Dead Rising (Xbox 360)

10/27/08 - If ever there was a game to give die-hard fans of (the original) "Dawn of the Dead" wet dreams, THIS is that game! I've only started to get into this one and I'm loving it already. It's zombie madness meets "Groundhog Day". The sheer quantity of the undead is staggering. And the detail on the zombies is unreal - I caught a picture of a zombie boy and it looked like a still from a movie. I'll admit that the criticisms leveled at it are understandable - only 1 save slot, few "save" locations, and having to restart if you die. But in a weird way, it's ok. The single save and, especially, having to restart if you die, gives the game a sense of danger that you miss in a game where you can just quick-save every few feet. Here, if you mess up, your are toast - end of story and it all starts over, like you are trapped in a hell of the undead. But, it's not totally without mercy - you get to keep your upgraded abilities from game to game. I can see that if I stay with it for a long time, I'll try to figure out some way of keeping it from resetting my character if I'm getting close to the end. Also, while I haven't heard much about the Wii version of this, I don't expect it will be well received. It will have to have fewer zombies, less detail, and (I fear) nerfed game mechanics.