Topic: Dead Island - Update: Eurogamer looks at the Definitive Editions of DI + Riptide

[MysterD]

NEWEST - 6-1-2016:
Eurogamer -> Face-Off on the Dead Island: Definitive Collection - PS4 vs. X1.

OLDER - 5-3-2011:
GiantBomb -> Quick Look on Dead Island: Ryder White DLC.
Joystiq -> Techland registers "Dead World" trademark and declines to comment on this.
PC Gamer -> Their Top 10 Dead Island PC mods.
MyD's Thoughts on his First 19 Hours w/ Dead Island PC.
Kotaku -> Bloodbath DLC delayed to polish the main game even more.
Destructoid -> Some Dead Island news.
REVIEWS piled up in this post [Reply 28] in this thread - click me!
Destructoid -> Square-Enix to help distribute the game in North and South America.
IGN -> Original logo for the game to be censored on the game-box in NA by ESRB; in-game logo stays same in ALL regions (including NA).
GameSpot -> Preview.
IGN -> Preview.
1Up -> NEW 2011 Trailer.
In 2008, Dead Island will be coming to the the PC and X360 by Techland (the makers of Call of Juarez).
GameSpot -> Screenies for Dead Island

[idolminds]

If they can pull it off, it sounds like great fun.

[MysterD]

If they can pull it off, it sounds like great fun.

Exactly my thoughts.

I remember, The Call of Juarez Demo wasn't the best running game, technically -- despite it looking really good. And, well, the load times were really nasty.

Hope they can improve on those two things w/ Dead Island.

EDIT:
Since Que is into zombie-destroying, I wonder what he'll have to say about TechLand working on a non-linear zombie-killing FPS....heh.

[MysterD]

Interview from IGN here on this game w/ Techland's Pawel Kopinski.

IGN AU: What's the core setting and storyline for Dead Island? Where did the concept come from?

Pawel Kopinski: First of all, like many gamers out there we're zombie fanatics. We crave movies and comics featuring the living dead of all shapes and sizes. We have always wanted to make a zombie game not just for the fun of it but because the existing titles were missing something. They were either not taking their story seriously or the so-called zombies weren't really zombies at all.

Dead Island allows players to live the story of an unlikely hero who finds himself stranded on a tropical island following a plane crash. Not only is his wife missing but the entire holiday paradise is devastated by a deadly virus that turns people into vicious walking corpses.

IGN AU: How different are your zombies from George A. Romero's archetypal zombies? Or from Resident Evil 4's not-quite-zombies? What do we need to know to take them down?

Pawel Kopinski: There will be more than one type of zombie in Dead Island but the most typical and numerous one is going to be closer to the classic "Romero" variety. It has limited intelligence and is unable to use any tools or weapons. One similarity with RE4's zombies I can think of is the fact that our undead are also victims of a virus infection that transforms them into shambling, bloodthirsty nightmarish creatures.

Okay.

IGN AU: Dead Island sounds very much like it will feature a lot of 'sandbox' elements – using everyday items as weapons, setting environmental traps for zombies, and so on. Can you give us an example or two of some of the coolest weapons you can wield and traps you can set?

Pawel Kopinski: We don't want players to think in terms of specific weapons and specific traps. Rather we'd like them to look around a place and immediately know what they can use. If it can be picked up by a human in real life, it's a weapon. Traps can involve all sorts of mechanics. Stuff can be thrown or dropped onto enemies, enemies can be pushed off ledges. There's electricity, gases and liquids that can be combined to ruin the zombies' day. One of our favourite weapons is an iron ļ. Of the more standard variety, machetes are very handy in combat.

Sounds a lot like Dead Rising -- that anything can basically be a weapon.

IGN AU: What makes Dead Island different from a standard survival horror title or first person shooter? Can you tell us about some of the RPG elements?

Pawel Kopinski: Dead Island adds much more depth to both genres. On one hand it's a survival horror with all the excitement of shooters and on the other it's an FPP game with immersive, terrifying and believable storyline and exciting melee combat. RPG elements are there to add even more fun and variety. Character development, optional quests and new fighting abilities to learn mean that there's always something new to discover.

IGN AU: Dead Island takes a non-linear approach to game structure – can you give us some examples of how the player's actions will have long term consequences?

Pawel Kopinski: Interaction with other survivors on the island can serve as a good example. Let's say we get a chance to deliver much-needed supplies to a camp. Later on its occupants may offer us something in return: information or items. Choosing not to help the camp, or worse to unleash zombies on the innocent people by sabotaging the defences, we deprive ourselves of that extra assistance. In addition our reputation can make dealing with other groups very difficult.

