Up late talking games & writing? You're...

Games: PAX is tomorrow. I'll definitely be tweeting about it, and I'll try to get some reports from the floor up as soon as possible.


By the way, if you are at the show, I do believe we have an extremely small number of Cheesecake Tweetup tickets left. If you need something to do tomorrow night (9/3) at 7PM, walk across the street and join us!


Games: Completed Dead Rising 2: Case Zero tonight. Well, to be technically correct I should say that I completed it last night, but I was having so much fun that I decided to go for all of the Achievements and just wrapped it up an hour or two ago.

If you know the way I play games, then you'll know how extremely rare it is that I will take time out of my schedule for anything beyond getting credits to roll. Granted, the Achievements in Case Zero are extremely easy to pop, but the fact remains that it's possible to escape the town with half of them (or so) left unfulfilled. The fact that I cared enough to go back for a second and third playthrough is pretty high praise in my book.


After all was said and done, I walked away extremely impressed with how perfectly the complete Dead Rising experience was captured and shrunk down to Live Arcade size. It does not feel as though it's missing anything structurally, and there is enough content here for an average player to go through it at least a couple of times before they've seen and done everything.

For $5 this was an extremely satisfying investment, and Capcom can take that money and laugh all the way to the bank. Why? Prior to playing Case Zero, Dead Rising 2 was one of those “looking forward to it, but not bursting with excitement” titles for me, and now I'm strongly leaning towards making it a day-one purchase.

For fun, here are just a couple of tips for those trying to get all the Achievements. Old habits die hard, I guess... Doug Walsh shoutout!!




>Killing 1000 zombies is a lot quicker if you can pick out which one has a Queen bug inside.

In any big group of zombies, if you look carefully you might notice one who’s got their arms raised up and is sort of shuffling, or shaking in place. Kill that one, and a Queen insect will emerge to be picked up like an item. Grab it, and then run to the nearest large group of the undead. Smash it, and up to 50 zombies will have their heads explode at once. After you've done this, look around -- there's usually another Queen standing in the aftermath. If you get good at spotting them, you can chain several hundred kills together with very minimal effort.

>Spending $100,000 at the pawn shop is cumulative.

This one might take a couple of plays. By rescuing the couple from the bar (and then fulfilling her personal requests afterwards) you can get a big chunk of cash. After that, make sure to stop by the Casino and destroy all of the machines. The cash reappears after each save, so with just a few trips you can have a pretty good sum going. If it gets too boring, just know that the game keeps track of how much you spend in total, so you don't have to actually earn and spend all $100,000 in one go.


> Rescuing all the survivors is a piece of cake once you know where (and when) they appear.

The tricky one that’s easy to miss is Bob’s daughter. She only appears in the Hunting store after 7PM, which is exactly when you need to give your daughter her medicine, and the exact same time when you need to fight the boss at the garage. Multitasking ahoy! If you go into the fight well-prepared, you can do everything you need to and still have plenty of time left to save her. (and Bob too.)