Tag Archives: world war z

World War Z: Aftermath’s Free PlayStation 5 & Xbox Series X|S Upgrade Launches January 24

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Saber Interactive has announced that World War Z: Aftermath, the co-op zombie shooter inspired by Paramount Pictures’ film, will officially launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on January 24. Owners of the game on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will receive a free upgrade to these new versions, featuring vivid 4K|60 FPS action, on their respective platforms.

January 24 will also mark the arrival of the new supersized Horde Mode XL, available in Aftermath exclusively on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Horde Mode XL follows the same rules as the game’s standard Horde Mode, with a devilish twist — scattered among the normal waves of enemies will be a special XL wave bursting with over 1,000 hungry zombies. You and your team will have to pull out all the stops to survive this overwhelming and terrifying challenge.

All World War Z: Aftermath and World War Z players on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC will also receive a free update on January 24 that introduces mutators into the standard Horde Mode Z game mode, along with devastating and deadly new weapons and a revamped and improved weapon progression system.

World War Z: Aftermath lets you play on your own with AI squadmates or in co-op for up to four players, with full crossplay between PC and consoles. Take on hordes of ravenous zombies in two totally new story campaign episodes set in the city of Rome (including Vatican City) and Russia’s snowbound Kamchatka peninsula.

Aftermath delivers the definitive World War Z package with all content from World War Z: Game of the Year Edition, including full episodes in New York, Moscow, Marseille, Jerusalem and Tokyo. Experience the heart-pounding immersion of Aftermath’s optional first-person mode, decimate the undead with a new melee system, and level eight unique classes with distinct play styles and customizable loadouts.

Movie Review: World War Z

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World_War_Z_posterI loved Max Brooks‘ book World War Z and to see that on the big screen would have been the start of zombie movies for adults, as it’s a book that breaks the mold and has the genre “growing up” from it’s generally non-respected roots. That book and this movie have little in common other than a name. That’s the first thing about this summer’s Brad Pitt attempt at a blockbuster, going in thinking you’re about to see an adaptation of the book is a mistake.

World War Z isn’t bad at all. I expected a disaster and it’s far from that. But, just because it’s not bad, doesn’t make it good. The movie was just so-so for me. There’s some good stuff here and great action sequences, but a sequence or two doesn’t make a movie. The movie itself is an amalgamation, a Frankenstein of a movie.

The movie has a habit of borrowing from numerous movies that have come before. This is noticeable from the beginning when during the credits the music playing evokes The Exorcist and it goes on from there. Take 28 Days Later mix it with Contagion, add in a little of I Am Legend and then take the title from a popular book and you get this movie.

And that’s part of what frustrates me about the movie. It would be one thing if it changed the book improving on it, but it doesn’t. Instead it generally chucks it’s source material, picking from the movies listed. A scene in a building evokes 28 Days Later. Scenes with people debating the cause is Contagion and the general plot and ending are I Am Legend (which itself made changes from the original material and not for the better.

Then there’s the idea of a “white guy” saving the world. Brooks’ book was international in scope showing heroes from across the world. Here, the main characters, other than one UN official, are all white. The movie white washes the source material in a horrible way. For a star with a global scope in doing good, it seems to have not played a part when it comes to casting.

There is a way to save this movie in the long run and the answer is sequels. By making this movie one story in the bigger picture, it comes closer to Brooks’ original book and by tying in the movies slightly even more so. We’ll see how far the movie gets past its opening weekend. As a summer movie it’s ok, but with so many other and better choices out there, this wouldn’t be close to a must see movie of the summer.

Direction: 7 Acting: 6 Plot: 5 Overall: 6.5

Facebook Fandom Spotlight: Zombies

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It’s Monday, which means a new look at comic book fans on Facebook. This week we check out fans of Zombies! With World War Z opening this week, it only seems appropriate for us to look at the shambling fans out there.

This is a bit different in that I looked at the term “zombies” as well as movies, games, books and more that featured them.This mixes in The Walking Dead, World War Z, Night of the Living Dead and more!

Facebook Zombie Fan Population: Over 19,200,000 in the United States

This is the largest population we’ve studied to date.

Spanish speakers account for 840,000, 4.38%. That’s towards the higher end of these types of studies for the United States. I guess they know how to do more than moan!

