State of Decay

Undead Labs’ zombie sandbox survival simulator State of Decay is on track for release early this year. Unfortunately, until the outbreak starts, there’s nothing to do but scavenge for every sustaining morsel of …
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Weekly Roundup compiles all the biggest news stories, reviews and features from the week into one handy post on the weekends.

The holidays are officially upon us. It’s been a busy week around these parts, thanks to our own Andrew Crews, who’s diligently orchestrated yet another year of fantastic giveaways. Today marks the end of The 12 Days of XBLA, and your last chance to score the amazing Grand Prize worth $55 in Xbox Live Arcade games. Be sure to check out the final entry of the contest, and toss your hat in the ring. Finally, we want to wish everyone a very Happy Holidays from all of us here at XBLAFans!

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Undead Labs recently published a battery of answers to your earnest questions about its upcoming State of Decay. Despite some nit-picky simulation holes, this …
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Surviving the end of the world takes skills. Skills developed in the slavering clutches of the undead, shaping wads of helpless victims into chiseled survivors. Everyone has their own strengths: the brawler, the sneak, the deadeye. Understanding your role in the zombie apocalypse could mean the difference between a lukewarm canned meal at the end of a long day and becoming the meal yourself. Undead Labs’ Richard Foge recently delved into the meaning of tactics, strategy, and how to last long enough to become a survivor in State of Decay.

“In State of Decay we put a lot of effort into making sure that players can transition smoothly between different tactical approaches to gameplay so that [you] can adapt quickly and make adjustments to your tactics as the combat situation evolves,” he writes. Foge brings considerable console game design know-how to State of Decay, having honed his craft as a Senior Designer for the SOCOM franchise, in addition to combat and systems design for God of War and Guild Wars, respectively. Now he’s set sights on ensuring your survival’s as organic as possible.

“We want you to easily flow from stealth to melee combat to ranged combat to using items. We know that everyone approaches these challenges differently, and it was important to make sure that as many approaches were accounted for as possible.” There’s a dizzying array of ways to tackle the flesh-eating obstacles infesting State of Decay — for one, literally. Though Foge discourages too much physical contact when interacting with your new neighbors, “It’s a great way to get yourself killed, but it’s also a great way to dispatch a couple of zombies without letting the legions of the damned know your exact position.”

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Weekly Roundup compiles all the biggest news stories, reviews and features from the week into one handy post on the weekends.

Another week of Xbox Live Arcade brought to a close. It’s been a relatively quiet one, compared to the mad dash of last week’s seasonal sales. Though there isn’t much to write home about in terms of marquee XBLA titles, there’s quite a bit to look forward to in the coming weeks and months on Xbox Live Arcade. With so many big games coming down the pipe, what are you looking forward to getting your hands on?

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We’ve all thought about it: the end of days. Life, as we know it, over. Our laws, our society, our grande vanilla rooibos tea lattes, all gone, and we’re left with a staggering view of a world that’s indifferent of our existence. There’s no shortage of inventive ways to envision that demise, but the destruction-du-jour is contagion, with a twist. Infected by a mythical super-strain, our bodies succumb to the infection, wither and die. Reanimated a short time later, they shuffle (or sprint, depending on your inspiration) across the empty remains of our cities, towns and suburbs, catering to the most basic of impulses — to feed.

But the true draw, the appeal even, of an undead apocalypse isn’t the madness of the moment, it’s the days and weeks afterward. The life after life-as-we-know-it; the fitful consequences of our actions in an existence without margins for error, and how we stack up against that uncertainty. Undead Labs, the Washington-based, zombie-obsessed, fledgling development studio wants to realize that future, virtually, and give you the keys to a whole new life in a State of Decay.

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These days, zombies are ubiquitous in video games. They’re the all-purpose enemy (and genre) that just won’t die – you’ll find them all over the place in shooters, adventure games, strategy titles, the works. Only a handful, however, have tackled the zombie apocalypse in open-world format. Undead Labs’ upcoming State of Decay aims to diversify the portfolio of flesh-craving corpses.
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Undead Labs loves guns. You can tell from their recent blog post that released a list of every gun usable in their upcoming State of Decay. After all, this can’t be a genuine zombie apocalypse survival simulation if you can’t even pack your favorite heat! Counting up the list of the available rifles, assault rifles, pistols, SMGs and shotguns, their current list totals at 87 guns ready to go with the genuine promise of more to come. See a gun missing that you must have at the end of the world? You could try tweeting to @undeadlabs…

Still no word on a release date yet, but keep coming back to XBLA Fans for details on that front as they emerge! In the meantime, you should check out our massive preview if you haven’t already.

Check the full story for the complete list of guns.

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State of Decay developer Undead Labs took to their forums post-PAX Prime to address fan questions that lingered after the game’s demonstrations. We could bore you with a lot …
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“This is by far the largest and most ambitious XBLA game ever made. No question,” Undead Labs CEO Jeff Strain said matter-of-factly of State of Decay when we spoke at PAX Prime. Though XBLA Fans has been unable to verify that claim, my brief time with the sandbox zombie game proved this much, at least: it’s huge. To put a measurement on it, Undead claims the overworld is 16 square kilometers.

In the demo, the player arms himself with a pistol and walks outside into deserted Anytown, USA. It is quickly apparent that not all living(ish) creatures have actually vacated the municipality. A few zombies shamble towards the player, as zombies are wont to do. Years of zombie games have prepared gamers for this situation; unloading a few shots into their noggins should eliminate the threat with little drama. Indeed it does, but they’ve got friends, and my, what big ears they have. There are small clusters of the undead doing their shambling thing on every block in sight. The unmistakable sound of gunfire alerts a couple of groupings of the town’s 99 percent, and, not the least bit concerned over the prospect of parting with the rotting lumps atop their necks, they quickly converge on the player’s location.

The first ones on the scene go down easily enough, but they just don’t make pistol clips big enough for this sort of job. Thankfully, Detroit was kind enough to make bumpers for just such an occasion. Jumping in an abandoned car, I stomp on the throttle and attempt, unsuccessfully, to make a controlled turn around the block. True to real life, the ’70s-looking muscle car is uncontrollable in anything other than a straight line.

Attempts to regain traction don’t go so well — not for me or for the zombies who thought it was a good idea to hang around in the middle of the road just past the intersection where irresponsible drivers are wont to swerve through, not the least bit concerned about braking for pedestrians. Zombies fly like bowling pins, inspiring another go at the group a bit farther down the road. The Undead Labs representative recommends motoring right on by to the side of them and hitting B. The car’s door is kicked open, and more zombies meet their end. At this point, it wouldn’t have been surprising if State of Decay‘s zombies began chanting “Braaaaaakes!” instead of “Braaaaains!”

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