This game is one of my all-time favorites. It's absurd to unload a few grand for a game--but truth be told, Dead Rising is the reason I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to HD. It's novel approach to things--a smaller, rather than bigger game world; one save to rule them all; truly a sandbox, do whatever you want: everything about it appealed to me. But on a non-hd screen, it's a bit empty. No dialog, no game help, lost wandering feeling like you're missing out on genius. What's worse--it was worth the upgrade to HD. What really does it for me is the level of immersiveness they achieved in the project. Graphically they obviously spared no details, and that's a nice start. They took it further though, in ambience and audio--instead of an interesting sound track worth reviewing, it plays standard unremarkable elevator music in the background--just like in a real mall! And as a mall on a timer, that music (and the lights!) cut out at night leaving you with minimal visibility (better go grab the toy pink plastic sword in the toy store, you'll be better off!) and absolute silence. Save for the gutteral moans. They've taken a place we're all familiar with--a wholly believable mall--and dropped you in it. It's not a big game world at all--not if you compare it to Oblivion or any real adventure/role playing game. It's a mall. But it's a believable scale--and there's so much in it to explore, the smaller size serves to raise the level of immersiveness and believability of the game. Insofar as zombie infestations are believable, of course.

I can't tell you how many play throughs I've made, how many hours I've logged--but I have reached the max attainable level and secured most of the achievments, if that's any indication. And when my 3 year old son isn't looking, am always itching to pick it up and play some more. Now that Microsoft is offering a real warranty on the systems against red ring, maybe I'll actually have the guts to go for the survival achievements (Which will no doubt require the white box hum, unrested, for several days straight).

That's my one complaint with the game, survival mode has no save option. It certainly makes the difficulty of those achievments a real bragging point for those who've done it, but it encourages far more straight play time than anyone could possibly condone. And as I understand it, has bricked many a 360.

There's nothing in the gaming industry I'd love more than a sequel to this game. Make it possible to share the mall with the company of others to further increase the re-play value and I'd have a hard time leaving. What I really want to see is a persistent world Dead Rising MMO -- don't suppose that's going to happen, but a man can dream. Sweet, juicy zombie dreams.

I understand. Gears of War was the reason for me to get a better TV.

Jeez, my wife has been glued to this game for a month now- I never knew she loved indiscriminate death this much.
Still, zombie-love transcends all boundaries... ;)