So this 14th is Valentines day. Sadly I won't be spending it with my girlfriend. I will be too busy with Twisted Metal. Not playing the game, mind you. I am in the desert somewhere with David Jaffe, 100,000 rounds of live ammunition, 3 truck loads of shit, and the ice cream truck from Hell. We are just getting ready for the Twisted Metal SHOOT MY TRUCK launch event. So if you have ever wanted to take a shot at Sweet Tooth's ice cream truck, or try and catch me with a stray bullet as I'm running around in the background head on over to SHOOT MY TRUCK for your chance to not only let off a few rounds at your favorite serial killer clown, but to possibly send his truck to that fiery junkyard bellow in a giant ball of...well FIRE!

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog about Infamous vs Prototype. Check it out with Lv99ron's time machine link Anyway I basically talked about not having a PS3 was my reason for favoring Prototype (multi system title) over Infamous (PS3 exclusive). Well that excuse no longer has weight to it (if it had any at all) because I am now the proud owner of a PS3. I recently purchased PS3 Infamous 2 bundle. After playing a few hours into Infamous 2, and a few weeks prior playing the "sorry we got hacked, here is a free game to make up for it" version of Infamous at a friends house I got to say I still prefer Prototype over Infamous. Now, before any of you get started, I'm not one of those fanboys that will stand by their title/franchise/publisher blindly. I am capable of comparing something I like with something else and pointing out everything that was wrong with it. With that said Infamous 1 and 2 are good games. The gameplay was fun and enjoyable, they had engaging stories, with fun little diversions, and little tweaks and features that I wish Prototype had. But when all is said and done I still enjoy Prototype more.

Infamous is fun to play. I enjoyed running around helping out random citizens. Trying to accomplish those stunts to unlock new powers, and being side tracked from my main mission because every time I used my ping move I found 4 or 5 blast shards in the vicinity that needed to be collected. When I was able to focus on my mission I was enjoying myself because they seemed to be varied enough. Sure they ranged from get to point A to point B, protect something or someone, or leave a trail of destruction and death, or in my case a trail of bad guys magnetized to the floor. I haven't beaten either game yet, so I can't speak on how repetitive some of these mission structures might become, but repetition has never bothered me. Shit I still enjoy playing Dynasty Warriors style games and those only have one goal, mash X with an occasional Y press to lay waste to countless enemies until you've wiped out the commanders, the main target, or all the commanders so the main target will appear so they can be wiped out. Prototypes mission structure does get repetitive. Kill target A, destroy structure A, consume target A to get inside structure A. Every now and then a B and even a C might pop up on your murder, consume, and or destroy checklist. But the beauty behind all of this that made the repetition barely noticeable was the fact that you were not stuck with only a few combat options. Cole Mcgrath, the protagonist in Infamous, has electricity based powers. He can shoot lighting bolts, fire off electrical grenades and rockets, produce static discharge (force push), and in part 2 he gains a static based form of telekinesis, as well as gains fire or ice powers based on if you want to be a bad motherf_@ker or the hero the city needs. Combine that with Cole's natural agility and parkour skills,plus his fighting skills and you have a little lightning spewing spider monkey blasting people as he clambers all over the place. Now on the other hand the protagonist in Prototype, Alex Mercer, could shapeshift. Imagine an angry cross between Mystique and the T-1000. Like Mystique you are fast, agile, and pretty good at hand to hand combat. But like the T-1000, why fight with your regular hands when you can turn them into an assortment of brutal weapons by manipulating your body mass to form blades, spikes, clubs, and my favorite a long tendril that can either be used like Scorpion's spear or clear a room like the cable in (warning graphic scene) Ghost Ship. These allowed you to mix combat up. Factor in Alex's enhanced speed, strength, durability, wall running, gliding, and minor parkour ability and you have a version of the Juggernaut if he had Wolverine's claws and was hoped up on 4 gallons of 5 Hour Energy, coke, and didn't fully believe in gravity. This alone is why I found myself enjoying Prototype more. Sure I can blast some bad guys from a distance with lightning, or force push them off a roof, but it's more fun to shred a couple of helpless soldiers, "GET OVER HERE" another who though he was safe on a roof top across the street and hurl his body into his friend who tried to run a little too late, to end it all by elbow dropping a tank to hell that was just passing by when it's attention was caught by a blood explosion on a nearby rooftop. And all that happened in 20 seconds. I'll get into the next 2 minutes a little later.

