Stupid Zombies!

I paid $10 bucks to not sleep!

...cause there's nothing better than flaming zombies.Stupid Zombies, stupid Xbox Live friends(!), stupid lack of will power. What is with that?

So last night I sent an email out to Graybush, Stormblade and Coxxorz. "You guys buying the new Call of Duty World at War downloadable Zombie Content?" Coxxorz, as usual, ignored me. Stormblade and Graybush both emailed separately that they had both paid the $10 the previous night and played it with each other for a couple of hours.

Fine. Microsoft gets another $10 bucks of my hard earned cash (shut it!) and I get another night of little to no sleep.

It's all Stormblade's fault. And Graybush's. And Coxxorz'. I bear no responsibility at all. None.

Divided you fall

So the new Zombie mode splits you into two teams of two (if you have four players) separated by an large electricity powered door. Of course, the Verrückt Asylum (where you are) has no power. Ha, ha. Really funny you stinking developers. Ha, ha. I am laughing all the way through my sleepless night. HAHAHA. A little higher pitched than that maybe, more like a cackle. Hee HEE HEE HEE. HEE. So, no power. First goal. Turn on power.

No wait, back up a little. If you have four players! If you have only two players it sticks the two of you together on one side of the building. Three players gets ugly. Two players on one side and a single player on the other. Until you get power. For some reason the game really didn't like Graybush. Every time we played he got stuck on his own. Although, since I got Stormblade every stinking time maybe it was me the game didn't like? Anyway, single player on his own against his own horde of Nazi zombies and four possible entrances. Well... we spent a lot of time staring at a Revive flag that we couldn't get to. Don't worry though, every time we finished a wave of zombies Graybush would respawn to face yet another wave of bigger, stronger, faster zombies all on his own. Wee.

Okay, fine, yes it was fun, HEE HEE HEE.

"Graybush still dead?"

"Yep"

So when Coxxorz messaged me to ask if it was worth the $10 I immediately sent back. "Yes, he's still dead." Or something positive like that, after all, we needed a fourth player.

Where was I? Right, power. You need to buy your way through 5 different doors/obstacles at $750 each (one is $1000) to get to the electrical switch. Also buying slightly upgraded weapons along the way. This cost money. How do you get money? By killing zombies. Fortunately there are a lot of zombies. Unfortunately, your 2-3 teammates (theoretically) are also after money and are racing against you to kill them faster. "That was my zombie!" "You stole my zombie!" "Give ME that zombie back!"

Which got exciting. So earning money by killing. You get nothing for killing your theoretical teammates. Not that we tried or anything.

Zombies in the room!

One of the neat things about zombie mode is the powerups. Occasionally when you kill a zombie it drops a glowing green power up: Insta-kill, Kaboom, 2X, max Ammo. But only zombies inside the building with you drop powerups. So its a mixed blessing. When you see an 2x appear on the screen you know that you get double points. You also know that the guy behind you is now surrounded by zombies and hasn't said anything because he is sure he can handle it himself. Oh look, another Revive flag. Although to be fair, Graybush pointed out after one round, that I had needed to revived five times – which is probably a little high. In my defence, two of them were self-inflicted.

Money can buy you a fourth teammate

So... 11:15. "I have to go, good night."

"No wait, Coxxorz just came online, you have to wait for him."

Fine. Coxxorz messages me. 2% downloaded. 15 minutes later... 48% downloaded. 15 minutes after that... 99% downloaded. I hear my bed calling me...

11:50... "You can't quit out now, he just finished downloading it. If you take off he's going to be pissed." Fine. And then he started one more round while we waited for Coxxorz to join...

12:15ish Coxxorz finishes his download and finally joins our party and game. We last only six waves.

There was a good reason. Once you manage to turn the power on there are a couple of areas with electrified doorways that kill any zombie that walks through them... or human. As Graybush discovered the first time we used them. Graybush threw the switch and then walked into the glowing doorway... Oh look, another Revive flag. So I revived him. Right where he was. In the glowing blue doorway. The glowing blue lethal doorway. You see the problem now don't you? Look, another Revive flag. Revive Graybush, Graybush gets fried. This turned out to be pretty entertaining through four straight revivals. Since the electroshock defenses and Stormblade were holding back the Nazi zombie horde I went and held myself a little Graybush barbeque. Revive... Zzzzzt! Revive... Zzzzzt! Revive... Zzzzzt! Hee, hee, hee... I could do this for hours... Hey! The power cut out! Darn it! Stupid stinking developers. Graybush stayed revived this time. For a while.

Boy it's getting late...

So this self-mutilating electorshock therapy was something we forgot to mention to Coxxorz. There was a lot going on and what harm could come from one little oversight? We forgot who we were dealing with. To Coxxorz the "Press X to turn on Electroshock Fence" was the same as putting a "Do not push" button it front of Bugs Bunny. It was going to happen. You just had to wait.

Coxxorz out did himself and out did Graybush. Coxxorz discovered that it was possible to turn on the electroshock defences while standing in the doorway. Yes, the same doorway that has the electroshock fence inside it. Oh look, another Revive flag. Guess we should have warned him.

"Anything else you forgot to mention, like maybe the guns shoot backwards!"

I don't know guys, but I think I'm sensing a little sarcasm from Coxxorz.

12:30 passes

Only six waves before Coxxorz killed himself and the whole team got taken out trying to revive him. Doesn't count. Do over. Fine.

Still stuck with Stormblade. We went five rounds to collect money and then beelined straight to the electrical switch to turn on power. Strategy worked. Random is as random does. Coxxorz and Graybush joined us and the tickle trunk was right there (The tickle trunk is our name for the random weapon generator). We discovered that if we only open one door of the electical switch room we have four guys covering one entrance. With the zombies coming a guaranteed direction it gets easier to hold them back. Even for us. Stormblade got a flame thrower and put it to good use roasting the zombies through a window before they even got near us. This is when we discovered that the developers truly hated us. A new addition to the tickle trunk is a old worn out teddy bear. A zombified teddy bear. If you get this from the tickle trunk the trunk shatters and is destroyed (apparently it is teleported elsewhere and not destroyed which didn't really matter at the time). No more weapons for you! Stupid stinking developers. There is no good time to discover that change! I, also, personally discovered that carrying two large light machine guns doesn't help if neither of them have any bullets! We died shortly after that.

Vous avez survécu 12 manches.

Zombies are scarier in french. Graybush and Stormblade both tell me this. I will let them share the full story.

I'm tired of writing now

So this was supposed to be a short blog update about how zombies kept me awake.

Anyway the new zombie mode is fun and so far worth the $10. I look forward to going back to Verrückt and trying to survive past 12 rounds (the furthest we got). Right now I'm feeling that the lack of sleep might not have been worth it but I admit that its needs to be played with four players to properly appreciate it. And that required a lengthy wait for Coxxorz.

I think it requires further four player study. If only I can find three more willing zombie victims to join me in fighting off the Nazi zombie horde. Anyone?

Let's try to quit out a little earlier this time, shall we? How addictive can it possibly be...

Verrückt info

From callofduty.com:

The fan favorite 4-player co-op Nazi Zombies Bonus Mode returns with “Verrückt,“ a terrifying Zombie asylum located in the outskirts of Berlin. The map splits the four players into pairs, challenging the two teams to find each other for survival. Featuring more weapons, perks via the addition of Perks-a-Cola machines, electroshock defenses and the endless Nazi Zombie horde, “Verrückt“ will push you to the edge of your sanity.