Zombie Farm, by Playforge

Guest Writer: Tash Shaw

Plant, Grow, Bury, and Harvest in this quirky farming game.
Pick up your plow and enjoy the countryside while you literally grow an army of darling zombies to help build your farm to greatness

Price: Free
Release Date: February 09, 2010
Platform: iPhone

Zombie Farm includes:

- Plow, plant, and harvest farm fresh veggies and fruits

- Plant corpses and harvest zombies to raise your army

- Customize you farmer, and watch him toil about your farm

- Enjoy seeing your zombies wander around your farm

- Behold bizarre zombie mutations as you plant corpse and crops

- 15 different zombies of different shapes and sizes

- Pester Old' McDonnell next door by invading his barn

- Upgrade your farm's size

- Connect to Facebook to publish your farming exploits

- Invite your Facebook friends and share the zombie farming experience

- Hours and hours of game play

- No Internet connection required

- In App purchases help invasions past level 10

- So funky and fetidly fantastic!

- It's FREE!

After weeks of game play on Zombie Farm, I decided to review the addictive iPhone app.

I’m currently on level 15, with 74726g, 1 brain and 13/16 zombies ready to raid.

At the moment I only have 1 friend with the app, which is connected through Facebook.

So, basically the aim of the game is to harvest crops and zombies, crops bring only XP and money, but zombies bring both XP and themselves ready for battle unless you already have a full undead army, in which case you are rewarded XP and money with no zombie rising to the army since it is already full..

The zombies just hang around the farm; they wander around with the occasional “brraaaaaaains” in their comedic voices. Each kind of zombie has a different voice and is a different kind of fighter.

You can purchase a zombie patch to keep them all in one square, but hey, what fun would that be?

The longer between raids the better, as zombies are quicker and stronger the hungrier they are (although as long as you have a full army you should be ok regardless of the hunger).
You can only invade every 2 hours, and need between 8 – 16 zombies.

You need to remember how long it has been between visits as crops and zombies will wither and die if left too long, this takes 3 times its growth period. (e.g Tomatoes take 4 hours to grow, so will wither and die after an additional 12 hours).

This does not apply to quick crops like carrots and mini zombies, which will wither after 1 hour.

Crops and Zombies all have different grow times so you can guess which ones are best to grow depending on when you will be back on the app.

You start with 6 patches of soil, but you can plow as many patches as space and money will allow.

You can also upgrade and unlock different zombie mutations, which are quite amusing.

Here are some bad points;

• The game is basically FarmVille, but with Zombies, so yes of course that makes it better, but it is a blatant copy
• The brains are really hard to get and most people don't want to buy them, the developer should tweak Zombie Farm, maybe to one free brain every other day or everytime a raid is won a brain could be rewarded (or something along them lines).
• The upgrades to larger farms are highly priced.
• Not really free if you want to keep playing with all the options/extras.
• After a while the farm gets so big it is annoying and you can get restless at harvesting, planting and plowing the whole area.

The good thing about the app, is that it is totally free to download and play!

It’s good for a bit of mindless fun,. You can purchase brains from within the app which you can use to harvest, plow or plant everything at once, but for a little fun game like this I think it’s a bit much to pay for brains which you can unlock them rarely when raiding the barn.
To anyone with an iPhone, it is well worth the download even just to give it a trial run since it is costless anyway.

Top 5 zombies you wouldn’t mind having as a friend/pet

Most zombies eat flesh and generally cause misery for the living, however, some zombies can be quite handy to have around, some may even be fun.

*Be warned that if you haven’t seen the films mentioned then there may be spoilers in this article*

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5. Billy Butcherson (Hocus Pocus)

Mouth sewn up and cursed by some silly witches - he has issues.

Good points: He will help you eventually and the ladies love him (so he could be a good wing man).

Bad points: He will chase you through sewers, he has bad breath, once his sewn up lips are open you’d wish you have an emergency sewing kit.

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4. Gramps (House 2)

Digging up your great grandfather is never a good idea, so don't try this at home!

Good points: Gramps will regale you with stories of the old west, he will make you shed a tear, and he will share his ancient treasure with you.

Bad points: He will moan a lot, get you in trouble with the girlfriend, and the treasure he shared with you opens dimensions from where annoying bad guys will show up.

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3. Fido (Fido)

A zombie butler – the new, must have gadget

Good points: He cooks, he cleans, he raises your social status, and he is loyal.

Bad points: He will eat the neighbours, tear your family apart, he smokes, and he will probably seduce your mother.

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2. Bub (Day of the Dead)

Some zombies retain basic memories – maybe we can train them?

Good points: He is funny, he will call your aunt Alicia, he can shave, and most importantly he will go out of his way to get revenge for his master.

Bad points: Hard to train and you have to feed him...

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1. Ed (Shaun of the dead)

Your current best mate but less annoying and tied up in a shed

Good points: He will play computer games with you, have a couple of beers, and he is basically everything a best mate should be

Bad points: He will smell slightly worse than when he was alive and there’s a high chance of him trying to bite you.

