"So the game doesn't have a lot of enemies,"

It does. Youtube videos of people actually playing it show plenty. It's just the size of the areas requires spreading them out. It's a matter of population density. Yes that's a complaint of the review, but that does not mean there are not a lot of enemies.

"the enemy models are not detailed"

That is just false. Picture show actual textures in the enemies. The effects are low, but to claim no detail is objectively wrong. You don't have to like the art direction being toned down, but no detail at all? No. Don't just make up thinks to knock the game with.

"nor is their AI good"

Where the hell did you hear that? Neither review claims that. They complain about other things, but they don't claim the AI is bad. Watch some youtube vids of actual gameplay. They don't always attack, but that is usually when they are looking the other way. When they see you, they start coming after you from several yards away.

"the scale is not that impressive..."

Well what do you expect? The Wii doesn't have another CPU core to handle more enemies all at once.

"In other words they're hardly pushing the hardware in any way. Especially when you consider that there are even PS2 games with tons of enemy characters."

Name them. They have to be enemies (so that Hitman video is out), they have to be all in the RAM at once, and you best have proof all their AI is independent (something I have yet to see with that Hitman video either).

@LordTheNightKnight: I remember you kept saying that they traded detail for scale. Now you're saying there's detail but scale is low. You can't have it both ways.

Regarding the Hitman video, what it does prove is that the PS2 could render that many characters simultaneously, and of course they're all in the RAM (where else?).

The only thing potentially different is AI, and it's pretty obvious that Dead Rising neither requires nor has complex AI, and their behavior is very limited (attack or stay still practically)... Enemies almost only attack you when you're near them, so virtually no pathing is required for instance. Surely you don't believe the Wii can't handle a few dozens of very simple AI instances? Even in the Hitman video the dozens of characters run away when you shoot them, which is about as basic a behavior as attacking the player.

I will throw in one more thing that I just remembered. Back in the late 90's, I was already playing games like Quake with tons of AI opponents. On my Pentium 166 MHz...

Does no one else remember playing against Reaper/Omicron bots in Quake? You could launch more than a dozen of them with no slowdown, and they were pretty smart, including finding their ways around complex 3D maps...

Bottom line: a modern gaming platform like the Wii shouldn't break a sweat while running hundreds of simple AI characters. Please think a bit before claiming otherwise.

"Now you're saying there's detail but scale is low."

That was not what I meant. I wrote that comment wrong. I should have stated that compared to the 360 version it's not that impressive. Plus being impressed is a subjective thing, so you are entitled to feel that.

It was claiming objective things like poor detail and AI that I called on, since videos of the release build shows they are there.

"Regarding the Hitman video, what it does prove is that the PS2 could render that many characters simultaneously, and of course they're all in the RAM (where else?)."

You wrote "enemies", not "characters".

Also, I'm going to add this. Pointing out the game doesn't push the Wii is a weasel term. The reason is that no game pushed the Wii yet. Why is DR singled out for not doing it?

How many games actually push a system? Even DR on the 360 didn't. Now 2 is looking better than 1, but not to the detail or RE5 so scale does affect the detail, but the point is that this game is based on getting to know the HD systems better.

What has this team done for the Wii? They ported a game. Everything was already made. Their major work was the controls, and touching up textures for the PS2 models and areas. That was it.

Here they had a game already designed, but they could not port. They had to remake everything from scratch, on a system they were only just familiar with. They could only do so much. Even if they spent more time and money, it would still be on a system they were not familiar with.

So could the DR CTYD have looked better if this was their third or fourth Wii game, and it was made a couple years from now? Yes. Enough to actually look half as good as the 360 version? No. More enemies? I honestly don't know.

But they have to start somewhere. For those of you that don't think this is a grab and run, this game is just the beginning of what this team can do.

In terms of design and enemies, some reviewers are turned off. But technically, reports are the game runs well (even the negative reviews don't clam otherwise). I have yet to see any reports of popups or slowdown (not that there isn't any, just that I don't see anyone who played it claiming there is). So would the team's next game come out better? Most likely.

Now the last few paragraphs might contradict some statements that I made before, but that was because I forgot about this. The thing is I want to look at every circumstance to know the truth. I can be proven wrong, but I haven't seen proof yet.

If they Hitman developer says that those people were all independent AI, that will be proof. Not just any of you claiming they are. The developers themselves have to tell us.

As for Quake, DR does not have just a dozen enemies. The youtube video show there are several dozen spread among the areas.

no really how much is capcom paying you?

^ One free copy of Dead Rising on the 360?

cant say this wasnt entirely unexpected. I never really saw how this game would be all that amazing on the wii mote. But to each his own hopefully this game sells decent and makes others buy the first one because DR 1 deserves more copies sold

I want this game to succeed because I want Capcom to realize they were wrong in denying RE5 on the Wii, and give it a version. The HD consoles have one, but the Wii deserves one.

I feel your pain LordTheNightKnight. I'd love a proper Resident Evil game on the Wii too. The Wii Remote is just too perfect for shooting down the infected masses.

Things seem to be looking up in terms of Wii's relationship with 3rd parties lately, so maybe it will actually happen.

That said, Remember when Capcom representatives kept saying that RE4 Wii was "a test" and Zack and Wiki was "A test" and Umbrella Chronicles was "a test". These tests make me wonder if gamers, developers, and publishers are going to continue unjustly discounting the Wii.

Ugh. So much untapped potential this generation. So much.

I don't think DR was a test of sales as much as a test of hardware. If they can fit a large scale game on the system, and it runs as smoothly as it does, they can port anything from HD systems.