According to the developer – Blue Castle Games – Dead Rising 2: Off The Record is a re-envisioning of Dead Rising 2. So same locations (plus 1 new area), different gameplay.

With the Resident Evil games undergoing a re-envisioning in the form of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, I wonder what Capcom game is next? Anyone care to hazard a guess?

Dead Rising 2: Off The Record is due for release during Autumn 2011

The pack also includes new weapons and combos such as “zap and shine” and the “reaper” as well as adding co-op functionality. Yes, you read that correctly. Case West finally adds the long awaited co-op action to Dead Rising. Awesome! Just imagine how much Zombies killing mayhem two people will be able to unleash. However, during single-player mode the AI will take control of Frank West. Interestingly enough, while Frank is in this mode he will be invincible. Now that could be very handy.

Check out the gameplay trailer to see an awful lot of co-op Zombie killing action from Case West.

Capcom haven’t announced a release date or price other than it will be out in Dec 2010. As soon as I get more information, I’ll update this post.

Dead Rising 2: Case West is released on the 27th Dec 2010 on Xbox 360 for 800 Microsoft Points.

Update 13th Dec 2010: Added confirmed release date and price.

Dead Rising 2 for the win! I’m thinking of getting the Zombrex t-shirt version for a zombie Halloween costume. GamerPrint also had a public vote last week for a new T-shirt design. The winner?

Yup, Fallout’s Nuka Cola. My two favourite games franchises! How can I not like this site? Best part is that these are classy designs – you can wear them at non-games things without looking a fool, unlike certain games industry heavyweights who should know better.

We’ve teamed up with GamerPrint to offer you lucky readers a 10% discount code off any purchase from GamerPrint. If Fallout or Dead Rising don’t float your boat, there’s always Red Dead Redemption’s Marston and Son Hunting School, Metal Gear Solid’s The Old Snake vs Screaming Mantis and a whole load of others. Just pop AVGMR10 into the voucher code box when you’re checking out, any time between now and 30th November.

GamerPrint release a new design every month – what other games would you be proud to wear?

Well that’s me, every time I play the Dead Rising games. I want to be able to run around the malls in piece and quiet without having those irritating Zombies everywhere. I also want to save the survivors with enough time to do a bit of shopping without the Zombies trying to eat my face (or my companion’s faces for that matter).

Here’s the problem though. There’s too many frickin’ Zombies to kill. You clear an area, leave and come back later and BAM!!! The place is crawling with Zombies again. Aaaggghhh, all that time spent killing totally wasted. Time to clear the area again.

And so the battle to kill all the Zombies continues. One I can can never win, I know that, but it doesn’t mean I don’t want to keep trying.

I admit that I may have a little bit of an obsessive compulsive problem with the Dead Rising games. I find them difficult to play because of this. Which is strange as I love gore, Zombies, weapons and violence (just in games people, not in real life). In theory then, the Dead Rising games should be perfect for me. In practice not so much.

I’ve noticed that this aspect of my personality has affected other games, but to a lesser extent. Assassin’s Creed II for instance. I’ve collected every feather, found every money stash, done every mission, bought every weapon and bit of armour…in short, I’ve done everything. Why? Because i like seeing the word “completed” and 100% littered across the stats screen. It gives me a warm, fuzzy, sense of progress feeling. Just like levelling-up does.

Are there any games that people feel that they’ve got a bit obsessive or compulsive over? Or is it just me?

If you have just started playing Dead Rising 2 or need some help then check out our 7 survival tips for Dead Rising 2.

