Five Signs that the Zombie Apocalypse has begun

Unless you’ve been living in a cave or a deserted island over the last 15 years, you know Zombies are big. The story of the dead rising to plague the living is the stuff of nightmares. Since George R. Romero’s Night of the living dead, the 1968 horror cult classic that depicts waves of ‘undead’ terrorizing a small town of clueless townsfolk, have kept us on edge and wondering when this all begs for decades. The pulse-less fiends are in search of one thing and one thing only; brains. These mindless ghouls have infiltrated our movies, books, video games and TV shows. But it’s all just make believe right? 

Wrong.

Here is a verifiable list both factual, and op-ed, that reveal 5 indicators that confirm the Zombie apocalypse is heading to a hometown near you:

1. Brainlessness is alive and well As the numbers of texting-while-driving fatalities rise all over the world, Teen Mom shows see ratings explosions in a culture that reveres a lack of accomplishment as a badge of honor. Texting while driving? Phhhfftt! Amateurs. Why not paint oil paintings, watch TV, make a sandwich or even take a nap while driving on the freeway. 

2. People are trying to eat other (literally) Real life news events such as a Florida homeless man being attacked by a guy literally trying to eat his arm, or the man in Texas who was killed by his roommate and partially eaten. ‘What the hell is going on’ you say? Your answer is two words that rhyme with Flomie Scholopolypse. 

3. Zombie and post apocalyptic story lines are more popular than ever. The walking dead is by far the most popular and talked about TV show. If you aren’t watching well, again… cave dwell much? Show like The Ship show a world where mankind’s downfall is at the hands of a killer infection. Television programing aside, movies like I am Legend, Resident Evil, World War Z, 28 Days Later and even the new Dawn of The Planet of the Apes all portray a world where some infectious disease wipes out most human life and civilization as we know it. 

4. The US Government has a real-life contingency for a “Zombie Outbreak” It’s true. The United States military has to draw up plans for every potential threat to the eel-being and sovereignty of the United States. The department of homeland security has a zombie outbreak contingency in the works in case the population balance between the living and the dead walking around main street dramatically shifts. 

5. Common sense and general knowledge is at an all-time low. Don’t take my word for it, look at non-paid general access television. Have you counted the number of brainless, no-value-tomorrow programs there are on the big four networks? We elevate racist and misogynistic idiots to star status (Kim Khardasian, Honey Boo-Boo, Duck Dynasty I’m glaring at you), and we wonder why kids today can’t identify more than 4 countries on a world map or can’t spell worth a damn or don’t even know how many World Wars the world has endured. The dumbos are multiplying and their brainlessness is spreading. Like an infection. 

Yep, pretty sure my brain will be top of the menu on Zombie’s top sought-after yummiest brains. We are so screwed. 

Reviewer Misses The Target On Badass Game

Better then Ever! Gearbox's Borderlands 2 brings us back to the brutally fun world of Pandora

MY GAMERLIFE POST #1: Gearbox's BORDERLANDS 2, is bigger, stronger and faster—hell, it is downright badass! But if you're not careful, you'll miss the point–just like the Wall Street Journal did. Join me for my first ever in-the-trenches video game review.

First, I gotta say, this post is long, long overdue. I am a full-time Dad, Ad-man (I channel my inner Don Draper often, as a force for good) and a fan of all things that engage my love of the sci-fi/fantasy genre. I co-host a sci-fi/super-hero movie blog. In as much, I am also a hopelessly addicted gamer as well as a life-long advocate of gaming as an integral hobby and immersive visual experience. 

Managing your own gaming life

The beautiful (and often overlooked) reality of gaming in the 21st century is that it's unique to each of us. We all choose the world we wish to engage in. You into Zombies, we got an endless horde of undead (titles). Like Star Wars? The force will be with you… always, with a staggering array of Lucas-inspired properties to choose from. And if stomping mushrooms as an italian carpenter with bright red overalls is your thing, well; weirdo out-of-touch lemming, meet Mario Bros. 

Available in all shapes and sizes!

While I do understand there is a whole sub-section of our culture that does not participate with any gaming whatsoever (and if that's you, kudos to you for still reading at this point) but I know that for the Gen-X crowd and younger, we have grown up gaming. The graphics, the sounds, the button mashing–ooh, my heart's racing even as I write this!–and the sense of virtual accomplishment. And whether you're a problem solver, a FPS hound, a sports nut or RTS fanatic you likely take your gaming experience quite seriously. 

So you can imagine the horror of my discontent when I learned the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) had an entertainment writer trash one of my all-time favorite franchises. 

Oh, it is so on!

