Dead Nation Message Board

Back at E3 2013, the PS Vita version of Dead Nation was announced, and today I’m pleased to confirm that the game will be launching tomorrow. You’ll finally be able to carry the zombie apocalypse in your pocket.

For those of you who still aren’t in the know after the launch of the PS4 version last month, Dead Nation is a top-down, shoot ‘em up style game set in an apocalyptic zombie world. This classic PSN game was originally developed by the talented team at Housemarque, also known for Resogun and Super Stardust HD.

Like the PS4 version of the game, the PS Vita version has been developed by our friends at Climax Studios, and they’ve faithfully recreated the classic experience of the original PS3 game. Journey through the campaign as Jack McReady or Scarlett Blake, or replay your favorite levels and compete for top scores in the single mission mode. Prefer not to experience the apocalypse alone? You and a friend can play the game in both online or ad-hoc co-op. Make sure you upload your stats whenever possible to support your country in the global standings.

Dead Nation will cost $7.99, and the Road of Devastation DLC can be purchased separately for $3.99. Anyone who has previously purchased the PS3 game or Road of Devastation will be entitled to the PS Vita versions at no extra cost, thanks to cross buy.

Dead Nation feels right at home on PS Vita, and everyone who has seen it so far has really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to hear what all of you think once you get your hands on it.

Earlier this week, Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition arrived on the PS4. It's a tweaked, graphically enhanced version of the already-good 2010 PS3 game; a relentless, arcade-y zombie shooter made by Housemarque, the same people who made Super Stardust and Resogun. Read more...

Top-down shooter Dead Nation will be out on PS4 next week. It's free for PS Plus members in March, and the PS4 version has a couple of new features, like a broadcast mode in which viewers can affect the difficulty of your game.Read more...

The best-ever version of the smash hit Dead Nation is making its way to PS4 next week on March 4th. Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition will be available on PlayStation Store for $14.99 and PlayStation Plus members will be able to download it as part of their Instant Game Collection.

Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition is a top-down shoot ‘em up, set in an apocalyptic, zombie-infested world. It comes from the talented developer Housemarque, famous for the Super Stardust series, and more recently the critically acclaimed Resogun.

Dead Nation features a full campaign mode, which can be played solo or co-op (either online or local).

Exclusively available on PS4, Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition features numerous enhancements, making it the best version yet. You can now play in full 1080p HD, with improved textures, rendering, and effects — Dead Nation has never looked better. We also improved the controls, adding in a quick weapon select so your favorite zombie decimator is never out of reach.

The Road to Devastation expansion is now included in the main game, giving you two extra game modes — Arcade and Endless — allowing you to test yourself against ever increasing odds. And with support for the official PlayStation companion app, all you completionists out there now have a second screen to monitor your game stats as you play.

One of the new features in Apocalypse Edition, which you may have spotted in the trailer, is Challenge mode; every time you finish a single level, you can now send your score over to a friend to try and beat. When playing a challenge you can see the avatar of the player who set the challenge, allowing you to race against them or scope out their high-scoring route. What’s that I hear you say? “What if your friends are no match for your zombie decapitating skills?” Well, how about you take on the challenge of any leaderboard entry, for any single level, made by any player?

My favorite new feature is Broadcast+ mode. In this mode, you can stream your game to the masses interactively, and your viewers can influence the difficulty of your game. Periodically all your viewers, whether they be on PS4 or a web browser, have the option to vote between a positive and negative effect that occurs in your game. There are a total of 30 different voting effects that can occur, ranging from spawning zombie packs to giving the player ammo, or even disabling the player’s ability to sprint. But don’t worry; as a player you can get back at the masses, because voters will appear in your game as named zombies for you to exact your revenge on.

Stay on the lookout for more Dead Nation news soon, including hints and tips and an update on the PS Vita version.

Let’s take a look at what you’re going to get in March with your PlayStation Plus membership. To start, PlayStation 4 owners can enjoy the Apocalypse Edition of the critically acclaimed PS3 twin-stick zombie shooter, Dead Nation. The PS4 version includes updated visuals and controls, as well as a sweet interactive broadcast mode, so hit that “Share” button when you start playing!

PS3 owners get Tomb Raider, one of last year’s most praised titles. This reboot showcases Lara’s transformation from a recent anthropology graduate to a battle-hardened adventurer as her expedition crashes on a mysterious island. You’ll hunt animals, upgrade weapons and choose perks to increase Lara’s chances of survival.

Also on PS3: Thomas Was Alone, an adorable puzzle platformer that showcases the camaraderie of artificial intelligences depicted as various shapes, and Lone Survivor: Director’s Cut, a 2D adventure style survival horror game. Bonus! Thomas Was Alone and Lone Survivor: The Director’s Cut are Cross-Buy titles, so you’ll get both the PS3 and PS Vita versions of those games.

For PS Vita this month, you get Unit 13: a third-person mission-based shooter where you’ll need to complete specified objectives, like staying in stealth or completing levels as quickly as possible. Then there’s Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite, a massive experience where you can — you guessed it — kill monsters, and then use their body parts to craft new weapons & armor to take down bigger baddies.

March PlayStation Plus Preview

Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition (PS4)

Free for PS Plus members

Run-and-gun through the zombie apocalypse as hit arcade shooter Dead Nation shuffles onto PlayStation 4. Fight for your life alone or with a friend as Jack McReady or Scarlett Blake as you step onto the streets of a city overrunwith undead flesh-eaters. And, if you’re feeling really brave, take a walk down the Road of Devastation – a deadly experiment that pushes your survival skills to the absolute limit as you face hordes of zombies with no extra lives and no second chances. The dead may walk – but you can make sure they don’t walk very far.

