Anybody else playing Dead Rising?

Cafe Society
1

I don’t play nearly as many video games as I used to, back in the Stone Age (NES, Super NES, and Genesis days), but as soon as I saw the commercial for “Dead Rising,” I actually went out and bought myself an XBox 360 just so I could play it. I have *not * been disappointed!

What could be more fun than being trapped in a megamall with a horde of zombies? Lots of things: having literally dozens of items around to bash their little heads in with (including katanas, teddy bears, lawnmowers, chainsaws, bowling balls, golf clubs, canned soda, shower heads, and giant lipstick)? Having a time-based plotline that pretty much guarantees that you have to play through the game at least twice (probably multiple times) to see all the zombie goodness? “Psychopath” bosses that include a clown with a chainsaw, a cult leader with his horde of raincoat-clad cultists, a deranged Vietnam vet, a butch mall cop, and an insane butcher who hangs you on a meathook? Survivors that you can rescue to get extra points? Cars and motorcycles that you can drive through the underground maintenance corridors, mowing down literally hundreds of zombies? Hundreds of zombies on the screen at once, all moving in their own way? A “sandbox” format that allows you to do whatever you want for the 72 hours you’re stuck in the mall before your ride comes back? The fact that your character is a photojournalist, so you also get points for taking pictures of the carnage?

Oh, yeah–this is one sweet game! :smiley:

It has a couple of drawbacks: for one, I’ve heard that it doesn’t work very well on non HD-capable TVs, since the text is very small and hard to read. Also, most people (including me) don’t like the fact that you only get one save, so if you screw up when you save you might not be able to achieve some of the time-based goals. On the other hand, though, even if you die and start the game over, you retain all your experience and abilities, so it’s not really so bad. (Plus, you can always reload from your last save).

All in all, this game made my XBox 360 purchase worthwhile, and I highly recommend it to anybody else who has one, likes zombie movies, or just wants a fun, gory, and technically amazing game.

Anybody else playing?

2

Yep, I’m playing.

And the HD-TV thing - even on an HD-TV, the writing sucks. It’s massive squinty-time when text appears.

I’m also a little put-off by the single-save thing… but wait until you get to Infinite mode. And can’t save at all.

I’ve played through 72 hour mode twice now (once to explore the game and get through all the cases; once to save 52 survivors), and probably will hit it once more (need to get the “Tour Guide”, “Frank The Pimp”, and the two snuff shots!)

But right now, I’m playing Infinite Mode, and going insane. Nothing like getting through four, four-and-a-half hours and then making a goddamned stupid mistake out of overconfidence and having to start over.

3

I’m playing it on a 32" HD flat-panel, and it looks okay–though I’m sitting only a few feet from the screen. I’d imagine that it would be tougher if you’re playing from further away. They could certainly make the text bigger and I doubt anybody would complain.

You solved all the cases on your first time through? I’m impressed! I’m on my second time through, level 18 or 19, and I’m still having a hell of a time getting all the bombs in the underground garage!

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Thanks!

Yeah, the bomb mission sucks. I got through after a few tries with a simple strategy- I grabbed a couple of OJs from the Columbian Roaster shop upstairs in Paradise Plaza on the way to the Maintenance Tunnels, then jumped on the motorcycle (which, unlike the car, can slip through the barricades).

Instead of heading straight to the first bomb, though, I detoured to the Northeast room. There’s a spare truck in it, and that’s a lot more durable when it comes to making your way through zombies at high speeds.

Once Carlito shows up, get into one of the tunnels and jump out of your vehicle. He usually tries to circle around you, and usually gets stuck on a wall. This is a fine time to beat the everloving crap out of him through the window. (With a few OJs to drink if you get hurt too much.) Killing him early makes the rest of the trip a lot easier.

Also - learn to judge when your vehicle is about to fall apart from accumulated zombie-mashing damage. (Another reason I get the truck - the smoke from the engine is a lot easier to see than on the motorcycle). Once your vehicle is hurting, get back to the entrance ASAP - that way, you can run outside, grab a respawned motorcycle, and slip back into the tunnels to either get the last few bombs or to grab the truck again. But you don’t want to be on the wrong side of the tunnels when you’re suddenly back on foot.
And while I got through the bombs in about six or seven tries, that was nothing compared to taking out Isabella on her motorcycle outside the supermarket. Must’ve done that particular mission thirty or forty times before she finally got caught between some crates and I was able to perform Small Chainsaw Vengeance upon her.

