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It’s back to TV’s most famous evil infested US town for Buffy Summers - and this time she's brought the Scooby gang with her.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds

The world’s best-loved teens-against-the-Dark Gods TV series may have come to an explosive finale at the end of it’s seventh season, but that doesn’t mean the adventures have to end too. Not when there’s an animated Buffy Summers (and pals) to control right on your next gen. console...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds is the latest game to be released based on one of the hottest television shows around – and represents a quantum leap on from the original game - simply called Buffy The Vampire Slayer, almost two years ago.

‘Chaos Bleeds brings all the excitement of adventuring against the forces of chaos in Joss Whedons’ fictional US town of Sunnydale from the TV, straight onto your console. With major involvement from the television show's creators, writers, and cast, this game delivers a truly authentic epic experience.

'Chaos Bleeds is a third-person fighting adventure game based on the successful long running television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Just like the show, the adventure takes place at ground zero for all things vampire – Sunnydale, California.

Developed as a 'lost episode' from season five of the television show, 'Chaos Bleeds involves an unravelling tale in which a dimensional ‘bleed’ has been enabled by a mysterious being of pure evil to consume humanity once and for all. It's up to Buffy and her friends to stop it all from happening...once again.

Aiming to push boundaries in the area of 3D games with a strong story and character foundation, ‘Chaos Bleeds is an in-depth, action thriller. The player battles through a myriad of locations in Sunnydale and other locations inspired by the television series.

Fight Fair, Fight Dirty

In addition to playing as Buffy herself, gamers can also choose to play as one of five other characters from the show – Faith, Willow, Xander, Spike and Sid. Each of the five playable characters has its own set of abilities and powers. The game also has the edge on a lot of franchise games, in that it features recognisable likenesses. The actual cast members from the show have also provided a number of extensive voiceovers.

Featuring the sort of acrobatic heroism that will be very familiar to players of the Tomb Raider series of games - as well as the game inspired by James Cameron's Dark Angel series - with which Buffy The Vampire Slayer itself shares more than a few similarities, this is a genuine treat to play.

The original story begins when Buffy Summers discovers that an enemy from the past, Ethan Rayne, is at the centre of a great struggle with ‘The First’ - literally an incarnation of the first incarnation of evil the world has ever known.

Buffy and the gang must face up against an undead army of vampires, zombies, and demonic beings to keep these nefarious villains from casting the world into permanent darkness. So it’s just an average day living on top of the world’s most active mouth into Hell for the superheroic gal and her gang of sidekicks.

Game features include:

A new original storyline, featuring a variety of cross-over characters seen in the final TV season of the show

Storyline written by the official Dark Horse comics Buffy’ series writers; Chris Golden & Tom Sneigoski. This tale expands and adds to the television series’ mythology, while staying true to the spirit of the show – and the locations, characters and objectives of the series

Original dialogue and voice recording from cast members – featuring Amber Benson (Tara in the series), British actor Anthony Stewart Head (Giles) and many others

The unique chance to play the adventure as Buffy Summers herself, but also as any of five other characters from the show: Xander Harris, spell casting Wiccan Willow Rosenberg, undead Sid Vicious look-alike Spike, sometime - rogue vampire slayer Faith, and even Sid, the sentient ventriloquist’s dummy and demon hunter

These playable characters each have their own unique combat styles and weapons capabilities, including: flamethrowers, crossbows, battle axes, pitchforks, and even water guns

Robust fighting engine allows for over 100 special slayer moves and acrobatic combinations

Fight horrifying bad guys like fan favourites from the television series, including: Kakistos, ‘Ripper’ Giles, the near indestructible Initiative cyborg ‘Adam’ and werewolves, as well as new demons such as the ‘Bat Beasts’ and the devilishly hard to kill ‘Zombie Gorillas’

Diverse gameplay elements include melee and single combats, single player adventuring, and challenging puzzles

Interact with both familiar and new characters, environments, and lethal villains

Multiplayer action - supports up to four players in six different modes, including: ‘Domination’, ‘Versus’, ‘Last Man Standing’, and everyone's favourite, the ‘Bunny Catcher’

Players can even choose to play as a vampire in any Multi-player mode!

For fans of the show itself, the good news is that the disc comes packed with DVD-style extras. This bonus content includes cast interviews, a photo gallery, storyboards, a ‘making of’ the game featurette and even a Chaos Bleeds e-comic

"Over the course of seven years, the ‘Buffy series has developed millions of ardent fans – many of whom are console gamers," says Michael Pole, SVP & General Manager of Vivendi Universal Games. "Fans of the show will embrace being able to play the part of their favourite Buffy characters in a fully interactive gaming experience."

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds – with an ESRB ‘Teen’ rating - is available now, for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube, from Vivendi Universal Games. The original game to which this is an effective sequal - Buffy The Vampire Slayer - is also still available.

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