Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
Developer - Rockstar San Diego
Publisher - Rockstar Games
Platform - PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Genre - Open world, third-person shooter, action-adventure, Western, Survival horror
Modes - Single-player, multiplayer
MetaCritic Score - 87
User Score - 81
Dead Rising 2: Case West
Developer - Capcom, Blue Castle
Publisher - Capcom
Platform - Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Genre - Action adventure
Mode - Single-player, online co-op, multiplayer
MetaCritic Score - 74
User Score - 77
Case West features the return of Frank West, the hero of the previous Dead Rising, in a new story that occurs after the events of Dead Rising 2. Frank must team up with Chuck Greene, the protagonist of Dead Rising 2, in order to investigate the connection between Phenotrans, the pharmaceutical company responsible for manufacturing Zombrex, and the Fortune City outbreak, and clear Chuck's name of any involvement.
The episode includes a co-op feature allowing two players to complete the game as each character. Case West features new challenges, enemies, items, and the ability to create a number of new combo weapons. The photography element from the first Dead Rising also returns; both Frank and Chuck are able to take photographs in order to provide indisputable proof of Phenotrans' part in the zombie outbreaks.
Left 4 Dead 2 - The Passing
Publisher - Valve Corporation
Distributor - Electronic Arts (retail)
Platform - Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Xbox 360
Genre - First-person shooter, survival horror
Mode - 4-player Cooperative multiplayer, 4-vs-4 multiplayer, Single-player
MetaCritic Score - 75
User Score - 80
The Passing is the first DLC campaign in Left 4 Dead 2, which includes a new campaign and "new co-operative challenge modes of play" and introduces a new firearm, the M60; the Golf Club, and a new Uncommon Infected called the Fallen Survivor. It was released April 22, 2010.
The Passing takes place between Dead Center and Dark Carnival and is set in the suburban town of Rayford, Georgia.
One of the most highly advertised features of this campaign is a meet-up between the Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors and three of the Survivors from Left 4 Dead. However, the original Survivors are not playable and have only very minor cameo roles at the beginning and end of the campaign.
The campaign is playable in all of the current game modes, as well as the newly featured ones. It is free for PC, and costs 560MSP on the Xbox 360. On Xbox 360, the download size is 284.04 MB.
The campaign is called "The Passing," which could be interpreted in several ways. It may simply be referring to a brief, chance meeting as each party of Survivors pursues its own survival strategy, in which sense it may a play on the old sayings "two ships passing in the night" and "two strangers on a bridge". It could also be idiomatic in the sense of denoting a "passing of the torch" from one set of Survivors to the other (i.e. the depleted and worn-down Left 4 Dead Survivors pass from the player's sight and control, leaving the Left 4 Dead 2 group to continue the struggle), a hypothesis which is reinforced by an Achievement unlocked upon completing the campaign. Finally, it may also refer to the "passing" of Bill who gave up his life to save the others. Bill's death and the appearance of the Fallen Survivors could also explain why the campaign's tagline is "Nobody survives forever."
By way of explanation, Valve released a DLC for Left 4 Dead called The Sacrifice in which the players work through a new campaign featuring a bridge-with-failed-generator scenario that demands one player give up their life to let the other three Survivors escape.
A digital comic book released by Valve at the start of the fourth quarter of 2010 shows what happened to the original Survivors before and after the events of Left 4 Dead.
Stubbs The Zombie: Rebel Without A Pulse
Developer - Wideload
Publisher - Aspyr
Platform - Xbox, Mac OS X, Windows, Xbox 360
Genre - Action
Modes - Single-player, co-op multiplayer (Xbox version only)
MetaCritic Score - 75
User Score - 80
In 1933, Eddie Stubbs is a poor traveling salesman during the Great Depression trying to make a living. He temporarily finds happiness with a girl named Maggie Monday, but he meets his unfortunate end when Otis, Maggie's father comes home, chases him outside, and shoots him, leaving him to die in the wilderness.
years later in the fictional city of Punchbowl, Pennsylvania at its opening ceremony in 1959. It happens that the city, founded by Andrew Monday, Maggie's son, has been built directly on top of Stubbs' not-so-final resting place. Stubbs rises from his grave as a zombie and decides to get his revenge by eating the brains of the inhabitants of Punchbowl, quickly creating his own army of the undead, causing increasing amounts of havoc as the zombies clash with the various militant factions of the area. During the chaos, Stubbs kills Otis Monday by blowing up his house after a brief reunion. Shortly before this, in a spoof of the war film Patton, Stubbs stands in front of an American flag hanging from a barn wall and gives a speech to his zombies. Though the speech consists only of the word "Brains" said in many tones with limited gestures his zombies apparently understand him well enough to let loose a cheer of "BRAINS!" before shuffling away.
Stubbs eventually reunites with Maggie and the two lovingly embrace - with Stubbs promptly eating her brain. Before her brain was eaten, Maggie revealed Stubbs was in fact Andrew's father. Andrew tries to avenge his half-destroyed, zombie-infested city, and his mother, by killing Stubbs from behind a force field. Stubbs, however, destroys the force field and looms toward Andrew, but Maggie, now a zombie, convinces him to spare their son. The game ends with Stubbs and Maggie sailing off on a small rowboat, kissing as Andrew and all of Punchbowl are destroyed by a nuclear bomb to cleanse the undead infestation, and they both "live" happily ever after.
Twin Blades