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D’oh! Northwest room, that’s where the truck is.

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You might want to get a mod to add a spoiler warning to the title of this thread.

Isabella is easy. Make sure you’ve got plenty of guns on you before you fight her, then hide in the middle of the scaffolding in front of the Safeway. It’s hard for her to get in there with her bike, and you get a clearer shot shooting out of there than she does shooting in.

Although, really, the easiest way to beat any boss is to use the mini-chainsaws you get from the clown on day one. Don’t use them on anyone but the bosses. I managed to keep one long enough to use it on the soldiers on the last day. These things can kill almost any boss in four or five hits, and they’re extremely durable.

I really like the game, but I’ve found some serious bugs. The security guard you rescue from the clown is supposed to open a secret passage for you that lets you go quickly from one side of the mall to the other. I rescued him, he ran to the secret door, and then just stood there. The door never opened for me. Worse, on the last day, I got to the helipad several hours early. I’d finished all the case files, the mall was swarming with soldiers, so I figured I’d just wait on the pad and read the Dope until the helicopter shows up. The helicopter shows up… and I get the “You missed the helicopter!” ending. It’s happened three times, now, so it looks like I might have to start over and do the whole thing again. Honestly not looking forward to that so much: killing zombies doesn’t get old, but a lot of the case file quests are just annoying.

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I *finally * got through it, on my lunch hour today! I didn’t know about the spare truck–the way I did it was to get the maintenance tunnel key, take out one bomb near the entrance, run back and save, use the maintenance doors in the Entrance Plaza and the Al Fresco Plaza to take out the ones right near those doors (didn’t even need a vehicle) and then run back across Leisure Park, grab the motorcycle, and take out the last two. It was a lot of running around and my time gauge was in the red before I finished, but it worked!

I had to go through that one a lot of times as well. I took her out with the handguns–I had four of them, and I just kept shooting her from the column next to the fountain every time she came over there. Took forever. Then one time I beat her and got killed heading back to the save point, so I had to do it again.

Surprisingly, two of the easiest psychos for me were the clown and the cult leader. The clown was definitely worth it–that chainsaw, especially when boosted by books, is the best weapon in the whole game!

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Huh. Every time I climbed up to the central pillar, she’d spend a little time taking potshots, then drive away, and she wouldn’t come back until I climbed down to taunt her a bit.

I also really suck with the aiming reticle.

Really? That’s incredibly sucky - I can’t imagine getting past the game without that secret passage.

I realize this might be in the area of “Is your computer turned on?” questions, but you do know you have to jump onto the sink in order to get far enough into the corner for the “use door” option to show, right?

I’ve heard of that problem - I think it has to do with waiting on the actually pad itself rather than on the roof (or vice versa; can’t remember which). Or it’s a bug.

Congrats on the other victories as well! Adam stymied me the first few times, then I finally said “fuck it” and ran to Al Fresco Plaza to get my own chainsaw to face him, and that worked wonders. But the small chainsaws- yeah, they rock hard!

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She will come back eventually, although it’ll eat up your time pretty badly if you’ve got other scoops waiting. You can see her headlight coming from a distance, which makes it easier to set up the shot. Hunting rifles work well here.

I didn’t know that! I’ll have to give it a shot next time I play through.

Either way, it’s definetly a bug, and a bad one. I’ll try standing by the door next time, to see if that works.

10

You don’t have to climb up anywhere–if you jump in the empty fountain and stand next to the concrete pillar, it’s easy to hop out and lure her back in when she disappears, it’s hard for her to hit you (and when she stops to shoot, you can get some good shots at her as well) and she almost never comes through and wipes you out with her motorcycle (it can happen, but usually only 0-2 times per fight).

I’ve also heard that standing on the dumpster is a safe place (at least from the motorcycle) but I didn’t try that.

11

Today, it comes for me. EB Games at Elizabeth has my copy, and if they don’t, blood will be shed…

I’ve been playing the demo pretty religiously the last couple of weeks. I’m thrilled to bitty, little bits about this game. It fills me with glee on a never-before-seen scale.