Dead Rising
Dead Rising was the first game I picked up for the 360, actually it was the reason i bought a 360. Being trapped in a mall with thousands of zombies and countless items to violently kill them with? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! The concept made 'Dawn of the Dead' great, and it didn't disappoint in Dead Rising either. I actually knowingly bought it less than a week before the price drop and those extra few days were well worth the lack of restraint.
GOOD STUFF:
Zombies- Zombies are awesome. And there are an ass-ton of them.
Leveling system- The leveling system is great. It adds to the replay value and, if you get good enough, you can go barehanded and rarely get touched by the undead shoppers, all the while doing wrestling moves and disemboweling. Good stuff.
Save system- The save system has been endlessly criticized because you only have one save slot. The difficulty that it adds starting out only makes the game that much better in my opinion. Later on, it hardly matters, because Frank (your playable character) pretty much becomes Ash from Evil Dead and murders evil with ease.
Chainsaws.
Weapons other than chainsaws - One of the greatest experiences in life is killing a zombie with a bowling ball, or placing a traffic cone on his/her head and watching them stumble around, while you shoot them with a water gun or throw CD's at them.
The bosses- You get to kill a deranged birthday clown and a psychotic grocery store manager.
NOT SO GOOD STUFF:
Achievements- A lot of people claim to ignore achievements. I believe that they are liars. Of course I can enjoy a game without having to get every single achievement, but it helps knowing that I could get them if I wanted. Most of the ones here are either pretty simple, or just time consuming. But there are two achievements that have no business in a video game. 5- Day Survivor and 7 Day Survivor. It consists of playing Survival mode and lasting 5 & 7 days. It sounds pretty simple, except that one game day equals two real hours, so that means playing 10-14 hours for them. And also... you can't save in Survival mode, so not only can you not die, but you have to complete the run at one time. That is stupid. I did it. Your prize: A laser sword and a pair of heart boxers.
Otis- He is ass. He is a mall cop who calls you on the walkie-talkie with 'scoops'. (oh yeah, you're a reporter) The problem is that he seemingly calls you every 4 seconds, and if you're getting eaten alive by the 'hordes of hell' at the time, he will call back and give an attitude about the fact that you ignored him. He is an ass.
All in all this is an amazing game and one of my favorites of all-time, even with a couple of minor gripes. I guess I should mention something about the plot, but it doesn't matter.