Tomb Raider (PS3)

Free for PS Plus members

This newest rendition of Tomb Raider explores the intense and gritty origin story of Lara Croft and her ascent from a frightened young woman to the hardened survivor that she would become known as. Armed only with raw instincts and the ability to push beyond the limits of human endurance, Lara must fight to unravel the dark history of a forgotten island to escape its relentless hold.

Thomas Was Alone (PS3)

Free for PS Plus members

Thomas Was Alone is the critically acclaimed indie platformer about friendship and jumping. Guide a group of sentient rectangles through a series of environments, combining their skills to reach the end of each level. Listen to awesome music by David Housden, negotiate obstacles meticulously placed by Mike Bithell and immerse yourself in the characters’ journey with a voiceover read wistfully and amusingly by Danny Wallace.

Lone Survivor: The Director’s Cut (PS3)

Free for PS Plus members

In this psychological survival adventure, the masked protagonist must escape from a city ravaged by disease, by any means necessary. Lone Survivor: The Director’s Cut is a new kind of adventure where the choice of how to survive is up to you. Sneak through without firing a single shot, or kill everything in your path. Eat and sleep well, or resort to drugs to keep going. Search for survivors, or try to escape the city alone. Look after your mental health, or descend into madness. Lone Survivor is a game where your choices genuinely matter.

Unit 13 (PS Vita)

Free for PS Plus members

Jump into the action with Unit 13 for PlayStation®Vita and conquer 36 tactical missions and 9 high value target battles as you help take down global terror networks and earn your place in the military elite. With the precision of the PlayStation Vita systems’s dual analog sticks and unique touch interface, Unit 13 is the perfect on-the-go action shooter. Wi-Fi connectivity adds fast 2-player co-op action, and 3G compatibility keeps you connected for instant social updates and new daily mission challenges.

Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite (PS Vita)

Free for PS Plus members

In the world of Monster Hunter you’re never alone.
-The biggest Monster Hunter title to date with over 500 hours of gameplay.
-Huge variety of character customizations including 1400 weapons and over 2000 armor sets.
-Players can form a team of up to 4 players through Ad-Hoc play and experience the social gaming phenomenon.
-AI Felyne companion, who will accompany players on quests and provide aid through the challenging battles. With the ‘Felyne Exchange’ feature players can share their companions with other players, transferring data using the PSP’s sleep mode.
-Fans of the series can transfer their data from Monster Hunter Freedom 2.

What are your thoughts on the current Instant Game Collection?

If you’ve got feedback on PlayStation Plus make sure you take the poll above as well as leave a comment below. To chat about all things PlayStation, including this update, you can head over to the PlayStation Community Forums. You’ll also find other topics you can contribute your thoughts to, or you can start your own discussion.

Attention Dead Nation recruits worldwide! We’re excited to announce a brand new game mode for Road of Devastation (the expansion pack to Dead Nation) called Arcade, which is a brand new way to experience Road of Devastation! Everyone who’s taken the Road knows of the Egogate experiment – to find the perfect zombie killer who can survive longest against ever-increasing odds (the fallen heroes’ DNA are allegedly used to clone and breed the perfect soldier).

The new Arcade mode may actually see you survive the ordeal and get out alive! You can choose your difficulty level, and checkpoints will revive (or is that clone?) you.

Completing Arcade mode on different difficulty levels will also unlock new Road of Devastation concept art. If you’ve never experienced Road of Devastation before, now’s the perfect time! Think you’ve got what it takes to get out alive? Download Arcade mode today and find out!

Housemarque is capitalizing on the audience boost Dead Nation got as a "Welcome Back" game, offering a new DLC package to the recently teeming millions of people who have picked up the top-down zombie shooter.

The "Road to Devastation" DLC pack will be out sometime this afternoon (for $3.99) as part of the weekly PSN update. It puts the player in the role of a genetically engineered zombie killing machine at a literal crossroads. "Before long," designer Petteri Putkonen says on the PlayStation Blog, "you'll find your choices have great meaning, you just might find yourself at the crossroads again, but, that time the road you took has been closed, so you'll make a new decision based on the new weapons, items, money and armor (or perhaps score) you'll have by then."

With the new environment comes some new environmental hazards you can use against zombies. Industrial saws, pools of water that can be electrified, electric fences, and even automatic turrets can be used to make the undead hordes into un-undead hordes.

With over 3.8 million recruits and more than 13 billion zombies killed worldwide, the time has come to launch the ultimate zombie-killing spectacle of our time. Think you’ve got what it takes to survive “Road of Devastation?” An expansion to Dead Nation with single player and two player co-op modes (online and offline), as well as new trophies to pick up, Road of Devastation is a brand new way to experience Dead Nation. Check out our new launch trailer below! It reveals some awesome new Road of Devastation moments, along with accolades that Dead Nation received – all in iconic 80′s action movies style!

From the ashes of the apocalypse, an organization has worked in the shadows, tampering with the human gene to engineer the perfect zombie killing machine… you! Continuing from the events of the original game (or is that preceding…?), Road of Devastation puts your skills to the ultimate test. You find yourself at a crossroads leading to three different choices with each road featuring its own challenges and enemies but also different weapons and tools you’ll need if you’re to survive.

Before long, you’ll find your choices have great meaning, you just might find yourself at the crossroads again, but, that time the road you took has been closed, so you’ll make a new decision based on the new weapons, items, money and armor (or perhaps score) you’ll have by then. In order to become the ultimate zombie killing machine you must also master the arts of death completely – you will be rewarded for pulling off different levels of multi-kills, and making constant tactical decisions based on new money, score and other collectible mechanics.

Each road introduces new environments with elements that can work either for or against you. As you wade through areas with heavily overgrown plant life, you can make your way through by destroying the overgrowth blocking your progress. This affects the zombies’ paths as well. Navigating through flooded streets, you might find pools of water with zombies in them that you can electrocute. Flames burst out of buildings on fire, but time your movements right and it might be the zombies who get burned, not you.

