I have downed alcohol until vomiting, I have halved zombies crown to crotch. I have wielded an electrified rake. I am Chuck Greene: The zombie apocalypse's worst nightmare.

Xbox 360 exclusive Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is meant to be a prequel to the full Dead Rising 2 game due out on Sept. 28. In Case Zero, you are introduced to Chuck Greene and his zombie plauge-infected daughter as they roll into a gas station in Still Water, a tiny town outside of the Vegas-like Fortune City. Minutes into the game, Greene finds himself trapped in the town with a daughter desperately in need of a zombie-fighting dose of Zombrex and the threat of an encroaching, uncaring military bearing down on his location.

You've got half a day to find the medicine, find a ride and stay alive.

Loved

Gameplay Overhaul: Case Zero is for the most part a glorified demo, but that doesn't mean it's not worth the five dollars. Besides getting to dip into the world of Dead Rising again, you also get a chance to check out all of those wonderful additions to the series. You'll learn how to build your own weapons by putting two things together at a workbench. You'll scramble up walls and along roof tops. You'll be able to try the much-improved shooting of Dead Rising 2. And then there are the graphics, the new weapons and the gruesome way you can slice and dice zombies, lopping off body parts and even cutting them in half vertically.

Pick a Path: Case Zero isn't just a zombie-killing fun park. There are missions and side-stories. While working your way through the objectives you'll also have plenty of opportunities to pick up stranded stragglers, saving them for experience and cash, both of which transfer over to the full release of the game when it hits. The best part, the biggest draw for playing and replaying and replaying the game for me, was the discovering that the game has four different endings. Depending on what you do and how well you do it, you're treated to different game-ending cut scenes. That's a fantastic way to get gamers to get the most out of the Case Zero's town and many buildings.

Hated

Losing the Plot: Capcom was very clear about how Dead Rising 2: Case Zero was going to be a game that fell at the middle point between the original Dead Rising and the upcoming Dead Rising 2. I was even told at one point that we'd find out a bit about the original game's protagonist, Frank West. But no such thing happened during my three complete play-throughs of the game. And the plot that the game rests on is more a device to keep you moving, to excuse the time-locked play session, than it is something that plucks at your emotions or pulls you through the game. Let's hope that developer Blue Castle Games does a much better job with the story of Dead Rising 2, because the prequel's felt flat and rushed.

Viewed from the perspective of value: Dead Rising 2: Case Zero walks a very fine line. There are many things about it that feel an awful lot like a demo: The time limit, the throwaway plot, the level cap. But on the other hand, it's a game I played through completely not once, but three times and thoroughly enjoyed with each pass.

The town of Still Water is packed with places to explore, roofs to get to, stores to unlock, weapons to find and weapons to build, and even a final boss fight. And there are all of those zombies, the walking dead that get so thick and piled up against one another at times that they look like an ambling, roiling jungle of decay. A jungle you can't help but cleave through again and again with broadsword, with bowling pin, with heated frying pan, with nail-studded baseball bat... with great satisfaction.

Five dollars? Absolutely!

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero was developed by Blue Castle Games and published by Capcom for the Xbox 360 on Aug. 31. Retails for 400 Microsoft points or $5 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through the game completely three times, achieved three different endings. Played through large sections of the game more than a dozen times.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

As mentioned in our recent History of Headshots article, the 2000 video game Soldier of Fortune was a pioneer — a bloody pioneer — in the technological art of connecting a gamer's virtual gun with various enemy body parts.

This ad, which I'm told by a tipster was scuttled by Soldier of Fortune publisher Activision because it was too graphic, highlighted the game's location-specific damage. But, we've heard from Kotaku readers that the ad did make the rounds after all.

Did you see it back in the day?

I can see why the publisher would have hesitated to run it.

The Xbox 360 controller gets a little more fighter friendly later this year, with a new version featuring a transforming d-pad and monochrome buttons hitting stores on November 9. So what's a transforming d-pad?

As Major Nelson demonstrates in the video below, users can change the new Xbox 360 controller's directional pad from a flat surface to an actual raised d-pad with a twist of the base. One second it's flat, the next it's beautifully raised, perfect for performing quarter-circles until the cows come home.

Plus it's got those lovely grey buttons, which should be extremely confusing to anyone that's memorized the normal controller's four colors instead of the letters, like me.

But hey, raised d-pad!

The new controller will be packaged exclusively with the new Play & Charge kits Microsoft is releasing on November 9. The package will retail for $64.99.

Gaze into the shiny face of this wondrous new thing and forget all about that $10 Xbox Live price hike.

