frank-west
Latest
Rob Riggle cast as Frank West in Dead Rising: Watchtower
Frank West, Capcom's favorite zombie-killing photojournalist, will be portrayed by former Daily Show correspondent Rob Riggle in Legendary's live-action Dead Rising: Watchtower film. "But he's a comedian," we hear you shout. "What does he know about jamming a Servbot helmet on the undead?" Granted, Riggle's not the most obvious choice, but he does have the right lantern-jawed look for the character and Riggle's one of the few candidates who can say that he, like his video game counterpart, has actually covered wars. As for what he'll be doing in Dead Rising: Watchtower, that remains unknown. Legendary's vague synopsis claims the film focuses on the survivors of a zombie outbreak who begin to suspect government involvement. That should be familiar ground for anyone who's played a Dead Rising entry, but does nothing to differentiate the film from its source material. So far there's no release date for Dead Rising: Watchtower, but it will debut exclusively on the Crackle digital video network. [Image: Capcom]
Dead Rising 3 spotted on Blur animation studio resume
Dead Rising 3 makes an appearance on the LinkedIn resume of a rigging supervisor at Blur animation studio, spotted by All Games Beta. Specifically, the rigging supervisor lists work on a game cinematic for Dead Rising 3, as demonstrated in the above screencap.Near the end of 2011, we heard a rumor that Dead Rising 3 was a thing, and that it would star an auto mechanic named Rick in Los Perdidos, California. It would feature illegal, infected citizens, a bomb set to destroy the town and a defunct plane as Rick's only hope of survival. As other zombie stories about a dude named Rick have become insanely popular over the past year, we wouldn't be surprised if this character's name were changed, considering any of this information holds up.We also won't be surprised when that lead character is replaced by Frank West in the inevitable re-imagining of Dead Rising 3.
Kotick on why firing West, Zampella was easy, turning down a CoD film
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick settled a lawsuit with former employees Jason West and Vince Zampella, both now of Respawn Entertainment, in May. Kotick fired West and Zampella in 2010, after learning they were going to bail on their contracts to sign under EA, Kotick said, and from there, his job was easy:"You find out two executives are planning to break their contracts, keep the money you gave them and steal 40 employees. What do you do? You fire them," Kotick told The New York Times in an extensive profile. West and Zampella sued Activision for royalties they said they never received from Modern Warfare 2, and though the terms of the settlement were never disclosed, the case's conclusion had West smiling.Kotick's NYT profile extended from his high school years, when he would pick up friends in a chauffeured limo to visit Studio 54, to his time in college and to the present, when he fended off offers from Hollywood to turn Call of Duty into a high-budget film. Kotick said movies based on games rarely do well with fans and could blemish the Call of Duty brand.He might be on to something there.
Meet Frank West and Rocket Raccoon, UMvC3's latest fighters
No doubt, most (if not all) of you are intimately familiar with Frank West and his impressive photojournalist/zombie murderer resume. Not only has he fought for his very life against imesurable odds, but he's also fought for Capcom against Japan's historic anime alumni in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars. His survival instinct is apparently up to snuff, and as such he'll be fighting alongside Ryu and the others in next month's Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. You may not, however, be as familiar with the latest addition to Marvel's cast of characters: Rocket Raccoon. As an anthropomorphic space-jet fighter pilot and military strategist, Rocket predates similar ilk by 17 years, originating in the mid 70s and eventually becoming a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Ironically enough, both characters feel reminiscent of MvC2's Jill Valentine; namely, Frank's ability to summon zombies and Rocket's zoning traps. Check out Frank's introduction trailer above and Rocket's after the break, followed by two enlightening match videos featuring the new fighters.%Gallery-137983%
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record showing off Sandbox Mode at PAX
As if all the weird stuff we already knew about in Dead Rising 2: Off the Record wasn't enough, Capcom has even more to reveal at PAX this weekend. The company is showing off the game's Sandbox mode, which will let players run around Fortune City and cause as much mayhem as wanted "without having to worry about the clock." The mode also offers a series of challenges in each of the game's environments (ranging from simple collection to killing zombies or driving around in vehicles) that will offer up cash as a reward. We've got a couple of Joystiq folks on the show floor at PAX, so stay tuned for a hands-on report about the mode itself.
Want to be a photog? Let Frank West teach you how!
Point-and-shoot? Psh, that's for amateurs. Snapping a great photo is an art form, as Frank West will tell you in the Dead Rising 2: Off the Record trailer above. It's all about exposure, composition and wearing just the right kind of silly hat.
Frank West is misunderstood in this Dead Rising 2: Off the Record trailer
Frank West isn't just that guy who killed all those zombies that one time in that one mall, you know. He's also used his photojournalistic abilities to cover elections, natural disasters, and, as he frequently insists, wars. Share in his indignation in this Dead Rising 2: Off the Record trailer.