Road of Devastation gives you several new ways to dispose of enemies. Trigger electric fences to fry everything nearby or turn zombie masses into mince meat with heavy-duty industrial saws. The latest technology even enable you to deploy an automated sentry gun called the “Auto-Turret” onto the battlefield – watch that ammo counter go. In the local hospital area you’ll find a new type of health pack – a medikit you can carry with you and use when you need it most. It restores full health, but you can only carry one at a time (or stomp it to gain lots of cash).

As the virus evolves, the enemies evolve. You’ll find enemy waves start to grow in numbers and get more and more aggressive. Zombies can now also burst forth from every conceivable angle. See a manhole cover moving? Zombies might literally ooze out at any moment. There’s a crack in a wall? You might want to keep your distance. No place is safe anymore. Even the ground you walk on might turn inside out when some of the new enemy types reveal themselves. And forget what you thought you knew about common zombies – Road of Devastation presents new enemy traits to several common zombie types. Low on ammo? Cop zombies usually drop some. Low on health? Doctor and nurse zombies might carry health packs. Need money? Tourist zombies tend to carry pocket change. See if you can discover them all.

A few entirely new enemies will also require your attention. Be extra careful when treading plant-infested environments – the virus has now also begun to infect even plant life. Beneath the ground, masses of buried corpses, all but decomposed have now fused with infected plant life. When these monstrous atrocities burst forth from amidst the plants, you’ll notice they have no problem treading the infested terrain as they make their way toward you. And the original game’s “Mouth” enemy makes a deadly comeback – evolved into “Big Mouth”, it now summons its minions straight from hell, from right below your very feet!

Prepare to experience Dead Nation in a brand new way in Road of Devastation, out today for $3.99. This time, it’s war!

Thanks to Sony's post-PSNocalypse "Welcome Back" program, Dead Nation went from being a well-reviewed game (we awarded it a 5/5) to a staple in many PS3 gamer's libraries, with "over 3.8 million" players mowing down "over 11,700,000,000" zombies. So while we're nearly a year past this downloadable shooter's release, there's no better time to announce some DLC.

"Road of Devastation" promises "a variety of new tools and equipment" which you'll need to tackle the "new enemies and obstacles you'll encounter in unique new environments." While that all sounds like the usual DLC fare, developer Housemarque teases that Road of Devastation will continue where the original left off ("or, is it actually the other way around ...") -- you wake up in a lab as a product of genetic modification to create the ultimate soldier. Outside the lab you find "a crossroads leading to three different paths, each with their own unique environments, challenges and enemies waiting for you." Only after all that will you "make a startling revelation ..."

We'll be honest, all these elipses have us unsettled. What does it all mean? Is this a prequel in which we discover that humanity's been the cause of the zombie outbreak this whole time? Actually, yeah ... we're pretty sure that's what it is.

If you can't get enough of the undead, you'll be happy to hear that Dead Nation -- the PlayStation Network downloadable from developer Housemarque -- is getting some DLC. Road of Devastation picks up where the original game left off. Players will pick one of three paths and get to bashing zombies in...

We hereby announce exciting news for Dead Nation players around the globe! We’ve been hard at work creating a new downloadable expansion called “Road of Devastation”! Before we say more, we’ll take this moment to acknowledge an epic milestone in the number of zombies killed worldwide: over 11,700,000,000 – and counting! To put that number in perspective, that’s more than 1.5 times the entire world’s population of today (though the game takes place in the near future where Earth’s population has grown much bigger…so don’t worry, there’s still plenty of zombies left).

Also, our worldwide recruit count has risen to over 3.8 million! We wish to humbly thank all the people who have supported the game.
Now, onto Road of Devastation:

From the ashes of the apocalypse, an organization has worked in the shadows, tampering with the human gene, modifying and improving upon it to create the perfect soldier, the ultimate zombie-killing machine – you! Continuing from the events where the original game left off (or, is it actually the other way around…), Road of Devastation will put your skills to the ultimate test. You’ll find yourself waking up in a laboratory with only one way out. Outside the door you’re presented with a choice – a crossroads leading to three different paths, each with their own unique environments, challenges and enemies waiting for you. If you manage to overcome the challenges, just when you think it’s over, you’ll make a startling revelation…

In addition to the range of enemies and weapons you’re already familiar with from the original game, Road of Devastation will present you with a variety of new tools and equipment to dispose of enemies with, while also introducing new enemies and obstacles you’ll encounter in unique new environments.

Stay tuned as we reveal more info and details on the blog soon. Keep up the fight, your country needs you!

4 out of 5

 There are a handful of really impressive bosses in here. Now that last year's ill-conceived top-down zombie shooter Dead Nation is fading into memory, Finnish developer Housemarque is back on the right track with Outland, an eye-popping 2D platformer that owes equal debts to Metroid and--of all things--Ikaruga. That odd combination results in a tightly designed downloadable game bursting with demanding traversal, surprisingly deep combat, and lush visual design. You can't be a fan of 2D action games in 2011 and not give this game a look.

Outland stops short of rendering its entire playable area on one giant graph-paper map, but the game's five areas are loosely tied together by level exits and teleporters that feed you fairly smoothly from place to place. You don't quite get the feeling of continuous exploration that you'd want after playing games like Shadow Complex or the latter day Castlevanias, but it's close enough. Though Outland is more linear and requires much less backtracking than those games, there are still areas you won't be able to access till later on, when you've acquired abilities that let you slide under things, launch into the air, or bust down walls with a charged shot. 

The sword combat is more involved and thus more satisfying than you'd expect on first glance. In addition to a basic three-hit combo, you can slide into enemies to daze them or slash upward in an uppercut-like motion to pop them up into the air. You can incorporate all of those moves into a single attack on an enemy, sliding into them, popping them up in the air, then leaping up and finishing them off before they even have a chance to hit you. It's a ton of fun. Both the fighting and the platforming are snappy and fluid, allowing you to get around the levels and fight enemies with speed and grace.