New Xbox 360 Wireless controller featuring a transforming D-Pad [Major Nelson]

Should you buy the Playstation Move? What's the best motion game on the Playstation 3? What's the worst? What do you look like playing? Do dogs or cats cause interference? How do I set it up? How much does getting hit with a Move controller hurt?

We've spent an obscene amount of time with the Playstation Move over the course of a week or so, playing games, testing theories, finding the best and the worst in Sony's upcoming motion-sensing peripheral. Tonight at midnight, you're going to be able to read our deep, nuanced coverage of the add-on.

If you have any interest in motion gaming on the Playstation 3, if you're curious about picking up the console add-on, then book mark this and come back at midnight Pacific to start reading our exhaustive coverage.

The add-on hits in a few weeks. Are you picking one up?

Playstation Move

The video game pinball wizards at Zen Studios are bringing Pinball FX 2 to the Xbox Live Arcade, with free graphical updates and new achievements to every Pinball FX table released so far.

Pinball FX 2 sounds like more of a dashboard update to the first game than a full-blown sequel. Perhaps that's why Zen Studios is releasing the game as a free download for everyone, whether they've purchased the original game or not.

Those who have purchased the original Pinball FX will simply download the new client and import their existing tables into the new dashboard, where they'll receive a little bit of polish to keep them competitive with the new tables like Pasha, seen below.

Players who haven't purchased the original can download the full game as a demo, purchasing tables as they choose directly from the menu system.

"We have been listening to our fans and building the pinball game that they envisioned," said Zsolt Kigyossy, Managing Director for ZEN Studios. "It took a little longer than expected, but we have designed a game that unifies the online community, and takes all the social features to the next level."

What's the next level? Leaderboards that combine your score across all tables is a start. Pinball Wizard adds your score to your friends' scores for even more leaderboard goodness. Add simultaneous online multiplayer competition and - a pinball first - split-screen local multiplayer, and you've got something much more social going on.

Zen suggests we stop thinking about FX Pinball as a pinball game, and start thinking of it as a pinball platform. That platform launches on October 13.

Who's ready to get the Final Fantasy XIV open beta party started? Not Square Enix.

The open beta for Final Fantasy XIV, due to kick off today at 7PM Pacific, has been postponed indefinitely while Square Enix iron out some critical bugs that cropped up at the last minute.

FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test, which is scheduled to begin at 19:00 (PDT) on Aug. 31, 2010, will be postponed due to a confirmation of critical bugs. New schedule will be releaseｄ at a later date.

That's not a good sign for a game that's supposed to launch on September 22 for Collector's Edition purchasers (September 30 for regular customers). If critical bugs can pop up this late in the game, I'm not looking forward to trying to play this game at launch.

Along with the delay of the open beta, Square Enix is also halting the issuance of new beta codes and taking down the beta client installer later this evening.

Anyone sharing my worries?

FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test Postponed [Square Enix - Thanks Rob!]
[image borrowed from MMO News]

Long before there were video games about people shooting one another in war, there were wars with people shooting one another.

The reality of those wars, the constant fear of death and gruesome nature of battling for your life still had its own unspoken rules. And as in video games, it seems that those who fought were never fond of snipers.

Snipers were detested and feared as much for the strain that they caused to men's routine movements in forward areas as for the casualties that they inflicted. Their activities provoked as much irrational resentment as the killing of bailed-out tank crews or parachutists in mid-descent. Both sides habitually shot snipers who were taken prisoner. "Brad says he will not take any action against anyone that decides to treat snipers a little more roughly than they are being treated at present," wrote the First Army commander's ADC in his diary: "A sniper cannot sit around and shoot and then capture when you close in to him. That's not the way to play the game."

Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy 1944, Max Hastings

Fucking Campers [Reddit]

[Pic]

Veteran game designer Dave Perry predicts a flaw in the possible plans for PlayStation 4, Wii 2 and Xbox Whatever, not that the backer of streaming gaming service Gaikai doesn't have a vested interest in disc-free gaming. (Via Dperry Twitter)

On the final day of August we have this final riff on the month's Norman Rockwell painting. Yes, even TAY is adding zombies. Care to talk about video games here?

Thanks to reader KindaGamey for today's image. We need a new source painting for September. Submit your nominations, including the name of the work and the artist, over at #TAYpics.

A lot of people loved killing zombies in the original Dead Rising. But almost just as many hated using guns to do so. Why? The controls.

That was one of the big things that Canadian developers Blue Castle worked on with Capcom while developing Dead Rising 2: Creating solid shooter controls for the sequel.

How did they do? Pretty damn great, just check out this shooting spree I sent Chuck Greene on in Dead Rising 2: Case 0. Shotguns, pistols, machine guns, even compound bows sight and shoot perfectly. It's almost like playing a third-person shooter at times.