Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop Ships

Capcom’s Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop heads to retail today for the Wii. The game which is based on the Xbox 360 hit Dead Rising, is more third-person shooter/action and less open world zombie slaying sim, which has, naturally lead to some criticism of the game. Of course, having not played it yet I can not speak to whether or not it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread or yet another watered down, convoluted port to the Wii.

Unlike its Xbox 360 counterpart, the Wii version is split into a series of individual cases all of which Frank must complete in order to gain vital information that will allow him to piece together the truth behind the horrendous epidemic. In addition to the cases, players will be faced with the dilemma of deciding the rescue priority of the residents of Wilamette who also sought sanctuary in the mall. Depending on the player’s skill, some may not be so fortunate as each rescue needs to be undertaken in a set time period.

We Hope Chop Till You Drop is good, but we’re not holding our breath. Look for a full review from Crisp Gamer soon.

Dead Space Extraction Announced

As was reported in its earnings call earlier this month, Electronic Arts is bringing Dead Space to the Wii, but promises that the new horror action game set on a desolate space station won’t be a rehash of the original. Dead Space Extraction will be a prequel that reveals the events leading up to Isaac Clarke’s mission on the USG Ishimura in the original Dead Space. Dead Space Extraction will attempt to utilize the motion controls of the Wii Remote with a the game’s trademark first person action to create what they hope is a new action-horror experience for Wii owners.

Dead Space Extraction chronicles a series of horrific events of a handful of space colonists desperately struggling to escape from a horrific infection on the Aegis VII mining colony deep in the furthest regions of space. The game introduces new characters, weapons, enemies, puzzles and co-operative multiplayer gameplay.

The game is scheduled for release this fall. It is good to see EA getting serious about the Wii.

Dead Space Released

Electronic Arts has shipped Dead Space for the Xbox 360 and PS3, with the PC version shipping out on October 20. Dead Space will be in stores in Europe on October 24 for all three platforms. Dead Space is a horror survival game set on a derelict space ship under assault by a strange alien species that wants to kill everything human onboard. Scott Jones has reviewed the Xbox 360 version of the game and has found it to be just “okay.” Here’s an excerpt from the review - which you can read in its entirety after the quote:

Lights flicker. Corpses are littered about. In their dying moments, these dead people apparently found the strength to write helpful and not-helpful messages in blood on the walls. Someone wrote, “Cut off their limbs!” (Helpful.) Someone else wrote, “This ship is f***ed.” (Not helpful, but obviously very true.) The developers do a terrific job of laying on the terror nice and thick in Dead Space’s opening moments.

Read the rest: Crispy Gamer Dead Space Review

Lost in Blue Shipwrecked Released

Like an unsexy director’s cut of Blue Lagoon, Konami today unleashed Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked, the latest survival adventure game from Konami - this time exclusively for the Wii. The latest installment in the Lost in Blue series allows players to explore the mysteries of the island with the help of pets and new friends as they search to find a way out or make a new life there forever.

As most Wii games do, Shipwrecked takes advantage of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controls, while retaining the action RPG flavor of the series and introducing more than 30 mini-games including fishing, carpentry, fire-making and other all-new cooperative games.

Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked! is rated “E 10+” by the ESRB and is available for an MSRP of $29.99.

Project Origin Becomes F.E.A.R. 2

Some good news came out of Burbank this week: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has changed the name of action horror game Project Origin to F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. I am certainly happy that Monolith’s follow-up to the original game now has the proper moniker. The game with the spiffy new name will be published by Warner Bros. Interactive on February 10, 2009 in North America and February 13, 2009 in Europe. Here’s what WBIE had to say about the name change:

“The name addition builds upon the strong game recognition, which we will extend as we move forward reinventing the F.E.A.R. brand,” said Samantha Ryan, Senior Vice President, Production and Development, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin will continue the legacy of the original F.E.A.R. game with story and combat while adding new twists, gameplay and graphics to expand the players’ experience.”

Project Origin was to be published under the Sierra label owned by VU Games, which was all but abandoned by Activision Blizzard after the merger. WVIE bought back the rights to the game from the company, who was glad to sell it off and move on. I guess it’s a win-win for everyone.

Check out our coverage of the game before it became F.E.A.R. 2 in our Project Origin Preview.

Silent Hill: Homecoming Screens

New shots from Konami’s creepy survival horror game.

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I Am Alive Announced

Ubisoft this week announced a new survival adventure game called I Am Alive. The game is being developed for current generation consoles and will be released in spring 2009. I Am Alive is being billed as an edgy new survival game that follows the harrowing adventures of a lone survivor after an earthquake of unknown origin (Natural? government conspiracy? Aliens? They don’t say) rips Chicago apart. Players will be challenged to think, react and take risks that will directly affect themselves and those around them. You can expect to have to hunt for necessities and face environmental hazards and pitfalls on your journey of survival.

Expect to hear more about this from Ubisoft very soon. You can follow our continuing E3 coverage at our E3 Hub.