Gender and Age

The breakdown of men and women isn’t shocking, lining up pretty well with the other types of studies we’ve done in the past. In this case, men hold the majority of 61.46% of fans while women are 40.63%. Yes, that’s over 100% as the numbers for some reason this has happened again.

zombie fans gender 6.17.13

Zombie Fans

zombie fans gender and age line graph 6.17.13

 

Here’s the full raw numbers as far as age and gender.

zombie fans age raw 6.17.13

Relationship Status

I guess zombies bring relationships, as more folks are in relationships or married percentage wise compared to the previous populations we’ve looked at.

zombies relationship 6.17.13

And for those that like pie charts.

zombie relationship pie chart 6.17.13

Education

Much like many of the previous studies, the education breakdown is very similar to what we’ve seen previously in other studies.

zombies education 6.17.13

Gender Interest

The gender interest is more like Superman fans than anything else with even more women identifying themselves as interested in women.

zombie fans gender interest 6.17.13

And that wraps up this report! Join us next week when we look at fans of indie comics!

A Comic Geek’s Guide to Summer Movies

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film realThis summer looks like a feast for comic book fans with numerous movies directly based on comic books or having a comic book tie-in. Here’s what to expect each month and what we think is going to be the hits and the misses. And there’s a few weekends comic geeks will have to choose between movies, or go with the double feature.

May

Iron Man 3 – May 3 – easily the juggernaut of the summer movies. This is likely to be the highest grossing movie of the summer unless a certain caped hero goes huge. The second movie of the series was a bit of a let down, but with a new director and an interesting villain, here’s hoping the franchise bounces back. The expectations are high, which works a bit against the movie.

Star Trek Into Darkness – May 17 – The second entry in the rebooted Star Trek franchise has had a prequel released by IDW as well as an ongoing series based in it’s universe. The movie looks much darker than previous entries, but that might not be a bad thing.

June

After Earth – June 7 – Will Smith’s new movie also featuring his son is a futuristic sci-fi tale. It also had a comic tie-in released by Dynamite that was pretty decent.

Man of Steel – June 14 – The other possibility of the top grossing movie of the summer. It looks darker in tone, but this is a reboot of the classic character, just in time for Superman to celebrate his 75th birthday. Like a certain shellhead, there’s high expectations for this one.

Monsters University – June 21 – Pixar’s sequel to their awesome movie Monsters Inc. Maybe Disney and Marvel are smart enough to release a comic tie-in to go with it? I expect it to be a solid family movie.

World War Z – based on Max Brook’s amazing book, the trailers look horrible. But, it’s a zombie movie and Brooks writes comics. I think the movie will tank, but expect publishers to attempt to play off of the Brooks connection.

July

Despicable Me 2 – July 3 – I loved the first one. If someone is smart they’ll grab up this family movie. There’s no comic connection that I can think of, but I love the first movie so much I couldn’t not mention it.

The Lone Ranger – July 3 – the trailers to this also look horrible. There is a Dynamite series, but that has nothing to do with this movie. I expect a box office bomb.

Pacific Rim – July 12 – there’s a graphic novel tie-in that’s supposed to come out, but even if there wasn’t it’s giant robots versus giant monsters. One of the most anticipated movies of the summer for me.

Red 2 – July 19 – the first movie wasn’t all that great. There was something entertaining about it, but barely. Kind of shocked there’s a sequel. The first movie was based on a comic, no idea for any plans for this one.

R.I.P.D. – July 19 – If I’m seeing a “comic movie” this weekend, it’s this one. Starring Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds the movie is based off of the Dark Horse series.

The Wolverine – July 26 – the first movie was horrible. So bad, I refused to spend movie to see it. This sequel is looking better, but I expect it to be third when it comes to comic movie grosses for the summer.

The Smurfs 2 – July 31 – there is the Papercutz comic series that continues this classic cartoon series. The first movie was smurf, I’m expecting much of the same for this one.

August

2 Guns – August 2 – a tough weekend to open, see below, this movie is based on the BOOM! Studios series. The story is entertaining and it has a solid cast. Another under the radar summer movie I can’t wait to see.

300: Rise of an Empire – August 2 – a tough weekend to open, see above, this movie is based on the upcoming graphic novel Xerxes which is the sequel to the graphic novel 300. I’m not expecting it to match the box office dollars or awesomeness of the first one.

Elysium – August 9 – no comic tie-in that I know of, but it looks like awesome science fiction.

Kick-Ass 2 – August 16 – I hated the comic series this will likely be based on. It was violence for violence sake at times. We’ll see what they get away with for this one.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones – August 23 – it was a book first, but there’s also a comic adaptation of this popular young adult novel.