D3Publisher has just announced that their zombie-licious game, Dead Head Fred has gone gold and has been sent off to the factory. The title will ship out on August 28th, so fans of the walking dead won't have much longer to wait to get their brain-eating on.

The game has gone through a fairly length development cycle, originally being shown at E3 2006, but it appears the wait has done it well. Generally the previews have been very favorable, and the brutal zombie nature of the gameplay looks like a nice mix-up to the upcoming PSP game lineup (which is a bit RPG heavy). Dead Head Fred should be a good pickup when it comes out in a couple weeks. In the meantime, check out the above trailer.

The more we see of Dead Head Fred, the more we want it. The recently purchased Vicious Cycle has been hard at work to make this a stellar PSP exclusive, and new videos from GameTrailers certainly show potential. By wearing different heads, Fred is able to perform a variety of moves. The video embedded above shows some brutal God of War-esque finishing moves, performed by active button presses. It worked for Sony's franchise, why not this one?

Be warned that the video has strong language. Also, feel free to check another video after the cut.

D3 Publisher is one of our favorite companies to work with at PSP Fanboy. Their support of the PSP with niche titles has been fantastic, with games like PQ2 and Puzzle Quest under their belt. It looks like their support of PSP will continue even further due to their recent acquisition of Vicious Cycle, developers of the upcoming Dead Head Fred. The combination of Vicious Cycle's technical expertise on the system and D3's focus on the PSP platform is certainly a win for gamers.

"The addition of Vicious Cycle to D3PA marks our first acquisition of an internal developer and further strengthens our capabilities in delivering top quality games to the North American market," said D3PA COO Yoji Takenaka.

Don't you love it when a developer listens to the masses? The developers of the upcoming Dead Head Fred held some focus tests on their game, and found that gamers wanted more violence. And indeed, the developers have provided, as seen in the trailer above.

In an interview with IGN, Vicious Cycle president Eric Peterson, revealed some of the violent additions to this head-swapping brawler. "So we gave the people what they wanted and amped up Fred's combo list. We created more kill moves, more decapitations, more melee attacks, more counters and more abilities in general ... You can string combos together to pound on an enemy until they are weak and vulnerable for a kill move or decapitation. You can use head powers in combination with environmental items to create new attacks. For example, you can fill the corpse head with gasoline and then find an ignition point in the environment to create a flame thrower attack."

Sounds good to us. We can't wait to get our hands on the game, and try out some moves ourselves. The team shows a lot of enthusiasm for PSP, and making the game solely for PSP -- let's hope they succeed with their ambitions.

Dead Head Fred was one of the games I said "you should keep your eyes on." And for good reason: it's an original action game, made exclusively with the PSP in mind. QJ had some time to sit down with Eric Peterson, president of Vicious Cycle Software to get some info on the game. Here are some of the more interesting comments:

• "Dead Head Fred is a very ambitious game and we plan to deliver on all fronts. We want people to buy a PSP just to play Dead Head Fred."
• "Currently our load times are extremely fast and we are pleased with the results... the E3 demo that we showed, allowed for 30 min of straight gameplay without the player ever experiencing a load time."
• "The last thing we want people having to do is fight then camera when they should be fighting the enemies in the game."
• You acquire new powers by attaching new heads to yourself. Here's a few examples of heads you'll find in the game:
  "The Mutant head helps you survive radiation fields. The Scarecrow head lets you float on the water. The Stone Idol head makes you sink underwater. The Shrunken Head lets you get into tight spaces and glide along high wires. The Corpse head allows you to inflate with air and hover over obstacles; you can also fill it with water or gasoline to generate different effects and attacks. The Dummy head allows you to interact with citizens without scaring them out of their minds. "
  

The full interview has details on the graphics engine, combat, mini-games, and more. The developers would love to do a downloadable demo for the game, so hopefully we'll see one down the line. The game has still a lot of development time left: it comes out next year.