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[Spiral42]

when is the zombie thing played out? now? maybe next year?

I don't know. People have been wondering that since the mid 80's. Vampires are played out, that much is for sure.

I agree with what I've seen said before: I think it's got something to do with the concept of socially acceptable massacre. As violent games become more visible as a medium, we as a society start to pay more attention to what it is we're slaughtering on-screen. There needs to be an endless source of faceless, unredeemable enemies to play as our targets so that they don't weigh on our digital conscience and/or offend some existing part of society.
(For example, as I was playing through the Assassin's Creed series recently I noticed the occasional pang of remorse at chucking some archer off a roof before I was spotted - the guy's just doing his job, you know?)
For a long time, the mainstay villain was Nazis (or Dystopian-Future-Nazis) but everyone's getting a little tired of that. There are hordes of slavering space-bugs, or characterless goblins. And there's zombies.
Zombies scratch a particular gaming itch. We want to face something like us, but alien. That's where the fear comes in. We like the risk of infection - "there but for boomstick go I".

At least AZS isn't an FPS. I like the simulation style of the game, I think it's a fresher approach to the issue. That little green square of dots on the screen? That's your game of L4D on the streets, and look how small it is against the coming wave - what I like about AZS is its sense of scale.

[flap]

Hmm, blendo games is still struggling to handle those ATI card issues. However latest patch increased modding possibilities. Hoooo, I fell that's ill soon start a fun campaing with artillery or infantery only...

[Deon]

I've played a few games like this, but it is the first one with such level of polish. Interface (various diplomas and documents you sign), killing elements (mercenaries which level up), city map (with sectors with different levels of infection and missions), events, the player vs zombie progress bar... Everything blends together nicely.

And the music and art are awesome .

I may end buying it.

[ductape]

when is the zombie thing played out? now? maybe next year?

I don't know. People have been wondering that since the mid 80's. Vampires are played out, that much is for sure.

I agree with what I've seen said before: I think it's got something to do with the concept of socially acceptable massacre. As violent games become more visible as a medium, we as a society start to pay more attention to what it is we're slaughtering on-screen. There needs to be an endless source of faceless, unredeemable enemies to play as our targets so that they don't weigh on our digital conscience and/or offend some existing part of society.
(For example, as I was playing through the Assassin's Creed series recently I noticed the occasional pang of remorse at chucking some archer off a roof before I was spotted - the guy's just doing his job, you know?)
For a long time, the mainstay villain was Nazis (or Dystopian-Future-Nazis) but everyone's getting a little tired of that. There are hordes of slavering space-bugs, or characterless goblins. And there's zombies.
Zombies scratch a particular gaming itch. We want to face something like us, but alien. That's where the fear comes in. We like the risk of infection - "there but for boomstick go I".

At least AZS isn't an FPS. I like the simulation style of the game, I think it's a fresher approach to the issue. That little green square of dots on the screen? That's your game of L4D on the streets, and look how small it is against the coming wave - what I like about AZS is its sense of scale.

EDIT: EVILE BIRD SWARMS a la Alfred Hitchcock, thats what I ant to fight in my next game. Please just swap out the ZOMBEHS for some evil mutant birds please.

What I meant is that about 30-40% of all new games have ZOMBEH for the theme (totally subjective opinion, please dont respond with some other statistic about how may games are actually ZOMBEH). I would venture to say that ZOMBEH is the bandwagon to jump on right now and non-creative devs all want a piece of the ZOMBEH proffutz.

sick of ZOMBEH, I want more Evil Clowns or maybe Time traveling Nazi SS, or maybe Giant Amazon Women, or maybe Spiders, or maybe ANY OTHER 1950's B movie trope.

[Vertigon]

when is the zombie thing played out? now? maybe next year?

Vampires are played out, that much is for sure.

Erm. Is that a very subtle joke or just wrong? I may just be derping incredibly hard but vampires are definitely not played out; look at all the little authors that have cashed out by copy-pasting Stephenie Meyers into their books, naming it with a vampire pun (one that usually sucks :3) and shipping it to 14-year-old girls.

[Deon]

when is the zombie thing played out? now? maybe next year?

Vampires are played out, that much is for sure.

Erm. Is that a very subtle joke or just wrong? I may just be derping incredibly hard but vampires are definitely not played out; look at all the little authors that have cashed out by copy-pasting Stephenie Meyers into their books, naming it with a vampire pun (one that usually sucks :3) and shipping it to 14-year-old girls.

Well, books are a different issue. The games market, however, massively lacks any good vampire games lately.

[Tilla]

So there's an ATI Fix on the forums now. It works perfectly. Finally get to try this and I gotta say I like it for what it is.

[Cthulhu]

It's okay, but normal mode is really hard and long mode is too easy.  The zombies build up momentum and by turn 10 or so they control the whole map.  Then once you get enough scientists to upgrade your artillery salvos the game becomes trivial and you clear them out and win.

[Granite26]

The game is cheap, and awesome... It's on steam now too.

I'd recommend playing a round or two, then going into the modding section.  Modding is really just jiggering with the init file for damage levels and stuff.  I toned the scores way down, upped the size and number of everything (cities, troops, civs, zed, building HP).  It's kinda easy now, but it's a lot of fun to barricade off a city and shell zombies.

It's easily worth the price of the demo

[Pandarsenic]

Regarding ATI cards: http://blendogames.com/atomzombiesmasher/help.htm#crash

[hemmingjay]

are there any game changing mods out there, or just tweak mods?

[Brendon Chung]

Hi all! I'm the dev on Atom Zombie Smasher.

@hemmingjay -
People have made some mods that change the gameplay quite a bit.  A couple notable ones-
"Operation Purple Nurple v2" - Zombies constantly swarm in, day and night.
"1chopper_v2" - You only get one helicopter pickup, so levels become king-of-the-hill scenarios.
"Golden Zed 1_2_a" - Zombies look identical to civilians, so you have to rely on ground troops to ID them.

There's also a new gamemode, "Chooser", that lets you re-arrange your merc lineup every month. This is accessible via the New Campaign menu.

[hemmingjay]

Brendon,

Welcome and thank you for dropping in here. I am loving the "Chooser" gameplay quite a bit! It really changed my strategy entirely. It's fun trying to use all sapper units to boobytrap the city or just sniper teams, etc.

I'm also a big fan of Air Forte and Flotilla, but my personal favorite of yours is Gravity Bone. Thanks again for joining us here.

[TwilightWalker]

Amazing how many devs we have popping into this forum...