Dead Rising: Limited Edition Steel Case (Xbox 360)

In a nutshell:
Freelance photographer Frank West is stuck in a shopping centre full of zombies and he’s only got 72 hours to escape. How he manages that feat is entirely up to you, with his fate, that of dozens of other survivors and a legion of the walking dead entirely in your hands.

The lowdown:
Since this is basically an unofficial video game remake of Dawn of the Dead it tries to recreate all the major elements from the movie, including scenes with hundreds of zombies on screen at once. Given free reign in the shopping centre there are 250 different objects you can use to dispatch them but in the end escape is your own really option. The question is how you manage it and whether you properly investigate what’s going, try and help other survivors or photograph their demise in an attempt to win a Pulitzer. Although helping the survivors involves some fairly dull escort mission the only real flaw is the oddly strict save system which won’t let you save more than once. It’s not nearly enough to spoil the fun of a good zombie massacre though.

Most exciting moment:
Undoubtedly the best fun in the game is, much like Grand Theft Auto, not completing the missions but just mucking around – which inevitably involves attacking zombies with everything from a lawnmower to ladies’ handbags. Doing so with a cartoon head on and a pair of hotpants raises the level of surreal fun even further.

Since you ask:
Although officially the game is nothing to do with Resident Evil, the game contains a number of sly references to the series. One of the more subtle is the sandwich bar “Jill’s Sandwiches”, named after the famously awful line of dialogue in the original Resident Evil game.

The bottom line:
An action game with zombies, weapons and options by the hundreds.
HARRISON DENT