Dead Rising Anyone played any of this series?

[Fiach]

Picked these all up in Tescos dirt cheap at the weekend, DR, DR2 and DR 2 : Off the record.

Has anyone played these and if so, any tips/suggestions would be great.

Thanks :)

[Jim di Griz]

Sorry I can't offer any tips Fiach but the games have always looked interesting - I particularly like the weapon modification options.

They're on my 'to get' list along with Lollipop Chainsaw

They do have a silly amount of zombies in them from what I've seen with quite a few types that act differently. Have fun and I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts about these games.

[Fiach]

Dead Rising is a strange beast, you are a reporter, dropped off at a mall by chopper with a plan to be picked up a few days later, this is your game timespan, you need to accomplish certain goals in this timeframe. The main goals are to meet story deadlines and rescue hostages.

The mall is full of zombies and as you progress, different parts of the mall open up, so its a kind of sandbox game with lots of shops for weapons, clothes and food (health items) etc.

As you progress you gain XP with which to develop your character, you get this XP from killing zombies, taking photos, rescuing hostages etc.

The main thing is, you cannot complete the game in one go, it will take several NG+ to accomplish everything, but everytime you quit the game, it saves your stats, so the main tip is that, if you are finding it tough going, play it to a point where you are comfortable, then quit out and start over with the points you have accumulated, so for example, you are gaining more hitpoints to deal with boss characters.

From what I can gather, DR2 concerns a stunt biker who is trying to save his zombified daughter in a city like vegas, DR2 OtR is the character from DR1 transplanted to the Vegas setting.

So far the combat is clunky and the bosses are a feckin pain in the arse, the whole start/quit/restart isnt so bad as it seems the game is quite short, rescuing hostages is an exercise in frustration, but you dont have to do it to complete the game apparently, also taking photos can be annoying as its not quite informative as to what exactly you need to photograph sometimes, again its not a game killer.

You get to kill zombies in interesting ways, so if thats your bag, then you should enjoy the game, some people love the game to bits, I'm not a convert, but I can see the appeal, Dead Island was more fun and straight forward for me.

[Fiach]

Easily the most frustrating games I have ever played, its like capcom go out of their way to make games with crap controls, nearly everything is the opposite of what you would expect or just plain counter intuitive.

To take a picture you hold left trigger and press X to take the shot, that would be kinda what they should be for shooting a gun....right? Nope, to shoot a gun you hold the right trigger and then use the left stick to aim and press X to shoot, doesnt sound too bad on paper, but surrounded by zombies and not being able to move while shooting is bad, BUT if you do move and then try shooting again, more often than not the camera is facing the wrong way.

The inventory system sucks a$$ as well, if you pick something up for your inventory it replaces what is in your hand, so... you have a gun in your hand, pick up an item, then go to shoot something, you have to cycle back to the gun in your inventory to use it again.

The save system is annoying to say the least, it can be an annoying length of time between savepoints, but maybe its to make you feel on edge, I just find it annoying. Saving humans with the IQ of a lemming on xanax can be an excercise in frustration as you try to lead them to safety, after a couple of attempts I just said fuckit, darwin can sort their sorry asses out.

it's playable and I can see why people with more time on their hands and are more forgiving in nature could enjoy it, but I'm glad I got them cheap. But I'll just play the main storyline and not bother after that, I'll just add them to my Borderlands preorder deposit.

[PZ]

Fiach - playing games so we needn't waste time.   :-X

[fragger]

 

Fiach, I'm sorry to say this, but I love it when you get dirty on a game - your rants crack me up :-D I'm sorry the game was a bust for you, but I do enjoy reading your reviews. The positive ones as well as the negative ones, I hasten to add :)

The inventory system sucks a$$ as well, if you pick something up for your inventory it replaces what is in your hand, so... you have a gun in your hand, pick up an item, then go to shoot something, you have to cycle back to the gun in your inventory to use it again.

Reminds me of a bit of dialogue from The Goon Show:

Dr. Longdongler: "Stop! Don't move, any of you, or I'll shoot!"
Neddie Seagoon: "Fool! Put down that tin of potted shrimps!"

[Fiach]

I love the goons, this one especially :)

http://www.myoldradio.com/old-radio-episodes/the-goon-show-tales-of-old-dartmoor/5

As regards Dead Rising, it just got too ridiculous to play, the following is what happened as I tried to progress the story.

I had to kill a clown, it was fecking annoying, tried shooting, but he kept blocking the bullets with his two chainsaws......did I mention he had two chainssaws? They fecking hurt ALOT!, he has other tricks too, but, I digress... Anyway, I looked up a guide, it said I should take the machine gun off the jeep...huh? (bunch of mercs riding around in a jeep outside, that shoot the crap out of you with a mounted gun.... or run you over, which ever they find more expedient)... but I digress...