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In conclusion:

Ok, so most zombies as friends or pets have their downside but what friendship doesn't?

Review: iRemain

Guest Writer: John Myers

A point and click flash game that will test your braaains

The number of Zombie-themed flash games to be found out there on the tinter-web-net is up there somewhere in the 'Bagillions'.

'iRemain' is a relatively new game that has appeared, created by Atomic Cicada Studios it is a point-and-click puzzle solver game; and has appeared to be VERY popular clocking up 3,500,000 plays in 1 month.

The game starts with you running into an "abandoned" house to escape the zombie-filled streets of the world outside. As you move through the house collected objects that you will need to escape the house and safely flee the zombie epidemic that surrounds you.

There are notes to be found of the previous occupant of the house, these are usually filled with a key clue as to where you can find an object or how you can obtain your final goal (which is to get to the van that is parked outside).

I am a big fan of these type of games, and this is probably the best game of it's format that I have played. The art work and zombies featured in the game are amazing. And it's a well designs game that will have you scratching your head as to how you can survive the undead army outside.

I'll admit to using a 'Walkthrough' to complete the game, but that is more of a reflection on my gaming and strategy skills than on the game.

This game is probably as close to perfect as I think it could be, there is a lot of back-and-forth between rooms within the house, but really that is kind of the point of the game. There is talk of a sequel, so make sure that you give this game a play (because this will know doubt be one of the big online zombie game series of the future).

Play the game

Survival of the dead DVD Release

George Romero's next film creeps closer to the UK

Last year the United States had the pleasure of watching 'Survival of the dead' but the UK sadly missed out.

In the next few weeks, all this will change, when the film goes straight to DVD in the UK.

If you don't know who George Romero is then you are on the wrong website. Regarded throughout the world as the godfather of all things zombie, George Romero is best known for his zombie films (including Night of the living dead, Dawn of the dead, etc).

The film takes place amid a war between the living and the dead. A group of survivors take refuge in a remote island off the coast of north America.

The group fight for their lives as they try to find a cure to bring back the zombies to a human state.

Reviews from critics have been overall good - with a current rating of 80% fresh on rotten tomatoes

Trailers for Survival of the dead and so many more zombie films can be seen on the Zombie News YouTube Channel.

Survival of the dead is released on DVD in the UK on 15^th March 2010

Plants Vs. Zombies: Iphone

Your garden goes mobile

After months of talk, a date has finally been set for Plants Vs. Zombies on the Iphone.

The game (from the publisher PopCap) proved very popular on PC and Mac and is sure to be an even bigger hit on the popular Iphone.

The task is to protect your house against a comical zombie horde that slowly shuffle (and dance, swim, pole vault?!?) across your garden.

You are not alone. To aid your survival the game features unusually powerful plants that kill the zombies. Place these plants in tactical places around the garden and you will live to see another day.

"so it is just another tower defence game?" - I hear you cry.

Well, yes it is, but it is also a very fun tower defence game that will keep you entertained for hours.

The launch date is:

Feburary 15th (aka. Next monday)

Zombieland UK dvd release

15th March 2010

A great mainstream zombie comedy that gained commercial and critical success in the cinema last year is being released on region 2 dvd next month.

For more information on the movie visit the Official Zombieland site.

A review of Zombieland should be along shortly.

Review: Zombie Virus on Mulberry Street (aka. Mulberry St.)

The neighborhood is changing...

They appear to have a sanitation problem down on Mulberry Street. Rats are running around spreading disease – but we aren't talking black death here, it's a very contagious virus that changes humans into blood thirsty monsters.

The monsters in question are zombie like rat people – but don't let that put you off.

The film starts slow and works on building up the characters, this is something that goes on for way too long and still leaves you disconnected from the characters, leaving the viewer thinking this movie could have been shorter and faster paced. By the time the action starts it will be more than likely that most will have lost interest.

The first rat bite will put a smile on your face in a 'so bad it is good' way. It's a shame that the film didn’t go down the route of an 'Evil Dead' style as this could have worked really well with the Rat folks. The monsters that this rat bite produces look almost like 'Nosferatu' with their long fanged front teeth. These are more like mutant wererats then zombies.

A tense moment in an apartment with some rat people stalking some elderly residents is a fine piece of film making and it is a shame that the rest of the movie couldn't be more like that. The ending of the film is quick to wrap up everything but is also extremely predictable.

Most of the film is slow – you won't get caught up in the story. However there are enough gems throughout to keep the viewer entertained. It's a low budget movie that has obviously been a work of love for a group of people and it shows. With a bit more money and a snappier script this could have been a classic, obviously this is not the case and the film is let down by a multitude of pitfalls.

Worth a watch if you get the chance but nothing to go out of your way for. Also, more of a mutant monster movie than a zombie movie.