Tagged: dead rising
Dead Rising 2: Case Zero (2010)
Amuse-bouche. With Zombies.
Dead Rising 2, the multi-platform sequel to the hit game from the early days of Xbox 360 (and slightly less successful Nintendo Wii port), scheduled for release this September, comes with a hors d’oeuvre in the form of a chapter zero, a prologue or, if you like, a prequel.
Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is a short Xbox Live Arcade title, which gives you a few hours of playtime if you’re not too pedantic, but serves as a valuable introduction in to the story, explaining who Chuck Green is and why he does what he does. The story (after a few introductory cut-scenes) takes place in a small town called Still Creek, where Chuck and his daughter get stuck without a ride, any money or Zombrex (a drug that prevents his zombie-bitten daughter from turning undead). In the strictly allotted time-frame, before the army flies into town to clean it up, Chuck has to explore the town, gather parts to build a motorbike, so he can continue on his way towards Fortune City.
The game gives a taste of everything Dead Rising titles have to offer, only in bite-sized chunks – you can roam about the town, use weapons and weapon-like objects to annihilate the undead, try out a few different costumes, makes some money playing the slots (or beating the crap out of slot machines with said weapon-like objects), do some trading, save a few survivors for fun and PP’s and take down a psychopath.
Just like in the original game, this chapter has the standard issue with time limitations (it’s a sandbox-type game which absolutely forces you to do certain things at certain times), there’s no auto-save, only a semi-automatic save which comes up after every sub-chapter, but luckily, there are more then enough restrooms where you can save the game. The ability to move through the game area vertically is another thing that worked so well in the original Dead Rising and works well here.
Playing this introductory chapter has additional advantages, since you can import your character into Dead Rising 2 and carry over the character level (up to Level 5, which is the best you can get in the prequel), some money, combo cards and some of the outfits.
Dead Rising: Case Zero is definitely worth the 400 XBLA points and I can sincerely recommend it to all the fans of the series. And if Capcom doesn’t start selling orange T-shirts like the one Chuck is wearing in the game, then they have no business sense whatsoever. 🙂
Finally, a few words about Dead Rising 2. I’ll probably do a full review once I finish the game, but until then, I’ll leave you with a few original screenshots and answers to a couple of less important, but still fun questions about Chuck Greene.
We all still vividly remember how difficult it was to get Frank West in his underwear, and that in order to achieve that, one had to play very carefully and do things which may not have been in the best interest of getting the best ending to the game. Luckily, we won’t be having this problem in the sequel, and I’m grateful to the development team for giving us a practical and easy way of stripping Chuck down into his underwear by simply selecting the option “Underwear” in the clothing locker.
This nifty feature has also made it easier to research the answer to the other burning question which may have bothered the hell out of this blog’s target audience, so I am happy to inform everyone that Frank, indeed, has a hairy chest (although he still doesn’t hold a candle to Frank West’s chest fuzz) and that he is quite easy on the eye whilst wearing underwear. The development team, I salute you!
Lagano predjelo sa zombijima
Dead Rising 2, višeplatformski nastavak uspješnice iz ranih dana Xboxa 360 (i manje uspješnice na Nintendo Wiiju) čiji je izlazak najavljen za kraj rujna ove godine, došao nam je uz predjelo u obliku nultog poglavlja priče, kratkog prednastavka, prologa ili, ako baš hoćete na naškom, prequela.
Dead Rising 2: Case Zero kratak je Xbox Live Arcade naslov koji možete dovršiti za nekoliko sati ukoliko niste suviše pedantni, ali služi kao vrijedan uvod u priču i objašnjava tko je Chuck Greene i zašto radi to što radi. Radnja (nakon nekoliko uvodnih scena) se događa u malome mjestašcu imena Still Creek, gdje je Chuck zaglavio bez prijevoza, novca i Zombrexa za svoju kći (lijek koji sprečava da ugriženi postanu zombiji). U strogo određenom vremenu, do dolaska vojske koja kani ‘očistiti’ lokaciju, Chuck mora obići mjestašce i skupiti dijelove za motocikl kojim će nastaviti put prema Fortune Cityju.
