11 minutes of Dead Island gameplay

[Video Link] I didn't watch all of this video about Dead Island, because I don't want to spoil it, but the parts I watched looked good! (Release date is September 30, 2011).

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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SeattlePete

Ugh. Achievement pop-ups are so distracting.

This could be good if they are able to integrate the story and missions in a believable way, but I suspect that there’s going to be too much “I need gas for my generator” and “I need spark plugs for my generator” type missions. Pointless Borderlands style. Great setting as I am not tired of zombies yet, but lately the mission mechanic that’s being used to rehash environments is feeling predictable. I already have a job, you know?
Anonymous

FINALLY. I have been waiting for YEARS for a decent zombie apocalypse simulator. Dead rising was fun, but all those damn time constraints sucked the atmosphere away.
pinehead

Looks like a fun way to spend an afternoon. I kinda miss playing games like this.
zorro869

Is it me or does every NPC look like they have 2 lazy eyes. A minor detail but one that every other FPS seems to have gotten ok.

As for infection lore: See: 28 days.

As for this game is boring, etc. You barely got to see all the stuff you can do back at the base. I actually think it looks like it has a lot of open-ended stuff to offer. They just didn’t show it.

If you want a novel game- look at Minecraft or Portal. Aside from these title I havent seen anything “NEW” in 15 years.
Anonymous

I have to admit doing it open world with sandbox dynamics is a nice addition to the usual resident evil field of games.

as for the company I liked them alot for making Crime Cities way back when..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz7CHe3y-lo
genre slur

Contrary to many of the comments above, I find this little snapshot to be fine. Grew up with ID stuff (Wolfen 1/2/3-d…) and a fan of Romero. In fact, I refute many of the moralist/gaming critiques I’ve read here. I haven’t played games in a while (well, Go in real-life) but I appreciate art theory/history. This games appears to have a well executed atmosphere. That goes a long way for me. I could watch someone play this just to soak it up. Good palm shadows, and hey — there’s no accounting for taste.
Trent Hawkins

After playing some Brink it makes taking the stairs and walking around railing seem like such a chore.
holding_rabbits

Me love violence, I gotz to kill somethin’!

it wouldn’t surprise me if boingboing wrote an article about how mindless violence/gore in video games is for undersexed college males pumped up on energy drinks (a study shows it). it’s just a weird contrast to the regularly published material which encourages creativity and thought, while video games are a passive activity. you aren’t really “doing” anything. you’re accomplishing a point A to point B task which has already been designed for you and from which you cannot deviate.

as far as the game as art? give me a break. here’s an art project: instead of introducing something “beautiful” into our ugly world, why doesn’t someone try to take away something ugly from it instead? ending hunger for a small village would be a way better art project that smashing things with a baseball bat in slow motion with soft piano music playing.
InsertFingerHere

Obviously this game will be delayed in a court battle because of the tattoo on the lifeguard’s face.
- genre slur
  
  Bwahahahaha!
Neural Kernel

Can’t find anything to confirm my suspicions but this looks a LOT like the original Crysis, is it using one of the Cryengines? All through the video I kept expecting the KPA to pull up in a jeep and start shooting :P
HOTDAMN

Man, maybe I haven’t played any video games in a while but that gore was pretty disturbing, especially the bits with bikini-clad corpses (that don’t even really look like zombies) being dismembered with a baseball bat. Kind of scary when you think of all the 10 year-olds that are going to end up accidentally playing this.

Moral whining ends……. NOW!
- Zoman
  
  10 year-old plays this… parents fault.
  10 year-old watch porn… parents fault.
  10 year old drinks beer.. parents fault.
  
  I’ve got kids myself, but I’m damned if I want to live in some sterile Disney Land environment just because some people are completely hopeless parents.
  
