[Zombie Tuesday] This may be your last night on earth…

The sun is setting.  Zombies have taken over the gym. Your closest friend has already joined the zombie horde. If only you could find that last gas can so you can blow all the zombies to bits…before its too late.  With nothing but a worn out baseball bat you charge, once again, into thick of… brraaaaaaiiinnns….

The Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game is a semi-co0perative board game version of all those cheesy zombie movies, with a bunch of students and strange adults trying to escape from the slow lumbering zombies.  This game has a heavy luck component so, while there is a small amount of strategy involved, the luck plays such a large factor, that you might as well sit back and enjoy as the zombies are annihilated or the heroes are ripped to shreds.

[Zombie Tuesday] When zombies attack

Welcome to my zombie Tuesday post : When zombies attack or rather Lessons learned from film and tv I look at scary movies as really expensive service announcements as what not to do in those situations, so here follows zombie survival tips gather from movies.

The number one zombie survival tip to follow:

• When you find all those other plucky people hoping to survive the attacks always make sure that you can outrun at least one of the gang. It really doesn’t matter what you do, just as long as you’re faster than Jane over there.
  • And remember you never, ever go back for that slow poke.

The other lessons and tips you can pick up from those costly tv and film mistakes are:

• Don’t trust your neighbours. Sure you think it’s a safe little community, but don’t be dumb and leave your doors unlocked so that the kid next door – now a zombie – can just wander in and attack you and your significant other.
• When the kid bites your loved one, locking yourself in the bathroom and crying is just dumb, especially if you have tiny windows and might not get out. Grab the car keys and get out of there.
• Don’t drive to work or the centre of town, get out-of-town avoiding the main roads…don’t forget to keep the radio on.
  • Don’t forget to keep a cricket bat or hockey sticky in the boot.
  • Don’t take your beloved dog with you, it’ll only get you killed later….same for anyone faster than you.
• When you find other survivors, scope out the slowest one and make him/her your best friend.
• Don’t camp out in a mall/bank/pub, that’s just dumb.
  • Pick up supplies and just keep on moving. Staying put in a mall or bank or any other big building that you all think you can defend, will be your downfall.

And lastly chainsaws are your friend.

-pb

[Zombie Tuesday] There is a zombie on your lawn!

Welcome, Welcome. Welcome to the first instalment of the tenletter Zombie Tuesday. Zombie Tuesday is a tenletter attempt at posting something about the adorable abominations known as the undead, which include, but are not restricted to, the brain munching decomposing deceased known as zombies.

To prove that zombies are not the only the stuff of B-rate monster movies, I kick off this Zombie Tuesday with the cutesy Plants vs Zombies pc game from the dark overlords at Pop Cap.  For those that don’t know, the evil conglomerate that is Pop Cap specialize in small made-my-garage/basement  type of games (but with the polish that only loads of money can bring).  These games are generally what one would consider small ball-bouncy pretty puzzley games. So why do people want to buy these instead of a main stream 3D shoot ‘em up?  Because they are highly addictive and fun and easy to play.  Plants vs Zombies is no exception….

zombie night tonight

Left 4 Dead is a great zombie game. It’s easy to pick up and play (even for FPS newbies), but can still provide a challenge for seasoned gamers. I really enjoy the ambiguous backstory,  simple replayability and team work dynamics of the game and its 4 zombie apocalypse survival scenarios.

Best of all though, both Valve and fans can and probably will be releasing additional scenarios. With thinking cap on head, I have come up with the following zombie survival scenarios I’d like to see made for the game:

Blast Off: The only safe place left on earth is… outer space!

The Last Free Man: Freedom is only one resonance cascade away.

Now, can we grow this list even more? Remember, each scenario in the game currently revolves around the survivors getting to an evacuation zone and then holding out until help arrives. Also each scenario has a cheesy movie-esque name and tagline. Anybody willing to share their scenario ideas?

Smurfette, a fascist?

For a funny take on the Smurfs go here.

Strike Two

Sadly, no review this week.  This is partially due to Board Game Geek being down and partially because work has piled up and deadlines are looming…

Have many more reviews to do and I hope work will calm down for them next week.

Until then:  BRAINS

World End?

I think foo may be sick this day… or the zombie apocalypse has come to the Western Cape of South Africa without the rest of us knowing about it yet. So, he’ll be missing his normal Wednesday morning post today.

no monk is good monk

Sometimes real life work, studies and Guild Wars gets in the way of you developing your own d20 class. There’ll be no new monk developments this Tuesday, but to make up for it, I present you with a zombie meme:

You are in a mall when the zombies attack. You have:
1. one weapon.
2. one song blasting on the speakers.
3. one famous person to fight alongside you.

Weapon can be real or fictional, you may assume endless ammo if applicable. Person can be real or fictional.

Yes, the entire interweb is doing this one now. Here’s my take on it:

1: A combat shotgun – preferably one that can be used as a club if needs be.

2. A horse with no name – America

3. Sir David Frederick Attenborough – to narrate the awesomeness.

Zombie Apocalypse Preferred Weapons List

My brother got married this weekend past; I was best man. So, I didn’t have much time to tweak more monk numbers and that’s why I’m taking a cop-out and just listing the top 3 weapons I’d prefer in a zombie apocalypse.

1. Baseball/Cricket bat (+ grenades, if available)

2. Hyundai Atos Prime

3. A box of LP records

This ain’t no 4e review

Durban might be one of the worst places, in South Africa, to get some good ol’ fashioned pen(cil) and paper role playing fun. The bulk of the Durban players here are either apathetic or extremely insular, clique-ee and xenophobic. The rest of the Durban players don’t live here anymore. Having recently moved to Durban, I’m still an unclean outsider.

To make things worse, the one and only game store in this ‘metropolis’ does not support the gamers here. The store is not motivated to run events or get involved in ways other than mere retailer. Thus, I didn’t get to play any 4e this weekend. Sad face.

Coupled with this, one of my group of players has a family emergency happening right now in Johannesburg, and so will not be able to play again until July. Trying to find just one more player in Durban is extremely difficult.

So, I won’t be writing a full review of 4e just yet. I’m going to wait until I actually get to play it before commenting. I do, however, have plans for the first session I’d like to run: Minion rules = awesome level one zombie apocalypse survival horror adventure. I think the fact that minions only have 1 hitpoint lends itself nicely to the fact that zombies can only be stopped via headshot. Failing to hit the zombie AC doesn’t mean that you missed horribly or stabbed yourself in the foot, but rather that you hit the zombie, but either not in the head or hard enough in the head.

BRAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS!!!!

-j