Igra daje sve ono što cijeli Dead Rising naslovi nude, samo u doista malim dozama – imate priliku istražiti gradić, koristiti normalno oružje u borbi sa zombijima, koristiti sva priručna sredstva, možete sami složiti nekoliko kombiniranih oružja, isprobati nekoliko kostima, zaraditi nešto novca kockajući se na automatima (ili prijateljski uvjeravajući iste automate već spomenutim priručnim sredstvima), trgovati na malo, spasiti nekolicinu ljudi i srediti jednog psihopata.
Kao i prvi nastavak, ovo poglavlje ima onaj standardan problem ograničenosti vremena (igra sandbox tipa koja vas bezuvjetno tjera da napravite određene stvari u određenom vremenu), automatskog snimanja igre nema, samo ‘poluautomatsko’ koje vam nudi snimanje nakon što dovršite pojedinačne dijelove igre, ali na svu sreću toaleta za snimanje pozicije ima puno više nego u prvom nastavku, a tri moguća slota za snimanje svakako dobro dođu. Mogućnost vertikalnog kretanja još je jedna dobra strana koju smo naslijedili iz prvog nastavka na Xboxu, na tendama, krovovima i ostalim teže dostupnim mjestima opet ćete naći bolje komade oružja.
Igranje uvoda ima dodatne prednosti, jer lik možete uvesti u Dead Rising 2, što vam u igru prenosi razinu (Chucka možete dovesti maksimalno do pete razine, prenosi se u potpunosti), nešto novca, combo kartice i odjevne predmete.
Za kraj, pozabavit ću se kratko i Dead Risingom 2. Puna recenzija slijedi nakon što dovršim igru, a do tada mogu sa zadovoljstvom objaviti da sam našao odgovor na jedno od manje značajnih, ali jednako zabavnih pitanja o Chucku.
Svi se vjerojatno sjećamo koliko je zeznuto bilo svući Franka Westa u donje rublje i da je ta akcija zahtijevala pozorno praćenje radnje i katkada postupanje koje ugrožava uspješan dovršetak igre. Toga u drugome nastavku, srećom, neće biti i zahvalan sam autorima što su omogućili da Chucka svučemo u gaće jednostavnim odabirom opcije “Underwear” u ormariću s odjećom.
Ta opcija također je olakšala pronalazak odgovora i na drugo pitanje koje je možda mučilo dio ciljne publike ovoga bloga i sa zadovoljstvom mogu objaviti da Frank ima dlakava prsa (iako nešto manje do Franka) te da uopće nije gadan za gledati u gaćama. Pljesak za autore!
Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop
The Attack of Killer Zombie Poodles!
I meant to do a short review of Dead Rising for the Wii, but in order to write anything even remotely objective, I would be have to be able to forget that I played the Xbox 360 original. This, however, has proven to be an impossible mission, since I kept comparing the two versions while playing, continuously cursing this remake.
Basically, I’ll repeat what almost everyone who reviewed Chop Till You Drop said before me – it works if you haven’t played the original, a number of problems and issues from the original have been fixed, but a lot of things were cut that weren’t supposed to be. Here are just some of my pet peeves.
Firstly, the Resident Evil 4 Wii engine used in the remake and the number of buttons on the Wiimote have imposed certain limitations, and because of that, there is no ‘jump’ button. In those rare instances when Frank needs to make a jump for it, the “A” button is used. In the original version, you had the option of wandering around the mall, getting away from the zombies by jumping into the fountains and pools, you were able to smash and enter through the shop windows or find hidden weapons on the awnings over the shop entrances. You can forget about this in the Wii version – shop windows are unbreakable, you can’t jump into the fountains or the grass patches, and just to make things a bit worse, some new barriers were inexplicably added, forcing you to walk a set path. Instead of a sandbox game, we’re getting a very linear experience.
Secondly, shopping around the mall is an important element for a game set in, well, a mall. In the Xbox version, Frank had a lot of clothing, footwear and accessories at his disposal, and although it was not crucial for game-play, it was a nice time-waster when you got tired of bludgeoning the undead. Two novelty items were announced for the Wii version (Bionic Commando kit and a bikini), but none of the press releases mentioned that most of other clothing, footwear and accessories will be cut.
To make the game wiieasy, the developers gave us more lawnmowers and bikes which enable safer passage outside, but they took away the car which was useful in the underground tunnels. And the whole underground tunnel bit (which had an insane number of zombies in the original) was magically transformed into a mini-game with a bunch of zombies who just stand around, do nothing to attack you and just wait for you to kill them off. And you also have to pay Otis to play the mini-game.
