So I'm sure some of you have heard of this, but I haven't found a topic for it yet. Dead Rising 2: Case 0 just came out. It's a sort of precursor to DR2, and takes place in-between the two games. It's only for Xbox for some reason (though DR2 will be for PC and PS3 as well), and any money or levels you gain will transfer over to DR2. (level limit is 5, not sure if there's a money limit) It costs $5 (400MSP), and it sounds a lot like a demo at first, but it's a lot more actually.
You get a small town to wander around in, with about a dozen different stores/buildings to explore. Not all are easily accessible, some require rooftop jumping, or require you to find a key. There are 12 survivors to find and rescue, 9 weapon combinations to create, and 1 psycho to defeat. One playthrough is roughly 13 in-game hours (which is just over an hour of gameplay).
It's got the same basic structure as DR1, where you have a limited time until the end of the game, and then your character persists from playthrough to playthrough. When you finish the game, it allows you to make a new game using that save. BTW, there's 3 save slots now, and you're prompted to save at key story events. Otherwise, it's back to the bathroom to save. The controls and especially the gunplay feel a lot better this time around. Also, I was never a fan of the camera mechanic in DR1, so I like that it's been replaced with a sort of crafting system to make weapons with.
My first playthough, I didn't complete the main quest and I got a grade F ending. I feel like I would have had to really focus on the primary quests to complete them, but then I really didn't know where anything was. Now that I know where to go for most of the main quest, I could probably complete it and save some people on the side, all in one playthrough. Though I still only ran into 7 of the 12 survivors, and didn't end up fighting the psycho. Basically I ran out of time and didn't get anything done. I got some survivors back to the safehouse, but since I never went back to escape town, I don't know if I actually saved them.
I could easily see playing through the game a few more times to find more items to craft, and find the other survivors and try for a better ending. I didn't care for the mechanics of DR1 too much, but the small improvements in this one seem to have gone a long way, for me at least.
