The first time I looked at Dead Rising when it came out I was like "meh, broken game mechanics". The things that put me off where the time-window mission system and the save-mechanism. I'm glad I gave it a second chance last week, now I can't stop playing it, trying to get all the different endings and I still have to beat the final boss before the mighty BIOSHOCK comes out.

There are 2 things you just need to accept to enjoy the game:
  1. you need to hit level 10 before the zombie killing is really fun
  2. "replay" is the central gameplay element, you'll never be able to solve everything in a single play-through
Frank West keeps his level, equipment and skills across game sessions, and that's extremely important. You'll have to play through several times to level Frank up before you're ready for the true ending. The psychos are extremely annoying in the beginning, but on higher levels, and with the right tactic it's extremely satisfying to finally beat the shit out them after they killed you so often on the lower levels. The story cutscenes are actually very funny and entertaining if you like old-school zombie flicks. Did I mention the car and the maintenance-tunnels packed with zombies? 1000 kills-per-minute. Easily :)