The worst idea, however, was taking away Frank’s ability to take photos. Basically, you have a photojournalist who carries his camera everywhere with him, even in states of utter undress, but the camera remains unused. The pre-rendered cut-scenes are another thing – they were pre-rendered in the Xbox 360 engine so you can easily see what the game was supposed to look like before it was ‘adapted’ for the Wii.
In Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, there is less of everything, with the exception of zombie parrots, zombie poodles and explosive gas tanks, which are, for some reason, kept right in the middle of the mall. You need think carefully whether you consider that a sufficient trade-off.
Zombi-pudlice napadaju!
Namjera mi je bila napisati jednu kratku recenziju Dead Risinga za Wii, ali da bi ta recenzija bila iole objektivna, morao bih potpuno zaboraviti original za Xbox 360. To se pokazalo nemogućom misijom, jer sam cijelo vrijeme igranja Wii varijante uspoređivao i, iskreno, u sebi pljuvao ovu lošu, lošu preradu.
U principu, mogu vam reći ono što su rekli gotovo svi recenzenti igre – Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop funkcionira ako niste naviknuti na bolje, iz nje su izbacili dosta stvari koje su se spočitavale originalu, ali nestalo je i puno stvari koje nije trebalo dirati. Navest ću, po meni, najveće nedostatke.
Prvo, Resident Evil 4 Wii engine i smanjen broj tipaka na kontroleru uvjetovali su izostanak tipke za skakanje. Kada nešto već morate preskočiti, to se radi “A” tipkom, ali tih situacija ima puno manje. U originalnoj verziji mogli ste lutati kamo god ste htjeli, bježati od zombija u fontane, razbijati i ulaziti kroz izloge ili pronalaziti skriveno oružje na tendama iznad ulaza u prodavaonice. To ovdje možete zaboraviti, jer osim što su izlozi neprobojni i ne možete hodati fontanama ili zelenilom, postavljene su još i neke umjetne arhitektonske barijere i prisiljeni ste hodati putem koji vam je igra zadala, što sandbox original pretvara u jedno linearno iskustvo.
Drugo, važan element originalne igre bio je element kupovine, pa je Frank imao na izbor puno odjeće, obuće i (po)modnih detalja, s kojima ste se mogli zezati kad god ste se htjeli odmoriti od umlaćivanja zombija. Za Wii verziju najavili su dva nova odjevna predmeta (između ostalog i bikini), ali nisu u tim najavama spomenuli kako su ostatak odjeće, obuće i detalja osiromašili na tek mizeran dio stare ponude.
Kako bi olakšali igru, ponudili su puno više kosilica i bicikala za siguran prolaz vanjskim dijelom, ali je nestala mogućnost vožnje automobila kroz podzemne tunele. Taj dio s podzemnim tunelima (koji je u originalu imao sulud broj zombija) postao je mini-igrica sa šačicom živih mrtvaca koji stoje na mjestu, ne napadaju i samo čekaju da ih pokosite ili dokrajčite oružjem koje ste odabrali. Ahda, usput morate i platiti Otisu za to zadovoljstvo.
Vrhunac loših odluka u izradi ove varijante bilo je oduzimanje mogućnosti fotografiranja. Frank je sada foto-reporter koji svoj fotić nosi oko vrata u svim bizarnim i obnaženim situacijama, ali fotografirati ne možete. Cutscene su priča za sebe, jer su preuzete s Xbox varijante igre, pa možete zorno vidjeti kako bi igra trebala izgledati i uspoređivati to s onime što Wii može ispljunuti.
Igra je, dakle, znatno osiromašena i jedino čega ima više su zombi-papagaji, zombi-pudlice i eksplozivni plinski spremnici koji se iz neobjašnjivih razloga drže usred trgovačkog centra. Jesu li to dovoljne zamjene, odlučite sami.
Dead Rising
Hot Pixels
Dead Rising is a video game from 2006, published exclusively for Xbox 360 game console published for XBOX 360, produced by the Japanese company Capcom. In July 2008 Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu announced a Nintendo Wii port of the game, which is supposed to be published in late 2008.
Main character of Dead Rising is Frank West, a photojournalist who is looking for a major story and gets stuck in the town of Willamette, inside a zombie-infested shopping mall (just like Romero’s Dawn of the Dead). Frank has to fend off zombie attacks, save the survivors, fight raging psychopats, all in an attempt to find out who or what turned the people into zombies.
