REVIEWS
“Arrr, who stuck the thin blocks together again?!”
At undead birthday parties, the piñatas are much squishier.
A ZOMBIE’S PACE
TRAPPED DEAD is the smartest and
slowest kid in zombie land by Justin Amirkhani
Trapped Dead is a refreshing take on the well-worn zombie genre, but refreshing ideas aren’t
always successful ideas.
More akin to Commandos than
Left 4 Dead, Trapped Dead pits four
survivors against a deluge of
zombies in an isometric world.
Players must rely more on strategy
and party posturing than the brutality that typically defines gore-horror titles. Some might call the
slow pace pensive, but others might
just call it boring.
Given limited ammo, I had to
choose whether to shoot, run, or
wade in with the baseball bat. In one
area, the flesh-eaters were spread
out enough that the bat was the
obvious choice, but the action was so
slow that I lost patience and reck-
lessly spent all my bullets just for a
little thrill. Smart survival decisions
just aren’t as fun.
X Price $10 X Release Out now X Publisher Meridian 4 X Developer Headup Games / Crenetic
X Multiplayer 4 player co-op X;Link www.trappeddead.com X ESRB NR
CORRECTON: An advertisement in last month’s issue for the AMD Radeon™ HD
6990M GPU listed an incorrect disclaimer identifying a 3DMark Vantage score of
X1358 and should be replaced with the following disclaimer. AMD apologizes
for any confusion.
In tests conducted in AMD performance labs at 1920x1080, simulating mobile performance with a
down-clocked desktop test system the AMD Radeon™ HD 6990M-based system was measured
to be faster than the Nvidia GeForce 580M in the following benchmarks: Dragon Age 2 at
4AA/16AF ( 23.69% faster), Total War: Shogun 2 at 2xAA/16xAF ( 10.36% faster), Aliens vs.
Predator at 2xAA/8xAF ( 13.19% faster), Batman: Arkham Asylum at 4xAA/16xAF ( 16.85% faster),
ET: Quake Wars at 8xAA/16xAF ( 25.82% faster), Just Cause 2 at 0xAA/2xAF ( 14.22% faster),
Left 4 Dead 2 at 0xAA/0xAF ( 8.30% faster), Metro2033 at AAA/4xAF ( 11.40% faster), The
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena at 4xAA/8xAF ( 15.32% faster), Wolfenstein MP at
8xAA/16xAF ( 16.59% faster). Tests conducted with the following configuration: Asus M4A89GTD
PRO/USB3, AMD Phenom™ II X4 965 processor ( 2.4GHz) with AMD Radeon HD 6990M
graphics , 4GB (2GBX2GB), DDR3 system memory, Microsoft® Windows® 7 64-bit Ultimate
operating system. Drivers: AMD Catalyst™ driver 8.861 RC1, NVIDIA Driver 275.33 WHQL.
LEGO PIRATES OF THE
CARIBBEAN sails into port
In almost every way, LEGO Pirates is one of the best of the LEGO Whatever series, from its waggering Jack Sparrow to the epic range of
locations from the movies.
Its cute, mimed retellings are genuinely funny,
and the traditionally very basic combat feels oddly
satisfying as cartoon sword fighting set to battle
themes from the movies. The main problems are,
as ever, that the LEGO series shows no interest in
changing its formula. Puzzles are still about
smashing everything until you find the
relevant hidden object, AI remains
dreadful, loading times are epic, and
co-op is local-only. Richard Cobbett
63
X Price $30 X Release Out now Link
bit.ly/legpotc X ESRB E10+
The cuter version of Cliffhanger.
Ascend through TOBE’S
VERTICAL ADVENTURE
Sometimes, a game’s charm can take it further than its content might deserve. With its delightful sprites and cheery music, Tobe’s
Vertical Adventure is a Flash-style game that’s just
appealing enough to be worth the time and money.
In single- or two-player co-op, you’ll traverse
sixteen levels collecting cute critters and diamonds, akin to Lode Runner. Everything gets
frantic when you reach the final treasure, which
initiates a race to escape the pit you’ve been
exploring. The controls were stiff at first, but the
more I played, the more it felt like time-honored 8-bit platforming. For $5, you
could do worse than this brief-but-bewitching platformer. Lucas Sullivan
73
X Price $5 X Release Out no w Link
www.secretbase.com.sg X ESRB NR
NOVEMBER 2011
