Dead Rising 2 lurching to life this year

There's usually not much warning before a good old-fashioned zombie apocalypse descends to devour humanity, but Capcom is providing gamers with a "heads up" on the grisly (and gristle-y) end of civilization. The publisher today revealed that Dead Rising 2 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC will arrive in stores this year.

Previously, Capcom had only told investors that Dead Rising 2 would be one of its major releases for the coming fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2010, to March 31, 2011. The only other major releases the publisher specified for that period were Lost Planet 2, Monster Hunter Tri, and Super Street Fighter IV, all of which were delayed from the current fiscal year.

That wasn't the only news surrounding the Dead Rising franchise. Capcom Japan today confirmed that it is making a live-action film based on the game, with series creator Keiji Inafune also directing the movie adaptation. That project will be distributed over Xbox Live in Japan; a North American release has not yet been confirmed.

Dead Rising 2 will be set in a Las Vegas-like gambling metropolis called Fortune City. Set several years after the original's litigiously similar Dawn of the Dead-like mall massacre, the sequel sees zombification spreading unchecked across the US a la the best-selling novel World War Z. The game will also feature a four-person multiplayer mode, with tongue-in-cheek zombie slaughtering competitions set up like a TV game show.

Dead Rising 2 is in development at Vancouver-based Blue Castle Games. Prior to this project, the studio's most notable games have been Take-Two Interactive's arcade-style Major League Baseball games, The Bigs and The Bigs 2. For more on Dead Rising 2, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.