      Navigating the lush environments is quick and easy. It's a good thing you've got such precision control, because nothing about Outland's action is more demanding than its central reliance on a red-and-blue contrast that governs how you interact with enemies, platforms, and masses and masses of colored bullets. (There's that Ikaruga connection.) You can change yourself from one color to the other in a split second, which is a good thing, because you have to do that instantly, constantly, all the time to get by. You can only damage enemies of the opposite color, but you can only absorb bullets and stand on platforms of like color, so you get into lots of creative situations where you'll be switching colors every second or two to keep up. Like the combat, it's greatly satisfying to flip your alignment rapidly to get through some of the tougher scenarios cleanly without taking damage.

The game ramps up the difficulty of these two-tone scenarios gradually--it's the better part of an hour before you can even assume both colors--but by the end of the game, you'll be looking at some downright grueling challenges that force you to navigate enormous clouds of mixed bullets while fighting enemies that change their own coloration randomly and will shock you if you hit them at the wrong time. Oh, and you're standing on platforms that disappear out from under you when you flip colors. For the most part, you'll get through these sections with patience or trial and error (or both), but some frustration is inherent in the later levels. 

As demanding as the action is, the game's presentation could be a little clearer. The camera tends to pull out to such a degree your character is sometimes only a few pixels high, making it tough to see exactly what's going on if you don't sit especially close to your TV. And someone made the needlessly confusing decision to have your character flicker blue and red when you get hit, which sometimes made me do a knee-jerk color change that made me get hit again before I realized that it was a bad idea to change color in the first place.

 Beware this hell of bullets. I have no reservation calling Outland an absolutely beautiful game. Housemarque does a lot with a little here, employing a silhouetted art style similar to Limbo but with Tron-like red, blue, and yellow highlights applied to the characters in mostly tribal patterns that make them stand out and help highlight the tremendous animation. The backgrounds look like spare watercolor paintings with a lot of gentle light blooming and copious parallax scrolling to give them detail and depth. The five major areas look significantly different, with motifs ranging from a lush green jungle to dank caverns and frigid, mountainous peaks. Every screen of this game makes a great argument for why 2D games still matter from an artistic standpoint.

Outland's main campaign will probably run you about six hours, the high quality of which more than justifies its $10 asking price, and there are collectibles, speed-run levels, and some decent two-player cooperative challenge rooms if you want to lengthen the experience. I suspect this game is going to fly a little under the radar with so many high-profile titles releasing lately, but even a passing interest in 2D action demands that you at least give Outland a look.    

Dead Nation is terrific, but it has one shortcoming that many have considered a deal breaker: It lacks voice chat for online co-op play. That issue will be addressed in a new patch, to be deployed next Tuesday, March 7.

The title update will not only add voice chat, but a few other features, including the abilities to save at checkpoints (which should make those challenging final levels a little easier) and to copy save files to back them up. In its post on PlayStation Blog, Housemarque teases "further surprises" will be included, as well.

Hi everyone! Housemarque is extremely pleased to report that Dead Nation received the Editor’s Choice award by Gaming Nexus, Just Push Start, Playstation Lifestyle, ZTGD, and Gamingbolt!

Not only that, but the game was also chosen as PSN game of the year 2010 by PS Nation, Gamingbolt, and PlayStation Lifestyle! We’re most honored for these awards, we wish to thank everyone who voted, this means a lot!

Now, we’re excited to report that our upcoming patch is only days away (coming Monday, March 7th) and will provide players with not only online co-op Voice Chat, but also Checkpoint saves, the ability to copy saves, and some even further surprises for all the Dead Nation players out there!

And finally, for those interested in seeing behind-the-scenes of the game’s development, we made a small development diary last year that shows just how the whole zombie pandemic really got started…

We want to thank all the Dead Nation players out there and let them know that they’re appreciated! Keep your eyes peeled and your wits about you, the apocalypse has only begun!

The team at Housemarque takes zombie game development to the extreme in order to deliver a quality experience with the upcoming Dead Nation.

I love monsters. I grew up watching movies like “It Came From Beneath the Sea” and “The Thing” and playing games like War of the Monsters and Resident Evil. I wanted to honor that spirit with this first edition of the PlayStation Monsterpedia, a collection of detailed artwork and in-depth specifications gleaned directly from the game developers that inspired it all.

For this edition, I selected monsters that have left a strong impact on me personally, whether it was Dead Nation’s panic-inducing Cutter or Sackboy’s new arch-nemesis the Negativitron. Expect to see future editions of the PlayStation Monsterpedia detailing more memorable monsters from PlayStation lore, both old and new. What beasts would you like to see in the next installment? Be sure to leave your suggestions in the comments.

Codename: “WIDOWMAKER”

Height: Varies; size difference assumed to be based on varying maturity
Weight: Varies
Natural habitat: Unknown; Chimeran in origin
Defensive mechanisms: Toxic, caustic saliva; barbed fore talons; thick, chitinous armor
Weaknesses: Heavy artillery
Appears in: Resistance: Fall of Man, Resistance 3

BEHAVIOR:
The Widowmaker is the largest known feral Chimera, a wild spider-like predator that spits caustic saliva at any foes it cannot stab with its razor-sharp tarsi. Its appearance on the battlefield requires immediately engagement by all nearby units, with high casualty rates reported for both human and Chimeran forces. Widowmakers are generally solitary creatures, though scattered reports have indicated the possible existence of clans of Widowmakers stampeding through the wilderness.

Unlike the young Widowmakers Nathan Hale fought in England, fully grown Widowmakers are nearly impossible to defeat with conventional weaponry, though high explosives can prove effective. Initial data suggests that combatants that focus on the creature’s face first, then its weak points as it reacts, suffer lower casualty rates.

