Zombies!!! Or my journey into the next generation of the social board game.
I have been a long time fan of the board game Zombies!!! where players have to escape a Zombie infested town. it’s an interesting mix of competing to reach a heli-pad first and co-operating to handle the crazy amounts of Zombies.
The downside of this game is the huge amount of material you need to play it and the time it takes to set up / tear down.
Now this game has been ported to a Windows 8 Store App that has all the aspects of the full board game and adds very atmospheric sound and graphics of the town, that can be viewed and zoomed in real time. It also adds very cool animations to the Zombie fight sequences which adds a lot to the overall atmosphere.
It still doesn’t alter the gameplay experience of the board game and we recently played it with 5 people on one tablet and had a great time in a epic battle that lasted for over three hours.
Computer opponents can of course take the place of missing players.
The downside is that the game is meant to be passed from player to player as the current player’s card hand is shown over the entire screen when activated, so it has to be concealed from the other players.
The player’s card hand.
Also, this would play real nice on a large tablet, seeing the action was sometimes a bit hard for all five of us as my 11-inch tablet was a bit small in the center of the table.
Adding new parts to the ever growing town.
A fully laid out town, Helicopter waiting on the far left in this case
A player plotting his move.
Fighting a Zombie with the fire axe from the fire station. Our winner was using this tool for this victory….
“Where’s my Water?” and “Where’s my Perry?” games for Windows Phone free for one day.
Two great titles by Disney can be downloaded for free for one day:
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/where-my-water/15e6bf4d-b1ea-4b21-9301-fbf27fa00c2a
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/where-my-perry/73165b83-0398-4c7e-a4cb-9ac422b1fe81
A GREAT excuse to get two new games if you don’t already own them.
Did you like “Ghosts and Goblins”? Then you will LOVE “Maldita Castilla”.
Head over to http://www.locomalito.com/maldita_castilla.php for more info and to download the app.
I can highly recommend the Point-and-Click Adventure “Deponia”.
It plays like the classic Lucas-Arts adventures and has a great story, very good and likeable characters. By far the best PaC adventure I have seen in years.
The first two episodes can be downloaded from Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/214340/
“Like” the Metro 2033 Facebook page and get the game for free.
A great promo for the upcoming “Metro: Last Light” – if you “Like” the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/MetroVideoGame?sk=app_395840630491782 you will be given the first episode “Metro 2033” as a free download. If you haven’t played this game, it’s a superb survival-horror game where survivors of the nuclear holocaust struggle in a fight against mutants and human aggressors in the Moscow subway system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Xc2hhef-Nzo
SkyDrive will be on Xbox 360 today.
The three primary use cases are:
- Shared photos & videos. Share a meaningful event with your friends or family by viewing photos & videos on your TV, or view photos & videos others have shared with you through SkyDrive. Imagine being able to view cherished photos and videos shared by friends and family —like a musical performance, a kid’s birthday, or baby’s first steps—on your TV.
- Snap and see. For Windows Phone users, snap a picture and see it appear almost immediately in your camera roll on the big screen. This feels like magic! For example, you could take a quick snapshot of your child making a funny face, fire up the SkyDrive app on your Xbox, and view it right away on your 50” screen. Just make sure you’re using the same Microsoft account sign-in for both Xbox LIVE and your Windows Phone.
- Party slide show. Plan a great slide show to play in the background of a dinner party. For example, you could start a slide show of a recent trip for friends, or have holiday-themed photos and videos playing during a holiday party.
The new game rig is finally up and running.
It consists of two Alienware X51 systems, featuring the new Nvidia GTX 660 graphics cards and finally running only on SSD drives. Very nice performance.
I also like the Microsoft Sidewinder keyboards which I used to replace the Logitech G15 & G19 keyboards.I wonder why they were never made with Swiss German keyboard layout. The mice are the highly configurable Cyborg R.A.T. Contagion models.
Thinking big: Microsoft transforms a country for Halo 4 launch
Via: http://www.slashgear.com/microsoft-transforms-a-country-for-halo-4-launch-31254978/
Microsoft changed the Principality of Liechtenstein to turn it into a real-life replica of the Halo universe for the launch of Halo 4 in early November. The Microsoft transformation lasted only a day as the landscapes of the countryside became the stage for an alternate universe inspired by the video game. Microsoft invited media and fans from 16 different countries to take part in the experience.
Full PC implementation of Unreal 3 Engine ported to Windows RT, available to developers
Great news for developers! Even before Windows RT is available, NVIDIA and Epic have teamed to port the full PC implementation of the Unreal Engine 3 to Windows RT (and Windows 8).
Developers can license the engine from Epic and will have a very easy job of making Unreal based games available on Windows RT. This is great news for gamers around the globe.
Check the video to see how nice the engine performs on a Tegra3 based Windows RT system.
First 40 titles of Xbox games for Windows 8 announced.
It looks like Windows 8 will be quite formidable for gaming. As with Windows Phone, the tie-in with Xbox live including achievements has been the source of some very good games becoming available on this platform.
Xbox games for Windows 8 too will have Xbox Achievements as well as the ability to take advantage of certain Xbox features such as leaderboards, multiplayer modes, and connecting with friends.
So here is the list of titles that will become available through the Games app which comes with Windows 8 and will be available through the Windows Store.
- 4 Elements II Special Edition
- A World of Keflings
- Adera: Episode 1
- Adera: Episode 2
- Adera: Episode 3
- Angry Birds
- Angry Birds Space
- Big Buck Hunter Pro
- BlazBlue Calamity Trigger
- Collateral Damage
- Crash Course GO
- Cut the Rope
- Disney Fairies
- Dragon’s Lair
- Field & Stream Fishing
- Fruit Ninja
- Gravity Guy
- Gunstringer: Dead Man Running
- Hydro Thunder Hurricane
- IloMilo
- iStunt 2
- Jetpack Joyride
- Kinectimals Unleashed
- Microsoft Mahjong
- Microsoft Minesweeper
- Microsoft Solitaire Collection
- Monster Island
- PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX
- Pinball FX 2
- Reckless Racing Ultimate
- Rocket Riot 3D
- Shark Dash
- Shuffle Party
- Skulls of the Shogun
- Taptiles
- Team Crossword
- The Harvest HD
- Toy Soldiers Cold War
- Wordament
- Zombies!!!
about.me
Sascha Corti
Developer Evangelist
I work for Microsoft Switzerland as a Technical Engineer focusing on the Microsoft system platform and development tools. In this role, I introduce the Swiss developer community to the latest trends of Microsoft's development platform.
My current focus is on cross device HTML5 development, Windows 8 and Windows Phone app development and emerging technologies such as natural user interfaces.
My studies involve Computer Science at ETH Zurich and Information Management at the University of Zurich. My work experience include seven years as a software-developer and -architect for a major Swiss bank and working as a systems engineer and technology specialist for several American hi-tech companies, including Silicon Graphics and Microsoft.
In my spare time, I love playing computer and console games, including MMORPGs, reading - mostly technical material and fiction - and watching the latest US TV series.