Dead Rising 2 is out now on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

• Psychopath Theme Pack: Makes Chuck more difficult to kill and give new weapons including chainsaws, cleavers and axes – Available from 12th Oct (XBLA) 13th Oct (PSN)



• Soldier of Fortune Theme Pack: Gives Chuck double ammo, increased shooting accuracy, more firepower and increased headshot accuracy increased. New special attack when using automatic weapons, spraying zombies with a hail of bullets – Available from 19th Oct (XBLA) and 20th Oct (PSN)



• Sports Theme Pack: Chuck’s damage will increase with sports-themed weapons. The new sports weapons (golf balls, basketballs, etc.) bounce more before stopping. Chuck also has a new charge/tackle attack. Chuck will also earn more from gambling, gain more health while eating and drinking (especially alcoholic drinks) and not get sick from drinking to much. – Available from 26th Oct (XBLA) and 27th Oct(PSN)



• Ninja Theme Pack: Chuck will have a new “stealth mode” where the zombies have to be much closer to him to detect his presence. Chuck’s damage is increased with sword-type weapons (broadswords, katanas, etc.) that have new special attacks. Stackable items and throwing items (nails, plates, gems, etc.) will also do more damage and Chuck’s throwing speed is increased – Available from 2nd Nov (XBLA) and 3rd Nov (PSN)

If you have just started playing Dead Rising 2 or need some help then check out our 7 survival tips for Dead Rising 2.

Dead Rising 2 is out now on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

And since it’s just out today for our friends in the US, here are my top 7 spoiler-free tips for surviving my favourite zombocalypse:

1. Take the fire axe: There’s one just outside the door to the security room. The Defiler (sledgehammer + fire axe) and the Spiked Bat (baseball bat + nails) are your two survival staples. Never leave home without them.
2. Level up before seriously attempting the story. Sure you could do all the case files and get The Facts, but it’s a lot harder when you have a puny health bar and no dodging ability. Play a good chunk of the game just saving people and laughing at combo weapons. You’ll find the case files much more relaxing.



3. Make $$$ Fast. Play ranked Terror is Reality matches to rack up the in-game winnings. If you want to play with all the vehicles in the game, you’re gonna need a whole lot of cash. Destroying ATMs will net you $2500 a pop and I’ve heard that playing the $1000 slots with all three gambling magazines is a fantastic way to rack up a million.
4. Meet The Contestant. This is an early mission which will unlock the motorcycle mod shop. Who doesn’t want to race down the strip on a slicecycle, right? Easiest way I’ve found to defeat this psycho is to get him trapped on the edges of the Royal Flush Plaza entrance and then wallop the crap out of the back of his head. Some might call this an exploit? I say it’s tactical use of the environment
5. Don’t worry about Zombrex. It’s surprisingly easy to get Zombrex for little Katey. The first one is practically dropped in your lap. The second comes from the Code Blue mission – a nice straight escort. For the third, DON’T bother with the postman unless you have loads of health and a decent ranged weapon. Another mission will open up shortly after the postal service one – bring some food to a hungry guy in a restaurant and he’ll trade you some Zombrex. The rest are easily purchased from the pawnshop with the winnings from a couple of TiR matches.



6. Unlock the Underground. I know my first tip was to skip the case files but Case 2-1 will unlock the underground area for you and none of those early cases will give you trouble. Okay, technically there’s no real NEED for the underground area… but you’ll find one of those great RAMSTERBALLS to run around squashing zombies in :D
7. Open the shortcut. On Day 2 you’ll get a mission called Wilted Flower. Bring her a drink and take her home – you’ll open up a fast route from the South Plaza to the Safe House

I could go on but half the fun of this game lies in working out strategies for yourself. What are your top survival tips for Dead Rising 2?

Originally published as a Multiplayer Game Review on Game People.

Carcassonne’s turn-based medieval fortified battlement building works beautifully as an XBLA multiplayer game, with a strategic element fit to rival chess. Almost.

Carcassonne’s rules are simple: two to four players take it in turns to upturn a tile and then place it on the board. Each tile has specific parts, roads, castle walls, junctions, cloisters and fields, with a score allocated for each. To get those points, a player must do two things. First he must complete his road, castle or cloister, and second he must have a follower based in or on his construction, but you can only add those followers immediately after you place a tile. And just to make things a bit more interesting, placing a follower in a field will score you no points till the end, when he rakes them in as a farmer supplying all the castles his field borders.