Dear Rising is classified as a 3rd person action adventure with sandbox elements – you command Frank, investigate the shopping mall, do various tasks, solve obligatory and optional missions. Through all that, Frank has to fight huge groups of zombies, using any means or weapons available in the mall and the shops – baseball bats, flower pots, benches, but also all types of hunting, fishing and other equipment.
The authors have put in a lot of work into designing the mall, so Frank can enter each store and use whatever is on offer – dress up into various types of men’s, women’s or children’s clothing, change his hairstyle or hair colour, choose the right sunglasses, shoes or novelty costumes.
And now, since I’ve told you what it’s all about, let’s move on to the main feature and explains why the “hot pixels” subtitle, an essay on the topic “Why I bought an Xbox 360 over a zombie game.”
Keiji Inafune, Dead Rising producer, wanted to make Frank West different from your regular, run-of-the-mill JRPG character (i.e. and androgenous-looking person with anime hair), he wanted to give Frank an “average” look. How well he succeeded in this, from our western point of view, remains open to debate, since Frank is sort of ‘average’, but I just wish I’d been at a meeting where developers discussed whether to allow gamers to undress Frank, whether he should be buff or not, or if he should have a hairy chest. And I also wonder if the developers had the broader target audience in mind (the gayer target audience) in mind, since they readily accepted a well-designed hunk such as Frank West.
So, if you decide to play the game because of the piece of male totty serving as the main character (like I did), you will probably want to know how you can a) undress Frank or b) if it’s even worth trying. These are easy questions to answer. Firstly, you can partially undress Frank by chosing the right clothes – feel free to experiment here.
Frank looking sporty
You can get your Frank in boxer-shorts by intentionally allowing some mad cultists to kidnap him, tie him down and strip him, or you can do the same with special forces soldier boys who come to clean up the mall from zombies (it makes sense for them to take your weapons away – why they leave you in shorts, I have no idea, but whatever makes them happy).
Frank West in boxer shorts
This is what it looks like when the naughty special forces guys strip you down into your undies and tie you to their chopper.
Now that we’ve mentioned the good sides, a few words on the bad ones.
The game is extremely difficult and you have to accept the fact that you’ll do a lot of parts over and over again, mostly because of a sadistic save system – in order to save your game, you have to fight hundreds of zombies and go to the bathroom; there are only few of those, and not in all parts of the mall. If you get killed, you can choose between loading the last saved position (which may have been hours ago) or starting the game over (yes, from the beginning) whilst keeping your experience points and upgrades. This weird save system and tiny on-screen fonts which make the reading on a regular TV almost impossible, are the basic downsides of an otherwise good game.
The difficulty of the game also lies in its time limitation – Frank has to survive three days (six hours real time) because a chopper is picking him up, regardless if he managed to do all the missions or not, so you will often find yourself running from mission to mission in order to finish it all on time.
If you don’t have an Xbox 360, and really want to see Frank West in undies action, there is a solution for the PC or PlayStation3 in the form of Lost Planet: Colonies Edition, another game by Capcom, where you can play as Frank West in the multiplayer mode. On an ice-planet.
The cold doesn't seem to bother Frank
Hot Pixels
Dead Rising je video igra iz 2006. godine, objavljena isključivo za Xbox 360 igraću konzolu objavljena na XBOX 360 igraćoj konzoli, u produkciji japanske kompanije Capcom. U srpnju 2008. japanski je časopis Famitsu najavio Nintendo Wii port igre, ali bez datuma izlaska.
Glavni lik igre Dead Rising je fotoreporter Frank West, koji u svojoj potrazi za velikom pričom u gradiću Willametteu zaglavi u trgovačkom centru punom zombija (točno kao Romerova Zora živih mrtvaca). Frank se mora braniti od napada zombija, spašavati preživjele i izbjegavati poremećene psihopate sve u pokušaju da sazna što je ljude pretvorilo u zombije.
Dead Rising se klasificira kao akcijska avantura u trećem licu sa sandbox elementima, dakle upravljate Frankom, istražujete trgovački centar, obavljate zadatke, rješavate obavezne i izborne misije. Frank se putem mora boriti s mnoštvom zombija, koristeći bilo koje oružje ili oruđe koje mu je na raspolaganju u trgovačkom centru i prodavaonicama – baseball palice, žardinjere, klupe, ali i sve vrste vrtne, lovačke i ine opreme.