  The gore level is no greater in this game, than stuff that has been around for 12-13 years. It’s just higher res. Games need gore… and more, LOTS more nudity.
Greeny

As someone who emerged from the world of Pac-Man, Defender and Frogger, I still have to pinch myself to believe that games like this actually exist. It looks amazing. Brutal and amazing. I’m sure there’s some serious tension when you’re playing it that doesn’t come across on the trailer. I’d love to play it if I didn’t have a job to go to and a thousand drains on my time.
- Chentzilla
  
  From the world of Pac-Man and Frogger? Is that you: http://www.heathwood.org/simpson/quicklinks/animalsoftherainforest/pacman.htm?
oddboyout

This video gives me the impression that character wears heels the entire game… though I do like the focus on melee; it does seem like more realistic combat at least.
Anonymous

of all the games coming out this is the one that gets a plug. probably just because of that trailer released a while ago that everyone got excited over even though it was a different studio that did the trailer than the one working on the game SOOOOOO
Anonymous

The voice acting is dreadful.
Anonymous

Boing Boing from this and then bounce me to the Guatemala tragedy link on the left hand column. What am I to think? It is news, is it a game. Is it hard core enough for me or is it just fantasy? But all I can hear is screamed back at me is – it’s only a game dude, it’s only a game! Guatamala- now that’s a real tragedy and there’s no connection to this at all except there is a visual connection and we all know it.

Confused.
tylerkaraszewski

Based on the first two minutes it pretty much looks exactly like eery other FPS game ever.
yosemite

For some reason I watched the whole thing. It’s basically cut, stab, slice, stab, slice, cut, slice, stab. I found it kind of restrictively boring.
Emo Pinata

Where are all the fat old people? And what about the male foreigners wearing skimpy speedos with tramp stamps?

This is nothing like my resort experiences.
- genre slur
  
  Stop it. You’re hurting my sides.
redesigned

i hope they release a mac version so i don’t have to bootcamp this bad boy. looks fun.
Anonymous

games today are basically the same, with a different background graphics. Their background world looks pretty good. I’d like to play this game, minus the zombies. Just explore the island and the town.
Anonymous

I remember playing Tetris a lot and having dreams about it. I’d hate for that to happen from playing a game like this.
SonOfSamSeaborn

I don’t think I can watch this or play the actual game. I want the original trailer to stay alone, aloof, as an independent piece of art. I don’t see how the game could actually live up to it.
petsounds

Seriously, Mark? This looks more like a perfect example of what makes most modern game titles soulless. No innovation, no creativity, no fun; just a bleak, corporate checklist of game features.
- Mark Frauenfelder
  
  I don’t play many FPS titles. I like zombies, though. That said, if you have game recommendations I would love to hear them!
NuOrder72

yeah, I’m not digging these kind of games either. I have no moral quandries with them; I agree with the above posters, it seems like they get boring after a while. Also, why is the main character punching the zombies? I thought if their blood got on you, a zombie will infect you; thus, turning you into a zombie. I don’t think this game follows zombie-canon very well.
- Anonymous
  
  Almost no zombie canon has that rule. Many have a zombie bite or scratch infecting you, and probably have a rule of “if zombie-blood gets inside an open wound of yours, your done for”, but I’m aware of no zombie movies or games that have their blood simply touching you to be an undeath sentence.
  - deckard68
    
    It’s not the touching that is a problem, it is that hitting a zombie in the face with your bare fist is likely going to cut your knuckles on their teeth. Maybe not down to a vein, but into your skin for sure. And further on, when he drives through zombies with no windshield, he’d be getting blood in his eyes, nose, and mouth.
    
    Then again characters in zombie movies rarely suit-up sensibly, partly because no one would pay to see a completely-masked Milla Jovovich.
    
    Well, some would.
- Agies
  
  Direct contact with zombie blood as an infection vector is hardly canonical in and of itself. That being said the only things that seem to count as canon these days is that zombies used to be human and now they aren’t and that they tend to come in hoards.
  
  The thing is that this game really isn’t a shooter, it’s more of a survival horror action RPG.
doc_roswell

After playing a variety of zombie games, LEFT 4 DEAD and its sequel primarily, this looks like breath of fresh air. Significantly richer story (though it may end up being linear, not sure until I actually get my hands on it) and looks like a more intensive combat system, other survivors, etc. Looks pretty promising from where I stand.