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Wyrmwood Has a Place Among the Zombie Hordes

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Those of you who’ve read my articles before understand that I’m a bit of a zombie fan (the half-sleeve is also a dead giveaway). However, I’m rather particular about what I consider a good zombie film. My selectivity comes from the boundless number of bloated corpses floating in the genre since Shaun of the Dead relaunched the walking corpse legacy in the early 2000s. Following in Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s footsteps, every Tonya, Dick, and Jeffe with a spare thousand bucks and a high-end cam decided to slap together an undead flick.

While I applaud their creative effort and independent spirit, the undead subgenre is awash with mediocre fare, for which Hollywood is just as much to blame (*ahem* World War Z. The book was so much better.). For this reason, when I discover a zombie film that actually impresses me, like 2014’s Wyrmwood, I want to shout it from the body-strewn post-apocalyptic rooftops of the future.

Loosely based on an apocalyptic biblical prophecy, Wyrmwood opens as a meteor shower dazzles the Australian outback. Before anyone can quote Paul Hogan or Steve Irwin, a lightning-fast plague spreads through the populace, infecting many with that old familiar incurable cannibalistic eating disease. After being attacked by her assistants in studio, Brooke calls her brother Barry to warn him about the very real threat. Alerting his family, they flee the city in search of safe haven. Unfortunately, after removing their masks, his wife and daughter succumb to the rapidly manifesting plague, forcing Barry to kill them and nearly kill himself–save for missing bullets.

Running out of gas in the wilds, Barry happens upon another band of survivors, including sardonic Benny and dour mechanic Frank, who’s holed up in a remote garage. Quite by serendipity, the ragtag gaggle discovers that while gasoline is no longer flammable, zombie blood is (huh?). They rig up a zombie-powered Mad Max-mobile and burn off in search of Barry’s sister and a better, more-fortified location to fend of the undead multitudes.

One of the latest zombie rompers from Down Under, Wyrmwood is a credit to its small yet austere regional pedigree. The Australian-New Zealand area has been a hotspot for unique and quirky horror–especially zombie flicks–since Peter Jackson turned the film world crimson with Braindead (aka Dead Alive). Since releasing his ultimate gore fest, it seems his efforts inspired several generations of indie splatter-hounds to give it a go. Unusual and amusing efforts of note include 2005’s Undead, 2006’s spastically funny Black Sheep, and 2009’s Last of the Living.

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I swear I’m not a zombie. They just made me watch “House of the Dead.”

In several ways, director Kiah Roache-Turner’s debut film is a somewhat refreshing take on the overcooked genre. Wyrmwood endeavors to work a little CPR magic on the zombie film with little touches like flammable walking corpses who only are fast at night, when they’re not incendiary (although Barry still managed to set one ablaze by accident during the night). Another nice touch is his sister Brooke (spoiler alert!). Captured by the ubiquitous creepy army doctor, she’s injected with zombie blood as part of his twisted and seemingly pointless experiments—although we assume his motivation is loosely based on finding a cure for the disease. After several doses, Brooke gains some sort of hive-like awareness with the other prisoners—a sort of zombie sensory perception (or ZSP).

Sure, the film has a few flaws. Nothing’s ever perfect. The rescue of Brooke seems a little Deus ex machina for me, but it’s a thrilling one nonetheless. Also, the creepy doctor isn’t nearly as creepy as he is irksome–no matter how many different ways I’ve seen it done, the Reservoir Dogs dancing-while-doing-something-messed-up homage still feels played out. But aside from a handful of sequences that don’t work as well, the acting is solid for low budget and the movie overcomes most other limitations with sheer Aussie bravado. I especially dug the characterization and portrayal of Benny. His flippant attitude act as a fun counterpoint to the steely determined Barry and the otherwise dismal reality of the film’s environs.

In a crowded and often less-than spectacular-field, though, Wyrmwood is a genuinely enjoyable picture. Comprised of all the right ingredients: a solid plot, a decent cast, and an enjoyable couple of zombie twists—as well as a host of undead film homages—this stomper from Down Under sets itself apart from an often mediocre genre.

With a Creative Writing degree in one hand and an endless curiosity in the other, Andy dabbles in many creative fields. He's published blog posts, articles, hotel copy, fiction, and poetry professionally. Currently he dwells in Austin, TX, with his brilliant and understanding fiancee, Kim.

Gaming

The release of Atlas Fallen was delayed until August in order to provide the “best possible version”

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Atlas Fallen, an upcoming action role-playing game, has been delayed, according to publisher Focus Entertainment and developer Deck 13. This occurs shortly after a well-received public demonstration, during which new pictures and previews as well as the first gameplay were revealed. The team wants to give the game a bit more time in the oven, even though it appears to be quite promising. The game, originally scheduled to debut on May 16th, will instead do so on August 10th. Deck 13 announced the delay on social media, saying that it was necessary to “give the game some extra time so that we can provide the finest version of Atlas Fallen.”

The company said that it will reveal additional information about the game in the “early summer,” along with “new gameplay videos and your first look at drop-in co-op gameplay.” Atlas Fallen will also be released with a German audio option in addition to the English one. We have high hopes for this because delays are generally seen as positive things these days, and the game already looks great. Are you anticipating this one?

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Game on! During just two days, Resident Evil 4 sales reached 3 million

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Resident Evil 4 is performing quite well for itself, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Everyone agrees that the remake is a great version of a classic, and it has been a critical and financial success from the start. The game’s publisher, Capcom, announced in a brief statement that it had sold more than 3 million copies in its first two days on the international market. So, to compare, Resident Evil Village reached the same milestone in just four days, whereas Resident Evil 2: Remake sold just as many copies in its first week. In contrast, within five days of its release, Resident Evil 3 sold 2 million copies. Hence, the most recent entry is trending somewhat earlier than the others. Capcom also released an update on the total number of units shipped over the whole series, which presently stands at 135 million units and is accurate until December 31, 2022. It’s difficult to disagree with the publisher when it refers to Resident Evil as its “flagship game series” at this point.

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The Last of Us PC Version’s Joke: Joel’s Screwed Up Face

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We are not exactly certain how Naughty Dog intended The Last of Us: Part I’s PC release to turn out. It’s having to put out fire after fire from people on social media instead of happy tweets and lovely Picture Mode dumps. Technically speaking, the PC options are allegedly a disaster, as seen by the more than 4,000 “mainly unfavorable” user evaluations that have been consistently posted on Steam. Yet, for the coder, this trending tweet feels like the undesired icing on top. Anyone may use it as a punchline to illustrate how broken the PC version is. As freelance writer Kyle Campbell has illustrated here, Joel has undoubtedly experienced better times on Steam.

It’s not exactly the viewpoint Joel will want for future selfies, although we don’t know if the character model appears this way for the entire game. The end of the world has affected him more than usual, as evidenced by his facial hair, which appears to last for days. A truly sad sight. Let’s hope that he has some better days ahead of him. Of course, if you’re playing the game on a powerful computer, Joel doesn’t look like this. Nonetheless, you’d want to assume the port would look at least a little bit better than this because The Last of Us: Part I was even touted with the Steam Deck in a promotional advertisement. Naughty Dog has asked PC customers to submit support queries on its website via Twitter in order to collect comments and identify the problems with this specific version. The developer will want to address these issues right away because they ran flawlessly on the PS5. Many complaints lament frequent crashes, shader problems, and generally subpar performance. Instead of just being a straightforward version that runs on the personal computer, the studio even went so far as to refer to this transfer as being “for PC.” As a result, anticipate thick, quick flows of patches.

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