How do you kill the mercs? Well, you need a sniper rifle or a shotgun or SMG's....huh? I have 3 cartons of milk, a hand gun and a sledgehammer....Oh, well you have to know where the weapons are hidden, to make the game easier...HUH? They're hidden you say?...

OK so in the end I killed him with a knife, but it was a war of attrition, so I'm left with one square of health and have to escort some guy through about million (ok, maybe just a 100 or so zombies on a staircase (not alot of room to move there), so I clear them with the chainsaw and turn around to see the dumb f@#k went down a different stairs on the opposite side to me with just as many zombies, so I go to help him, but the chainsaw runs out of power, he dies, I shrug and carry on, turns out he was supposed to show me a shortcut through the mall so I wouldn't have to schlep all the way around the outside area.

Next up, a guy with a sniper rifle, cant get near him, everytime he shoots me, I get thrown back further than where I started, so I try my handgun, but aiming sucks and by the time I get a bead on him and shoot him, it does a sliver of damage, whereas he takes 75% of my health, check a guide, it say's use the SMGS!

SMG's you say, pray tell where are these fabled ballistic beasts, that I may lay their smite upon mine enemies? They are hidden on an awning under the shoeshop, you cant really see them, you have to jump from the stairs onto the blue ledge and follow it around the mall past a teddy bear and some boxes, you should see it laying there on the awning.

After many reloads/deaths, I find the SMGs, but the target is so far away, you cant see him because the friggin reticle is so large and bold and you cant aim properly in time to get him in your sights before he kills you...

Now, i know people (many actually) have beaten this guy by restarting the game many times to build up their stats, pored over numerous guides to get the correct (hidden) gear and strategies to defeat these people, found the correct (hidden) stat books and had restarted enough times to have enough inventory space to carry these stat books, but tbh...I have a life and its too short for this s#!t.

It would put me off buying another capcom game, I put up with this kind of crap back on PS1 with the likes of Resident Evil... because there wasnt a whole lot of choice, games were unpolished because the devs didnt have the technology to make them any better, but nowadays, luckily we dont have to put up with this sub standard gameplay anymore.

Anyway, come tuesday I'll be knocking a few euro off Borderlands 2 by trading these piles of crap in.

[Art Blade]

Hehe, like fragger I do enjoy it when you rant like that  :-D Shame, though, that there are still games out there that suck more than a scuba diver with hiccups. Yes, I quoted you there.  :-()

[Fiach]

Hehe, like fragger I do enjoy it when you rant like that  :-D Shame, though, that there are still games out there that suck more than a scuba diver with hiccups. Yes, I quoted you there.  :-()

LOL I remember the scuba diver one, thanks for reminding me, gonna have to use that one again :)

[Art Blade]

 :-D welcome -- it is too good to be forgotten  :) :-X

[Binnatics]

Little late running into this topic. Great review Fiach :-X :)
I bet you only tried DR1 then?
I've only played DR2 which could be hilarious. The great thing about the game was the combo weapons. You could 'make' weapons of the stuff you found around the area. For example: Spikes ans a baseball bat: You can imagine the result.  >:D
Or better: metal pipes and flares which results into a minigun causing burning mayhem  :-()
So no searching for powerful weapons, they're all around as long as you use your imagination or check some info on the net. And bosses aren't too hard. They can be defeated with most common weapons, especially the combo ones. There are horrible achievements / throphies though: like collecting any available weapon or food, make all combo weapons etc. Then you really have to run around the entire mall up and down and again etc.

The massive amount of zombies all around is a fun thing. One of the achievements was killing 100.000 zombies in one playthrough. The only way of doing so was using a hummer and do nothing but running over zombies with it in between the main story missions, lol
You do have to run different playthroughs then, in order to build up enough money and XP to be able to unlock that car. But it's all pretty much doable.

You might try it before you turn in the whole bunch of games ;)

And one more thing: MP can also be pretty funny ;)

[Fiach]

Never got to DR2 mate :) traded them in (plus some others) for BL2 and Darksiders 2, I think I will enjoy them alot more tbh :)

[Art Blade]

BL2 was a good choice indeed, matey :)

[Jim di Griz]

Even on PS3 Capcom still specialise in weird control configurations and being unable to move while you shoot - Resident Evil 5 still has all of that...

My comiserations sir.

[Fiach]

Well tbh I love Resi 5! :) I played the s#!t out of it, got all the costumes etc.... but yeah, quality of controls and camera were never C(r)apcoms strong suit.

Been reading a few previews of Resi 6 and....its not looking too good...

If anybody wants a PS3 code for the demo when it becomes available, I got one free with Dragons Dogma (a pretty awesome game published by capcom), that I wont be using.