Lock And Load!

First, I gotta' say this is an EXTREMELY biased post but then again, that's why we all blog, right? So, Borderlands 2, I love it, my friends love it, you should run out and love it too! It's violent fun and challenging. Colorful graphics, dark humor, unexpected plot twists and more than 100 million in-game weapons* to blast all the aliens, monsters and robots who try and stand in your way to achieve greater intergalactic glory. 

Ready for Glory!

The game is built, from the ground up, to offer an immersive, steadily escalating set of challenges that offer loads of homicidal ballistic fun! But the game's sheer programming genius is in it's co-op gaming features. Drop-in, drop-out co-op gaming, co-op game leveling and automatic game difficulty increase and decrease due to the number of players in game (1-4). If you play this game alone, it's good, but together, in co-op, it's a franking experience! Having two or three people firing different elemental weapons at the same adversary–burning and being doused in acid simultaneously–is only one of the many great features that make this game pure gaming gold. 

So, to Mr. Adam Najberg of the Wall Street Journal's Arts and Entertainment staff, while I share your love (and implied) passion for gaming, you really missed the boat, missed the target and missed the whole point on Borderlands2. It's not Call of Duty: Black Ops. Your endless comparisons to those rage-fueled bouts Ritalin-induced foul-mouthed 13-year olds is a sad mis-informed correlation this fan cannot abide by.

I actually hate the multi-player experience of CoD:Black Ops as it unfairly pairs you with school-skipping preteens who spend 4-6 hours a day mastering this rancid multi-player "experience". You couldn't possibly be comparing the campaigns because they are as dissimilar as you can get and still be in the FPS genre.

I Can't Believe He Said That!

Some of Adam's review: "There’s an extremely limited four-player cooperative mode, and if you have an Xbox Live Gold account, you can team up that way, but this isn’t the type of deeply engrossing FPS game the headset-wearing COD crowds gather to play months and months after release. In comparison, I read on several sites that COD: Black Ops 2 will feature up to six teams, for a total of 18 simultaneous players, in multiplayer mode."

WTF!? Why are you talking about Call of Duty in this review? Come on dude, don't be THAT guy! If you love CoD and just don't like games where people work WITH each other versus slaughtering each other, than just say so.

This quote also sounds like he is having some sort of elitist 'I shouldn't have to pay for this' gripe with X-BOX LIVE. While I can share you discontent, sir, again a game review is NOT the place for this. Stay focused, dude. 

I've Got Your ClapTrap Right Here!

"Does this photo make me look too fat?"

I gotta' give a shout out to my main bot, Claptrap. As the game's  primary (but certainly not ONLY) comic-relief character, this foul-mouthed, narcissistic bot with an attitude is by far one of gaming's most entertaining characters ever. Too many to mention, the dialogue that spews from his audio box is some of the most well-written comic-relief I've ever heard.

One of many infamous wise-cracks, your playable character is salvaged from the wreck of a horrible train wreck at the hands the game's vilian, Handsome Jack. Claptrap says (to you) at the start of the game: "Excellent my minion–your ability to walk short-distances without falling down will be Jack's downfall!"

Probably something else Mr. Najberg completely glossed over in his clearly hasty review of Borderlands 2 (sigh). 

So, Arth Vader, How Do You Really Feel?

So, Mr. Njaberg, I have a proposition, dear sir. Try this game again, only this time, detox off of any previous title you have played (and obviously prefer) and focus your game-play review on the new and different one offered by Borderlands 2. The game has gotten high marks across the board (4.25 stars out of 5 from Gamer magazine, 9.5 star out of 10 from Game Informer magazine). Maybe you would have a similar good time with it, if you found a friend or two to play it with and stop comparing it to what appears to be the only other inferior, cookie-cutter FPS titles.

Of course, if you keep making game review blunders like this one, you may be wondering why your buddies are all playing great games that only you hate. 

With that gauntlet thrown down, I give Borderland 2 nine (9) mashed buttons out of ten!

* According to Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford; "Together the guns, grenade variants and shield variants total almost 100 million loot varieties (stat variations)." 

The Shuffling Dead

In cubicles, supermarkets and post offices across America, the undead walk among us.

I have got to admit, there are few guilty pleasures more satisfying than watching AMC's The Walking Dead. If you haven't seen the show–oh man!–you gotta watch it. Based on the highly graphic and incredibly ground breaking Image Comics series, the story describes how a killer disease covers the world and causes the dead to re-animate into human flesh-devouring monsters that prey on the living. They are brainless, animal-like brutes whose sole motivation is to devour every living thing in their path. They communicate in a mindless, unintelligible series of grunts and snarls. The really scary part about it is the "walkers" (or Zombies) aren't very different from our world's everyday brainless buffoons.