We can accidentally or purposefully get a very important character killed. That can have all sorts of consequences, from depriving us of a convenient access route to a minor goal all the way to changing the game's ending.

Sounds like my kind of non-linear game.
Plus...there's zombies!!!

IGN AU: Dead Island focuses heavily on melee combat. Can you tell us a little about the melee mechanics?

Pawel Kopinski: Melee combat is severely underappreciated and rarely used in the FPP genre. In Dead Island we're adding much more depth to it. In real life it isn't easy to obtain firearms in a holiday paradise. Many guns that had been there were already snatched by other survivors. This means that players will need to improvise weapons from objects found in the environment. Any item that can be picked up can also be used in a fight. The type and size of the object determines the fighting style. There's a world of difference between slashing in close quarters with a combat knife and throwing an LCD panel from a distance.

All of this is reflected in thousands of varied animations depicting hundreds of fighting moves in different styles. They are determined by the nature of the weapon: its size, weight and the type of damage inflicted on the target. Thanks to our advanced multilayer damage system the effect each weapon has on enemies is also realistic. Blunt weapons cause fractures and internal injuries while sharp objects cut into skin and tissue. Last but not least we're developing an innovative control system that allows precision without getting in the way of fun.

Sounds like Condemned series -- that it will have a major focuse on melee combat in the first person view. And it sounds like it could be brutal, too. Cool.

IGN AU: Will Dead Island have co-op through the main game? Will it have adversarial multiplayer modes? If so, can you tell us about any of them?

Pawel Kopinski: We're not planning any multiplayer modes at the moment. Dead Island is focused on an intense, storyline-driven single player experience. It would have to be designed from the start as a co-op game or the multiplayer mode would be only very loosely linked to our core gameplay. We didn't want the former and we definitely don't want the latter. There is a solid zombie multiplayer game on the horizon that doesn't feature any significant single player fun so there's plenty of room for Dead Island.

Yay for a zombie game focusing on just SP!!!

[Quemaqua]

How did I miss this?  It sounds awesome.

[MysterD]

How did I miss this?  It sounds awesome.

I don't think there's been very much coverage on this game at all, basically.

I hope it runs worth a damn and isn't too buggy. Call of Juarez runs like junk on my current PC
(which probably could really use a vid card upgrade).

[MysterD]

1Up -> NEW 2011 Trailer.
Guys....you just have to watch this trailer.

[Quemaqua]

Holy shit.  I don't even know what to say after watching that.  I really don't.  It was awesome and horrible all at once.

[MysterD]

I hope the game lives up to the awesomeness of that trailer.
This game has my interest for sure.

[idolminds]

Wow, I was not expecting that.

EDIT
Someone took the trailer and cut everything into chronological order. Its pretty cool.

[iPPi]

The trailer is really good.  The chronological trailer is still really good as well.

Looks like the zombie virus in this game is incredibly fast acting.

[idolminds]

Studios clamoring for movie rights based on the trailer. Want to shoot it "Memento" style.

[angrykeebler]

they should get uwe boll to direct!!!

[Pugnate]

Oh look at me. I am angrykeebler. I am so funny.

[angrykeebler]

Oh look at me. I am Pugnate. I wish I were angrykeebler.

[Pugnate]

[angrykeebler]

[Quemaqua]

hahaha

[MysterD]

IGN -> Original logo for the game to be censored on the game-box in NA by ESRB.
The logo will stay uncensored in-game in all regions (including NA), though.

Original Uncensored Logo for Box-Art - which is how it'll look on the box in Europe.


NA Box-Art

[idolminds]

Weak.

[Quemaqua]

As if that makes any goddamn difference to anyone in the bloody universe.  Idiots.  Stuff like that pisses me off so bad.  It's like they're making decisions simply to try and prove that they actually have a purpose.

[MysterD]

Destructoid -> Square-Enix to help distribute the game in North America and South America.

Today Deep Silver announced that the company will be working with Square Enix to distribute Techland's Dead Island out to retailers in North and South America. Deep Silver is still publishing, Square Enix is just getting the game out to store shelves.

I asked Aubrey Norris, PR Czar at Deep Silver, why Square Enix is handling the distribution and it's due to Deep Silver not being large enough to work directly with retailers yet. "Retailers will only buy from companies that they do X amount of regular business with. Since [Deep Silver] is too small to have that, we need a distributor."