I was going to say a lot of things about Carcassonne. I was going to have a little laugh at board games in general and say something about how they belonged to another time, somewhere between post-war Britain and the pre-videogame age. I had planned to heap scorn on the videogame version of Monopoly, a game I hadn’t actually played in pixel form but one that I’ve loathed through the decades.

Then I started to play and discovered I had plenty more to say about Carcassonne. A more prepared writer would have scribbled all these thoughts down somewhere safe. And I might well have done except I kept needing to have one more go.

Five days later, and all the things I had planned to say have become a jumble of unfinished musings. I’m finding it hard to finish these sentences because the lure of playing yet another Carcassonne game is strong. I can’t quite believe that a board game is fighting off all the traditional videogame competition, but that’s exactly what is happening. All the gun shooting, goal scoring, level upping games have gone back in their cases and are looking a bit sheepish up on the shelves.

It’s not at all true that Carcasonne’s challenge to your grey matter is on a level with chess’, but it’s fair to say that it’s in the same arena. When the first tile is placed on the board it’s simple enough to keep up with what’s happening, but as play evolves you need to keep an eye on every corner of the map and everywhere else between. The same thoughts run through my head playing Carcassonne as do over a chess board: if he goes there then I can go there, but if I do this then he won’t be able to do that, or if I do this and hope he does that then I can do the other. And all this is crammed into forty-five second snippets. That’s all you have to decide where on the board your tile will fit to benefit you most. A tile you haven’t seen until the clock started ticking. I can throw a month’s worth of concentration into one game of Carcassonne and think it hard thought well spent.

Which must mean my concentration’s not worth the brain it’s cooked in because to date, my win lose ratio is 10-33. But then, there’s got to be something great about a game I am constantly losing if I’d rather be playing it than anything else. And when I do win, I am ecstatic Ð moved enough on one occasion to punch the air in triumph and then stand, arms wide apart, staring at my wife like she’s the home end at Stamford Bridge and I’m Didier Drogba, hat-trick hero.

It’s often said by gamers that to be a better player online, whatever the game you’re playing, you need to play the best. That’s a load of rubbish. Playing Modern Warfare 2 against the leaderboard’s top ten for an evening isn’t going to make you a better player, it’s going to make you cross. But with Carcassonne there is some truth in it. It’s only when you see the kind of tactics employed by opponents better than you, specific tactics for specific tiles even, that you begin to see the potential of each piece.

That’s why, when I stop to consider whether it’s the board game I’m playing or the videogame version that’s got me so hooked, the videogame comes out on top. I could buy the board game and have it sit in a cupboard for months at a time until I could convince a rare guest that they want to play me, or I could stick with the videogame and have access to hundreds of opponents every night of the week. I won’t even mention the anal desire to see all the tiles fitting precision neat next to each other. Best to leave that thought in the jumble.

Best Multiplayer Moments

The fist pumping rush of winning a game you’re losing right up to the very end when your cunning farmer deployment mops up all the extra points available.

Multiplayer Verdict

An excellent game to dip into for half hour sessions or spend all evening with. It’s a shame there aren’t that many players online because it’s nigh impossible to get a game with three or more players. But if you’re the kind of person who loves mental agility more than thumb skills, this one’s for you.

Find more anecdotal reviews at Game People.

Not that’s a lot of Zombie killing! One of the big features of Dead Rising 2 is the ability to customise your Zombie killing weapons using duct tape. If you don’t understand just how awesome duct tap is, check out these pictures:

This aircraft was badly mauled by a bear (hunting for the food left inside). After using several crates of duct tape the pilot had fixed up the aircraft and flew it home. Yes, that’s right, flew it home.

Now just imagine what weapons you’ll be able to produce in Dead Rising 2 with duct tape.

Dead Rising 2 is released on the 24th Sep 2010 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Also the first 100 punters to buy the game will also get a free goodie bag. No idea what’s going to be in the bag, but if we find out we will let you know.

You can also check out some Dead Rising 2 screenshots and trailer.