Codename: “DEVOURER”

Height: Approximately 25 feet tall
Weight: 7.5 tons (estimated)
Natural habitat: Marshlands surrounding New Marais
Defensive mechanisms: Powerful musculature; long, barbed tongue; thick armor plating
Weakness: Electricity; gaps between armor plates near the mouth and ribs
Appears in: inFAMOUS 2

BEHAVIOR:
The Devourer is part of The Corrupted, a race of mutant beings that have burrowed from the swamplands surrounding the city of New Marais. More precisely, The Corrupted comprise a hierarchy of organisms, including humanoid creatures equipped with long bladed arm talons as well as armored drones called Ravagers. The Devourer represents the pinnacle of The Corrupted’s unnatural evolution. The Devourer’s long, barbed tongue is prehensile, and the creature uses it to immobilize and ingest organic matter.

Eyewitness accounts from New Marais are scarce, but the Devourer is reportedly aggressive and territorial, making it exceedingly dangerous. With its vast size, enormous strength and armored exoskeleton, the Devourer presents a persistent threat to the citizens of New Marais — particularly as The Corrupted make increasingly bold incursions into inhabited urban centers. Attempts to subdue The Corrupted by local law enforcement have proven unsuccessful, sparking a small-scale arms race as mutant and human alike position for control of New Marais. A local anti-mutant vigilante group called the Militia has reported some success in keeping The Corrupted at bay, and have peddled these achievements into a local protection racket.

Speculation that The Corrupted and the Devourer were mutated as a result of local Ray Sphere experimentation warrants further investigation.

Codename: “CUTTER”

Height: 11 feet tall
Weight: Over 700 pounds
Natural habitat: Bioengineered, designed for urban environments
Defensive mechanisms: Thick, hardened carapace; machete-like talons
Weaknesses: Very few, though tactically inept and tends to charge mindlessly at prey
Appears in: Dead Nation

BEHAVIOR:
This lab-grown bioweapon patrols large areas and can survive for months, even years, on very little physical sustenance. The Cutter’s behavioral patterns are simple and primal, a testament to its artificial origin. Alarmingly nimble despite its towering physique, the Cutter tends to surprise its unlucky targets. Upon seeing its target the Cutter immediately charges and attempts to cleave the victim in two using its massive bladed talons. The cutting power of the Cutter’s machete-like hands can’t be overstated, and are capable of severing though Kevlar armor in one swipe.

The Cutter shows little discrimination in choosing targets, and won’t hesitate to carve through any nearby reanimated corpses if they stand between it and living prey. Resourceful survivors have been known to exploit this fact as a way of negotiating the countless walking dead that now prowl the streets of major urban centers worldwide.

Codename: “VERANIDATOR”

Height: Approximately 50 feet
Weight: 6.6 tons (estimated)
Natural habitat: Any large scale urban environment
Defensive mechanisms: Multi-shot rocket launcher; hydraulic claw; immobilizing acoustic eruption
Weaknesses: Easily distracted
Appears in: Eat Them!

BEHAVIOR:
Constructed in the laboratory of noted monster scientist Dr. Wilder, the Veranidator is equipped for maximum destruction in urban environments. Its rocket launcher can be used to take out ground-based and aerial attackers, and the patented ROAR acoustic weapon will immobilize unprotected human foes. Its hydraulic claw is just as useful for smashing through structures as it is grabbing improvised weaponry from the ground.

Like all of Dr. Wilder’s creations, the Veranidator is powered by disposable fuel units commonly used in vehicles, cafes, street corners, and anywhere else civilians congregate. Dr. Wilder has bragged that the Veradinator is just one of over five million variations he can create in his state-of-the-art genetic lab.

Codename: “NEGATIVITRON”

Height: 2.6 miles, or approximately 42,000 Sackboys
Weight: The Sun
Natural habitat: The cold, empty reaches of the Cosmos; the cupboard under the stairs
Defensive mechanisms: Sucking; Creating Meanies and infecting the Cosmos; Telling jokes at funerals
Weaknesses: Metal toy soldiers, bits of string, Sackboy
Appears in: LittleBigPlanet 2

BEHAVIOR:
Deep in the exquisite cold of the interstellar Cosmos, the skilled Negativitron hunter must know when to hunt and when to flee. Wherever there is silence, wherever there is serenity, calm or peace, that is when the tracker must be his most wary.

With infinite patience, the Negativitron waits in the darkest corners of the Cosmos with one terrible eye always open. The hunter will receive but one warning that his quarry has turned: THE UNMISTAKABLE DEATH WOOSH OF AN 1800W BAGLESS INTERSTELLAR VACUUM CLEANER! Snarling, thrashing, sucking, The Negativitron attacks with nothing but vengeance and fury on its mind. In the vast blackness of space, a Vacuum within a vacuum. Feeding on fear, on doubt, on all those times you were told you were worthless and grew to believe it. The Negativitron will read you, search you. The more you fear it, the stronger it becomes.

And what of the hunter? For most, eternal silence and blackness. Perhaps one in a hundred will escape with his life intact, and one in a thousand with his sanity. The Negativitron is a ruthless foe, filled with cunning and empty of remorse. It will lure you, trick you, seduce you and destroy you. Yours will be but another forgotten story, a speck of dust in the nebula of forgotten heroes.

The Negativitron shall live on! Brooding, resting, waiting.

#ps3 The downloadable PlayStation 3 game Dead Nation tracks every PlayStation-enabled nation's statistics for the feat of slaying virtual zombies. The U.S. now trails Finland somehow despite killing many more zombies. Can you guess which country the game's developers live in? More »

Due to issues beyond our control, a nasty, disgusting and horrific zombie outbreak has occurred and we need you to help prove your nation is the best in world at fighting the zombie infection.

