Dead Island’s Impressive Teaser

It’s been just under 24 hours since Deep Silver released the teaser for their upcoming survival horror game Dead Island and the internet hasn’t wasted a minute showering it with well-deserved praise. It is a very impressive taster and if you have somehow avoided it until now, I urge you to take a peek.

Now this is undoubtedly a very effective video to kick-start that all-important buzz machine, despite not actually giving us any real indication of what kind of game it is preparing us for. But then again, this trailer’s first and foremost purpose is not in fact to make us crave Dead Island, but to pave the way for us to even accept yet another zombie game. And in that regard, I’m pretty sure it succeeds. Zombies along with pirates, ninjas and other initially meme-driven tropes are becoming so stale and lifeless () that even parodying them feels half-assed. Are zombies even really scary anymore, after Dead Rising, Left 4 Dead and even Plants Vs. Zombies? Resident Evil abandoned them long ago and when they crop up in the Call Of Duty games they serve more as humorous side dishes rather than genuine horror fodder. Deep Silver needed to make us feel the fear again and did so the exact same way Zack Snyder once did it: little zombie girl.

For all the talk of how this might be the greatest game trailer ever, try to find a single part of it that you haven’t seen in any other zombie game or movie. It is nothing new and god knows it ain’t trying to be – nor do I think it’s actually trying to be scary either. It’s zombies the way god intended them to, scary and a genuine threat. That’s a good start, at least.

Amnesia Gets A (Hideous) Box

Via Joystiq comes the news that Frictional Games’ utterly terrifying Amnesia: The Dark Descent will see a retail release, box and everything, on February 22. Amnesia was one of last year’s best games and managed both to prove that there is life yet for both the PC and for the horror game genre. In a market shock-full of Dead Spaces which equate horror with LOUD NOISES, Amnesia was an effective, well-written and above-everything fucking frightening experience. That it now has been granted a proper retail release is no wonder seeing as how surprisingly well it did as a download-only release last year.

Shame about that box art, however. Not only does it make a terrifying enemy look quite goofy, but it portrays our valiant hero Daniel as the love-child of Henry from Silent Hill 4 and Ewan McGregor, apparently in the process of reading some off-putting graffiti rather than being chased by hideous monsters through dark cellars. In fact, this fanmade cover by Sess1on on deviantArt is a vast improvement.

My suggestion? Buy the box, print out Sess10n’s cover and stick it over that hideous mess THQ thought you should be presented with. Then enjoy the game and be prepared to remember how scary games can be when they’re not ripping off Doom 3.