Dead Rising 2 -- Initial Impression.

This initial impression is a tad later than usual as Magus and I went on the first night to round up all the online versus achievements. That would be weeks ago now. I also started playing the game in earnest a couple days ago. Dead Rising 2 is Capcom's follow-up to the first original IP hit for this generation of consoles. Dead Rising 2 was developed by the former Blue Castle Games and published by Capcom. I say former because they've been acquired by Capcom and have been rebranded Capcom Vancouver. Not bad for a company that had only developed a couple of baseball titles. What am I expecting from Dead Rising 2? More of the same really. The same restart the story with earned experience and moves learned game concept. I'm expecting the same multiple playthroughs for story, achievements, and messing around. I'm expecting to have to deal with the same tight deadlines for the case files. The same when to do what aspect of the gameplay to get it all done. I'm expecting to kill a stadium's worth of zombies and more. I'm expecting the same B-level cheese, in the best possible way. From the time I've spent with the game thus far I can say all of that is intact. The game looks great. Fortune City is full of eye candy wherever you happen to be looking. The survivor AI has been vastly improved. You're no longer having to fight the survivors every step of the way to get them to do anything. They're able to fend for themselves and do what they're told. It seems that most of the technical issues of the original have been solved. The game looks to be an improvement on the really solid original from a technical perspective. We'll save the heart and soul comparisons for the final opinion...