"Dead" rises to gory occasion

Admit it: You've sat around at least once with your friends and had a discussion about how to survive when the zombies come.\nIt's OK; we've all done it. Really.And if you haven't, then they'll just eat your brains first. Zombie apocalypse planning is just as important as preparing for a tornado, flood or terrorist attack.For those of us who know it's not a matter of if, but when the undead attack, there's perhaps no better survival simulator available today than "Dead Rising."\nIn "Dead Rising" you play as Frank West, a freelance photographer who travels to a small town in Colorado to cover a huge story that could win him a Pulitzer Prize. Instead he ends up trapped in a shopping mall along with thousands of zombies and only three days to figure out what the hell is happening.\nAt its heart, this is just another beat 'em up, but it also happens to be the best take on the genre since the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" arcade game of the early '90s.\nPlow through crowds of shambling undead creatures with a plain old shotgun, or get up close and dirty with a katana . Or maybe you're the really sick type who likes to run them down with a lawnmower or chainsaw. There must be hundreds, if not thousands, of different ways to dispatch the zombie scourge in this game, and they all look spectacular. Blood and gore spurts in every direction with thousands of the creatures on screen and zero slowdown.\nUnfortunately, there are a couple of minor problems keeping "Dead Rising" from being the feel-good zombie apocalypse of the decade.\nFirst, to complete the story within the allotted 72 hours, you absolutely must be in certain places at certain times. If not, you're locked out of the rest of the rather hokie tale and have to start all over to get the best ending. All the developers had to do was make the story like every other GTA-style game out there -- let you screw around the mall as much as you want, then continue at your own pace. Thankfully, once you beat the game, a couple true freeroam modes open.\nThe second issue with the game is more of a technical one. If you don't have an HDTV or large SDTV you will go blind reading the text in this game. There's a lot of it, it's important to move the story forward, and it's all written in 3-pt. type. Capcom says it's aware of the problem, but as of press time hasn't offered a downloadable fix. At least there are online game guides that tell you what to do if you really get stuck.\nDespite these shortcomings, "Dead Rising" is a fun game and one of the best on the fledgling Xbox 360.