Dead Rising 2: OTR halves load times

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, Capcom's spin-off from its successful zombie-killing sequel, will halve the load times of its predecessor.

The game, due out on October 14 at an as yet unspecified budget price, began life as a Director's Cut, following in a long line of extended and augmented versions of existing games that have become a Capcom staple.

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record has been shaped by fan feedback, with the return of the original's Frank West a response to the outcry that met the introduction of the sequel's protagonist, Chuck Greene.

Fan feedback has shaped other areas of the game too, with the introduction of a sandbox mode that again harks back to the original. Sandbox mode presents the world of Fortune City - and Off the Record's all new theme park, dubbed the Uranus Zone - in a free-for-all brawler, strung together by a series of free-form challenges.

"Really this mode was driven from fan response," Dead Rising 2: Off the Record executive producer Jason Leigh told Eurogamer, "they really wanted Infinity Mode from Dead Rising 1, but rather than that we went for the Terror is Reality multiplayer mode for Dead Rising 2.

"This time around we couldn't really ignore the fan feedback - they really want this mode, and frankly it would be fun to come into this world without the restrictions of a story just to explore."

One other aspect of Dead Rising 2 that fans were less than happy about were the extended loading times - and as the development team gets more intimate with the technology behind the game they've been able to reduce them dramatically.

"We really focused on the load times," said Leigh, "The load times were called out in Dead Rising 2, and this time around they've been halved."