Dead Rising Comments by Tom Bramwell

I Heart Dead Rising!

This DOES look good... More games like this, and i'll be tempted by the 360.

Yeeeeeesssss

Dangerously close to a 360 Killer App it would seem. Cant wait

Why do the staff on this site need to fill their first 3-4 paragraphs with utter bollocks?

I smell a possible 9/10 now but an actual review score of 8/10 when it all gets a bit boring.

:D

I've played the demo so many times now - there IS a certain magic at some of the discoveries you make even in just that.

Suddenly finding a shop you've run past before or choosing another item to swing at them. The urgency will be one thing but it's fun just because it's fun. Burning the face off a zombie with a red-hot frying pan does not get old quickly. Nor swinging a 9iron or a shopping trolley dash.

Can't. Come. Quick. Enough.

want this badly, roll on September....

Been looking forward to this but that save system sounds a bit annoying. Still maybe it works Ok in the type of game it is. Have to wait and see I guess.

So EG isn't doing the 'just review the U.S version' thing anymore? A bit confusing, hopefully you've decided to stick to reviewing Euro copies now though.

EG don't seem to make much of the gimped save system or the fact that if you don't get to certain characters in time you're left with a dead game. The guys on the 1up.com podcast were absolutely apoplectic about these things. It's funny what you can overlook when you desperately want to like something.

"if you don't get to certain characters in time you're left with a dead game."

o_O

So if you're meant to rescue someone but don't get there, you can't do any other missions?

deathgibbon:

Especially as you'll need to hit those story-missions, because if you don't, or if critical characters die, it's story-over. It's not game-over, because you can simply continue. But you can't save the day and uncover the mystery, and you can't simply return to a yellow pillar of mission-trigger and kick off again; you have to reload.

So you can run about killing things but the entire point of the game is gone. Yet this is glossed over as if it somehow normal or acceptable.

No...only with the main story. For example you can't let Brad die. But the other survivors can go to zombie hell on a one way ticket.

Can't wait for this game! Oblivion is the only other reason I got a 360 in the first place.

was looking at football on sky sports hd1 on a KDL 46X2000 on sunday and the thought of dead rising on the same tv got me a littlemoist

Can you have a second save if you have a 360 memory card? So one on the hard drive and one on the memory card....

hate the writing style of eurogamer, too much trying to be funny. need more mature editorial

This game looks great but why on earth do they have bonuses for cleavage shots? Thank you Capcom for trying your bestest to mature the video games scene. Geezz.

"hate the writing style of eurogamer, too much trying to be funny. need more mature editorial"

So leave and find a gaming site that better suits your tastes. Do you really think anyone's going to miss you?

Feanor:

The guys on 1up.com explained something along those lines - I don't remember exactly. Listen to the latest 1upyours podcast - it's worth it just to hear them go mental about this.

I WANT NOW!!!!
SOD LOCALISATION> GIMME!
bloody foriners screwing us getting it the same time as the us :(

@JetSetWilly

But the article addressed both those specific points!? The writer just wan't as bothered by them as the writers over at 1up were.

Why take one reviewers opinion as gospel truth and anothers as "wanting to like something"?

You read two reviews, one is more negative about something, so you assume that one must correct? Thats just cynisism looking for a friend.

@killyourtv

"hate the writing style of eurogamer, too much trying to be funny. need more mature editorial"

ZZzzzzzzz

I'm confused. Do you read newspapers and eat food you don't like as well?

Jet Set Willy read the article again.. especially the bits when he talks about the save system:
"Dead Rising is no quick-saver; it's no passworder or checkpointer. You save at bathrooms and the security room by lying down on a couch, and there is one save slot, quite deliberately. No more. When you die, you can either reload from the save, or save off your current stat-levels (skills, kills and costumes included), and start from the beginning again."
for example.
Did you even read it before knee jerk oh 1up is much better bollocks

Yeah, they actaully say in the manual that you can buy a memory card or set up a second live player acount to get another save spot.
Weird.
Why implement a system you know is broken? This is 2006, save game mechanics have been done, it's not HDR lighting, this is basic game design 101.

Any chance they'll fix it for the PAL release?

You read two reviews, one is more negative about something, so you assume that one must correct? Thats just cynisism looking for a friend.

Actually, no. What struck me was that 1up went so crazy about how fucked-up it was that for EG to do nothing more than nod to it as it passed it on the street stuck out like a sore thumb.

Tom says:

I have a buzz that I've not had about a game in a while and nobody to tell.

So I thought: maybe he wanted to like it so much he was happy to overlook it. Would it be glossed over so lightly in a game that was gunning for 5/10?

Darkedge:

Yes, I did read the whole article.

I'm not passing judgement on which site is better. Imagine this different secnario, I listen to the 1up.com podcast, they remark that the save system is a tad awkward. I read the EG review and they make no fuss about it. I think no-more of it.

But as I've said, the two impressions were so far apart I wondered why that should be.

Well it sounds as if the save method just meens you have to play it through more than once to see everything. Loved the demo, and got it on preorder. I have a slight worry it will get repetative like State of Emergancy, but ive got my fingers crossed.

"So you can run about killing things but the entire point of the game is gone."

So what exactly is the entire point of the game, if not running around killing things? Maybe there's more to life than just 'beating' the game and moving on?

I'm quite intrigued by these constraints myself. I'm looking forward to playing (and replaying) a game that apparently has a life of its own rather than just revolving around me.

Take Oblivion, for example. The way that I can say "i'm not quite ready yet" and then leave someone waiting outside a door for me for three weeks while I wander off doing sidequests. It's all very convenient, but it doesn't really help my immersion into the world much. Or make me feel much trepidation at the dark forces set against me, as ultimately they won't lift a finger until I say it's time.

