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Posted by Joystiq Jan 28 2012 04:59 GMT
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Dead Block, a zombie-themed action strategy title released on PSN and XBLA last year, is now available on PC. Dead Block didn't exactly set the world on fire when it was released, but those interested in its rockabilly take on the zombie apocalypse can pick it up from several download services for $10.

Find the full list of sellers -- missing Steam, notably -- after the break.

Posted by Rock, Paper, Shotgun Jan 27 2012 14:58 GMT
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Cooperative zombie defence game Dead Block hit XBLARGH and PSN last summer and has only just managed to burst through the barricades previously holding it back from a PC release. There are no towers, this being ’50s small town America it’s mostly diners, motels and hair grease. but there’s plenty of defending to be done. Rather than pointing and clicking to place turrets, players control one of three characters, rushing about, hammering boards across openings and planting traps. Zombies must die. Again. It didn’t receive the warmest reception in console land and I’m yet to play it but at least there’s a bit of old-fashioned rock and roll in there. Trailer below.

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Posted by Joystiq Aug 23 2011 06:30 GMT
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Just when you think there aren't any more undead to deal with, more come out of the woodwork. The same goes for themed video games, apparently, as a new map pack adding four new levels to Candygun Games' zombie-defense title Dead Block is currently available for download on Xbox Live Arcade.

240 MS Points ($3) will grant players access to the More Dead to Block map pack, which includes a Turkish Bath, a Slaughter House, a Motel and an Office Building level. Each map is playable both in single-player and via three-player online co-op. We'd suggest the latter -- facing the undead alone is kind of like covering all of your clothes in A-1 and taking a weekend getaway to Cannibal Town.

Admittedly, Cannibal Town does have a sweet rollercoaster.

Posted by IGN Jul 20 2011 19:15 GMT
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Budapest, Hungary - Digital Reality and developer Candygun Games today announced the release of their zombie defense video game Dead Block on PlayStation Network. Dead Block drops players into the 1950's when the rock 'n roll craze was first sweeping the nation - and creating an undead apocalypse as...

Posted by PlayStation Blog Jul 18 2011 19:29 GMT
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I’m writing for our small game development start-up Candygun Games based in Hamburg, Germany. We’ve just finished our first original game: Dead Block – A 1950’s Horror B-Movies inspired action defense game. I’m very happy to bring Dead Block to PS3 gamers via PSN on July 19th in the U.S!

Dead Block is a zombie game set in America’s 1950s during the birth of rock ‘n roll music — a music so bad, so evil that it summons the dead from their graves to eat brains! Luckily, you are protected inside a building and you know how to defend yourself with blockades and traps. The game is a third-person action strategy mix with an old-school B-movie horror theme and cartoon-inspired art direction. Dead Block doesn’t take itself too seriously; humor is a big part of the game’s presentation.

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During gameplay, you’ll be trapped inside the building and you can use everything you find in order to build blockades and wicked traps. If zombies break in, players fight the intruders with smart bombs and rock ’n roll music. Single-player and up to four player split-screen is supported.

Candygun Games was founded in 2010 with a few friends. With the concept of Dead Block, it was easy to get the team together and to make our vision come true – being an indie studio that focuses on innovative downloadable games for consoles. Dead Block is our first title as an indie studio and we’re very excited! If you want to know more about our studio, please visit our official site. And if you want to know even more about Dead Block, read our huge developer Q&A on deadblock.com!

Finally, we have prepared a special Dead Block dynamic theme for PS3 owners, and it will arrive alongside the Dead Block demo and full game tomorrow. And keep an eye peeled on this blog post: Over the next few days, our Lead Designer Jens Jankuhn and I will check back here and respond to your questions. Please let us know all the questions you have about Dead Block!


Posted by Giant Bomb Jul 08 2011 23:00 GMT
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2 out of 5

In the opening minutes of Dead Block, you may find yourself intrigued. It presents a style that simultaneously pays reverence to the classic schlocky horror of the 1950s, Team Fortress 2, and, for some reason, rockabilly. Its gameplay appears an interesting mix of tower defense, third-person action, and assorted minigames. Its notion of a zombie game that's more about strategy and survival than producing buckets of button-mashy gore sounds like a good one. And as it goes along, you keep waiting for it to evolve past those early inklings of promise. And you wait. And wait. And wait some more.

Clearly, he's got the right tool for the job, if you know what I mean. (I mean sex.)

It never happens. For the entirety of its couple-of-hours-long campaign, Dead Block refuses to evolve past its initial impression. It is a game in which you do the exact same thing over and over and over for a handful of levels. You gain new items, you equip new weapons, and you fight new enemies. But the fundamental nature of the game remains staunchly constant: You break stuff, you build zombie traps, and you item hunt. You keep doing this until the game is over, or you have had your fill. Odds are, you'll have your fill very quickly.

In the game, you are presented with three playable characters: The construction worker from the Village People, the fat kid from Up, and Foxy Brown in a crossing guard uniform. Each character has their own particular strengths and weaknesses when it comes to searching for things, destroying objects, and fighting off zombie hordes. They also have their own unique traps they can set for zombies, ranging from a precariously placed nuclear bomb to a bucket of human excrement that hurts zombies for some reason.

You can fight the zombies in Dead Block, but that's not really the point, and that's good, because the combat is clunky and terrible. Rather, you're meant to find all the various points of entry that zombies might use to infiltrate whatever base of operations you're in, and stop them using blockades and traps. You gain the materials needed to build these traps by destroying furniture and other objects throughout the environment, and searching through boxes, packages, cases, and globes for other useful items.