Now I would be a fool if I didn't say the story was Prototype's weakest link. The cliche story of someone with amnesia waking up and fighting to recover their lost memory, only to discover they have been gifted with powers and they are the only ones that can put a stop to what has happened to their world, was slightly livened up by ::SPOILER ALERT:: the fact that you wake up in a morgue with two guys ready to cut you open. You regain your memory by basically murdering and absorbing people using their memories to fill in the blanks. It turns out you were in fact that cause of the city going to shit, not once but twice. The military, of course, has dealt with this situation before and instead of destroying the virus that caused it decided to keep it and weaponize it. Oh yeah, and the fact that you aren't really Alex Mercer. The real Alex Mercer died right after releasing the virus shit storm on the city. You are in fact the virus basically in an Alex Mercer shell. (The last part reminds me of Unknown starring Liam Neeson where you are technically the bad guy, but your amnesia led you down a path of redemption where once you regained your lost memory you decided to stay on the side of good) ::END SPOILER:: Even with the few twist and turns the story takes, it never becomes that compelling, and at points it's just there as filler between blood baths. My biggest problem with the story was the fact that there was never a moment where Alex took a moment to reflect on the changes his body has undergone, which would have made him appear more human and relate-able. Instead they opted to add a sister, that acted as his only tether to his lost humanity. This seemed out of place to me because she just kind of accepted her dead brother was alive and capable of ripping a man in half, even after witnessing him punch a hole in a soldier's chest. Plus the scenes of them sitting around shooting the shit right after you just killed 4 or 5 dozen soldiers and caused millions of dollars in property damage were boring. On the other end of the spectrum you have Infamous. The story of a simple messenger that gets a package to deliver one day that turns his whole world upside down. The package is a device that destroys a portion of the city leaving wide spread chaos while gifting Cole with electricity based powers. These powers become Cole's escape from the now heavily militarized city, as well as the city's only hope of regain some semblance of order after the disaster ::SPOILER ALERT:: Soon you learn this was not a simple coincidence. You were meant to receive that package so you could get powers, because there is an approaching evil that only you can stop, but only if you become strong enough in time. This is none of that ancient prophecy mumbo jumbo, just some good old fashion time travel. The mysterious figure that gave you the package and ordered you to open it was the future version of yourself that traveled back in time to get you ready to face "The Beast", and entity of great power that he was not strong enough to fight in his time. ::END SPOILER:: Now, while it is still somewhat of a cliche story, it takes several twists and turns that keep it engaging. Also the karma system of the game affects the story in a variety of ways, by altering which characters you interact with, and changes the outcome for some. This helps keep the story fresh and GROUNDED. Too bad it was not enough to sway my decision.

With that out of the way, you all must realize I don't play games like this for the story. If you want to play a sandbox game for the story you play either Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row. But if you just want to feel like the baddest mother to ever terrorize digital civilians you play something like Prototype. Now yes, you can easily run a mock in Infamous, but that previously mentioned karma system means you will end up having to choose between the all powerful dark side or the kitten petting baby kissing light side. If you pick light your fun is limited because you are constantly worried about collateral damage. So that giant electrical storm you want to use you will have to hold off on because that bus of blind boy scouts is on its way to to the animal shelter and it's decided to stop right next to that group of enemies you want to nuke. Now if you started off as evil, or like me, playing the game again on the opposite side of the "give-o-fuck" meter you will not care. Seeing as Prototype has no karma system I was able to jump right in, and be the super powered dick I have always wanted to be. But the lack of the karma system is not the only driving factor. The main draw for me was how I could cause mayhem. Ripping a man in half with your bare (beefed up hands), or crushing his head with your mass hammer arm clubs will always be more fun to me than zapping dudes while hanging from a street lamp, or Fus Ro Dahing someone off a rooftop. Screw that. Instead of pushing him off I want to grab someone dumb enough to shoot at me off the street, run to the top of the empire state building, throw him at a helicopter that spotted a man sprinting up the side of the building, latch on to the helicopter when it's in range, rip open the cockpit, throw out the gunner, murder/absorb the pilot, crash the helicopter into another helicopter, as I'm free falling elbow drop yet another helicopter that was below me, then go from a nose dive into a cannonball of life and slam into a tank, and with everyone gathering to my position on top of the flaming remains of the tank unleash my devastator attack that fires out deadly tentacles from every inch of my body and destroy everything that was within range. Then when all is said and done grab another soldier that though he was one of the lucky ones to escape the blast radius, absorb him to don a new disguise, and round it all out by picking some random individual to take the heat by telling everyone they are in fact Alex Mercer disguised as some little old lady. That right there is what I call fun.