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record puts West in Greene's jacket, offers preorder DLC
We recall fondly last year's Dead Rising 2 panel, learning new information about weapons, plot and a Zombrex webseries, and it seems this year Capcom didn't want to mess with success. The Capcom panel revealed little new information about any of its titles, except for one game, Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, an enhanced version of 2010's zombie sequel. Pre-ordering Off the Record from Gamestop will give you cosplay clothing pack DLC, and anyone who played Dead Rising 2 can get Chuck Greene's jacket for Frank West to wear. Because the one thing we want when we're playing the revamp of a sequel whose second protagonist has been replaced by the original, is to see the original wearing the second's jacket. Finally, someone understands us. Capcom also confirmed it is teaming up with IDW Publishing to release a graphic novel, Dead Rising: Road to Fortune, this October. Off the Record is scheduled to drop October 11, so that might be a good time for the comic to release too. Just sayin'.
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record trailer introduces the Electric Crusher
It seems Frank's hiatus from covering wars has taught him a thing or two about duct tape. This latest trailer for Dead Rising 2: Off the Record introduces the Electric Crusher, a combination of the sledgehammer and battery.
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record will cost $40 in North America
Many were surprised (and a bit saddened) to hear Frank West wouldn't be in Dead Rising 2 when it was announced. DLC alleviated some of that desire to see the guy who's covered wars (you know) make a return, but Capcom will up the ante later this year with a new edition of Dead Rising 2, placing West in the spotlight as protagonist once again. Today, Eurogamer reveals that Dead Rising 2: Off the Record will be a $40 title. There's been a lot of criticism for the game since it was announced, which initially appeared to be a cash-in preying on those who just wanted to play as Frank West once again. With some added content and this lower price point, Capcom hopes consumers will be more receptive. "There's a ton of added value here," executive producer Jason Leigh told Eurogamer. "We have the new environment, weapons, combo weapons, new clothing, food items, vehicles, new bosses and the new story. It's a much bigger game than Dead Rising 2 was." Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is slated to uncover the truth sometime in Q4 2011.
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 nixed Frank West late in development
Remember all those fancy combos you learned with Frank West last year in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom? Well, you can forget about redirecting them to Chris Redfield's face when Marvel vs. Capcom 3 ships this February. Plans for Dead Rising 1's main man being playable in MvC3 were in place -- his silhouette appears in the game's debut trailer , and he showed up in our leaked list of characters earlier this year -- but he was cut due to "some extra work involved, just from the nature of his moves." West was reportedly "quite deep" into the process before getting axed. Capcom producer Ryota Niitsuma explained the loss to VideoGamer.com, saying, "We felt we could direct our resources to better use, so we've taken Frank out." We're hoping that "better use" of resources is directed at the development of a Chuck Greene character to round out a Dead Rising character DLC pack. They've murdered thousands of zombies, you know. [Thanks, Lau]
Dead Rising 2: Case West now up on XBLA
Capcom's XBLA-exclusive Dead Rising 2 epilogue, Case West, is available now on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The standalone DLC has Chuck Greene teaming up with everyone's favorite photojournalist, Frank West, for 800 Microsoft Points ($10). The previous standalone downloadable game, Case Zero, debuted at $5. For an extra $5 on top of the expected time-crunching, item-combining gameplay, Case West adds a new setting, co-op gameplay and the return of faaaantastic photography. It'll certainly be interesting to see how Case West's sales do in comparison to Case Zero, the latter of which was deemed the "most dynamic sales weapon" by Capcom shortly before surpassing 600,000 downloads. %Gallery-108514%
Dead Rising 2: Case West brings photography back
Faaaaaantastic! Dead Rising 2: Case West will feature everyone's favorite zombie-bashing photojournalist, practicing his craft by immortalizing the undead in still pictures. Developer Blue Castle Games' president, Rob Barrett, recently told Eurogamer that Frank West's return in the sequel's DLC epilogue would be accompanied by photography gameplay. Of course, West isn't there just to snap photos -- he'll join in the survival adventure co-op style. Dead Rising 2's $5 prologue Case Zero has been successful for Capcom, selling over half a million downloads in two weeks. The core Dead Rising 2 game shambles to North American retail next week, on September 28th. It'll be interesting to see if the demo-consuming hoard is still ravenous for the full experience.
Frank West teased in Dead Rising 2 viral blog
In a recent post on Capcom's viral site for Dead Rising 2, fictitious Fortune City denizen "Johnny Pipes" tells the tale of his search for sweets amid the zombie horde and a Chuck Greene spotting along the way. When Pipes started snapping pics of Greene with his camera phone, though, Greene took off. Never one to shy away from danger, Pipes pursued Greene and evidently noticed another gentleman (of the non-zombie variety) at his side: Is that Frank West? Outside of the tale and a very, very blurry shot of the duo fighting zombies side by side (seen above), the Tape It or Die post doesn't give out hard details on whether we can expect to see the first game's star in DR2 -- perhaps as an additional player in the game's co-op mode? We can't be sure just yet, but Pipes' story indicates that West's camera could also make a return. Sure, he's shot wars before, but has West shot Chuck Greene plowing through a crowd of the undead with chainsaws attached to a wheelchair? Yeah, didn't think so.