Dead Nation has a unique online component which we call the metagame. It means that every time you kill a zombie, we know about it and so does the game. The metagame uses that information to track many things. So, every single zombie kill counts!

Every single dirt-ridden, disgusting sack of flesh you kill will count towards clearing the virus in your country. The more zombies you and your countrymen kill, the quicker the virus will be cleared.

Below is a snapshot of part of the Metagame:

Currently selected country. Player’s statistics. Statistics about the currently selected country. Ticker texts which displays various information about the global status, player’s country status, player’s friends and about the player. Access to more in-depth detailed statistics.

The metagame features an interactive map of the world, which can be used to access all the information. For example if you want to see who the best player in Japan is, you would select the country on the map to get that information. You can also easily check if any of your PSN friends live in that country and how well they are doing compared to their fellow countrymen. Can you be the best in your country?

The metagame also informs you which player is currently the best zombie killer in the world; best in your country of origin; and best amongst your friends.

On a higher level, the metagame tracks which country is the best in eradicating the zombie threat. This aspect can be seen as “Zombie killing World Championships.” It will be interesting to see which country will come on top and if they are able to hold that position.

Every country is ranked, so that you’ll be able to see how your homeland is progressing against your nearest ally or foe; and as you progress through the virus cycles it is worth keeping an eye out. Who knows when things might change?

Although the basic premise of the metagame is to see how your nation is progressing, it really does much more than that, and will take on a game of its own as it organically grows over the months and years after release. We’ll be keeping a close eye on it and are most definitely planning on supporting the Dead Nation community!

Platform: (PS3N)

2 out of 5

 This is atypically bright for Dead Nation. Despite having a strong feeling that the zombie video game had already been more or less perfected over a year ago, I was ready to jump into and enjoy Housemarque's new dual-joystick PSN zombie shooter Dead Nation. After all, these are the guys behind Super Stardust HD. If anyone knows dual-joystick shooting, it's them, right? But Dead Nation's awkward mechanics and dim visual style feel at odds with the twitchy, fast-paced gameplay inherent to the genre, and the lackluster online mode leaves an awful lot to be desired too.

The disappointing part is that Dead Nation sounded like it should have been great. Your 15 bucks gets you 10 mildly story-driven levels full of monsters to shoot, and there's a light progression mechanic where your performance earns you gold that you can cash in to upgrade weapons ranging from a shotgun and rocket launcher to a flamethrower, blade-hurler, and electro-zap something or other. You can play those 10 levels by yourself, or with a friend in local or online co-op. Everyone with me so far?

The core problem is the way the game plays. From the get-go, Dead Nation's shooting felt off to me, and even as I upgraded my gear, it never got more enjoyable as the overly long campaign wore on. The camera is pulled further out from the action than I would have liked, making your targets small and relatively hard to aim at (especially since only the default rifle gets a laser sight). The aiming is a little squirrelly anyway, combining with the small targets to make the game feel less precise than the great dual-joystick shooters of the last few years. And that default rifle is the only gun with unlimited ammo, so you tend to rely on it a lot--but it's a single-shot-single-button-press weapon, so my index finger felt like it was just about ready to fall off by the end of the game.

The story between missions is paper-thin. Worse, none of the levels are what I would call "well-lit," and some areas are downright pitch black. You've got a flashlight that lets you see what's directly in front of you, but even in the best cases, there are often enemies coming right at you that you can barely see. Hiding the monsters and the scenery from you is a central tenet of the game's design, but dual-joystick shooters are all about brightly colored entities moving in obvious contrast to the background. That contrast is necessary so you can subconsciously track the objects moving around your peripheral vision, because everything is moving too fast for you to stop and scrutinize every entity directly. The action doesn't move any slower in Dead Nation than in other shooters; it's just harder to see.

If the core shooting was more fun to play, the relative lack of variety in Dead Nation's campaign levels would be easier to cope with. The vast majority of the game is composed of same-looking city streets and generic urban areas, with cars strewn all over the place. Admittedly, the cars have real strategic value since you can shoot them to set off their alarms, which attracts the horde until the car explodes, just like in Left 4 Dead. Actually, most of this game feels... just like Left 4 Dead. Among the zombie lineup there are direct equivalents of the boomer, spitter, and tank, and you'll find yourself in familiar locations like a hospital and a carnival, in the latter shooting zombie clowns. This stuff has been done before.

 ACK ZOMBIES The game is more fun in two-player co-op than it is by yourself, largely because the level design and monster distribution make it really hard while you're playing solo to put your back against a wall and defend yourself without getting surrounded. With a friend onboard you can naturally watch each other's backs, making this a much less frequent occurrence. But you'd be best off playing with that friend on the couch with you. Getting into an online game isn't a problem, but when I played online, there was enough lag even as the host to make the game feel noticeably less responsive than it does offline. Also, when you're playing online, you can't talk to your partner because the game currently has no voice chat. Housemarque promises the feature will be along shortly in an upcoming patch, but for an online action game to ship without voice chat one month shy of 2011 is damn near unforgivable at this point.

At least Dead Nation looks great. That lighting that impacted the quality of the action for me does look nice and moody, and there are some great physics that send zombie bodies flying right at the camera when you set off a big explosion. But it doesn't matter how slick a game like this looks if the action isn't on point. Housemarque has proven in the past it clearly has the chops to make great shooters, but it doesn't feel like that skill was fully brought to bear on this one.

Dead Nation’s nonstop shooting and scrambling will test the mettle of even a veteran gamer — and that’s part of the fun! I’ve compiled my battle-tested tactics gleaned from beating the game on the “Grim” difficulty, plus bonus tips shared by PlayStation Twitter followers. Earn more gold, find more health, beat back mobs efficiently, and choose the right upgrades. Be sure to leave your own battle-tested tips in the comments!

