PREVIEW: Hands-on with Dead Island!

http://www.examiner.com/video-game-industry-in-san-francisco/preview-hands-on-with-dead-island

The incentive for zombie destruction translates into experience points, as well as skill points, which directly affect your character's stats. You become stronger, craftier and more equipped to handle the mayhem ravaging the island. Depending on who you choose determines your specialty. You select from 4 personalities, each one housing a particular skill, such as knives, guns, bludgeon weapons, and your all around character. As you progress, your skill points can be applied to your skill tree; gaining experience also allows you to craft weapons. Here is where the game gets interesting; for example, you can take a baseball bat and hammer nails into it, increasing the damage it deals. Another handy tool you can create is called The Ripper, which is a combination of the bat and buzz-saw. I'm told that this concoction is the most "overboard" weapon in the game and is available for those who pre-order Dead Island from Gamestop. I have two words for that: S@#$ yea!