Zombies, zombies, zombies. Why do gamers love them so much? From the Nintendo Entertainment System's Zombie Nation to the classic Resident Evil series and modern innovations like Plants vs. Zombies, zombie video games have a wide-ranging and rich history. It doesn't take a Ph.D. in Psychology to figure out why it's so fun to mow down wave after wave of walking corpses-I mean, what better way to spend your day than plopping down on the couch and defending against terrors of the zombie apocalypse? They've been around forever, but the recent, ahem, infection of zombie-themed action, strategy and first-person shooter games is surprising-just look at the surge in numbers for the past two years on Wikipedia's "List of zombie video games" page. The last time justArts had a video game preview, we looked at the best the industry had to offer to gamers for the fall. Now, for a decidedly different approach for the fall games preview, we're asking the question that should be on any responsible citizen's mind: If the world were to be suddenly overrun by the undead, what games should I be playing to make sure I'm prepared? 1. Dead Rising 2 (Xbox 360, PS3)- Sept. 28.

If killing zombies is a hobby of yours, Dead Rising was probably the mother of all zombie games. There were, quite literally, hundreds of ways to fight the hordes of lumbering brain-eaters that infested the shopping mall in Willamette, Colorado. Ways to kill a zombie included using a katana, shopping cart, wrestling move, golf club, television set and, my personal favorite, lawnmower. The sequel, which came out last week, features more, better and funnier ways to make sure you're not ghoul meat. Taking place in a Las Vegas-style venue, players can pick up a variety of items and throw, bash or even combine them for gory goodness. The latter method is an ingenious addition to the "anything-goes" formula; for example, take a pair of boxing gloves and duct tape them to a few box knives and go "Wolverine" on some zombie butt with the custom-made "knife gloves."

2. Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare pack (Xbox 360, PS3 downloadable content)-Oct. 26

Red Dead Redemption will have zombies in it, and everyone needs to know this. Rockstar Games, developer and publisher of the Grand Theft Auto series, released this free-roaming Western game this spring and it became one of the highest-rated games of all time, with The New York Times calling it "the leading edge of interactive media." Now, the Red Dead frontier has suffered a horrible and infectious plague, affecting citizens and animals alike. For $9.99, players will have access to four unique zombie classes, additional quests in ghost towns and cemeteries, new weapons and a secret location in the game.

3. Call of Duty: Black Ops (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii)-Nov. 9

The best part of Call of Duty: World at War was the addicting Nazi Zombies feature, and to fans' delight, zombie survival will make a return in Treyarch's next iteration of the popular first-person shooter series. Not much is known regarding the mode's details aside from the fact that its gameplay will probably be very similar to that of Nazi Zombies, which is a good thing. In Nazi Zombies, four players cooperate to fend off undead soldiers, upgrading weapons and setting up traps while surviving wave after endless wave. Every few months, Treyarch would release a new downloadable map that featured new weapons and abilities, giving players a reason to go back to World at War even after Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 had been released. In a recent press release, Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia said, "We've taken extra special care to retain the essential ingredients of our Zombie game and have also crafted a nice surprise for the fans."

4. Dead Space 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)-Jan. 25, 2011

Unlike the games listed above, not that many people have heard of Dead Space. During my first year at Brandeis, I saw my roommate play through the whole game, and it was like watching Danny Boyle's Sunshine, the first Alien movie and the scariest parts of the Resident Evil series all at once-with a pinch of Bioshock's bleak yet believable atmosphere. The zombies in Dead Space were so monstrous they were called necromorphs instead for their bloody alien shapes, and those were just the normal enemies you encountered while traversing through the game's abandoned mining ship. The teaser trailers that have been released so far don't reveal much about how its plot will relate to the first game, but it seems like protagonist Isaac Clarke will battle a mysterious mental illness along with a new horde of monsters.

5. Rock of the Dead (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii)-Oct. 19

House of the Dead meets Guitar Hero is one of those things that make you-or at least IGN.com-say "Why didn't anyone think of this before?" Granted, something similar was done before with 1999's The Typing of the Dead, the comedic and pseudo-educational game in which players killed zombies by typing words that appear on the screen, but we all know that shredding to Rob Zombie (ha, ha) is a lot more fun than Mavis Beacon. Judging by the declining popularity of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, Rock of the Dead will likely be a flop, but it'll still star Neil Patrick Harris. Neil Patrick Harris!