Mob Rules

• Rush makes you (briefly) invincible. Pressing L2 grants you a burst of speed that makes you untouchable for a nanosecond. Use it to dodge angry Bombies, power through a zombie crowd, or sprint over flames. But even the Rush won’t save you from the dreaded Cutter…
• Master the Melee. Melee attacks (R2) knock away all zombies, even those lurking behind you, so it’s a must for crowd control. To be a real melee monster, collect fashionable ExoGear armor pieces hidden throughout the game and equip them at the Weapon Shop.
• Melee while reloading. Stuck in a reload animation just as a mob is closing in? Jam on the melee button (R2) to fend off the onrushing zombies — it won’t interrupt your reload progress. So no excuses: Reload at every opportunity!
• Learn to love car alarms. That telltale red warning light is your cue to open fire — the resulting racket will bring every nearby zombie running, giving you time to slink away before the ensuing explosion.
• Trick the Jumper into smashing other zombies. When you hear its distinctive shriek, Rush away. With practice, you can use this technique to direct the Jumper right into a zombie crowd with lethal results.
• Listen to the music. Dead Nation’s dynamic soundtrack gets the blood pumping. But, more importantly, it can give you clues about the next threat. If you hear the music kick into overdrive, ready a powerful weapon!
• When all else fails, throw a grenade. It’s tempting to solve every problem with bullets, but equipment like flares and mines are absolute lifesavers. Use them regularly or suffer the consequences!

Cash is King

• Keep your enemies close. Those gold and red orbs that gush from defeated zombies? They boost your cash and score multiplier, respectively, but their value decreases rapidly over distance. For maximum cash, stay as close as possible to the carnage.
• It pays to wait. Glowing blue boxes always carry ammo; all other boxes alternate between red (score multiplayer) and gold (money for weapons and upgrades). If you’re strapped for cash, wait for each box to turn gold before opening it.
• Cash 4 Health. Topped off on life? Don’t let that health kit go to waste. Tap R2 — you’ll squash it and gain bonus cash. Protip: This doesn’t work in real life.
• Junk in the trunk. Car trunks always contain gold, so be sure to loot them at every opportunity.
• Leave no gravestone unturned. Take some time to venture off the main path. Dead Nation is riddled with secret nooks and crannies loaded with item boxes and cash, and you’ll need every last dollar if you want to max out all of your gear.
• Ammo comes first! Remember to buy ammunition and items before spending all your cash on upgrades and new weapons.

Tips for Healthy Living

• Rest a little. Your character automatically regenerates 20% of his or her life bar. If you’re low on life and facing long odds, grab that next health kit after you regenerate and you’ll come out ahead.
• Health-o-Matic. Soda machines are scattered throughout the environments, and can provide one of two effects. Shoot it to create a noisy diversion; Melee it (R2) to gain a quick health boost.
• Max out your Endurance. If you’re having trouble surviving, equip ArmoShell armor upgrades at the next Weapon Shop to boost your defense.
• Rush the flames away. Flames and poison goo will melt down your health bar in milliseconds. Rushing (L2) will slough off any harmful substances and get you back in the fight.

Weapon Tips

• Rifle: Limitless ammo makes this a handy fallback, and its charged “powershot” drills through a crowd like a hot knife through butter. The powershot can also snipe out a dangerous target in the middle of a crowd. Upgrade it early, but don’t rely on it.
• Shotgun: Upgrade early and upgrade often. Perhaps the single most useful weapon in Dead Nation, the Shotgun makes mincemeat out of the toughest zombies. Don’t get trigger happy, though: ammo is painfully limited.
• SMG: This rapid-fire weapon is best used against weaker zombies such as skeletons. On higher difficulties, the SMG will barely faze tougher enemies — use it with caution and upgrade it gradually over the course of the game.
• Flamethrower: This specialized weapon fits a niche role. You’ll need to top off every upgrade to reach its full potential — a pricey proposition. It’s best for crowd control, as flaming zombies move slower and tend to scatter.
• Blade Cannon: A keeper! The bladed projectile will carve through an entire horde, instantly killing all zombies — including the dreaded soldiers and fat men — with one well-placed shot. It’s also a one-hit kill against Bombies, though Jumpers and Cutters will barely shrug. It’s definitely worth upgrading.
• Launcher: This powerful rocket launcher is the ideal choice against Cutters and Jumpers, though it starts with only five shots. Upgrade the ammo capacity posthaste, and always fire from a safe distance!
• Shocker: This lightning gun can flash-fry a huge horde in seconds — if you have the cash to max out its upgrades. The Shocker will also immobilize lesser enemies, making it a powerful alternative to the Flamethrower.

Equipment Tips

• Flare: Invest in the Duration upgrade to keep zombie mobs distracted longer, then let loose with the Shotgun, Blade Cutter, or Shocker.
• Grenade: Zombies will lunge for the blinking light, making Grenades a great choice for redirecting rampaging mobs. Stay clear of the red explosive radius!
• Mine: Upgrade these bad boys as quickly as possible, especially to gain multiple Explosive Charges. Even though mines don’t attract special enemies like they do with zombies, you can still utilize them by standing behind mines and luring them in.
• Molotov: Handy in a pinch, but self immolation is a constant risk. Molotovs are perhaps most useful for creating a literal firewall between yourself and an angry horde. Use with caution!
• TNT: This screen-filling explosion inflicts the most damage of all, making it valuable against the rock-hard Cutters. As with the other items, zombies will be attracted to its blinking light.