Autori su posebnu pažnju posvetili dizajniranju trgovačkog centra, tako da Frank može ući u svaki od njih i iskoristiti što se nudi – preodjenuti se u raznorazne komade muške, ženske ili dječje odjeće, promijeniti frizuru ili boju kose, odabrati sunčane naočale, cipele ili pak zabavne kostime.
I nakon što smo odradili tehnički dio recenzije, krenimo na main feature odnosno objašnjenje zašto “hot pixels” odnosno sastavak na temu “Zašto sam kupio Xbox 360 zbog igre o zombijima”.
Keiji Inafune, producent Dead Risinga htio je da glavni lik, Frank West, ne bude kao uobičajeni glavni likovi tipični za japanske igre (tj. androgene spodobe s anime-frizurama), htio je je da Frank izgleda “prosječno”. Sad, koliko je u tome uspio s našeg zapadnjačkog gledišta, ostaje predmet rasprave, jer Frank ima nekakav ‘prosječni’ štih, ali stvarno me zanima kako je izgledao sastanak na kojemu se raspravilo i hoće li se omogućiti Frankovo razodijevanje, koliko treba biti nabildan i smije li, ili mora, imati dlakava prsa. I naravno, jesu li developeri u tom slučaju imali na umu i proširenu ciljnu publiku, koja je vrlo rado prihvatila odlično dizajniranog komada kakav je Frank West.
Dakle, ukoliko se budete uhvatili igre zbog komada u naslovnoj ulozi (kao što sam ja učinio), vjerojatno će vas zanimati a) kako razodjenuti Franka i b) isplati li se to uopće pokušavati. Na ta pitanja je lako odgovoriti. Prvo, Franka možete djelomično razodjenuti pravim odabirom odjeće – to vam ostavljam na eksperimentiranje.
Frank u sportskom izdanju
Franka u boksericama možete dobiti tako da namjerno pustite ludim članovima nekakvog kulta da vas otmu, skinu i svežu ili isto to učinite s vojnicima koji dođu očistiti trgovački centar od zombija (logično je da će vam vojnici oduzeti oružje; nešto je manje logično da će vas ostaviti u gaćama, ali svakome njegovo veselje).
Frank West u boksama
I za kraj, kako to izgleda kada vas zločesti vojnici otmu, skinu do gaća i privežu na svoj helikopter.
Nakon što smo odradili dobre strane, riječ-dvije o lošima.
Igra nije laka i morate se pomiriti da ćete neke dijelove morati nekoliko puta ponavljati, ponajprije zbog načina snimanja igre koji je vrlo sadistički izveden – da biste snimili igru, morate se boriti s morem zombija i otići u WC, kojih ima tek nekoliko i ne u svim dijelovima trgovačkog centra. Ukoliko vas zombiji ubiju, što se često događa, možete birati između učitavanja zadnje usnimljene pozicije (koju ste možda napravili prije sat-dva) ili vraćanja igre na početak (da, POČETAK) uz zadržavanje zarađenih experience points i upgradeova. Ovaj način snimanja igre, tipičan za japansku produkciju, te presitan font za čitanje komunikacije s likovima koji vam zadaju zadatke ukoliko igru ne igrate na monitoru ili plazmi koja podržava rezoluciju 720p, osnovni su nedostatci inače izvrsne igre.
Težina igre se očituje i u vremenskom ograničenju – Frank mora preživjeti tri dana (6 sati u stvarnom vremenu), jer helikopter dolazi po njega, riješio on glavne zadatke ili ne, tako da ćete se često naći u situaciji da trčite od zadatka do zadatka kako bi sve stigli pozavršavati na vrijeme.
Ukoliko nemate pri ruci Xbox360, a ipak želite vidjeti Franka Westa u gaćama akciji, soluciju za PC ili PlayStation3 imate u igri Lost Planet: Colonies Edition, još jednom Capcomovom izdanju, koja vam među dostupnim likovima u multiplayeru nudi i Franka Westa. Na ledenom planetu.
Čini se da hladnoća Franku ne smeta.
ggeek.net Archive - GayGeek’s Stuff for Geeks 