Ten things to love and hate about: Nazi Zombies

We all love zombies, right? So when Nazi Zombies was discovered as a bonus on CoD5, most of us were in total addiction for the next few months. However, not everything kicked off immediately - for me, the zombie goodness started at Verruckt (Map Pack 2). Comparing Verruckt to the other maps isn't really fair content-wise, but at the time it was the most fun I've ever had in a CoD game! Of course, things got better and better, and before you knew it, you were hooked. Why not? After all, it is basically what kept CoD5 alive for so long, it was fresh, punchy and a tad scary at first. Although, as much as I love Nazi Zombies, it doesn't come without any faults - mainly not with the game itself, but with the way the community have played it. This list was INCREDIBLY hard to conjure up, but I'm sure it is an accurate summary for my experience ;)

Things to love:

1. The Concept
You are a group of four unlikely heroes, all from very different backgrounds - forced to team up in order to survive a massive horde of flesh-eating zombies resurrected from Nazi Germany after the war. What ISN'T there to like about that?!? Whether it is Nikolai's vodka jokes, Takeo's formality, Tank's inappropriate yelling or Richtofen's pronunciation of "Wunderwaffe", every character is instantly recognizable and easily likable. Also, the fact that you need to cover many windows all at once, trying to prevent zombies from breaking in and attacking you - it sends chills down your spine!

2. Kick-ass Weapons
A ray gun. A RAY gun. RAY GUN. When you think of Call of Duty, what do you think of? Let's see.... WW1/WW2, old fashioned characters, shooters, rusty old weapons, a dark war-story... and..... A RAY GUN!?!? Could they think of something more random?? But it didn't stop there - we got treated to the Wunderwaffe as well, a gun that can easily eradicate countless zombies in an instant... Too epic to be legal xD. Don't forget Monkey Bombs too - they draw in the zombies and explode to create a huge clearance in the crowd. How fitting for WW2 :D

3. Teamwork
A big MUST if you plan on getting far in this game. It is extremely fun, planning with your friends what door to open, or what strategy is needed in the situation. Without mics (or friends :P), communication is low, and your teammates are less predictable. If you talk to your team, and get to know them, they will care more about you, and you'll care more about them - which pushes you that extra little bit to be a co-operative player. talking out problems like low ammo, or when to make a crawler is essential, and makes the experience much more rewarding and a good laugh!

4. Perks
Introduced in Verruckt, these little diddies made the game a LOT more challenging, and easier in the later rounds. Whether you needed extra hits against zombies, lightning-fast reloading, extremely quick reviving skills or double the fire rate - they were in there, a vending machine with a very unfitting jingle alongside it. It was so much fun in Verruckt, trying to find which perk did what!

5. Scooby Doobie.... Dead!?!?
Who let the dogs out..? In Shi No Numa, I remember my pants being dyed brown the moment I saw one of those vicious hell hounds bound their way across to me! After that, every time my team heard that sudden jingle at the end of every fifth round or so, we'd all huddle together in the darkest corner of the hut and prey the first one wasn't coming for us. It was another thing to love about zombies: it brought the team together and we fought our way through them as one - none of the "hey guys, I'll go off on my own and get killed repeatedly for the rest of the game!!" :D

6. Easter Eggs
Oh god, here we go. Where can I start.... If Treyarch are good at ANYTHING, it is hiding easter eggs within their games. Zombies wasn't an exemption. Especially with Der Riese, you couldn't walk two paces without walking right past one of them! Whether they were radio messages, element 115 crates, notes, blood-written messages, hanging people, teddy bears - you name it, there WERE easter eggs. They made us think about the actual story behind it (let's not get too far into this lol), and it was surprisingly fun to hunt around aimlessly, hoping to stumble across something no one has seen yet. PC modders looked high and low around the maps, that's how much people cared about this game!

