It’s a unique idea, Dead Block. The $9.99 PSN/XBLA release takes the usual third-person zombie-killing action approach and jams it into an intriguing tower defense format. The hero characters are locked in a building and must survive waves of zombies that keep piling in through the open windows. Rather than focusing on shotguns and gore, Dead Block asks that you deal with the horde by quickly installing silly traps inside the windows and door frames. While the undead are being frozen into popsicles or whacked on the head with rolling pins, you’re kept busy by turning the rooms inside-out in search of the hidden items that will let you finish the level.

The game bears a superficial resemblance to beloved trap-oriented franchises Dungeon Keeper and Deception, although Dead Block is nowhere near as complex.

But first: the setting. Yes, this is yet another zombie game (although at least this is one that gives us something to do aside from shooting them.) Dead Block also happens to be set in the 1950s, transposing a whitebread “Leave It to Beaver” world against the slow-moving horror of rampaging ghouls. Interestingly, the playable characters sort of aren’t 1950s cliches at all. I would have expected a Grinning Omnipotent Dad, or a tough teen greaser. Instead you cycle between Jack Foster (burly construction worker), Mike Bacon (chubby boy scout) and Foxy Jones (tough traffic warden.) Is there anything specifically ’50s about that cast? This is not a complaint, just an observation.

The reason for the trio is that Dead Block revolves around three key actions: building, searching and shooting. Each character specializes in one of the three, and I’ll let you figure out which is which because it won’t take long. Each character also has a specific set of barricade only he or she can build. Only Jack can build the mighty Concrete wall that will never crumble; only Foxy can install the Bomb barrier that clears out a zombie-packed room. And only Mike can build the trap that dumps poop on enemies as they shamble through, which somehow reduces their health bar and allows them to inadvertently spread the crap infection to nearby zombies.

Even though you do not always get the option to play as all three in the same level, the general idea is to take control of the one you need, when you need to make sure his or her special skills need to be best levied. I tended to walk Jack into a room full of stuff and let his AI take over to start demolishing furniture for wood, while I built the awesome Bomb traps with Foxy.

If you absolutely must kill zombies with your bare hands, you can whack them with a frying pan or other character-specific weapon. In a one-on-one contest, you’ll probably be okay – characters self-heal over time – but if you’re surrounded it is unlikely you’ll survive. For the direst of dire situations, each character also has a unique mega-attack that automagically upgrades over the course of the game. Foxy ends up with a shotgun (sigh) that kills the twelve nearest zombies without you having to aim, while Mike is granted the ability to toss a distractingly delicious cheeseburger into the room to pull the horde’s attention away from you.

This may all sound very cool and inventive, but Dead Block seems to simply not have had enough thought put into it. The zombie traps tend to be unbalanced and one-note, never creating opportunities for the ridiculous trap combos of Dungeon Keeper or Deception. So you can more or less focus on putting Bomb traps EVERYWHERE since they are easily the most useful barricade. There is no incentive to branch out into the other types (unless you’re in one of the early levels where Foxy is not a playable character… and in that case you’ll probably just use Jack’s freeze door and do a lot of ice smashing.) You end up building the same traps and using the same strategy on every map.

Searching items is meant to invoke the B-movie suspense of the harried hero rushing through closets and drawers looking for weaponry. Dead Block creates that tension by making you click through the shoulder buttons to simulate rooting through junk, but all you find is a nut. Nuts are used to build traps, but I’ll be damned if the game ever explains how it decides what traps you earn by finding nuts. You just collect yer nuts and watch your inventory count to see what traps are made available.

Then there’s the level finisher, a supposedly triumphant display of the power of rock-and-roll. Your primary goal is to locate the three parts of the world’s cheapest Rock Band kit: a guitar, an amp, and something else that hooks up to a guitar and an amp. Once you find all three, you end the level with the worst rhythm minigame ever designed, a slow-yet-picky PaRappa pastiche set to a barely-variating series of guitar riffs. For some reason, hearing rock music stops the zombies. If I’m to believe the end-level cutscenes, it doesn’t even kill them. Just stops them. So I’m not sure why we’re bothering.

And while Dead Block deserves points for including some pleasantly genuine-sounding 1950s proto-Elvis music, it promptly loses them for making us listen to the same moany song at the end of every level. Also: the game’s final level scoreboard (where you get some nice stats on how much furniture you destroyed and how many zombies were killed) popped up on top of the credit scroll. That is just plain unpolished. The cinematics that preface each level – poorly mimicking 1950s horror movie trailers – are also no great shakes.

