Dead Rising 2 news was sparse at GDC 2009, a place that does not usually release news in the traditional sense. However it does get leaked and sometimes revealed in the various panel discussions that go on throughout the Game Developers Conference. And it was no different this year with Dead Rising 2.
Speaking about the during the “Platform Independent Shader Development with Mental Mill – Making of Dead Rising 2” panel, the lead character art designer from Blue Castle Games detailed how Capcom intends to create huge amounts of proper light and shadow for the game’s massive amounts of on-screen characters. And how they are going about streamlining the process.
While that’s all good and well for game developers, the most exciting part for us gamers came during a conversation with Laura Scholl the product manager of Mental Mill. When talking about the program she stated that Dead Rising 2 will frequently track at least 800 separate clothing textures to provide the sense of unique zombies onscreen.
That’s when one of two bombs were dropped.
First she stated that Dead Rising 2 could feature up to 6000 characters onscreen at once.
Then she finished it off by adding “. . . at once during multiplayer sessions.”
There you have it. Dead Rising 2 will feature multiplayer for the first time. And you may be battling with up to 6000 zombies at once! Seems a bit daunting! But ever so awesome!
Via IGN