'Dead Rising 4' gets a healthy dose of Street Fighter style in latest update

By Gabe Gurwin January 27, 2017

Dead Rising 4 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Capcom’s Resident Evil 7 might be the zombie (or zombie-like) game on your mind right now, but you shouldn’t sleep on Dead Rising 4. Frank West’s latest adventure is certainly flawed, but it’s also supremely goofy, and an update coming next week is not only going to give the game some more personality, but also two more difficultly modes to keep you on your toes.

On January 30, all Dead Rising 4 players will be able to access five Street Fighter-inspired outfits for free. Costumes shown off in the announcement include M. Bison, Guile, and Zangief, but they look a little different — Frank West isn’t exactly the most muscular man, and the fluff on Zangief’s chest resembles a flattened cat or possum more than actual body hair. We’re also still not sure why anyone has that much hair on just their shins.

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Also being released January 30 for free are two new, still-unnamed difficulty modes. Weapons break faster and food is less effective, and enemies do more damage to Frank. Given the relatively low difficulty of the base game, this is a welcome addition.

For the first time ever, players in Germany will be able to get their hands on a Dead Rising game next week. Dead Rising 4 makes its debut digitally on Xbox One and PC in the country on January 31, with a boxed Xbox One version expected to arrive in February. Previously, the Dead Rising series had been effectively banned in Germany after the video game rating organization Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle, or USK, refused to give the game a rating on Xbox 360. It was deemed “too violent,” and a similar situation occurred with the previous Xbox One release Dead Rising 3.

If you aren’t sure whether or not Dead Rising 4 is right for you, Capcom is offering an hourlong free trial starting on January 31. Both multiplayer and the campaign will be available, and any progress and achievements earned will carry over should players opt to buy the full release.

Dead Rising 4 is out now on Xbox One and PC.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

Monster Hunter Rise is coming to PlayStation and Xbox, minus cross-platform saves

Monster Hunter Rise Monster

Capcom announced that Monster Hunter Rise is coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on January 20, 2023. It'll land on Xbox Game Pass as well. Cross-saving will be limited though, as players won't be able to take their data between every platform.

As Monster Hunter Rise is not supporting cross-save between different ecosystems, that means players will be unable to transfer their progress of the game from other platforms that the game was already released on. Monster Hunter Rise was first released in March 2021 for Nintendo Switch, so anyone who played there won't be able to transfer their save to PlayStation or Xbox.

Gaming

I can’t wait to go back to Street Fighter 6’s excellent Battle Hub

street fighter 6 battle hub preview arcade cabinet

Fighting games live or die on their online communities. Of course, basic functions like rollback netcode and cross-play are essential to a healthy fighting game, but Street Fighter 6 goes further by creating an online hub that celebrates the series and gives players somewhere to hang out between matches. Call it a metaverse if you must, but in reality, the Battle Hub is one-third of the Street Fighter 6 package and will likely be home to the communities and tournaments that ensure people will play the game for years to come.
It was also the focus of the Closed Beta for Street Fighter 6 this past weekend, which gave me a second chance to go hands-on with the game after falling in love with it at Summer Game Fest Play Days. The core 1-v-1 fights are still a joy to play and the beta’s new characters -- Juri, Kimberly, Guile, and Ken -- all come with the exciting combos and flashy animations. But really, I came away impressed with the groundwork Capcom is laying for Battle Hub and its implications for World Tour mode.
What’s the hubbub about?
The Battle Hub is one of three options players can choose right from the main menu of Street Fighter 6, and when selected, it tasks players with creating a character avatar that will represent them. I didn’t spend too much time with these options, but they seemed quite in-depth for those who enjoy a detailed character creator. After creating a blue-haired and face-tattooed fighter, I was thrust into the Battle Hub’s futuristic arcade.

