Back in 2007 a zombie FPS was announced called Dead Island. Well the game was never released for whatever reason but recently a full trailer has been posted for the game with a release date for sometime this year (an official date hasn’t been announced yet other than 2011) and from the new trailer and screen shots it looks awesome.

The player is drawn into the world of Dead Island on the brink of a mysterious epidemic that suddenly, and without warning, breaks out on the fictional island of Banoi. As a guest of the Royal Palms Resort, the player’s stay was supposed to be a dream holiday; a luxurious getaway to the beautiful beaches of a tropical paradise. But faced with the reality of a zombie apocalypse, there is only one thing left to do: survive.

This is Dead Island… a paradise to die for.

The game features first-person melee combat with 4 player co-op, weapon customization, RPG elements for character development and hordes of gruesome zombies (something we know you all love!) Dead Island will be available on the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. For more info, screen shots, etc. visit the official Dead Island website.

Brink is an immersive first-person shooter that blends single-player, co-op, and multiplayer gameplay into one seamless experience, allowing you to develop your character whether playing alone, with your friends, or against others online. You decide the combat role you want to assume in the world of Brink as you fight to save yourself and mankind’s last refuge. Brink offers a compelling mix of dynamic battlefields, extensive customization options, and an innovative control system.

Brink takes place on the Ark, a man-made floating city that is on the brink of all-out civil war. Originally built as an experimental, self-sufficient and 100% “green” habitat, the reported rapid rise of the Earth’s oceans has forced the Ark to become home to not only the original founders and their descendants but also to thousands of refugees. With tensions between the two groups growing, Security and Resistance forces are locked in a heated battle for control of the Ark.

The game features four class types, each with different traits and abilities, designed to promote teamwork. The first class, Soldier, can resupply teammates with ammo and carries high explosives to destroy key targets. The second class, Engineer, can buff their teammates’ weapons and can also place turrets at strategic locations. The third class, Medic, heals downed teammates and can also buff their allies’ health. The fourth class, the Operative, can hack objectives and perform acts of sabotage. Operatives can interrogate downed opponents to provide intel on enemy locations or disguise themselves and operate as one of the enemy.

Brink features full customization of your character and weapons. As you progress through the game and acquire more experience, you’ll have even more opportunities for customization.

Choose to fight through two complete story campaigns as either a member of the Resistance or Security. Experience these campaigns solo, co-operatively, or competively by taking your unique character online at any time you choose. Brink allows you to seamlessly move between single player, co-op with friends, and intense multiplayer action. Multiplayer takes the story online where you can play with up to seven other people (or AI bots) cooperatively as you take on the opposing faction or with up to 16 players competitively.

Brink uses the familiar shooter controls that you’re used to and adds a new feature: the SMART button. When you hold down the SMART button, the game dynamically evaluates where you’re trying to get to, and makes it happen. Whether you’re a seasoned FPS veteran or someone just getting started, you’ll be able to make more intelligent decisions during the fast-paced action with SMART.

Brink will be available on the XBox 360, Playstation 3, and Windows platforms.

For more information and videos visit the official Brink website at www.BrinkTheGame.com.

You USED to be a cheerleader, lawyer, doctor, etc., but NOW you are a zombie and these pesky humans keep trying to kill you. But why? All you want is some nice, delicious brains. They have plenty. Perhaps if you infected more humans, it wouldn’t be such a problem…

In Humans!!! you CHOOSE to be a zombie. You have some abilities due to your new found “state of being.” Other abilities are determined based on your “pre-zombie” occupation. Now your job is to wander around town trying to infect as many people as you can. You know, to help with your cause!

I’m a huge fan of the Zombies!!! games so when I heard Twilight Creations was coming out with a new game where you actually get to play as the zombies I was pretty geeked. I contacted Twilight creations about the game and they were awesome enough to send me a copy of Humans!!! to play and review.

Humans!!! has the same style of play as Zombies!!! but with different rules on movement and combat and new winning conditions. Each character zombie has a point value on their corresponding character card which is the target number to reach in order to win the game. In order to score points you must “capture” human victims by either infecting or eating them.

Just like Zombies!!! the game changes as you go and has a great replay value due to the fact of the tile map system. You start with a central map tile and each player draws a random tile card at the beginning of each turn and you build off the central tile. The more sets and expansions you have the bigger the map gets and the longer play time can last. I’ve even seen a couple guys take numerous sets and fill up the entire floor of a room with a map tiles. They said their game lasted for days.

