For the record, working at my company is not at all dull. Every once in a while, the floor is abuzz with fun activities to liven up the workplace. And it just so happens that Halloween is near, so what’s more appropriate than dressing up as creatures of the night and transform the floor into a gruesome setting.
This year, I took the costume contest with a bit of a challenge, because it must reflect a part of me and come up with something that’s extraordinary and adhering to the geek code, seeing just how tiresome it is to be seeing Edward Cullen’s, Jacob Black’s, Grim Reapers, Mike Myers (or any of his clones), Minerva McGonagall’s, Lord Voldemort’s and dead rape victims.
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Note: Filipinos don’t celebrate Halloween. Instead, we celebrate All Saints Day the day after Halloween (Nov-1), as a day when we remember our departed loved ones. This one continues until the next day (Nov-2), which we name as All Souls Day. On this day, we go to the cemetery and light candles in the grave. |
Two days to go and I have yet to come up with an idea, much less start working on what I’m going to wear. Ironically, I got the idea after seeing a broomstick, which I somehow envisioned as a flag. I found the perfect creature.
Making the costume was easy enough. I just need a tattered coat and jeans (and if I can’t obtain one, I can just make one) and a red tie. The mask is the problem. Having no time to scourge the malls, I ended up improvising the mask by printing it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to acquire a red tie (or a tie of any other color for that matter). Even though the gathered materials aren’t too similar to the character model, I was satisfied with the end result.
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Zombies had come a long way in gaming. They are now the most preferred expendable units in action/combat games, beating insurgents, aliens, mutants and mythical creatures. Undeads are readily more available, they are tougher to kill and they do have a unique advantage because our loss is their gain. And what they lack in intelligence, they make it up in terms of sheer quantity. However, as it turns out, they actually have different attributes in history:
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Zombies were originally the first beneficiary of the Belmont’s whip. They are depicted as slim creatures wearing a white tattered & flowing robe, randomly appearing on the floor. This means you need to be alert because you’ll never know where the next one will appear.
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In Final Fantasy games, zombies were originally minions of the Earth Fiend. These unique creatures are partly immune to physical attacks and even spells (partially, because you still can dish out a damage of 1 for every attack made, heh). Want to know how to eliminate them with minimal moves? Use curative and healing spells, or throw Potions.
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The modern definition of the videogame zombie was introduced in the first true console horror game: Resident Evil, which was introduced in 1996 and therefore has its 15th anniversary this year. (Some argue however that it was Zombies Ate My Neighbors! who first delivered a scary experience. But who cares anyway? At least, the game deals with the same creatures, as the title suggests.) The zombie outbreak was the result of the escape of a virus being experimented by the evil Umbrella Corporation.
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Zombies, which were also renamed as Undeads, Damned or Cursed in the Diablo games, were usually dead creatures who were raised through magic or sorcery.
Fast forward to 2009, Popcap Games, makers of extremely popular casual games such as Bejeweled, Peggle and Insaniquarium, had suddenly came up with an incredibly deep tower defense game featuring an ensemble of cartoonized and slightly intelligent zombies. That game was Plants vs. Zombies.
