Oh yes, it’s that time of the year again, the time where strangers and relatives turn on you, get violent and an insatiable thirst for flesh. No, not the start of the holyday season, although that makes sense, I’m talking about the Zombie Apocalypse, it’s back once more with Left 4 Dead 2. The game just got released a few hours ago and I’m giving it three thumbs up (it’s a birth defect). But just as with the holidays, the spirit of the zombie apocalypse is also that of sharing. So let’s share the warm fuzzy feeling of shooting the horde of the undead together!

Join the Dark Diamond Steam Group where you’ll be able to play with some of us as well as with other dear readers. You can bet that’s all we’ll be playing for days. Also feel free to share your Xbox Live Gamertags, phone numbers, credit card details and social security numbers.

Left 4 Dead 2 is looming in the horizon just a little less than a month away and here at DDN we’re all excited! Yesterday an amazing new trailer was conveniently leaked online. Finally we get a better glimpse at the personalities of the survivors. I’m quite fond of Coach, who we see showing complete disregard for the new melee weapons in the game and simply punching a freaking zombie right in the face. You know, I’m fine with that, a man should need no better tool than his fists to end a zombie apocalypse.

Are you excited? Let us know!

Harrison Krix, a Graphic Designer from Atlanta, cosplayed as Big Daddy for Dragon*Con 2009. His costume was superb. That alone is enough reason for praise and fame but then Harrison went the extra mile and posted a complete log of the construction of the costume, all the way down to the fully functional drill in video.

It’s very rare to get a glimpse into the making of such a professionally made costume. Reminds me of the Pyramid Head cosplay video we showcased back in ‘07 (pulled from the internet now).

The Little Sister is not included in the how-to, that’s his fiancée, though no explanation on how he managed that!

[Volpin Props]

This one’s a bit off topic but nonetheless important and interesting for all us internet addicts enthusiasts. Ever wondered how you’d connect to the internet in the case of disaster? Zombie apocalypse? Capitalist meltdown? You’re most likely not going to be saving lives, fighting thugs or hunting for food. Face it, you’ll be the local geek so you might as well help out.

The latest issue of Make magazine has details on putting together a Network Relief Kit to provide internet connectivity in the most extreme of situations. The total setup costs around $3,500 USD and bandwidth costs are pretty expensive at $3 to $6 per Megabyte of data transferred. You’re most likely not going to be buying this any time soon but doesn’t the fact that you now know how to visit Dark Diamond from inside your zombie quarantine zone make you feel a lot better?

[MAKE / Via Boing Boing]

Today Capcom announced that Resident Evil 5, along with Street Fighter IV and Bionic Commando, will be ported to the PC. With SFIV and Bionic Commando coming out in July and RE: 5 in the fall this marks the newest step in Capcom’s attempts to bring its blockbusters to the PC.

No additional content has been announced for the PC version of RE:5 but it will sport a fancy new feature: 3D! The game will be compatible with Nvidia’s Geforce 3D Vision technology, allowing you to not only see Zombies in 3D, but Chris’ bigger-than-his-skull biceps and Sheva’s well endowed buttocks will also feel like they are coming out of your screen.

You may or may not know that Capcom actually released Resident Evil 4 for the PC as well and it was considered one of the worst PC ports ever, with basically no keyboard and mouse support basically forcing you to the same experience as the console versions. Now with this press release Capcom promises full keyboard and mouse support for all 3 games but adds that “for God’s sake, go buy a gamepad with analog sticks.”

To this humble editor this seems like Capcom is missing a big part of the point of releasing games for the PC, mainly that PC gamers are not that fond of controllers. So with this kind of attitude towards the PC its still to be seen what they actually mean when they say “full” keyboard and mouse support. But hey! At least there’s the promise of 3D ass, cant ague with that!

[Capcom]

IGN has got a hold of the first scene of the Resident Evil: Degeneration movie. Embedded right above for your viewing pleasure. I’ve got to say they are pretty well done and the story seems to be much more fulfilling than any of the actual Resident Evil movies ever were. I’m definitely looking forward to it now, how about you?

You read that right, GameTrailers TV reports that upon completion of the single-player campaign of CoD: WaW, an extra mode will be unlocked where the player is locked in a base with a limited amount of weapons, armor, and barricades to stop a never-ending rush of zombified SS soldiers.

There is no story behind NAZI ZOMBIES, and seriously, it doesn’t need one. There’s no word on whether co-op will work in NAZI ZOMBIE MODE so far. The amount of weapons, armor, ammunition, barricading equipment, etc. are handled by an “economy system”, the details of which are unspecified but probably similar to that of other FPS games where the most picked weapons become more expensive forcing you to choose less conventional ones. Either way, enjoyment of killing a NAZI ZOMBIE is not dependant on the method of execution.

Too long, didn’t read?

NAZI ZOMBIES.

[GameTrailers]

Capcop has being quite vocal about Resident Evil 5 at this E3. Sadly, as vocal as they are they end up repeating the same stuff everywhere. This leaves us with but a few new details of RE5.

As far as the story goes, we know that its set 10 years after the destruction of Racoon City. With Chris Redfield working for the BSAA, a bio-terrorism fighting organization. He’s sent to Africa to investigate some sort of biological attack that has happened there. We also know that parallel to all of this, Chris has been tracking the original virus used by Umbrella . Coincidentally, both events lead him to the same town, Kijuju, how handy!

Read more!

A new Resident Evil 5 trailer has just been released to the public from Captivate ‘08. The trailer features more gameplay than we’ve seen so far, lots of mob action with some really complex crowds. Its good to see the old chainsaw back although I’m not sure what to thing of the continuation of the action prompts. This seems like a much more complex game than what he had seen before.

We also finally discover who the mysterious female character from the latest screenshots was, apparently an African agent of some kind. It’s very clear in the trailer that Chris Redfield will be facing the same virus that appeared in Resident Evil 4. From a previous interview with Jun Takeuchi we now know that this game will focus on what has happened to Chris this last 10 years as well as the origin of this virus and its connection to what’s left of Umbrella, if anything.I think I’m officially hyped, are you hyped? I’m hyped!

The latest issue of famitsu comes loaded with some new images from Resident Evil 5. Image captions and information don’t reveal much except that light mechanics, where moving from a light to dark area and viceversa will play a much more important role than previously hinted at. There is also some talk about previous enemies making a comeback, such as the nosferatu from Code Veronica.

Who’s the girl in the red dress? Could it be you-know-who?

[Dark Zero]