Co-op and Community Tips

• Make sure to balance the weapon loadouts for co-op play, so you can handle all types of zombies (via @EGjonas)
• In co-op, play back-to-back to keep lights surrounding the area and you’ll have fun mowing down hundreds of the undead. (via @MeatRations)
• Pump the first few rounds into the cars BEFORE you need them to blow up. Prime ‘em. (via @BenKuchera)
• Always exploit the exploding cars AFTER you’ve looted them. (via @Geofortean)
• Use a charged shot to quickly set off a car alarm or a soda machine. (via @psnstores)
• Upgrade the default Rifle to max power, then use bottlenecks in the environment to line up the zombies. Boom! Multi-kill! (via @Essmithsd)
• Always be moving while engaged in combat. If you need breathing room, melee and rush are an effective way to buy precious seconds. (via @driftingdrafts)
• Reload, switch weapons, and switch back to the original. The weapon will be at full stock without the wasted time. (via @Taggart451)
• In co-op, stick side-by-side in a narrow alleyway and lure the zombies in while backing up. Using Molotovs for a line of fire and Mines (via @GameOnGreggy)

The Friends List glitch is no more.

Saying that the developer "sincerely apologise that voice chat is not available in Dead Nation's online co-op mode," Housemarque CEO and co-founder Ilari Kuittinen writes on the EU PlayStation Blog that the zombie-filled, twin-stick shooter will be updated with the feature "soon," with the team "currently working intensely to introduce it as quickly as possible."

While Kuittinen admits in his post that the lack of voice chat is "a major issue for some players," he goes on to say, "we think that releasing Dead Nation has been the right decision as the game is still great fun." We'd have to agree with that last part -- about it being great fun -- but have to wonder how much shipping without such a integral element to online co-op was worth compared to missing out on holiday sales.

We know some Dead Nation online co-op players have requested voice chat functionality. I’m here to tell you that we’ve listened to the fans and are taking steps to add voice chat for online co-op in the near future. To reiterate this point, here’s a note from the team at Housemarque:

We know some of you are frustrated by the lack of voice chat support in Dead Nation’s online co-op mode. We realize many players have been very eager to join up and start taking care of the zombie nation and we greatly appreciate the continued support. Therefore, the team is currently working on the addition of voice chat capability and hope to introduce it as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, we’re keen to get as much feedback on the game as possible so we can further improve what we think is a great zombie game. We’ll be sure to keep everyone posted via the PlayStation.Blog and our Dead Nation Facebook page on when they can expect the voice chat update. We at Housemarque put our hearts and souls into the development of our games with the goal in mind to create thrilling gaming moments for players, so our hope is that everyone enjoys the finished product.

On that note, what are your favorite weapons so far? What upgrade path have you taken? Have you been able to conquer the Grim difficulty mode yet? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll have more to share with you soon about Dead Nation!

Sincerely,

Housemarque Team

#ps3 The PlayStation 3 video game Dead Nation was created in Finland but nevertheless shows that the United States is the word's top country in destroying the undead. More »

Is the game crashing when you start it? We know why.

Grab a buddy and protect your brains.

Twelve hours and 15,000 dead zombies later, I finished Dead Nation. Did I feel accomplished? Yeah, sure. But the feeling that I couldn't shake? Relief.

Housemarque's long-awaited follow-up to Super Stardust HD is exhausting, in more ways than one. The body count should be a clue: Dead Nation is suffocatingly dense, truly embodying the term "sensory overload." Zombies will swarm you by the hundreds, and once you've disposed of them -- with bullets, explosives, fire and a giant projectile blade-thing -- their ever-present remains ... remain, serving to remind of the havoc you've wreaked.

There's some spectacular tech powering the experience: atmospheric lighting, uncomfortably realistic audio and a subtle attention to detail that's difficult to encapsulate. But, I doubt you'll stop to soak it all in. In fact, you'll be lucky if you can manage a mumbled "wow," as you try to catch your breath after each level.

The week you’ve been waiting for is here! Dead Nation will release on the PlayStation Store tomorrow, November 30th for $14.99 in North America (and at a 20% discount to PlayStation Plus subscribers for $11.99).

We’re pleased to present the Dead Nation launch trailer below. As you can see, we’ve revealed a few new treats such as the Molotov Cocktail, Shocker weapon, and Cutter special zombie.

The molotov cocktail is an important tactical item in your arsenal as it creates a wall of fire protecting you from the undead hordes coming to eat you alive. The incredibly powerful Shocker can take out waves of the undead hungry for warm flesh. Just like the other Special Zombies, the Cutter is force to be feared with huge blade arms that can cut you in half in just one swipe!

Fight through the campaign on your own in Dead Nation or join a friend (on the couch or online) to eradicate the infection. With features like the twin-stick shooting style and the use of recharging rush and point multipliers, it’s clear that Dead Nation is built with the same DNA of Housemarque’s last break-thru PSN hit, Super Stardust HD.

Dead Nation will be available on the PlayStation Store tomorrow. Download the game and fight the zombie virus to save mankind!

#review Game developers, please stop making zombie games when you stop making good ones. Dead Nation is allowed. It's a good one. More »

Dead Nation invades the PlayStation Store in only one week! We want to make sure that you’ll hit the ground running because the zombie hordes will be relentless in their quest for fresh, warm meat. Today, we want to show you Dead Nation in its full chaotic glory. Watch Super Stardust HD pro Tlo-Mek, who has since joined Housemarque’s development team due to his gaming prowess, eradicate the zombie infection when the heat is turned up to 11.

Dead Nation is a twin-stick shooter but the controls give you far more flexibility than you might expect. In the video above, you can watch Tlo-Mek, some of you played Dead Nation co-op with him at a MLG event using melee, Rush, and the game environment to his advantage. All three of these tactics are critical to survive Dead Nation’s most fearsome battles, particularly when you’re faced with special zombies, Jumpers, Bombies, and other lurking threats – in addition to huge hordes of the undead.

Study up on the control scheme now – the undead are only a week away!

What weapon are you most looking forward to using in Dead Nation? Do you think you’ll go solo like Tlo-Mek, or buddy up online? Let us know in the comments below.