Dead Nation

Shotgun!

If I've not made it clear already, this is very much a personal exploration of likes and dislikes. I'm not a zombie expert - there are loads of zombie movies I haven't seen, and loads of zombie games I haven't played. Frankly, that doesn't bother me in the slightest.

And I'm not even going to comment on all the films I have seen, and games I have played - let's face it, zombies are everywhere at the moment - you've even got a zombie-based survival horror game on the new Wii-U, for goodness sake!

But one game I will talk about is Dead Nation. If you have a PS3 and you've not played Dead Nation then you are missing out, big time. Created by Housemarque, who also brought us the brilliant Super Stardust, Dead Nation is a top-down, twin-stick shooter that has you working through ten levels of increasing chaos in your attempt to escape the clutches of runners, bombies, stompers and the fearsome cutters.

You start with a rifle, but you can add a variety of weapons to your arsenal including the classic shotgun and rock launcher - but also multi-use mines and a blade cannon (sweet!), amongst other things.

The action is constant: whilst it may ebb and flow from relative calm to utter zombie-infested chaos, periods of not shooting at all are few and far between. The lighting and scenery are beautiful, and the control is tight and responsive - and there's always a temptation to go back for more, try to play the game again better next time.

What's even better is that it's great as a single player game, and also as a two-player co-op. I've formed a cracking zombie-killing partnership with my wife: at one point we had the 2nd-best co-op score in the UK.

I don't know if Housemarque have any plans to release a sequel... I would absolutely love it if they did.