However, Dead Block does a great job at modeling 1950s furniture! It is all viewed through a kooky MAD Magazine lens, but I liked seeing the bean-shaped designs and smooth chrome that define ’50s America.

While crafting a third-person action-oriented tower defense is a laudable goal, I spent the entire game wishing I was seeing the events from the usual top-down perspective, placing traps and protecting innocents from my comfortable birds-eye view. Which Bomb trap just went off? Hey, I don’t know, I’m stuck inside a bathroom two floors up.

This is indie developer Candygun Games’ first release, so we can chalk up Dead Block as a learning experience. My suggestion is to learn to avoid zombie games.

For an unfinished, poorly explained take on a decent tower defense concept, Dead Block gets 2 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.

Dead Block was released July 2011 (NA) on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.
Rated T

Check out Dead Block and other PSN reviews at Test Freaks.

Section 8 Prejudice was a nice little surprise for PC and Xbox 360 owners earlier this summer.  Priced at $15 and 1200 MS Points respectively, it offered up a nice full featured campaign, solid multiplayer and enough of a difference in play mechanics to warrant a spot on most people’s play rotation.  Now, PSN owners can get in on the action starting today with Section 8 Prejudice on the PSN.  Priced at $14.99, Section 8 Prejudice is a great purchase for anyone looking for a competant multiplayer FPS on the cheap.

Xbox 360 and PC owners are also getting a little something extra today as well, as a new skirmish mode has been added to all versions of Section 8 Prejudice, for the low price of free.  Timegate Studios has offered up a lot of good will for this new release, with several free additions being offered up after its release.

Want to know if Section 8 Prejudice is right for you?  Check our our review of the PC version right here.

Candygun Games has released Dead Block, their quirky take on a zombie apocalypse, on PSN today.  Dead Block takes place in the 1950′s, where the era of rock and roll has happened, and with it, the raising of the dead has occurred, leaving people inundated by zombies.

Dead Block gives players 10 single player levels to battle through on their lonesome, fighting the zombie scourge, or you can playvia four player split screen, and several co-op levels that can be played over the PSN with a friend.

Dead Block is priced at $9.99 for PSN owners and was recently released on the Xbox Live marketplace for 800 MS Points.

Square Enix announced today that it has released its critically reviewed title, Final Fantasy Tactics: the War of the Lions on the PSN today for the low price of $9.99.  While nothing has changed from the original release, which is not a bad thing, it gives those that have not checked out this title a great way to pick it up, without hitting the wallet too hard.

While I am not a big fan of the Tactics line, I do like the idea of re-releasing older titles for the PSP at a discount rate via the PSN.  It is a tactic that more developers and publishers should embrace to give those looking at the PSP Vita a healthy library of downloadable titles at launch to make up for the shortcomings that normally happen in a launch window for a new console.

For those that have been perplexed by Catherine, in regards to its gameplay mechanics, platforming and story choices, you will now have a chance to try it out for yourself, as the demo has arrived on both Xbox 360 and PS3 today.  The demo is a slice of the game, showing off the different aspects of Catherine.  All PS3 owners will have access to the demo starting today, while only Xbox Live Gold members will have access to the demo for the first week on Xbox 360.

Catherine is set for release on PS3 and Xbox 360 on July 26th, 2011 from Atlus USA.  All pre-orders will come with a collectible art book and soundtrack CD for $59.99 and a collector’s edition is also available for $79.99 and comes iwht a t-shirt, Catherine pillowcase, and more.

If there was one thing that people complained about when Burnout Paradise hit shelves, heyond no restarts, was the lack of the old school Crash mode of gameplay that people loved.  Well, those people can feel free to rejoice today as Criterion and EA have announced Burnout CRASH for both XBLA and PSN this fall.

Burnout CRASH will allow players to crash, wreck and let loose mayhem on traffic-filled streets in order to rack up huge points.  CRASH will also include the beloved Autolog system as well, which will update your wall and your friends walls with scores and info, ensuring a certain level of competition among friends.

Burnout CRASH will also be the first EA published title on the XBLA that will have a dedicated Kinect mode of gameplay, which will allow two players to direct the mayhem using the Kinect device on Xbox 360.

Check out more info on Burnout CRASH on the Criterion Blog.