Multiplayer hubs as a replacement for simple menus aren't a new concept for fighting games (Bandai Namco games like Dragon Ball FighterZ have done this for a while). Still, for Capcom’s first attempt at one, the Battle Hub is full of personality and things to do. Its stark blue colors, a plethora of screens, and many gameplay cabinets make it feel like the high-tech arcade Capcom wants it to be.
As soon as I entered, I could walk around, emote, and perform classic Street Fighter moves the Hadoken with button presses. I was also near two kiosks. At one, I could register and view tournaments and Street Fighter 6 events, although none were available for me during this Closed Beta. The other one was the Hub Goods Shop, where I could buy clothes and other gear to customize my character further with the currency I accrued while playing.
The other kiosks on the main level weren’t available in this Closed Beta outside a screen that showed which player in our server was performing the best. I then headed toward the arcade cabinets, most of which form a circle around the center of the Battle Hub. One person has to sit on each side to initiate a Street Fighter 6 match. While it’s a bit annoying to sit and wait for someone to play with you, I could always find an opponent if I looked around at every cabinet. Hopefully, the final game will have an option to get into fights slightly faster for those who want to simply jump into it.

Gaming

Street Fighter 6 director reveals World Tour mode’s true purpose

A player stands in Metro City's Times Square equivalent in Street Fighter 6 World Tour.

While Street Fighter 6’s traditional Fighting Ground experience made a solid first impression at Summer Game Fest, its significantly more ambitious World Tour mode is still shrouded in mystery. We briefly got a look at this ambitious mode during the game's State of Play trailer. We see what appears to be a player-created character explore Metro City and other locations from a third-person perspective, breaking boxes and getting into fights with the people he meets.
In the press release for Street Fighter 6, Capcom describes World Tour mode as a "single-player immersive story mode that pushes the boundaries of what a fighting game is and allows players to leave their own legacy with their player avatar." While Capcom isn't revealing more about the mode's moment-to-moment gameplay just yet, I spoke with Game Director Takayuki Nakayama at Summer Game Fest Play Days and learned how World Tour is emblematic of Capcom's goal to make Street Fighter 6 the premier entry point to the fighting game genre.
Street Fighter 6 - Announce Trailer
Finding World Tour's Purpose
In World Tour, players will explore Metro City and other iconic Street Fighter locales with a player-created avatar. Nakayama hopes this experience will strengthen Street Fighter 6's appeal to those who aren't already diehard fans of the series or genre.
"World Tour is a completely different mode that delivers a completely different experience than the traditional fighting," he said. "Even if someone's not a hardcore fan of fighting games, we wanted to incorporate things to make people become fans of Street Fighter outside of the traditional fights."
World Tour certainly looks unlike anything the Street Fighter series has done before. Still, Nakayama hopes that World Tour players will learn more about the world and characters of Street Fighter along the way and fall in love with fighting games as a whole."We want players to dive into this mode and be able to learn how to love fighting games through the things that you do during the journey of World Tour," Nakayama proclaimed. "There will also be opportunities to meet some of the fans' favorite characters, like Ryu and Chun-Li, through World Tour. We want to provide an experience where players can learn more about those characters' backstories and discover what kind of people they are within Street Fighter 6."

World Tour is one of Street Fighter 6's three main pillars, the others being the standard Fighting Ground mode and the multiplayer-focused Battle Hub. He commented how it's always hard to tell how much is enough to put in a game for fans, especially following Street Fighter V's rocky reception at launch due to a lack of content. However, he hopes World Tour provides enough to negate that criticism.
"We were definitely aware of some of the criticism that we faced with Street Fighter 5, and we want to continue to learn from those criticisms and make Street Fighter 6 a better product," he explained. "It's challenging to decide how much is enough for the users, but we continue to work very hard on it and strive to create something that will get appreciation from players."
Still, World Tour seems like it could occupy players for a long time while introducing them to the concept of fighting games and the world of Street Fighter. That's not too shabby of an addition when Street Fighter 6's core fighting game mechanics are already fantastic. And Capcom's goal to make Street Fighter 6 one of the most approachable fighting games ever can be seen outside of World Tour mode.
Everyone is here to fight
During our discussion, Nakayama constantly reiterated that he wants Street Fighter to be something that can entertain and entice those who've never played a fighting game before. Part of the developer's method for making Street Fighter 6 more approachable and accessible is the addition of the Modern Control Type, which allows players to execute flash combos with simple button presses.