Sure, we learned that Dead Rising 2 would be getting a multiplayer component but what we really care about are the zombies and more importantly, how we take care of those zombies.

During a recent presentation featuring Dead Rising 2, Capcom exec Keiji Inafune explaied to us how the first game’s engine was only capable of rendering 500 zombies on the screen at once. This may seem like a lot but for the second game, Capcom set their sights much higher:

“With Dead Rising 1 we got 500 zombies, but with DR2 we have 7,000, so we could have done much better the first time”, Mr. Inafune was quoted to say

7,000 zombies on the screen at once, a bit overwhelming, don’t you think? Not to Inafune; while he knows that ridiculous amounts of zombies won’t necessarily make the game better, it opens up a whole new ball park in terms of destruction:

For example, in Tokyo subway it gets very crowded with many people. Imagine getting onto a bike in Tokyo subway with two chainsaws attached to it and cutting through all those people, it’s just something that feels really damn good!

Let’s just hope he was using this as an example for what is to come in Dead Rising 2 and not a look into his sick and twisted fantasies.

Read (NowGamer)

Anyway, what I’m talking about today is easily one of the best zombie games I’ve played yet–Dead Rising.  You play as Frank West, photojournalist extraordinaire (he’s covered WARS, you know) and he’s on his way to investigate vague reports of happenings in the small city of Willamette, Colorado.  Willamette isn’t known for a whole lot–in fact, about the only thing Willamette’s got going for it is the super-huge Willamette Mall.  How big is this mall?  Sufficiently big to command a small amusement park inside it, along with a panoply of stores, a bi-level food court, and a park in its center.  Sounds like a nice way to spend the day, but these vague happenings make things a little dicey for the citizens of Willamette–seems that, in the immortal words of Romero himself, the dead are returning to life and attacking the living.  Thus, you go into Willamette armed with your camera and whatever you can find along the way to discover what’s behind the legion of walking dead weekend warriors and see if you can prevent it from getting any farther out than it already is.

I love this game.  There’s no two ways about it–this may well be the first EVER functional Zombie Apocalypse simulator ever released.  The story is unsettlingly deep, with lots of horrendous personality disorders roaming the zombie-infested mall.  There’s a variety of weapons for you to play with, each with its own particular effectiveness level.  Weapons break with use, so you’ll have to continually search for and find new weapons.  Just because you’ve got a sweet baseball bat doesn’t mean it won’t break after you break open a few dozen zombie skulls.

A new and especially interesting twist to the game is the option to save your character and replay the game over and over, gaining experience until your character is at maximum level.  There are also books within the mall that will lend extra capabilities to your fighting style or just to your health gauge.

It’s not hard to love this game.  Not only is the main plot a full and rich experience by itself, but beating the game will also give you access to a host of new gameplay modes, including the super-fun survival mode.  This gives Dead Rising an incredible replay value–once you beat it, you’ll have a variety of new versions to beat, and you’ll always be able to duck in for a quick, almost casual, experience where you get to roam the entire mall at your own pace and just blast zombies.  Perhaps even better than that is the special weapons you’ll be able to get your hands on, like the 255-round Mega Buster cannon, a perfect approximation of Mega Man’s that even slips over your forearm.

When you put it all together you get a game that’s as much fun to watch as it is to play, and with news of a sequel currently in the works, it’s all the more reason to get reacquainted with the original.

These reports come from Keiji Inafune of Capcom by way of monthly gaming magazine Famitsu Xbox 360. He says that being multiplatform is a guarantee for the ’super sequels’ but they’re considering giving a bonus to Xbox 360 owners who buy the titles for that platform.

Capcom has finally confirmed a release date for Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, the Wii remake of the zombie-killing Xbox 360 title: February 27. It will hit both Europe and North America on the same day.

The publisher also offered release dates for other games, including Street Fighter IV on February 17 and Resident Evil 5 on March 13. PC releases of the latter two titles will arrive after their console versions, as the company aims to avoid piracy spoiling sales, among other things.

“You haven’t seen the last of Dead Rising,” wrote Capcom’s John Diamonon in the comments section of the official PlayStation blog, responding to a fan’s complaint that the original Dead Rising only arrived on Xbox 360.

Originally released in 2006 on Xbox 360, the game had players take on the role of photojournalist Frank West as he tried to survive three days in a zombie-infested mall, an obvious nod to George Romero’s legendary films. Rumors of a sequel have long been circulated, and this is the first time Capcom has publicly acknowledged the possibility of a sequel, so keep your fingers crossed!