So the super viral video released from Capcom on Febuary 6th either through a leak or some clever marketing has hit the Internet and Capcom USA have confirmed the existence of a sequel to the 2006’s (wow its old) Xbox exclusive title. But with the somewhat odd history of Dead Rising 2 with the Blue Castle development rumours being  discussed months ago and the guarantee that the title is set in a Vegas-esque environment, here is what needs to be in the sequel:

Same Save System: Dead Risings save system was broken, mean and absolutely hated the player with a detestable amount of evil, and that made it awesome. Survival games shouldn’t be accommodating, they should be ballsy hate fests encouraging the player to make mad dashes through legions of zombies with little to no health in a vein hope of reaching the games few save points. If you can easily save a point of progress you immediately lose the tension of which a horror game thrives on, if nothing else if there should be no quick save option at the very least.

Free play mode: On completion of Dead Rising a mode unlocked which was effectively a free play option but restricted with dimishing health which led player character Frank West to scoff down food every couple of minutes in order to sustain himself. This is NOT a free play mode! Free play modes are when you can mess around with the games engine within a somewhat indestructible context, not being even more vulnerable than the story mode made you.

Zombie Strippers: Judging by the press release assets it seems as though these are definitely in, but what this game is crying out for is multiple strippers. Vegas is known for all things seedy and wrong so every spectrum of the adult entertainment sector needs to be represented- midget, S&M, male, female, she-male, black, white, red, brown, blue. Maybe even some of the creepy guys that come out after eight to hand out prostitute catalogues to everyone that passes by, pretty sure Vegas has though TM’ed though.

More Capcom Stuff: We all love Megaman but you know what western audiences love more, every other Capcom franchise. It would be amazing to see some Resident Evil paraphernalia, like an Umbrella Cooperation t-shirt or a Lost Planet Mech which you could decimate entire populations of Zombies in one of Vegas’ many car parks.

Multiple Casinos and their respective theme parks: Vegas is the perfect setting for a Dead Rising sequel, not only in subject matter but also in the location and the over abundance of source material which Blue castle can source locales from. Imagine venturing to the top of Stratosphere and being able to zoom in on the carnage down below with your camera. Alternatively imagine stumbling into the Caesars Palace Arena and having to fight a Zombie boxer and his support crew in the ring, or maybe being able to punch Carrot Top in the face at the Luxor stage, or just fend off armies of strippers from the strips multiple strip joints. Vegas also has a ton of rides as well, all of which would be absolutely fantastic in a game, here’s hoping New York New York gets its coaster in there. Obviously it would be impossible to get any permission to be able to use all these designs directly as I’m sure the owners of all these trademarks wouldn’t be impressed with their intellectual property being savaged by the Zombie horde. But Capcom haven’t shy-ed away from direct emulation before and paying homage to Vegas’ best would be incredible.

Less Load times: The first Dead Rising was effectively a launch title, only being released a few months after the 360 was launched so it wasn’t optimised to maximise the hardware. As a result the load times between sections of the mall were terribly often stopping for a minute or breaking up the action in a jarring way which often broke the experience. Dead Rising 2 will be multi-platform and will be fully utilised to use all of this generations power, so hopefully the new areas will be without significant load times, more Zombies and bigger areas.

Uploadable Pictures and Video:  The first games protagonist was a photo journalist, why can’t the second game have the same motif but compliment it with Video. Watching friends play Dead Rising is almost have as much fun as playing it, so including the option to upload and watch other peoples video from your console would be an excellent addition.

More Social Commentary: Zombie media is built for social commentary usually concerning rampant consumerism and the evils of modern life. The first Dead Rising was perfect for this as it was set in a mall – a la Dawn of the Dead. But what better way to match this capitalist setting than the sequel being based in Vegas, the worlds centre for the infamous ‘money talks’ sensibility. Any sort of social commentary in games is rare and it was Dead Rising 2 should honour its Zombie lineage by stuffing it full with complicated survivors and boss characters dripping with political satire.

Frank West: I really like Frank West- he was funny, bulky and he leant the original Dead Rising a gravitas and identifiable human side which complimented the players experience completely. But judging from the latest screenshots the new protaganist is some blond dude with a love of motorcycle jackets and guitars. Its rare to judge anything important with press shots by the lack of Mr West is a bit dissapointing, lets all hope he is a support character or a grizzled survivor who has gone through it all before.

Impossible Achievements/Trophys: Dead Rising was known for its absolutely mental achievements! Many friends of mine have risked bricking their already temperamental 360’s in pursuit of the 5 or 7 day survivor achievements, which needed the 360 to be left on for over 24 hours and gamers had to keep playing the game throughout that time. All this effort and potential money wasted through overheating consoles just for 20 gamer points. Capcom is crazy they make games for absolutely die hard fans, its time to push those fans even further.