MULTIPLAYER HANDS ON September 25, 2009 - At first glance, most of us thought we had Dead Rising 2 pegged. Another normal dude (Chuck this time instead of Frank) is trapped in a town full of zombies (Fortune City this time instead of Willamette) and forced to use all sorts of crazy weapons to make sure he's still breathing by the time the credits roll.
Turns out, we might've been oversimplifying the situation.
Dead Rising 2 isn't dropping you into a simple zombie apocalypse and asking you to survive this time. It seems that Chuck is actually a contestant on Terror Is Reality, a TV game show pitting people against the undead. Capcom wasn't ready to dish all the details, but our main character has a "special" reason for being part of this show where the number of zombies you kill and the way you kill them is key to winning.
Terror Is Reality in HD.
http://ie.ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/14312883/dead-rising-2/videos/tgs09_deadrising2_trl_terrorisreality.htmlHowever, last night's Tokyo Game Show Dead Rising 2 party wasn't to talk up the single-player campaign; this party was to unveil the game's multiplayer, which puts you and three other players into an episode of TIR.
When players pick to hop into a game of online action, T.K., the loudmouth host who is accompanied by lovely ladies and happy to use as many sexual puns as possible, introduces the show and does a whole song and dance on stage in front of a crowd while you wait for other players to join the game. When the cast is assembled, everyone's given a colored motorcycle suit and launched into a four-round contest that's pretty much American Gladiators meets Night of the Living Dead. Now, there are going to be a bunch of games that make up these rounds of TIR, but for this event, Capcom was only showing four specific ones.
Ramsterball puts the contestants into giant metal balls and has them roll around an area filled with zombies, pillar-like bumpers, and each other. One contestant is "it" and needs to ram his ball into the colored pillars for points. Every other contestant is trying to run into the tagged opponent and become "it" so that they can score points. As the collisions are going down and points are getting racked up, the current rank of the contestants is changing on the screen so you know where you stand at all times. Tapping the boost button has your guy run faster in his ball and hopefully roll by the competition.
Headache adds a bit more danger to the lives of the contestants. Here, the players are running around a playing field filled with zombies and trying to get these special "hats" from the center of the arena on the heads of the undead. I say "hats" like that because really these are just blenders. You grab them three at a time, slam them on the heads of the zombies, and then have to run to a far off button to activate the blades. The devices tear the zombies apart and you get points. The blender hats are color-coded, so if you see an opponent's hat on a nearby zombie, you can give that corpse a stick of dynamite and blow away your opposition's chance at points.
It becomes a risk/reward thing because it's obviously appealing to try and get as many hats on the ghouls as you can before hitting the button, but the longer you take, the more chances you're giving your opponents to interfere. Plus, you always run the risk of getting attacked by the undead and having to shake them off with the left stick.
Double your pleasure.
Double your pleasure.
Pounds of Flesh is possibly the most ridiculous thing we've seen in a long time. Here, your character dons a helmet equipped with a giant set of moose antlers and needs to knock zombies onto a giant scale with said antlers. The player with the most weight at the end of the round is the winner. Now, you can just walk up to the mess of zombies on the platform and tap the attack button to try and flick them over the gap and onto the scale, but the more effective way is to hold the attack button for a charge attack that'll have your guy run into the mob and do a massive thrust when you release the button. This is key to clearing the gap and fence blocking the scale. The only problem is that the charge attack doesn't let you adjust your direction, so you need to make sure you're lined up perfectly before going info the kill.
Oh, and you can reload the zombies on your platform at any time. You just run over, hit this big reload button, and a giant anvil comes down to smush the lingering zombies and deposit a fresh batch of rotting flesh.
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