So what exactly is the entire point of the game, if not running around killing things? Maybe there's more to life than just 'beating' the game and moving on?

Would it be OK if Metroid did the same? You can't progress the game but you can run about shooting stuff. Or start again.

The demo did nothing for me. If this is a killer app then I've got the wrong system. How depressing :(

You CAN progress in the game ...

"When you die, you can either reload from the save, or save off your current stat-levels (skills, kills and costumes included), and start from the beginning again."

so you can start again OR go back and continue from the save point.

gamingdave:

Does that mean the save points are structured such that I can't save the game at a point from which I could never recover and progress the game? Because if so, that ain't quite so bad. But if not, I'm still left with a dead game.

From what I understand, if you go back to the save point its exactly as it was when you saved. Just like a save should work really. Its only if you fail to do any of the compulsory missions that its game over, but you can continue from there if you really wanted.

Over the last couple of weeks I've become really excited about this.

I predict a 7/10... marked down because of the lack of online play. :) Lots of complaints in US forums about the "unfair" save system though.

It's been interesting following the game's response on Something Awful and Gaming Age. People who initially dismissed the frustrating save system as a minor fault are now gnashing their teeth everytime they save the game with not enough time to reach the next critical checkpoint. Restart the game! The mission are apparently just like those of GTA - there's a couple of good ones every now and then, but you'll want to kill yourself every time the broken AI causes survivors to take on a hundred zombies with their fists. Reload the game!

The game doesn't feature an untimed skirmish mode, which is extremely odd. You can unlock "Survivor mode", but your health constantly depletes, so you have to base the whole game around finding food, instead of just focusing on killing zombies.

The game is almost unplayable on SDTVs because the text is impossible to read at lower resolutions.

You can't create barricades within the mall, because the game doesn't save the status of an area when it hits a load screen.

There are many other small niggles as well. Now, I haven't played the game, but people who have generally agree that the game isn't quite worthy of a 9/10.

Still, it's a classic to every 20-40 year old male who grew up watching Dawn Of The Dead.

@JetSetWilly

Well it could be that 1up or over reacting in the same way you are suggesting that Eg are under reacting. I don't know either way, but with only two reviews to go on and no actual playing of the game ourselves I don't see how we can judge between the two (which was what your original post implied, to my eyes anyway).

Point taken though.

gaming dave - so if you cock up and (say) kill a key character you *could* backtrack to one of the fixed locations where you can save, then save, then kick yourself for screwing the narrative up - but actually you'd probably go "oops" and backtrack to the last save where the character is still alive?

If that's the case, and it doesn't do naughties like autosaving you when you leave a location, I can't see too much of an issue. And it *would* feel better than the Oblivion "Captain Burd has just had nine shades of hell knocked out of him by a dremora but has only fallen unconscious as we need him later in the game, in a moment he'll be on his feet and fighting at full strength again" approach...

My fave review of this so far is this one liner from Something Awful:

"When there's no room in the save system, the braindead shall flood the internet and complain about a brilliant game. 9/10"

For the record, I think the save system sounds awful and I have a personal bugbear type issue with designers using the save system as a game mechanic (IMO the save system is there so I can piss off and do something else, continuing later from where I last stopped playing), but that is a whole different discussion and I would kill you all with rant-powered lasers if I opened the can.

That said, its impact on gameplay in this case is for me still an unknown.

kangarootoo - fair point, but I think it depends on the context of the type of game - I wouldn't expect to be able to save at any point in Geometry Wars (ok silly comparison, but you see my point?). The implementation of the save here sounds like it's trying to push you into playing the game in a particular way - repeated short bursts of trying different things - which maybe brings it more in line with the kind of arcade heritage Capcom are comfortable with than would appear to suit the way that people are likely to approach this sort of game. But yes, we'll just have to wait and see. Personally I think it would be good for me to be forced into confronting game challenges head on rather than sneaking around for months building xp but that's just because I'm an inordinately cowardly gamer...

"This game looks great but why on earth do they have bonuses for cleavage shots? Thank you Capcom for trying your bestest to mature the video games scene. Geezz. "
someone called spongebob complaining about (horny) adolescent gameplay features ftw \o/

"
I pay £50 for something, I expect it to be my bitch! I think people are starting to forget that this is supposed to be entertainment, not some ridiculous "proving ground" where we all test our nerdcock measurements against each other!"

Yes. More games should be like Hitman and have difficulty levels which actually mean something. That way everyone's happy.

At least with the 360 it's possible that Capcom might release a patch to correct some of these problems if people complaign long enough and loud enough.

Sounds like the save system is there to build a genuine pressure to proceed in a game that could otherwise become a bit aimless. That sort of fear of having to start from the beginning (of what i believe isn't a long game, in pure missions) is something we haven't seen for a while, but could be used well. Maybe we've all become too comfortable in the well worn slippers of a nice autosave every 3 minutes?

indeed - you're right, it's supposed to be a leisure activity and one should enjoy it. But in the same way that sometimes it's nice to challenge yourself with a skydive that scares the shit out of you before hand but you feel great about after, rather than trotting down the high street for your regular Thursday afternoon back rub and pedicure, I think there's room for both. You pays yer money (admittedly) but you takes yer choice...

>Dare i say it, Dead Rising looks like the first good X360 game

After almost a year.. it's taken bloody long enuf!

By time there are 5 or 6 more decent exclusives (what i force myself to wait for before buying a console) this'll be bargain basement stuff - great for me, bad for the gamescompany which wont get my money.

ho hum. I'll trek over to my mates house tonight to have a play to see if the demo really is as good as people (and consolevania in particular) make out.

@ furby

erm - why not just buy a 360 now?

Sounds like a 10/10 is in the offing.