"A retailer won't buy from you unless you do X amount of business with them annually" Aubrey went on to tell me that "it's kind of part of establishing yourself as a publisher. You have to get to a certain level of volume before retailers will work with you directly."

I'm pretty sure Deep Silver will be able to reach the level they need with retailers considering how the entire Internet was talking about the chilling Dead Island trailer from a couple of months ago.

[idolminds]

Oh boy, preorder bonuses!

Included with the Steam pre-order is "The Ripper," a weapon that combines the versatility of a baseball bat and the spinning sharpness of a buzz saw. The weapon is also available to console users pre-ordering at GameStop.

Though the game will be available at other digital distributors, Steam is the only retailer promoting the exclusive "Ripper" weapon.

Dead Island's Steam bonuses also include free access to the "Bloodbath Arena" DLC, which is also being made available for pre-order customers looking to slay zombies on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

What could be worse than retailer exclusive preorder DLC?

The downloadable content will be made available "one month" following the September 6 release of Dead Island and will also priced at $10 for those that miss a chance to get the content for free.

Oh, that. Guess I'm waiting for a sub-$20 price tag on this one. Fuck that shit.

[Quemaqua]

Lame.

[PyroMenace]

I still have no idea what this game is. All I've seen is a CG trailer. It was cool, but it didnt tell me anything. All I keep thinking is it's L4D in the carribean.

[Xessive]

It looks like a cross between Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising.. Small diff anyway.

[Xessive]

IGN's preview of Dead Island: Slice and Dice in Paradise

Looks very interesting so far.

[MysterD]

Looks like Dead Island PC might requires Steamworks...

GMG lists Dead Island PC as requiring Steam.
D2D and Gamersgate lists Dead Island PC w/ a "3rd party download" required warning.

[MysterD]

REVIEWS
GameInformer -> 8.50 [out of 10].
IGN -> 8.0 for X360 and PS3.
TeamXBox -> 9.0 for X360 version.
GameTrailers -> 8.5.
GamesTM -> 7.
GameSpot -> 7.0 for all platforms - Video Review.; Written review.
Destructoid -> 7.0.
CVG -> 6.5.
Eurogamer -> 6.0 for PC, PS3, and X360.
XBox360Achievements -> 84 for X360 version [of 100].
GameFront -> 65 [of 100] for PC version.
Joystiq -> 3 stars [out of 5].

[Xessive]

Nice, looks like the reviews are settling around the "ok to good" range.

Last chance to get it for ~$33 with the pre-order 15% off + 20% off coupon from GMG

[MysterD]

Holy crap @ the long-list of fixes for the planned Day 1 Patch for Dead Island.

[PyroMenace]

Yea, I watched the Gametrailers review, they gave it a 8.5 but everything in that video said it was pretty bad. I have no interest in this.

[MysterD]

WTH?
 

North American gamers who had picked up a copy of Dead Island from Steam were dismayed to discover that downloading the title today appeared to score them a developer build of the Xbox 360 version rather than the proper PC version, making it unplayable for some gamers and somewhat erratic for others. There's some discussion of the issue on the Steam forums.

Developer Techland and publisher Deep Silver are both aware of the issue, with the latter telling Rock, Paper, Shotgun earlier that "the final version will be out during the day."

Whoops.

[Xessive]

That explains a lot! The game wouldn't save my configs, etc. Menus looked really tacky too.

[MysterD]

Destructoid -> Some Dead Island news.
Deep Silver will 'make up' eventually for their PC issues of giving PC gamers "Debug version" of the game AND that the "Ripper DLC" code is NOT working currently.
PC version no longer "Debug version"; that issue is fixed.
Patch released fixes tons of issues.
Bloodbath DLC still on track for release soon.

[PyroMenace]

Well shit, this looks a lot more interesting than I thought. I didnt get a sense of any of this in the gametrailers review.

[MysterD]

Ummm....
 

[idolminds]

Oh no, something that didn't actually end up in the game! The horror!

[MysterD]

Oh no, something that didn't actually end up in the game! The horror!

I still wanna know how I'm supposed to be disturbed, when this is a game about zombie-killing and zombies killing you.... [smh]
 
I wonder how many times the F-bomb, bitch, and other words are used in this game...any many others.
Frequent, I'd say - it goes w/ M-rated territory.

[Quemaqua]

For fuck's sake. I can't even stomach those press releases. Just shut up and say if you can't take a joke, go suck a dick.