So there you have it. You might be like me and think Prototype was more fun, or you could hold Infamous as the next gen sandbox power fantasy game of all time. It just depends on the person. I just wanted to explain why I felt the way I did. Story wise Prototype is a much weaker game compared to Infamous, but because story is not what i was looking for I was in awe of the powers of death and destruction bestowed onto me. Now I do plan on finishing Infamous 1 and 2, so I can be ready for the inevitable part 3, I would be lying if I said I didn't get all giddy every time i checked my April to do list. April 24 12:00am Pick up Prototype 2. April 24 12:20am GO BAT SHIT INSANE THROWING HUMAN BIO-TENTACLE GRENADES AT PEOPLE. May 3 12:00am take a break from the game and eat something, and try to stop viewing everyone around me as a potential disguise or bio-mass to add to my growing collection.

To start off. I am a huge fan of Ghost Rider, and Nicolas Cage. With Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance reaching it's release date of 2/17/12, I can't help but to wonder where is the movie tie in game? It's resting in the bowels of hell with Megaman Legends 3, Blade 4, and Daredevil 2. I mean seriously, what the shit is that? They have released a game for like the last 12 movies adapted from Marvel comics, minus Xmen First Class, and almost like 20 or more movie tie-in games in the past 5 years. On that list is the first Ghost Rider movie, and some of you might be thinking "that game was terrible" well in reality the game was not bad. It was just a God of War clone, which turned off several people. Now you might say poor sales wouldn't justify anyone trying to make another. But be realistic. That didn't stop the talent folks at Sega from cranking out not one but 2 Ironman games, with the second being far worse than the first one. And it didn't stop 2K, the makers of the original Ghost Rider game, from making Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Which was a step up from the GOD AWFUL Fantastic Four game released by Activision.

Well there really isn't much else to say. I just think this was a missed opportunity. Granted, a missed opportunity similar to Russian Roulette. Because like the drinking game made popular in Vietnam, "The Deer Hunter", and "187" there is a probability of success, and a probability of ultimate failure. But with the past track record of these games, the probability of ultimate failure is much much higher. Also because of the nature of Ghost Rider's powers/weapons I could see the developers trying to work in Wii Mote, PS Move, and even Xbox Kinect functionality which could have possibly hurt the game even more. Now, it would be freaking bad ass if you could use your Penance Stare by holding X and staring directly into the Kinect sensor. Oh well, at least i can get my Ghost Rider fix in Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3.

As a lot of you know I was dealing with a very traumatic experience. It's been over a year now, since that little incident that turned my life upside down transpired. I want to forget it ever happened, but at the same time I realize I cannot. The only way I can keep it from every happening again is to keep it with me, to use it, to make it apart of me. Like the saying goes "whatever doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger". It took me awhile to agree with that. I won't lie. Many nights I lay in bed wondering why me, why me. I know I'm not a saint, but I'm not a bad person either. So I couldn't justify why this had happened to me. I don't wish it had happened to anyone else, I just wish it hadn't happened at all.

In my weakened state I was frustrated, angry, sad, depressed, and left wondering. Trying to rationalize why this might have happened. What could have been the reason why this had to happen. I have always been able to keep a smile on my face and a song in my heart because I try to live by one important principle. EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON. Whenever something happens, good or bad, I like to find the reason behind it. Like when I almost broke my ankle playing football. That had to happen so I would not be able to take the stairs and be forced to ride the elevator, and thus meet Daniella. A very friendly exchange student from Germany. Sadly it only lasted for a few months because the family she was staying with found out and told her she had to break it off and focus back on school because her grades were slipping. See I was able to justify why I got hurt with meeting a really cool girl who I would have otherwise never met, and why she had to leave me, because she wasn't able to focus on school and a boyfriend. I've been able to do this for almost everything that has happened in my life, at least up until this point.

