Tomorrow around noon, the Dead Lantern crew (Deejay, Jeremy and myself) will leave the cozy confines of our corn infested state to travel to the Land of Obama (nobody calls it the Land of Lincoln anymore, right?). We should be arriving in the town of Peoria around eight or nine tomorrow night. Gonna grab some hotel rooms and then eventually meet up with the Drunken Zombie folks at a bar that I’m told has great burgers. I’m going to hold them to that since I consider myself a connoisseur of all things cheeseburger and am looking forward to eating sweet deliciousness tomorrow (Steve’s sweet deliciousness won’t arrive until Saturday, so I have to fallback on the burger to get my satisfaction). Saturday we’ll probably wander the mean streets of Peoria for awhile, just to see what the place is all about, and then head over to the Drunken Zombie Film Festival. I’ve been told some film called Outpost Doom is playing. I’ve heard good things about it. Actually, Deejay never sent me the final black and white version to look over this week, so I have no idea what the status of the movie is. Hope he’s got a copy for me to watch on the way…

If you just can’t wait to know what’s going on during our roadtrip to Illinois, fear not. I’ll be blogging my thoughts via my laptop tomorrow night and into saturday. I’ve been told the theater has wifi and I’m sure the hotel we stay at will as well. You’ll get the full scoop as it happens. We’ll also be doing a Splattercast from the festival itself. We’ll try to get that uploaded as soon as possible. On top of that, we’re also recording the trip which will be a special feature on the Outpost Doom DVD. And if that isn’t enough, we’ll be posting photos from the trip on Dead Lantern as well…and maybe some other surprises. You’ll have to wait and see. I think it’ll be a fun trip. Here’s hoping Outpost Doom is well received and that it won’t be a long drive back

I’m really digging Borderlands. It’s a cel-shaded first person shooter/rpg set in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s being compared to Fallout 3 (a.k.a. The Greatest Game in the History of Ever) in terms of, well, just about everything. For example, instead of leaving a Vault in Fallout, you are searching for a Vault in Borderlands. Both games have a similar setting and quests and both games feature a similar rpg element where you level up and unlock newer and better abilities. Fallout 3 is clearly the superior game of the two, no question about that, but Borderlands has a lot going for it. For one, it’s a Fallout style game for people who don’t have time to play Fallout. Borderlands is all about fighting, all the time. There are a zillion guns, pretty much every enemy drops ammo and cash, and the focus is clearly on killing shit. Fallout is more exploration based and the quests are more in depth. With Borderlands, you can pick up the game and play for an hour and you’re practically guaranteed to not only level up, but finish a good 5 or 6 quests. In other words, it’s Fallout for people who don’t have time to follow an intricate story and who don’t want to spend 2 hours doing a quest. As a fun action game, it’s aces in my book and I’d certainly recommend it to anyone who is intimidated by the sheer size and time requirement of Fallout. Borderlands does have it’s problems, though. For starters, the same enemies continually respawn in the exact same locations and it gets annoying having to re-fight some major battles that you just beat a few minutes before. Sorta cheapens those “Holy shit I finally got through this hellish battle!” moments of excitement when you realize the next quest will just make you go through all of it again. Also, there is so much damn loot everywhere that it makes the zillion ammo, health, and gun stations completely worthless other than to sell all the aforementioned loot you find. And I miss having my own house in Fallout where I could store all the great stuff I find. Here, you only have a certain amount of slots available in your “backpack”, so if you find something awesome, you either have to drop something else or sell something to make room. Boo! Overall, if you don’t have the time to play Fallout 3 (which is an almost godlike game that can’t be touched, quality wise. It’s almost unfair to try and compare the two games. It would be like comparing Curtains to Halloween. I think Curtains is really awesome, but c’mon, Halloween is untouchable), splurge on Borderlands.

p.s. I’ve yet to play the 4 player co-0p for Borderlands. Everyone says it’s like Left 4 Dead in a Fallout setting. In other words, it’s apparently how the game is supposed to be played. If the single player is this good, I can’t wait to try it with friends in a co-op setting.

Filed under: Dead Lantern News, Outpost Doom, Video Games