Each player starts the game by taking a character card and the zombie figures for their corresponding card. There are six different zombie characters; musician, cheerleader, lawyer, wrestler, doctor and miner. Each character has their own strengths, weaknesses and special ability. Each character comes with ten figures, all of which can wind up entering play at the same time. Players also get 3 event cards and their corresponding number of do over tokens. Do over tokens allow you to reroll the die during game play.

The game play is similar to Zombies!!! You start the game by placing one of your zombies on the Town Square center tile and drawing a tile from the deck to start building the map. There are two types of tiles, road tiles and named building tiles. If you get a road tile you simply place a human in the center square of the tile. If you pick a named building tile you have to place the correct number of human and do over tokens in the building marked on the tile. After you place your tile you can move your zombies according to their movement number on their card. You can split up your movement among all your zombies which is cool. For instance if you have the musician who has a movement of 4 you can move one figure 4 spaces or you can move 2 figures 1 space an another 2 spaces. You can move past and share squares with other zombies but not humans. If you land on a square with a human you must stop moving and enter combat with the human.

If you wish to enter one of the named buildings you must do so by breaking the barricade on the entrance to the building. Each building tile has a set number on the card for the barricade number, you must roll a die and match or beat this number in order to break the barricade and enter the building. A cool rule they added is for every other zombie that’s on the tile with you subtract one from the barricade number. This is cool for a couple reasons, 1 if you manage to get a couple of your zombies on the tile you’ll wind up getting in faster and easier and getting the humans a little easier, and 2, since it doesn’t matter what zombies are on the tile if one of your opponents has zombies on the tile and wasn’t able to break into the building it just makes it that much easier for you to get into the building before them.

Combat differs a little between non controlled humans and controlled humans (shotgun guys from the Zombies!!! game). In order to win combat and capture a non player human you have to roll a die and match or beat the corresponding number on your zombie’s card. If you do this you draw the number of capture cards labeled on your zombie’s card. There are three cards, escape, eat and infected. If you draw an escape card you roll one die and the player to the right of you moves the human that has escaped that number of squares. If you don’t pull and escape card the majority of the other types of cards wins. For eat you eat the human and remove the figure from the board and keep the card, it’s worth 1 point. For infected you replace the human with one of your zombies. Each zombie you have on the board is also worth one point. You win the game by gaining the required number of points on your zombie’s card.

During combat another player can play one of their weapon cards. The person who played the card rolls a die and if the number rolled equals 4, including any bonus numbers on the cards, the zombie takes a wound. If this happens the zombie player draws a number of wound cards labeled on their zombie’s card. There are 4 wound cards, leg, arm, torso and head. If there aren’t more than one of any one particular card you get to choose which one to take. If there are multiples of the same card drawn you must take that one. Throughout game play if you get two of the same wound card then the zombie that is currently in combat is removed from the game. If you wind up getting a head shot card then the zombie is automatically removed from the game. Also if you take a wound during combat you have to roll a die and the player to your right gets to move the human because it’s considered an escape.

Aside from the weapons cards players also have event cards. Weapon and event cards are the three random cards that each player is given at the beginning of the game. At any time during the game you may use one of your event cards but you may only use a weapon card during combat. Also you can only use one card between the beginning of your turn until the start of your next turn.

In addition to being a great stand alone game, Humans!!! can be combined with Zombies!!! where you get to choose to play as a human or a zombie and try to win based on your character’s winning conditions. I find this is more fun because when you’re playing against a person controlling a human piece you never know what’s going to happen because of their movement, cards, etc. Also it basically turns the two existing games into it’s own game in the fact that some of the rules change and combat is different when you mix the two. Full rules for mixing the games can be found in the Humans!!! rule book.

There are revisions to some of the cards from the Zombies!!! game and expansions if you’re going to use them with Humans!!!, those can be found in the rule book and on the Twilight Creations website.

I can’t recommend these games highly enough. They’re extremely fun and you usually can’t play just one round. I’ve even gotten friends of mine who don’t play these types of games to play Zombies!!! and Humans!!! and they really enjoy them.

Be sure to check out this game and all the other great titles from Twilight Creations by visiting their website www.TwilightCreationsInc.com.

Below is an image of the 6 different zombie character figures and the human victim figure. The set I received differed in color from the image below. Each zombie character had it’s own unique color and the human victim was white.

Review By Shaun May

Finally a Captain America game that looks really good. I can’t wait for this to be released. Right now I don’t have too much to say other than watch the trailer. I’ll post more about it as I find more out.