Ok I know I said that I would probably do a "Top 5 Worst Games that Everybody Else Loved" list next, and that's still coming, but I was reading about Dead Rising 2 in the new Game Informer and they listed a few things that they would like to see in the sequel. I would imagine that I've spent more time playing Dead Rising than anyone who writes for that magazine, and to be honest I found their list to be a bit boring, so I thought "Hey, I could come up with 5 things better than that", and here we are.
Top 5 Things I Want to See in Dead Rising 2
5.
Upgradeable vehicles and weapons - If I find a school bus parked outside somewhere, why can't I get my blowtorch on and throw some scrap metal over the windows, some barbed wire around the doors, add some spikes to the front for ramming purposes, etc. Similarly, if I decide I want to fashion some sort of weapon from a baseball bat, some nails, and a tether ball that should be up to me. Let me get all MacGuyver up in that bitch.
4.
More places to go - The mall will always be a staple of zombie fiction, so the fact that Dead Rising took place all in one location was forgivable. Having the sequel set in a casino? Fuck that. Give me a city to run around in! Sure there would be buildings that you could enter for saving purposes, or to loot for supplies, weapons, or ammo but have it to where if you stay in one any one place for too long the zombies would figure out where you were and trap you there, thus spelling your certain doom. Think Grand Theft Auto IV, only with 100% less living hookers, and 100% more zombie hookers.
3.
Less psychos, more zombie variety - The psychos were cool in Dead Rising I guess, and to be fair there was a decent amount of variety amongst the living dead appearance-wise, but why not throw in a couple of boss fights with some more intelligent forms of zombies? Did you see Dawn of the Dead, or especially Land of the Dead? Romero had zombies that could both remember, and to a certain extent learn. Land even had zombies using machine guns, and if Romero says a zombie can do it, then a zombie can do it.
2.
Co-op - Ah, Dead Rising's most unforgivable sin. You mean to tell me that I get to play this game where I'm stuck inside a mall that's both infested and surrounded by zombies, I can use pretty much anything I want as a weapon, and this is a single player only game? Dude. Dead Rising practically screams for co-op. It's certainly not like it couldn't be done, Crackdown anyone? Co-op is becoming more and more of a necessity for games with multiplayer, so I'm really hoping for some confirmation on this for DR2. Two players would be good, four to eight would be orgasmic.
1.
Frank motherfucking West - He's covered wars, yanno? Forget this blond haired, Big Bird yellow Columbia winter coat wearing, dirt bike riding bitch in the screen shots. I want grizzled ex-war photo journalist Frank West to bust some zombie skulls with. Anybody who played the first game knows, Frank is the man. Plain and simple. All others will pale in comparison.
And there ya go, the 5 things that if included would make Dead Rising 2 the single greatest thing that ever happened to gaming. Admittedly simply adding the co-op would go a long ways toward this goal all by itself, so everything else would just be icing on the cake.
I know some of you may have been expecting me to mention something about a better save system, but I'm one of those people who was never really bothered by the system in place in Dead Rising. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's not Frank's fault that you forgot to stop by one of the numerous bathrooms or safe rooms to get your save on ya slackers!
Next time I'll do the worst games list, I promise.
5. Gears of War 2 - The follow-up to Epic's groundbreaking Gears of War promised to make everything bigger, badder, and better. I suppose it was bigger, the environments certainly seemed that way, and the battles were more epic in scope with tons of enemies on screen, but I'm not sure it was necessarily all that much better than the first. I enjoyed some of the little changes, and Horde mode was fun while it lasted, but I was a bit disappointed with the lack of "Oh shit!" moments that I was sure would be all over the place. Sure, the worm was cool and all, and the last couple of levels were really good, but getting there was down right boring at times. I realize this sounds really negative for what I'm calling one of my top 5 games of the year, but I really expected to be blown away by this game, and for it to be the Game of the Year. Still, for a year with so many great games, number 5 ain't bad.
4. Left 4 Dead - This one honestly surprised me. I hoped it would be good, but never truly expected it to blow up as big as it did. I figured I would play it, probably my brother, and not too many other folks. It's amazing to me that an idea as simple as "we'll have this co-op fps with zombies attacking everybody" could have taken this long to happen, and the popularity to be as enormous. The fact that there really is little content on the disc speaks to the pure fun of running around blasting zombies back to hell with your buds. Unfortunately for me, almost all of my fun was had running around with the A.I. as my internet connection has kept me from online gaming since early December. However, my love for the undead knows no bounds, and if it's the AI that I must play with, then play with AI I shall. I'm patiently waiting for some decent DLC in the form of new campaigns and possibly a new survivor or two.
3. Resistance 2 - Speaking of bigger, badder, and better, Resistance 2 boasted all of the above and actually managed to deliver and then some. The campaign was full of memorable moments (the theater in Chicago!), the Chimera brought out the big guns and hardly ever let Hale catch his breath, and every boss fight was a blast to play. Insomniac didn't stop with a kick-ass campaign though, they included a 60 player competetive multiplayer mode, and an even better 8 player online co-op mode (which ended up eating most of my time with the game). The co-op was basically a second campaign which ran parallel to Nathan's story from single player, and was just a blast when you actually had players that were working together. I absolutely loved every part of this game, especially the 1950's America overrun by alien invaders setting. Quality all around, and easily one of the best reasons to own a PS3 so far.
2. Silent Hill Homecoming - This is the one left missing from Game Informer's list, and I can't imagine why when something like "Midnight Club" made the list. There are few instances in gaming that get me as excited as a chance to journey back to my favorite fictional town, Slient Hill. Homecoming borrowed a bit more from the movie than actual previous games, and the story centered more around Shepherd's Glen and it's connection to Silent Hill, than Silent Hill itself, but everything else that we've come to know and love from the series was represented well. There was fog, creepy nurses, sirens, and not a lot of ammo scattered about. Standout scenes for me included the Police Station, Alex's first return to this childhood home, and the hospital scene. The puzzles were toned down a bit and there was more of a focus on combat this time around with some genuinely creepy, tought to kill enemies. For me though, Silent Hill is always more about the story, and I thoroughly enjoyed Alex's. Another welcome entry into the Silent Hill mythos.
1. Dead Space - Yep, game of the year as far as I'm concerned. If nothing else, I will remember 2008 as the year of the resurgence of the Survival Horror genre. It wasn't all about sequels though, and while I fully expected to enjoy Dead Space, I had no idea just how much I would end up loving this game. I remember reading the Game Informer article a year before the game released, it looked good, sounded even better, and the game officially went on my radar. Then the prequel comic from Wildstorm hit with art from Ben Templesmith (so of course I had to read it). I fell in love with the story of the Ishimura and it's inhabitants. The game finally hit, and everything was even better than I'd hoped. The controls were rock solid, the atmosphere and lighting were amazing, and when the necromorphs finally attacked, the combat was fast, bloody, and satisfyingly gruesome on a level that most games never come close to achieving. The weapons all performed differently, and were all not only useful, but fun to eviscerate enemies with. Speaking of enemies, Jesus! These were some of the nastiest looking baddies I've ever seen in any medium, with a bit of a nod to John Carpenter's The Thing mixed in with something straight from the imagination of Clive Barker, and that's some high praise indeed. There weren't many, but the boss encounters were amazing, with some titanic sized monsters that required a bit of thinking to get past. The story itself was the only minor complaint that I read in most reviews, but from the comic, to the animated movie, to the game I thought it all blended well together. I'm assuming that EA is planning on making this a franchise, I genuinely hope so. I can't wait for another one.
