DRW Dead Rising 2: Off the Record


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Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is a re-interpretation of the Fortune City outbreak in Dead Rising 2 in which Frank West is the lead character.

The story is non-canon to the overall storyline in the series, a "what-if" scenario had Frank been in Fortune City to cover the outbreak. Frank even states in the trailer: "What would I have done?"

The game will be released Fall 2011 on the Xbox 360, Play Station 3, and PC as a full retail disc.

Introduction
The entire game is a "What If?" scenero where Frank West covered the Fortune City outbreak, instead of Chuck Greene.

After surviving the Dead Rising zombie outbreak, Frank West quickly became a bit of a celebrity. After authoring a successful book, he is given his own talk show. But like many "flash in the pan" celebrities, he squanders his opportunities and soon finds that his fifteen minutes are up.

Desperate to get back on top, or at least earn some money, West is offered an opportunity that he hopes will things around. The producer of Terror is Reality, the American Gladiators-style zombie-killing television show, invite him to appear as a special guest. Down on his luck and thinking things couldn't get any worse, he heads to Fortune City to get back in the spotlight.

The opening moments of Off the Record parallel that of Dead Rising 2 in one way and one way only -- it starts off with the hero participating in a Terror is Reality event. At the beginning of the event, West, wearing a wrestling outfit, is lifted via platform to the center of a ring surrounded by a chain-link fence. Joining him in the ring is a group of zombies in which he must defeat as many as possible within a certain time limit. Even though he won the event, West feels that he has lost his dignity and decides to take his prize money and get out of Fortune City. As he is leaving, he overhears TK and Brandon Whittaker discussing plans. West watches from a nearby scaffolding as men exchange mysterious packages. He takes a picture gaining prestige points.

Frank is caught eavesdropping, and Frank takes out three mercenaries with melee attacks. Soon the zombies get loose, beginning the infection of Fortune City and forcing West to once again fight for his life.

Story
Frank, infected by the zombie virus as part of the Dead Rising canon, will need to find and use Zombrex at regular intervals.

Features

 * New unique story and missions.
 * New environments (new areas and locations) which is larger than any of the malls or casinos and is not a mall or casino.
 * New enemies and psychopaths
 * New combo weapons
 * New items
 * New vehicles
 * Unannounced new game mode. "Something the fans have been asking for since the first game... [it is] as big, if not bigger, than the story mode."
 * Frank's camera returns, allowing outtake photographs.
 * New photo opportunities in a “Buddy Shot”, Frank can grabs a zombie from behind and essentially "photo bombs" his own image, snapping a photo of him grinning next to a zombie before he throws her aside.
 * A more difficult game, with "A tougher Frank West and a Tougher Fortune City", with more aggressive zombies than those featured in the same city in Dead Rising 2.
 * Auto saving, a checkpoint system which will have the game save progress after major story points. Including checkpoints right after the player enters a new area and right before the player fights a boss.
 * Multiple save slots.
 * Improved save system
 * Load times reduced from Dead Rising 2

Development
Off the Record executive producer, Jason Leigh explains: "Originally, the plan was that we were going to do a 'Director's Cut' of Dead Rising 2. Capcom has a long history of successful 'Director's Cuts," especially with the Resident Evil series, and we wanted to bring that treatment to the Dead Rising franchise."

As Destructoid explains, "But when Dead Rising 2 was first announced, something strange happened, says Leigh. Fans of the franchise were excited for its return, and the development team was confident players would click with the game's strong new hero, Chuck Greene. But the feedback was clear. Many felt that something was missing. That "something" was Frank West, as fans asked, "Why did you take our hero away?""

Jason Leigh explains further: "What this did for us and for this product was to create an incredibly interesting opportunity. What if, instead of doing a director's cut, what if we re-invisioned the outbreak in Fortune City with Frank West as the hero. What would that do to missions? What would that do to story? What would that do to the gameplay, bringing him back with his camera?"

Marketing
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record was first announced on on April 12, 2011 at Captive 2011, a Capcom sponsored event.

Some of the game's new components will be revealed at the E3 Expo in June 2011.

In regards to criticisms that Capcom is cashing in, Leigh stated that "There might be a possibility of [cynicism about this release]...but that's certainly not how we're regarding this game. We're regarding this game as something that is actually very different and very fresh and very new. Yes it is Fortune City, it's the Fortune City outbreak, but in this re-envisioning and bringing Frank back into the game, even that first 15 minutes is quite different than it was."

"If fans have any reservations about this, hopefully the stuff we're rolling out in the next several months as we approach the release in the fall, things like E3 which is next, there will be more big announcements and more of those big features being shown off, very quickly people will realize, wow, there's a lot of added value in this game."

Trivia

 * In one of the screenshots of the trailer, Tyrone King and Chuck the Role Model's Brandon Whittaker exchange a briefcase, despite no known relationship or interaction between the two characters in Dead Rising 2.
 * Destructiod writes: "Off the Record isn't just changed in terms of adding photography to the mix. The entire world has been transformed to reflect our new story. Posters of Chuck Greene promoting his appearance on Terror is Reality are now covered with advertisements of Frank doing the same, for example."
 * Chuck Greene will play some part in the main game. Although Capcom is not ready to explain how Greene will fit in, there were obvious hints strewn about the demo. When Frank enters the backstage green room, there is Katey Greene's empty backpack and a portable gaming system lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
 * Greene will also be playable as a second character in Off the Record's co-op mode.
 * It is unknown if Stacey, Rebecca, or Sullivan will be in the game.