dead-island posts

Dead Island screenshots are almost as popular as that "Friday" song but 10 times better to listen to (hehe, we made a funny). Today we got three new screenshots from the upcoming Techland-developed zombie action game that includes the return of the massive straitjacket-wearing zombie character from the last batch.

The zombie now has a name, the Ram, which we are guessing is indicative of some kind of ability to charge and do some damage with his whole body. The shot also shows the game's Assassin character which we would speculate as being, well, a character who likes to assassinate things. Hopefully we will see the actual game in moving action in the coming months before its release this fall.

Take a good look at the logo above this post for Dead Island. The upcoming zombie action game from developer Techland and publisher Deep Silver uses a dead body hanging by a rope to the tropical tree to form the "I" in "Island." That image is apparently too graphic for the ESRB ratings system here in the US.

According to IGN, the logo for the US box cover for Dead Island will be changed so that the body is standing upright on the ground, without a rope connecting it to the tree, when the game is released. The original logo will stay in the game itself and will also remain unchanged for the European box cover. There's no word as to why the ESRB asked for the change.

Dead Island currently remains one of the most talked about upcoming games and this evening publisher Deep Silver sent over a trio of new screenshots from the upcoming "zombies at your tropical vacation spot" action game from developer Techland.

We have added those new screenshots to our gallery of visuals from the game. Two of them are just empty location pictures showing a beach and a pool side covered in blood. The other shows what looks like a huge zombie wearing (or should we say "encased in") a straitjacket and a breathing apparatus. Even if that thing is secured we would be pretty scared of it if it showed up on our doorstep.

On the one hand, it's a little sad that Robot Entertainment won't be finishing Age of Empires Online. On the other hand we can't think of a better developer to take over the reigns than Gas Powered Games.

• Steam has new automatic updates for Cities XL 2011, Magicka, Crasher, and Monday Night Combat.
• Want to see the latest remix of the Dead Island trailer? Sure you do.
• Devolver Digital tells us that, "Next week is going to be a big week." Well duh.
• Game Informer has a new video feature of one of the true classic PC games, Battlefield 1942.

Dead Island has generated as much, if not more, interest in the movie industry as it has in the game industry. That was in part due to the CGI teaser trailer released last week to help promote the upcoming zombie action game from developer Techland and publisher Deep Silver.

While some movie industry web sites reported last week that the movie rights to Dead Island were actually snapped up two years ago, Deep Silver quickly sent out word that was not the case. In a chat with the Los Angeles Times Malte Wagener, the head of global business development for Deep Silver's parent company Koch Media, stated that while there is still no movie deal in place for Dead Island there have indeed been a number of inquires. He states, "Right now I'd say it boils down to three or four opportunities. "

He added, "We had a couple of big-name directors come to us. One of the top directors in Hollywood sent a studio his link to the trailer and said he was interested in this, and the studio contacted us." Wagerner knows that the massive buzz that the trailer created is finite, saying, "We're a private company and we're not under the same pressure as other companies. We don't have people saying accept the next offer. But we're also aware the buzz won't last forever."

Download the Dead Island Cinematic Trailer at Big Download

As expected, President's Day was a bit on the slow side for PC game news. But we think the rest of the week is going to be very busy indeed.

• The lead designer of Blur at the now shut down Bizarre Creations has a new job at Sumo Digital.
• Eurogamer buys US based business-themed web site IndustryGamers.com.
• Starting on Friday, Left 4 Dead 2 will repeat the game's original Mutantions every week.
• Fox News's web site writes yet another slated Bulletstorm story, but Rock Paper Shotgun slams it back.
• A bus simulator game. Really.
• There's a possible new Mass Effect 2 DLC in the works.
• An iPhone/iPad and Android version of Minecraft? It's coming too.
• Speaking of which, it's the latest mash-up: Minecraft meets Dead Island trailer.

On Saturday we and other web sites reported that the movie rights to the long-in-development zombie action game Dead Island had already been bought by movie producer Sean Daniel and Union Entertainment back in 2009. The first reports came from movie industry web sites which usually are accurate.

Now our sister site Joystiq reports that according to a statement from Klemens Kundratitz, the CEO of Koch Media (the parent company of Dead Island publisher Deep Silver) those movie right haven't been bought at all. While it admits that it has received "a vast amount of inquiries" about securing those rights, Kundratitz states, "We want to do it the right way as film realizations of games (or vice versa) usually fail to deliver what the fans were looking for." That's certainly true. Our question: How did all these movie industry web sites miss the mark so badly on their original stories?

Dead Island made a big splash this week with its reintroduction, thanks in no small part to the release of the very cool, even moving, CGI cut scene that showed a family being attacked by zombies in reverse. Now comes word that the movie rights to Dead Island have already been secured.

The Wrap reports that movie producer Sean Daniel (a producer on the Mummy series of films, among others) and Union Entertainment actually bought the Dead Island movie rights from the game's developer Techland rights way back in 2009. (Dead Island was first announced in 2007). The story says that Daniel and Union are now moving quickly to get a script written for the adaptation. Union also has the movie rights to Techland's Call of Juarez shooter series.

This is one of the most affecting cinematic trailers we've ever seen, and gives us hope that zombie games will continue to evolve past a simple "kill them" mentality. Depicting a cinematic for the upcoming Dead Island, it shows a family on vacation as they fend off an assault of zombies, one of which has bitten their daughter. The combination of music, backwards animation, and detailed models adds to the drama and emotion, and there was even a point where one of the characters actually looked human, rather than pre-rendered. Needless to say, our interest has been piqued.

Download Dead Island Cinematic Trailer
Check out all Lord of the Dead Island downloads

Dead Island is a game from developer Techland that was first announced way back in 2007. Set on an island where the players have to fight off a ton of zombies, there's been little info on the game since the announcement. Now IGN has the first preview, new screenshots and a CGI trailer from the game.

The preview states that the game will be a first person title set on a swanky island resort that gets hit with a zombie apocalyse. The game is designed to have players use items that would naturally be on such an island to fight off the infected so don't expect massive machine guns or rocket launchers. Instead the game will concentrate mostly on melee combat against the zombies. Look for four player co-op support along with some RPG-lite elements for player character progression. Dead Island is currently set for release sometime in 2011 for the PC and other platforms via publisher Deep Silver.