys come a loooong way from jumping over barrels in Donkey Kong. Homeboy made Nintendo what it is today. After a truckload of games of jumping through pipes, riding dinosaurs from the Mesozoic era, jumping on psychedelic shrooms, battling Bowser and Wario, getting a brother and giving him an inferiority complex, and of course saving the damsel in distress (and only getting a pie for it and not the good kind of pie).

2. Link



Like the tales of olde most of his stories start out when hes just a young boy. He must go on a journey to claim a magical sword that will help him defeat evil. Then he has to go defeat the evil wizard tyrant and save the damsel in distress. For such a simple and almost clich plot, Link is one of the coolest characters that the consoles have ever seen. I mean look at him. No one rocks the green spandex like he does. Hes the embodiment of the tri-force; power, courage, and wisdom. He stands up without fear against every enemy hes pitted against, and always comes out on top. His tale is a tale as old as time, and were honored to have him on GameZombies Top Ten list of video game heroes.

1. Aeris



Now calm down. I know a lot of you are going to have problems with this number one pick, but I dont care. Theres no one who can touch her on top 10 lists, and it upsets me that I havent seen her on any other lists of this nature. Lets break it down she started out as a lowly flower girl in the slums, and by a twist of fate she becomes a martyr. She sacrificed herself to pray for Holy and stop Meteor. When Meteor failed she became one with the life stream and stopped it. While many will point to Cloud as the badder-ass hero, she sacrificed herself to save the world and everyone in it. Pretty good for a flower girl from Midgar Sector 5, huh?