I need counseling people because I can't get myself to play Dead Rising. I've owned the game for months now, and I ordered it for 20 dollars off of Amazon. I've played the demo before but it never found itself under my scope of interest until the sequel was announced, and waves of enthusiasm followed on the internet. I am a sucker for buzz and it shouldn't come to your surprise that I bought Halo 3 purely out of its ruthless marketing coercion as it was hailed at as the greatest advent in video game history. Fast fowarding, Halo 3 sucked and it still is a remarkably mediocre FPS with some of the most persuasive marketing campaigns tailing it and its spawns
Dead Rising doesn't share the same hype machine but has still managed to captivate significant media interest. I bought Dead Rising because it was cheap but also because I wanted to get with the spirit of the franchise. Now, 2 months after my purchase, my apathy is no longer definitionally true; I am approaching a more phobic state of mind. My apprehension is rooted in several design flaws which are constant fear factors in the back of my mind. First, the frugal save system is a creature of the abyss, one which will pray on your dreams as a demonic archetype. Second, the achievements, while diverse, still contain anxiety provoking verbs and adjectives such as collecting, missables, and grinding.
I have printed out a road map to the achievements which reads more like a textbook in logic and arithmetic. Each playthrough represents a sequence which must be completed in order to proceed in solving the following sequence. Forgive my hyperbole but the limited time allotted for each play makes the achievements even more stressful. Oh yes, I care about achievements, not to an extreme degree but I don't want to be the only guy in my friends list who doesn't have 600 + in this game.
Of course these are all excuses; I don't really know why I can't get myself to play the game. I've taken baby steps, I've unwrapped the plastic, and I've reviewed the manual. I have yet to put the disc in the tray, something which seems therapeutically distant. Has anyone else experienced this with this game or any other game?
Let me know your impressions of Dead Rising in the comment box.
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I'm more in the position that I just can't get 'into it' despite it hving a number of elements I really like. They just don't gel for me in this title.
Good post btw.
I suggest just playing through the full story once without concern for achievement points, and just experience the game while getting a feel for its scope. It won't take you too long, and you'll probably have more fun.
Then you can make a second playthrough with your walkthrough doc and run up your gamerscore without fear of being overwhelmed since you'll know what's coming and be able to adjust accordingly. This has always irked me about achievements, that they become a primary focus in a game, as opposed to a way to create replayability.
If you're denying yourself the unadulterated fun of just smashing a zombie head with a cash register or sledgehammer, chances are you're overthinking the whole thing a tad. Hope you enjoy it!!!
The game is fun. Play it. That's all. No analysis necessary.
I can see where you're coming from here, but with some games it just doesn't apply.
Ex. I've put almost 50 hrs. into Culdcept Saga, and have netted fewer than 50 gamerpoints for my effort. In that same time, I could play through two whole other games and max them out for 2000 points due to how the developers chose to implement the acheivements.
I'd argue that the gamerscore is not an objective measure of a gamer's skill or dedication, particularly when we live in the age of FAQs and walkthroughs that allow people to farm acheivements without really gaming.
To play devil's advocate to myself, however, I have to admit I get a little tug of pride whenever that achievement unlocked graphic pops up. It's like a Pavlovian reflex to the bleeping noise.
I want to love this game for its impressive on-screen zombie count and freedom to use everything at your disposal, but the inability to read anything combined with quirky leveling and save features and frequent loads push me away.
Capcom does give off the impression that Dead Rising 2 will be substantially improved, so I still feel obligated to beat it once before its release.
Anyone can farm points, I'll stick with the games I own/enjoy.
However I remedied this situation last week by going through three quarters of the game in one night. And I fucking loved it :]
@Artemis, there are good points to having Trophies/Achievements. I was looking at an article by the makers of Flower, a PS3 mini game if you will. And it said something along the lines of:
By putting specific trophies in our game, which you could actually manage to not get any at all on first play through, it makes the player explore more.
And this got me thinking earlier, this is what a lot of games do, be it GTA4, inFAMOUS, Prototype, Prince of Persia and probably a lot of other games as well as sandbox games.
Another problem I have is that I want everything the game has to offer so I end losing some of the fun I could have because I'm being anal-retentive about it, I've tried not doing this anymore but its difficult, I did it for long that stopping now seems odd, I run through stage and I'm like "Oh shit, I didn't explore that that nook all the way back at the start *runs back, finds nothing*.
Either that or I play it SO much that I burn myself out on it before I finish it.
@Hoborg, in regards to Dead Rising - I absolutely recommend you play the game. If you have a HDTV, or component inputs to a SD CRT, then you shouldn't experience the problem I face.
As for earning the game's more difficult achievements, something I'd love to do eventually, I absolutely recommend that you complete the game first without a guide.
The leveling and ability system is such that Frank West is really incapable of doing much of anything until significant time is spent slaughtering zombies. The best way to go about this is to just play the game once as you feel fit. When you die, simply restart the game with your then-current stats, and continue leveling until you beat it. You unlock the extended play time after completing the game once, so this method is truly in your best interest.
Large gamer scores are for people who can't enjoy their games but instead turn them into a chore in order to make their e-peen bigger when they are bragging to other 12 year old's on live about how much bigger their gs is.
I believe that is because 6 of your games were either published in 2008, or do not support them because they would just not work. Most likely the former, as all games have to have them now, which is kind of cool because you will earn them without trying for certain games.
As for your point about specific gamerscore/trophies standing out amongst a relative score, there are some fucking ridiculous things in some games. I agree with your point definitely though. For example:
In Pixeljunk Eden, you mainly get Bronze trophies, however the hardest trophies on the game are Bronze also, kind of bullshit. Also, on Flower, you have to complete a level without getting burnt, and you get a measly Bronze, even though it's the hardest trophy on the game to get. I think some developers need to sort this out :) Also with grinding such as in Prince of Persia.
I had that exact problem with Bioshock.. I picked it up and started playing it then it got lost in the shuffle of other games. Now I'm playing it a couple of hours each night and really enjoying it.