You can also get wood for blockades by breaking toilets, but perhaps it's best if we just leave that one alone. Anyway, once you collect enough resources, you can plop a blockade or a trap down in any windowsill or door frame. The strategy is in trying to manage the waves of zombies breaking through. A few at a time is fairly manageable, but the more that pour in, the more hectic things tend to get. If you plan poorly, you'll have a whole horde of undead backing you into a corner. If you plot correctly, you'll be able to rummage through the various credenzas and cacti that hold the items which you seek with only minimal molestation.

What are you looking for besides resources, you ask? Oddly enough, guitar equipment. Someone on Dead Block's design team has a real hard-on for rockabilly, it seems. Apart from a soundtrack by Danish rockabilly act Vampyre State Building (whose same two songs play at the outset and outro of every level), the game uses the central conceit of Mars Attacks! that music will kill invading interlopers. Here, rock-and-roll guitar played at full volume is all you need to explode some zombie heads. In order to make that happen, you have to find a guitar, an amp, and a speaker. These are hidden throughout each level, sometimes in suitcases, sometimes in cow skulls. Again, don't ask.

Some of the methods of zombie death provide minor amusement, but you run out of new methods pretty quick.

Where Dead Block ultimately falls apart is in its refusal to evolve these tasks. Every stage is a foregone conclusion. You know that any nearby window will allow zombies in. You know what to break and what to search through. Almost immediately, the game begins recycling these concepts to the point of abject tedium. You'll hammer on the B button so many times while bustin' chifforobes that it may require replacement following the end of the game. The minigames inserted to try and add some "game" to the process of perpetual item-hunting are merely dull variations on "how fast can you press the trigger buttons in succession?" and "can you time this A button press correctly?" This never becomes more complicated, nor more interesting. You repeat the same meager set of actions ceaselessly until the game simply stops throwing more levels at you.

And that's after just a couple of hours. There are some multiplayer co-op levels, but you can't play them online. With so little content to speak of, and only early fits of charm to mask the overwhelmingly monotonous mechanics, Dead Block feels like a weird product of a bygone era. It's as if it was plucked from the earliest days of downloadable gaming, back when digital games often relied more on single-minded gimmicks than the fully fleshed-out concepts of late, and $10 seemed like such a great deal for any game you could play with buttons on a console. That era has long since passed us by, and we're better for it. Pass on Dead Block, and you'll be better for it, too.


Posted by Joystiq Jul 06 2011 22:00 GMT
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This Dead Block trailer is challenging everything we know about zombie lore. Demonstrating one of the boy scout's unique abilities, the character prepares and tosses out a hamburger, which lures a crowd of zombies to it before exploding.

Does that mean that, for all these years, people in movies could have just fed the zombies a tasty burger and been done with it? That would make zombies just really stupid hungry people. Or maybe ... maybe that kid just cooked a burger made of human flesh.

Dead Block is out today on XBLA; a PSN release will follow on July 20.

Video
Posted by GameTrailers Jun 30 2011 18:38 GMT
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Jack, Foxy and Mike must work together to overcome the undead menace!

Video
Posted by GameTrailers Jun 30 2011 18:38 GMT
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Set sneaky traps and weaken zombies with a variety of tricks!

Posted by Joystiq Jun 29 2011 23:30 GMT
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Nothing says "America" like apple pie, Elvis and vintage zombie hordes, straight out of the Golden 1950s. Dead Block, a suburban-zombie tower-defense title from Candygun Games, is hitting XBLA July 6, according to publisher Digital Reality. We first saw this date reported over the weekend at XBLA Fans; the only problem is, Xbox Live's Major Nelson told us, "It's not on the list that I have." Remember, kids, Xbox Live Marketplace release dates are never official until Microsoft releases them!

... but we're not sure about PlayStation Network, which Digital Reality says is scheduled to get its dose of Dead Block on July 20. Regardless of release dates, the cute-yet-crude take on the undead genre will be marked at 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360 and the equivalent $10 on PSN.

If you're still curious about the game, we've got a trailer for you after the break, but here's the meat of it: Zombies are created from the hip vibrations of mid-century rock 'n' roll and are slaughtered by Jack the construction worker, Foxy the traffic warden or Mike, the fat boy scout from Up.

Posted by IGN Jun 29 2011 16:50 GMT
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Budapest, Hungary - Digital Reality and developer Candygun Games have announced that their upcoming zombie defense game, Dead Block, will shamble onto Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system for Microsoft on July 6th, and onto PlayStation Network on July 20th! Dead Block...

Posted by IGN Jun 29 2011 16:18 GMT
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Dead Block, the upcoming downloadable title from Candygun Games "that mixes zombie killing with tactical defense strategies" has been confirmed for both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. And better yet, the game has a release date...

Video
Posted by GameTrailers May 12 2011 23:33 GMT
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It's time to turn the tide on the zombie apocalypse with some clever traps and firepower.

YouTube
Posted by Kotaku May 11 2011 05:30 GMT
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#brains There are too many damn zombie games. But no matter how many there are, if one can come along and offer something new, then it'll get noticed. And Dead Block is getting noticed. More »

Posted by IGN May 10 2011 16:25 GMT
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HAMBURG, Germany - Candygun Games announces a licensing agreement with Epic Games, Inc. to use the award-winning Unreal Engine 3 in the development of "Dead Block," the studio's upcoming third-person action defense title for PC, Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network to be published by Digital Reality and released during summer 2011. The license to use UE3 for "Dead Block" is part of a multi-year, exclusive licensing agreement with Epic Games...