Hardcore Without a Pulse

Xbox® owners aren't exactly starving for quality horror games. Whether the disturbing, cerebral discomfort of Silent Hill® 4: The Room™ is your thing or the bloody action of The Suffering®: Ties that Bind™ gets your juices flowing, there are plenty of ways for you to scare yourself silly. So, what sets Stubbs the Zombie™ in Rebel without a Pulse™ apart from the pack of creepy, crawly action horror games?

In Stubbs, you are the zombie.

Stubbs is rolling deep with the dead posse.

There's no other game quite like Stubbs. I mean, what other title lets you munch on the domes of the prim and proper while you command an army of the undead with a mere whistle from your pursed, rotting lips? For that reason (and many more), Stubbs the Zombie gets the Hardcore Seal of Approval. And any game that gets my vote gets the Hardcore treatment, so here are some wicked ways to extend your play time and get the upper hand ... literally.

Still Dead After All These Years
Your character, Edward "Stubbs" Stubblefield, is as dead as a doornail. After stewing underground in his own pool of decomposition for the past 30 years, he's ready to rumble on the placid (and somewhat sterile) streets of Punchbowl, PA.

Once you've finished the game, it's time to go back and have some fun the Hardcore way. Try these challenges on for size.

• Insanity! You're not a truly hardcore gamer unless you can beat the game on its hardest difficulty. Some of the boys and girls at Wideload Games were responsible for bringing you Legendary mode on Halo®, so you can expect some stiff fights.
• Pack Rat: Once you complete the game, you unlock developer commentary and cool cheats in each level. Scour each environment and collect every Wideload hippo icon; you'll get an earful of insight, but you'll have to listen while you're fighting.
• Zombie Management: Flex your management muscle and build the largest zombie posse possible. Whistle your brain-thirsty buddies over to a large group of humans and watch the madness unfold, but don't join in on the action until every last one of your boys takes a dirt nap.
• Fill Up the Tank: When you're face to face with a moving tank, show 'em you've got grapefruit-sized gonads and rush to attack. Don't use your gut grenades -- instead limit your assault to melee attacks and zombie gas. Have fun dodging projectiles during your retreat.

I'll have the liver and brains platter, please.

• Possession Kills: Detach your hand from a safe haven and possess a sniper (preferably one on high ground). See how many headshot kills you can score before you're taken out.
• The Heel-Toe Express: Don't drive vehicles. Instead, hoof it to every destination and eliminate your opponents without the aid of machinery. This is much harder than it sounds, especially on the last few levels.
• Beat the Wideload Juggling Score: The Sod-o-mobile cannon packs a wallop and will send soldiers flying through the air. In the Greenhouse level, you drive the Sod-o-mobile through a winding canyon and lay waste to dozens of army men. Blast a soldier into the air and time your next shot so that it sends him back into the sky. Use the hillside and canyon floor to alter trajectory. According to the folks at Wideload, the standing juggling record is 16. Beat it.
• Airborne Brain Invasion: You can't munch on a human head unless your host is unaware of your presence, or he's dazed from a stiff beating. Did you know that you can sail through the air like a zombie Mikhail Baryshnikov and dig into a skull for an airborne brain invasion? Jump toward your target. For a brief moment you'll be given the context-sensitive option to eat that person's brains. You have to act quickly to pull it off. Bear in mind that you'll likely get shot numerous times while in midair, but pull this trick off and you've got Stubbs style.

Stubbs supports co-op play. Fire up a game, bust out a cooler of your favorite suds, and then take turns trying cool and creative tag-team attacks. Why not each possess a different enemy and compare kill counts? See who can grow the biggest zombie legion, then charge a machinegun nest and see whose zombies make it all the way to the gunner. The winner gets a free dinner ... of brains.