Dead Rising 2

One immediately noticeable difference between Dead Rising 2 and its predecessor is that there are more zombies. A lot more zombies. Given that there were already quite a lot of zombies, this is a mixed blessing – you can barely make a dent in their numbers even with the most creative weaponry.

As well as practically every single item from the first game – bats, an Uzi, trolleys, parasols, handbags, suitcases, plates, bikes, bowling balls, coathangers – there are loads more. You can freeze them with a fire extinguisher and smash 'em with a crowbar, Bioshock style. Set off firecrackers and they'll be attracted to the pretty lights, so you can hurl a teddy bear at them and run away.

The real attraction is combo weapons, though, which you can fashion out of practically anything you find around the mall. You earn combo cards that tell you how to make them – combine nails with a bat for an entertainingly barbaric nail bat, a drill with a bucket to make a fetching death-hat for zombies, or nails and a propane tank for an improvised explosive device.

You just have to grab the two required items and head to one of the maintenance room workbenches that are always within easy reach in the mall, and Chuck will manfully saw and hammer them into a superweapon. (Incidentally, this is the only point in the entire game where something approaching a smile tickles Chuck's humourless face.)

Aside from the combo weapons, though, Dead Rising remains structurally unchanged, sometimes down to the finest details. Skateboards still take three hits before they break. The shops in the mall have the same names (admittedly, this being America, they're probably enormous national chains).

It's a little worrying that this game even copies the irritating things about the original – the unskippable and entirely unnecessary animation sequences for putting on and admiring new clothes, for instance, and the need to constantly shout after your fellow survivors in order to get them to follow you.

It's clear from the first few hours that in terms of actual zombie-killing, Dead Rising 2 could well have the edge over its predecessor. There are brilliant combo weapons and a truckload of new items that just beg to be played with. Dead Rising 2's killer feature, though, could well be the drop-in online co-op, something that we couldn't try out in our preview build.

Our initial question remains unanswered, too – are Dead Rising 2's story and psychopathic characters as wholly, gruesomely bizarre as the original game's, or has the new developer toned the weird factor down a little whilst throwing in a ton of new and better ways to mess with the undead? It's hard to tell from the first few hours. But we look forward to finding out.