Dead Rising, insect bites, and feeling bad.

Dead Rising has been making me feel bad since I first played it, which is probably at least 5 years ago, but I still find myself thinking about it. It's a game where you are a photojournalist (Frank West) dropped into a mall full of zombies and you need to find out what happened, survive, and you can rescue people too. Mostly, you pick up whatever you find, and smash your way through hordes of zombies, or drive through them, or whatever. A lot like one of Koei's musou (Dynasty Warriors) games, but featuring zombies, having multiple outcomes, and made by Capcom.

I started playing it, but eventually gave up because it made me feel bad to play it. The zombies in the shopping mall were obviously just normal people until very recently, killing so many of them so easily and gleefully feels bad. The protagonist is an amoral jerk - taking sexy photos of female zombies in low-cut tops before slaughtering them to help level up is the kind of thing he does. No respect for the dead. But the thing which made me feel worst is that I was supposed to be rescuing someone, they ran too close to me while I was wielding a sledgehammer, and... well, they didn't need rescuing anymore.

Meanwhile, my boyfriend - who doesn't normally like musou games - really enjoyed it. He especially liked it when he could get Frank to pick up a bowling ball, and smash a zombie's head with it. The sound.

"I thought you were a nice person!" :(

But the reason I am thinking of the game again? Read after the break. Warning, minor spoilers and a picture of a freaky insect-bitten hand.