Even though I tried to rationalize it, and see the bigger picture I got no where. I was left to deal with, but at least not alone. My friends and the D-Toid community were behind me. Helping me get through this hard time. Even my family was surprising supportive. Everyone who knew me knew how much of an impact this had on me, and the possible toll it could take. But with so many cool people in my corner backing me up I was able to muster up the strength I needed to overcome this minor setback. Now here we are a year later. This are not the same as they once were. I know I can't get back all that I've lost, but I have finally come to terms with it. I have a lot to look forward to, so no more dwelling on the past for me.

But for all of you reading this, if you can take one thing from my story I hope it is this. Always pay full attention when doing anything and read all your options. The last thing any of you want to do is delete all your game saves when you are trying to delete your Xbox profile off the harddrive because you recovered it at a friends house. I cannot stress this enough, because all it takes is one press of a button and years of work can be wiped in a matter of seconds, from everything plugged in at the time. Memory cards, USB drives, all wiped without so much as a confirmation screen, no message popping up asking if you are sure, it just gets right to it. Personally I think this is something that should be addressed. Mainly because you could find all your saves wiped all because someone else wasn't paying attention to what they were doing, or maybe a child got their hands on your xbox and was playing around, not completely sure what they were doing. But with no way to recover your saves it sucks ass, especially when you were half way through an rpg, or planning on transferring a character from one game to the sequel. But even though I lost A LOT I can take comfort in knowing my game saves are not tied to my achievements and Gamer Score. Because that's one blow I doubt I would ever be able to recover from, no matter who was trying to cheer me up.

Just to start this is not video game related. But as this is a site centered around video games I will be making a lot of game references to keep with the theme. As many of you know for the past month I was in the hospital. This is a blog about my entire experience.

It all began with a minor discomfort that slowly got worse and worse. Eventually my health began to deteriorate as my condition worsened. Without my knowledge I was hit BIO and it slowly ate away at me. Being the stubborn person that I am I hid the fact tthat I was constantly in pain and growing weaker and weaker.

Finally my condition reached CRITICAL and my father put his foot down and took me to the hospital. There I was moved from room room before a doctor talked to me. Telling me I was in bad shape and in need of surgery. Within in an hour of hearing those words I was on a stretcher being taken to surgery. The last thing I saw was the doctor putting the gas mask on me telling me everything was going to be fine.

The next thing I remember is waking up in a strange room with wires all over, machines beeping, and in a tube in my mouth. But lucky for me a lot the friendly NPCs and PARTY MEMBERS I had met over the course of my 25 year journey were around me, to comfort me. Nothing better than a friendly face to keep you from freaking out and hurting yourself. But it sucks to have all that shattered when the doctor tells you it was almost GAME OVER. Turns out I was in worse shape than I though. Reduced to 1 HP by my condition. But the surgeons hit me with CURAGA and brought me back from deaths door.



The next week and a half was hell. I was beyond weak, constantly tired, and had an uncomfortable plastic hose in my mouth. Talking was beyond impossible, but it didn't stop me from trying. On top of all that I was being fed through a tube in my arm by a small plastic bag full of liquid. It doesn't take long for a person to miss real food, especially when a commercial for McDonalds, AppleBees, IHOP, and just about any place that sells food comes up every 6 minutes.

Eventually the doctors deemed me strong enough to be able to breath on my own. I was happy to see the nurse that day as she was going to remove the tube. The happiness I felt quickly vanished as the nurse ripped the tube out of my throat. It felt as if she pulled my esophagus out. I was not ready for that at all. Nor was I ready for what came next. Turns out the doctors jumped the gun. I was still having trouble breathing, which meant the tube was going to have to go back in. I didn't want to go through that hell again so I asked the doctors to put me under until it was time to remove the tube. It only took 2 days and the tube was ripped out again, but I was finally free.

