I Totally Get It Now

I now understand your obsession with Dead Rising, Woody. For those of you that didn't notice the many posts about Dead rising on Woody's blog, Let's just say that there are several. No, I am not being compensated for putting, not one, but three links to Woody's blog. I'll sum up the posts for you: Woody likes to kill him some zombies. And so do I!! I had started Dead Rising a while back, just to see what it was like, but I didn't really sit down to play it seriously until this weekend. Fun with a capital F. There are a few things that bother me, but the good things about the game out weigh the bad. I guess I will go into what bothers me first:

1. There is no auto-save. Most games that I play save themselves automatically when you pass a check point or change areas on the map. Dead Rising doesn't have that function. You need to go to one of the save points (the bathrooms or the security room) if you want to save the game. Sounds easy enough, but when you are knee deep in zombies and enthralled by the killin' you tend to forget to save. This happened to me several times. I got so wrapped up, that I completely forgot to save, then I died, and had to start all over again.

2. The survivors that you are supposed to save and escort back to the security room are morons. You have the ability to call out to people, but they don't listen. You can run into them, knock them down, and yell at them, and still they ignore you. I try to save as many people as I can, but to be honest, I have not done too well.

3. Too much to do, not enough time. There is not enough time to save the survivors and complete the main quest of the game. I guess that you need to pick and choose what you do, but why would they give you so many quests if you couldn't complete them?

What I like about the game is that it is not your everyday FPS (first person shooter). Yes, you do get a gun, but I think that it is the least useful weapon against the hordes of zombies. You need to pick up other weapons through out the shopping mall. So far, my favorite killing toy has been the lawn mower, followed closely by the chain saw. What I don't understand is why all of the weapons eventually die out on you. I get the chainsaw running out of gas, or a wooden bench eventually breaking, but things like a lead pipe or a rock should last forever. How does a rock break? I guess it adds to the game, in that, you need to constantly find means to defend yourself.

There are a few aspects of the game I am having troubles with. You are supposed to take pictures of the zombies and the things that are happening. I forget to do this. I have gotten some good pictures, one worth over 5000 prestige points (it was Kent shooting a zombie in the head and the blood spray shooting back) but I get into the killin' and neglect the picture taking. Also, when the screen is loading, you see diagrams of different martial arts moves you can do. I have not yet figured out how to do any of them. I think I need to go back and read the instructions manual. Or, I need to ask Woody for some pointers.