The last couple of weeks...

This will be the first time of many I break that fine line between professionalism and my personal life. 

I'm looking back on the last two weeks and they've been rather productive - certainly been intense enough. I'm sitting here at the back end of them minus 1 delightful, beloved girlfriend who has just scurried back to Uni, but plus a shiny new PC, a handful of new PC games (Chaos Rising, Dead Space 2, Borderlands: GOTY to name a few) so I definitely have plenty of entertainment. Not only that; but DoW II: Retribution comes out on the 4th of March, which is quickly followed by Dragon Age II on the 15th. I'm going to have to game double-time to wade through all of this!

I've fallen behind a little bit with college work and my usual reviews, but I managed to get four or five articles written from my laptop in Farnham. I spent quite a lot of time up there, and I had my Journalism interview halfway through last week, which actually went pretty well. There were very few things I would have said or done differently, so now begins that nerve-rending wait until I hear back from them. I'm expecting the positive but I'm a pessimist at heart, which in a way is good, because my soul won't be shattered if I don't get what I want.

The majority of yesterday was spent assembling my new PC with a couple of friends I game with every Tuesday evening. There was one of those terrifying moments where it looked like my computer baby was dead on arrival, but tinkering, rewiring and poking around eventually brought it to life. I've never been so relieved to see a blue LED, and my girlfriend (Who must have the patience of a saint, she was sat around witnessing something of totally minor interest to her for a good four hours) took a couple of pictures of me grinning like an idiot. An entire evening later and I'd managed to move the entire contents of my 250GB laptop I've been working off of for the past two years onto my new terabyte HDD.

So this is all pretty mundane stuff. I'm pretty happy about that, because these next few weeks are going to be pretty demanding. I'll still be blogging (It's becoming a little obsessive) and putting random thoughts on whatever I play to words, alongside updates on the music video project for Centralia DC and the college magazine work I'm doing. I'm going to sign off and get on with some coursework - that way I can justify gaming for the rest of the day. 

-L

Dragon Age: Redemption

So... Felicia Day is starring in a new web series taking place in Bioware's expansive Dragon Age universe.

It's set to appear sometime this summer, and features both the writing and acting talents of Felicia Day (Well-known for The Guild and her part as Penny in Joss Whedon's mini-musical Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog). She plays an Elven assassin named Tallis who is tasked with tracking down a rogue mage to earn her freedom, and Day has stated that the character is headstrong, sarcastic, and fights dirty.

That's pretty far f**king removed from her usual, isn't it?

Don't get me wrong, I like Felicia Day. Dr. Horrible wouldn't have been the same without her, and The Guild is geeky genius. She definitely deserves some credit for trying to break away from the shy, mousy character she's become so well known for, and the girl loves her games, which makes her a perfectly fine candidate for the series in that respect, but it just strikes me as odd. When Day's name comes to mind, I think silliness, pointless arguments about World of Warcraft (Or some other nondescript MMO) and a goofy charm that gives her that brilliant appeal to the nerds of the world, not brutal, sarcastic Elven assassin.

She's a good actress, but then again, I can't say that fairly having only seen her in The Guild and Dr. Horrible. I have no idea how she'll fit into this new role, but Day definitely deserves kudos for trying.

I just hope she can do the rich, intricately crafted fantasy world of Dragon Age justice.

-L

Jeez, they're just pixels... (Dead Island announcement trailer)

I will admit, I'd totally forgotten about Techland's Dead Island seeing as I hadn't heard anything of it for, oh, I don't know, about three years, but it's suddenly re-emerged back onto the internet like a popstar making a comeback in bad taste.

People have been debating whether or not this trailer goes a bit too far to publicize the game. Some people believe that the use of the death of a little girl and images of her dying is a cold marketing technique used to create some kind of thin emotional bond with a product, whilst others believe that it's well - used, tasteful, and thoroughly artistic. I can't say I agree with either of these ideas (Though I do lean more towards the latter).

This trailer is for promotion. It is for advertisement, but in its simplest form, it is pixelated. Yes, a little girl just got mauled by zombies and thrown through a window, but it was done with as much taste and sensitivity as could be achieved considering the subject matter. My main problem with the trailer is not the so called 'controversy' but its lack of attachment to the game itself. 

I ranted about this for a good four paragraphs or so in my ZZN article so I won't push the point any further (or shamelessly promote my writing any more... in this post) but to be honest, I think we have far more to complain about in advertising than some pixelated brain muncher, little girl or not, getting fragged. How about all those food adverts constantly screaming at us that we're all fat and we're going to die at age thirty weighing about 30 stone unless we consume more-of-whatever-shit-this-product-has-in-it, for example? That is true cruelty and manipulation through advertisement, and I can assure you, it has caused far more harm than the poignancy of Dead Island's rather effective trailer.

Hell, the trailer might have been pretty tragic, and seeing the dead little pixels may have been shocking for a sheltered few, but at least the trailer did something different for once. Unlike Killzone 3, Call of Duty whatever-number-it-is-now or pretty much 70% of all trailers these days. In short: The trailer should be viewed as something well - rendered and artistically valuable, but please, scream 'controversy' no more, it's just a short digital video.
-L

Picking My Brain

I want to open up this additional wound upon the internet's collective scar tissue with a brief outline of who I am as a person, and what I do. 

I am ScreenZombie, or Laurie, an internet journalist currently writing for Zombie Zone News, a full - time media student, and a part-time novelist/poet working on an as - yet untitled fiction. I'm going to University in September to study for a BA Hons in Journalism and my interests don't go far outside of videogames, films, literature, gadgets and graphic novels. Click here or here to see some examples of my work for ZZN so far, or visit An Aimless Author for a small archive of articles and very occasional updates on my coming novel. 

So, what can you expect from me? At least an article a week for ZZN (Which is a fantastic resource for zombie with some very talented people onboard) and bi-weekly videogame/movie reviews. I'm launching a vLog on my YouTube channel which doesn't have on it yet, but hopefully there should be some surreal rants/actually useful reviews within the next few weeks. 

So, follow me if movies, games and books are your 'thing' for regular updates and reviews, and check out on my Twitter for my far more regular micro-blogs. There's a lot of awesome stuff happening this year, and I can promise I'll have a hell of a lot to write about.

-ScreenZombie