Dead Rising

WARNING:

Spoilers, Bad Language! 
 
Probably one of the most anticipated titles of 2006.  CAPCOM is not new to the horror genre with their Resident Evil franchise but has taken the chance to change this game into what is not your usual zombie slaying game.
 

• You play as Frank West, a reporter.  Equipped with only a camera, you investigate what happened at Willamette Mall.  The story does take some points from the movie, Dawn of the Dead (such as: basing the game in a Mall) but is not a complete rip off.
• The story revolves around cases which you need to complete within a certain time period.  Outside of that though, you are free the roam as you please.  Including the ability of free roaming if you do fail a case is a great choice by CAPCOM.  You can still have fun with the different type of "weapons" that can be found in and around the Mall.
• To quote Jeff Gerstmann, "gameplay is king" and how true it is.  Dead Rising is FUN.  The gameplay mechanics allows you to use mostly anything in the Mall as a weapon - be it: benches, flower pots, skateboards, guns, etc.
• The save system could've been better.  At the start of some cases, you will be prompt to save.  Good and all but if you want to save manually outside of that, you need to head to the restrooms or to the seating area in the Security Room.  A "save-anywhere" system or something more reasonable would've been better due to the game's pace.
• About the game's pace - the time period given for you to complete a case is quite spread out.  It could be a couple of hours before you have do to another case, allowing you to play around --- or save Survivors.  Survivors only spawn at certain times and locations.  The game's pace is VERY STRICT in some spots, meaning you will need to run-and-gun while watching (and defending) your survivors.  You can give survivors weapons but they'll end up killing each other or you.
• Amongst the survivors, we have Psychopaths.  These Psycho's act as bosses and spawn at certain times and locations.  The Psycho's main objective is to kill or hold captive survivors.  Each Psycho has their own unique weapon, which can be picked up when defeated.
• The worst thing about this game (worst than saving) is the A.I.  Survivor A.I. is far inferior to Psycho A.I., meaning that telling a survivor to simply go somewhere is harder than killing some psycho's.  This is the most frustrating thing that I've ever experienced in a game.
• You always carry your trusty camera with you.  There is about 2 times you have a real purpose for the camera, otherwise, it's just there for you to play with.  Photos are saved but you can only keep about 20 photos?  I can't remember.
• The game does feature a leveling system, where you gain experience points or "PP" by taking good photos, killing enemies and saving survivors.  The max level is Lv.50.  The more you level up, the more health you have, the more skills are unlocked and the more items you can carry.  However, switching between items is inverted, RB to select the LEFT item and LB to select the RIGHT item.  No option is available to change this - WTF CAPCOM?!
• On the subject of controls, you aim using the Left-Analog stick.  The Right-Analog stick has no use when aiming, but when not aiming, it controls the camera.  Other than this weird control mapping, the controls are good.
• There was no multiplayer support but I understand that this feels right as a single-player game.  However, multiplayer with friends would've more fun, killing zombies together.
• The game does feature multiple endings as well as hidden modes: Infinity Mode and Overtime Mode.
  
• Most of the Achievements are reasonable, however - 7-day Survivor and Zombie Genocide is just boring.  Each Achievement offers 20 gamerscore points, regardless how difficult they are to achieve.  The 7-day Survivor (pre-NXE) had RRoD (Red Ring of Death) some people's Xbox 360's as well.

 
It is satisfying to play a somewhat open world zombie game, however the minor problems as well as the Achievement list does push this game into the "rarely played" territory.  The reasons I would see this game being played to this day are: if people just purchased the game or are unlocking the rest of the Achievements.
 
With Dead Rising 2 coming in the next year, I hope that they fix the A.I., save system and the Achievements list (somewhat among what Resident Evil 5 is like).