Absurdist zombie action game Dead Rising 2 (and the alt-reality special edition Dead Rising 2: Off The Record) will today switch over to Steamworks. Formerly attached to Games for Windows Live—or 'the wailing harbinger of misery and disappointment'—the Steamworks versions will offer achievements, cloud saving and all the other Steam stuff.

Owners with either a Steam copy of the game or a boxed retail copy will be able to upgrade, but those who purchased through the Games for Windows Marketplace will not. That said, both games will still function with GfWL—at least, as much as any game can "function" with GfWL.

Perhaps the biggest blow is that Marketplace DLC won't be transferred. "DLC content purchased directly from Microsoft s GFWL Marketplace store will not carry over to Steam due to the lack of CD/activation key," writes Capcom's blog post. "Those who wish to play the game with their DLC can continue to do so with the GFWL version of the game installation and under the GFWL service."

Head over to the Capcom announcement post to learn the exact minutiae, and for details on transferring saves between versions.

I don't know about you, but I'm at the point now that when I hear about games transitioning away from Games for Windows Live, my immediate reaction is surprise that there are still games out there using Games for Windows Live. But there are, among them the popular Capcom titles Resident Evil 5 and Dead Rising 2 but not for much longer.

"If you're a fan of smashing zombies (and/or zombie-like Majini) on your PC, then we've got some good news for ya - RE5, Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record are all coming to Steamworks early next year. With the global popularity of the Steamworks platform, we ve seen high demand from fans to bring these highly requested titles to this platform," Capcom announced in a new Capcom Unity post. "Moving to Steamworks will allow more fans across the world to enjoy these games."

Games for Windows Live has been trapped in a sort of existential limbo for quite some time now: It was rumored last year that the service would be closed down this summer, a story Microsoft did nothing to counter by either word or deed until a week before it was expected to happen, when it announced that it was "continuing to support the Games for Windows Live service." And yet it remains effectively dead in the water, slowly bleeding out the few games that haven't already abandoned it. At this stage, whether or not Microsoft continues to support GfWL is virtually irrelevant, because nobody else is.

More information about all the transition will be revealed once launch dates for the Steamworks versions of the games have been settled.

And another E3 announcement misses the conference. Earlier this week, Dead Rising 3 appeared on the Steam database, leading to speculation that it was coming to PC. Capcom have now confirmed that speculation with a trailer, and with the words "Dead Rising 3 for PC".



According to the trailer's description, "PC gamers will be able to experience the hordes of horror at high PC resolutions with fully optimized visuals for the wide screen, upgraded textures on characters, backgrounds and in-game objects". In other words, it'll be a PC game. Next, they'll be telling us it will have Steam achievements and trading cards... oh, wait. "Dead Rising 3 for PC will include Steam platform support with Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud, Steam Trading Cards, global leaderboards and full game controller support."

Anyway, a new Dead Rising. If you've played a previous one, you'll know what to expect: silly costumes, crafted weapons and an absurd number of zombies.

 
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, has been released in the US, and has a snazzy trailer to celebrate. Off the Record is an unusual concept, essentially a 'Director's Cut' of Dead Rising 2 that replaces protagonist Chuck Greene with Frank West, who starred in the original Dead Rising. The plot and cutscenes are changed to reflect the new hero and sillier tone, but the core of the game remains mostly the same, plus the return of the photography aspect from the first game.

If you're curious as to our opinion on the original version, check out our Dead Rising 2 review. Fans of Frank can pick it up for $39.99 on steam, but Europeans will have to wait till Friday.

For about four hours, Dead Rising 2 is one of the most frustrating games ever. It’s like looking at incredible fun through thick, soundproof glass. What should be a non-stop parade of gory zombie deaths starts as an exercise in exasperation. The development philosophy appears to have been to come up with a core concept of almost limitless entertainment, and to then think of as many obstacles as possible to put between this and the player. And then it gets better.



The original Dead Rising was never released on PC, so you may not be familiar with the concept, which is to hit thousands of zombies, with hundreds of weapons, while rescuing survivors. It’s a good concept. Five years on, there’s been another zombie outbreak – blamed upon you.



You’re Chuck Greene, a motocross champion forced to compete in zombie-killing contests to raise the money to buy Zombrex – a drug that prevents those who have been bitten from turning – for his young daughter. Managing to reach a safehouse, Chuck decides to venture into the huge complex to search for surviving humans, and to gather enough Zombrex to keep his daughter alive for four days.

Off with their heads

There’s a core plot, and many optional sidequests that appear for a limited amount of time. And completing all of these involves running around slaughtering the undead or psychopathic humans with almost any object in the world. An axe, a bin, a beachball, a cardboard cutout of a model, a park bench, maybe a giant robot teddy.

New to the sequel is the superb ability to combine weapons. This allows for more ludicrous attacks. It’s hard to express the satisfaction of taking out dozens of zombies at once with an axe taped to a sledgehammer, swung in insane circles. These gain extra Prestige Points when used on zombies, helping Chuck to level up.

And here’s the issue. Until you’ve leveled up to get extra health, many more inventory spaces for carrying weapons and vital health-giving foodstuffs, better attacks and more weapon combos, it’s a ridiculous struggle. The decision not to use checkpoints seems to be a wanton act of spite by the developers. Instead you must find a toilet – of which there are few – to save at, and can unwittingly save in an unwinnable position, too far from your next deadline. Boss fights can prove unexpected, and failure means going back to whenever you were last able to find a loo. There’s no good reason for it, and it taints the whole game.



However, get through the earlier stages and the game blossoms, becoming the idiotic playground it should have been throughout. Dress Chuck up in children’s pyjamas, flipflops and a football helmet, and take out a crowd with a baseball bat filled with nails.

The plot is great. Like the Romero films it’s inspired by, the daft theme is used to make some smart social commentary. The multiple endings, too, genuinely reflect the choices you’ve made.

Much bigger than the first game, and with the daft fun of combining weapons, it unfortunately never quite shakes off a strange desperation to be frustrating. Overall, this tempers what could have been extraordinary, grotesque action. As it is, it’s a mixture of immense fun and a sore throat from shouting at your monitor.

John Walker