While I was surprised that Zen Studios missed out on an opportunity to create a tie-in to the Thor movie with a pinball table, they are not making the same mistake twice, as they have released a new Captain America table for Pinball FX2 on XBLA or Marvel Pinball on PSN.  This is not necessarily a review for the table, it does have some opinions on the table and where it compares to the other Marvel tables that have come out over the last few months.

The new Captain America table is a three flipper, four ramp table with a recessed bumper section, a mini-game table on the upper left of the table and several different full sized characters that animate during certain battle sequences.  The table has a very open middle area of the table, and the sides and upper sections of the table are packed with most of the interaction points.

I played through at least 30 matches on the Captain America table and I found it to be one of my favorite tables in the Marvel packs that have come out on XBLA.  The table always feels in motion, and it is not that difficult to get into the mission sequences on the table.  I also like the idea that they do a lot more with animating the table when it comes to some of the missions.  One of them involves stopping the flow of Adhesive X, a chemical compound that Baron Zemo uses on his enemies.  When the barrels are flowing, they spill on the table, slowing your ball down when it comes into contact with the substance.

Probably the most impressive thing about this new table is that it feels to have more action going on compared to the Iron Man or Spider Man table.  There always seems to be something unlocking, or opening, or just a bonus multiplier that you can hit on the table, giving you ample opportunity to get some points.

I would caution that I found it to also be one of the more difficult tables to work with, as it seems to have a dead spot between the two flippers and occasionally off of the service, it will hit that dead spot and you lose the ball right away.  It is not common, but it does happen at times.  It may just be me, but the flippers seemed to be spaced a little farther apart than in the other tables.  Normally, you always feel like you can get at least part of the ball on one of the flippers with patience, but here there seems to be a spot where you cannot get to the ball.  It is a little frustrating, but not detrimental to the overall feel of the table.

For its price, I think Captain America is well worth the price of admission.  It offers up a fun table, with a lot of action happening all over the place.  It is by no means perfect, but it has become one of my favorites behind the Blade table.  Look for it today on XBLA and PSN.

This is probably something you are going to read a lot over the next few days, but with the PSN back up companies can finally start adding their content to the store, including Obsidian and Bethesda.  The two companies have added the second DLC pack for Fallout New Vegas entitled, “Honest Hearts”. 

The new DLC takes players to a new location in Utah called Zion, where a man that has been “baptized twice – once in water and once in flames”, seems to be leading a religious cult that wants to save the world from itself.

The Honest Hearts DLC pack will set you back $9.99 and it will require you to have a save point that is set before the last major plot point in the main storyline.  Look for it on the PSN today.

This week on the Aeropodcast, we had big news – Stephen has returned for an episode.  The bad news, is that Haygood was inexplicably unprepared for the greatness that is Stephen Munn, and botched up the outline by forgetting that a topic was needed.  So we winged it and chatted about the events surrounding the replacement of Haygood’s card by Chase due to suspicious activity in a foreign land.

We also chatted about what we were playing, L.A. Noire some more, what Stephen has been up to and cats peeing on walls in anticipation of Fourhman visiting the Haygood Estate.  Informational it may not be, but it is chock full of laughs.

The podcast was mixed, by Stephen “I Returned for This?” Munn, and features “Droid Girl”, performed by Lazyitis.

Download the podcast from here or subscribe to the podcast using one of the services below. Also make sure to review us on iTunes and now, the Zune Marketplace. If you have not yet, make sure to visit our Facebook Fan Page.

The Aeropodcast is a bit late this week, but we were still recovering from Rapture burnout.  As you can see, we have pictures of the real reason the Rapture was denied, and we can chalk it up to a great American icon that was lost to us.  He apparently gave his own life ot save the rest of us.

In all seriousness, we had a random sort of week, as news is sporatic at best with the lead up to E3, but Haygood did get to see the new Sonic Generations and Mario vs. Sonic London Olympics 2012 at a Sega event, and we dive into the intricacies of L.A. Noire, and why reading people can be a pain in the ass.  No spoiler talk however.  Finally we talk about the PSN Welcome Back program and some of the items that you will be able to grab for free.  For those like Haygood that had multiple accounts, laugh at Fourhman as he will only be able to select two while the rest of us will get all through said accounts.

The podcast was mixed, by Stephen “No Rapture = More Singstar” Munn, and features “Droid Girl”, performed by Lazyitis.

Download the podcast from here or subscribe to the podcast using one of the services below. Also make sure to review us on iTunes and now, the Zune Marketplace. If you have not yet, make sure to visit our Facebook Fan Page.