I was still unable to really speak. I could force out a soft word or two, but I was in no condition for Ron level banter. I was still being fed by the plastic bag as my throat healed, but I was beyond thirsty. I was not even allowed water because of the condition of my throat. After 2 days I was allowed a cup of ice chunks which I devoured like a man lost in the desert. The little bit of water I got from the ice melting felt so good. As the days passed my throat got better and I was given more ice, and finally water. But Ron NEEDED FOOD BADLY. That bag just wasn't cutting it any more. After a couple days I was greeted by my nutritionist. She asked me the greatest question on the planet. What do you want to eat for breakfast? I was beyond happy.

The next couple of days wasn't too bad, but I bega to realize all the things I had taken for granted. Namely real food. Because I was still rather low on HP the doctors didn't want me to strain myself with chewing and whatnot. So I was on what they called a "soft" diet. Basically it was jello, mashed potatoes, and some random soup of the day for lunch and dinner. Breakfast on the other hand was eggs, some random mush, and milk. I was happy to have food finally, mainly the jello because that's all I really ate, but the other stuff was just a waste. Especially seeing as my taste buds were screwed up and most of it tasted horrible, weird, or like nothing at all.

Leave it to my father to drop and obvious bomb on me. He made a comment that I really needed to eat more because I became so skinny, and that's when I really looked at myself. The bag that was feeding me is basically a weight watchers wet dream. It has no fat and no calories. So basically combine a lack of really eating with a 2 weeks of trim spa in a bag. And on top of that being laid up and so in active caused a lose of muscle mass. I was thick, and it was muscle with a small percentage of fat. I went from 245 lbs down to 198lbs in 2 weeks. I lost all my STATS. My SKILLS are useless because I barely have the strength to use them. But at least my sense of humor remained at the same LEVEL.

The following week pulled me out of my skinny boy slump when my nutritionist paid me another visit. Because my HP and strength were slowly returning every day, the doctors deemed me strong enough to be able to handle solid foods. She asked me what I wanted, and after a slew of food commercials I told her burgers, pizza, and anything that isn't what I'm currently eating now. Dinner that night was awesome. Spaghetti with meatballs, more jello, and chocolate cake.

The joy of finally getting real food didn't last long. The routine of being in ICU drained it all from me. Wake up at 6, wait till 7:30, eat breakfast, cut on tv, watch Good Day LA, watch 2 hours of news, watch AFV, eat lunch, watch AFV again, watch 2 hours of I Love Lucy, more news, People's Court, TMZ, followed by even more news, finally dinner, the an hour of My Name is Earl, and finally The Office. After that 8pm was a crap shoot depending on what day it was. But this routine carried over even when I finally got out of ICU, on the plus side I found a channel that would occasionally show a good movie, like Universal Soldier: The Return. But like I said my time in and out of ICU would have been much worse if it wasn't for the friendly NPCs and my PARTY MEMBERS keeping me company, keeping me sane.

At this point my strength and HP had returned to the point that I was able to get out of bed and walk around with the aid of a walker. But after a few days of doing this I built up enough XP to level up walking to the unassisted level. I still needed someone with me in case my legs gave out, but I no longer needed the walker to rest on or for balance. Now that I was up and walking it was only a matter of time before I would be released from this place. While waiting to hear from my doctors I killed time by talking walks with my mom and by boring myself to death with my daily routine.

Tuesday afternoon my doctors finally showed. They told me I was doing great, I had made great progress, and that I was fit to go home. They told me Thursday I would be scheduled for release. It took a lot of effort to hold back my smile. Wednesday rolled around and I was still as excited as I was Tuesday, at least I was until one of the doctor's assistants dropped a bomb on me. Turns out they wanted me to have a PICC line in my arm so I can continue getting my antibiotics while I was at home. FYI, a PICC line is a tube with 1 to 3 leads on it that stick out of your arm, while a length of tube is inserted through a hole in your arm and guided to your heart. Pretty cool ACCESSORY, right? Anyway, he said the doctor responsible for putting it in wouldn't be in till Thursday, so my release date was pushed back to Saturday. I would have been pissed but I just laughed it off because one of my PARTY MEMBERS kept telling me I was never going to get out of there and they were going to keep pushing my release date back, it also helped that he was standing beside me when I got the news.

