Hey you, yeah...you. Come closer. Can you hear me? Great. Now, have you ever thought about what you would do in the worst case scenario? What would you do... if the zombie apocalypse broke out? Do you have a game plan? Where would you go? What would you do? Do you even know how to take down a zombie or a group of zombies if need be? Worry no more, this week in Worth Your Simoleons I bring you yet another double feature: Dead Rising for the 360 and the book The Zombie Survival Guide.
Let's talk about Dead Rising; I cannot put this game down. It's got the right amount of creepy to it thanks to my pre-existing fear of zombies coupled with non stop whack-a-mole action with whatever you can find and pick up. In the story, you are a freelance photographer riding into a sleepy Colorado town on a hired helicopter to cover the story no one is reporting on thanks to military sealing the town off. Approaching the center of town, you are able to see mayhem breaking out below, although the dense main character fails to see them for zombies and instead thinks a riot is breaking out. When the helicopter comes under chase from the military, our main character is dropped off on the rooftop of Willamette Mall, and told to meet the chopper on the roof in 72 hours. What happens next is sheer survival, as you find anything and everything i aid your way through the mall, getting the story, and helping the government agents in the mall with you. The game is sheer brilliance in the amount of free range you have over doing anything you want (you can rev up a lawnmower and mow through a crowd of zombies), anything you can think of to survive. As the Zombie Survival Guide explains, we the civilians will never know of a zombie outbreak until it is too widespread and too late, due to military control and media blackouts. Dead Rising, for the price of about 15 bucks for a used copy, will give you the practice you need to know how to prepare if a zombie outbreak ever does happen.
The second recommendation I bring is not a game, but a book (you know, those things with words in them): The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. This book will teach you everything you need to know about surviving all different levels of zombie outbreaks. It goes into great (and scary) detail about how to prepare, how to survive, how to travel after this has happened, it teaches you how to turn a building into a sanctuary and everything you've never thought of. For example, did you know that when you hear of the outbreak to fill all your basins and bathtubs with water and cover them? Didn't think so... what would you do if the water was cut off? Die of thirst or risk initial exposure to run out and loot bottled water? While Dead Rising will teach you which weapons are best (and I think you find out quite quickly while guns are cool, nothing matches having a machete) and how to approach a fight with a zombie, The Zombie Survival Guide will teach you every thing else you need to know, and then some. At amazon.com, you can find this book for 12 dollars new.
