DGC Ep 411: Dead Rising (part four)

Dev Game Club

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we conclude our series on 2006's Dead Rising. We visit the end of the game a bit and then turn to our takeaways, before tackling a reader question. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played: Finished the game!

Issues covered: the enemy mix, just being a journalist, being interrupted by Otis, the arrival of the army, captured by cultists, constant use of the chainsaw, adding an enemy and its impact, greater XP rewards, state changes and controlling the state change, an ongoing narrative, how games end, overtime mode, the helicopter arrival, how new game+ or post-game works these days, frustration with unplugging the bombs, vehicle troubles, reach exceeding grasp, having the wrong feelings, the wall mission, early replay to skills gather, the bomb cyclone, the open world structure and its rogue-like nature, picking the good inspiration, weapon variety and payoff, finding new things to do on your run, conducive to achievements, systems over mechanics, different kinds of mastery, getting little bang for buck from first person or special moves, zombies as level design, tuning and balancing, item progression, humans as the real enemies, psychopaths, little survivor stories, balancing silliness and poignancy, when you've changed your mind, individuating the clones, adding humor, using more and less of the language, moving to systems over mechanics, moving away from design documentation, iteration over inspiration, defensiveness, solving for growing team size with documentation.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Dark Souls, MegaMan, Fallout, Bethesda Game Studios, Morrowind, The Witcher 3, Grand Theft Auto, Lost Planet, Monster Hunter, Dragon's Dogma, Resident Evil (series), Dawn of the Dead, Gears of War, Vampire Survivor, Robotron 2084, Fatal Frame, mystery dip, Republic Commando, George Lucas, The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, Robin Williams, William Shakespeare, Harley Baldwin, Starfighter (series), Soren Johnson, Sid Meier, LucasArts, Halo, Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy VI, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time: ??? TBA ???

Errata: You do not in fact have to carry all the queens at once. Brett may not have advanced Isabela's conversation enough.

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