Thursday rolled around and I got to watch as I was numbed, stabbed, and had over a foot of tube feed through my arm to my heart. After that it was just a waiting game. I found taking random naps sped up the day, which was cool, but it ruined my night, which sucked. Lucky for me the hospital offers medicine to ease the pain, and medicine to CAST SLEEP on your tired ass. So as I would lay there awake and bored, till 3, I would hit the nurse call button and ask for her to come in and CAST SLEEP on me. Now I could have called at 12, but I would have been woken up by the nurse coming to check my blood pressure and temperature at 3 in the F$%KING morning. So after that waste of time I would hit the button, wait a couple of minutes, then slowly drift off into the darkness. You see, while in that place I did not dream. It was just darkness until I opened my eyes again, at 6, or 6:15. This sleep thing also was routine, except in ICU I was woken up by some douche bags coming to take some x-rays at 3 in the F$%KING morning.

Thursday went by quick, and Friday was too. It all started out fine. Me and my mom played some cards to break up the daily routine, we went for a walk, I took an hour nap, then this bitch showed up. I shouldn't be angry with her, but I'm petty and I need to blame something or someone when things don't go right and it's not my fault. But basically this lady in charge of home care comes in around 6 and tells me she is sorry but I'm not going to get released until Monday because they need to set my home care up, but it's too late in the day to do it now, and they aren't open on the weekend. I wanted to jump out of the bed and hit her with an ULTRA COMBO, but my SPECIAL GAUGE was pretty much empty. I just sat there pissed. I told my mom when she returned to the room. But it is ok. Saturday went by rather fast. I watched my cartoons, then I slept. I took multiple 1 - 2 hour naps. When night time rolled around I forced myself to sleep by having the nurses cut up the AC and kicking all the covers off my body. When the final night nurse came to do her part of my nightly routine I asked for SLEEP, and went straight out. Sunday is a different story though. This is the most boring day on the planet, especially if you can't go anywhere, have no games, and the TV is shit. But after a few hours of infomercials I was able to enact my nap/drugs plan and slept my way through that day.

Finally it was Monday. The home care lady came in around 11am and told us everything was taken care of and the nurse should be in to wheel me down to freedom. I put on real clothes for the first time in a month. It felt good to be completely covered vs. running around with in those stupid gowns with my ass hanging out. Around 1 the nurse appeared with my wheel chair. My mom grabbed her stuff and went down to get the ca to meet us at the exit. I climbed into my freedom train, and enjoyed the ride as I said goodbye to my prison, to my savior. Even though I was dying to get out of there because it was such a boring place, I found it hard to hate it because coming here is what gave me my life back. My HP was at 75%, my STATS were slowly returning to normal, and I was actually really happy. We finally reached the bottom floor, and after a few hallways and turns, we were at the patient exit. When the doors opened I felt a gentle breeze roll in. And as corny as it sounds, it felt good. We rolled outside and I looked around to take in all I had been missing. When you are trapped indoors for so long you notice all the things you took for granted when you are finally let outside. As I looked at the clouds my mom pulled up. I hopped in the car and we headed home.

Now I am on the final part of my recovery. My activities have been limited by my low STATS and by the open wound that has to heal on it's own. This is where home care comes in. They supply the drugs and medical supplies, while my parents take care of me. It's not something I'm too happy about seeing as I'm 25, but hey I don't want to go back to that hospital. So if my parents have to baby me, so be it. I get to be in my own bed, I get to eat whenever I want, and most importantly I have my XBOX. So no matter how long my recovery period lasts, I will at least be in an area where I am happy and comfortable, and I appreciate it. Because like a downed transformer revived by the power of the matrix, I faced death but I fought through, because like Nick, from L4D2, says I've come to far to die now.


Yes I mentioned the whole Transformers thing just to have an excuse to post this picture. Why? Because I got the touch, I got the power...YEAH!!!

Dead Rising has come and gone. To some it was an excellent game with a few minor problems. To others it was a failed experiment. With Dead Rising 2 on the horizon I decided to play part 1 again. While playing it a friend messaged me asking why was I playing a piece of shit game like Dead Rising for when I could have been playing one of the better, newer games I owned. This question kick started out debate with neither side backing down. It ended in a stalemate because I needed to go to bed so I could wake up for work in the morning.

