"Mr Ploot? Homer Simpson here. When you sold me this house you forgot to mention one little thing! You didn't tell me it was built ON AN INDIAN BURIAL GROUND!!!!! NO! YOU! DIDN'T! Well that's not MY recollection! Yeah. Well... all right, goodbye! [Puts the phone down] He says he mentioned it five or six times" Homer Simpson

We just don't get it. The dead simply don't appreciate having structures placed over their graves unless it's a headstone that reads, "Here lay the body of blah, blah, blah," and because of our blatant disregard for this fact, we usually wind up having hell to pay. Such is the case when billionaire playboy Andrew Monday erects the city of Punchbowl Pennsylvania over the resting place of traveling salesman Edward "Stubbs" Stubblefield in Wideload Games' Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse". An action game with a twist, Stubbs is a one of the most anticipated games of 2005, providing you can "stomach" its content.

When Bungie founder Alex Seropian left the house that Halo built, the industry was a little shocked and for good reason. After crafting one of the greatest first person shooters in history, and with a sequel on the way, who in their right mind would leave such a lucrative company? Well, possibly because of a thirst to attempt something new, Seropian created developer Wideload Games, and its first title, which is powered by an enhanced version of the Halo engine is Stubbs the Zombie, and it's one of the more original titles that I've seen in a long time, for you see, in Stubbs you actually get the opportunity to play as a zombie. True, Capcom showcased this feature in Resident Evil Outbreak, but that game was garbage so we're going to tuck it away into our back pockets and forget it's there. Besides, it didn't allow you to be an undead freak for too long. In Stubbs, you're a zombie for what appears to be the whole way through, and the developers have really gone the distance and loaded this game with all sorts of nastiness, but before I get to the blood and guts, let's check out why you're a zombie in the first place.

Back in 1933, Edward Stubbs was your standard traveling salesman trying to make a living during The Great Depression because, as I'm sure you've read, times were DAMN hard back in the day. It was even more difficult for our poor friend Stubbs, because unlike some of his peers, Stubbs was a HORRIBLE salesman, and his life didn't exactly conclude in a nice way either. Our boy was viciously murdered and his body was buried in some field in Pennsylvania.

Flash forward to 1959. Andrew Monday (I have a pretty good feeling we're not going to like this guy) has built this huge city of the future called Punchbowl, and to add to his corniness he slapped it with the following quote: "Drink your fill of the future." On opening day, Stubbs crawls out of his grave, and not knowing what the hell happened (he doesn't know who killed him), decides that he's in the mood to exact some well-earned revenge, and so he limps through the city and starts devouring its peoples' brains. As you may have already guessed, hilarity ensues.

Actually, Monday's anything but amused. With Stubbs on the rampage and his victims turning into zombies (because we all know that's what happens when you're bitten), he launches a war against the undead. It's zombies versus Punchbowl, no holds barred!

Stubbs is probably going to be one of the industry's dirtiest guilty pleasures, and I say that because this game's beyond brutal. As Stubbs, you'll traverse the city taking on all sorts of human enemies and, because you have a yen for brain matter, you'll punch holes in the backs of their heads and basically tear them to pieces, and the blood and guts truly fly all over the place. Brain matter, limbs, and assorted gore fly every which way. It's truly a gruesome site, but there's much more to the gameplay than bashing people's heads in and transforming them into zombies. Stubbs can also toss his innards at his foes and kill enemies by detaching one of his hands Evil Dead-style. It appears that you'll actually control the hand as it fingers about, and it should be useful unlocking doors and possibly choking victims. Lastly, you can possess humans and turn their weapons against them, but personally, I'm going to be all about devouring those tasty brains. The more gore, the better.

Speaking of gore, Stubbs is a visually striking game chock full of detail, but I'm not surprised since it's powered by a beefed up version of the awesome Halo engine. All of the character models sport an extreme amount of detail, and the blood and guts look fiendishly spectacular. There will also be several environments you'll get to explore, a prison being one of them, and there's this really cool screenshot of Stubbs consuming the brains of an unfortunate inmate and there's all this gore flying every which way. Methinks this one will be rated M, yes/no?

Supposedly, the game's aural component is going to be just as cool as its graphical one. Stubbs loves to crack jokes while he's feasting on flesh, so there will probably be lots of chatter, and the game's soundtrack may turn out to be rather impressive since it features music from several bands including Cake, The Flaming Lips, The Raveonettes, and The Dandy Warhols.

Stubbs the Zombie is without question my most highly anticipated game of 2005, because like many of you, I've been shooting zombies for far too long. It's about time someone stood up and gave the undead a chance to shine, because they are, after all, people too and have rights, even if that means they enjoy snacking on the living from time to time, so definitely keep your eye on this game and watch for its release sometime this summer. Just remember that it's one thing to shoot a man in the head, but to eat his brains...now that's something entirely different.