7. Tension
We've all been there - it's Round 34, you are almost out of MG42 ammo, no monkey bombs, ray gun isn't even upgraded yet - you know you're boned. You HAVE to rely on your team mates to survive, but you're forced into camping, and your team is in the exact same predicament you are in. There's no possible way to describe it - you feel a sort of adrenaline rushing through you, pushing you forward. The tense situation makes the entire game so serious, and yet fun and exciting at the same time! If you've ever been in this situation, it really does feel like you are facing a horde of zombies!

8. The "silent" co-operation
Have you ever had a game where no one has a mic, and yet you all know EXACTLY what all of you are doing? No, not telepathy dumbass - it's difficult to explain, yet again lol. Like when you are taking care of the windows at the back while your team fights the zombies at the front - and one slips through one of your windows - you'd be screwed normally, right? Well, in some cases, your teammates will split themselves off accordingly, depending on what guns or perks they have, and help you out while the rest focus on the front. THAT, is true teamwork. To know that much about your team without even talking to them, to understand a situation so well, it doesn't even have to be discussed - it is a truly remarkable team, and you can't wait for the game to end so you can add them as your friends - players who actually don't suck, for a change :D

9. Being Competitive
There's nothing like good old-fashioned competitions, and Zombies doesn't disappoint. Whether it is trying to see who can rack up the most points, get the best headshots or kills - even trying to beat your highest round record, there is always room for fun here!

Disney-branded Facebook games coming in 2012, Playdom head says

Can we all just say, “finally?” During a panel named “The Rise of Social Games” at the f8 Facebook Developers Conference in San Francisco, Disney Interactive and Playdom head John Pleasants revealed that two to four Facebook games surrounding Disney xd brands will hit Facebook in 2012. The general topic of the panel was the fact that branded social games are taking off.

Pleasants was joined on the panel by Kabam CEO Kevin Chou, EA Interactive head Barry Cottle and Zynga CBO Owen Van Natta. Facebook director of games partnerships Sean Ryan moderated the panel with the preface that branded games will take over the Facebook platform. And he might be right: EA just released The Sims Social, Zynga will soon re-brand its new Adventure World with Indiana Jones and Kabam recently announced The Godfather: Five Families.

Playdom, which Disney acquired in July 2010 for a whopping $740 million, is ahead of the pack with two branded games on Facebook: ESPNU College Town and ESPN Sports Bar & Grill. Both games performed well, thanks to advertising through the ESPN TV network. While Disney owns the ESPN brand, notice how neither of those actually involve the insanely popular Disney characters we’ve come to love.

Honestly, we’re surprised this didn’t happen sooner. Consider this: Disney has its own cable TV channel through which it could, in theory, advertise whatever it wants. Pleasants didn’t get into why it’s taken this long for disney channel games to throw its cast of characters into Facebook games, but did reveal the power of the Disney name.

Gnome Town, which Playdom launched in the summer–and we enjoyed quite a bit–peaked at 530,000 daily players. But just plopping the Disney logo on top of the existing one made users more likely to spend in the game just through trust of the company’s name, according to Pleasants. “We think it’s an advantage, if you put game play first,” Pleasants said.

It’s comforting to hear this emphasized by these developers. (Kabam’s Chou shared the same sentiment.) Branded games on Facebook are OK in my book, but the last thing anyone wants to see is the genre become a branding machine.

Phineas And Ferb 3D Game – Disney XD Games 63

New Disney Game – Phineas and Ferb

Disney released a new game. Phineas and Ferb 3D online game. Klick here to read the complete review.

The new game is available at the Disney XD discovery channel. Get ahead of the game before its officially released next week!

Disney is introducing the brand new DisneyXD game. Phineas and Ferb in: The Transport inators of Doooom!

Doofenschmitz is up to his old tricks again, and who has gone missing? Phineas! Help Ferb find his brother and try to help Agent P thwarth Doofenschmitz evil plans!

Check out this new exciting Disney XD online game before all others do at the Disney Cartoon network games website!

Check out Disney’s cartoon network to find a lot of amazing games and news. Disney offers a lot of cartoon games on their site. So head over to the Disney XD site and play the new Phineas and Ferb – The Transport-inators of Doooom! game!

Have Fun!