The debate is still fresh in my mind, and I know there isn't going to be a resolution to this between us. In my mind this was a great game. It was fun, very new, and a great concept. The story was good, voice acting was a tad bit cheesy in some parts, the text was a pain in the ass in read, saving was frustrating, the survivor AI was beyond incompetent, and Otis was annoying as shit. But the core game play was top notch. Being able to kill a zombie with anything not bolted down was great and remained fun. It gave players freedom to keep things fresh and you never had to worry about being caught without a weapon. Even if you did, your hands could get the job done just as well. Now targeting with a gun could have been better, but it was obvious to me that gunplay would not be a major factor in this game. The whole photography aspect of the game was implemented fairly well, especially for being optional. Now it did factor into the RPG element of the game by offering up XP boosts for taking some rather interesting pictures, but you could easy run head long into a crowd of zombies just swinging away with your mini chainsaws and still level up, but it was nice knowing there were other ways to become stronger to speed up the process. And you will need to get stronger if you plan on taking out all the psychopaths (bosses) the game throws at you. In a twist you didn't fight mutants, giant monsters, or even super zombies. You fought humans who were pushed over the edge by the events taking place around them. Each psychopath had a minor back story, explaining why they snapped and started killing people, as well as zombies. Personally I liked Cliff the Vietnam Vet. He was a rather challenging boss, using guerrilla warfare tactics to stalk and ambush you. And to me he was a homage to Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. He was a big muscular dude who attacked you with a machete, much like Jason, but he was dressed in a red and black flannel shirt, with a black hat, which reminds me of the way Freddy dressed..



But aside from that, his story was actually heart breaking. I felt bad for Cliff because it wasn't his fault he went crazy. I even hung around his body for awhile killing all the zombies that tried to feed on it before I decided to continue on my journey for the truth and any survivors.



And this was another aspect of Dead Rising that I enjoyed. This game was silly and over the top, but it could also become very dark and serious. Combine all this with the replay value of the game, and all the unlockables (can you say Mega Man costume with working mega buster) and you have a great game, that can only get better with each iteration.


I kind of wish this thing was a bit stronger. It should be able to take out multiple zombies.

Now that was my side of the argument. My friend addressed the same problems as I did, but in greater detail. I see no need to go back over them. But there was one thing he said that stood out the most, and was his top reason for not liking the game. He hated the fact that the missions/scoops were timed. He felt the game should have had no time limits and allowed you to do everything whenever you wanted to. Even the 3 days you had in game should have been tied to the story so when you did a certain mission you would progress on to the night, then the next day. Personally I loved the fact that you had a set amount of time to do all the "scoops". It gave the game a sense of urgency, and added a level of difficulty to the game. Do you investigate the mysterious figure walking around in hardware store? Do you save this survivor because he is closer, or do you save this one because she is about to die, or do you check out the hardware store then save one survivor as you make your way to the other on your way back to the safe room? The choice was yours. You could try to save everyone one at a time, or you could save multiple survivors and try to lead them all back to the safe room in one piece. This of course was made harder as the game progressed because there were more zombies between you and safety, and like I mentioned before the survivors were all dumb as nails, being hammered into a concrete block. And if you failed to get to a survivor or scoop in time it would be gone. Either they will be dead, or the event will be over. Still it was fun. My friend didn't see it that way. He hated the fact that he couldn't just kill zombies for a few hours, and rescue survivors when he wanted to. He couldn't appreciate the fact that all of that stuff was optional, at the price of the story. But he wanted his story, and his mass zombie killing too.

After he laid that bombshell on me he stated if Dead Rising 2 had the same mission setup it would fail. Personally I'm hoping the game keeps that feature from the first one. He wants there to be a central HQ where you can select missions as you progress, and then you are given a time limit to take care of it. Personally I think it would take away from the atmosphere of the game. But what do you guys think. Do you think Dead Rising 2 would suffer if they dumped the mission structure of the first game, in favor of a more traditional structure where you get a list of mission that you can accept?