I'll bet you've met a few them already.

There's something going on in American society these days. Something horrifying, something so unspeakably twisted, it defies description. It is the common, widely held belief that many people have that makes them believe they are the only ones in the world. Or on the road. Or in line. Or watching a movie in a theater.

Just like the book "How to survive a Zombie Apocalypse" (also a fun web site you can visit here), there are things you can do to avoid an unpleasant demise at the hands of these re-animated dopes. In fact, modern living in the early 21st century gives us insight of how to identify the dark and gruesome days to come, should a Zombie uprising occur. 

Here are five common Zombies in everyday life we can identify–and defeat!–if we are prepared. Remember, identification is the first key to survival!

1. Mindless Road Fiends (MRF's). You've seen them, these undead ghoulies drive as though they are the first, last and only ones on the road. They see you coming down the road and speed out in front of you–causing you to stand on your breaks, only to reach a blinding top speed of 12 miles an hour right in front of you. As they bumble along in front of you with complete disregard for you and all their fellow drivers. 

How to defeat MRF's: The mindless road fiend is both clueless and dangerous. Get away from it as fast as your acceleration will (semi) legally allow! As you blaze past this lumbering loss of life, you can hammer-down on your horn. This will seriously disorient and confuse said brainless drone.

2. Supermarket Line Loafers (SLL's). You have a cart full of groceries, you're already exhausted from the day and the undead people magazine aficionado in front of you is hungrily destroying what few lingering brain cells they have left with an extended review of the latest goings on in US Weekly, Soap Opera Digest or the journalistic monolith known as the National Enquirer. When you ask them to politely move ahead (when the thorough throat clearing and impatient shuffling doesn't work) they turn and give you the soul-melting stare of defiance. 

How to defeat an SLL: There are two paths you can take to overcome this adversary. First, scream "Oh my God! Lean Cuisine just went on sale in the Frozen Food isle!" This is the primary source of sustenance for the Line Loafer. Just be sure to avoid the stampede. Your other option is to smack the magazine out it's hands and in the ensuing chaos and groaning, skirt your cart around them. Unorthodox but effective.

"Hey is that on sale?"

3. Chatty Chaos Bringers (CCB's). This is one of the undead all-stars here. Pick your favorite store or to-go food stop. Its busy, you have two items and you just want to go, but the clueless social invalid in line in front of you decides to strike up a riveting conversation about the weather or the soaring price of tomatoes and asks the cashier all kinds of life-altering questions like where does the store get it's paper from for its bags. Time to take action!

How to defeat CCB's: You can short-circuit the worthless brain of this walking terror by simply interjecting non sequiturs into their inane banter. This will result in more moaning and other bodily noises. Don't despair, stay the course. Example: "Did you know that all dog breeds are derived from the canine lupus phyla? This means all dogs are essentially wolves–!" Enjoy the witless grimacing that ensues... 

4. The TV Terror Talker (TTT). Often identified by discussing television shows like "The Real Housefraus of Berwin" or "So you think you can Cha-Cha?", this undead nightmare could infest your own family! Usually waxing idiotic by discussing ANY TV show you happen not to be watching, they can drone on endlessly. Caution! They can chat for hours and suck you in to their endless vortex of mind-numbing reality show prattle. Resist–they are trying to convert you!

"For the last time, I HATED LEGO Indiana Jones–!"

How to defeat Triple T's: The best defense here is to begin brandishing an invisible remote control and in an over-exaggerated motion pretend to point it at them while trying to change the channel–inches from their nose. Soon, silence will be yours once more!

5. Moronic Movie Monster. Perhaps the most deadly of all, this unseemly beast inhabits almost every movie house in the lower 48 states. Often known to discuss the finer points of their domestic lives, favorite recipes and offer play-by-play critiques of the feature film real-time, this brain-dead, life-less husk can ruin even the most timid movie-going experience. Dispatch with extreme prejudice!

How to defeat Triple M's: This is the granddaddy of all modern-day Zombies. You and your fellow movie-goers are best advised to put this creep out it's misery fast. You all must band together to defeat this one as a united force. Crowd around the fiend and stare at them intently and demand that the movie be paused so that the all-important conversation details can be shared by everyone in the entire theater. Since it was necessary to disrupt the film we should all hear of the fascinating turn of events of their child's play date last Saturday.

Sometimes, I think we all might be better off if a Zombie infestation broke out to let us thin out the herd. Well I can dream, can't I?