Deep Silver Raids Piggy Bank for Dead Island Launch

Deep Silver have well and truly raided the coffers in a bid to ensure Dead Island gets stamped into the very fabric of zombie culture and becomes a household name.

Dead Island - Trouble in paradise.

So, can their zombie themed rpg-first-person-shooter-basher compete with the likes of this year's mammoth releases?

The holy console trinity of 2011: Modern Warfare 3, Gears of War 3 and Battlefield 3 (what is it with the 3's at the moment?) are going be challenging hulks to go toe to toe with.

Dead Island - Katana vs Asylum freak!

Deep Silver say the Dead Island campaign is 'The biggest global marketing spend in the history of Deep Silver'. Something tells us their investment will be secure, as long as they deliver on the goods.

Expect to see TV slots hitting prime time starting this week and all the way through September and, with the profile expected to be sky-high, next time you tell one of your Mum's mates you like zombies, don't be surprised if they reply 'You mean like those things in Dead Island?'

Dead Island - zombies just want hugs.

A huge range of exciting Dead Island 'stuff' should also be hitting the streets any second now, including the Dead Island Book by Mark Morris.
So... time to book an all expenses paid luxury break in paradise? Not sure about that but we'll first in the queue when the game comes out on September 9th 2011.

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Dead Island: The Book by Mark Morris

Deep Silver are pulling out all the stops for their much awaited first person zombie survival game Dead Island.

Scheduled for simultaneous release with the video Game, Dead Island: The Book comes from the pen of British Fantasy Award winning author Mark Morris. Mark is known for his Doctor Who and Torchwood tie-ins, as well as a string of horror releases and is sure to attract a big following, even outside the realms of the electronic gamer.

Dead Island: The Book, by Mark Morris

A once-in-a-lifetime dream holiday turns into an apocalyptic nightmare for guests of the five-star Royal Palms Resort on the island of Banoi. What begins as an escape to a tropical paradise becomes a fight for survival as a mystery outbreak suddenly and unexpectedly turns holiday makers into the flesh-hungry undead. Four very different individuals are somehow unaffected by the virus and must use anything and everything at their disposal to take out the undead and survive the outbreak.

Dead Island: The Book is be released by Bantam Books on 8th September 2011.

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World War Z - Glasgow in Ruins

As filming for World War Z gets underway parts of Glasgow will be in ruins for the next couple of weeks.

Glasgow or Philadelphia - Picture from bbc.co.uk

Last month an open casting was held to recruit a horde of local zombies and now a cast and crew of around 1,200 will be shooting scenes in George Square and other locations across Glasgow city centre.

Glasgow was chosen as a location for World War Z because of the architecture, wide roads and layout, which is grid based like most US cites.

Iconic yellow cabs and UK bollards. Picture from bbc.co.uk

The film is set in Philadelphia so false shop fronts, traffic signals, road signs and American cars were being brought in to complete the illusion.

US road signs waiting to be installed. Picture from bbc.co.uk

The production is likely to bring in excess of £2m to the local economy according to Glasgow City Council.
City Council leader, Gordon Matheson said: "We are ready to welcome the World War Z production to Glasgow."

"There is great anticipation in the city ahead of such a huge film coming here."

With recent revelations of the movie's synopsis showing the film set during the outbreak, rather than during with the aftermath, as in Max Brook's 2006 novel, fans are worried, but aren't we always?

Every big budget zombie movie in recent years has been a financial success. The future of such a large-scale production could have implications for the zombiephiles wish-list of movies we'd love to see made.

Mr Pitt, the undead eyes of the world are on you now.

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How to Kill a Zombie in Melee

Useful advice. A cricket bat, baseball bat, or a simple piece of 2 by 4 may be your best friend in the event of the zombie apocalypse, especially in a country where gun laws prevent a proliferation of firearms.

How to Kill a Zombie in Melee - Picture from Harcos Labs

Important Note: Avoid the final element of step 3 if you have loosening of the stool.

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Zombiesque - Zombie Anthology

When it comes to genre fiction, anthologies are not necessarily at the top of the list. The majority of compilations typically herald from the pens of a number of he genre's best and brightest, one can't help feeling that the tales are often disparate, unconnected and only loosely connected by subject matter.

It all honestly, the same might have been said for Zombiesque, although in this case, there really is a distinctly common thread binding more than just the pages together.

Zombiesque - Zombie anthology.

Zombiesque contains 16 original stories about the lifestyles of the living dead. It is not a collection of stories about surviving the apocalypse, nor is it a gathering of abstract tales loosely based around the zombie theme, Zombiesque is the zombie's side of the story.

Whilst the concept of 'thinking' zombies might appear to fly in the face of canon for the apocalyptic flesh-eater fan the book kicks off with 'At First Only Darkness' by Nancy Collins. The subject matter could be straight out of a Romero movie, only this time we're seeing things from the shambler's point of view.

Things do get a little more abstract. 'Gimme a Z' is a story about a cheerleader who won't let death kick her off the team and it comes from the pen of Seanan McGuire, the author of the superb Newsflash Trilogy as Mira Grant, which has rapidly become one of the most talked about zombie trilogies created.

Laslo Xalieri's 'The Confession' is a brooding yarn that takes the concept of the thinking zombie to the level of Wellington's 'Monster' trilogy. The dark tale treads heavily on the coattails of Poe and brings a heavy dose of horror to boot.

The tales are well written and most importantly they are page-turners, less an exploration of eloquent prose (although 'Zombie Zero' takes a fair stab) and more pure storytelling.

Some tales might not sit so well with zombie purists, the holiday resort where visitors can become temporary zombies, an undead Nascar driver and a zombie cheerleader are about as far away from the Night of The Living Dead as many might wish to tread.

If you can get around the concept that zombies might actually think, at least in some way of another, Zombiesque is well worth a read.

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