through the looking glass

Concert was a yawn. No songs worth mentioning. Took em a while but Deg dun fell off.

Dead Rising 2: CASE ZERO is an Xbox Live exclusive demo of the upcoming title Dead Rising 2. Billed at 400 MS monies, this translates as $5 in American monies.

Dead Rising 2′s original street date was today but has been pushed back to September 28th.

In Case Zero, we are introduced to our hero Chuck Greene and his daughter Katey. Two years have passed since the outbreak at Willamette (Dead Rising), and the events at Fortune City (Dead Rising 2) are three years away. Escaping Las Vegas zombie outbreak, the Greene family stops 47 miles out to the small town of Still Creek. Chuck pulls into Brockett Gas Station for some fuel, taking Katey with him inside to check the place for supplies. Katey is sick. Really sick. Zombie sick. Little Katey has been bitten and the only hope she has is for Chuck to administer the zombification halting drug Zombrex every 12 hours.

Zombrex was designed by medical technician Isabella Keyes in Dead Rising to save Frank West. Zombrex is rare, expensive, and deadly if taken before or after the recommended every 12 hours prescription.

In horror scene fashion, some ass hops into Chuck’s truck and hauls away, leaving Chuck and Katey stranded in Still Creek. Worst yet, all of Katey’s Zombrex was in the truck. The undead residents begin shambling toward the gas station, and Chuck barricades the door, knowing he’s gotta come up with a way out. With Katey secure in the makeshift safehouse, Chuck decides to risk going outside into town. Checking his watch, it’s 7 AM. Daddy’s got to get his medicine…

Inafune quotes: “I have always had doubts about doing a demo…Everyone seems to want to do them. Rather than create a demo for Dead Rising 2 I wanted to set up a different area and let people see what the game play is like.”
“This is definitely a test case.”

This demo is short though the replay value is high.  If you loved the first game, you’ll dig this for sure.

BONUS FACT: After playing Dead Rising at my cousin’s house in Albuquerque, three days later as soon as I got home in San Francisco I bought an Xbox360 and a copy of Dead Rising .

You will run around Still Creek, bashing zombies, looking for weapons to bash zombies with, and experiment with combining items in the maintenance rooms to better bash zombies with. You will run into survivors and be introduced to the different methods of rescue which consist of giving them the inventory item they desire, kill all the zombies around them, talk to X person, carry the injured, and escort. You will have a fucking great time. All this is optional. The only required things to do are the 5 case files, but the demo is set to let you achieve every side quest within the time limits of the main missions. Once you get all the achievements though, the title loses incentive to replay. Though you can carry over your Prestige Points and Money from Case Zero into Dead Rising 2 so that may appeal to the grinders out there.

Reviewed from a release build provided by the publisher. Played to completion at least 6 times. Stopped at about 440,448 Total PP.

The FPS genre is a cruel beast, prejudiced by stereotypes, solo games where the run-and-gun style got old a decade ago, team games where everyone forgets they are on a team, and plagued by some of the most douchiest douche bagologist within the community (not all, but you know you’ve met plenty of these guys in Halo and CS). Valve on the other hand has a history of enriching the FPS genre with intriguing stories, unique game play additions, puzzles, and thorough play testing and tuning that maximizes fun and balance. This is how Left 4 Dead is a FPS game like no other.

Gameplay: The action is intense with well placed/paced moments of calm that build up anticipation yet simultaneously providing relief. You never really feel safe in the game and often won’t believe how you could have survived the previous encounter despite endeavoring it with your own hand(s).

In this game, it’s all about being a team. All the best things in life are those which you can do with others. Left 4 Dead encompass’ everything a FPS game is, with a team element, and makes the game play revolve around staying and working together, all while increasing each individual’s level of entertainment the more they work with others. The AI is made to overwhelm the individual, and quickly assisting one another makes progress smoother, satisfying, and most importantly, more fun.

Example: Bill get pounced by a hunter zombie, Louis rushes in to melee the beast off, while Francis (and his shotgun) keeps a zerg of zombies from getting any closer, while Zoey bandages Francis’ wounds. Now if Louis decided to not help Bill, and run off and be a one man army, a Smoker zombie could have bound Zoey, trapping her and leaving Francis wounded and probably gonna die soon, while poor Bill is mauled to death.

Everyone keeps everyone else alive. L4D has many events where one player cannot survive and needs another to assist them. Help each other and you live, and get to blow stuff up more. By and by, you can also play as the zombies. That’s right. Even playing as the undead, team work is still integral to succeeding.

Xbox Live match making and setup is a breeze and setting up a multi-player game is as easy as hitting the A button three times. I have yet to try the PC version but with Steam being what it is I will risk assuming it’s just as easy. With the game play being so team play centric, the douche bag factor is nil, most random games I joined were populated with fun and playful gamers such as myself (so I assume they are well attractive too). Maybe I got lucky, but finding mature and fun players on Live is like searching for an unconscious smoke inhalation victim in a burning apartment building.

Oh, I should plug my XBL Gamer Tag here now: honeys dead

If you’re awesome and we have the same games, let’s play! Being cute is a plus. Just kidding…

Oh! Valve jumped on and played their own game with the common folk. The XBL community and myself had the pleasure of kicking zamby arse with Brian Jacobson and Kim Swift. Brian was fun and laughed (nervously?) at our jokes, and made as much effort as he could to join as many game invites as he received, such a bad ass. Kim was quite kind. She endured a plethora of questions regarding game design, even staying later to answer as many as she could. Intelligent + Fun + Artist = Yours Truly raising an eyebrow. Too bad she’s so nice, I’m sucker for bad girls ♥

My thanks goes out to you Devs for your time and art!

Back to it. L4D is all kinds of cool and pays homage to Night of the Living Dead and 28 Days later, combining those two films with Fear, Counter-Strike, and Gears of War. Sound fun? Hell yeah it is. Get it on Steam or for your Xbox360 home video game console.

TLDR: Resident Evil Outbreak wanted to be this amazing survival horror game.