Capcom wants to put Frank West into as many games as possible
It was a tough blow to hear that Frank West wouldn't star in Dead Rising 2. All was not lost, however: Frank not only cut his teeth fighting less undead opponents in Tatsunoko vs Capcom, but there's some evidence he'll be in Marvel vs Capcom 3 -- and let's not forget his cameo in Lost Planet 2. According to Capcom's Seth Killian, Frank West is pretty damn popular in these parts, something of which Capcom of Japan is aware. He told Destructoid that not only is Capcom of Japan "convinced" that your everyday American loves the Dead Rising protagonist, but that he'll "be making appearances in as many games as they can get him into." Personally, we're all for it. Whatever he's in, we just hope it spawns more hilarious internet videos.
Watch Frank West chop his Tatsunoko vs. Capcom opponents 'til they drop
There are some things we all know about Frank West. He's covered wars (y'know), enjoys the potent effects of a well-blended smoothie and, with a mean 5 o'clock shadow, looks a great deal like Niko Belic. But, what you may not know is that despite lacking an entire mall's worth of weaponry, the dude is still a pretty solid fighter. Even though we've already put together some words detailing the man's moves in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, it's always nice to actually see that thing we talked about in motion. So, head past the break for a gameplay video of Capcom's Seth Killian demonstrating West's moves for GameSpot. [Via Capcom-Unity]
TGS 2009: Hands-on: Tatsunoko vs. Capcom vs. that guy from Dead Rising
My usual delight in playing Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars was tempered by a note of skepticism at TGS. I knew that the build being offered would include Frank West. He's an admirable character, to be sure, and skilled at using retail goods to fend off hordes of zombies, but I wasn't sure his improvisational violence would translate well to the hand-to-hand, superhero-vs-superhero combat in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.Let's face it, the cel-shaded Frank in this game doesn't look great. All the other characters look like excellent 2D sprites, but Frank looks like a weird 3D model. However, Capcom has made a respectable fighting-game character out of Frank; one that borrows from an obvious source in Capcom fighting game crossover history: Marvel vs. Capcom 2's Jill Valentine. Frank shares Jill's ability to summon a zombie from either side of the screen, which will grapple with the opponent (or Frank) upon contact.%Gallery-73852%
TGS 2009: Frank West is rising to the occasion in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
Everyone's favorite wartime photojournalist and Dead Rising protagonist Frank West was just confirmed to be a contender in Capcom's upcoming inter-franchise brawler, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. This news comes two weeks after a number of the game's assets, which indicated the appearance of West, Mega Man series regular Zero, and a bunch of anime characters we absolutely do not recognize, were leaked. You can check out a video demo of West's brawling expertise after the jump. Know where he learned to fight that well? Probably from his recent encounter with the unyielding zombocalypse. (What did you think we were going to say? "Because he's covered wars?" That just doesn't make any sense. Think before you speak, silly goose.)%Gallery-73852%
Rumor: Frank West, Zero to be in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
Shoryuken forum user mumu recently went snooping around the Japanese site for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and uncovered some interesting items. Within the source code of the character section of the site, mumu found lines of code hinting towards the remaining secret characters: 'images/oncharactor_btn_zero.jpg' 'images/oncharactor_btn_frank.jpg' 'images/oncharactor_btn_yatter02.jpg' 'images/oncharactor_btn_joe.jpg' 'images/oncharactor_btn_tekkabla.jpg' So, aside from yesterday's Tekkaman Blade, mumu postulates that Dead Rising's Frank West and Zero from the Mega Man series are also going to be in the game and, on the Tatsunoko side, we'll get Yatterman #2 from Yatterman and Joe Asakura from Gatchaman. If you'll excuse us, we'll be crying in the corner, objecting once again to the lack of Phoenix Wright.[Via Siliconera]
Capcom steps up to defend Dead Rising Wii
You don't have to be a seasoned photojournalist -- even one who's covered wars -- to recognize inconsistencies between Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop and the Xbox 360 original. Now, Capcom's Colin Ferris has stepped up to defend the February release, stating that while the company is "quite concerned" over criticism of the title, it "was not designed for side-by-side graphics comparisons with the 360." Instead, the product marketing manager states simply that it "was designed to be a fun Wii game."Ferris openly admits that the Wii-take won't look as "beautiful" as the original, nor will the Willamette Parkview Mall's escalators be as crowded with the recently deceased, facts we have already accepted, albeit begrudgingly. "Does that mean we should deny Wii gamers the joy that 360 owners had in surviving three days in a zombie-infested mall," asks Ferris. "The answer is, obviously, no." Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop is expected to shamble onto retail shelves for the Wii on February 24.
