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Dead Rising showed what a blast, uh, blasting zombies could be. Plus there's all that satire shopping mall blah blah blah capitalism sucks blah blah have to charge my iPod blah. Still, I always thought there was something missing in the zombie video game genre. Initially, I thought it was the speed factor. Recently I reviewed the movie 28 Weeks Later and stated that I thought fast-moving zombies were superior to their more lackadasical kin. Video games are no different, I feel. A game with fewer and faster zombies would make for much tenser gameplay, as you'd never know where they were coming from until they were almost right on top of you. But, as I realized, it wasn't just speed. It was time and place. When I first heard of Gouge Eye for the XBox 360, I nearly pooed myself. Just think, a game that combines the Wild West aspect of Gun, and the zombies of modern day cinema like Dawn of the Dead. In Gouge Eye, you play as Johnny Eli, a mine foreman in the (real) boomtown Gouge Eye in the year 1875. Life's been tough on ol' Johnny: parents killed in their home state of Wyoming, brother shot dead in a card game, farm taken by the government. Only Even, his prostitute girlfriend, and his young crew of mine workers are there for him. Is that a gangrenous left leg or are you just happy to see me, cowpoke? When a meteor hits 10 miles from the tiny mining town (think Deadwood), many of the locals go to see the "sun stone" (ah, a lack of formal education is adorable). We all know what happens next. Johnny must navigate the town, the surrounding wilderness, and nearby towns to rescue survivors, kill zombies, and, you know, generally be heroic. Along the way, he'll meet a bevy of colorful characters who can help you including Even, Johnny's mine worker pals, and Ol' Doc Hoke (the town's resident leech-applicator). He'll also have to deal with those whose intentions are less than pure, even villainous like Silas the rival mine foreman, Mayor Hoot (who's just a total prick). There are also a host and some characters who you're just not sure of yet (the mysterious undertaker, Lincoln). Gouge Eye is an open-ended third person shooter that employs many of my favorite features of modern gaming, such as interactive and destructible environments. For instance, if a pack of zombies is sprinting at you, and you don't wish to engage them with your trusty Winchester, make your way to a building, and climb up on the roof to pick them off at your leisure (the whole shoot-em-in-the-head rule still applies). Or, grab a horse and shoot them undead bastards on the run. The cool thing about Gouge Eye is that yo may go a while without encountering any zombies at all. It's not all zombies all the time, but when they do run into you, the effect is shocking and a little scary, making you think twice about running around town in a flurry. With plenty of side-missions much like its predecessor Dead Rising, Gouge Eye will almost certainly be a gotta-have-it in the zombie genre because of its great looking scenery, terrifying zombies, and complex storyline.

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